Most Popular Books by Robert Griffin

The pioneering tank crew of the First World War would be astonished by the advances made in the design of armoured fighting vehicles over the last 100 years which have resulted in the Challenger 2, the current main battle tank in service with the British army. In terms of its speed, manoeuvrability and firepower, and the protection it provides for its crew, the Challenger 2 is one of the most advanced and sophisticated tanks ever built, and it is a popular subject with tank modellers and enthusiasts. That is why this volume in the TankCraft series on the Challenger, featuring hundreds of photographs and specially commissioned colour profiles, is absorbing reading and such a valuable work of reference.Archive photos of the Challenger 2 in service and extensively researched colour profile illustrations depict the tank throughout its operational life. A large part of the book showcases available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented by a gallery of beautifully constructed and painted models in various scales. Technical details as well as modifications introduced during production and in the field are also examined and provide everything the modeller needs to recreate an accurate representation of the Challenger 2.

A fully illustrated and historically informative guide to building scale models of the U.S. Army’s iconic Cold War main battle tank. The M48 Patton main battle tank was one of the longest-serving and most successful designs in the U.S. military. A significant advance from the Sherman and M47, the M48 formed the backbone of American armored forces during the early years of the Cold War. It saw combat in Vietnam, during the Indo-Pakistan wars and in the Middle East, especially during the Iran-Iraq War. Archive photos of the M48 in service and extensively researched color profile illustrations depict the tank throughout its operational life. A large part of the book showcases available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented by a gallery of beautifully constructed and painted models in various scales. Technical details as well as modifications introduced during production and in the field are also examined and provide everything the modeler needs to recreate an accurate representation of the M48.

The Royal Armoured Corps composition may have changed dramatically during the four and a half decades of The Cold War but its role in the nations defence has been predominant. This highly informative book focuses on the deployment of the British Armys armoured regiments from the end of the Second World War, their vehicles and equipment, the creation of the British Army of the Rhine, NATO commitments and other peripheral missions. The characteristics and variants of the Centurion, the powerful but short lived Conqueror, the Chieftain and Challenger are covered in expert text and by numerous images. The RAC in the Cold War is a tribute to the men who served in these famous regiment and their stories make fascinating reading.

Mischka''s Tale is the story not only of the adventures of a singer named Mischka and of his life in the land of Thallhiar, but of the power of love, of truth and of music to change the world. The story begins in the rough northern hills, where Mischka''s father is a shepherd and his mother a weaver of coarse cloth. But even in these difficult circumstances, Mischka and his siblings are drawn into a love of music, fostered by a wandering harpist who visits their holding, strengthened in the songs they sing together. Music becomes his livelihood and more: it is the center of his life, shared with his wife and children and with a world that is enriched by the music he creates. It is a force of nature and a force in nature, both beautiful and terrible. In this world, music is a power that can wound and that can heal, that can protect and that can destroy. In this world, life is not simple, however beautiful it may be. Love for his wife, Ferenth, for his family and his friends, for the world in which he lives is the well-spring of Mischka''s music. But his love for Ferenth drives Mischka to the vale of the wraiths when she dies. Nature is a living force, visible in the terrible storm that shipwrecks Mischka, in the Beisht uses the power of its voice to turn to stone anyone who cannot answer its questions. It is the world of the Lady, creator and sustainer, at once deeply known and forever veiled.. The world of Mischka''s Tale is not our own. But it is a world in which we may see our own, including those dimensions of meaning and mystery of which we are not always aware.

All that we desire to achieve can all be accomplished with a few mental combinations implemented in our daily routines. The power of consistency is the secret to positive results.

The journey of a man who attended a Jesuit Men''s Silent retreat, once a year, for 5 years in a row.

The Midwife of Bethlehem tells the story of the woman who attended the birth of Jesus. Drawing on apocryphal gospels and legends, the story explores the Christmas story from the point of view of a midwife in a small Judean village at the time of the Roman empire. Through words and pictures, it shows the joy and grief of living in that time, as well as the mystery of birth that is at the heart of the Christmas story.

The Song of Joel, adapted from the chamber opera of the same name by Robert W. Griffin, tells the story of a young man of Biblical times. Joel, who appears in the two earlier books of this series, The Song of Simeon and the Song of Miriam, has witnessed the destruction of the community of Qumran and returns home to his family in the Judean mountains. There, with the help of his sister Miriam and her family, he recovers the hope and love that he had lost.

A recently published biography of the famous portraitist W.W. Gilchrist reveals thirty-six watercolors discovered in Gilchrist''s estate. In addition to presenting most of these in color, the author, Robert Griffin, a grandson of the artist, has crafted a personal and intimate story of Gilchrist''s life gleaned from letters, scrapbooks, long talks with the painter''s now deceased son, and articles appearing in an old weekly newspaper in Brunswick, Maine during the last eleven years of Gilchrist''s life. An appendix lists every known exhibition and the paintings in each. The book also includes over seventy-five reproductions, mostly in color, to give the art lover a feel for Gilchrists''s rich use of color and his exquisite taste in choice of subjects. Art lovers and art dealers, art historians and art critics will find this slender volume not only essential for reference but also rewarding reading about a man who struggled for years with heart disease but who nevertheless achieved a level of competence and beauty which places him on a par with the first tier of American painters.

Demographics are not destiny, but steady and predictable changes to the electorate play an important role in defining the landscape of American politics. Just as the country’s population has changed substantially over the last several decades—growing older, more educated, and more racially diverse—we expect those changes to continue over the next several decades. In this 2020 report, we update our electoral scenarios in several important ways. First, we have produced a new set of underlying demographic projections for the nation and all 50 states plus the District of Columbia based on the latest census data. These projections trace the probable path of demographic change across the country—both for the population as a whole and, importantly, for eligible voters. Second, we have explicitly incorporated gender into our projections and scenarios for the first time. This is not because the population distribution between men and women is likely to change but because gender has become a more prominent dividing line in vote behavior both overall and within many demographic groups. Finally, and most importantly, we have included generations in our partitioning of the electorate and built electoral simulations that explicitly grapple with narratives about the likely evolution of generational cohorts over the next several decades.

This dissertation investigates the environmental imagination of mid-nineteenth-century Americans, studying ideas about the natural world during a transformative period in which technological innovation revolutionised how Americans interacted with nature on the land, in the factory, and on the rails. The historiographical consensus holds that these developments fuelled Americans" belief that nature had become alienated from humanity, a savage realm to be civilised by new technologies. By studying the ways in which ideas about nature intersected with mid-nineteenth-century political culture, my research tells a different story, one in which a firm belief in the interconnections between humans and nature was central. In investigating sources such as newspapers, Congressional records, and personal correspondence, I show that Americans drew upon the latest scientific research to position their society in dialogue with the natural world, rather than alienated from it. While there was a clear awareness that technological innovation expanded human agency, the belief that human bodies and societies were subject to powerful environmental forces and should be brought into line with natural laws was pervasive. I trace how this conviction fed into a nexus of environmental ideas that underlay the dynamics of power at the heart of mid-nineteenth-century American politics, conditioning how Americans approached crucial political questions. Through a series of thematic chapters, my dissertation shows that political debates surrounding identities, expansion, trade, slavery, and emancipation were the products of diverging interpretations of what these natural forces and laws were and how best to construct policies in light of them. In short, the environmental imagination helps explain how and why mid-nineteenth-century Americans shaped and reshaped their world in the ways that they did.

Five modern training concepts--priority of the objective, quality control, the systems approach, automation, and cost-effectiveness--are outlined and evaluated for implications that might be useful in education. Training refers here to the arrangement of situations so that the student learns performances required in specific, definable situations, usually a job. Education, on the other hand, refers to preparing the individual for a wide variety of future situations, including life outside the confines of the job situation. It is clear that there are more constraints in education than in training; yet these training concepts indicate the directions that educational innovation should take. (Author).

The need for a quality control system in a military training program and methods of establishing such a unit are described and evaluated in this report, which is part of a research project in the technology for developing training. It is stated that the purpose of quality control is to ensure a satisfactory standard of competence among the students who graduate, to maintain this quality by a continuous monitoring process, and to improve training where it is found to be deficient. In order to function successfully, a quality control system should constitute a separate unit, independent of but cooperating with the instructional departments. Attention is given to proficiency testing as the chief means of measuring the success of the training program, with emphasis upon the importance of a uniform standard and consistent method in the preparation, administration, and scoring of tests. (Author).