In May 1787, in an atmosphere of crisis, delegates met inPhiladelphia to design a radically new form of government.Distinguished historian Richard Beeman captures as never before thedynamic of the debate and the characters of the men who laboredthat historic summer. Virtually all of the issues in dispute—theextent of presidential power, the nature of federalism, and, mostexplosive of all, the role of slavery—have continued to provokeconflict throughout our nation's history. This unprecedented booktakes readers behind the scenes to show how the world's mostenduring constitution was forged through conflict, compromise, andfragile consensus. As Gouverneur Morris, delegate of Pennsylvania,noted: "While some have boasted it as a work from Heaven, othershave given it a less righteous origin. I have many reasons tobelieve that it is the work of plain, honest men."

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

The Ultimate Guide to Surviving and Thriving in the Dorm Dorm life offers you a great chance to meet new people and trynew things. But leaving the comforts of home for the first time toenter the roommate-having, small-room-sharing,possibly-coed-bathroom-using world of the dorms can be overwhelmingand intimidating. The College Dorm Survival Guide offers expert advice and theinside scoop on: ? Choosing the right residence hall for you ? Getting along with your roommate (and handling conflict) ? Bathroom, laundry, and dining hall survival ? Dealing with stress, depression, and safety issues From avoiding the dreaded Freshman 15 to decorating your space,this informative and funny guide gives experts' advice oneverything you need to know to enjoy dorm living to thefullest.

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.

Finally, homeschoolers have a comprehensive guide to designinga homeschool curriculum, from one of the country's foremosthomeschooling experts. , Rebecca Rupp presents a structured plan toensure that your children will learn what they need to know whenthey need to know it, from preschool through high school. Based onthe traditional pre-K through 12th-grade structure, Home LearningYear by Year features: The integral subjects to be covered within each grade Standards for knowledge that should be acquired by your child ateach level Recommended books to use as texts for every subject Guidelines for the importance of each topic: which knowledge isessential and which is best for more expansive study based on yourchild's personal interests Suggestions for how to sensitively approach less academic subjects,such as sex education and physical fitness

One day in Ventura, California, Jonell McLain saw a beautifuldiamond necklace in a jewelry store window and wondered: Why arepersonal luxuries so plentiful yet accessible to so few? What if weshared what we desired? Several weeks, dozens of phone calls, andone great leap of faith later, Jonell and twelve other women boughtthe necklace together–to be passed along among them all. The dazzling treasure weaves in and out of each woman’s life,reflecting her past, defining her present, making promises for herfuture. Lending sparkle in surprising and unexpected ways, thenecklace comes to mean something dramatically different to each ofthe thirteen women. With vastly dissimilar histories and lives,they transcend their individual personalities and politics to jointogether in an uncommon journey–and what started as a quirky socialexperiment becomes something far richer and deeper.

David Dornstein was twenty-five years old, with dreams ofbecoming a great writer, when he boarded Pan Am Flight 103 onDecember 21, 1988. Thirty-eight minutes after takeoff, a terroristbomb ripped the plane apart over Lockerbie, Scotland. Almost adecade later, Ken Dornstein set out to solve the riddle of hisolder brother’s life, using the notebooks and manu*s thatDavid left behind. In the process, he also began to create a newlife of his own. The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky is theunforgettable story of one man’s search for the truth about hisbrother--and himself.

The cyberspace revolution, globalization, and the ever more rapid pace at which new knowledge is created are among the recent developments which challenge our universities. While they have adapted rather slowly in the past to changing circumstances, there is now an urgent need for them to adjust rapidly in order to fulfill their mission. Success will heavily depend on the presence of an appropriate system of governance, which is becoming more complex as the cyberspace revolution makes university structures less hierarchical. This book examines the contours and dimensions of university governance in research-intensive universities, seeks to develop cogent governance principles, and offers appropriate initiatives and recommendations. The authors, current and former heads of leading research-intensive universities in Western Europe and the United States, all share the defining concern that the fundamental changes of today pose serious challenges for universities and their system of governance. Contributors inclu

Gr 8 Up-In this gritty novel of World War II, 16-year-old Erik Brandt is forced to fight for the emaciated German army, and because of his knowledge of the Russian language, he is sent to the Russian front. The train trip that Erik and the other young men take is symbolic of their transition from child to man. These boys are sent to the front with only a few weeks of basic training and the directions to kill or be killed. After the first battle, Erik makes the life-altering decision to take the uniform of a dead Russian soldier and pretends to be Russian for most of his remaining time as a soldier, surviving serious wounds and finding the love of his life while he recuperates in a war hospital. There he pretends to have amnesia and takes the moniker "Soldier X." When the hospital is attacked, Erik and his girlfriend escape. After a harrowing journey filled with enemy encounters, they find a safe house in Czechoslovakia and eventually make their way to Berlin. The story is framed with a prologue and epilogue f

Does assigning fifty math problems accomplish any more thanassigning five? Is memorizing word lists the best way to increasevocabulary—especially when it takes away from reading time? Andwhat is the real purpose behind those devilish dioramas? The time our children spend doing homework has skyrocketed inrecent years. Parents spend countless hours cajoling their kids tocomplete such assignments—often without considering whether or notthey serve any worthwhile purpose. Even many teachers are in thedark: Only one of the hundreds the authors interviewed and surveyedhad ever taken a course specifically on homework duringtraining. The truth, according to Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, is thatthere is almost no evidence that homework helps elementary schoolstudents achieve academic success and little evidence that it helpsolder students. Yet the nightly burden is taking a serious toll onAmerica’s families. It robs children of the sleep, play, andexercise time they need for prop

In 1960 the government of Trinidad invited V. S. Naipaul torevisit his native country and record his impressions. In thisclassic of modern travel writing he has created a deft andremarkably prescient portrait of Trinidad and four adjacentCaribbean societies–countries haunted by the legacies of slaveryand colonialism and so thoroughly defined by the norms of Empirethat they can scarcely believe that the Empire is ending. In The Middle Passage , Naipaul watches a Trinidadian movieaudience greeting Humphrey Bogart’s appearance with cries of “Thatis man!” He ventures into a Trinidad slum so insalubrious that thelocals call it the Gaza Strip. He follows a racially chargedelection campaign in British Guiana (now Guyana) and marvels at theGallic pretension of Martinique society, which maintains thefiction that its roads are extensions of France’s routesnationales. And throughout he relates the ghastly episodes ofthe region’s colonial past and shows how they continue to informits language, politics, a

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.