Best of
United-States

1990

Goodfellas: Screenplay


Nicholas Pileggi - 1990
    Young Henry dreams that one day he too might be a professional 'wiseguy' - a 'goodfella'. His wishes come true with remarkable speed once he teams up with renowned hoodlum Jimmy Conway and his alarmingly psychotic pal Tommy DeVito. Henry embarks on an everyday life of crime which takes him from rags to gaudy riches, in and out of the federal penitentiary and under the unwelcome spotlight of the FBI. As the 1970s turn sour Henry finds himself at the sharp end of the cocaine trade, increasingly adrift from his extended mobster 'family' and forced to make a tough decision about his future . . .The film that re-established Martin Scorsese's eminence among American directors after years of professional difficulties, GoodFellas is a tour de force which lays bare the crude and venal motives which drive a happy band of thieves and murderers.

Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression


Robin D.G. Kelley - 1990
    Hammer and Hoe documents the efforts of the Alabama Communist Party and its allies to secure racial, economic, and political reforms. Sensitive to the complexities of gender, race, culture and class without compromising the political narrative, Robin Kelley illustrates one of the most unique and least understood radical movements in American history.The Alabama Communist Party was built from scratch by working people who had no Euro-American radical political tradition. It was composed largely of poor blacks, most of whom were semiliterate and devoutly religious, but it also attracted a handful of whites, including unemployed industrial workers, iconoclastic youth, and renegade liberals. Kelley shows that the cultural identities of these people from Alabama's farms, factories, mines, kitchens, and city streets shaped the development of the Party. The result was a remarkably resilient movement forged in a racist world that had little tolerance for radicals.In the South race pervaded virtually every aspect of Communist activity. And because the Party's call for voting rights, racial equality, equal wages for women, and land for landless farmers represented a fundamental challenge to the society and economy of the South, it is not surprising that Party organizers faced a constant wave of violence.Kelley's analysis ranges broadly, examining such topics as the Party's challenge to black middle-class leadership; the social, ideological, and cultural roots of black working-class radicalism; Communist efforts to build alliances with Southern liberals; and the emergence of a left-wing, interracial youth movement. He closes with a discussion of the Alabama Communist Party's demise and its legacy for future civil rights activism.

City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles


Mike Davis - 1990
    Mike Davis shows us where the city's money comes from and who controls it while also exposing the brutal ongoing struggle between L.A.'s haves and have-nots.

Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology


Howard Zinn - 1990
    The acclaimed author of "A People's History of the United States" (more than 200,000 copies sold) presents an honest and piercing look at American political ideology."A shotgun blast of revisionism that aims to shatter all the comfortable myths of American political discourse." "--Los Angeles Times"

Stone Junction


Jim Dodge - 1990
    An assortment of sages sharpen Daniel's wide-eyed outlook until he has the concentration of a card shark Zeta master, via apprenticeships in meditation, safecracking, poker, and the art of walking through walls. Wizards are made, not born, and this unconventional education sets Daniel on the trail of mysteries ancient and modern.A strange, six-pound diamond sphere held by the U.S. government in a New Mexico vault, rumored to be the Philosopher's Stone or the Holy Grail, becomes the AMO's obsession. In time, Daniel perfects his powers and heads off to steal the magic stone, and what happens changes his life forever.Stone Junction is a bravura act of storytelling, both a free-spirited adventure and a parable about the powers within all of us.

God, Country, Notre Dame: The Autobiography of Theodore M. Hesburgh


Theodore M. Hesburgh - 1990
    Hesburgh

Open Range


Lauran Paine - 1990
    Local stockmen were staking claims to grazing areas throughout the West. Spearman had no quarrel with that, but he wasn't about to let anyone intimidate him or attack his men without putting up a fight. So when Denton Baxter's threats turned to murder, Spearman knew he had to get justice—any way he could.The basis for the movie Open Range, starring Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner, and Annette Bening!

A Short History of Reconstruction


Eric Foner - 1990
    Craven Prize, Los Angeles Times Book Award, Francis Parkman Prize, and Lionel Trilling Prize.

Malcolm X Talks to Young People: Speeches in the United States, Britain, and Africa


Malcolm X - 1990
    Among the new material in this edition is the entire December 1964 debate presentation by Malcolm X at the Oxford Union in the United Kingdom, in print for the first time anywhere. The collection concludes with two memorial tributes by a young socialist leader to this great revolutionary, whose example and words continue to speak the truth for generation after generation of youth. With a new preface and an expanded photo display of 17 pages.

The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States


Ward Churchill - 1990
    Bush will find fodder for fears—and suggestions for activism—in The COINTELPRO Papers. Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall's exposé of America's political police force, the FBI, reveals the steel fist undergirding "compassionate conservatism's" velvet glove. Using original FBI memos, the authors provide extensive analysis of the agency's treatment of the left, from the Communist Party in the 1950s to the Central America solidarity movement in the 1980s. The authors' new introduction posits likely trajectories for domestic repression.Ward Churchill is author of From a Native Son. Jim Vander Wall is co-author of Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, with Ward Churchill.

Worldwalk


Steven M. Newman - 1990
    With no sponsorship, meager funds, and with luggage on his back, he spent four years traversing 20 countries on foot. Photos, maps, index.

Crime Against Nature: Poetry


Minnie Bruce Pratt - 1990
    Stunning work designated prestigious 1989 Inmont Poetry Selection by the Academy of American Poets.

500 Years of Chicana Women's History/500 Años de la Mujer Chicana


Elizabeth Martínez - 1990
    Yet most of our history books devote at most a chapter to Chicano history, with even less attention to the story of Chicanas.500 Years of Chicana Women’s History offers a powerful antidote to this omission with a vivid, pictorial account of struggle and survival, resilience and achievement, discrimination and identity. The bilingual text, along with hundreds of photos and other images, ranges from female-centered stories of pre-Columbian Mexico to profiles of contemporary social justice activists, labor leaders, youth organizers, artists, and environmentalists, among others.  With a distinguished, seventeen-member advisory board, the book presents a remarkable combination of scholarship and youthful appeal. In the section on jobs held by Mexicanas under U.S. rule in the 1800s, for example, readers learn about flamboyant Doña Tules, who owned a popular gambling saloon in Santa Fe, and Eulalia Arrilla de Pérez, a respected curandera (healer) in the San Diego area. Also covered are the “repatriation” campaigns” of the Midwest during the Depression that deported both adults and children, 75 percent of whom were U.S.–born and knew nothing of Mexico. Other stories include those of the garment, laundry, and cannery worker strikes, told from the perspective of Chicanas on the ground. From the women who fought and died in the Mexican Revolution to those marching with their young children today for immigrant rights, every story draws inspiration. Like the editor’s previous book, 500 Years of Chicano History (still in print after 30 years), this thoroughly enriching view of Chicana women’s history promises to become a classic.

The Property of a Lady


Elizabeth Adler - 1990
    The last of the Ivanoffs should have died in 1917. Now, two generations later, they are the prize--and the prey...From war-torn Russia to New York's teeming Lower East Side...from Ziegfeld's Broadway and the Hollywood of the moguls to contemporary Washington, Geneva, and Berlin, Elizabeth's Adler's novel of passion, power, and royal privilege will command your attention to the very last page.

Ready from Within: Septima Clark and the Civil Rights Movement


Septima Poinsette Clark - 1990
    Born in 1898 in Charleston, South Carolina, she was a public school teacher until 1956, when she was dismissed for refusing to disavow her membership in the National Association for the advancement of Colored People. Subsequently, she worked for the Highlander Folk School, helping to set up Citizenship Schools throughout the South where Black adults could learn to read and prepare to vote. During the 1960s she worked with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and was a close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. From 1978 to 1983 she served as the first Black woman on the Charleston School Board. This is a first-person narrative of her life in the context of the Civil Rights Movement. Her story constitutes a major thread in the tapestry of that movement.

Hunting Mister Heartbreak: A Discovery of America


Jonathan Raban - 1990
    Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur--"Heartbreak" in English--wrote a pioneering account of one European's transformation into an American. Some two hundred years later Jonathan Raban, arrived in Crèvecoeur's wake to see how America has paid off for succeeding generations of newcomers. The result is a book that is at once a travelogue, a social history, and a love letter to the United States.In the course of Hunting Mr. Heartbreak, Raban passes for homeless in New York and tries to pass for a good ol' boy in Alabama (which entails "renting" an elderly black lab). He sees the Protestant work ethic perfected by Korean immigrants in Seattle--one of whom celebrates her new home as "So big! So green! So wide-wide-wide!"--and repudiated by the lowlife of Key West. And on every page of this peerlessly observant work, Raban makes us experience America with wonder, humor, and an unblinking eye for its contradictions.

Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers, 1941-1965


Vicki L. Crawford - 1990
    It is an invaluable resource which helps set history straight." --Julian Bond..". remains one of the best single sources currently available on the unique contributions of Black women in the desegregation movement." --Manning MarableRewrites the history of the civil rights movement, recognizing the contributions of Black women.

Route 66: The Mother Road


Michael Wallis - 1990
    A love letter and a tribute, Route 66: The Mother Road takes us on an unforgettable journey through the secret corners and hidden towns of America's most famous and beloved highway.

Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print


Marilyn Jager Adams - 1990
    Drawing on a rich array of research on the nature and development of reading proficiency, Adams shows educators that they need not remain trapped in the phonics versus teaching-for-meaning dilemma. She proposes that phonics can work together with the whole language approach to teaching reading and provides an integrated treatment of the knowledge and process involved in skillful reading, the issues surrounding their acquisition, and the implications for reading instruction.A Bradford Book

The Magnificent Mountain Women: Adventures in the Colorado Rockies


Janet Robertson - 1990
    Janet Robertson recounts their exploits in a lively, well-illustrated book that measures up to its title, The Magnificent Mountain Women. Arlene Blum provides a new introduction to this edition.

As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin


Laurence Bergreen - 1990
    Gleason Music Book Award, explores with precision and sensitivity Berlin's long, prolific career; his self-doubt and late-blooming misanthropy; and the tyrannical control he exerted over his legacy of song. From his immigrant beginnings through Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood to his reclusive and bitter final years, this definitive biography reveals the man who wrote 1500 songs but could never quash the fear that, for all his success, he wasn't quite good enough.

Maverick: The Personal War Of A Vietnam Cobra Pilot


Dennis J. Marvicsin - 1990
    

Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U. S. Women's History


Vicki L. Ruiz - 1990
    Addressing issues of race, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality, it provides a more accurate and inclusive history of US women.

Katnip Kantata in the Key of K


George Herriman - 1990
    

The Other California: The Great Central Valley In Life And Letters


Gerald W. Haslam - 1990
    A vast, flat patchwork of fields and orchards about the size of England, the Valley has become the richest farming region in the history of the world. It also has a rich literary tradition: William Saroyan, Joan Didion, William Everson, Maxine Hong Kingston, Gary Soto, and Richard Rodriguez were all raised in this agricultural heartland.

The Mirror at Midnight: A South African Journey


Adam Hochschild - 1990
    Hochschild looks at the tensions of modern South Africa through a dramatic prism: the pivotal nineteenth-century Battle of Blood River -- which determined whether the Boers or the Zulus would control that part of the world -- and its contentious commemoration by rival groups 150 years later. This incisive book offers an unusual window onto a society that remains divided. In his epilogue, Hochschild extends his view to the astonishing political changes that have occurred in the country in recent years -- and the changes yet to be made.

Dream Wolf


Paul Goble - 1990
    -- BooklistLost and afraid, two young children seek shelter in a wolf's cave. There they meet a kindly wolf who leads them home. Based on a Plains Indian legend, this exceptional picture book demonstrates the love and respect the Plains Indians have for the wolf and the natural world. It is a tribute to the Plains Indian culture.

Winslow Homer


Winslow Homer - 1990
    It focuses not only on his use of various media, but also on the suites of works on the same subject that reflect the artist's modern practice of thinking and working serially and thematically.

The Wrong Way Home: Uncovering the Patterns of Cult Behavior in American Society


Arthur J. Deikman - 1990
    Deikman gives hair-raising examples of how cult-like behavior permeates our lives and threatens our freedoms.

This Is About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate: Stories


Diane Williams - 1990
    

The Industrial Worker, 1840-1860: The Reaction of American Industrial Society to the Advance of the Industrial Revolution


Norman Ware - 1990
    It produced remarkable social and industrial upheavals which were repugnant to an astonishingly large numbers of Americans. Despite national prosperity, industrial workers suffered severe losses of economic status and independence; in protests grounded in religion and politics, they sought to hold on to what they had, and later to win material gains. Mr. Ware's illuminating book analyzes the conditions which brought on the Industrial Revolution, and traces and interprets the labor struggles that developed in response to the factory system.