The Things They Say Behind Your Back
The Things They Say Behind Your Back

Author: William B. Helmreich

Publisher: Transaction Publishers

Published:

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9781412839334

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Helmreich explores the myths and historical roots of stereotypes pertaining to several ethnic groups. He discusses which stereotypes are false, which are trye, how they originated, and why some of the most libeled groups promote warped perceptions about themselves.

Snobbery
Snobbery

Author: Joseph Epstein

Publisher: HMH

Published: 2003-07-07

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 0547561644

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Observations on the many ways we manage to look down on others, from “a writer who can make you laugh out loud on every third page” (The New York Times Book Review). Snobs are everywhere. At the gym, at work, at school, and sometimes even lurking in your own home. But how did we, as a culture, get this way? With dishy detail, Joseph Epstein skewers all manner of elitism as he examines how snobbery works, where it thrives, and the pitfalls and perils in thinking you’re better than anyone else. Offering arch observations on the new footholds of snobbery, including food, fashion, high-achieving children, schools, politics, being with-it—whatever “it” is—name-dropping, and much more, Epstein explores the shallows and depths of a concept that has become part of our everyday lives . . . for better or worse. “Smart, witty, perceptive . . . and almost always—in the best sense of the word—entertaining,” Snobbery provides the ultimate social commentary on arrogance in America (TheWashington Post Book World). It’s a book you shouldn’t be caught dead without.

Flight of the WASP
Flight of the WASP

Author: Michael Gross

Publisher: Grove Press

Published: 2023-11-14

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 080216188X

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Fifteen families.Four hundred years. The complex saga of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite in America’s history. For decades, writers from Cleveland Amory to Joseph Alsop to the editors of Politico have proclaimed the diminishment of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, who for generations were the dominant socio-cultural-political force in America. While the WASP elite has, in the last half century, indeed drifted from American centrality to the periphery, its relevance and impact remain, as Michael Gross reveals in his compelling chronicle. From Colonial America’s founding settlements through the Gilded Age to the present day, Gross traces the complex legacy of American WASPs—their profound accomplishments and egregious failures—through the lives of fifteen influential individuals and their very privileged, sometimes intermarried families. As the Bradford, Randolph, Morris, Biddle, Sanford, Peabody and Whitney clans progress, prosper and periodically stumble, defining aspects in the four-century sweep of American history emerge: our wide, oft-contentious religious diversity; the deep scars of slavery, genocide, and intolerance; the creation and sometime mis-use of astonishing economic and political power; an enduring belief in the future; an instinct to offset inequity with philanthropy; an equal capacity for irresponsible, sometimes wanton, behavior. “American society was supposed to be different,” writes Gross, “but for most of our history we have had a patriciate, an aristocracy, a hereditary oligarchic upper class, who initiated the American national experiment.” In previous acclaimed books such as 740 Park and Rogues’ Gallery, Gross has explored elite culture in microcosm; expanding the canvas, Flight of the WASP chronicles it across four centuries and fifteen generations in an ambitious and consequential contribution to American history.

And Yet...
And Yet...

Author: Christopher Hitchens

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2015-11-24

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1476772088

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The seminal, uncollected essays—lauded as “dazzling” (The New York Times Book Review)—by the late Christopher Hitchens, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller God Is Not Great, showcase the notorious contrarian’s genius for rhetoric and his sharp rebukes to tyrants and the ill-informed everywhere. For more than forty years, Christopher Hitchens delivered essays to numerous publications on both sides of the Atlantic that were astonishingly wide-ranging and provocative. His death in December 2011 from esophageal cancer prematurely silenced a voice that was among the most admired of contemporary voices—writers, readers, pundits and critics the world over mourned his loss. At the time of his death, Hitchens left nearly 250,000 words of essays not yet published in book form. “Another great book of essays from a writer who we wish were still alive to produce more copy” (National Review), And Yet… ranges from the literary to the political and is a banquet of entertaining and instructive delights, including essays on Orwell, Lermontov, Chesterton, Fleming, Naipaul, Rushdie, Orhan Pamuk, and Dickens, among others, as well as his laugh-out-loud self-mocking “makeover.” The range and quality of Hitchens’s essays transcend the particular occasions for which they were originally written, yielding “a bounty of famous scalps, thunder-blasted targets, and a few love letters from the notorious provocateur-in-chief’s erudite and scathing assessments of American culture” (Vanity Fair). Often prescient, always pugnacious, formidably learned, Hitchens was a polemicist for the ages. With this posthumous volume, he remains, “America’s foremost rhetorical pugilist” (The Village Voice).

The King of Sting
The King of Sting

Author: Coyote Peterson

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Published: 2018-11-27

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 0316423149

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Wildlife expert and Emmy Award-winning Coyote Peterson brings his 12.5 million YouTube subscribers and legions of kid fans a full-color exploration of his "Sting Zone" adventure series, featuring shots from the episodes and culminating in his thrilling encounter with the "King of Sting"--the Executioner Wasp. Coyote Peterson, YouTube star, animal enthusiast, and creator of the Brave Adventure series, has tracked down some of the world's most painfully stinging insects and chronicled getting stung by each of them on his YouTube channel. Coyote has saved the best--or possibly the worst--for last, and he's finally ready to share his experience with the most painful sting in the world: the Executioner Wasp. Featuring full-color stills from his show, and packed with facts about nature's most misunderstood creatures, King of Sting is a dream book for any kid that loves animals, bugs, outdoor exploration, and danger!

Everybody Eats There
Everybody Eats There

Author: William Stadiem

Publisher: Artisan Books

Published: 2007-01-01

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9781579653224

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If you love restaurants and you love to travel, this book will be your bible! From the private tatami rooms at Ten-Ichi in Tokyo to the sidewalk tables at Da Silvano in New York City, EVERYBODY EATS THERE: Inside the World's Legendary Restaurants by William Stadiem and Mara Gibbs is the ultimate tour of the liveliest, most beautiful, most delicious, most glamorous, most exclusive 100 restaurants on earth-and how they got that way. Stadiem and Gibbs reveal the mystique and excitement of the world's most fabulous eateries that are packed with A-listers every night. Funny, acerbic, totally in-the-know, EVERYBODY EATS THERE is part travelogue, part social commentary to give readers the real inside dish. Dine topless with Pamela Anderson in St. Tropez, share roast suckling pig with Bill Clinton in Madrid, eat the best Italian food on earth in San Paolo, party with The Stones in Tokyo, join the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a Wild West saloon and get picked up by Warren Beatty in Los Angeles. EVERYBODY EATS THERE weaves together lavish celebrity stories and incisive biographies of the famed chefs and restaurateurs with descriptions of the food that will whet appetites and jump-start plans for future dining excursions. Stadiem and Gibbs-with their discerning palates and social antennae-tell us what to eat, what to wear and how to behave once we make it in. Most guidebooks are about one city, or one country, and overload you with bad choices. EVERYBODY EATS THERE looks at restaurants as one global food club. And we're invited to join in. The result-an engrossing read on the history of modern dining. Read how: Al Capone embraces JOE'S STONE CRAB in Miami as his favorite dining spot Henri Soule jumps ship after the 1939 World's Fair and invents Manhattan snob French cuisine at LE PAVILION Ernest Hemingway turns readers into foodies by mythologizing CASA BOTIN in Madrid and HARRY'S BAR in Venice Hairdresser Michael Chow opens the first MR CHOW in London during the swinging sixties. It was architecturally famous for its firehouse staircase for looking up miniskirts DAVE in Paris pushes the envelope of snob appeal by serving take-out level Chinese fare to the world's chic-est crowd Princess Diana anoints SAN LORENZO as London's royal trattoria Alice Waters builds a special bathroom for future presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton at CHEZ PANISSE And much, much more! The dream tour, EVERYBODY EATS THERE reveals the juiciest details from the backstories to the back rooms, from what's on the menus to what's even better off, from the glamorous (and sometimes scandalous) clientele to the high-powered chefs. And now, we can be a part of this international delight of food, fun and fame!

The Companion to Southern Literature
The Companion to Southern Literature

Author: Joseph M. Flora

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2001-11-01

Total Pages: 1096

ISBN-13: 9780807126929

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Selected as an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Selected as an Outstanding Reference Source by the Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association There are many anthologies of southern literature, but this is the first companion. Neither a survey of masterpieces nor a biographical sourcebook, The Companion to Southern Literature treats every conceivable topic found in southern writing from the pre-Columbian era to the present, referencing specific works of all periods and genres. Top scholars in their fields offer original definitions and examples of the concepts they know best, identifying the themes, burning issues, historical personalities, beloved icons, and common or uncommon stereotypes that have shaped the most significant regional literature in memory. Read the copious offerings straight through in alphabetical order (Ancestor Worship, Blue-Collar Literature, Caves) or skip randomly at whim (Guilt, The Grotesque, William Jefferson Clinton). Whatever approach you take, The Companion’s authority, scope, and variety in tone and interpretation will prove a boon and a delight. Explored here are literary embodiments of the Old South, New South, Solid South, Savage South, Lazy South, and “Sahara of the Bozart.” As up-to-date as grit lit, K Mart fiction, and postmodernism, and as old-fashioned as Puritanism, mules, and the tall tale, these five hundred entries span a reach from Lady to Lesbian Literature. The volume includes an overview of every southern state’s belletristic heritage while making it clear that the southern mind extends beyond geographical boundaries to form an essential component of the American psyche. The South’s lavishly rich literature provides the best means of understanding the region’s deepest nature, and The Companion to Southern Literature will be an invaluable tool for those who take on that exciting challenge. Description of Contents 500 lively, succinct articles on topics ranging from Abolition to Yoknapatawpha 250 contributors, including scholars, writers, and poets 2 tables of contents — alphabetical and subject — and a complete index A separate bibliography for most entries