Best of
United-States

1997

The Demon Princes, Volume Two: The Face, The Book of Dreams


Jack Vance - 1997
    The winner of a Hugo, a Nebula, and a World Fantasy Award, Vance lays claim to a career that spans more than five decades of critical acclaim and devoted readership. Tor Books has recognized his widespread audience and for years has brought classic Jack Vance novels back into print--most recently The Demon Princes, Volume One, and omnibus containing the first three books of Vance's beloved Demon Princes series. Tor now presents The Demon Princes, Volume Two, and omnibus containing the series' final two novels, The Face and The Book of Dreams.Kirth Gersen carries in his pocket a slip of paper with a list of five names written upon it--the names of five Demon Princes. The Demon Princes are a race of beings who disguise themselves as humans and delight in power and destruction. however, to Kirth they are merely murderers who killed his family and destroyed his home planet--and who deserves to die for those misdeeds. Three have already fallen in Kirth's hands, but there are two more names on his list, two more Princes who will live only long enough to regret their evil ways.Lens Larque was just as unique as the other Demon Princes--uniquely appalling. He was personally ugly, startling vicious, and arrogant above all others. Larque's own mission was a villainy of the highest order, and his personal obsession with success kept him hidden well from attackers--almost well enough. Howard Alan Treesong poisoned his friends, tortured his colleagues, and wrote his own horrific holy book, The Book of Dreams. But, clever as he may be, a galaxy-wide guessing game will be his undoing--and Kirth Gersen's sworn vengeance will be complete.

Liberty! The American Revolution


Thomas Fleming - 1997
    Historian and novelist Thomas Fleming's gripping narrative captures the high drama of the revolutionary years and the unyielding courage and political genius of the men and women who imagined a new set of political possibilities for mankind - laying the foundation for the identity and character of the American people in the process. The companion volume to the PBS television series of the same name, Liberty! is illustrated with more than 200 full color paintings and photographs, illuminating the revolutionary period as never before. Most important, Liberty! traces the evolution of the ideals that inspired a generation of Americans to struggle against Britain - then the most powerful nation in the world - to establish the free society and democratic system that is so inherently and uniquely American. A remarkable work that surges with human drama, it is a book that every American family will read and treasure for decades to come.

Living Downstream: A Scientist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment


Sandra Steingraber - 1997
    In her early twenties, Steingraber was afflicted with cancer, a disease that has afflicted other members of her adoptive family. Writing from the twin perspectives of a survivor and a concerned scientist, she traces the high incidence of cancer and the terrifying concentrations of environmental toxins in her native rural Illinois. She goes on to show similar correlation in other communities, such as Boston and Long Island, and throughout the United States, where cancer rates have risen alarmingly since mid-century. At once a deeply moving personal document and a groundbreaking work of scientific detection, Living Downstream will be a touchstone for generations, reminding us of the intimate connection between the health of our bodies and the integrity of our air, land, and water. "By skillfully weaving a strong personal drama with thorough scientific research, Steingraber tells a compelling story....Well worth reading."--Washington Post

Lincoln's Admiral: The Civil War Campaigns of David Farragut


James P. Duffy - 1997
    It shines a spotlight and shares new details about the admiral's leadership of the mission to recapture the port of New Orleans from the Confederacy - a campaign historians consider one of the most daring in military history.Farragut is perhaps best known for his order to “Damn the torpedoes.... Full speed ahead." during the Battle of Mobile Bay, which has become a touchstone and rallying cry for the United States Navy.A sweeping and riveting telling of Farragut's career and campaigns, Lincoln's Admiral offers fascinating insights into the strategy and decisions of one of the greatest military leaders on the Civil War - and of all time.

Cindy Sherman: Retrospective


Cindy Sherman - 1997
    Her art embodies two developments in the art world: the impact of postmodern theory on art practice; and the rise of photography and mass-media techniques as modes of artistic expression.

Eye to Eye


Frans Lanting - 1997
    More than 140 photographs, made over a period of twenty years, reveal the unique personal aesthetic Frans Lanting brings to wildlife photography, as well as the startling new perspective on animals his images provoke. In a review of his work The New York Times states, "Mr. Lanting's photographs take creatures that have become ordinary and familiar and transform them into haunting new visions."This book's exquisite images are accompanied by personal stories and observations from a lifetime of working with wild animals around the world, ranging from orangutans in the rain forests of Borneo to emperor penguins in Antarctica. More than 70 species are represented in this astonishing portrait gallery celebrating the diversity of life on earth.Frans Lanting does not seek in these encounters the beauty traditionally revered by wildlife photographers: "The perfection I seek in my photographic compositions is a means to show the strength and dignity of animals in nature." Frans Lanting's work has been lauded by designers as art, by biologists as science, and by others as a new vision of the relationship between animals and people - one that challenges us to look animals in the eye and see ourselves.

Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa


Keith B. Richburg - 1997
    Map; updated with a new afterword.

Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets off a Struggle for the Soul of America


J. Anthony Lukas - 1997
    L. Doctorow), and "an unforgettable historical drama" (Chicago Sun-Times), "Big Trouble" brings to life the astonishing case that ultimately engaged President Theodore Roosevelt, Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the politics and passions of an entire nation at century's turn. After Idaho's former governor is blown up by a bomb at his garden gate at Christmastime 1905, America's most celebrated detective, Pinkerton James McParland, takes over the investigation. His daringly executed plan to kidnap the radical union leader "Big Bill" Haywood from Colorado to stand trial in Idaho sets the stage for a memorable courtroom confrontation between the flamboyant prosecutor, progressive senator William Borah, and the young defender of the dispossessed, Clarence Darrow. "Big Trouble" captures the tumultuous first decade of the twentieth century, when capital and labor, particularly in the raw, acquisitive West, were pitted against each other in something close to class war. Lukas paints a vivid portrait of a time and place in which actress Ethel Barrymore, baseball phenom Walter Johnson, and editor William Allen White jostled with railroad magnate E. H. Harriman, socialist Eugene V. Debs, gunslinger Charlie Siringo, and Operative 21, the intrepid Pinkerton agent who infiltrated Darrow's defense team. This is a grand narrative of the United States as it charged, full of hope and trepidation, into the twentieth century.

Where Leads The Heart


Colleen Coble - 1997
    Only after she agrees to marry another man does she realize Rand is not dead after all. Set against the backdrop of Fort Laramie, this exciting story of love lost and gained will take you to that dangerous time of the Sioux Indian Wars.**********Coble's first historical series consists of: Where Leads the Heart, Plains of Promise, The Heart Answers, and To Love a Stranger. You'll want to read them all!

Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life


Laurence Bergreen - 1997
    The musical talents of Satchmo - as Armstrong became universally known - were prodigious and groundbreaking. After learning to blow his horn in the bordellos and honky-tonks of Storyville, New Orleans's bustling red-light district, he honed his sound on a Mississippi riverboat and later became a featured solo trumpeter in the nightclub bands of Chicago and New York, where his stunning musicianship, gravelly voice, and irrepressible personality captivated audiences and critics alike. Countless recordings, nonstop touring of America and Europe, a radio show - the first ever hosted by a black man - and film appearances catapulted him to international stardom, yet he always remained true to himself and loyal to his roots. Despite his successes, Armstrong's career was also marked by intense struggle - against the Depression, against the Chicago gangsters of the 1930s, and, above all, against racial prejudice.

Collected Prose


Charles Olson - 1997
    Olson's theories, which made explicit the principles of his own poetics and those of the Black Mountain poets, were instrumental in defining the sense of the postmodern in poetry and form the basis of most postwar free verse.The Collected Prose brings together in one volume the works published for the most part between 1946 and 1969, many of which are now out of print. A valuable companion to editions of Olson's poetry, the book backgrounds the poetics, preoccupations, and fascinations that underpin his great poems. Included are Call Me Ishmael, a classic of American literary criticism; the influential essays "Projective Verse" and "Human Universe"; and essays, book reviews, and Olson's notes on his studies. In these pieces one can trace the development of his new science of man, called "muthologos," a radical mix of myth and phenomenology that Olson offered in opposition to the mechanistic discourse and rationalizing policy he associated with America's recent wars in Europe and Asia.Editors Donald Allen and Benjamin Friedlander offer helpful annotations throughout, and poet Robert Creeley, who enjoyed a long and mutually influential relationship with Olson, provides the book's introduction.

Irons in the Fire


John McPhee - 1997
    This acclaimed collection of essays begins with the title essay and a trip to Nevada, where, in the company of a brand inspector, John McPhee discovers that cattle rustling is not just history.

The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship


Lauren Berlant - 1997
    Delivering a devastating critique of contemporary discourses of American citizenship, she addresses the triumph of the idea of private life over that of public life borne in the right-wing agenda of the Reagan revolution. By beaming light onto the idealized images and narratives about sex and citizenship that now dominate the U.S. public sphere, Berlant argues that the political public sphere has become an intimate public sphere. She asks why the contemporary ideal of citizenship is measured by personal and private acts and values rather than civic acts, and the ideal citizen has become one who, paradoxically, cannot yet act as a citizen—epitomized by the American child and the American fetus. As Berlant traces the guiding images of U.S. citizenship through the process of privatization, she discusses the ideas of intimacy that have come to define national culture. From the fantasy of the American dream to the lessons of Forrest Gump, Lisa Simpson to Queer Nation, the reactionary culture of imperilled privilege to the testimony of Anita Hill, Berlant charts the landscape of American politics and culture. She examines the consequences of a shrinking and privatized concept of citizenship on increasing class, racial, sexual, and gender animosity and explores the contradictions of a conservative politics that maintains the sacredness of privacy, the virtue of the free market, and the immorality of state overregulation—except when it comes to issues of intimacy. Drawing on literature, the law, and popular media, The Queen of America Goes to Washington City is a stunning and major statement about the nation and its citizens in an age of mass mediation. As it opens a critical space for new theory of agency, its narratives and gallery of images will challenge readers to rethink what it means to be American and to seek salvation in its promise.

The Darkest Days of the War: The Battles of Iuka and Corinth


Peter Cozzens - 1997
    The outcome of this offensive--the only coordinated Confederate attempt to carry the conflict to the enemy--was disastrous. The results at Antietam and in Kentucky are well known; the third offensive, the northern Mississippi campaign, led to the devastating and little-studied defeats at Iuka and Corinth, defeats that would open the way for Grant's attack on Vicksburg. Peter Cozzens presents here the first book-length study of these two complex and vicious battles. Drawing on extensive primary research, he details the tactical stories of Iuka--where nearly one-third of those engaged fell--and Corinth--fought under brutally oppressive conditions--analyzing troop movements down to the regimental level. He also provides compelling portraits of Generals Grant, Rosecrans, Van Dorn, and Price, exposing the ways in which their clashing ambitions and antipathies affected the outcome of the campaign. Finally, he draws out the larger, strategic implications of the battles of Iuka and Corinth, exploring their impact on the fate of the northern Mississippi campaign, and by extension, the fate of the Confederacy.During the late summer of 1862, Confederate forces attempted a three-pronged strategic advance into the North. The outcome of this offensive--the only coordinated Confederate attempt to carry the conflict to the enemy--was disastrous. The results at Antietam and in Kentucky are well known; the third offensive, the northern Mississippi campaign, led to the devastating and little-studied defeats at Iuka and Corinth, defeats that would open the way for Grant's attack on Vicksburg. Peter Cozzens details the tactical stories of Iuka and Corinth, analyzing troop movements down to the regimental level and providing compelling portraits of Generals Grant, Rosecrans, Van Dorn, and Price. He also draws out the larger, strategic implications of the battles, exploring their impact on the fate of the northern Mississippi campaign, and by extension, the fate of the Confederacy.

The Art of Richard Diebenkorn


Jane Livingston - 1997
    This catalog is the most comprehensive volume on the artist now available. Jane Livingston's extensively researched biographical essay covers Diebenkorn's entire career and concentrates on the artist's inner life and purposes as revealed in his paintings. Ruth Fine deals primarily with the figurative aspect of Diebenkorn's work (1955-67), and John Elderfield concentrates on the Ocean Park period (1967-93). All three authors provide valuable insights based on their personal relationships with the artist and his widow, Phyllis. On both page and canvas, the reader can sense Diebenkorn's complexity and highly self-conscious working methods, as well as his formidable integrity. The Art of Richard Diebenkorn will give readers with an interest in all phases of modernism new thoughts about the relationship between abstraction and representation. Stunningly illustrated, with 192 full-color reproductions, this book is an exhilarating testament to a distinctive American artist.

Barefoot: Escape On The Underground Railroad


Pamela Duncan Edwards - 1997
    The sound of the young man's racing heart is almost audible as Edwards describes his desperate predicament: "He was fearful of what lay before him. He was terrified of what lay behind." But the man has allies in the underbrush, creatures that perceive him as "the Barefoot" (in contrast to "the Heavy Boots" who come in angry pursuit). A frog signals the presence of water, which quenches the Barefoot's thirst; a scurrying squirrel turns his eye to a blanket of leaves under which he naps; a deer diverts a crew of Heavy Boots away from this hiding place; and fireflies light the way to the safe house ahead. The vigilant eyes of these deftly rendered creatures peer out from Cole's haunting paintings, cleverly skewed to invoke the animals' ground-hugging perspective on the Barefoot's flight.

Almost No Memory


Lydia Davis - 1997
    In each of these stories, Davis reveals an empathic, sometimes shattering understanding of human relationships.

A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust & Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present


Ward Churchill - 1997
    Here, he explores the history of holocaust and denial in this hemisphere, beginning with the arrival of Columbus and continuing on into the present.He frames the matter by examining both revisionist denial of the Nazi-perpatrated Holocaust and the opposing claim of its exclusive uniqueness, using the full scope of what happened in Europe as a backdrop against which to demonstrate that genocide is precisely what has been--and still is--carried out against the American Indians.Churchill lays bare the means by which many of these realities have remained hidden, how public understanding of this most monstrous of crimes has been subverted not only by its perpetrators and their beneficiaries but by the institutions and individuals who perceive advantages in the confusion. In particular, he outlines the reasons underlying the United States's 40-year refusal to ratify the Genocide Convention, as well as the implications of the attempt to exempt itself from compliance when it finally offered its endorsement.In conclusion, Churchill proposes a more adequate and coherent definition of the crime as a basis for identifying, punishing and preventing genocidal practices, wherever and whenever they occur.

The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis


Ernest R. May - 1997
    It was one of the most dangerous moments in world history. Day by day, for two weeks, an executive committee formed around elements of President Kennedy's National Security Council debated what to do, twice coming to the brink of attacking Soviet military units in Cuba - units equipped for nuclear retaliation. And through it all, unknown to any of the participants except the President himself - and possibly his brother Robert - tape was rolling, capturing for posterity the deliberations that might have ended the world as we know it. These are the full and authenticated transcripts of those audio recordings. Arguably the most important document in the history of the Cuban missile crisis, these transcripts are also a unique window on a drama rarely if ever witnessed by those outside the halls of power: the moment-by-moment decision-making of those with the fate of the West in their hands in a constantly changing, world-threatening situation. At the center of it all is President Kennedy, wary of experts after the debacle of the Bay of Pigs, puzzled and distrustful after confrontation with Khrushchev in Vienna over Berlin, and ever mindful of the responsibility symbolized by the satchel his military aides hold nearby, containing the codes to unleash nuclear warfare. Other participants in the deliberations are identified and put securely into their context by the editors, whose introduction illuminates this singular crisis in a framework spanning several administrations and whose conclusions, incorporating Khrushchev's thinking, show this to be theclimax of the Cold War.

The True Colors of Caitlynne Jackson


Carol Lynch Williams - 1997
    By sticking together and staying out of their mother's way, they manage to make it to school on time, get meals together, and protect one another from their mother's terrifying and seemingly random verbal and physical attacks. A few sympathetic friends, like Brandon from next door, make a big difference. But when their mother storms out of the house with a suitcase and doesn't come back, they have to face a new reality--they can't cope entirely on their own for long. Yet, as Caity comes to realize, there is a lot they can do to take control of their future. This sensitively written novel deals frankly with parental abuse, but is ultimately about the resilience and resourcefulness of young people who beat the odds.

Warrior's Song


Janis Reams Hudson - 1997
    One man has the courage to help her, an enigmatic half-breed who rides into Colorado from nowhere, and finds love to heal all wounds.

Look to the North: A Wolf Pup Diary


Jean Craighead George - 1997
    Lyrical passages in her wolf pup diary describe how the pups tumble and play and when they first learn to howl and talk wolk talk. Readers are reminded of the changes in nature that are happening in the lower 48 states as they "look to the north" to watch the wolf pups grow. Jean George's words and Lucia Washburn's breathtaking paintings give the reader a rare glimpse of one of nature's noblest creatures: the wolf.

Yo' Mama's Disfunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America


Robin D.G. Kelley - 1997
    He undermines widespread misunderstandings of black culture and shows how they have contributed to the failure of social policy to save our cities.

The Second Mayflower


Kevin Swanson - 1997
    This people eventually formed a nation conceived in liberty and blessed by God.Now four hundred years later, their vision has almost faded. Liberty is dying. Humanism dominates. The family, by all indices, has disintegrated. But there still beats within the hearts of a remnant in this nation, the principles of the First Mayflower. In this 300 page manifesto, author Kevin Swanson lays out a vision by which the values of faith, family, and freedom may be salvaged for at least one nation for future generations. The voyage of the Second Mayflower is just beginning.

The Man Made of Words: Essays, Stories, Passages


N. Scott Momaday - 1997
    By exploring such themes as land, language, and self-identity, The Man Made of Words fashions a definition of American literature as it has never been interpreted before.

God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights


Charles Marsh - 1997
    This was the summer when violence against blacks increased at an alarming rate and when the murder of three civil rights workers in Mississippi resulted in national media attention. Charles Marsh takes us back to this place and time, when the lives of activists on all sides of the civil rights issue converged and their images of God clashed. He weaves their voices into a gripping narrative: a Ku Klux Klansman, for example, borrows fiery language from the Bible to link attacks on blacks to his priestly calling; a middle-aged woman describes how the Gospel inspired her to rally other African Americans to fight peacefully for their dignity; a SNCC worker tells of harrowing encounters with angry white mobs and his pilgrimage toward a new racial spirituality called Black Power. Through these emotionally charged stories, Marsh invites us to consider the civil rights movement anew, in terms of religion as a powerful yet protean force driving social action.The book's central figures are Fannie Lou Hamer, who worked for Jesus in civil rights activism; Sam Bowers, the Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi; William Douglas Hudgins, an influential white Baptist pastor and unofficial theologian of the closed society; Ed King, a white Methodist minister and Mississippi native who campaigned to integrate Protestant congregations; and Cleveland Sellers, a SNCC staff member turned black militant.Marsh focuses on the events and religious convictions that led each person into the political upheaval of 1964. He presents an unforgettable American social landscape, one that is by turns shameful and inspiring. In conclusion, Marsh suggests that it may be possible to sift among these narratives and lay the groundwork for a new thinking about racial reconciliation and the beloved community. He maintains that the person who embraces faith's life-affirming energies will leave behind a most powerful legacy of social activism and compassion.-- "Publishers Weekly"

Journey to Zion: Voices from the Mormon Trail


Carol Cornwall Madsen - 1997
    

Miriam's Kitchen


Elizabeth Ehrlich - 1997
    She identified with Jewish cultural attitudes, but not with the institutions; she had fond memories of her Jewish grandmothers, but she found their religious practices irrelevant to her life. It wasn't until she entered the kitchen--and world--of her mother-in-law, Miriam, a Holocaust survivor, that Ehrlich began to understand the importance of preserving the traditions of the past. As Ehrlich looks on, Miriam methodically and lovingly prepares countless kosher meals while relating the often painful stories of her life in Poland and her immigration to America. These stories trigger a kind of religious awakening in Ehrlich, who--as she moves tentatively toward reclaiming the heritage she rejected as a young woman--gains a new appreciation of life?s possibilities, choices, and limitations.

Days of Defiance: Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of the Civil War


Maury Klein - 1997
    . . . Deserves a place in the highest ranks of Civil War scholarship."--The Cleveland Plain DealerIn November 1860, telegraph lines carried the news that Abraham Lincoln had been elected president. Over the next five months the United States drifted, stumbled, and finally plunged into the most destructive war this country has ever faced. With a masterful eye for telling detail, Maury Klein provides fascinating new insights into the period from the election of Abraham Lincoln to the shelling of Fort Sumter.Klein brings the key players in the tragedy unforgettably to life: from the vacillating lame-duck President Buchanan, to the taciturn, elusive, and relatively unknown Abraham Lincoln; from Secretary of State Seward carrying on his own private negotiations with the South, to Major Robert Anderson sitting in his island fortress awaiting reinforcements. Never has this immensely significant moment in our national story been so intelligently of so spellbindingly related.

The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms: American English Idiomatic Expressions & Phrases


Christine Ammer - 1997
      The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms explores the meanings and origins of idioms that may not make literal sense but play an important role in the language—including phrasal verbs such as kick back, proverbs such as too many cooks spoil the broth, interjections such as tough beans, and figures of speech such as elephant in the room.   With extensive revisions that reflect new historical scholarship and changes in the English language, this second edition defines over 10,000 idiomatic expressions in greater detail than any other dictionary available today—a remarkable reference for those studying the English language, or anyone who enjoys learning its many wonderful quirks and expressions.   “Invaluable as a teaching tool.” —School Library Journal

The Literature of the American South: A Norton Anthology


William L. Andrews - 1997
    Featuring the works of eighty-seven classic, contemporary, and newly recovered writers of all genres--poetry, short fiction, drama, novels, autobiography, criticism, sermons, memoirs, journals, and letters--this groundbreaking anthology sheds new light on the creative power of the southern imagination.

Beat Generation in New York: A Walking Tour of Jack Kerouac's City


Bill Morgan - 1997
    This is the ultimate guide to Kerouac's New York, packed with photos of the Beat Generation and filled with undercover information and little-known anecdotes.Eight easy-to-follow walking tours guide you to:Greenwich Village bars and cafés where Kerouac and his friends Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, William Burroughs, Diane di Prima, Gregory Corso, Hettie and LeRoi Jones, John Clellon Holmes, Joyce Johnson, and others read poetry, drank, turned-on, and talked all night long.The Chelsea-district apartment where Jack wrote On the Road.Midtown clubs where Beat poets mingled with artists Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning and listened to jazz and blues greats Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Billie Holiday.Times Square, a magnet for Kerouac and the Beats.Columbia University, where the original Beats first met and began a revolution in American literature and culture.Each tour includes a map of the neighborhood, subway and bus information, and an insider's angle on Jack Kerouac's life in New York. A must for Beat enthusiasts and critics.Bill Morgan is a painter and archival consultant working in New York City. His previous publications include The Works of Allen Ginsberg 1941-1994: A Descriptive Bibliography and Lawrence Ferlinghetti: A Comprehensive Bibliography. He has worked as an archivist for Allen Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman, and Timothy Leary.

Punia and the King of the Sharks


Lee Wardlaw - 1997
    Three times Punia tricks the King of Sharks, the guardian of the lobster cave; three times he brings home fresh lobster. But each time Punia succeeds, the King of Sharks gets angrier. Will the shark take revenge on Punia, or will Punia's clever tricks make him the hero of his whole village. Full color.

Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort


Chip Berlet - 1997
    While such groups are often portrayed as marginal extremists, the values they espouse have influenced mainstream politics and culture far more than most Americans realize. This important volume offers an in-depth look at the historical roots and current landscape of right-wing populism in the United States. Illuminated is the potent combination of anti-elitist rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and ethnic scapegoating that has fueled many political movements from the colonial period to the present day. The book examines the Jacksonians, the Ku Klux Klan, and a host of Cold War nationalist cliques, and relates them to the evolution of contemporary electoral campaigns of Patrick Buchanan, the militancy of the Posse Comitatus and the Christian Identity movement, and an array of millennial sects. Combining vivid description and incisive analysis, Berlet and Lyons show how large numbers of disaffected Americans have embraced right-wing populism in a misguided attempt to challenge power relationships in U.S. society. Highlighted are the dangers these groups pose for the future of our political system and the hope of progressive social change. Winner--Outstanding Book Award, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America

Solemn Duty


Leonard B. Scott - 1997
    They are truly a mismatched pair: Sutton is a by-the- book, competent, tough, smart feminist; Tanner is a confident, competent, take-charge, battle-scarred Neanderthal.But their days of action are far from over—especially when Tanner suspects that a “suicide” at Fort Benning is actually murder, leading him and Sutton to uncover a chilling series of killings tied to a betrayal in Cambodia in 1969.A thrilling read for those who like their action hot, Solemn Duty is a roller-coaster ride through a landscape of carnage and death, as Cambodian hit men, the Chinese mafia, and the FBI vie to outdo one another in an ultimate life-or-death climax…

Hatteras Light


Philip Gerard - 1997
    For generations these men have drawn their livelihood from the sea, served in the rescue of shipwreck victims, and guarded seagoers from the hazardous shoals. Their wives and daughters endure a difficult, solitary life, their fortitude constantly tested. Loyal to one another and to a traditional way of life, the islanders are suspicious of outsiders and censorious of those who leave. The insular world of these Hatterasmen disrupts when a German U-boat reveals itself offshore, indiscriminately sinking civilian and military vessels, challenging the courage of the lifesavers, and signaling the dawning of a darker, less honorable age. Over a few crucial days, we become intimate with these men and women, and with the German officers aboard U-55 who have made the islanders' lives hell. What emerges is an adventure story full of wisdom and compassion, a novel unfailingly accurate in portraying the struggle of man and sea, man against man, and of men and women. Based on historical fact, Philip Gerard's novel is a powerful book whose storytelling represents the most human tendencies in life and art.Philip Gerard is the author of five novels and eight books of nonfiction, including Down the Wild Cape Fear: A River Journey Through the Heart of North Carolina and The Patron Saint of Dreams, winner of the 2012 North American Gold Medal in Essay/Creative Nonfiction from The Independent Publisher.

Pragmatism: A Reader


Louis Menand - 1997
    But since its birth was announced a century ago in 1898 by William James, pragmatism has played a vital role in almost every area of American intellectual and cultural life, inspiring judges, educators, politicians, poets, and social prophets.Now the major texts of American pragmatism, from William James and John Dewey to Richard Rorty and Cornel West, have been brought together and reprinted unabridged. From the first generation of pragmatists, including the Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and the founder of semiotics, Charles Sanders Peirce, to the leading figures in the contemporary pragmatist revival, including the philosopher Hilary Putnam, the jurist Richard Posner, and the literary critic Richard Poirier, all the contributors to this volume are remarkable for the wit and vigor of their prose and the mind-clearing force of their ideas. Edited and with an Introduction by Louis Menand, Pragmatism: A Reader will provide both the general reader and the student of American culture with excitement and pleasure.

May Sky: There Is Always Tomorrow : An Anthology of Japanese American Concentration Camp Kaiko Haiku (Sun & Moon Classics)


Violet Kazue De Cristoforo - 1997
    Violet Kazue de Cristoforo was a young girl when she joined the Valley Ginsha Haiku Kai of Fresno before World War II. Two of the California free verse poetry clubs, the Valley Ginsha and the Delta Ginsha of Stockton, owed their existence to the haiku masters Neiji Ozawa and Kyotaro Komuro. But suddenly with the outbreak of World War II, the members of these clubs, along with thousands of other Japanese Americans, were sent to internment centers. Some were sent to the swamplands of Arkansas, others to Arizona, California, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. Yet despite their separation and dispersal, the clubs continued to survive and had an enormous cultural and spiritual impact upon the members of the internment camps and centers. May Sky: There Is Always Tomorrow is an account of the significant contribution made by the haiku writers to wartime literature. Through years of research and study, de Cristoforo has tracked down most of the haiku members of the different camps and documented their activities. Equally importantly, she had chosen a large selection of haiku written in the camps and translated them into English. This significant collection presents a large selection of these works in the original nihongo (Japanese) and romaji (Japanese written in the Latin alphabet) in addition to the English.

African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles


Allan D. Austin - 1997
    Allan D. Austin explores, via portraits, documents, maps, and texts, the lives of 50 sub-Saharan non-peasant Muslim Africans caught in the slave trade between 1730 and 1860. Also includes five maps.

The Nearby Faraway A Personal Journey Through The Heart Of The West


David Petersen - 1997
    A rich and moving collection from one of the west's most down-to-earth writers.

Willeford


Don Herron - 1997
    "Willeford" is the first extensive critical appreciation of the life and writing of Charles Willeford (1919-1988), author of "Miami Blues, The Burnt Orange Heresy" and "Cockfighter." From his early Depression-era experiences as a teen-age hobo, through his twenty-year enlistment in the Army and Air Force (including his role as a tank commander with Patton's Third Army, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge), his years of struggle in the paperback original jungle, to a final triumph with his series of crime novels about Miami homicide inspector Hoke Moseley, this book tells his story.

Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History


Rogers M. Smith - 1997
    citizenship the product of multiple traditions—not only liberalism and republicanism but also white supremacy, Anglo-Saxon supremacy, Protestant supremacy, and male supremacy? In this powerful and disturbing book, Rogers Smith traces political struggles over U.S. citizenship laws from the colonial period through the Progressive era and shows that throughout this time, most adults were legally denied access to full citizenship, including political rights, solely because of their race, ethnicity, or gender. Basic conflicts over these denials have driven political development and civic membership in the U.S., Smith argues. These conflicts are what truly define U.S. civic identity up to this day.Others have claimed that nativist, racist, and sexist traditions have been marginal or that they are purely products of capitalist institutions. In contrast, Smith’s pathbreaking account explains why these traditions have been central to American political and economic life. He shows that in the politics of nation building, principles of democracy and liberty have often failed to foster a sense of shared "peoplehood" and have instead led many Americans to claim that they are a "chosen people," a "master race" or superior culture, with distinctive gender roles. Smith concludes that today the United States is in a period of reaction against the egalitarian civic reforms of the last generation, with nativist, racist, and sexist beliefs regaining influence. He suggests ways that proponents of liberal democracy should alter their view of U.S. citizenship in order to combat these developments more effectively.

The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy


Loretto Dennis Szucs - 1997
    But as the opportunities to explore records and other resources grow, so does the need to understand the myriad ways to access and learn from those records and resources. Like its predecessors, this edition of The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy discusses the wealth of sources available to researchers and provides timely advice on how to use them. The world of family history research, however, is much different than when the previous edition was released. The Internet, enhanced computer technologies, and other advancements have changed the genealogical landscape in the last ten years. The expert contributors to this volume not only explore these new online resources, they also remind the reader that the fundamentals of family history research remain unchanged.Named the American Library Association's Best Reference for its first edition back in 1984, The Source is an indispensable part of any family history library. Written by industry innovators, each section gets to the heart of the topic, giving readers and researchers a personal, how-to lesson in family history. Now, with this third edition, The Source maintains its role as the Standard that all other family history and genealogy guides strive to achieve. It's the one family history reference you'll reach for over and over again.

Pier Queen


Emanuel Xavier - 1997
    Emanuel Xavier's 1997 self-published debut collection of poetry which paved the way for his 1999 debut Lambda Literary Award nominated novel, CHRIST-LIKE.

No Color Is My Kind: The Life of Eldrewey Stearns and the Integration of Houston


Thomas R. Cole - 1997
    In 1984, Thomas Cole discovered Eldrewey Stearns in a Galveston psychiatric hospital. Stearns, a fifty-two-year-old black man, complained that although he felt very important, no one understood him. Over the course of the next decade, Cole and Stearns, in a tumultuous and often painful collaboration, recovered Stearns' life before his slide into madness--as a young boy in Galveston and San Augustine and as a civil rights leader and lawyer who sparked Houston's desegregation movement between 1959 and 1963. While other southern cities rocked with violence, Houston integrated its public accommodations peacefully. In these pages appear figures such as Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Jr., Leon Jaworski, and Dan Rather, all of whom--along with Stearns--maneuvered and conspired to integrate the city quickly and calmly. Weaving the tragic story of a charismatic and deeply troubled leader into the record of a major historic event, Cole also explores his emotionally charged collaboration with Stearns. Their poignant relationship sheds powerful and healing light on contemporary race relations in America, and especially on issues of power, authority, and mental illness.

The Fountain of Highlandtown: Stories


Rafael Alvarez - 1997
    

Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen: A Biography


Jervis Anderson - 1997
    Written with complete access to Rustin's personal papers, this biography delves into the character of this influential man. Photos.

The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives


Zbigniew Brzeziński - 1997
    Yet the critical question facing America remains unanswered: What should be the nation's global strategy for maintaining its exceptional position in the world? Zbigniew Brzezinski tackles this question head-on in this incisive and pathbreaking book.The Grand Chessboard presents Brzezinski's bold and provocative geostrategic vision for American preeminence in the twenty-first century. Central to his analysis is the exercise of power on the Eurasian landmass, which is home to the greatest part of the globe's population, natural resources, and economic activity. Stretching from Portugal to the Bering Strait, from Lapland to Malaysia, Eurasia is the ”grand chessboard” on which America's supremacy will be ratified and challenged in the years to come. The task facing the United States, he argues, is to manage the conflicts and relationships in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East so that no rival superpower arises to threaten our interests or our well-being.The heart of The Grand Chessboard is Brzezinski's analysis of the four critical regions of Eurasia and of the stakes for America in each arena—Europe, Russia, Central Asia, and East Asia. The crucial fault lines may seem familiar, but the implosion of the Soviet Union has created new rivalries and new relationships, and Brzezinski maps out the strategic ramifications of the new geopolitical realities. He explains, for example: Why France and Germany will play pivotal geostrategic roles, whereas Britain and Japan will not. Why NATO expansion offers Russia the chance to undo the mistakes of the past, and why Russia cannot afford to toss this opportunity aside. Why the fate of Ukraine and Azerbaijan are so important to America. Why viewing China as a menace is likely to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why America is not only the first truly global superpower but also the last—and what the implications are for America's legacy. Brzezinski's surprising and original conclusions often turn conventional wisdom on its head as he lays the groundwork for a new and compelling vision of America's vital interests. Once, again, Zbigniew Brzezinski provides our nation with a philosophical and practical guide for maintaining and managing our hard-won global power.

Map Guide to American Migration Routes, 1735-1815


William Dollarhide - 1997
    The maps have come from a variety of dubious sources. Yet genealogists need to locate and understand the early American migration routes their ancestors may have traveled. In this book, William Dollarhide shows early American migration routes with well-researched and consistently drawn maps. The routes explored begin with the King's Highway of 1735 from Boston to Charleston and end with the roads that resulted from the War of 1812 in the Old Southwest. These maps provide critical information for genealogists trying to locate the passages of early migration in America. The publication familiarizes readers about why and when the earliest wagon roads became available by discussing the significant historical events that led to the opening of new settlements. The wagon roads appear in chronological order so anyone can see why and when the earliest wagon roads were developed in America.

Arab Detroit: From Margin to Mainstream


Nabeel Abraham - 1997
    In this volume, Nabeel Abraham and Andrew Shryock bring together the work of twenty-five contributors to create a richly detailed portrait of Arab Detroit. The book goes behind the bulletproof glass in Iraqi Chaldean liquor stores. It explores the role of women in a Sunni mosque and the place of nationalist politics in a Coptic church. It follows the careers of wedding singers, Arabic calligraphers, restaurant owners, and pastry chefs. It examines the agendas of Shia Muslim activists and Washington-based lobbyists and looks at the intimate politics of marriage, family honor, and adolescent rebellion. Memoirs and poems by Lebanese, Chaldean, Yemeni, and Palestinian writers anchor the book in personal experience, while over fifty photographs provide a backdrop of vivid, often unexpected, images. In their efforts to represent an ethnic/immigrant community that is flourishing on the margins of pluralist discourse, the contributors to this book break new ground in the study of identity politics, transnationalism, and diaspora cultures.

Pack of Lies: A Trilogy


Gilbert Sorrentino - 1997
    Beginning with a series of interrogations (we never do find out why they are being conducted) about characters drawn from other Sorrentino novels and concluding with the reappearance of the same characters, Pack of Lies is Gilbert Sorrentino's testament to the supremacy of the imagination, a critique of the state of art and society, and a vicious comedy portraying a world of fraud and mayhem.

Dra–


Stacey Levine - 1997
    She isn't sure what kind of job, or where, or what its purpose is, she only knows she must find one. Dra- wanders through the bleak, labyrinthine corridors of some great unnamed workplace getting unsolicited advice, which sounds more like seduction or therapy than career counseling, from characters with names such as Manager and Administrator and Nurse. The quirkiness and clarity of Stacey Levine's language, the comedy and darkness of her vision, mark her as a worthy heir of Jane Bowles.

Resurrection: The Struggle for a New Russia


David Remnick - 1997
    From the siege of Parliament to the farcically tilted elections of 1996, from the rubble of Grozny to the grandiose wealth and naked corruption of today's Moscow, Remnick chronicles a society so racked by change that its citizens must daily ask themselves who they are, where they belong, and what they believe in. Remnick composes this panorama out of dozens of finely realized individual portraits. Here is Mikhail Gorbachev, his head still swimming from his plunge from reverence to ridicule. Here is Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the half-Jewish anti-Semite who conducts politics as loony performance art. And here is Boris Yeltsin, the tottering populist who is not above stealing elections. In Resurrection, they become the players in a drama so vast and moving that it deserves comparison with the best reportage of George Orwell and Michael Herr."This is what happens when a good writer unleashes eye and ear on a story that moves with the speed of light. Resurrection has the feel of describing vast, historical change even as it is happening."--Chicago Tribune