Set in the remote arctic region of Northern Canada, this booktakes readers on a harrowing canoe voyage that results in tragedy,redemption, and, ultimately, transformation. George Grinnell wasone of six young men who set off on the 1955 expedition led byexperienced wilderness canoeist Art Moffatt. Poorly planned andexecuted, the journey seemed doomed from the start. Ignoring theapproaching winter, the men became entranced with the peace andbeauty of the arctic in autumn. As winter closed in, they suddenlyfaced numbing cold and dwindling food. When the crew is swept overa waterfall, Moffatt is killed and most of the gear and emergencyfood supplies destroyed. Confronting freezing conditions and nearstarvation, the remaining crew struggled to make it back tocivilization. For Grinnell, the three-month expedition was both arite of passage and a spiritual odyssey. In the Barrens, he losthis sense of identity and what he had been conditioned to thinkabout society and himself. Forever changed by the experience,

An elegantly designed, beautifully composed volume of personalletters from famous American men and women that celebrates theAmerican Experience and illuminates the rich history of some ofAmerica’s most storied families. Posterity is at once an epistolary chronicle of America and afascinating glimpse into the hearts and minds of some of history’smost admired figures. Spanning more than three centuries, theseletters contain enduring lessons in life and love, character andcompassion that will surprise and enlighten. Included here are letters from Thomas Jefferson to his daughter,warning her of the evils of debt; General Patton on D-Day to hisson, a cadet at West Point, about what it means to be a goodsoldier; W.E.B. DuBois to his daughter about character beneath thecolor of skin; Oscar Hammerstein about why, after all his success,he doesn’t stop working; Woody Guthrie from a New Jersey asylum tonine-year-old Arlo about universal human frailty;sixty-five-year-old Laura Ingalls Wilder’s

Now in paperback, this compelling saga reveals - throughletters, diaries, news articles, prose, and poetry - how women madeenormous contributions to every era in American history, from thefirst Native American women in the 1600s to the women suffragistswho won the vote in 1920. Donna Lucey takes readers on a tourthrough American history through the eyes of its women. Gorgeousphotographs and paintings accompany the stories, diary excerpts,letters, newspaper articles, and first person accounts that tellAmerican history in this unique way. The book covers the years1600, when only Native American women populated America, to 1920,when women won the vote. Seven thematic chapters comprise acomprehensive timeline of American history: Native American Women,Colonial Women, Women Enslaved, Plantation Mistresses, WesteringWomen, Women of the Gilded Age, and Women of the 20th Century. Eachchapter addresses women in war, the arts, politics, social reform,philanthropy, and suffrage - telling simultaneously the story ofthat

In this profound and fascinating book, the authors revisit anoverlooked Supreme Court decision that changed forever how justiceis carried out in the United States. In 1906, Ed Johnson was the innocnet black man found guilty ofthe brutal rape of Nevada Taylor, a white woman, and sentenced todie in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Two black lawyers, not even part ofthe original defense, appealed to the Supreme Court for a stay ofexecution, and the stay, incredibly, was granted. Frenzied withrage at the deision, locals responded by lynching Johnson, and whatensued was a breathtaking whirlwind of groundbreaking legal actionwhose import, Thurgood Marshall would claim, "has never been fullyexplained." Provocative, thorough, and gripping, Contempt of Courtis a long-overdue look at events that clearly depict the peculiarand tenuous relationship between justice and the law.

Operation Family Secrets is the chilling true story ofhow the son of the most violent mobster in Chicago made theunprecedented decision to work with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’sOffice to incriminate his own father and to help bring down thelast great American crime syndicate—the one-hundred-year-oldChicago Outfit. The Calabrese family of Chicago is a close-knit, middle-class,multi-generational Italian-Irish-American clan. They operate familybusinesses. They work day and night striving for the AmericanDream. All three sons forge a bond with their controlling father,Frank Sr., and their soft-spoken favorite uncle, Nick. As a boy,the oldest son, Frank Jr., realizes that his father and uncle arealso “made” members of another close-knit family: the outfit. In Operation Family Secrets FrankCalabrese, Jr., tells the turbulent tale of a family dominated by aviolent patriarch who breaks a longstanding unwritten outfit codeand “brings the street into his home” by enlisting two of his sonsinto

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.

Presenting the first real investigation of what male sexualassault survivors themselves identify as most important duringvarious stages of recovery, Leaping upon the Mountains containspowerfully moving contributions from hundreds of men of all agesand backgrounds throughout the United States and 45 othercountries. It is not a work of fiction, but a compilation of manytruths, many realities—a quilt pieced together from men'sexperiences—forming an impressively triumphant pattern. Takentogether, they state, lucidly and forcefully, that recovery workproduces changes that are real, important, and permanent. Leapingupon the Mountains is a celebration of successful recovery. Readers of Leaping upon the Mountains will discover: ? Insights and resources for all stages of recovery ? Encouraging and inspiring messages from other malesurvivors ? A large updated resource section providing concrete help tosurvivors and professionals ? Ways of reconnecting with their own strength and

Designed to help parents avoid the miseducation of youngchildren. Dr. Elkind shows us the very real difference between themind of a pre-school child and that of a school age child.

From an award-winning New York Times investigative reportercomes an outrageous story of greed, corruption, andconspiracy—which left the FBI and Justice Department counting onthe cooperation of one man . . . It was one of the FBI's biggest secrets: a senior executive withAmerica's most politically powerful corporation, Archer DanielsMidland, had become a confidential government witness, secretlyrecording a vast criminal conspiracy spanning five continents. MarkWhitacre, the promising golden boy of ADM, had put his career andfamily at risk to wear a wire and deceive his friends andcolleagues. Using Whitacre and a small team of agents to tap intothe secrets at ADM, the FBI discovered the company's scheme tosteal millions of dollars from its own customers. But as the FBI and federal prosecutors closed in on ADM, usingstakeouts, wiretaps, and secret recordings of illegal meetingsaround the world, they suddenly found that everything was not allthat it appeared. At the same time Whitacre was coo

“No writer better articulates ourinterest in the confluence ofhope, eccentricity, and the timelessness of the bold and strangethan Paul Collins.”—DAVE EGGERS On Long Island, a farmer finds a duck pond turned red with blood.On the Lower East Side, two boys playing at a pier discover afloating human torso wrapped tightly in oilcloth. Blueberry pickersnear Harlem stumble upon neatly severed limbs in an overgrownditch. Clues to a horrifying crime are turning up all over NewYork, but the police are baffled: There are no witnesses, nomotives, no suspects. The grisly finds that began on the afternoon of June 26, 1897,plunged detectives headlong into the era’s most baffling murder mystery. Seized uponby battling media moguls Joseph Pulitzer and William RandolphHearst, the case became a publicity circus. Reenactments of themurder were staged in Times Square, armed reporters lurked in thestreets of Hell’s Kitchen in pursuit of suspects, and an unlikelytrio—a hard-luck cop, a cub reporter, and an eccentri

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

Circle of Greed is the epic story of the rise and fall of BillLerach, once the leading class action lawyer in America and now aconvicted felon. For more than two decades, Lerach threatened,shook down and sued top Fortune 500 companies, including Disney,Apple, Time Warner, and—most famously—Enron. Now, the man whobrought corporate moguls to their knees has fallen prey to the samecorrupt impulses of his enemies, and is paying the price by servingtime in federal prison. If there was ever a modern Greek tragedy about a man and his times,about corporate arrogance and illusions and the scorched-earthtactics to not only counteract corporate America but to beat it atits own game, Bill Lerach's story is it.

“I remember Sarah asking me, when I’d just begun therapy withher, what I looked for in a man. After a few moments ofsilent, tense deliberation I had it. ‘Hair,’ I blurted. ‘Hehas to have hair.’” Meredith Baxter is a beloved and iconic television actress, mostwell-known for her enormously popular role as hippie mom, ElyseKeaton, on Family Ties. Her warmth, humor, and brilliant smile madeher one of the most popular women on television, with millions ofviewers following her on the small screen each week. Yet hersuccess masked a tumultuous personal story and a harrowing privatelife. For the first time, Baxter is ready to share her incrediblehighs, (working with Robert Redford, Doris Day, Lana Turner, andthe cast of Family Ties), and lows (a thorny relationship with hermother, a difficult marriage to David Birney, a bout with breastcancer), finally revealing the woman behind the image. From her childhood in Hollywood, growing up the daughter ofactress and co-creator of One Day at

James Ray Renton—thief, counterfeiter, and bank robber—becameone of America’s Ten Most Wanted Men when he was charged withmurdering a young Arkansas policeman in 1976. After a daring escapefrom the Tucker Maximum Security Unit in the 1980s, Renton made theFBI’s Fifteen Most Wanted List before eventually being recaptured.Then, while in solitary confinement, Renton wrote a 60-page accountof his escape and adventures, sent in a series of letters to DannyLyon, a close friend of Renton’s since they had met in the Texasprison system in 1967. After Renton’s death in 1995, Lyon visited the Arkansas townwhere Renton had been convicted. Following an incredible papertrail left behind by the crime and 1978 trial (in which Lyon hadtestified), Lyon located Dinker Cassel, who was sentenced to lifealong with Renton for the murder. Like a Thief’s Dream is Lyon’sgripping story of two men—one alive, the other dead—and anunparalleled portrayal of prison life in the 1980s and 1990s. Atale of murde

The FIRST robotics competition, started by genius inventorDean Kamen in hopes of jump-starting American innovation andcreating the next generation's version of Bill Gates and SteveJobs, has become a worldwide phenomenon—and regularly spursstudents and teachers to accomplishments they never dreamedpossible. In The New Cool, acclaimed author NealBascomb follows one ragtag team of high school competitors who areled by a charismatic physics teacher named Amir Abo-Shaeer(Abo-Shaeer is the first high school teacher to win the MacArthur“Genius” Award). In a marathon effort of sixteen-hour daysand mind-bending engineering hurdles, the team struggles to buildtheir robot and fight their way toward the nationalchampionship. As the season progresses, these ordinarystudents—thanks in large part to one extraordinary teacher—discoveruntapped reserves of resourcefulness and strength. The New Cool is not just the story of the FIRSTprogram and what it means for an America struggling to extend itsh