Rock Springs is a masterpiece of taut narration, cleanly chiseled prose, and empathy so generous that it feels like a kind of grace.

    Set on the vast northern Great Plains, where the earth has only recently come beneath the plow, the stories and novels in this Library of America volume partake of an impressive physical space and a uniquely American ethnic. Panoramas of lonely prairie and open sky reflect the heroic aspirations and stoicism of her characters and the rebelliousness of their spirit.The Troll Garden (1905) was Cather’s first book of fiction. It contains seven stories, including the justly famous “Paul’s Case,” a study of a young man who escapes the world of the ordinary and briefly tastes the life of romance. Also included is “The Sculptor’s Funeral,” about a world-famous young artist who remains without honor in his native town.O Pioneers! (1913) is the story of a young Swedish-American girl, Alexandra Bergson, who is left to manage the homestead farm when her father dies. Although she must contend with the shiftlessness of two brothers and the brutal murder of a third, her instinctive identification with the forces of nature helps bring the land to abundant fruition, and she finds her own happiness in a kindred spirit—an engraver, gold prospector, and fellow dreamer.In her lyrical novel The Song of the Lark (1915), Cather’s love of music and theater and her faith in the spiritual influence of the Western landscape find expression in the ardent and talented Thea Kronborg. Moving from Colorado to Chicago to the primitive Southwest, Thea finds her destiny not in romance, but as a great Wagnerian soprano in the Metropolitan Opera. Her success, and that of all Cather’s heroines, derives from what the author calls “the naïve, generous country that gave on its joyous force.”A masterpiece at once austere and exuberant, historical and mythical, My Ántonia (1918) portrays a family of Bohemian emigrants on the Nebraska frontier. Despite the suicide of her father and the desertion of the father of her child, Ántonia Shimerda retains an unselfish nature that allows her to undergo years of drudgery and still affirm a courageous passion for life and motherhood—a dauntlessness intrinsically rooted in the awesome wonder of the prairie.One of Ours, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1922, portrays the blighting effects of twentieth-century progress on a free spirit from the American frontier. Claude Wheeler, its hero, is an imaginative, restless young man who leaves his claustrophobic small town to become a soldier in France during World War I. The Old World shows him culture, art, generosity, and appreciation, and also the horror, waste, and tragedy of war.

    The first no-holds-barred, straight-on, uncensored look at Dallas politics ever to come from within the city itself, seeking to answer the question: Why was Dallas spared the agony of racial turmoil in the 60s--and what effect is that having now?

    The last volume in an unforgettable trilogy (with A Short History of a Small Place and Off for the Sweet Hereafter)

    Emerging from the harsh realities of difficult lives, the stories are full of the violence of love and the love of violence. The author won the 1995 Steinbeck Award for "Dogs of God".

    Published in Association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art

    As the Seattle Times has said of Owning It All: "You may never again see the American west in quite the same way if you take the time to view it through the eyes of William Kittredge. [This is a] stunning book." Having grown up on his family's cattle ranch in eastern Oregon, Kittredge directly confronts the contradictions and myths that lie at the heart of the Western experience: male freedom and female domesticity, the wild and the tame, self-interest and love of the land.

    In this important book, he takes a hard look at these inequities, documenting them with numerous cases drawn from his years of experience in the courts.With unflinching honesty, he tackles such controversial subjects as the deep-seeded societal prejudices of white judges, the lack of black judges, the long history of excluding blacks from law schools and bar associations, the practice of setting higher bail for black defendants, the anti-black biases of white jurors, and the black defendant's limited access to quality legal representation.Judge Wright also addresses the abuse of police power against blacks, the dehumanizing conditions in jails populated primarily by blacks, and the way that death penalty convictions discriminate against blacks. Finally, he proposes remedies that must be taken if the courts are truly to become a place of justice for all.Timely and relevant, "Black Robes, White Justice" is a book that every American should read in order to understand one of the most important issues of our time.

    . . Wright remembers in a smoothly articulate style that takes us back into history in near novelistic fashion.--Chicago Sun-Times.

    A passionate work about the fragile and arid West that Stegner loves

    A tour of the astonishing and stunning newly painted Victorian homes now beautifying all of the United States as ancestors of the original Painted Ladies of San Francisco! 172 full-color photographs.

    Curvaceous Valentina Barrett had to exploit her dancing talent in San Francisco's notorious Crystal Palace. Ashamed that she had to resort to such a base profession, the golden-haired beauty appeared as the veiled Jordanna to protect her reputation. Then she met wealthy, jet-haired Marquis Vincente and immediately knew he was the only man she could ever marry. Now, though, she was tangled in a trap of her own making, for "Jordanna" couldn't resist making him her lover-and Valentina learned she could never hope to trust him as a husband! DAYTIME INNOCENTTowering and arrogant, handsome and rich, Marquis Vincente knew there were two types of women: one to wed, the other to bed. After meeting sweet Valentina Barrett, she stole his heart and he instantly pegged her as his bride. But when he saw the intriguing Jordanna whirl across the stage, Marquis followed her arching back, her shapely legs, and her swiveling hips and decided that the undoubtedly experienced courtesan was the one to be his mistress. He could never unleash his lust upon his virginal wife; with Jordanna he'd share his powerful, masterful touch and revel in love's GOLDEN PARADISE

    In the Country of Last Things takes the form of a letter from a young woman named Anna Blume to a childhood friend. Anna has ventured into an unnamed city that has collapsed into chaos and disorder. In this bleak environment, no industry takes place and most of the population collects garbage or scavenges for objects to resell. City governments are unstable and are concerned only with collecting human waste and corpses for fuel. Anna has entered the city to search for her brother William, a journalist, and it is suggested that the Blumes come from a world to the East which has not collapsed.

    He argues that, at the time of emancipation, slaves still remained essentially African in culture, a conclusion with profound implications for theories of black liberation and for the future of race relations in America. Drawing evidence from the anthropology and art history of Central and West African cultural traditions and exploring the folklore of the American slave, Stuckey reveals an intrinsic Pan-African impulse that contributed to the formation of the black ethos in slavery. He presents fascinating profiles of such nineteenth-century figures as David Walker, Henry Highland Garnet, and Frederick Douglass, as well as detailed examinations into the lives and careers of W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson in this century.

    

    Navy played major roles in radio's evolution, but early press coverage may have decisively steered radio in the direction of mass entertainment. Susan J. Douglas reveals the origins of a corporate media system that today dominates the content and form of American communication.

    During that time, the mob lost its traditional, institutional role as corporate safety valve and social corrective, tolerated by public officials. It became autonomous, a violent menace to individual and public good expressing the discordant urges and fears of a pluralistic society. Indeed, it tested the premises of democratic government.Paul Gilje relates the practices of New York mobs to their American and European roots and uses both historical and anthropological methods to show how those mobs adapted to local conditions. He questions many of the traditional assumptions about the nature of the mob and scrutinizes explanations of its transformation: among them, the loss of a single-interest society, industrialization and changes in the workforce, increased immigration, and the rise of sub-classes in American society. Gilje's findings can be extended to other cities.The lucid narrative incorporates meticulous and exhaustive archival research that unearths hundreds of New York City disturbances -- about the Revolution, bawdy-houses, theaters, dogs and hogs, politics, elections, ethnic conflict, labor actions, religion. Illustrations recreate the turbulent atmosphere of the city; maps, graphs, and tables define the spacial and statistical dimensions of its ferment. The book is a major contribution to our understanding of social change in the early Republic as well as to the history of early New York, urban studies, and rioting.

    Surely the Mississippi steamboat era is among the most colorful and romantic in our history. But what was it really like, beyond our secondhand notions of stalwart river pilots, wayward boys and runaway slaves, of gamblers in tall hats and ladies in hoopskirts, of cotton, cakewalks, and carpetbaggers.This extraordinary book of recently discovered photographs, taken by a father and son who were professional photographers in Natchez, Mississippi, brings us for the first time a stunning array of images of steamboat life as it really was — from its glory days in the post-Civil War era to its demise in the years immediately following World War I.The photographers are Henry Norman and his son Earl. With boundless enthusiasm and curiosity, and the consummate skills of pictorial artists, they captured the beauties and rigors of a half-century of life on the Mississippi. Their priceless legacy has been preserved by Joan and Thomas Gandy, who recently acquired the extremely rare and valuable negatives and here present a collection of 170 of the most spectacular and arresting photographs of steamboat life.Together with an extremely informative text, replete with detailed information and fascinating anecdotes, the photographs make up a splendid account of the major steamboats that plied the great waterway and their essential social and economic role in river life. Vivid, beautifully composed images of stately ships, luxurious interiors, shipboard life, picturesque river towns, busy landings, paddle wheelers laden with cotton and other cargoes, and the disasters that claimed so many of these proud craft, comprise a stunning firsthand account of a long-lost — but now accurately, lovingly recaptured — way of American life.

    Argues that there are no longer intellectuals working outside of the academic world, criticizes the New Left, and explains the decline of bohemia.

    In fact, the worst was yet to come. Her later entries portray the city of Columbia, South Carolina, like much of the South, under the grip of Sherman's army. No reader of this diary is likely to forget the defiant, well-bred Emma, who describes a family's anxieties and brave attempts to get on with life while the Civil War rages around them.In a new foreword to the Bison Books edition, Anne Firor Scott, a professor of history at Duke University whose writings include The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics, 1830-1930, rounds out the story of the remarkable Emma LeConte and the life she made after her familiar world ended.

     Off the Beaten Path spotlights over 1,000 of the United States' most overlooked must- see destinations. In a state-by-state A-to-Z format, this budget-friendly vacation planner reveals the best-kept secret spots so that no matter where you live, you can plan an unforgettable local vacation within an hour or two of your home. Each of the featured sites has been verified by the respective state's tourist bureau as still being "off the beaten path." Revel in nature, science, art, and culture, and encounter the unexpected as you explore undiscovered gems. This exciting new edition features: 1,000 sites-more than 200 new sites and over 300 photographs-more than 200 brand new Brand-new detailed state road maps, and revised and updated tourist information- plus links to the attraction's website New feature-"Did You Know" fact boxes, and three new icons representing pet- friendly, handicap-accessible, and wi-fi compatible sites Sidebars containing seasonal events for each state Packed with innovative ideas for fun day trips and truly memorable vacations for travelers of every temperament, penchant, and budget, this unparalleled escape book leads you to New Hampshire's castle in the clouds. pontoon boating through the Florida Everglades, dinosaurs trails through Colorado, an authentic jousting tournament in Virginia, or a stroll down America's oldest street in New York City. Plan an unforgettable vacation with this best-selling travel book-a super-easy reference that shows you where to go, how to get there, and what you need to know before you begin your adventure.