"I wish I knew more about Western history." Adult, parent, student, and traveler: Who of us hasn't had this thought? Sara Drogin, a veteran high-school history teacher, addresses this wish with Spare Me the Details!, a "refresher text" for adults and students. Written in a lively and conversational style, Spare Me the Details! provides a concise overview of Western civilization. Spare Me the Details! begins with Ancient Greece and concludes with the twenty-first century. The book describes the key periods, events, and luminaries of Western history, provides cause-and-effect analysis, and establishes historical connections across time periods. Additionally, Spare Me the Details! develops two major themes central to Western civilization: the evolution of humanism and the growth of democracy. It also pays special attention to the role of women throughout history and to the connection between the arts and history. Now you, too, will know the essentials of Western civilization.
When I began teaching in the early seventies, I knew I was in it for the long haul. I knew this was my career, my calling, the fulfillment of a childhood dream. From as far back as my memory will take me, I had a longing to be a teacher. It never entered my mind to spend my life in any other way than in front of a classroom. This was cemented with I entered the first grade and loved my teacher so much I wanted to be just like her. Im sure I lost no time telling this teacher what I wanted to be when I grew up. So she gave me little opportunities to practice teaching. When someone couldnt tie his shoes, she would ask me to teach him how. If a student was struggling, shed place me beside him to help. I was so proud! Any opportunity to teach was just taking me one inch nearer my destination. As I progressed through my school years, being assigned to help one of the slower students was an honor for me. I was fortunate that those were the years teachers were absolutely dedicated to their calling and to their students. Those were the days when teaching was one of the few professions women could enter. And to get there usually meant someone was sacrificing for them to attend school. Completing their education was a culmination of hard work and determination. Teachers were respected and highly regarded by the public. All that combined, produced good teachers who were extremely proud to stand before children and be the planters of knowledge. As a child, to be like any one of them was my burning desire. Never losing sight of my goal, I progressed through the grades. I may not have been the most academic kid on the block, but I was responsible. Teachers entrusted me with duties, jobs, and tutoring. In twelfth grade I was put in charge of a study hall! Upon graduation, I was one step closer to being a teacher. I finished college early, and finally was a teacher. From the beginning of my days in the classroom, I wrote down funny things kids would say and do, because I just didnt want to forget them. As I moved from pre-school to kindergarten, then middle or high school, I had quite a treasure trove. After retiring, I reflected upon my time in the classroom and decided maybe my friends were right in telling me I should write a book. I knew it would be fun to share my stories and experiences. From time to time, I would get out my old brown tattered notebook and write. And as I got older and older, I decided if I am going to ever write a book, I need to get moving. I knew Id rather write it myself, than to die and have someone run across my notebook and try to write my story. Thus, a book was born! I delight in telling my story. Some pages will make you cry. Others will make you laugh. I dont begin to pretend I was the perfect teacher. This book does not allude to that. It paints a portrait of the inner workings of a classroom in todays world. It conveys the fact that when teaching children with special needs, subject matter sometimes takes a back seat. They came to us with such baggage. When I stop and think about the troubles those children carried on their shoulders, I marvel at how they managed to rise in the mornings and get to school. As teachers, we had to look beyond the language and behavior in order to help these people. Our role as teachers extended way beyond our training. These were not the children of yesteryear. Most of them were products of drug-ridden homes and streets, absentee parents, video games, violence on television and movies, and absolute poverty. These influences rode on the bus with them and traveled right into the classroom where we were expected to teach, counsel, and police. That may not have been the teaching of my childhood dreams, but somehow I saw the need to know what my priorities had to be each and every day. Given all the things I saw, heard, and dealt with, I dont believe I could ever have returned to a regular classroom. It woul
Unflinchingly honest, unfailingly complete, immensely readable (and often funny), "Spare Me 'The Talk'!" is the first book of its kind by a guy, for guys ages 12-24, and for parents of boys as young as 8.
In his captivating study of faith and class, John Hayes examines the ways folk religion in the early twentieth century allowed the South's poor--both white and black--to listen, borrow, and learn from each other about what it meant to live as Christians in a world of severe struggle. Beneath the well-documented religious forms of the New South, people caught in the region's poverty crafted a distinct folk Christianity that spoke from the margins of capitalist development, giving voice to modern phenomena like alienation and disenchantment. Through haunting songs of death, mystical tales of conversion, grassroots sacramental displays, and an ethic of neighborliness, impoverished folk Christians looked for the sacred in their midst and affirmed the value of this life in this world. From Tom Watson and W. E. B. Du Bois over a century ago to political commentators today, many have ruminated on how, despite material commonalities, the poor of the South have been perennially divided by racism. Through his excavation of a folk Christianity of the poor, which fused strands of African and European tradition into a new synthesis, John Hayes recovers a historically contingent moment of interracial exchange generated in hardship.
Pirates! Here are tales of the seven seas (and beyond) by some of the greats of nautical fiction. From classics like "Treasure Island" and "The Ghost Pirates, to pulp tales by Robert E. Howard and J. Allan Dunn to modern swashbucklers set in fantasy worlds, "The Pirate Story Megapack" is a thrill-a-minute compilation of more than 3,100 pages of great pirate tales, both historical and set in fantasy world. And not all pirates sail the seas... Included are: THE GOLDEN DOLPHIN, by J. Allan Dunn A SET OF ROGUES, by Frank Barrett THE OFFSHORE PIRATE, by F. Scott Fitzgerald A BRUSH WITH THE CHINESE, by G.A. Henty THE MERCHANTMAN AND THE PIRATE, by Charles Reade THE TREASURE OF THE SEAS, by James De Mille THE PIRATE WOMAN, by Captain Dingle THE MAROONER, by J. Allan Dunn TREASURE ISLAND, by Robert Louis Stevenson OUR PIRATE HOARD, by Thomas A. Janvier THE PIRATE, by Frederick Marryat THE ROVER’S SECRET, by Harry Collingwood THE MADMAN AND THE PIRATE, by R.M. Ballantyne WOLVES OF THE SEA, by Randall Parrish THE IRON PIRATE, by Max Pemberton FORCED LUCK, by J. Allan Dunn THE PIRATE SHARK, by Elliott Whitney THE FROZEN PIRATE, by W. Clark Russell THE PIRATE ISLAND, by Harry Collingwood THE GHOST OF CAPTAIN BRAND, by Howard Pyle BLACK VULMEA’S VENGEANCE, by Robert E. Howard THE GHOST PIRATES, by William Hope Hodgson THE PIRATES OF CALUUR, by John Gregory Betancourt THE BROTHERS LAMMIAT, by John Gregory Betancourt SEA-CHILD, by Cynthia Ward And if you enjoy this volume, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see all the other entries in this great series, covering science fiction, fantasy, horror, mysteries, westerns, classics -- and much, much more!
'Ada, the Betrayed; Or, The Murder at the Old Smithy. A Romance of Passion' by James Malcolm Rymer is a novel set in England in the year 1795. The story opens with a devastating storm that ravages a village, causing chaos and destruction. Amidst the chaos, a woman named Mad Maud predicts a terrible fate for the Old Smithy and its owner, Andrew Britton. Soon after, a fire breaks out in the building, and a horrifying discovery is made—a murder has taken place. As the villagers investigate the crime, they uncover a web of deceit and betrayal that threatens to tear them apart.
