Barbara Frank is a writer, editor, and former newspaper reporter whose work has appeared in various family and educational publications. Having homeschooled her four children from birth through high school, she imbues her writing with extensive experience and insight. Her work draws on a deep understanding of family life and education. Frank's background provides a unique perspective on the topics she explores.
Medieval theological ideas had an important influence on later philosophy. This book explores the legacy of these ideas and shows how key figures including Carnap, Russell, Quine, Hegel, Derrida, Benjamin, and McDowell were influenced by them yet also sought to escape from them.
Griot Potters of the Folona reconstructs the past of a renowned group of West African women potters using evidence found in their artistry and techniques. The potters of the Folona region of southeastern Mali are entirely women, serving a diverse clientele and firing thousands of pots weekly during the height of the dry season. The unique styles and types of objects the Folona women make, and more importantly, the way they form and fire them, are fundamentally different from Mande potters to the north and west. Through a brilliant comparative analysis of pottery production methods across the region, especially how the pots are formed and the way the techniques are taught by mothers to daughters, Barbara Frank concludes that the potters of the Folona very likely came from the south and east, marrying wandering griots (West African leatherworkers who were storytellers or musicians), as they made their way north. While the women may have nominally given up their mothers' identities through marriage, over the generations the potters preserved their maternal heritage through their technological style, passing this knowledge on to their daughters.