Writer and critic Vivian Gornick's classic exploring how Left politics gave depth and meaning to American life."Before I knew that I was Jewish or a girl I knew that I was a member of the working class." So begins Vivian Gornick's exploration of how the world of socialists, communists, and progressives in the 1940s and 1950s created a rich, diverse world where ordinary men and women felt their lives connected to a larger human project.The Romance of American Communism is a landmark work of new journalism, profiling American Communist Party members and fellow travelers as they joined the Party, lived within its orbit, and left in disillusionment and disappointment as Stalin's crimes became public.

    The twenty stories in this collection are a fresh, exuberant celebration of the new American South — a land of high school band contests, where good old boys from Vicksurg are reunited in Vietnam and petty nostalgia and the constant pain of disappointed love prevail. Airships is a striking demonstration of Barry Hannah's mature and original talent.

    Makes some startling revelations using photographic evidence.

    One of Marvel Comics most recognizable and best-loved superheroes, Spider-Man appears in three comic books with a monthly circulation of over one million, is syndicated in over 500 newspapers, with a readership of over 100 million, and is soon to be the star of a big-budget motion picture, written, produced and directed by James "Terminator" Cameron.

    

    The ideas of the world-renowned Black American are represented on the arts, civil rights, socialism, and other topics.

    Right from the start, Melanie knew there was going to be trouble. Getting stuck with the six-year-old Tadpoles in the beginners' swim class was downright embarrassing. So was her horse's decision to take a trot in the lake--with Melanie aboard! Now, to top things off, Melanie finds herself falling in love with Steve, the cutest boy in camp. Of course, she's not the only girl to feel this way. Can she keep her archrival, Erica Stone, from breaking things up between her and Steve before they even get started? This just might turn out to be Melanie's best summer ever!

    With these widely felt grievances to build on, the Socialists led the class-conscious farmers and workers to a radicalism that was far in advance of that advocated by the earlier People's party.Examined in this broadly based study of the movement are popular leaders like Oklahoma's Oscar Ameringer ("The Mark Twain of American Socialism"), "Red Tom" Hickey of Texas, and Kate Richards O'Hare, who was second only to Eugene Debs as a Socialist orator. Included also is information on the party's propaganda techniques, especially those used in the lively newspapers which claimed fifty thousand subscribers in the Southwest by 1913, and on the attractive summer camp meetings which drew thousands of poor white tenant farmers to week-long agitation and education sessions.

    Fusing her Cherokee/Appalachian heritage with the experience of growing up on the atomic frontier in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Awiakta explores humanity's dilemma -- and hope -- through the legendary Awi Usdi, Little Deer, a Cherokee spirit-teacher of reverence. She follows his trail as he circles through the saga of Tsali and the Cherokee removal, then into the thoughts of early pioneers and the vision of John Hendrix, who foretold the coming of Oak Ridge with such accuracy. Winding through the poet's childhood, when the atom was split in secret, the trail leads to the retired Graphic Reactor and, finally, into the heart of the atom itself -- and into our hearts, where we must ultimately resolve the question of reverence for life.

    Here and there was a cabin home with a little spot of clearin close by. The rest of the country was jist one great big woods and miles and miles in most every direction. From your cabin you could see no farther than the wall of trees surrounding the clearin; not another cabin in sight."Thus begins Oliver Johnson's account of pioneer life in the Indianapolis area in the 1820s and 1830s. Elsewhere, he says, "We lived mighty happy and contented in the early days. With a good snug cabin, a big fireplace, and a supply of corn meal on hand, there wasn't much to worry about. Our big family spent many a pleasant winter evenin settin around a blazin fire while the wind and snow cut capers outside." Each chapter is a story in itself: "The Endless Tress," "To Build a Cabin," "Clearing the Land," "The Fireplace," "The Spinning Wheel," "Ills and Aches," "The Three R's," "Early Grist Mills," "Hunting Tales," "Fights and Shooting Matches," "The First County Fairs," "Driving Hogs to the River," and "How I Met Your Grandmother."

    The objective was tiny Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, and the going was supposed to be easy�a target already ""pounded into coral dust"" by a massive naval and air bombardment. But what the Marines discovered was an island garrison alive and well, the Japanese defenses intact and manned by foes who would rather die than surrender. The battle that followed�three full days of terror during which more than 3,000 died to ""secure"" an island half the size of New Yorkâ��s Central Park�is fully told in words and pictures in this dramatic book. Building on the updated text of their 76 Hours: The Invasion of Tarawa, the authors use more than 250 photos and combat drawings from the U.S. Navy and Marine archives and private collections to reveal the graphic horror of warfare at its worst. Their book follows every terrifying step as the Marines, failed by the invasionâ��s planners, are forced to wade more than 500 yards through fire-swept, knee-deep water, reaching land only to face what many historians agree was the best, most concentrated defenses American troops encountered in the entire Pacific War. The result is an immortal story of certainty shattered and courage recovered against overwhelming odds, of victory culled from near-defeat, and its terrible cost.

    A history of the dark side of the "land of the free," Goldstein's book covers both famous and little-known examples of governmental repression, including reactions to the early labor movement, the Haymarket affair, "little red scares" in 1908, 1935, and 1938-41, the repression of opposition to World War I, the 1919 "great red scare," the McCarthy period, and post-World War II abuses of the intelligence agencies.   Enhanced with a new introduction and an updated bibliography, Political Repression in Modern America remains an essential record of the relentless intolerance that suppresses radical dissent in the United States.

    The book is a legacy that grew out of his celebrated course on the Westward Movement, and from a lifetime of research and writing that made him a leading authority in this important phase of American history.After an archaeologically oriented introduction to the American Indians, Professor Merk describes the arrival of the English in 17th century Virginia as the beginning of the "greatest migration of people in recorded history." He then tells of colonial relations with the Indians and of the expansion of French and British interests that resulted in the British victory in the French and Indian War. He stresses the importance of land speculators, always a jump ahead of the ordinary settler, before and after the American Revolution. He shows how sectional differences developed in the first half of the 19th century over primarily economic issues. He depicts the enormous growth that took place in the same half-century, as the United States absorbed the territory west of the Mississippi River and became a transcontinental nation. Emphasis is given to the intensification of sectional problems, especially slavery, which accompanied the annexation of Texas and the Mexican cession. And the author traces the events following the Kansas-Nebraska Act that led to further national disunity and eventually to the Civil War.The Westward Movement also meant the acquisition of vast natural resources, rich farmlands, natural transportation routes, forests, grasslands, and mineral deposits. Professor Merk explains how in the 20th century semi-arid regions were developed through dry farming, and describes the utilization of drought-resistant, hybridized grains and methods of cultivation that maintain moisture in the soil. He discusses the new techniques for exploiting both metallic and fuel minerals, the construction of multipurpose river basins, and the emergence of land-use planning. At the same time he points to the damage the United States has suffered because of its rapid expansion, including the impoverishment and even the destruction of the soil by wind and water.Professor Merk's book gores well beyond his famous lectures. The diplomacy and politics of the acquisitions west of the Mississippi are drawn more sharply here, while the mainly economic 20th-century topics are enlarged and extended through the mid-1970's. The author demonstrates how geography, economics, politics, diplomacy, science, and technology interact in the history of the Westward Movement and its place in the conversion of a raw wilderness into a world power.

    'The history of how abortion came to be banned and how women lost--for the century between approximately 1870 and 1970--rights previously thought to be natural and inherent over their own bodies is a fascinating and infuriating one.