An Unfamiliar America

An Unfamiliar America

Author: Ari Helo

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-11-12

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1000218333

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This collection focuses on conceptions of the unfamiliar from the viewpoint of mainstream American history: aliens, immigrants, ethnic groups, and previously unencountered ideas and ideologies in Trumpian America. The book suggests bringing historical thinking back to the center of American Studies, given that it has been recently challenged by the influential memory studies boom. As much as identity-building appears to be the central concern for much of the current practice in American history writing, it is worth keeping in mind that historical truth may not always directly contribute to one's identity-building. The researcher’s constant quest for truth does not equate to already possessing it. History changes all the time, because it consists of our constant reinterpretation of the past. It is only the past that does not change. This collection aims at keeping these two apart, while scrutinizing a variety of contested topics in American history, from xenophobic attitudes toward eighteenth-century university professors, Apache masculinity, Ku Klux Klan, Tom Waits's lyrics, and the politics of the Trump era.


An Unfamiliar America

An Unfamiliar America

Author: Ari Helo

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-11-12

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1000218317

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This collection focuses on conceptions of the unfamiliar from the viewpoint of mainstream American history: aliens, immigrants, ethnic groups, and previously unencountered ideas and ideologies in Trumpian America. The book suggests bringing historical thinking back to the center of American Studies, given that it has been recently challenged by the influential memory studies boom. As much as identity-building appears to be the central concern for much of the current practice in American history writing, it is worth keeping in mind that historical truth may not always directly contribute to one's identity-building. The researcher’s constant quest for truth does not equate to already possessing it. History changes all the time, because it consists of our constant reinterpretation of the past. It is only the past that does not change. This collection aims at keeping these two apart, while scrutinizing a variety of contested topics in American history, from xenophobic attitudes toward eighteenth-century university professors, Apache masculinity, Ku Klux Klan, Tom Waits's lyrics, and the politics of the Trump era.


The Book of Unknown Americans

The Book of Unknown Americans

Author: Cristina Henríquez

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2014-06-03

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 0385350856

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A stunning novel of hopes and dreams, guilt and love—a book that offers a resonant new definition of what it means to be American and "illuminates the lives behind the current debates about Latino immigration" (The New York Times Book Review). When fifteen-year-old Maribel Rivera sustains a terrible injury, the Riveras leave behind a comfortable life in Mexico and risk everything to come to the United States so that Maribel can have the care she needs. Once they arrive, it’s not long before Maribel attracts the attention of Mayor Toro, the son of one of their new neighbors, who sees a kindred spirit in this beautiful, damaged outsider. Their love story sets in motion events that will have profound repercussions for everyone involved. Here Henríquez seamlessly interweaves the story of these star-crossed lovers, and of the Rivera and Toro families, with the testimonials of men and women who have come to the United States from all over Latin America.


American Culture

American Culture

Author: Leonard Plotnicov

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre

Published: 2010-11-23

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 082297522X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

American Culture comprises fifteen essays looking at the familiar and the less familiar in American society: urbanites in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, rural communities in the American West, Hispanics in Wisconsin, Samoans in California, the Amish, and the utopian religious communities of the Shakers and Oneida. The essays address a wide range of topics and a spectrum of occupations-miners, whalers, farmers, factory workers, physicians and nurses-to consider such questions as why some religious sects remain distinctive, separate, and viable; how groups use of such things as nicknames and family reunions to maintain ties within the community; how immigrant communities organize to sustain traditional cultural activities.


Unknown America

Unknown America

Author: Michael Hart

Publisher:

Published: 2017-04-14

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 9780692827802

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Written by Michael Hart, host of the popular weekday Talk Radio program, The Michael Hart Show, UNKNOWN AMERICA, Myths and little known oddities about the greatest nation on earth, reveals some of the most fascinating, obscure, and even overlooked facts and common myths about the greatest nation on earth. In this book you will discover amazing and little known facts and trivia about America, and learn about people and places that the history books have either forgotten, or completely overlooked. In UNKNOWN AMERICA you will learn: *Why portraits of the Declaration of Independence are completely wrong *Which is the only state to have 3 Governors in a single day *About the slave that sued for her freedom, and won! *Who "really" invented the airplane *Which US President had a dog named Satan *Strange strategies and plans used by the US Military *About the slave that owned slaves *The role IBM may have played in the Holocaust *America's only Gay President *America's first female President *Why the Rosa Parks Story is all wrong *What Presidential hopeful wanted John Wayne to be his VP Running mate *Why July 4th is not our Independence day, and what day really is ...And so much more


Unfamiliar Fishes

Unfamiliar Fishes

Author: Sarah Vowell

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Published: 2012-03-06

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 159448564X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From the bestselling author of "The Wordy Shipmates" comes an examination of Hawaii's emblematic and exceptional history, retracing the impact of New England missionaries who began arriving in the early 1800s to remake the island paradise into a version of New England.


The Racial Unfamiliar

The Racial Unfamiliar

Author: John Brooks

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2022-08-30

Total Pages: 451

ISBN-13: 0231555806

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The works of African American authors and artists are too often interpreted through the lens of authenticity. They are scrutinized for “positive” or “negative” representations of Black people and Black culture or are assumed to communicate some truth about Black identity or the “Black experience.” However, many contemporary Black artists are creating works that cannot be slotted into such categories. Their art resists interpretation in terms of conventional racial discourse; instead, they embrace opacity, uncertainty, and illegibility. John Brooks examines a range of abstractionist, experimental, and genre-defying works by Black writers and artists that challenge how audiences perceive and imagine race. He argues that literature and visual art that exceed the confines of familiar conceptions of Black identity can upend received ideas about race and difference. Considering photography by Roy DeCarava, installation art by Kara Walker, novels by Percival Everett and Paul Beatty, drama by Suzan-Lori Parks, and poetry by Robin Coste Lewis, Brooks pinpoints a shared aesthetic sensibility. In their works, the devices that typically make race feel familiar are instead used to estrange cultural assumptions about race. Brooks contends that when artists confound expectations about racial representation, the resulting disorientation reveals the incoherence of racial ideologies. By showing how contemporary literature and art ask audiences to question what they think they know about race, The Racial Unfamiliar offers a new way to understand African American cultural production.


The Vast Unknown

The Vast Unknown

Author: Broughton Coburn

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0307887146

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"By the author of the bestseller Everest: Mountain Without Mercy, this chronicle of the iconic first American expedition to Mt. Everest in May 1963--published to coincide with the climb's 50th anniversary--combines riveting adventure, a perceptive analysis of its dark and terrifying historical context, and unprecedented revelations about its secret motivation. /b> n the midst of the Cold War, against the backdrop of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the space race with the Soviet Union, and the quagmire of the Vietnam War, a band of iconoclastic, independent-minded American mountaineers set off for Mt. Everest, aiming to restore America's confidence and optimism. Their objective is to reach the summit while conducting scientific research, but which route will they take? And, mysteriously, who wants the results of the scientific tests, and for what purpose? The Vast Unknown is, on one level, a harrowing, character-driven account of the climb itself and its legendary team of alternately inspiring, troubled, and tragic climbers who suffer injuries, a near mutiny, and death on the mountain. It is also an examination of the profound sway the expedition had over the Ame


America Alone

America Alone

Author: Mark Steyn

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2008-04-07

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1596980761

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Mark Steyn is a human sandblaster. This book provides a powerful, abrasive, high-velocity assault on encrusted layers of sugarcoating and whitewash over the threat of Islamic imperialism. Do we in the West have the will to prevail?" - MICHELLE MALKIN, New York Times bestselling author of Unhinged "Mark Steyn is the funniest writer now living. But don't be distracted by the brilliance of his jokes. They are the neon lights advertising a profound and sad insight: America is almost alone in resisting both the suicide of the West and the suicide bombing of radical Islamism." - JOHN O'SULLIVAN, editor at large, National Review IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT..... Someday soon, you might wake up to the call to prayer from a muezzin. Europeans already are. And liberals will still tell you that "diversity is our strength"--while Talibanic enforcers cruise Greenwich Village burning books and barber shops, the Supreme Court decides sharia law doesn't violate the "separation of church and state," and the Hollywood Left decides to give up on gay rights in favor of the much safer charms of polygamy. If you think this can't happen, you haven't been paying attention, as the hilarious, provocative, and brilliant Mark Steyn--the most popular conservative columnist in the English-speaking world--shows to devastating effect. The future, as Steyn shows, belongs to the fecund and the confident. And the Islamists are both, while the West is looking ever more like the ruins of a civilization. But America can survive, prosper, and defend its freedom only if it continues to believe in itself, in the sturdier virtues of self-reliance (not government), in the centrality of family, and in the conviction that our country really is the world's last best hope. Mark Steyn's America Alone is laugh-out-loud funny--but it will also change the way you look at the world.


Birds of the West Indies

Birds of the West Indies

Author: Taryn Simon

Publisher: Hatje Cantz Pub

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 439

ISBN-13: 9783775736633

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In 1936, an ornithologist called James Bond released the definitive taxonomy of birds found in the Caribbean, titled Birds of the West Indies. Ian Fleming, an active bird watcher living in Jamaica, subsequently appropriated the name for his novel's lead character. He found it to be perfectly "ordinary", "brief", "Anglo-Saxon" and "masculine". This co-opting of names was the first replacement in a series of substitutions that would become central to the construction of the Bond narrative. In a meticulous and comprehensive dissection of the Bond films, artist Taryn Simon (*1975 in New York) inventoried women, weapons and vehicles in Bond. The contents of these categories function as essential accessories to the narrative's myth of the seductive, powerful, and invincible western male. In Birds of the West Indies, Simon presents a visual database of interchangeable variables used in the production of fantasy, through which she examines the economic and emotional value generated by their repetition.Exhibition schedule: 2013 Carnegie International, Pittsburgh October 5, 2013-March 16, 2014