Toni Morrison's visionary explorations of freedom and identity, self and community, against the backdrop of African American history have established her as one of the foremost novelists of her time;
Bringing to life the interaction between America, its peoples, and metropolitan gentlemen in early seventeenth-century England, this book argues that colonization did not just operate on the peripheries of the political realm, and confronts the entangled histories of colonialism and domestic status and governance. The Jacobean era is reframed as a definitive moment in which the civil self-presentation of the elite increasingly became implicated in the imperial. The tastes and social lives of statesmen contributed to this shift in the English political gaze. At the same time, bringing English political civility in dialogue with Native American beliefs and practices speaks to inherent tensions in the state's civilizing project and the pursuit of refinement through empire. This significant reassessment of Jacobean political culture reveals how colonizing America transformed English civility and demonstrates how metropolitan politics and social relations were uniquely shaped by territorial
A vivid social history of Baltimore's prostitution trade and its evolution throughout the nineteenth century, Bawdy City centers women in a story of the relationship between sexuality, capitalism, and law. Beginning in the colonial period, prostitution was little more than a subsistence trade. However, by the 1840s, urban growth and changing patterns of household labor ushered in a booming brothel industry. The women who oversaw and labored within these brothels were economic agents surviving and thriving in an urban world hostile to their presence. With the rise of urban leisure industries and policing practices that spelled the end of sex establishments, the industry survived for only a few decades. Yet, even within this brief period, brothels and their residents altered the geographies, economy, and policies of Baltimore in profound ways. Hemphill's critical narrative of gender and labor shows how sexual commerce and debates over its regulation shaped an American city.
A portrait―by turns celebratory, skeptical, and surprisingly moving―of an iconic American institution, from an author who “might be the most influential design critic writing now” (LARB).Few places have been as nostalgized, or as maligned, as the American mall. Since its birth around the turn of the 1950s, it has loomed large as a temple of commerce and agora of the suburbs. In its prime, it proved a powerful draw for creative thinkers from Joan Didion to Ray Bradbury to George Romero, who understood its appeal as both critics and consumers. Yet today, amid the aftershocks of financial crises and a global pandemic, as well as the rise of online retail, the dystopian husk of an abandoned shopping center has become one of our era’s defining images. Conventional wisdom holds that the mall is dead. But what was the mall, really? And have rumors of its demise been greatly exaggerated?In her acclaimed The Design of Childhood, Alexandra Lange uncovered the histories of toys, classrooms, and p
Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVosdelivers blunt insights about her fight for conservative reformsin America's schoolsafter being vilified bythe teachers unions, media and Democrats.As students and parents grapple with the long-term effects of the unprecedented coronavirus shutdowns, DeVosestablishes herself as a leaderin the new battle in the classroom: the intrusion into curriculum by activists seeking to reappraise American history and pursue a liberal social agenda.Few people have been immersed in these issues and these battles as long as DeVos.Long before she was tapped by President Trump to serve as secretary of education, DeVos established herself as one of the country's most influential advocates forschool choice and charter schools.And she has stories to tell: DeVos received so many credible threats against her life that she became the first Education Secretary in history to be assigned security provided by U.S. Marshals.InHostages to the Cause, DeVos unleashes her candid
If greatness is measured by achievement, Orrin Hatch was the greatest U.S. senator of modern times.This is the dramatic story of a conservative champion who shaped modern America―by leading a Golden Age of Bipartisanship and passing more legislation than any other Senator in the post-Vietnam era. Senator Orrin Hatch co-wrote the most sweeping civil rights bill since the 1960s, launched a health insurance program for 25,000,000 uninsured children, co-created the generic drug industry, and championed the greatest HIV/AIDS legislation in American history, while sponsoring or co-sponsoring over 750 pieces of legislation. Based on interviews with Hatch and many of his Senate colleagues plus over 10,000 pages of research from the U.S. Senate Historian's files, this is also the story of a leader who envisions a New Golden Age of Bipartisanship for the future of American politics.
A Korean-American scientist who has always been haunted by a ghostly imaginary friend, and whose mother warned that the women of their family were subject to a cyclical intergenerational curse, seeks answers in her mother’s folk tales and a family history riddled with war and loss, as the fate of her ancestors closes in on her. Now in trade paperback.A New York Times Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novel of 2021An NPR Best Book of 2021A genre-defying, continents-spanning saga of Korean myth, scientific discovery, and the abiding love that binds even the most broken of families.Elsa Park is a particle physicist at the top of her game, stationed at a neutrino observatory in the Antarctic, confident she's put enough distance between her ambitions and the family ghosts she's run from all her life. But it isn't long before her childhood imaginary friend―an achingly familiar, spectral woman in the snow―comes to claim her at last.Years ago, Elsa's now-catatonic mother had warned her that the women of
This set of Q&A smart cards quizzes readers on all things U.S.A.—history, law, government, folklore, geography, pop culture, and more—great for test prep, review, and fun!It’s fun to be smart with Brain Quest America Smart Cards, a fast-paced Q&A game that helps kids ages 9 to 12 learn all about American culture and history––from the Bill of Rights to Rosa Parks to the only state named after a president--Washington! Packed with hundreds of curriculum-based questions covering laws, literature, inventions, arts, and the lay of the land, this set of trivia card decks asks: How well do you know the U.S.A.? Many answers now include background information and explanations that help put learning in context. All Brain Quest products are vetted by a panel of award-winning experts.
