Kristen Magnesen is a Senior Marketing Manager. She has worked with a myriad of authors from David Jeremiah and Chuck Swindoll to Tyndale’s up-and-coming authors. Kristen specializes in working with our memoir authors and enjoys sharing their testimonies. Kristen created the MemoirAddict.com website and blog, along with the @MemoirAddict Facebook and Twitter pages as a hub for these incredible stories and to meet rising consumer demand for memoirs. Kristen comes to Tyndale with a rich consumer package background; working with such companies as SC Johnson and Mondelēz (formerly Kraft) in the integrated marketing, promotions and retail space. Kristen holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. In her free time, Kristen likes to channel creative activities such as sewing, interior decorating, and crafting her latest Pinterest find.


MURDER AT 3 CENTS A DAY:
An Annotated Crime Fiction Bibliography of the Lending Library Publishers: 1936-1967
William F. Deeck
FROM THE BACK COVER:
Murder at 3¢ a Day is the first and only reference volume devoted entirely to the lending-library publishers that flourished from the mid 1930s into the 1960s. More than ten years in compilation, it contains full listings of mystery and detective fiction published under such imprints as Phoenix Press, Hillman-Curl, Mystery House, Gateway, Arcadia House, Dodge, and Caslon.
Included are dust jacket blurbs, settings, and leading characters for each title, as well as descriptions of jacket illustrations and names of the artists who designed them. Also included: an article about the lending-library trade written in 1939 by Charles S. Strong, who specialized in this type of novel; a tongue-in-cheek article on Phoenix Press mysteries by Bill Pronzini; brief biographies of many lending library writers; and selected period newspaper reviews of various titles.
Readers and aficionados alike will find a wealth of fascinating and often amusing information about this little known variety of crime fiction. Murder at 3¢ a Day is a must for any reference shelf.
William F. Deeck (1936-2004) was a well-known mystery fan and collector who had a special affinity for lending-library fiction. In addition to the present volume, he was the author of numerous articles and reviews for The Armchair Detective, Mystery Readers Journal, and other publications.
All inquiries and orders:
George A. Vanderburgh, Publisher
The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box™
e-mail: gav (at) bmts.com
Fax: (519) 925-3482
INTRODUCTION TO THE PRINT EDITION:
What you hold in your hands is a labor of love.
There have been scores of biographical and bibliographical reference works devoted to quality mystery fiction, but only a couple – Gun in Cheek (1982) and Son of Gun in Cheek (1987), both written by yours truly – that pay tribute to the genre’s lesser lights. And until the present volume, there has been no detailed source of information on the hundreds of mysteries published by, and the writers who wrote primarily or exclusively for, the lending-library markets that flourished in the 30s, 40s, 50s, and lasted well into the 60s.
Murder at 3¢ a Day was conceived by Ellen Nehr, as a similar volume to her Doubleday Crime Club Compendium (1992), with Bill Deeck acting as assistant. A relatively small amount of material had been gathered when Ellen died late in 1995; it was Bill, with help from various other collectors and aficionados, who did most of the work of researching, compiling, and annotating the entries and who therefore earned the solo byline. After Bill’s death in 2004, I inherited the project – the adding of new material when found and the search for a publisher. Others deserving of heartfelt thanks for their efforts include Allen J. Hubin, Steve Lewis, Richard Moore, and Mark Terry.
Any reader and collector of crime fiction, whether or not a fan of the odd, obscure, and delightfully absurd (Bill’s original title for the volume was Mostly Awful), will find much to entertain and enlighten them here. Some who were previously inclined to scoff at “alternative” mysteries might well join the growing number of us who consider them irresistible.
For you, Bill, and Ellen too, with gratitude. I wish you were both here to see it published.
– Bill Pronzini
GATEWAY BOOKS (1939-1942)
THE WILLIAM CASLON COMPANY (1936)
DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY (1935-1938)
WILLIAM GODWIN, INC. (1933-1936)
ALLIANCE PRESS (1935)
ALLIANCE BOOK CORPORATION (1941-1942)
JONATHAN SWIFT PUBLISHERS (1941-1942)
MYSTERY HOUSE (1940-1948)
ARCADIA HOUSE (1939-1947)
Copyright © 2006 , 2007, 2008 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust on behalf of William F. Deeck.


This is why we do what we do.
At Fusion we look for true inclusion. We do not believe in "inclusion" that offers alternatives for those who "do not fit in" or in proposing different products for those who are outside the norm: we celebrate the diversity of people and individual differences, because they are opportunities for the growth of everybody.
We do not settle for the addition or the coexistence of separate parts, we seek the real Fusion.
Fusion means union of interests, real integration. Impies the conjunction of two worlds until they’re not allowed to separate. It requires understanding that every right must be respected and it is not about changing those who are different, but about comprehending them, and giving them opportunities to develop with their particularities.
It is not about setting molds, but about offering frameworks within which each one can be as they are. We are all different and the path will be more enjoyable if we travel it by being close and accepting each other, rather than pigeonholing ourselves and forcing us to be identical.


Growing up in a small town, I got used to the stories told by men and women of all ages and especially the older ones, it always seemed like everyone had a story to tell, all it took was a cup of coffee and your willingness to hear them out, although the last part wasn’t always necessary 🙂 The thing is, I wish I could recall 1% of all the stories I’ve heard since those days and till my present ones… That’s why I created this blog, for the sole purpose of saving and sharing the many stories of a Beautiful historic province and its people, Mont-Liban. Located in the heart of Lebanon and the Fertile Crescent, this ancient Mediterranean province has been taking part in shaping world history for more than 7000 years and still holds an important ethnographic trait that some people would describe as dire for an area in constant instability.
The stories I’ll share with you in my coming posts will be told by locals of Mont-Liban. I’ll Leave the choice of tale to the teller, and the joy of reading to the reader. As for myself, I’ll try my best to embed every single emotion and memory supplied by my narrators in the following posts.
They have a lot to tell you, if you’re willing to hear them out.. although the last part isn’t really a necessity 🙂


There are four trunks in my home. Each one different with its own compelling journey and story to tell. Their age is showing, but they don’t care; they earned every dint, scratch, bump, bang and paint job and they are proud of it.
The oldest one resembles a beat up rusted metal box with missing hinges and broken clasps. It came to Canada from England on a ship with my great grandfather, traveled by train and horse drawn cart to finally arrive at a small farm on the Manitoba prairies. All of his possessions, hopes and dreams were in this one small trunk. It has been the minder of hand stitched quilts, precious books, important papers, calves born on cold winter nights, the secret spot to stash moonshine, toys, tools, and sundry bits and pieces. It has lived in a house, a barn, a garage and my basement. This old trunk makes me sentimental. It symbolizes my roots, brings me family and stories and strength, grit and grace. It’s time to bring it out of the basement into the light and give it something to take care of.
The second trunk has a rounded top and has been painted many times so that it is neat and tidy. It belonged to my father in law. He journeyed to Canada with it from England in 1952 by ship and then by train to BC. When he joined the armed forces it traveled with him to France and then back to Manitoba. This trunk has stories to tell and secrets to keep. Its last job was to look after the supplies for changing the oil in the car and now that it is in my home it holds my yoga mat. I too gave it a tiny face lift, scraping the paint off of the wooden slats. It reminds me that like it, we move in and out of our roles adapting and reinventing ourselves as we go. It takes time, gets messy and mistakes are made. Like painting every single part of this beautiful trunk black. It’s ok that I don’t know who I will be next or how to get there. The reinventing is in the journey not the destination.
The third trunk joined my family in the 1990’s. It’s a rescue. The local volunteer firefighters were burning down an old abandoned house as a training exercise. My husband discovered the trunk in the house and brought it home. It was dirty, beat up, musty and contained dead bugs. But as they say, it had good bones. With a bit of TLC and some paint, voila, a toy box by day a cool retro coffee table by night. As my children grew up it housed different things and lived in different rooms. It has new marks of a life well lived with us. This resilient survivor tells me that in 2020 in the middle of a worldwide pandemic that amongst the tragedy and uncertainty that the virus brings us, that there is hope, we may feel beat up and discouraged right now, but we can find encouragement, good news stories, growth and light in unexpected places waiting to be discovered.
And finally, the fourth trunk is really what’s known as a hope chest from the 1980’s. It was given to me by my grandparents the Westwoods and the Beevers as a gift on my graduation from high school. Inside were hand stitched linens. I was the first person in my family going off to university in the big city. My first piece of brand new furniture. It has traveled with me to many different homes. It has been through two weddings, one divorce, two babies and the loss and grief of my wonderful grandparents. It is the memory keeper. Tiny snippets of my life; notes from grade school crushes, 4-H projects, letters, lace gloves I wore as a brides maid, the dried roses from my wedding bouquet and the hand stitched linens that so long ago were stitched in Westwood Cottage to go into a granddaughters hope chest. Every now and then I open it up and take a walk down memory lane and bathe in the comfort of the memories of the past. Then I close it up and courageously move my life forward, for just like the four trunks in my home there are more things to experience and learn, more memories to be kept and more journeys to go on.
Beautiful trunks! I love the history. I have one of two trunks that my parents came to Canada with, from Switzerland over 60 years ago. It’s one of my most precious possessions!


Guava, green or ripe?
It’s amazing how big of an impact childhood memories can have on the one who recalls them. Just yesterday, I caught myself giggling at the sight of the small green unripe guavas hanging from our guava tree right outside our kitchen.
I giggled because that sight brought me back in time; back to at least 20 years ago to my six-seven year-old self who thoroughly enjoyed those green fruits. For some odd reason, I loved picking unripe guavas from the tree to eat them. My child’s palate loved its bitter, sometimes sour flesh, which had a leafy taste to it, that I had to spit out after sucking the juice out of it for the fruit was so unripe that I couldn’t swallow it.
It was a constant battle with the grownups around me as I ignored their warnings that eating an unripe fruit would make me sick. Truth is, back then, I strongly believed they only said so because they wanted me to let the fruits ripen so they could enjoy them without me. I didn’t like the ripe fruit at all, not necessarily because I disliked its taste, but because it terrified me.
Now before you start calling me all sorts of crazy, let me tell you that there was a reason to my six year-old self’s madness. It was based on those childhood stories they tell you to either impress or scare you without thinking of the impact it could actually have on you. I have no idea where that came from, but I had been told that the yellow fully ripe fruit got its pink flesh from the many worms that penetrated it. This statement was enough to scare me. The few times I was handed a ripe guava, I saw its flesh moving. I never could decide whether it was really moving or a fruit of my vivid imagination, especially since I had seen so many pink earthworms in our yard. There was simply no way they wouldn’t climb up that guava tree and colonize its fruits. For otherwise, how could its flesh be so pink? Such was my reasoning back then. Eating unripe guavas was thus my only recourse to avoid eating worms while still enjoying the fruit as much as everyone else did.
Today, at 28, I know my imagination played many tricks on me as a child. I also know that, though guavas can have worms, it doesn’t mean that they all do. Yet, I still can’t get myself to take one bite of that fruit. I am still reluctant to bite its pink seedy flesh.
I am proud to say that I have, however, made a strong effort to try and get used to guava’s taste. Though I may eat it in small quantities, I try to train my palate to appreciate the guava pastries sold here. Hopefully, I will also eventually acquire a taste for the guava jelly and guava paste we make here in Haiti. Something tells me, eating the real fruit will take a while. I blame it on that story that scarred me for life.
As I giggle one last time, I vow never to scare my kids from a fruit with such stories.


Today Hank began his fourth round of Chemo. This week he will receive a drug that requires him to go in for an hour and a half long transfusion treatment. This will take the place of one of the more toxic drugs in his treatment plan, the one that made him vomit the first week. It has the potential to be less toxic, so the doctors like to alternate it with the heavy hitter. Since Hank will be going in each day this week, the access cords to his chest port were left on... covered with a huge, clear, protective sticker/bandaid so he can't knock it loose. Because of this bandaid needing to remain in place, baths are a little more "sponge bath" than usual. As I knelt beside the tub tonight, scrubbing his head with a soapy washcloth... I cried. Patches of hair were noticeable missing. It was becoming real. Our son has cancer.
I bent to rinse the soap from the washcloth, so that I could rinse Hank's head, but noticed the amount of hair stuck to the fibers of the cloth. I stared as I tried to rinse them off. I stared as I wiped Hank's head to remove the soap... as the little hairs began to cling to the back of his neck on the wet skin. I stared as my sweet little four year old boy smiled up at me saying, "That feels good mom. Will you rub my back with the washcloth again?" Tears smoldered down my cheeks. I couldn't get all the hairs to release from his neck and upper back. The thought that I can't wipe away his pain, his suffering, his sickness... it stung in the deepest recesses of my heart.
I stared at him as he continued to smile in his moment of playing with the bath toys. He, only being four, knew to take care to keep his port bandage dry. He, being only four, knew to not squirt the water into his mouth as he used to... and knew not to drink the bath water as he used to... and knew not to splash as he so wanted to... he, being only four. His life has been altered. Hank will forever be changed by this cancer. And to me, those little hairs clinging to the washrag made this journey all the more real.
I often don't have time to sit and reflect on this whirlwind of a journey we were forced to embark upon. When I do, it is most often met with a sense of thanksgiving... of awe at how gracious the Lord has been in the many answered prayers. But tonight, I was struck by the worldly side of it all. I saw the brokenness, the pain, the sadness. I didn't question why Hank, or what if... I just mourned the loss of his hair, his health, his future. I mourned the loss of playing in the mud puddles, sonic happy hour drinks, and playing in the sun without a shirt. I mourned the things that normal four year old boys do, like drinking the bathtub water... however gross that may be, I wish he could... but he can't. I wish I could wash his hair without crying... but I can't.


Donovan’s extraordinary talent as both a writer and editor has completely won my confidence. Initially, I believed that what I wanted was a competent line-editor. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I needed an editor who not only had the capacity to make suggestions, but to dig deeply into my work. After a complete and thorough edit of the first few chapters, Donovan ‘found my voice’. His recommendations have proved to be spot-on, and I heed his advice with the utmost confidence. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that with Donovan’s editing, my book has evolved from a good work to a publishable one.
Donovan is sharp. He gets the job done, all the while consulting and checking-in. His earnest and committed approach is a bonus to his strong skill set. I couldn’t be more pleased, or recommend Donovan Reves with more enthusiasm.”
— Ann Marie Etheridge,
author of memoir, “Long Way Home”
Donovan’s editing experience and critical insight have been instrumental to my writing. As an editor myself, I understand the need for a second opinion that asks the important questions. His own pieces have a polished, consistent quality, from prose to grammar to voice. Donovan is simultaneously thorough and timely with feedback, a rarity amongst editors.”
— Marissa Byfield,
author of the novel, “The Soft Fall”


The other night, I had a total full circle moment with my daughter Emma.
From the time Emma was a baby, we read her the book Goodnight Moon. I think bedtime routines and reading to your child are two of the most important parts of the day. We still read every night with Emma but as she got older and realized that other books existed, Goodnight Moon sort of fell by the bedside if you will. The bedtime routine changed from reading Goodnight Moon to reading any two books of Emma's choosing.
This went on up until about the last 6 months. Then, she started learning to read on her own. She now comes home every night with a book from the Reading Room at school. She has to read it and then take a short 5 question test on it the next day. I may be a little partial but I have to say, she is an AMAZING reader and I am so proud of her...she gives even the most daunting-looking words a good ol' college try. And most of the time she gets them right!
Well, two nights ago, she brought home Goodnight Moon. Call me sentimental if you must but I almost got teary eyed when I saw it. She read it absolutely beautifully to me and then I asked if I could read it to her when she finished...for old times sake. I also told her the story that I just told you and she loved it. :)
I love full circle moments and don't feel like they happen all that often but this one was truly amazing for me!


Dr. Sagar Dholariya
MBBS, MD BIOCHEMISTRY
Publications (Research papers):-
- Clinical efficacy and safety of dasiglucagon in severe hypoglycemia associated with patients of type 1 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol. 2022 Oct 25:1-11. doi: 10.1080/17512433.2023.2138343. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36266088.
- COVID-19-related liver injury: Focus on genetic and drug-induced perspectives. World J Virol. 2023 Jan25;12(1):53-67. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v12.i 1.53. PMID: 36743658; PMCID: PMC9896591
- Role of the tumor microenvironment and the influence of epigenetics on the tumor microenvironment in oral carcinogenesis: Potential implications January 2022. Critical Reviews in Oncogenesis. DOI: 10.1615/CritRevOncog.2022047088
- Integrating cutting-edge methods to oral cancer screening, analysis, and prognosis. Critical Reviews in Oncogenesis. DOI: 10.1615/CritRevOncog.2023047772
- Growth differentiation factor 15 as an emerging novel biomarker in SARS-CoV-2 infection. World J Methodol. 2022 Sep 20;12(5):438-447. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v12.i5.438. PMID: 36186744; PMCID: PMC9516548.
- Potential of cytochrome P450, a family of xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes, in cancer therapy. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2022 Oct 14. doi: 10.1089/ars.2022.0116. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36242099
- CRISPR/Cas9: A Molecular Tool for Ovarian Cancer Management beyond Gene Editing. Critical ReviewsTM in Oncogenesis 2022: 27(4):1–22.
- Preeclampsia and Oxidative Stress: A Review. Current Innovations in Medicine and Medical Science. 2022. Vol. 5, 102–109. https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/cimms/v5/ 16536D
- Association of the Human Leptin Receptor Gene (rs1137101;Gln223Arg) Polymorphism and Circulating Leptin in Patients with Metabolic Syndrome in the Indian Population. Ind J Clin Biochem (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12291-022-01065-5.
- Global research trends of interleukin-6 in SARS-CoV-2 infection. Indian Journal of Biochemistry and Biophysics (IJBB). 2022. DOI: 10.56042/ijbb.v59i5.60924
- Emerging Variants of SARS-CoV-2 Virus: A Quick Glance. Indian J Clin Biochem. 2021 Oct;36(4):451-458. DOI: 10.1007/s12291-021-00991-0. Epub 2021 28th June. PMID: 34219999; PMCID: PMC8237041.
- Utility of P-SEP, sTREM-1 and suPAR as Novel Sepsis Biomarkers in SARS-CoV-2 Infection. Indian J Clin Biochem. 2021 Oct 6:1-8. DOI: 10.1007/s12291-021-01008-6. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34642555; PMCID: PMC8494168.
- NGAL/MMP-9 as a Biomarker for Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: A Case-Control Diagnostic Accuracy Study. Saudi J Med Med Sci. 2022 Jan-Apr;10(1):25-30. DOI: 10.4103/sjmms. sjmms_581_21. Epub 2022 12th January. PMID: 35283706; PMCID: PMC8869267.
- Analysis of Prediagnostic Circulating Levels of Gonadotropins and Androgens with Risk of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer. J Lab Physicians. 2022 Jan. DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1741443.
- A New Hope in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Management: Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitors. Cureus. 2021 Sep 26;13(9):e18300. DOI: 10.7759/cureus. 18300. PMID: 34722075; PMCID: PMC8548046.
- A Molecular Insight of the Role of PIN-1 Promoter Polymorphism (− 667C > T; rs2233679) in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients with Secondary Hyperparathyroidism. Indian Journal of Clinical Biochemistry. 2021. Aug. DOI: 10.1007/s12291-021-00997-8.
- Analysis of the Prevalence and Severity of Dysregulated Bone Mineral Homeostasis in Nondialyzed Chronic Kidney Disease Patients. J Lab Physicians. 2021. Jul. DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1732495.
- Epigenetic Silencing of DAPK1and p16INK4a Genes by CpG Island Hypermethylation in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Patients. Indian J Clin Biochem. 2021 Apr;36(2):200-207. doi: 10.1007/s12291-020-00888-4. Epub 2020 May 16. PMID: 33867711; PMCID: PMC7994475.
- Hyperinsulinemia and Hypoadiponectinemia are Associated with Increased Risk for Occurrence of Ovarian Cancer in Non-diabetic Women of North Indian Population. Indian J Clin Biochem. 2021 Apr;36(2):221-227. doi: 10.1007/s12291-020-00891-9. Epub 2020 May 13. PMID: 33867714; PMCID: PMC7994492.
- Potential impact of (rs 4645878) BAX promoter -248G>A and (rs 1042522) TP5372Arg>pro polymorphisms on epithelial ovarian cancer patients. Clin Transl Oncol.2015 Jul 25. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 26209050
- TP53 Gene Polymorphism in Epithelial Ovarian Carcinoma Patients from North Indian Population and its Pro/Pro Variant is Potentially Contributing to Cancer Susceptibility. J Genet Syndr Gene Ther. 2013;4(5):145.
- Association of Anti-TPO Antibodies with Insulin Resistance in Patients of Hypothyroidism with Metabolic Syndrome: A Cross-sectional Study. J Clin of Diagn Res.2020;14(10):BC09-BC13. https://www.doi.org/10.7860/JCDR/2020/45695/14123
- Association of High Levels of High-Sensitive C-Reactive Protein with Metabolic Syndrome- A Cross-sectional Study. National Journal of Laboratory Medicine. 2021 Jan, Vol-10(1): BO01-BO05.
- Evaluation of serum vitamin B12 level in patients of metabolic syndrome. Int J Clin Biochem Res 2019;6(4):474-478.
- Utility of serum HE4 level to diagnose epithelial ovarian cancer - A cross sectional study. MedPulse International Journal of Biochemistry. September 2018; 7(3): 69-72
- MDM2 promoter polymorphism (rs2279744) andserum estrogen level are associated with increased risk of epithelial ovarian cancer: A case-control study. International Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Research. 2018;5:526-32.
- Study to evaluate serum sodium, potassium and chloride level in malaria and its association with severity of malaria. International Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Research. 2018;5:565-69.
- Association of serum calcium level with metabolic syndrome: A case-control study. MedPulse International Journal of Biochemistry. September 2018; 7(3): 60-63.
- Effect Of Hypothyroidism And Its Treatment On Proatherogenic Lipid Levels. International Journal Of Scientific Research, Volume-6 | Issue-9 | September-2017 | ISSN No 2277 - 8179 | IF : 4.176 | IC Value : 78.46
- Serum level of CA-125, Salivary Amylase and CEA in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer in North Indian Population. Sch. Acad. J. Biosci.2014; 2(9): 633-639.
- RASSF1 and PTEN Promoter Hypermethylation Influences the Outcome in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer. Clinical Ovarian and Other Gynecologic Cancer.2014;7:33–39.
- Promoter Methylation of MGMT Gene in Ovarian Cancer. Int. J. Gen. Can. 2015; 2(1&2)
- Job Related Stress is The Source of Stress among Male Partner of Infertile Couples. Journal of Psychology and Psychotherapy Research, 2015, 2, 42-49.
- Plasma cell leukemia of IgG secreting type: A rare case. International Journal of Case Reports and Images. 2013;4(12):748–749
Publications (Book Chapters):-
- IL-1 gene polymorphisms in solid tumors, accepted for publication by Elsevier publishers (In Press)
- Dholariya SJ, Orrick JA. Biochemistry, Fructose Metabolism. 2022 Oct 17. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan–. PMID: 35015453.
- Sonagra AD, Dholariya SJ. Electrophoresis. 2022 Aug 8. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan–. PMID: 36251838.
Awards and Honours:-
- 1st Prize in Association of Medical Biochemists of India Conference (AMBICON) National P.G. Quiz, November, 2013.
- 1st Prize Association of Medical Biochemists of India Conference (Delhi Chapter)-scientific meeting quiz, March 2014.
- The utility of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin/matrix metallopeptidase-9 complex as a novel biomarker to diagnose epithelial ovarian cancer’ was adjudged for the “Award by the Organizing Committee-Oral Presentation Category during Association of Clinical Biochemists of India Conference (ACBICON) 2021 held virtually on 12th-15th December 2021.
Areas of Interest:-
Clinical chemistry, Endocrinology, Oncology and molecular biology
Membership of Professional/Academic/ Research bodies
- Life Member of Association of Clinical Biochemists of India (A.C.B.I.)
- Life Member of Association of Medical Biochemists of India (A.M.B.I.)
- Life member of Society of Cancer Research Young Scientists Society
- Life member of National Medicos Organization (N.M.O.)


The home of polar bears, agriculture, hockey, and diverse ethnic groups. The home of beavers, Tim Hortons, and la crosse. Canada, my home. I revel in the fact that I get to call myself Canadian. I am Canadian, I constantly apologize, and I pronounce the last letter of the alphabet “zed” instead of “zee”. You may wonder what makes Canada great? What makes Canada special or different? What makes Canada the friendliest nation in the world?
Our diversity and multi-culturalism, our family like atmosphere, our willingness to put others before ourselves. As a nation, we choose peace instead of war, hope instead of futility, and love instead of hate. We accept others for who they are despite race, sexuality, or beliefs. We believe in equality and justice in everything we do. I am extremely blessed to have grown up in a country as amazing as Canada. My life has been filled with all of these things Canada stands for, and all of the things it houses.
I remember family ski trips to Banff, Alberta, visits to the CN tower in Toronto, Ontario with my closest friends, vacations at the cabin on Lake of the Woods, Ontario, road trips through the flat lands of Manitoba through Saskatchewan, and choir tours across British Columbia. Each of these adventures and experiences have shaped me into who I am today, and have illuminated the beauty within our incredible country.
I love how at ease I feel in Canada, whether it be within my familiar community or in another province. I love how parents are all “block parents” and look after the neighborhood children without being told. I love how we never judge a “book by its cover”, and are open to new relationships and different people.
We take pride in being Canadian. We celebrate our nationality. We celebrate Canada’s reputation. We celebrate our independence.
Together, we understand what it means to live in this breathtaking nation. From coast to coast, we keep Canada clean. The crisp air and white powdered mountains in British Columbia, the sharp smelling pine trees throughout the territories, the brilliantly colored prairies, and the rocky terrain and clean water towards the east, we take as much care in our environment as we do in human interaction. This goes to show that that is quite a bit.
We have grit and determination in every aspect of life. We downplay the weather and treat minus forty-five, as if it were minus ten. We have grit, and determination when it comes to innovation and union. We have strong morals and self respect. We never give up when the going gets tough.
Canada is my home, and will forever be my home, no matter where I may end up. My character was built through Canada and is based off of what Canada stands for. This country will forever be a part of me, and to have that affect on someone goes to show just how amazing this nation really is.


“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” Jeremiah 29:11
Though I have always believed this, I haven’t been the best about practicing it. I know God has a plan. Always have. I just always took it upon myself to worry (sometimes constantly) about what that plan was, and whether I would be able to handle the outcome. The thing is…God already knows the end. He already knows you can handle the outcome. Not only can you handle it, but you will come out the other side stronger. You will come out the other side closer to the person He wants you to be. I used to think I knew who I was. I was the quiet one. I was the fat girl. I liked to eat and I didn’t like to move. This is why I failed so many times at losing weight. Being fit just wasn’t who I was. At least that’s what I thought.
I am so grateful that God knows more than I do. He knows who I really am, even when I don’t. These past several months, He has been revealing it to me. I am a healthy person. I enjoy being active and eating healthy food. I not only love doing all of those things, I love talking about them! My comfort zone was always to hide…to stay invisible. If no one noticed me, and if I never talked about it, no one would know I was fat. It would be my little secret. God has been pushing me so far out of my comfort zone with this new life. He is making me realize that with Him, I am capable of more than I ever thought possible. I can be strong. I can be brave. I can be anything.
When you have spent the majority of your life overweight, you tend to look back at your life with anger and frustration. “Why did I do this to myself? How did I let it get this far? I wasted so much time.” These are all things I used to say to myself over and over. It was a new way to feel badly about myself. I didn’t feel badly about my body anymore, so I could feel badly about the body I used to have. God taught me something recently….and by recently, I mean today. Do I truly believe that I am becoming the person I was always meant to be? Yes, I do. If I really believe that, I have to accept that the person I used to be was all a part of God’s plan. That girl is a part of me and always will be. Everything I went through, everything I put myself through, has brought me to this day…this very moment. God knew I would get here before I was even born. He knows me through and through. Instead of regretting my past, I will thank God for my past. My past brought me here, to a place I never thought I could go. Truthfully, I never knew it was a place I wanted to go. I am eternally grateful that He did. “For I know the plans I have for you…” Thank you, Lord, for creating beauty from what I thought was a mess. For making me…me.


I am in love with lyrics and quotations. They bring out things within you that are ordinarily hard to grasp onto. So I will post some of my favorites here !!!
“Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others.”
“Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.”
Are you doing what you’re doing today because you WANT to do it, or because it’s what you were doing yesterday?” –Dr. Phil
Be who you are and say what you think because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter dont mind. -Dr. Seuss
If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything.
Achievement is not always success, while reputed failure often is. It is honest endeavor, persistent effort to do the best possible under any and all circumstances.
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the WISDOM to know the difference.
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
I would rather be able to appreciate things I can not have than to have things I am not able to appreciate. –Elbert Hubbard
I believe that hope survives, love prevails, tears cleanse, memories comfort, faith soothes. good thoughts reassure, and our belief in a better place calms the heart.
Some people think it’s holding on that makes one strong— sometimes it’s letting go.
But if I wanted silence I would whisper. If I wanted loneliness I’d choose to go. If I wanted rejection I’d audition. And if I didn’t love you, you would know.
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up. -Paul Valery
Live for today, pray for tomorrow.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. -Will Rogers
An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind -Gandhi
Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer, but wish we didn’t.
The truth doesn’t hurt unless it ought to…
Anger rests in the hearts of fools.
When all else is lost, the future still remains. -Christian Bovee
“Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned, forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.” ~Luke 6:37
Anyone perfect must be lying
Anything easy has its cost
Anyone plain can be lovely
Anyone loved can be lost
Nothing lasts forever, so live it up, drink it down, laugh it off, avoid the bullshit, take chances & never have regrets, because at one point everything you did was exactly what you wanted
There comes a point in your life when you realize who matters, who never did, who won’t anymore, and who always will. So don’t worry about people from your past, there’s a reason why they didn’t make it into your future.
Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring. -Marilyn Monroe
Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly and kiss slowly. Love truly, laugh uncontrollably , and never regret anything that made you smile.
There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.


As I near the end of the journey writing my debut memoir, Destiny Lives On Fairhaven Street, I’m now find myself shifting focus to the business side of the process: marketing.
The goal is to get as many eyes on my book as I can, and that means building up my book’s Facebook page. Likes and followers equal potential sales. I want to take this moment to thank each of you who have been kind enough to like the page.
But, as great as this experience has been, I’ve noticed some unfortunate downsides as I’ve moved closer to publication. Once I created this Facebook page, I noticed some people, many of them men, leaving nasty comments about my decision to not date anyone in the eight years I was apart from Danielle. I debated quoting some of them here, but I don’t want to give them any more attention.
I’ve been hearing this same sophomoric drivel about how “unmanly” my story is since before I started writing it. And though it comes as no surprise, I’ve never been able to answer the question: Why do so many men hold me in contempt for being a romantic? What is so unmanly about loving a woman and being devoted to her? Why do some men find it unacceptable that I spent 1/10th of my life dedicated to a girl when I wasn’t required to? The happiest part of my childhood was when I was with her, so it was only natural that I wanted to get that back. When I returned, I wanted to show her just how much I truly loved her, so I sacrificed the one thing I knew I could never get back: time.
I am the man I am, the husband I am, the father I am, because of her.
The same neaderthalistic thinking these “men” display is the same type my father forced on me growing up. This was the same man mind you, who had four marriages, three of which ended by infidelity on his end.
Writing a memoir makes you vulnerable to the world. I knew this before I started writing, and I wrote anyway, because I am strong enough to withstand vulnerability. I’m proud of what I did, and I’m secure enough in my manhood to share it with the world.
As a father, I want my boys Max and Collin to learn that it’s okay to love someone. A man is devoted to the one he loves. He keeps his word. There is no shame in being romantic and vulnerable under the right circumstances.
This is more than a book. I want it to start a dialogue about outdated male stereotypes and dogmas.
I’m here today as a soon to be published author, a six-foot-tall husband and father, the proud protector and provider of my family, with over thirty years of martial arts experience. My message is simple: If you allow yourself to love, and you allow yourself to feel, you allow yourself to grow into a truly powerful man. I don’t care what these people feel about it.
My uncle was one of my idols growing up. He’s a man’s man, a complete badass and yet he loves his wife, my Aunt, openly and proudly. If I am a quarter of the man he is when I reach his age, that will be a massive accomplishment.
I love my wife, and I’m proud of it.
A real man loves without shame. He does not stray. He does not put others down for their devotion to another. It’s time we return to that.
Destiny Lives On Fairhaven Street – book one of The Fairhaven Series, Coming in 2022.
Some things are worth the sacrifice…


After the death of Patroclus, the dear companion of the great hero Achilles, other Greek heroes fought hard to protect his body from the Trojan forces. Seen as a great moral victory for both sides, the body was furiously fought for and over. "So Ajax stood his ground over brave Patroclus now - the fighting Atrides right beside him, standing fast". But the Trojans would not give up,their "hearts fired with hopes of dragging Patroclus' body out from under Ajax... but the Argives faced them, standing fast in a ring around Patroclus, one fury seizing their hearts." - The Iliad, Homer
Fight over the body of Patroclus, latex paint on canvas, 55 x 60", 2018
Leave a Reply.


INSPIRED PLANT-BASED RECIPES
FOR EVERY SEASON
My New Roots – Inspired Plant-Based Recipes for Every Season features over 100 vegetarian dishes, most of which are vegan, many are gluten-free and some are totally raw. The book includes a wide range of meals from the very easy, to those that are more fun food “projects” that require fermentation and such. There are fancy things to impress your best guests, and tasty basics for weeknight family-style meals. Snacks, desserts, and sweet treats are also a very welcome part of this collection of vibrant and inspiring new recipes.
Very much like the blog, my cookbook is inspired by the seasons and eating in connection with nature, as often as possible. Each recipe features health and nutrition information on the key ingredients, so you will always know a little something special about the health benefits in your favourite dishes.
The Essential Techniques section clearly explains, step-by-step, how to master the basic processes that I use on a daily basis in my home kitchen. This section also features my tips and tricks on how to make your vegetarian meals as flavourful as they can be!
The book features full-colour photography, all shot by yours truly, at home in my kitchen and in the garden. I am so proud of the images inside – each one tells a story of the dish and reflects the season it was made.
It has been an amazing year of growing, making, and enjoying ridiculously delicious food. I can't believe the day has come when I can share that with you all.
“My New Roots is beautiful proof that eating with nutrition in mind need not be a compromise. This is an unabashedly enthusiastic riff on the food-as-medicine approach to cooking and eating. Sarah’s playful and encouraging voice is infectious; you get the sense that she is waiting on the other side of each recipe to give you a high five.”
— Heidi Swanson, author of Super Natural Every Day
“My New Roots is filled with good ideas for fresh new ways of using plant foods. Sarah Britton shows that truly alive ingredients can result in more interesting and better-tasting recipes and are always worth seeking out.”
— Deborah Madison, author of Vegetable Literacy and The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
“Sarah is a veggie-lovin’ culinary goddess! Her unique and seasonal plant-based creations will inspire you to fall head over heels in love with vegetables. There are so many beautiful recipes I can’t wait to make!”
— Angela Liddon, author of The Oh She Glows Cookbook
“I have been waiting for this book since I first started reading Sarah’s blog years ago. She has a gift for writing truly wonderful recipes, vibrant with produce, and has the knowledge to explain why these plant-based foods are good for us. Her sweet spirit shines through every page. So thrilled to have this keeper in my kitchen!”
— Sara Forte, author of The Sprouted Kitchen
“Sarah’s creativity always inspires. With its vibrant recipes, evocative visuals, witty combinations, and approachable ways to live better, this book is a must for anyone interested in optimal, delicious health.”
— Laura Wright, thefirstmess.com
“Sarah always treads the beautiful line between making whole foods practical and also appealing, leading the way in this new real food movement.”
— Sarah Wilson, author of I Quit Sugar
“Being healthy and happy is so easy when you’re cooking with Sarah. Her gentle approach, love and passion for whole foods, and flair for pairing mind-blowing flavors create fabulous and fresh food that looks stunning and is bursting with personality and life-affirming goodness. With unbelievable tastes and textures, My New Roots takes you on an exquisite journey that seduces you with every lift of the fork, leaving you voracious for vegetables.”
— Tess Masters, author of The Blender Girl
“It’s a rare book that delivers inspiration through its every page, yet each one of Sarah’s recipes sings with flavor and originality. The entire collection is a seductive introduction to a more wholesome way of eating and an irresistible call to the kitchen.”
— Clotilde Dusoulier, author of The French Market Cookbook and Edible French


One of the very first things to extract from the life of Father Frederic, is his passion for Jesus of Nazareth.
His early education pointed him toward the Gospels. His formation with the Franciscans, his plans to become a missionary in the Holy Land, his writings and books all his preaching on Jesus the son of man and son of God, everything reveals to us that the Blessed Frederic is the missionary to the Holy Land par excellence. His work orients us to know Jesus in the mysteries of His humanity, His birth, His public life, His passion and Resurrection.
It is he who walked about the country of Jesus in every sense during the 14 years that he lived in the Holy Land. The Stations of the Cross which had been banned since 1621, he negotiated with the Muslim Arabs the right to preach the Stations of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa and in the arched souks of Jerusalem. He directed the construction work of the church of Saint Catherine next to the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem. For this construction, he then went to beg in France and in Canada, hence his first journey in 1881.
He is a pioneer in the dispersion of the gospels in Canada. From 1893 to 1907, his Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, a text in harmony with the Gospels, enjoyed eight printings, which represent a total of 42,000 copies “It was without a doubt the greatest publishing success in Canada” (Legare – Baillargeon, Good Father Frederic, Montreal, Pauline Ed. 1988, p. 277).
Blessed Frederic could be the patron of the seekers of meaning and truth who study the Gospels and especially the life of Jesus of Nazareth, thus the man Jesus.
“Father Frederic’s entire life was to serve the earthy country of God made man, of making Him known, venerated and loved. What is most striking about him, is his unceasing devotion to the Holy Sites sanctified by the Passion of the Divine Savior.”
Romain Legare, The Memory, vol. 14, no. 2 (April-June 1967), p.3.


So what's so good about poetry?
Every now and then (if you're lucky) a piece of literature - be it a novel or a poem - will come along and shake your heart; it'll rock your world. And, I swear, your perspective of yourself and the space around you, will never be the same again.
I came across such a poem, powerful piece that really touched me, when I was at secondary school. I was no more than 13 or 14 when a very attractive young trainee-teacher came to teach us English for a term and read us W.B. Yeats', She Weeps for the Cloths of Heavens:
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
Now I don't know whether it was her tone - a lovely genteel accent that sort of juxtaposed beautifully in an inner city world of my comprehensive schooling - or Yeats words per se that moved me to something close to love. Whatever it was, I kind of felt something stirring in my teenage heart, a sort of awakening at the sheer magic of the words and what they could do. I remember going away after the lesson and re-reading the poem again and again until I knew it by heart. Even today whenever I teach Yeats, I always recite that poem because it takes me back to that time when I first fell in love with poetry - or developed a crush on a woman who was way out of my league!
And that's the essence of some words, put together or poetically arranged in such away that they linger in your spirit level, almost giving you another dimension to yourself as a human being. Sometimes they help you to 'see better' - bring you closer to your limitations. But, more often than not, they give you an awareness of your possibilities - nothing is beyond your reach.
Now there are people who say I don't like poetry 'cause I don't get it!. The irony is that sometimes they're the very same people who recite or quote sections from songs or better still, holy books. And they will act as if the quote said it all: end of discussion. Or they'll sing a line or two from song or a hymn like to make a point:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; for you are with me;
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Now, I ask you, what are those - those lines - if they're not poetic in some way. They're beautiful words because they're original; they capture a thought, an idea in a fresh way that make them memorable. Holy texts are poetic no matter whether you consider them as the actual word of God or the product of wordsmiths sitting around a camp fire.
The thing is that poetry matters - all kinds of poetry, not just the stuff we have to read at school as part of the National Curriculum. To say that I hate poetry because you had to suffer the ordeal at trying to grasp the meaning of difficult language is like saying I hate all people under five feet tall! It's ludicrous to state such things because it's limiting and shows your inability to connect with complexity. Now surely that is not what you should broadcast to the rest of the world. Instead wouldn't it be better if you said, I don't like the stuff of Shakespeare's sonnets, or Milton's epic poetry or the meta-physical poetry of 17th century but I do like the sufi poetry or mysticism of Kabir, Tagore or Gibran. Or failing that, you could say I'm not generally partial to poetry but I do like the nonsense poetry and/or limericks of Milligan, the stuff of light-heartedness and frivolity. Now that's a far cry from simply saying I hate poetry! and brushing the whole poetry genre/form aside as being insignificant.
The point is that there is such a colourful array of poetry of all types, in all kinds of linguistic shades and tones.
But there's another important reason why poetry matters in our world. Arthur Scargill's father used to sleep with a dictionary because he believed that words used properly are a powerful tool to mobilise people and politics. Everyone should learn words.
And there's a certain truth in that. Poetry is used in all aspects of our lives, it's all over the place - on billboards, in advertising, in songs, in politics as rhetoric, in films, in news and the dissemination of information - and, dare I say it, in everyday conversation. Even this article, the way I'm putting it together to make a case for poetry, is using the tools and techniques associated with that form. Poetry can be powerful and because it's powerful, it can be political.
Poetry is a voice of dissent, a voice of the people who feel they're unheard, displaced, forgotten. It's a tool for those who want to challenge the world in which we live, take on the mass of conventional ideas we get used to in our daily existence. In the words of Craig Raine, it defamiliarizes our familiarity.
So next time you're having a chat about poetry with someone, think about why you're so hostile to words, the very language you're happy to quote in other context. Why does poetry fill you with dread and boredom? It's the very stuff that gave enlightenment to many of the gurus, prophets and mystics. They recited language, the mantra, day in and day out to create a spiritual epiphany. They wanted to connect with a higher being, what some refer to as God, what some poets call the Spirit of the universe and what the Romantics referred to as Nature
Poetry was, to some extent, the metaphorical vehicle for that journey guiding our souls away from the material world to that serene state of nirvana like this piece of Punjabi verse:
Bhul na jaye o maan meriya
Motiya te mandir dekh ke
(Do not get lost, oh soul of mine,
Gazing at these pearly walls)
Roshan Doug will be reading from his new collection of poems, What light is light... at the University of Birmingham, School of Education, Room G39, 6pm- 7.30
Monday 21st November 2011.
RSVP to email@example.com


If there is one book that you should read and have in your library, this Romans commentary is the one. It is a massively important work for all who love the Lord Jesus Christ. Holland’s labour of love brings forth the rich Jewish theology and corporate worldview of the Apostle Paul that is so often overlooked by our individualistic Western presuppositions. Seeing Romans afresh through the lens of the Apostle’s Jewish mindset is both engaging and enlightening. Holland delves into the text with all the integrity and acumen of a true biblical scholar, seeking at every turn to discover the root context of the corporate Hebrew understanding. He shows that Yahweh has covenanted himself in marriage, through Jesus Christ, to his redeemed people, thus fulfilling the entire Messianic hope of the Old Testament scriptures. The salvation accomplished by Jesus is shown to be the grand eschatological fulfillment of all that Israel’s Passover and Exodus redemption prefigured. This commentary is thoughtfully written at a level for all Christians to enjoy and is both warmly pastoral and deeply instructive. This work is a gift of love to the Church of Jesus Christ. May the Lord add his heavenly blessing upon it for the edification of the new covenant community.
Tom Holland in his Romans commentary interacts with the controversial teaching of the New Perspective theologians – and much more besides.
But rather than retreat into Reformed formulations, he engages with the latest views, re-evaluates traditional positions, and breathes new life into Reformed teachings without repudiating them. For example (writing as a self-styled biblical, rather than systematic, theologian) he sees that the “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness” of Genesis 15:6 has been pressed too readily into service by the Reformers as a text that teaches imputed righteousness – and yet Holland does not reject that doctrine.
Furthermore he brings clarity to the complex area of covenantal nomism. He agrees with the New Perspective theologians that Paul, along with his compatriots, rejoiced in the law – indeed Paul considered himself blameless (Philippians 3:6); but this was only before his conversion, not afterwards, when he came to see that the law in fact condemned all men and women before God (Romans 4:15).
In addition Holland brings insights of his own – he sees that in many passages where Paul speaks of the “body” he means a body of people. He gives detailed linguistic arguments for this perspective, and shows that the “body of sin” is fallen mankind who entered into a covenant with Sin (Satan) via their federal head Adam. This body is the counterpart to the “body of Christ” – the church. Although this perspective is not unique to Holland he applies it more consistently in his exegesis than others. At first, if you are not familiar with this concept, it can seem strange – but if you stay with it there is a reward as light is cast on some verses that have always been considered to be ‘difficult’.
For me the climax of his commentary is his exposition of chapters 6 & 7. Holland sees that Paul is telling us that Christ died in the place of the bride of Satan (the body of Sin) to break the legitimate authority the law gives a husband. This explains Paul’s comments at the centre of these two chapters where he reminds us that the death of a spouse ends a marriage. We can now see it is the death of Christ that releases the elect from her former ‘husband’ for her to become Christ’s bride and his body. This, to my mind, is a convincing exegesis – and reveals the cosmic implications of Christ’s death and the “Divine Marriage” in a new and exciting way.
So, if you want a quiet read to reassure yourself that there is nothing new to learn other than what the great Reformers taught – this commentary is not for you.
But, if you want a stimulating, thought provoking, mind stretching, Christ-exalting journey through Romans that interacts with recent scholarship and yet respects the Reformers’ teaching – I think you will be hard pushed to find a commentary to best this one.
If there is intellectual integrity in the evangelical world, I am convinced this reading of Romans will win the day eventually.
Romans: The Divine Marriage – Dr Tom Holland
This commentary follows Dr Holland’s striking development of the ‘new exodus’ motif as a key background concept to understanding Paul in ‘Contours of Pauline Theology’. The first book provided some astonishing new ways of reading Paul, and brought out the significance of the ‘new exodus’ as a paradigm for understanding the New Testament. The Romans commentary pursues the new exodus motif in further detail.
The new exodus exploration opens up Romans in some fresh ways, not least the revisiting of Romans 3:20ff, where the key term hilasterionis provided with new exodus significance, drawing especially on Ezekiel’s use of the term in the eschatological temple’s celebration of Passover in Ezekiel 45. Dr Holland also introduces us to the influence of Ezekiel’s new exodus themes more widely in Paul.
The new exodus line of thinking leads to a rigorously corporate interpretation of passages in Romans which have conventionally been interpreted as individualistic. So the corporate emphasis of Romans 5 (full of echoes of return from exile, a key new exodus theme), continues into Romans 6-8, with surprising results. A major challenge to conventional interpretation is the locating of the word flesh within a covenantal, and therefore corporate framework. Dr Holland is careful to explore the various nuances of the meaning of the word within the biblical corpus, but the result is a much more satisfying connection of the word with its OT roots, and a shift from the usual ontological understanding with its myriad complexities and psychological introspectiveness.
The commentary develops a crucial distinction in the way justification is used in Romans 4, between its applications to Abraham and David. Through this distinction, Dr Holland is able to build on the New Perspective understanding of the term as developed by Tom Wright (in relation to Abraham), and the way the Reformers used the word (in relation to David). Dr Holland develops an argument for reinforcing the view that justification is not merely a declaration of righteousness, as asserted by the New Perspective, but includes within its semantic domain the Reformation ideas of forensic justification and being brought into a covenant relationship with God. He then incorporates the use of justification language in Israel’s ‘new exodus’ restoration from exile, relating this to the key ‘justification’ section of Romans, chapter 5.
The excursuses on righteousness, the flesh and justification are treasure troves in themselves, and the commentary is bristling with insights. The book dialogues with contemporary theological discussion, and takes on board the best results of these, whilst staunchly defending the faith of the Reformers, and presenting strong arguments for their position. Along the way, Dr Holland points out what he takes to be some key shortcomings of New Perspective positions. All agree that Holland has moved the debate on Paul decisively forwards and that a significant counter-proposal to the proponents of the New Perspective on Paul has been launched.
Above all, the commentary brings Romans alive in fresh ways, and as with ‘Contours’, drives us back to the biblical text armed with fresh insights and equipped with fresh tools for mining the gold from this letter, which proves its worth for the 21st century as for all preceding ages. Dr Holland illustrates well the maxim of the pilgrim fathers in relation to Romans: ‘The Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of his holy Word.’


“Biting Ourselves to Death”
Cassopolis/ White Pigeon, March 11, 2018, FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT
Text: Ephesians 2:1-10; Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14-21
Our reading from Numbers 21 this morning, one of the most peculiar readings in the Old Testament for its odd details, is also one which gives many Christians some discomfort to read—at least it does me. For every time I read it I wonder about the particular method of discipline that God employs here with His restive children of Israel in the wilderness. This is certainly not the first time they have become dissatisfied with their wandering lot and the discomforts that come with it—they have done so many times. But this is the first time God has acted against them in such a harsh way, sending, according to the text, poisonous—some translations say “fiery” serpents among them to bite them and even kill many. As I say, this makes me uncomfortable, not that it’s God’s job to make me comfortable with His actions. But I still always wonder, couldn’t God have achieved the same ends in a gentler and less fatal way?
But perhaps not. In the book of Numbers, this event marks the seventh time that the people have risen up in angry rebellion, and this time a rebellion more intense, their anger directed not only against Moses, but against God Himself as well, both of whom they accuse of “bringing us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness!” They have obviously, at this point, forgotten about their slavery and the brutal way the Egyptians treated them—all they seem to recall now is that there was a lot of food available back there, and food better than “this miserable” manna that God has been feeding them with. So perhaps the rebellion of the people is so great at this time that only equally drastic measures on God’s part is able to deal with it, lest the whole intention of God to make Israel a nation be put in jeopardy.
Of course, one can also read this story in another way, one in which the poisonous serpents aren’t directly sent from God at all—they just happen to appear at the same time the rebellion is under way. However God uses their appearance to touch the consciences of the rebels, and the people, recognizing what they are doing as sin, interpret the snakes as punishment, and repent. Whatever the case is in this particular story, one thing that has always occurred to me every time I’ve read it with all its odd details about serpents, fiery and biting and bronze, set up on a staff. It seems that we can also read it as a parable, an account in which physical events are employed to help us think about things going on at another level—the spiritual level—in the lives of these people themselves, and perhaps, at times, in the lives of all people.
There can be little doubt as we hear this story that the people of Israel are frustrated and angry in it, with anger that derives, in all likelihood, from a deeper kind of hurt in their hearts—a fear—or really, many fears—fears of being lost, fears of going hungry, fears of being abandoned. And when someone—at least someone in a biblical or faith context—is afflicted by fear, they have two choices in how to deal with it. They can, if they are wise, look to God in their fear and seek God’s help, as Peter wrote to the church in 1st Peter, “Cast all your anxiety—including your fear—upon Him, for He cares for you.”
However, this can be a tough thing to do, especially if one of your fears is that God doesn’t really care about you, which seems to have been the case sometimes for the Israelites. They appear to have had a consistently difficult time believing that God was really all that concerned about their good. In that case, if you will not, or can not, look to God, you can only look to yourself—and often, if not always, this is not enough of a resource to get real relief. So rather than having the anxiety lifted, it becomes more deep-seated. And as it become deep-seated, one reacts with anger—or bitterness—or by trying to secure one’s self, make one’ self safe from threat, by any means necessary no matter what it might mean to someone else. And when these things begin to occur, especially in a whole community—a society—humans often become themselves like stinging fiery snakes. Our angers and fears and anxieties begin to manifest in our attitudes and actions as we start to bite others and devour them, striking out like animals caught in a trap or cornered in pursuit. And in that process, we begin to bite and devour ourselves, from the inside out, like an acid slowly eating us away.
And perhaps this is something of what this story in Numbers is trying to convey—that when these people in the wilderness lose sight of God—lose faith in God, they became serpents themselves and began stinging and burning and biting themselves to death from the inside out—spiritual death at a minimum, with perhaps physical death to follow as well.
And this kind of a reading makes a lot of sense out of the remedy that God gives Moses to relieve His people’s hurts—the bronze serpent on the pole. Read as a simple physical detail, it seems like something out of folklore, almost smacks of some kind of magic, certainly an odd kind of thing for God to tell Moses to rely upon. But if he people have become their own worst enemy because of their fear and anger and defiance, then it make perfect sense. For when they take a moment of pause in their rebellion, and look up at the serpent on the staff, what they begin to see there is themselves—what they have become. And as they see what they have become, and admit it, in their hearts and in their prayers, they also come to discover what they need as remedy—to again depend on God—to throw their fears on Him and know Him as their Creator and Lord and Savior, and thus find in God the healing and care only God can provide. Such an understanding makes a lot of sense in Numbers, and such an understanding also makes clearly appropriate the use Jesus makes of this story as He talks in the third chapter of John.
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” Jesus asserts there, “that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.” The plight of humanity before Jesus came into the world was very much the same as that of the rebellious spirits of Numbers 21. Over years of history, sin in the life of humanity had eroded our relationship with our Maker. It was not completely gone—God had continued to work toward in through Abraham and Israel and the Law and the prophets, had continued always to stand against sin’s incursion into the world. But so weakened had our sense of life become under sin that the drift away had continued, robbing most, if not all humans of their sense of truth, of any real sense of the love of God, and any realization that we needed God. And in that continuing drift, humans and human society suffered, often devolving into our becoming a stinging biting ball of snakes, attacking each other in panic and terror and in the process attacking our own souls. Or in the words of John’s gospel, finding ourselves in darkness, unable to find a way to get out of it, out of the wilderness we had become lost in.
But it is into that darkness, in these last days as scripture calls them, that God sent light—a light, as John says in his opening chapter, that would shine in the darkness so strongly that no darkness, no sin, could overcome it, a light that God put in our midst for us to see and be saved. However, for that light to open blind human eyes—for that love of God made flesh in Jesus to heal hurts we had inflicted upon ourselves for years untold, there was one necessary step—we had to look—we had to do what the Israelites did in Numbers—to look up at Jesus and at Him lifted up on the cross and see there two things—our need for God, and God’s love for us given fully in response to that need to whomever would accept it. And what became truest tragedy, the greatest grief indeed to God’s own heart, was that some would refuse to do so. Some who struggled in darkness would refuse to see God’s light, refuse to accept God’s relief, refuse to understand their need. And “this is the judgment” writes John—“that the light has come into the world—the cure has come into the world—and people loved darkness more than the light—refused to give up even their own self-destruction to turn and look and be healed. But of course, some would—they would believe and take it as truth that “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes will not perish.” And it is to these and of these that Paul writes in Ephesians 2.
Paul minces no words as he appraises the former state of those to whom he writes—“You were dead,” he says—not just hurting, but dead, dead to God, dead to your own best good—“through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived”—we were, as he says, “children of wrath”, those in whom the course of the world as sin steered it drove us daily further and further away from God and closer and closer to our own hurt. And we could do nothing about it. We could not halt our own lemming march—we could not heal our own wounds, and be cured—we were blind and lacking understanding of what was even wrong in us—we needed something more than we were or had or could have. But then, says Paul, “God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He loved us—even when we were dead in our trespasses—even, “as he says in another passage, “when we were still enemies of God”—even then, God “made us alive together with Christ—for by grace, you—we—have been saved!”
This is an epic moment in Paul’s letter, this announcement of our salvation. But lest we congratulate ourselves on achieving such an end, Paul goes on—“But it is a gift of grace, a gift of God, not our own doing that we might boast.” But it is nonetheless our gift to claim because God in Christ has given it and will not take it back—and no other power, no darkness, no sin, no human frailty can separate us from this Christ, turn this gift away from us, stop us from looking at the cross and seeing there the love of God and to be healed from our self-biting ways, set alight by the unconquerable light of Jesus.
And in that light—as we look up to the gift of God for healing—we are changed. Or rather, we are remade—we are remade into what we were intended to be from the start, not reptiles, not blinded eyes, but God’s children. For as Paul writes as he concludes this passage of Ephesians, when we have been brought from death to life, darkness to light, injured to whole, we become “what He has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God created beforehand to be our way of life.” We were never made to be hissing, biting serpents, hostile to God and to each other. This world was never made to be the ball of confusion and anger and enmity that we too often see about us. And as our healing comes to us, we become agents of healing to the world, made for good, made for good works, made to tell the world of God and God’s gift of love raised up on the cross to restore us to life and bring life into us.
There is, in 2 Kings 18, an odd biblical postscript to the story of the bronze serpent that God had Moses make back in Numbers. Apparently, according to that text, the serpent on the staff, in memory of what God did in Numbers, was saved as an artifact by the Israelites and given a place in the Temple. It was even given a name, Nehushtan. However, human nature being what it is, it seems that some folks forgot what the serpent was supposed to represent and began treating it almost like a god—they “had made offerings to it,’ 2 Kings tells us, causing one of Judah’s more faithful kings, Hezekiah, to destroy it, breaking it into pieces.
This is an instructive look into the unique talent sin has to get its way with us—it is able to take even what is good in the world, even the gifts God has given us, and make them into idols—warp them into things they were never meant to be, pulling us away from rather than toward God—the thing that was to save the serpent-bitten became the bite of the serpent itself. And if sin can do this with good things, think what it can do with our fears and doubts and hurts and anxieties. And only the appearance of the truest gift, the gift of God Himself in human flesh, lifted up for all the world to see—and if they would—believe—can defeat that—can change us—can counteract the poison that runs through the veins of human life and bring us to healing. This is what God has done—what God is doing. This is why Jesus came—not to condemn the world for its sin, but to save the world from it. For God did so love the world that He gave His only Son to be lifted up even on a cross that all who looked and believed would find life—and not just life in its most minimal definition, but life abundant, life worthy, life eternal—good for us and good for reaching out to others with—life that God has always intended. +++


I have never been more excited for December to start. Each year we do various advent calendar (usually Lego) and thought this year we would spice it up with a Funko Pop Harry Potter Advent Calendar. But I still felt like something was missing. Then, one of my favorite local independent bookstores posted something on their IG feed. I was hooked. I just had to do it. And only two more sleeps before it begins!
We decided to go out on a limb and have Madison Street Books select 24 books, wrap them and number them for us to enjoy over the next month. Our own advent book calendar countdown to Christmas! Selecting the books was not a small task. We have 5 people in the house, ranging from two 40-something parents, a freshman in college, junior in high school, and a 7th grader.
How are the books selected?!?
Thankfully this part was super easy. They asked a few quick questions, such as what books we liked and types we wanted to avoid. I gave a few requests and went from there. Once done, they sent a list over and just LOVED most all the selections! Some books we actually had, some were a big heavy for the 7th grader, and didn’t want this to feel like an extended homework night opening each book! After sending back a handful of suggestions, I had the 24 books selected and all I had to do was wait until they were wrapped and ready for pick up!
The plan is to have everyone read each book. Since it’s our first book advent calendar, I am hopeful that all will be “keepers” and write little notes into each book. Right now, I am just excited that they are all excited!
Is it too late for this year?
It’s not too late to do this yourself ! Reach out to your local bookstores, see if they can help select, and maybe even wrap the 24 books. Or maybe start your order on Cyber Monday for curbside pick up. Wrap with plain brown paper, or even foil if you are a time cruchIf you’re too indecisive, maybe ask to start with four and gather the rest this weekend?!? You can always add more books to your pile next weekend!
More hopeful this will turn into a yearly tradition (along with the Lego Advent Calendars or Funko Pops) and that our book selection grows as we all grow! Make sure you follow along on INSTAGRAM for daily pics and stories on the books we receive! So excited – only two more sleeps!


Published in International Conference on Learning Representations, 2021
We construct and analyze new datasets for evaluating disentanglement on natural videos. We also propose a temporally sparse prior for identifying the underlying factors of variation in natural videos.
Published in Journal of Vision, 2020
Using differential geometry we explain how sparse coding networks bend their response surfaces, which results in improved selectivity and robustness for individual neurons.
Published in Neuro-Inspired Computational Elements, 2020
We present a 2-layer recurrent sparse coding network for learning higher order statistical regularities in natural images.
Published in UC Berkeley Thesis, 2019
My PhD thesis provides an in-depth account of a recurrent network for sparse inference, including novel analyses, comparisons, and extensions.
Published in IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), 2018
The first published approach for storing digital natural images onto resistive random access memory arrays.
Published in Neural Information Processing Systems, 2018
A hierarchical sparse coding model that decomposes scenes into constituent parts and linearizes temporal trajectories of natural videos.
Published in Data Compression Conference, 2018
A convolutional autoencoder with divisive normalization enables digital image storage on simulated emerging memristive devices.
Published in Proceedings of the 9th EAI International Conference on Bio-inspired Information and Communications Technologies, 2016
A hierarchical sparse coding network that learns bandpass decompositions of natural images.
Published in IEEE Southwest Symposium on Image Analysis and Interpretation (SSIAI), 2016
A convolutional sparse coding network facilitates better depth inference than comparable feedforward networks.
Published in arXiv Preprint, 2014
Exploring the tradeoff of patch size, stride, and overcompleteness in convolutional sparse coding.
Published in The International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), 2013
Computer simulations of distributed sensor networks using a retina-inspired communication protocol to amplify signals.
Published in IEEE Southwest Symposium on Image Analysis and Interpretation, 2012
Labeling videos with objects using independent color/texture and shape/form processing streams.
You can also find my articles on my Google Scholar profile.


In the Xhosa language, Nal’ibali means “it starts with a story”. This term is used as a national campaign slogan by the Nal’ibali Foundation, an organization existing to promote a culture of reading across the entire country of South Africa. In May 2013, Leacock volunteer Maureen Cassidy, founded the Nal’ibali Book Club at Get Ahead College, in an effort to do what the Nal’ibali Foundation does- promote a culture of reading.
The first book the Nal’bali Book Club read was “The Housemaid’s Daughter” by Barbara Mutch, a South African author who grew up in the Eastern Cape. In August 2013, the Book Club traveled from Queenstown to the historic town of Cradock in the Eastern Cape to attend the Karoo
Writer’s Festival and meet the author, Barbara Mutch. The experience was fantastic for Nal’ibali Book Club members, as they were able to ask Mutch questions about the book they had just finished reading.
Beyond improving literacy and promoting independent reading for fun, the Nal’ibali Book Club also facilitates teamwork and leadership.
“Other students see how passionate they [Nal’ibali Book Club members] are about reading and want to share in the experience too.”
Leacock’s support of technology integration into the school has also supported the Book Club. E-readers and wifi access make it quick, easy, and affordable for students to access and download books and other reading materials in a wide variety of languages and topics.
“The culture of reading is deeply entrenched in the school- we don’t have a library but we don’t need one because now we have Kobo e-readers, which alleviate the prohibitive cost of books in South Africa. New books can be loaded immediately and cost-effectively.”
Over the past year and a half, the book club has grown from 9 students to over 25, and has truly nurtured a student-led culture of literacy through reading.


Hysterical Men: The Hidden History of Male Nervous Illness (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2008), 366 pp. Over the course of several centuries, Western masculinity has successfully established itself as the voice of reason, knowledge, and sanity—the basis for patriarchal rule—in the face of massive testimony to the contrary. Hysterical Men boldly challenges this triumphant vision of the stable and secure male by examining the central role played by modern science and medicine in constructing and sustaining it. Mark Micale reveals the hidden side of this vision, that is, the innumerable cases of disturbed and deranged men who passed under the eyes of male medical and scientific elites from the seventeenth century onward. Since ancient times, physicians and philosophers had closely observed and extravagantly theorized female weakness, emotionality, and madness. What these male experts failed to see—or saw but did not acknowledge or noted but refrained from theorizing—were masculine nervous disorders among all classes and in diverse guises. While cultural and literary intellectuals pioneered new languages of male emotional distress, European science was invested in cultivating and protecting the image of male middle-class detachment, objectivity, and rationality, despite rampant counter-evidence in the clinic, the laboratory, and on battlefields. The reasons for suppressing male neurosis from the official discourses of science and medicine as well as from popular view range from the personal and psychological to the professional and political. They make for a history full of profound silences, omissions, and amnesias Now, however, under the greatly altered circumstances of today’s gender revolution, Micale’s work allows this story to be heard.
The Mind of Modernism: Medicine, Psychology, and the Cultural Arts in Europe and America, 1880-1940, edited and introduced by Mark S. Micale (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2004). This vanguard collection of original and in-depth essays explores the intricate interplay of the aesthetic and psychological domains during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and considers the reasons why a common Modernist project took shape when and in the circumstances that it did. These changes occurred precisely when the distinctively modern disciplines of psychology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis established their “scientific” foundations and achieved the forms in which we largely know them today. Micale’s volume examines the dense web of connections joining the aesthetic and psychological realms in the years of early and high modernism, charting the historical emergence of modernist discussions surrounding such issues as the psyche and the self, dream life, the normal and the pathological, the psychology of sexuality, and double and multiple consciousness. The contributors form a distinguished and diversified group of scholars who write about a wide range of cultural fields, including philosophy, the novel and poetry, drama, cabaret, dance, film, and photography, as well as medicine, psychology, and the occult sciences.
Approaching Hysteria: Disease and Its Interpretations (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1995) Few diseases have exercised the Western imagination as chronically as hysteria—from wandering wombs of ancient Greek medicine, to the demonically possessed witch of the Renaissance; from the “vaporous” salon women of Enlightenment Paris through to the celebrated patients of Sigmund Freud, with their erotically charged symptoms. In this fascinating and authoritative account, Mark Micale surveys encyclopedically the range of past and present readings of hysteria. Intellectual historians, historians of science and medicine, scholars in women’s and gender studies, art history, psychoanalysts, psychologists, and neurologists have all converged in the last decade on “the new hysteria studies.” What does this burgeoning corpus of writing tell us? Why in recent years has the history of hysterical disorders carried such resonance for commentators in the sciences and humanities and beyond? What can we learn from the textual tradition of hysteria about writing the history of disease in general? What is the broader social and cultural meaning of the new hysteria studies? In the second half of the book, Micale discusses the many historical “cultures of hysteria.” He reconstructs in detail the past usages of the hysteria concept as a concept, a language, and a powerful, descriptive trope in various nonmedical domains, including poetry, fiction, theater, social thought, political criticism, and the arts. His book is a pioneering attempt to write the historical phenomenology of disease in an age preoccupied with health, and a prescriptive remedy for writing histories of disease in the future.
Beyond the Unconscious: Essays by Henri F. Ellenberger in the History of Psychiatry, edited, translated, and introduced by Mark S. Micale (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993). Henri F. Ellenberger, the Swiss-Canadian medical historian, is best known today as the author of The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry (1970), a 900-page, brilliantly encyclopedic study of psychiatric theory and practice from primitive times to the mid-twentieth century. However, in addition to this well-known magnum opus, the polyglot Ellenberger wrote over thirty essays in the history of psychiatry, psychology, neurology, and psychoanalysis. Mark Micale’s collection unites fourteen of Ellenberger’s most interesting and important essays, many of which draw on new and rich bodies of primary source materials. Several of the articles appear here in English translation for the first time. The essays in Beyond the Unconscious deal with subjects such as the prehistory of psychoanalysis; Freud’s teachers; Jean-Martin Charcot and the French hysteria tradition; the role of “the great patients” in the history of psychiatry, the psychology of the secret, the life and work of Carl Gustav Jung and Hermann Rorschach, and the cultural history of medicine. The publication of these writings, which corresponds with the opening of the Institut Henri Ellenberger in Paris, truly establishes Ellenberger as a founding figure of the historiography of psychiatry Accompanying the essays is an extensive interpretative introduction and a detailed bibliographical essay by the editor.
Discovering the History of Psychiatry, edited and introduced by Mark S. Micale and Roy Porter (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 466 pp. The field of psychiatry has exercised enormous influence in our century, not only among scientists and mental health professionals, but also in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, which shape the cultural life of millions. This vitality has been accompanied by a profusion of historical material. Yet, while rapidly growing, the documented history of psychiatry has been ridden with controversies due to the great variety of interpretive stances and ideological perspectives among writers. This book brings together leading international authorities—physicians, historians, sociologists, and others—who explore the many complex interpretive and ideological dimensions of historical writing about psychiatry. The book includes chapters on histories of the asylum, Freud, anti-psychiatry in the United States and abroad, feminist interpretations of psychiatry’s past, and historical accounts of Nazism and psychotherapy, as well as discussions of many historical figures and movements. Discovering the History of Psychiatry is the first attempt to study comprehensively the multiple mythologies that have grown up around the history of madness and the origins, functions, and validity of these myths in our modern psychological society. The audience includes every person interested in the state of discussion and reflection taking place today in the compelling, powerful sciences of the human mind.
Enlightenment, Passion, Modernity: Historical Essays in European Thought and Culture, edited and introduced by Mark S. Micale and Robert L. Dietle (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2000). During the 1970s and 1980s, the study of intellectual history was often denigrated for its allegedly elitist, canonical, and Eurocentric nature. Today, the situation has changed dramatically. Enriched by the methods and insights of such neighboring areas of inquiry as social history, the history of mentalities, linguistics, anthropology, literary theory, and art history, intellectual and cultural history are today experiencing a renewed vitality. The far-ranging essays in this volume, by an internationally distinguished group of scholars, represent a generous sampling of these new studies. The essays have been written in honor of Yale professor Peter Gay, one of the most prolific, provocative, and influential historians of the twentieth century and a world renowned scholar of European thought and culture. The essays reflect major themes and issues running through Professor Gay’s lifework: The Enlightenment and Its Heritages; Mind and Culture in the Victorian Middle Classes: European Cultural Modernism: Culture, Politics, and Society in Modern Germany; and Freud and the History of Psychoanalysis. The contributors include W. F. Bynum, David Cannadine, Stefan Collini, Robert Darnton, Peter Jelavich, Marion Kaplan, Tom Kohut, Martin Jay, Quentin Skinner, John Toews, Dora Weiner, and Jay Winter.
Traumatic Pasts: History, Psychiatry, and Trauma in the Modern Age, 1870-1930, edited by Mark S. Micale and Paul Lerner (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001). “Trauma” is invoked today to describe a wide range of physical or emotional injuries, from victimization and suffering at the individual level (child and domestic abuse, for example), to the long-term effects of large-scale accidents (Chernobyl), severe natural disasters (the Japanese earthquake and tsunami), and mass cataclysmic events, such as the Holocaust, affecting entire societies over a period of generations. As Traumatic Pasts reveals time and again, trauma turns out to be not an event per se but rather the experiencing or remembering of an event in the mind of an individual or the life of a community. To understand the shifts and layers of the clinical and cultural meaning of trauma is to understand the very struggle of modern societies to comprehend and cope with life in a violent, chaotic, ceaselessly changing world. This book offers a unique, historical exploration of trauma in Europe and America from the 1870s, when trauma first began to take on psychological in addition to physical and medical definitions, through the 1930s, spanning the decades most associated with modernity. The authors cover the overlapping political, cultural, medical, and military approaches to mental trauma within the context of four distinct developments: the spread of railroads during the last quarter of the nineteenth century; the introduction of accident insurance and the early welfare state beginning in the 1880s; the rise of modern psychological psychiatry around the turn of the century; and the First World War and its myriad social and cultural aftermaths. The advent of railway accidents, new industrial technologies and related work accidents, female sexual trauma, and shell shock resulting from the anonymous, technological warfare of the early twentieth century are all featured here as windows onto the critical intersection of trauma, science, and social change. Micale’s and Lerner’s volume provides a generous sampling of the best of the new historical scholarship about trauma, indicating the empirical, analytical, and historiographical scope of this new work and presenting the important conceptual and methodological issues inherent in writing about the subject. One of the most influential works on psychological trauma in the past generation, Traumatic Pasts operates on the assumption that the historical humanities have something important to say about trauma; its essays may be read in part as attempts to introduce a deep historical dimension into present-day debates and controversies.