Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the UnitedStates, tells his personal stories about more than thirty years offighting for social change, from teaching at Spelman College torecent protests against war. A former bombardier in WWII, Zinn emerged in the civil rightsmovement as a powerful voice for justice. Although he's a fiercecritic, he gives us reason to hope that by learning from historyand engaging politically, we can make a difference in theworld.

If you follow politics or the news, America is a country ofculture wars and great divides, a partisan place of red states andblue states, of us against them. From pundits to politicians itseems that anyone with an audience sees a polarized country - acountry at war with itself. In a radical departure from this "conventional wisdom," CarlAnderson explores what the talking heads have missed: anoverwhelming American consensus on many of the country's seeminglymost divisive issues. If the debates are shrill in public, he says,there is a quiet consensus in private - one that America'sinstitutions ignore at their peril. From health care, to the roleof religion in America, to abortion, to the importance oftraditional ethics in business and society, Anderson uses freshpolling data and keen insight in BEYOND A HOUSE DIVIDED toshow that a surprising consensus has emerged despite these debates.He sheds light on what's been missing in the public and politicaldebates of the last several years: the consensus that isn't ha

In 1787, the beautiful Lucia is married off to AlviseMocenigo, scion of one of the most powerful Venetian families. Buttheir life as a golden couple will be suddenly transformed whenVenice falls to Bonaparte. We witness Lucia's painful series ofmiscarriages and the pressure on her to produce an heir; herimpassioned affair with an Austrian officer; the glamour and strainof her career as a hostess in Vienna; and her amazing firsthandaccount of the defeat of Napoleon in 1814. With his brave andarticulate heroine, Andrea di Robilant has once again reachedacross the centuries, and deep into his own past, to bring historyto rich and vivid life on the page.

Following up on The Power of Nice, agent-attorney Shapiro andfellow negotiator Jankowski reiterate that book's tenets:Neutralize your emotions and stay rational; Identify the type ofdifficult person; Control the encounter; and Explore options. Usingexamples from their own lives as well as pop culture, they offeranecdotes and tips for analysis. The "situationally difficult"person may be temporarily overreacting, so empathy can be a sureroad to cordial defusion. The "strategically difficult" arecalculating (passive-aggressive, take it or leave it, etc.), butcan be countered if you pleasantly, even humorously make them awareyou're onto their game. The "simply difficult," using power as animperative (irrational, bullying, duplicitous, etc.) are thetoughest, but those facing them must recognize their ownpower—including the option to just walk away, a decision that mustbe approached carefully. While the title may be the best thingabout the book, its tips on steering toward win-win situations aremore than p

For the Earth to move to the next vibration, says RichardGrossinger, consciousness must change in profound ways, and theseinvolve core elements of humanity: evil, grief, bliss, andcompassion. 2013 locates these elements in often unlikely placesand seeks their nature and capacity for change. With playfulnessand precision, 2013 tackles the questions of creation and existencein their twenty-first-century incarnation. In these intellectualfield notes, the author’s absorbing style combines memoir withscientific deconstruction, metaphysical ontology, and experimentalprose that recalls the Black Mountain school to draw transcendentalinsight from the ephemeral space-time we call daily life. Movingwith equal ease between matters cosmic and earthly, Grossingerdetails existence as an exhilarating adventure always pushing ustoward a higher state in this wide-ranging, humorous, and heartfeltbook. Including an informal course in psychic development, 2013sheds light on the ephemera of planets and iPods, politics an

Ever since its publication in 1941, The Mind of the South hasbeen recognized as a path-breaking work of scholarship and as aliterary achievement of enormous eloquence and insight in its ownright. From its investigation of the Southern class system to itspioneering assessments of the region's legacies of racism,religiosity, and romanticism, W. J. Cash's book defined the way inwhich millions of readers -- on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line-- would see the South for decades to come. This new,fiftieth-anniversary edition of The Mind of the South includes anincisive analysis of Cash himself and of his crucial place in thehistory of modern Southern letters.

The effects of war refuse to remain local: they persistthrough the centuries, sometimes in unlikely ways far removed fromthe military arena. In Ripples of Battle , the acclaimed historianVictor Davis Hanson weaves wide-ranging military and culturalhistory with his unparalleled gift for battle narrative as heilluminates the centrality of war in the human experience. The Athenian defeat at Delium in 424 BC brought tacticalinnovations to infantry fighting; it also assured the influence ofthe philosophy of Socrates, who fought well in the battle. Nearlytwenty-three hundred years later, the carnage at Shiloh and thedeath of the brilliant Southern strategist Albert Sidney Johnsoninspired a sense of fateful tragedy that would endure and stymieSouthern culture for decades. The Northern victory would alsobolster the reputation of William Tecumseh Sherman, and inspire LewWallace to pen the classic Ben Hur . And, perhaps most resonant forour time, the agony of Okinawa spurred the Japanese towardstate-sanct

Sherman's March is the vivid narrative of General William T.Sherman's devastating sweep through Georgia and the Carolinas inthe closing days of the Civil War. Weaving together hundreds ofeyewitness stories, Burke Davis graphically brings to life thedramatic experiences of the 65,000 Federal troops who plunderedtheir way through the South and those of the anguished -- and oftendefiant -- Confederate women and men who sought to protectthemselves and their family treasures, usually in vain. Dominatingthese events is the general himself -- "Uncle Billy" to his troops,the devil incarnate to the Southerners he encountered.

The political memoiras rousing adventure story—a sizzling account of a life lived inthe thick of every important struggle of the era. April 1973: snow falls thick and fast on the Badlands ofSouth Dakota. It has been more than five weeks since protestingSioux Indians seized their historic village of Wounded Knee, andthe FBI shows no signs of abandoning its siege. When Bill Zimmermanis asked to coordinate an airlift of desperately needed food andmedical supplies, he cannot refuse; flying through gunfire and amechanical malfunction, he carries out a daring dawn raid andsuccess?0?2fully parachutes 1,500 pounds of food into the village.The drop breaks the FBI siege, and assures an Indian victory. This was not the first—or last—time Bill Zimmerman put his life atrisk for the greater social good. In this extraordi?0?2nary memoir,Zimmerman takes us into the hearts and minds of those making thesocial revolution of the sixties. He writes about registering blackvoters in deepest, most racist Mississippi; marc

Before writing his award-winning Going After Cacciato ,Tim O'Brien gave us this intensely personal account of his year asa foot soldier in Vietnam. The author takes us with him toexperience combat from behind an infantryman's rifle, to walk theminefields of My Lai, to crawl into the ghostly tunnels, and toexplore the ambiguities of manhood and morality in a war goneterribly wrong. Beautifully written and searingly heartfelt, IfI Die in a Combat Zone is a masterwork of its genre.

Nominated for the National Book Award, this book is set incolonial Massachusetts where, in 1704, a French and Indian warparty descended on the village of Deerfield, abducting a Puritanminister and his children. Although John Williams was eventuallyreleased, his daughter horrified the family by staying with hercaptors and marrying a Mohawk husband.

Esteemed historians of education David Tyack, Carl Kaestle,Diane Ravitch, James Anderson, and Larry Cuban journey throughhistory and across the nation to recapture the idealism of oureducation pioneers, Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann. We learn how,in the first quarter of the twentieth century, massive immigration,child labor laws, and the explosive growth of cities fueled schoolattendance and transformed public education, and how in the 1950spublic schools became a major battleground in the fight forequality for minorities and women. The debate rages on: Do today'sreforms challenge our forebears' notion of a common school for allAmericans? Or are they our only recourse today? This lavishly illustrated companion book to the acclaimed PBSdocumentary, School, is essential reading for anyone who caresabout public education.

Before the White House and Air Force One, before the TV adsand the enormous rallies, there was the real Barack Obama: a manwrestling with the momentous decision to run for the presidency,feeling torn about leaving behind a young family, and figuring outhow to win the biggest prize in politics. This book is the previously untold and epic story of how apolitical newcomer with no money and an alien name grew into theworld’s most powerful leader. But it is also a uniquely intimateportrait of the person behind the iconic posters and the SecretService code name Renegade. Drawing on a dozen unplugged interviews with the candidate andpresident, as well as twenty-one months covering his campaign as ittraveled from coast to coast, Richard Wolffe answers the simple yetenduring question about Barack Obama: Who is he? Based on Wolffe’s unprecedented access to Obama, Renegade reveals the making of a president, both on the campaign trail andbefore he ran for high office. It explains how the politician whoemerged in

Here's the book you'llwish you read before your very first date. Renowned relationshipexpert Barbara de Angelis, Ph .d ?0?2?0?2reveals: -Secrets about sex that men will never tell you -Which men spell trouble from the start -How to get the man you love to open up -The six biggest mistakes women make with men -The five biggest mysteries about men -What men say versus what they really mean -Why men always want to be right -Men's top twenty sexual turn-offs -How to get as much as you give How much do you really know about men and sex? Take the quizzes andsee. Here are exercises, checklists, dos, dont's, andproven-effective tools and techniques that can turn you into a morepowerful woman and absolutely transform your relationships withmen.

Discover the Rewards of Homeschooling Your Teen ?Create unlimited learning on a limited budget ?Discover teaching methods for teens with different learningstyles ?Utilize the best resources and technology ?Prepare your teen for college, career, and adult life The teen years can be the most exciting time in your child'slife. He or she is becoming an independent young adult andbeginning to make decisions for the future. Yet growing concernabout the negative social pressures, safety, and efficiency of ourtraditional high schools has prompted many parents just like you toteach their teenagers at home. With Homeschooling: The Teen Yearsas your guide, you'll discover it's not as daunting a task asyou've been led to believe. Using real-life stories from dozens offamilies, this book reveals the secrets of making homeschoolingwork for you and your teen. You'll discover how to: ?Work with your teen to create a unique, individual learningexperience ?Make coursework intere