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Olivia's Story: The Conspiracy of Heroes Behind Shelley v. Kraemer
Jeffrey S. Copeland
The story of the landmark 1948 Supreme Court decision, Shelley v Kraemer, told through the voice of one of the participants, an African-American teacher in the St. Louis schools. Many battles have been fought through the years to gain dignity, justice and equality for all in America. Few of those battles have had the lasting significance and impact of the one described in the telling of Olivia's Story. Olivia Merriweather Perkins joined a brave group of people in St. Louis, Missouri who came together, without regard to their personal safety and well-being, to fight for rights that had been denied to people of color, the right to property. Their sacrifices eventually led to "Shelley vs Kraemer," one of the most important legal battles of modern times, the impact of which was felt in every corner of America. This legal case changed the face of a nation, not only in housing but also in other area taken for granted today. -- Provided by publisher
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The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
Samuel Lyndon Gladden
The Importance of Being Earnest marks a central moment in late-Victorian literature, not only for its wit but also for its role in the shift from a Victorian to a Modern consciousness. The play began its career as a biting satire directed at the very audience who received it so delightedly, but ended its initial run as a harbinger of Wilde's personal downfall when his lover's father, who would later bring about Wilde's arrest and imprisonment, attempted to disrupt the production. In addition to its focus on the textual history of the play, this Broadview Edition of Earnest provides a wide array of appendices. The edition locates Wilde's work among the artistic and cultural contexts of the late nineteenth century and will provide scholars, students, and general readers with an important sourcebook for the play and the social, creative, and critical contexts of mid-1890s English life. -- Provided by publisher
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Antislavery Discourse and Nineteenth-Century American Literature: Incendiary Pictures
Julie Husband
Antislavery Discourse and Nineteenth-Century American Literature examines the relationship between antislavery texts and emerging representations of "free labor" in mid-nineteenth-century America. Husband shows how the images of families split apart by slavery, circulated primarily by women leaders, proved to be the most powerful weapon in the antislavery cultural campaign and ultimately turned the nation against slavery. She also reveals the ways in which the sentimental narratives and icons that constituted the "family protection campaign" powerfully influenced Americans sense of the role of government, gender, and race in industrializing America. Chapters examine the writings of ardent abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, non-activist sympathizers, and those actively hostile to but deeply immersed in antislavery activism including Nathaniel Hawthorne. -- Provided by publisher
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Dramaturgas Puertorriquenas De 1990 A 2010
Sara V. Rosell
Examines Puerto Rican women playwrights' works in light of postcolonial theories. This work focuses on the notions of identity (sexual, racial, and transnational/transcultural), and gender construction. It includes writers from both the Island and the Diaspora. -- Provided by publisher
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Kurt Vonnegut's America
Jerome Klinkowitz
Kurt Vonnegut's death on April 11, 2007, marked the passing of a major force in American life and letters. Jerome Klinkowitz, one of the earliest and most prolific authorities on Vonnegut, examines the long dialogue between the author and American culture--a conversation that produced fourteen novels and hundreds of short stories and essays. Spanning Vonnegut's half-century literary career, Kurt Vonnegut's America integrates discussion of myriad fiction, essays, and lectures with personal exchanges and biographical sketches to map the complex symbiotic relationship between Vonnegut's work and the cultural context from which it emerged--and which it in turn helped shape.
Following an introduction characterizing Vonnegut as Klinkowitz came to know him over the course of their friendship, this study traces Vonnegut's career, decade by decade, drawing connections between the nation's preoccupations, the author's biography, and his literary productions. Vonnegut's 1950s saw him starting out as a short story writer, using his training in anthropology and experience in journalism and public relations to offer comic insights on middle-class behaviors. In the 1960s the author produced a series of darkly humorous novels rooted in the sense of apocalypse he'd experienced as a prisoner of war during the destruction of Dresden, Germany. Vonnegut's rising fame made him a public figure by 1970, with his novels and increasingly prominent essays serving as commentaries on the trends and patterns of these changing times. By the 1980s Vonnegut was sufficiently comfortable with his celebrity status to offer broader perspectives in his work, including his take on human evolution and artistic development. The 1990s found Vonnegut writing the strongest fiction and commentary of his career, melding them into a masterpiece, Timequake, the virtual autobiography of a novel.
Among his artistic peers, Vonnegut was uniquely gifted at anticipating and articulating the changing course of American culture. Far from being A Man without a Country, as his last book was titled, Vonnegut achieved greatness by passing his own test--opening the eyes of his audience to help them better understand their roles and possibilities in the common culture they both shared and crafted. -- Provided by publisher -
Love as Always, Kurt: Vonnegut as I Knew Him
Loree Rackstraw
A loving, intimate memoir from a lifelong friend of Kurt Vonnegut, including photos and never-before-published correspondence
When Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ducked into his classroom at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop in September of 1965, his jokes drew only weak laughter and a few rolled eyes. But workshop student Loree Rackstraw was quietly impressed by this “great bear of a man” and his down-to-earth sensibilities about writing.
That fall, an impossible romance began between the then-unknown author and his student—a brief affair that matured into a joyful, lifelong friendship. Rackstraw distills four decades of memories and Vonnegut’s letters to her into an affectionate memoir that crackles with the creative energy of one of America’s most beloved writers.
Rackstraw’s unique perspective on Vonnegut’s life and how it shaped his famous works portrays a deeply humane man who looked for the humor and absurdity in life in order to survive. And then there are Vonnegut’s own letters: Whether energetic about new projects or frustrated with the “game” of writing and selling “a gazoolian copies,” Vonnegut writes with the playful imagination and generous, accessible brilliance that have always been his trademarks. -- Provided by publisher
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Lovers & Strangers
Grant A. Tracey
Lovers & Strangers is a collection of thirteen stories, rockets through the complexities of love, internal struggle, and human relationships with a sense of wound and wonder. The title story explores the deepness of what love truly is. Throughout these looks at love, the narrative voice combines sharp, scenic detail with summary density. The tone is reminiscent of Sherwood Anderson and Bernard Malamud. Tracey’s characters are authentic, quirky, loving, innocent, and bound to truth by the universal desire to understand what makes us human, what it means to love, and be loved. -- Provided by publisher
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Finding Purpose in Narnia: A Journey with Prince Caspian
Gina Burkart
Finding Purpose in Narnia weaves C.S. Lewis' biographical information from his own autobiography and letters to help readers better understand Prince Caspian, the second in the classic and wildly popular Chronicles of Narnia series. The author, who grew up loving these books, offers a series of reflections arranged in five parts shaped around the Scripture verse 1 Corinthians 13 and divided into three sections: Faith, Hope and Love.
Just in time for the eagerly awaited movie, this engagingly written book is a resource that invites personal reflection and growth by inviting readers to interact with the insights of C.S. Lewis, the author's reflections, and Scripture passages. Throughout the book are helpful reflection questions help readers understand how C.S. Lewis found purpose in Narnia, and how we can as well. -- Provided by publisher
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Experimental Psychology: A Case Approach
M. Kimberly MacLin and Robert L. Solso
Presenting a principle or problem in experimental design, the authors then show how the problem has been dealt with in psychological literature. Organized into two parts (Basic Principles of Experimental Design and Analysis of Experiments), this book combines a text and case approach to examine the methods of experimental psychology. Using published research findings, students read, critique, and analyze actual cases/experiments from all aspects of psychology that exemplify various design principles. -- Provided by publisher
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Fighting Kite: Poems
Vince Gotera
Fighting Kite narrates, in verse, the life of Martin Avila Gotera--son, trickster, soldier, schizophrenic, visionary, lawyer, workingman, father--a life that glimmers like the node, a shimmery knot, a glowing nexus, of the shared histories of the Philippines and the United States.
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Cognitive Psychology
M. Kimberly MacLin and Robert L. Solso
One of the top sellers in the field, Cognitive Psychology is well-written, humorous, and remains one of the most comprehensive and balanced books in the area of cognition. MacLin and MacLin, inheriting the book from the late Robert L. Solso, boldly revised and reorganized the Eighth Edition to reflect emerging trends in the field, while retaining the strengths that made it one of the most popular books in the field. The book features a sequential model of human cognition from sensation to perception, to attention, to memory, to higher-order cognition, and features new cutting-edge coverage of consciousness, cognitive neuroscience, memory and forgetting, and evolutionary psychology. -- Provided by publisher
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The "Dark Heathenism" of the American Novelist Ishmael Reed: African Voodoo As American Literary Hoodoo
Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure
This book posits that Neo-HooDooism, an African Voodoo-derived aesthetic, evinces Ishamel Reed s post-colonial transformation of the English language, colonialist discourses, and imperial cultural systems into discourses of self-empowerment and self-representation. As Reed s return to dark heathenism, Neo-HooDooism represents an attempt to rediscover pre-slavery and pre-colonial African languages and oral traditions to remedy the impact of physical and linguistic displacement that African-Americans continue to experience in the United States. Reed s nine novels are post-colonial writings whose production affects social, cultural, political, and historical contexts from African-American, American multi-ethnic, Caribbean, African, Third-World, and global perspectives. This book analyzes Neo-HooDooism as a post-colonial discourse/literary theory and a multi-cultural poetics through which Reed reconnects the African Diaspora to Africa within a global perspective. To accomplish this, an investigation is made into slavery, hegemony, language, place and displacement, race, gender, feminism, writing, post-coloniality, and theory as post-colonial themes that permeate Reed s nine novels. -- Provided by publisher
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Inman's War: A Soldier's Story of Life in a Colored Battalion in WWII
Jeffrey S. Copeland
"Inman's War is on one level an ugly story about America and racism and prejudice and discrimination and sexism, but it is also a human story, a story about real people, a story of friendship and loyalty, a story of the human spirit as it tries to overcome adversity. It is a magnificent slice of history." -Dick Gregory, from the Introduction
Information about life in the "Colored Battalions" of WWII is very limited; this book takes a look inside a part of history hidden from the eyes of the world. Those who served in these battalions were unsung heroes of the Allies' fight for freedom and rights for all, yet they were often sacrificed along the way to attaining those goals. At long last, their story is told.
Some of the most important and symbolic events in American history end up relegated to the dark corners of memory. Events once so significant become little more than footnotes, little more than wisps of story once held dear. This is such a story. There are accounts of the contributions of African Americans during the great conflict of WWII. However, most of these are group histories related to units such as the Red Ball Express, Tuskegee Airmen, and the Buffalo Soldiers. Individual, personal accounts of life and service in what were called the "Colored Battalions" are almost non-existent.
This story is based in part upon the nearly one hundred and fifty letters written by Sergeant Inman Perkins during that period that detail his day to day life and his marriage while on leave to his young bride, Olivia. This book presents a look into the past that many thought locked away and forgotten forever, a look into an important slice of our American heritage off limits for too long to the eyes of history. From basic training to the war in Europe, Inman's War presents the fresh territory of a story not told before. It is the story of an individual, Inman Perkins, and it is also the story of the other African American heroes of this era. -- Provided by publisher -
The Miniature Room: Poems
Rebecca Dunham
With tender probing and tight, expressive language, "The Miniature Room" explores the grace and power of the minuscule as it exists within an infinite universe. This 2006 T. S. Eliot Prize-winning collection utilizes rich imagery and complex interlocking meanings as author Rebecca Durham builds off the classical themes of art, history, nature, love, life, religion, and motherhood to provide a sensual and inquisitive body of work. -- Provided by publisher
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The Enchanted Quest of Dana and Ginger Lamb
Julie Huffman-Klinkowitz and Jerome Klinkowitz
Best-selling authors, sensational lecturers, documentary filmmakers, amateur archaeologists, spies for FDR--Dana and Ginger Lamb led the life of Indiana Jones long before the movie icon was ever scripted. "We blaze the trail," Ginger said, "and the scientists follow."
The Enchanted Quest of Dana and Ginger Lamb is the first biography of this captivating, entrepreneurial couple. In Southern California, they started married life in 1933 by building a canoe. With only $4.10 in their pockets, they paddled to Central America and through the Panama Canal. Three years later they returned triumphant, bearing a photographic record of the amazing trek that made them famous.
After releasing their best-selling book, Enchanted Vagabonds, the two became exactly that. They relentlessly lectured for the public and mooned for the media until they were able to fund more exotic voyages to remote jungles and rivers. So convincing were they on the circuit that their most powerful fan, President Franklin Roosevelt, coerced J. Edgar Hoover into hiring the Lambs as spies in Mexico. After World War II they launched their Quest for the Lost City, which yielded another book and documentary.
Drawing on historical records, the Lambs' books and letters, and recently declassified espionage documents, biographers Julie Huffman-klinkowitz and Jerome Klinkowitz show how the Lambs succeeded in marketing their conquests and films to armchair explorers around the world and how they became, in popular imagination, the quintessential American adventurers.
As an independent scholar, Julie Huffman-klinkowitz has published widely in genealogy and popular culture. Jerome Klinkowitz is professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa and is the author of several books, including Pacific Skies: American Flyers in World War II (University Press of Mississippi). -- Provided by publisher -
Lamentations on the Rwandan Genocide: Poems
Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure
Lamentations on the Rwandan Genocide by Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure is a poignant, often-painful reflection on the travesties of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. This collection combines diverse linguistic and cultural traditions to offer poetic explorations of the violence and aftermath of genocide. With fifteen poems and an extensive section of notes on Rwandan culture, Lamentations on the Rwandan Genocide both documents a historical tragedy and forges new literary ground. -- Provided by publisher
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Playing Mac: A Novella in Two Acts, and Other Scenes
Grant A. Tracey
In the novella Playing Mac, Stan doesn’t know why he’s auditioning for a community theater production of 42nd Street. Maybe it’s because his wife wants a divorce, his oldest son feels awkward around him, and his youngest son isn’t even talking. Maybe Stan just wants a fresh start, a new beginning. Whatever his initial motivation to act, Stan finds himself transformed through his theater experience. In playing Mac, Stan discovers a second family. He finds friendship, fellowship, and romance with Ciara, a woman half his age. He’s given a second chance in love and family, but will that promising future with Ciara be obscured by the past? This book also features eight other “scenes,” character-driven short stories with a lot of heart. -- Provided by publisher
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Notes from the Flyover: Celebrating the Life and Works of Barbara Lounsberry
Grant A. Tracey, G. Scott Cawelti, Ron Sandvik, and Barbara Lounsberry
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Wen Pu Xi: Zhong Mei Wen Hua Shi Ye Xia De Mei Hua Wen Xue Yan Jiu
Jennie Wang
Proceedings of a conference called Querying the Genealogy : An International Conference on Chinese American Literature and Chinese Language Literature in the United States held in 2005 in Shanghai.
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A Parent's Guide to Harry Potter
Gina Burkart
Harry Potter has captivated the imagination of millions of children. And Harry Potter has caused controversy in churches and schools. What's a parent to do with the magical, mystical world of Harry and his friends? Gina Burkart chose to read the books with her own children. As they read together, she discovered many parallels between Christian faith and the themes of these books. Indeed, the escapades of Harry Potter sparked significant conversation between Burkart and her kids. In this helpful, entertaining guide, Burkart shows how Harry Potter fits into the tradition of fairy tale writing and how this type of literature aids in building a moral framework. She highlights specific situations and emotions from Harry's world that children face in their own life, such as fear, anger, bullies, diversity and the choice of good over evil. Instead of magic words or easy answers, Burkart offers solid, practical advice for helping parents and children navigate Harry Potter's world--and our own--together. -- Provided by publisher
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Postmodern Medievalisms
Richard Utz and Jesse G. Swan
Bringing together significant statements on postmodern qualities of the invocation of the medieval, Postmodern Medievalisms is a cross-disciplinary and international collection. The volume also effects a critically celebratory appreciation of the intellectual and political possibilities of the many inchoate modes implicit in various acts of "postmodern" scholarship. The essays treat texts from the late middle ages to the contemporary moment, and together they indicate, broadly, what is happening both in postmodern studies and studies in medievalism. The fourteen essays of the collection are organized into four sections, Music (including Pavel Chinizul, Negru Voda, Arvo Part), Art and Architecture (contemporary architecture, Robert Rauschenberg and more), Cinema (Tolkien, Bresson, I>Braveheart among the matters discussed), and Literature (including Sir John Mandeville, Marco Polo, Marvel, Naomi Mitchison). Contributors: FLORIN CURTA, PAUL MURPHY, LEOPOLD BRAUNEISS, JOHN M. GANIM, KARL FUGELSO, VERLYN FLIEGER, WILLIAM D. PADEN, BRIAN LEVY, LESLEY COOTE, A.E. CHRISTA CANITZ, JENNIFER COOLEY, PAUL SMETHURST, ELENA LEVY-NAVAFRO, ANITA OBERMEIER, SYLVIA MITTLER. -- Provided by publisher
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Sephardic Identity: Essays on a Vanishing Jewish Culture
George K. Zucker
The Sephardim, a fast-disappearing group of Jews whose ancestors were exiled from the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the fifteenth century, have fought to retain their identity while necessarily assimilating to the surrounding society. This culture was changed by settlement and residence in non-Spanish areas for over four centuries, a Diaspora in the late nineteenth century, and the Nazi Holocaust. Sephardic settlements in Latin America, the United States, Israel, and elsewhere were the result. Because Judaism is as much a culture as a religion, any move toward assimilation into a non-Jewish culture has historically been seen as a threat to Jewish identity: this is an ongoing crisis in Sephardic life. These essays, representing some of the most innovative work being done in Sephardic studies, are divided into sections exploring history, sociology, anthropology, language, literature and the performing arts. Topics include the possibility that the Sephardim are Judaized Arabs, Berbers and Iberians; the role of Spanish exiles in the Ottoman Empire; Sephardic remnants in Greece; Sephardic philosophy; the literature of New Christians (the community that arose out of forcibly converted Jews) whose works reveal Jewish roots; the Judeo-Spanish press in Salonika; and the influences of Sephardism on contemporary Argentine literature. An introduction to Sephardism begins the work and a conclusion discusses the Sephardic Education Center, which hopes to assure the culture's future. -- Provided by publisher
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Daily Life in the Industrial United States, 1870- 1900
Julie Husband and Jim O'Loughlin
Daily life in the Industrial age was ever-changing, unsettling, outright dangerous, and often thrilling. Electric power turned night into day, cities swelled with immigrants from the countryside and from Europe, and great factories belched smoke and beat unnatural rhythms while turning out consumer goods at an astonishing pace. Distance and time condensed as rail travel and telegraph lines tied the vast United States together as never before. First-hand accounts from workers, housewives, and children help illuminate the significant achievements of the era and their impact on the everyday lives of ordinary people. Readers will learn of a broad range of personal experiences, while comprehending the importance of the economic and social developments of the period. A chronology, a glossary, more than 40 photographs, and further reading sources complete the work. -- Provided by publisher
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