Carol Milford dreams of living in a small, rural town. But Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, isn't the paradise she'd imagined. First published in 1920, this unabridged edition of the Sinclair Lewis novel is an American classic, considered by many to be his most noteworthy and lasting work. As a work of social satire, this complex and compelling look at small-town America in the early 20th century has earned its place among the classics.
The first of Sinclair Lewis’s great successes, Main Street shattered the sentimental American myth of happy small-town life with its satire of narrow-minded provincialism. Reflecting his own unhappy childhood in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, Lewis’s sixth novel attacked the conformity and dullness he saw in midwestern village life. Young college graduate Carol Milford moves from the city to tiny Gopher Prairie after marrying the local doctor, and tries to bring culture to the small town. But her efforts to reform the prairie village are met by a wall of gossip, greed, conventionality, pitifully unambitious cultural endeavors, and—worst of all—the pettiness and bigotry of small-town minds. Lewis’s portrayal of a marriage torn by disillusionment and a woman forced into compromises is at once devastating social satire and persuasive realism. His subtle characterizations and intimate details of small-town America make Main Street a complex and compelling work and established Lewis as an important figure in twentieth-century American literature.
This powerful romance novel, once read, will remain in your soul forever as the characters set within this tale of the age of innocence will steal a piece of your heart. Each of us is a novel unto ourselves with endless chapters of triumph and tragedy. With each incidental instance that we are touched by someone in life, sometimes with nothing more than a walkthrough, our individual saga is changed, and the expanse of our frame of reference is altered. The story about to unfold comes to life on a street in "any town" in America, a "tableau vivant" (a living picture), where a group of young people begins to define themselves in that period of time known as the "high school years." There are many clinical definitions and technical labels for this wisp of one's lifetime, but in the reminiscences within most of us, the high school years fill our memory luggage. The characters in this narrative are amalgamations of many real people with names that might remind or mislead the reader of someone they remember all too well. Although this romantically woven fable is fictitious, each twist and turn could and probably did occur in your town ... on your Main Street, ... and in your life. For this fable of romance and revelation, we peer into the hearts and minds of a few dozen high school students, each seeking moments to fill their growing vessels of youthful passion and desire while discovering their levels of giving and kindness. With all the fleeting lessons in language arts, math, science, and history, drilled and demonstrated during the secondary school years, what endures as this story will elucidate are the forever feelings and relationships that grow strong, never to be shaken. In this tale, young hearts will spring forth like a babbling stream and rekindle your memories of times long since evaporated but impossible to exfoliate on the landscape of your heart.
"This publication offers an oversight of a wide variety of topics that are relevant when discussing urban design in Berlin and Shanghai; topics reflection what has taken place and what has been produced within the last five years of the Dual Urban Design Master Program between the two metropolis of Shanghai and Berlin"--Back cover.
An important part of the New Deal, the Modernization Credit Plan helped transform urban business districts and small-town commercial strips across 1930s America, but it has since been almost completely forgotten. In Modernizing Main Street, Gabrielle Esperdy uncovers the cultural history of the hundreds of thousands of modernized storefronts that resulted from the little-known federal provision that made billions of dollars available to shop owners who wanted to update their facades. Esperdy argues that these updated storefronts served a range of complex purposes, such as stimulating public consumption, extending the New Deal’s influence, reviving a stagnant construction industry, and introducing European modernist design to the everyday landscape. She goes on to show that these diverse roles are inseparable, woven together not only by the crisis of the Depression, but also by the pressures of bourgeoning consumerism. As the decade’s two major cultural forces, Esperdy concludes, consumerism and the Depression transformed the storefront from a seemingly insignificant element of the built environment into a potent site for the physical and rhetorical staging of recovery and progress.
Addressing one of the hottest trends in real estate the development of town centers and urban villages with mixed uses in pedestrian-friendly settings this book will help navigate through the unique design and development issues and reveal how to make all elements work together."
This study of class during the Great Depression is the first to examine a relatively neglected geographical area, the northern plains states of North and South Dakota, from a social and cultural perspective. Surveying the values and ideals of the old midd
The second volume in a series designed to keep agricultural leaders abreast of the most up-to-date information concerning global agriculture, Perspectives in World Food and Agriculture, Volume 2 brings together cutting-edge agricultural research and the latest views on agricultural policy. Written by internationally renowned researchers, scientists, and academics, Volume 2 includes: The UN's approaches to address global food security and poverty An essay by the World Food Prize Laureat Globalization, emerging diseases, and invasive specie Environmental sustainability Plant-derived vaccines, antibiotic bans, and health impacts The future of agricultural biotechnology The pivotal role of agriculture in human developmen Global agricultural statistics and projections Aimed at faculty, undergraduate and graduate students in colleges of agriculture, policy makers, government and industry scientists, public libraries, farmers and agribusiness operators, this book is key to keeping current on agricultural research and policy.
It's back to school time for the kids of Camden Falls ... and for Flora, Olivia, and Nikki, that means a new school -- and new challenges.It's September in Camden Falls . . . and it's time for Flora, Nikki, and Olivia to move up to the Central School from their old elementary school. As seventh graders, they'll be sharing the halls with kids from other towns -- and from grades as high as twelfth. Flora and Nikki are excited . . . but Olivia isn't at all. She's always been the youngest girl in her class. Now she's the youngest girl in the whole school -- and plenty of kids, both friends and bullies, are noticing. When Olivia runs afoul of a popular girl, she realizes she has to grow up fast ... or get left behind.