| Search | About | Preferences | Interact | Help | |
| 150 million books. 1 search engine. | ||
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Age of Innocence'
Winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, The Age of Innocence is an elegant, masterful portrait of desire and betrayal in old New York. With vivid power, Wharton evokes a time of gaslit streets, formal dances held in the ballrooms of stately brownstones, and society people "who dreaded scandal more than disease." This is Newland Archer's world as he prepares to many the docile May Welland. Then, suddenly, the mysterious, intensely nonconformist Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after a long absence, turning Archer's world upside down.
This classic Wharton tale of thwarted love is an exuberantly comic and profoundly moving look at the passions of the human heart, as well as a literary achievement of the highest order. [via]
More editions of The Age of Innocence:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Along the Edge of America'
In the past, Peter Jenkins' explorations (The Walk West, A Walk Across America, The Road Unseen) have been confined to land, but now Jenkins takes to the watery edge of the Gulf Coast, traveling in a 25-foot cruiser from the Florida Keys to Texas cattle country. Jenkins's riveting storytelling is all the more fascinating because his adventure is not just a paean to dare-devil accomplishments. Jenkins explains from the start that this trip was meant to renew the confidence he'd had before a bad divorce laid him low. But while he rediscovers his zest for life, he also learns how to operate a boat, navigate a storm, and avoid getting hijacked--all the while sharing the stories of the individuals he meets, from the alligator-wrestling Parker brothers to Mr. James Bloodworth and Bloodworth's Drugstore, where you can still get a hand-scooped milkshake for $1.15. Jenkins relates a great tale, with honesty, humor, and a fine ear for language. [via]
More editions of Along the Edge of America:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table'
More editions of The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Beat Book'
Here is an unusually diverse collection of Beat voices, including not only Kerouac, Burroughs, and Ginsberg, but Amiri Baraka, Gregory Corso, Diane di Prima, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joanne Kyger, Michael McClure, Peter Orlovsky, Gary Snyder, and Philip Whalen. Also included are short biographies of the writers and a "Literary Guide to Beat Places" around the world. [via]
More editions of The Beat Book:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Beat Book : Poems and Fiction from the Beat Generation'
More editions of The Beat Book : Poems and Fiction from the Beat Generation:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Beloved'
Toni Morrison gently reads her own Pulitzer Prize-winning work in the unabridged version of this riveting tale of ex-slave Sethe and the beloved ghost that haunts her. While Morrison makes occasional odd pauses in her reading, what is lost in smoothness is more than made up for in quiet intensity as the author reads words obviously deeply felt. Her intimate knowledge of the characters and their motivations lends this reading an authority that helps the listener sort out the breaks in time and dialogue in this complex story of a woman coming to terms with her enslaved past and the loss of her husband and baby daughter. (Running time: 12 hours, eight cassettes) --Kimberly Heinrichs [via]
More editions of Beloved:

› Find signed collectible books: 'A Black And White Case: How Affirmative Action Survived Its Greatest Legal Challenge'
More editions of A Black And White Case: How Affirmative Action Survived Its Greatest Legal Challenge:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self'
The Civil Rights movement brought author Alice Walker and lawyer Mel Leventhal together, and in 1969 their daughter, Rebecca, was born. Some saw this unusual copper-colored girl as an outrage or an oddity; others viewed her as a symbol of harmony, a triumph of love over hate. But after her parents divorced, leaving her a lonely only child ferrying between two worlds that only seemed to grow further apart, Rebecca was no longer sure what she represented. In this book, Rebecca Leventhal Walker attempts to define herself as a soul instead of a symboland offers a new look at the challenge of personal identity, in a story at once strikingly unique and truly universal.
More editions of Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Bomb the Suburbs'
More editions of Bomb the Suburbs:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Bonesetter's Daughter'
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. [via]
More editions of The Bonesetter's Daughter:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Buccaneers'
More editions of The Buccaneers:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Cherokee'
More editions of The Cherokee:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture And Its Return to Roots'
When a National Review colleague teased writer Rod Dreher one day about his visit to the local food co-op to pick up a weeks supply of organic vegetables (Ewww, thats so lefty), he started thinking about the ways he and his conservative family lived that put them outside the bounds of conventional Republican politics. Shortly thereafter Dreher wrote an essay about crunchy cons, people whose Small Is Beautiful style of conservative politics often put them at odds with GOP orthodoxy, and sometimes even in the same camp as lefties outside the Democratic mainstream. The response to the article was impassioned: Dreher was deluged by e-mails from conservatives across Americaeveryone from a pro-life vegetarian Buddhist Republican to an NRA staffer with a passion for organic gardeningwho responded to say, Hey, me too!
In Crunchy Cons, Dreher reports on the amazing depth and scope of this phenomenon, which is redefining the taxonomy of Americas political and cultural landscape. At a time when the Republican party, and the conservative movement in general, is bitterly divided over what it means to be a conservative, Dreher introduces us to people who are pioneering a way back to the future by reclaiming whats best in conservatismpeople who believe that being a truly committed conservative today means protecting the environment, standing against the depredations of big business, returning to traditional religion, and living out conservative godfather Russell Kirks teaching that the family is the institution most necessary to preserve.
In these pages we meet crunchy cons from all over America: a Texas clan of evangelical Christian free-range livestock farmers, the policy director of Republicans for Environmental Protection, homeschooling moms in New York City, an Orthodox Jew who helped start a kosher organic farm in the Berkshires, and an ex-sixties hippie from Alabama who became a devout Catholic without losing his antiestablishment sensibilities.
Crunchy Cons is both a useful primer to living the crunchy con way and a passionate affirmation of those things that give our lives weight and measure. In chapters dedicated to food, religion, consumerism, education, and the environment, Dreher shows how to live in a way that preserves what Kirk called the permanent things, among them faith, family, community, and a legacy of ancient truths. This, says Dreher, is the kind of roots conservatism that more and more Americans want to practice. And in Crunchy Cons, he lets them know how far they are from being alone.
A Crunchy Con Manifesto
1. We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.
2. Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.
3. Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.
4. Culture is more important than politics and economics.
5. A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardshipespecially of the natural worldis not fundamentally conservative.
6. Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.
7. Beauty is more important than efficiency.
8. The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.
9. We share Russell Kirks conviction that the institution most essential to conserve is the family.
From the Hardcover edition. [via]
More editions of Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture And Its Return to Roots:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Right-Wing Nature Lovers, and Their'
When a National Review colleague teased writer Rod Dreher one day about his visit to the local food co-op to pick up a weeks supply of organic vegetables (Ewww, thats so lefty), he started thinking about the ways he and his conservative family lived that put them outside the bounds of conventional Republican politics. Shortly thereafter Dreher wrote an essay about crunchy cons, people whose Small Is Beautiful style of conservative politics often put them at odds with GOP orthodoxy, and sometimes even in the same camp as lefties outside the Democratic mainstream. The response to the article was impassioned: Dreher was deluged by e-mails from conservatives across Americaeveryone from a pro-life vegetarian Buddhist Republican to an NRA staffer with a passion for organic gardeningwho responded to say, Hey, me too!
In Crunchy Cons, Dreher reports on the amazing depth and scope of this phenomenon, which is redefining the taxonomy of Americas political and cultural landscape. At a time when the Republican party, and the conservative movement in general, is bitterly divided over what it means to be a conservative, Dreher introduces us to people who are pioneering a way back to the future by reclaiming whats best in conservatismpeople who believe that being a truly committed conservative today means protecting the environment, standing against the depredations of big business, returning to traditional religion, and living out conservative godfather Russell Kirks teaching that the family is the institution most necessary to preserve.
In these pages we meet crunchy cons from all over America: a Texas clan of evangelical Christian free-range livestock farmers, the policy director of Republicans for Environmental Protection, homeschooling moms in New York City, an Orthodox Jew who helped start a kosher organic farm in the Berkshires, and an ex-sixties hippie from Alabama who became a devout Catholic without losing his antiestablishment sensibilities.
Crunchy Cons is both a useful primer to living the crunchy con way and a passionate affirmation of those things that give our lives weight and measure. In chapters dedicated to food, religion, consumerism, education, and the environment, Dreher shows how to live in a way that preserves what Kirk called the permanent things, among them faith, family, community, and a legacy of ancient truths. This, says Dreher, is the kind of roots conservatism that more and more Americans want to practice. And in Crunchy Cons, he lets them know how far they are from being alone.
A Crunchy Con Manifesto
1. We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.
2. Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.
3. Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.
4. Culture is more important than politics and economics.
5. A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardshipespecially of the natural worldis not fundamentally conservative.
6. Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.
7. Beauty is more important than efficiency.
8. The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.
9. We share Russell Kirks conviction that the institution most essential to conserve is the family. [via]
More editions of Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Right-Wing Nature Lovers, and Their:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Culture Shock: USA'
› Find signed collectible books: 'Democracy And Education'
Addresses the challenge of providing quality public education in a democratic society. [via]
More editions of Democracy And Education:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Domestic Manners of the Americans'
This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. [via]
More editions of Domestic Manners of the Americans:

› Find signed collectible books: 'East to America: Korean American Life Stories'
More editions of East to America: Korean American Life Stories:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter'
In his fourth book, Everything Bad Is Good for You, iconoclastic science writer Steven Johnson (who used himself as a test subject for the latest neurological technology in his last book, Mind Wide Open) takes on one of the most widely held preconceptions of the postmodern world--the belief that video games, television shows, and other forms of popular entertainment are detrimental to Americans' cognitive and moral development. Everything Good builds a case to the contrary that is engaging, thorough, and ultimately convincing.
The heart of Johnson's argument is something called the Sleeper Curve--a universe of popular entertainment that trends, intellectually speaking, ever upward, so that today's pop-culture consumer has to do more "cognitive work"--making snap decisions and coming up with long-term strategies in role-playing video games, for example, or mastering new virtual environments on the Internet-- than ever before. Johnson makes a compelling case that even today's least nutritional TV junk foodthe Joe Millionaires and Survivors so commonly derided as evidence of America's cultural decline--is more complex and stimulating, in terms of plot complexity and the amount of external information viewers need to understand them, than the Love Boats and I Love Lucys that preceded it. When it comes to television, even (perhaps especially) crappy television, Johnson argues, "the content is less interesting than the cognitive work the show elicits from your mind."
Johnson's work has been controversial, as befits a writer willing to challenge wisdom so conventional it has ossified into accepted truth. But even the most skeptical readers should be captivated by the intriguing questions Johnson raises, whether or not they choose to accept his answers. --Erica C. Barnett [via]
More editions of Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Pop Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Extraordinary Groups: An Examination of Unconventional Lifestyles'
More editions of Extraordinary Groups: An Examination of Unconventional Lifestyles:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Failures Of Integration: How Race and Class Are Undermining the American Dream'
Published for the fiftieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education: If "separate, but equal" has been illegal for fifty years, why is America more segregated than ever?. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously declared that separate educational facilities for blacks and whites are inherently "unequal" and, as such, violate the 14th Amendment. The landmark decision, Brown v. Board of Education , sounded the death knell for legal segregation, but fifty years later, de facto segregation in America thrives. And Sheryll Cashin believes that it is getting worse. The Failures of Integration is a provocative look at how segregation by race and class is ruining American democracy. Only a small minority of the affluent are truly living the American Dream, complete with attractive, job-rich suburbs, reasonably low taxes, good public schools, and little violent crime. For the remaining majority of Americans, segregation comes with stratospheric costs. In a society that sets up "winner" and "loser" communities and schools defined by race and class, racial minorities in particular are locked out of the "winner" column. African-Americans bear the heaviest burden. Cashin argues that we n [via]
More editions of The Failures Of Integration: How Race and Class Are Undermining the American Dream:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fate of America: An Inquiry into National Character'
More editions of The Fate of America: An Inquiry into National Character:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, And the Women Who Made America Modern'
Blithely flinging aside the victorian manners that kept her disapproving mother corseted, the new woman of the 1920s puffed cigarettes, snuck gin, hiked her hemlines, danced the charleston, and necked in roadsters. More important, she earned her own keep, controlled her own destiny, and secured liberties that modern women take for granted. Her newfound freedom heralded a radical change in american culture.whisking us from the alabama country club where zelda sayre first caught the eye of f. Scott fitzgerald to muncie, indiana, where would-be flappers begged their mothers for silk stockings, to the manhattan speakeasies where patrons partied till daybreak, historian joshua zeitz brings the era to exhilarating life. This is the story of america's first sexual revolution, its first merchants of cool, its first celebrities, and its most sparkling advertisement for the right to pursue happiness.the men and women who made the flapper were a diverse lot. There was coco chanel, the french orphan who redefined the feminine form and silhouette, helping to free women from the torturous corsets and crinolines that had served as tools of social control. Three thousand miles away, lois long, the daughter of a connecticut clergyman, christened herself "lipstick" and gave new yorker readers a thrilling entrée into manhattan's extravagant jazz age nightlife.in california, where orange groves gave way to studio lots and fairytale mansions, three of america's first celebrities-clara bow, colleen moore, and louise brooks, hollywood's great flapper triumvirate-fired the imaginations of millions of filmgoers.dallas-born fashion artist gordon conway and utah-born cartoonist john held crafted magazine covers that captured the electricity of the social revolution sweeping the united states. [via]
More editions of Flapper: A Madcap Story Of Sex, Style, Celebrity, And The Women Who Made America Modern:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Freedom Road: Adult Education of African Americans'
More editions of Freedom Road: Adult Education of African Americans:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Generation of Vipers'
More editions of Generation of Vipers:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank'
More editions of The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Hard America, Soft America: Competition Vs. Coddling and the Battle for the Nation's Future'
More editions of Hard America, Soft America: Competition Vs. Coddling and the Battle for the Nation's Future:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hard Times'
First published in 1970, this classic of oral history features the voices of men and women who lived through the Great Depression of the 1930s. It includes accounts by congressmen C. Wright Patman and Hamilton Fish, as well as failed presidential candidate Alf M. Landon, who recalls what it was like to be governor of Kansas in 1933:
Men with tears in their eyes begged for an appointment that would help save their homes and farms. I couldn't see them all in my office. But I never let one of them leave without my coming out and shakin' hands with 'em. I listened to all their stories, each one of 'em. But it was obvious I couldn't take care of all their terrible needs.The book includes also the perspectives of ordinary men and women, such as Jim Sheridan, who took part in the 1932 march by World War I veterans to petition for their benefits in Washington, D.C., where they were repelled by army troops led by General Douglas MacArthur. Or Edward Santander, who was a child then: "My first memories come about '31. It was simply a gut issue then: eating or not eating, living or not living." Studs Terkel makes history come alive, drawing out experiences and emotions from his interviewees to the degree few have ever been able to match. [via]
More editions of Hard Times:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Having Our Say'
"I never thought I'd see the day that the world would want to hear what two old Negro women have to say," says Bessie Delany. But Bessie and her sister, Sadie, born in 1893 and 1891, saw plenty, by eating a low-fat, high-vegetable diet and outliving the "old Rebby [rebel] boys" who once almost lynched Sadie. This remarkable memoir was a long-running bestseller, spawning a Broadway play and adding to their list of seasoned acquaintances (Marian Anderson, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Cab Calloway) such spring chickens as Hillary Clinton. Born to a former slave whose owners broke the law by teaching him to read, the sisters got a solid education. North Carolina was paradise--despite the Rebbies--until Jim Crow reared its hideous head. The girls had loved to ride in the front of the trolley because the wind in their hair made them feel free, but one day the conductor sadly ordered them to the back. The family moved to New York, where Bessie became the town's second black woman dentist and Sadie the first black woman home-ec teacher. They befriended everyone who was anyone in the Harlem Renaissance (their brother won the 1925 Congressional primary there), pursued careers instead of husbands, and lived peacefully together, despite their differences. Sadie was more peaceable, like Booker T. Washington, while Bessie was a W.E.B. Du Bois-style militant.
They're funny: Bessie notes that blacks must be sharp to get ahead, "But if you're average and white, honey, you can go far. Just look at Dan Quayle. If that boy was colored he'd be washing dishes somewhere." And they are wise: Sadie says, "Life is short, and it's up to you to make it sweet." [via]
More editions of Having Our Say:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Hidden Persuaders'
"One of the best books around for demystifying the deliberately mysterious arts of advertising."--Salon
"Fascinating, entertaining and thought-stimulating."--The New York Times Book Review
"A brisk, authoritative and frightening report on how manufacturers, fundraisers and politicians are attempting to turn the American mind into a kind of catatonic dough that will buy, give or vote at their command--The New Yorker
Originally published in 1957 and now back in print to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, The Hidden Persuaders is Vance Packards pioneering and prescient work revealing how advertisers use psychological methods to tap into our unconscious desires in order to "persuade" us to buy the products they are selling.
A classic examination of how our thoughts and feelings are manipulated by business, media and politicians, The Hidden Persuaders was the first book to expose the hidden world of motivation research, the psychological technique that advertisers use to probe our minds in order to control our actions as consumers. Through analysis of products, political campaigns and television programs of the 1950s, Packard shows how the insidious manipulation practices that have come to dominate todays corporate-driven world began. Featuring an introduction by Mark Crispin Miller, The Hidden Persuaders has sold over one million copies, and forever changed the way we look at the world of advertising.
Vance Packard (1914-1996) was an American journalist, social critic, and best-selling author. Among his other books were The Status Seekers, which described American social stratification and behavior, The Waste Makers, which criticizes planned obsolescence, and The Naked Society, about the threats to privacy posed by new technologies.
More editions of The Hidden Persuaders:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times'
While American military forces seek to defeat an enemy that has no nation and American citizens ponder a future inextricably linked to the threat of terrorism, legendary writer Studs Terkel steps forward with a remarkable volume of oral histories that sheds new light on fighting for a just cause in uncertain times. As the title of Hope Dies Last suggests, Terkel's interviews all deal with the notion of finding hope in difficult times and holding on to that hope (of a better job, a better life, justice, peace) despite often overwhelming odds. Terkel draws his subjects from an incredibly broad range of backgrounds: pardoned Illinois death row inmate Leroy Orange discusses the events of his life, 94-year-old famed economist John Kenneth Galbraith talks about Enron, undocumented Guatemalans tell of trying to merely survive in modern America. While each testimonial is compelling in its own way, they combine to form a mosaic of human tenacity. Often, as in the case of 1960s civil rights activists, the subjects' ideas are accepted in the long run, for others, including a resident of Chicago's Cabrini Green housing project, the struggle is only just beginning. Terkel, 91 years old at the time of this book's publication, draws from a wealth of human experience but is spry enough to take on new causes and skillfully profile youthful activists with emerging causes. And Hope Dies Last is still a Studs Terkel book, full of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author's brand of blue-collar, rabble-rousing, union-card-waving brand of broad shouldered Chicago liberalism that makes the current wave of political writers seem a bit green and petty by comparison. For all of their success in selling books that accuse one another of being liars and idiots, those writers would do well to get out and meet even a few of the people that Studs Terkel has been talking to for years. --John Moe [via]
More editions of Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hope Dies Last: Keeping The Faith In Troubled Times'
The latest oral history from the unrivaled master of the genre.
Hope Dies Last is Studs Terkel's inspiring new oral history of social action in America. An alternative, more personal history of the "American century," Hope Dies Last forms a legacy of the indefatigable spirit that Studs has always embodied, and an inheritance for those who, by taking a stand, are making concrete the dreams of today.
For Terkel, these interviews represent a change that has taken place in the last few years of uncertainty in America. From a doctor who teaches his young students compassion, to the now-retired brigadier general who flew the Enola Gay over Hiroshima, these interviews tell us much about the power of the American dream and the force of individuals who hope for a better world. Terkel's subjects express with grace and warmth their secret hopes and dreams, combining to tell an inspiring story of optimism and persistence that resonates with the eloquence of conviction. [via]
More editions of Hope Dies Last: Keeping The Faith In Troubled Times:
› Find signed collectible books: 'How We Think'
1910. Dewey, Professor of Philosophy in Columbia University writes: Our schools are troubled with a multiplication of studies, each in turn having its own multiplication of materials and principles. Our teachers find their tasks made heavier in that they have come to deal with pupils individually and not merely in mass. Unless these steps in advance are to end in distraction, some clue of unity, some principle that makes for simplification must be found. This book represents the conviction that the needed steadying and centralizing factor is found in adopting as the end of endeavor that attitude of mind, that habit of thought, which we call scientific. This scientific attitude of mind might, conceivably, be quite irrelevant to teaching children and youth. But this book also represents the conviction that such is not the case; that the native and unspoiled attitude of childhood, marked by ardent curiosity, fertile imagination, and love of experimental inquiry is near, very near, to the attitude of the scientific mind. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. [via]
More editions of How We Think:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Idyll Banter: Weekly Excursions to a Very Small Town'
More editions of Idyll Banter: Weekly Excursions to a Very Small Town:
› Find signed collectible books: 'If It Weren't for the Honor-I'd Rather Have Walked: Previously Untold Tales of the Journey to the Ada'
Jan Little tells her story with a full measure of courage and vinegar. This is an inspiring book about conquering adversity. [via]
More editions of If It Weren't for the Honor-I'd Rather Have Walked: Previously Untold Tales of the Journey to the Ada:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Infamous Scribblers: The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism'
More editions of Infamous Scribblers: The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Letters to Father Aristotle: A Journey Through Contemporary American Orthodoxy'
More editions of Letters to Father Aristotle: A Journey Through Contemporary American Orthodoxy:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong'
Little seems to delight historian James W. Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me, more than picking apart the cherished myths of American history. Few Americans study history after high school--instead, Loewen writes, they turn to novels and Oliver Stone movies to learn about the past. And they turn to the landscape, to roadside historical markers, guidebooks, museums, and tours of battlefields, childhood homes, and massacre sites. If you were to trust those sources, Loewen suggests, you would learn, erroneously, that the first airplane flight took place not at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, but at Pittsburg, Texas. "It must be true--an impressive-looking Texas state historical marker says so!" Loewen chortles.
In these entertaining pages, Loewen takes a region-by-region tour of the United States, pointing out historical oddments as he travels. For example, a massacre of white pioneers by Indians commemorated in Almo, Idaho, never took place, Loewen continues; neither did many other such events. Indeed, he insists, "throughout the entire West between 1842 and 1859, of more than 400,000 pioneers crossing the plains, fewer than 400, or less than .1 percent, were killed by American Indians." And if you were to visit Helen Keller's Georgia birthplace, over which a Confederate flag flies, you would get the impression that Keller had been an unreconstructed daughter of the Old South, whereas she was in fact an early supporter of the NAACP. And so on.
After finishing Loewen's alternately angry and bemused exposé, readers will likely never trust a roadside historical marker or tour guide again--which may prompt them to turn to history books to check things out for themselves. As well they should. --Gregory McNamee [via]
More editions of Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong:

› Find signed collectible books: 'A Man Without a Country'
More editions of A Man Without a Country:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy'
How can you join the ranks of America's wealthy (defined as people whose net worth is over one million dollars)? It's easy, say doctors Stanley and Danko, who have spent the last 20 years interviewing members of this elite club: you just have to follow seven simple rules. The first rule is, always live well below your means. The last rule is, choose your occupation wisely. You'll have to buy the book to find out the other five. It's only fair. The authors' conclusions are commonsensical. But, as they point out, their prescription often flies in the face of what we think wealthy people should do. There are no pop stars or athletes in this book, but plenty of wall-board manufacturers--particularly ones who take cheap, infrequent vacations! Stanley and Danko mercilessly show how wealth takes sacrifice, discipline, and hard work, qualities that are positively discouraged by our high-consumption society. "You aren't what you drive," admonish the authors. Somewhere, Benjamin Franklin is smiling. [via]
More editions of Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Mr. Bridge'
More editions of Mr. Bridge:

› Find signed collectible books: 'On the Real Side: A History of African American Comedy'
More editions of On the Real Side: A History of African American Comedy:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Paper Lion'
More editions of Paper Lion:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety'
The old adage is especially true for Perfect Madness: don't judge this eminently readable book by its stern and academic-looking cover. Judith Warner's missive on the "Mommy Mystique" can be read in a weekend, if readers have the time. Of course--according to the book--many would-be readers will have to carve out the hours in between an endless sea of child-enriching activities, a soul-sucking swirl that leads many mothers into a well of despair. Warner's book seeks to answer the question, "Why are today's young mothers so stressed out?" Whether shuttling kids to "enriching" after-school activities or worrying about the quality of available child care, the women of Perfect Madness describe a life far out of balance. Warner spends most of the book explaining how things got to this point, and what can be done to restore some sanity to the parenting process.
Warner draws her research from a group of 20- to 40-year-old, upper-middle-class, college-educated women living in the East Coast corridor. In other words, mirror images of Warner herself. Her limited scope has caused controversy and criticism, as have some of her more sweeping statements. (For example, Warner blames second-wave feminism--rather than corporate culture--for the many limitations women still experience as they try to balance the work-family dynamic.) Other favorite targets include the mainstream media, detached fathers, and controlling, "hyperactive" mothers who create impossible standards for themselves, their children, and the community of other parents around them. Warner begins and ends the book with a compelling argument for the need for more societal support of mothers--quality-of-life government "entitlements" such as those found in France. It's these big-picture issues that will provide the solution, she says, even if most mothers don't want to discuss them because they consider the topic "tacky, strident-sounding, not the point." In these sections on governmental policy, and also when she steps back, encouraging women to be kinder to each other, the author's warmth comes across easily on the page. Pilloried by some readers and supported by others, Warner should at least be applauded for opening up the Pandora's Box of American motherhood for a new generation. And if readers are of two minds about the issues raised Perfect Madness, as Warner sometimes seems to be herself, it's a fitting reaction to a topic with few easy answers. --Jennifer Buckendorff END [via]
More editions of Perfect Madness: Motherhood In The Age Of Anxiety:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Promised Land'
More editions of Promised Land:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Reflections of a Culture Broker: A View from the Smithsonian'
More editions of Reflections of a Culture Broker: A View from the Smithsonian:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Reviving Ophelia'
At adolescence, says Mary Pipher, "girls become 'female impersonators' who fit their whole selves into small, crowded spaces." Many lose spark, interest, and even IQ points as a "girl-poisoning" society forces a choice between being shunned for staying true to oneself and struggling to stay within a narrow definition of female. Pipher's alarming tales of a generation swamped by pain may be partly informed by her role as a therapist who sees troubled children and teens, but her sketch of a tougher, more menacing world for girls often hits the mark. She offers some prescriptions for changing society and helping girls resist. [via]
More editions of Reviving Ophelia:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Right Nation: Conservative Power In America'
With a unique blend of insight, balance, and wit, two of our most renowned America watchers brilliantly anatomize the conservative movement and explain how it has stamped its program so deeply into American life.
The Right Nation is not "for" liberals, and it's not "for" conservatives. It's for any of us who want to understand one of the most important forces shaping American life. How did America's government become so much more conservative in just a generation? Compared to Europe-or to America under Richard Nixon-even President Howard Dean would preside over a distinctly more conservative nation in many crucial respects: welfare is gone; the death penalty is deeply rooted; abortion is under siege; regulations are being rolled back; the pillars of New Deal liberalism are turning to sand. Conservative positions have not prevailed everywhere, of course, but this book shows us why they've been so successfully advanced over such a broad front: because the battle has been waged by well-organized, shrewd, and committed troops who to some extent have been lucky in their enemies.
John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, like modern-day Tocquevilles, have the perspective to see this vast subject in the round, unbeholden to forces on either side. They steer The Economist's coverage of the United States and have unrivaled access to resources and-because of the magazine's renown for iconoclasm and analytical rigor-have had open-door access wherever the book's research has led them. And it has led them everywhere: To reckon with the American right, you have to get out there where its centers are and understand the power flow among the brain trusts, the mouthpieces, the organizers, and the foot soldiers. The authors write with wit and skewer whole herds of sacred cows, but they also bring empathy to bear on a subject that sees all too little of it. You won't recognize this America from the far-left's or the far-right's caricatures. Divided into three parts-history, anatomy, and prophecy-The Right Nation comes neither to bury the American conservative movement nor to praise it blindly but to understand it, in all its dimensions, as the most powerful and effective political movement of our age. [via]
More editions of The Right Nation: Conservative Power In America:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Right Stuff'
Tom Wolfe began The Right Stuff at a time when it was unfashionable to contemplate American heroism. Nixon had left the White House in disgrace, the nation was reeling from the catastrophe of Vietnam, and in 1979--the year the book appeared--Americans were being held hostage by Iranian militants. Yet it was exactly the anachronistic courage of his subjects that captivated Wolfe. In his foreword, he notes that as late as 1970, almost one in four career Navy pilots died in accidents. "The Right Stuff," he explains, "became a story of why men were willing--willing?--delighted!--to take on such odds in this, an era literary people had long since characterized as the age of the anti-hero."
Wolfe's roots in New Journalism were intertwined with the nonfiction novel that Truman Capote had pioneered with In Cold Blood. As Capote did, Wolfe tells his story from a limited omniscient perspective, dropping into the lives of his "characters" as each in turn becomes a major player in the space program. After an opening chapter on the terror of being a test pilot's wife, the story cuts back to the late 1940s, when Americans were first attempting to break the sound barrier. Test pilots, we discover, are people who live fast lives with dangerous machines, not all of them airborne.
Wolfe traces Alan Shepard's suborbital flight and Gus Grissom's embarrassing panic on the high seas (making the controversial claim that Grissom flooded his Liberty capsule by blowing the escape hatch too soon). The author also produces an admiring portrait of John Glenn's apple-pie heroism and selfless dedication. By the time Wolfe concludes with a return to Yeager and his late-career exploits, the narrative's epic proportions and literary merits are secure. Certainly The Right Stuff is the best, the funniest, and the most vivid book ever written about America's manned space program. --Patrick O'Kelley [via]
More editions of The Right Stuff:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life'
More editions of The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Rise Up Singing: The Group Singing Songbook'
This comprehensive collection has sold tens of thousands of copies around the world. It contains words and guitar chords to nearly 1200 songs, arranged in a compact, easy-to-use format for locating songs and working with groups. You won't find an array of songs like this anywhere else: 'Folk Revival' favorites popularized by Baez, Seeger, Collins, Peter, Paul and Mary, Dylan, Mitchell, Taylor, Donovan, and many others. * The best-known material of contemporary folk songwriters including Near, Staines, Williamson, Rogers, Bok and many more. * Broadway show tunes, Beatles songs, Motown hits * Hymns, spirituals, and gospel standards * Songs about peace, freedom, labor and the environment * Ballads, cowboy songs, shanties and blues [via]
More editions of Rise Up Singing: The Group Singing Songbook:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Route 66 Cookbook'
From Chicago to LA, these are the stories of the best-loved eateries along Route 66. Through memorabilia and recipes these restaurants come to life. [via]
More editions of The Route 66 Cookbook:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Route 66 Cookbook: Comfort Food from the Mother Road'
More editions of The Route 66 Cookbook: Comfort Food from the Mother Road:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Sex and the Single Girl: Before There Was Sex in the City, There Was'
More editions of Sex and the Single Girl: Before There Was Sex in the City, There Was:
› Find signed collectible books: 'She's Come Undone'
Oprah Book Club® Selection, January 1997: "Mine is a story of craving; an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered." So begins the story of Dolores Price, the unconventional heroine of Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone. Dolores is a class-A emotional basket case, and why shouldn't she be? She's suffered almost every abuse and familial travesty that exists: Her father is a violent, philandering liar; her mother has the mental and emotional consistency of Jell-O; and the men in her life are probably the gender's most loathsome creatures. But Dolores is no quitter; she battles her woes with a sense of self-indulgence and gluttony rivaled only by Henry VIII. Hers is a dysfunctional Wonder Years, where growing up in the golden era was anything but ideal. While most kids her age were dealing with the monumental importance of the latest Beatles single and how college turned an older sibling into a long-haired hippie, Dolores was grappling with such issues as divorce, rape, and mental illness. Whether you're disgusted by her antics or moved by her pathetic ploys, you'll be drawn into Dolores's warped, hilarious, Mallomar-munching world. [via]
More editions of She's Come Undone:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Sixties : Art, Politics, and the Media of Our Most Explosive Decade'
More editions of Sixties : Art, Politics, and the Media of Our Most Explosive Decade:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Souls of Black Folk'
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) is the greatest of African American intellectuals--a sociologist, historian, novelist, and activist whose astounding career spanned the nation's history from Reconstruction to the civil rights movement. Born in Massachusetts and educated at Fisk, Harvard, and the University of Berlin, Du Bois penned his epochal masterpiece, The Souls of Black Folk, in 1903. It remains his most studied and popular work; its insights into Negro life at the turn of the 20th century still ring true.
With a dash of the Victorian and Enlightenment influences that peppered his impassioned yet formal prose, the book's largely autobiographical chapters take the reader through the momentous and moody maze of Afro-American life after the Emancipation Proclamation: from poverty, the neoslavery of the sharecropper, illiteracy, miseducation, and lynching, to the heights of humanity reached by the spiritual "sorrow songs" that birthed gospel and the blues. The most memorable passages are contained in "On Booker T. Washington and Others," where Du Bois criticizes his famous contemporary's rejection of higher education and accommodationist stance toward white racism: "Mr. Washington's programme practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races," he writes, further complaining that Washington's thinking "withdraws many of the high demands of Negroes as men and American citizens." The capstone of The Souls of Black Folk, though, is Du Bois' haunting, eloquent description of the concept of the black psyche's "double consciousness," which he described as "a peculiar sensation.... One ever feels this twoness--an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." Thanks to W.E.B. Du Bois' commitment and foresight--and the intellectual excellence expressed in this timeless literary gem--black Americans can today look in the mirror and rejoice in their beautiful black, brown, and beige reflections. --Eugene Holley Jr. [via]
More editions of The Souls of Black Folk:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Southern Nation: The New Rise of the Old South'
More editions of The Southern Nation: The New Rise of the Old South:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Spirit Poles and Flying Pigs: Public Art and Cultural Democracy in American Communities'
More editions of Spirit Poles and Flying Pigs: Public Art and Cultural Democracy in American Communities:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Studs Terkel's Working: A Teaching Guide'
An invaluable educational resource for introducing Studs Terkel's classic work of oral history to today's students. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer/journalist Studs Terkel is world famous for his oral histories, considered an innovator in modern ethnographic research. Working, Terkel's most popular book, provides a powerful and original perspective on one of the most basic components of human experience: work. The farmer, receptionist, college professor, mail carrier, stockbroker, athlete, and many others share their daily routines and dreams in their own words. Working has long been recognized as an ideal teaching tool, presenting provocative material certain to engage students, ignite classroom discussion, and inspire thoughtful writing. Now, helping educators discover a variety of approaches for using Working in the classroom, Rick Ayers presents a comprehensive teaching guide to this celebrated classic. With its 200 pages of classroom materials--including questions, topics for discussion, tips for taking oral histories, and a bibliography of related resources--Ayers' teaching guide is certain to be welcomed by educators everywhere. As an added bonus, it includes a new interview with Terkel himself, offering insight into the making of Working. [via]
More editions of Studs Terkel's Working: A Teaching Guide:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Terrorist'
More editions of Terrorist:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Theory of the Leisure Class'
"The Theory of the Leisure Class" is a classic examination of the economics of the upper classes and the impact that their habits have upon society. In this work Thorstein Veblen coins the phrase "conspicuous consumption" to describe the often wasteful and unnecessary use of resources that is typical of the wealthiest members of a society. Veblen argues that the social values of the rich have greatly contributed to a lack of substantive culture and proper use of wealth in our society. "The Theory of the Leisure Class" is a classic of economics and sociology that is as relevant today as when it was first written. [via]
More editions of Theory of the Leisure Class:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions'
Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929), the controversial American economist and social critic, argues that economics is essentially a study of the economic aspects of human culture, which are in a constant state of flux. In his best-known work, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Veblen appropriated Darwin's theory of evolution to analyze the modern industrial system.
While industry itself demanded diligence, efficiency, and cooperation, businessmen in opposition to engineers and industrialists were only interested in making money and displaying their wealth in what Veblen coined "conspicuous consumption." Veblen's keen analysis of the psychological bases of American social and economic institutions laid the foundation for the school of institutional economics. [via]
More editions of The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Unreality Industry'
More editions of The Unreality Industry:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Watch It Made in the U.S.A: A Visitor's Guide to the Companies That Make Your Favorite Products'
More editions of Watch It Made in the U.S.A: A Visitor's Guide to the Companies That Make Your Favorite Products:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Weird N.j.: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets'
More editions of Weird N.j.: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets:

› Find signed collectible books: 'What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return To Democracy'
More editions of What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return To Democracy:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class'
More editions of Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Working'
Studs Terkel records the voices of America. Men and women from every walk of life talk to him, telling him of their likes and dislikes, fears, problems, and happinesses on the job. Once again, Terkel has created a rich and unique document that is as simple as conversation, but as subtle and heartfelt as the meaning of our lives.... In the first trade paperback edition of his national bestseller, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel presents "the real American experience" (Chicago Daily News)--"a magnificent book . . .. A work of art. To read it is to hear America talking." (Boston Globe). [via]
More editions of Working:

› Find signed collectible books: 'World Hotel'
More editions of World Hotel:
› Find signed collectible books: 'You Can't Win'
The favorite book of William Burroughs. A journey into the hobo underworld, freight hopping around the still Wild West, becoming a highwayman and member of the yegg (criminal) brotherhood, getting hooked on opium, doing stints in jail or escaping, often with the assistance of crooked cops or judges. Our lost history revived.. With an introduction by Burroughs. A BookSense 77 selection.
More editions of You Can't Win:
