In this youthful look at the hypocrisy of adult life, an Irish nurse is not permitted to have male visitors: but her mistress is entitled to her own sexual sidelines. The preacher interprets the Bible in a way that the rich are not scandalized or demoralized but actually pacified. A club member blackballs his best friend, a Jew, because he wants to save him from being hurt. Mature people are winos, ticket fixers with the police, order troops to fire into crowds, and are two faced: one mother calls her son at college to find out where he keeps his marijuana, and another asks her daughter at her coming out party if she has her diaphragm. Not all of youth is so innocent. There are the school chums who pray to God with thoughts of malice and concupiscence. Scenes, then, from American life. Produced to critical acclaim at the Forum Theater in Lincoln Center. --
This volume features artists who brought a new sophistication and elegancento American art in the three decades before World War I. Wealthyndustrialists eager to acquire culture began to patronize native artists whoad achieved international recognition. John Singer Sargent, Irving Wiles andecilia Beaux created portraits of these new patrons, while John La Farge andugustus Saint-Gaudens made luxurious adornments for their homes. One groupf painters - including Louis Comfort Tiffany, Frederick Arthur Bridgman,enry Ossawa Tanner and Charles Sprague Pearce - responded especially to theascnation with exotic Middle Eastern, Egyptian or "Oriental" cultures thatharacterized this age of international imperialism. The educated and refinedspects of Gilded Age culture are expressed here in Renaissance-inspiredaintings by Abbott Thayer and Mary Cassatt. Romantic literary works byisionary Albert Pinkham Ryder symbolize the idealized strivings of thiseneration, while the rugged masculine landscapes of Winslow Homer emblemizehe struggle and conflict that marked this period of contending social and
The definitive chronicle of underground music in the 1980s tells the stories of Black Flag, Sonic Youth, The Replacements, and other seminal bands whose DIY revolution changed American music forever. Our Band Could Be Your Life is the never-before-told story of the musical revolution that happened right under the nose of the Reagan Eighties -- when a small but sprawling network of bands, labels, fanzines, radio stations, and other subversives re-energized American rock with punk's do-it-yourself credo and created music that was deeply personal, often brilliant, always challenging, and immensely influential. This sweeping chronicle of music, politics, drugs, fear, loathing, and faith is an indie rock classic in its own right. The bands profiled include: Sonic Youth Black Flag The Replacements Minutemen Husker Du Minor Threat Mission of Burma Butthole Surfers Big Black Fugazi Mudhoney Beat Happening Dinosaur Jr.
Ronald Reagan’s autobiography is a work of major historical importance. Here, in his own words, is the story of his life—public and private—told in a book both frank and compellingly readable. Few presidents have accomplished more, or been so effective in changing the direction of government in ways that are both fundamental and lasting, than Ronald Reagan. Certainly no president has more dramatically raised the American spirit, or done so much to restore national strength and self-confidence. Here, then, is a truly American success story—a great and inspiring one. From modest beginnings as the son of a shoe salesman in Tampico, Illinois, Ronald Reagan achieved first a distinguished career in Hollywood and then, as governor of California and as president of the most powerful nation in the world, a career of public service unique in our history. Ronald Reagan’s account of that rise is told here with all the uncompromising candor, modesty, and wit that made him perhaps the most able communicator ever to occupy the White House, and also with the sense of drama of a gifted natural storyteller. He tells us, with warmth and pride, of his early years and of the elements that made him, in later life, a leader of such stubborn integrity, courage, and clear-minded optimism. Reading the account of this childhood, we understand how his parents, struggling to make ends meet despite family problems and the rigors of the Depression, shaped his belief in the virtues of American life—the need to help others, the desire to get ahead and to get things done, the deep trust in the basic goodness, values, and sense of justice of the American people—virtues that few presidents have expressed more eloquently than Ronald Reagan. With absolute authority and a keen eye for the details and the anecdotes that humanize history, Ronald Reagan takes the reader behind the scenes of his extraordinary career, from his first political experiences as president of the Screen Actors Guild (including his first meeting with a beautiful young actress who was later to become Nancy Reagan) to such high points of his presidency as the November 1985 Geneva meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev, during which Reagan invited the Soviet leader outside for a breath of fresh air and then took him off for a walk and a man-to-man chat, without aides, that set the course for arms reduction and charted the end of the Cold War. Here he reveals what went on behind his decision to enter politics and run for the governorship of California, the speech nominating Barry Goldwater that first made Reagan a national political figure, his race for the presidency, his relations with the members of his own cabinet, and his frustrations with Congress. He gives us the details of the great themes and dramatic crises of his eight years in office, from Lebanon to Grenada, from the struggle to achieve arms control to tax reform, from Iran-Contra to the visits abroad that did so much to reestablish the United States in the eyes of the world as a friendly and peaceful power. His narrative is full of insights, from the unseen dangers of Gorbachev’s first visit to the United States to Reagan’s own personal correspondence with major foreign leaders, as well as his innermost feelings about life in the White House, the assassination attempt, his family—and the enduring love between himself and Mrs. Reagan. An American Life is a warm, richly detailed, and deeply human book, a brilliant self-portrait, a significant work of history.
Punk rock culture in a preeminently average town Synonymous with American mediocrity, Peoria was fertile ground for the boredom- and anger-fueled fury of punk rock. Jonathan Wright and Dawson Barrett explore the do-it-yourself scene built by Peoria punks, performers, and scenesters in the 1980s and 1990s. From fanzines to indie record shops to renting the VFW hall for an all-ages show, Peoria's punk culture reflected the movement elsewhere, but the city's conservatism and industrial decline offered a richer-than-usual target environment for rebellion. Eyewitness accounts take readers into hangouts and long-lost venues, while interviews with the people who were there trace the ever-changing scene and varied fortunes of local legends like Caustic Defiance, Dollface, and Planes Mistaken for Stars. What emerges is a sympathetic portrait of a youth culture in search of entertainment but just as hungry for community—the shared sense of otherness that, even for one night only, could unite outsiders and discontents under the banner of music. A raucous look at a small-city underground, Punks in Peoria takes readers off the beaten track to reveal the punk rock life as lived in Anytown, U.S.A.
This volume contains 90 striking bandw photographs about the deep interior of the American west, a place where people are defined by their relations to animals and the land. In this chronicle of the everyday life of the last remaining cowboys, photographer Smith and author Klinkenborg capture a world of ranch-work, self-reliance, and hard-won trust. Oversize: 10.25x10.50". Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
THE STORY: The play is set in the dining room of a typical well-to-do household, the place where the family assembled daily for breakfast and dinner and for any and all special occasions. The action is comprised of a mosaic of interrelated scenes--s
THE STORY: After many years of teaching the classics at a New England university, Henry Harper is not surprised by much--and particularly not by precocious students who want to rewrite his beloved Greek masterpieces to reflect current sociopolitical
