Offering an alternative to encyclopedic textbooks that confirm Henry Ford’s complaint that the study of history is just “one damned thing after another,” it provides an informal and conversational narrative history of the American experience from the Colonial period to the present day. Above all, history is a story, and the story of America is a complicated and contested tale. Rather than simply the exceptionalism of a shining city upon a hill, the American saga includes a dark stain of prejudice and nativism still present within the national fabric. Beginning with the assault upon Native lands and culture along with the introduction of racial slavery, patterns of exploitation and greed fostering gender, racial, and class inequality are an essential part of America’s story. Themes of prejudice and inequality, however, are offset by the promise of social justice and an egalitarian America outlined by Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Seneca Falls Declaration of Principles, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s The Four Freedoms, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” oratory. While considering topics such as Presidential leadership, Talking American History emphasizes the efforts of American reformers, dreamers, freedom fighters, dissenters, radicals, and workers to move the nation toward the democratic promise laid out in its founding documents. The framework is a traditional political history narrative told from a progressive perspective. This is an interpretation with which not all readers will agree, but the intention is to facilitate dialogue and debate that are imperative for the survival of American democracy.

Who better to take advice from than your future self? This hilarious novel from the author of Ten Things We Did (And Probably Shouldn't Have), Don't Even Think About It, and the Magic in Manhattan series is sweet, entertaining, and all-too-relatable. A new life is just a phone call away! Devi's life isn't turning out at all like she wanted. She wasted the past three years going out with Bryan—cute, adorable, break-your-heart Bryan. Devi let her friendships fade, blew off studying, didn't join any clubs . . . and now that Bryan has broken up with her, she has nothing left. Not even her stupid cell phone—she dropped it in the mall fountain. Now it only calls one number . . . hers. At age fourteen, three years ago! Once Devi gets over the shock—and convinces her younger self that she isn't some wacko—she realizes that she's been given an awesome gift. She can tell herself all the right things to do . . . because she's already done all the wrong ones! Except . . .what if getting what you think you want changes everything? "Mlynowski is in peak form: an outrageous concept, plot jammed with twists, a laugh on every page, and a heroine — no, two heroines in one! — you completely connect with." —E. Lockhart, New York Times bestselling author of Genuine Fraud and We Were Liars "Read this fast-paced, absorbing, and sweet story to find out what happens when senior-year wisdom meets starry-eyed freshman dreams!" —Melissa de la Cruz, New York Times bestselling author of The Isle of the Lost, Blue Bloods, and Alex and Eliza "A warm, wonderful (and hilarious!) story about learning to be your own hero. I ♥ this book like crazy!!" —Lauren Myracle, New York Times bestselling author of TTYL and Twelve

A comprehensive history of African Americans, including culture, slavery, and civil rights.

Real conversations about racism need to start now Let's Talk Race confronts why white people struggle to talk about race, why we need to own this problem, and how we can learn to do the work ourselves and stop expecting Black people to do it for us. Written by two specialists in race relations and parents of two adopted African American sons, the book provides unique insights and practical guidance, richly illustrated with personal examples, anecdotes, research findings, and prompts for personal reflection and conversations about race. Coverage includes: Seeing the varied forms of racism How we normalize and privilege whiteness Essential and often unknown elements of Black history that inform the present Racial disparities in education, health, criminal justice, and wealth Understanding racially-linked cultural differences How to find conversational partners and create safe spaces for conversations Conversational do's and don'ts. Let's Talk Race is for all white people who want to face the challenges of talking about race and working towards justice and equity.

As the American way of life ground to its ultimate demise, people continued to live their lives, or the lives handed to them, by circumstance and fate. Most, like Kirby Taylor, were simply unconcerned and had never put more than a cursory thought towards the world around them. Now that the end was in sight, they simply switched gears to, "So, what do you want me to do about it?" Nancy Shepherd and others like her had spent their lives fighting what they thought was the good fight, only to realize in the end that it was that unyielding, uncompromising attitude which was part and parcel to blame. Some, like Rick Kyle, who had always lived on the edge, now realized that there were new opportunities rising out of the chaos of those end days. They simply switched gears and pressed on to what appeared to be even greater rewards. Finally, there were the Shelia Vonsteins, embittered by disrupted lives and careers, who were obliged to take whatever crumbs they could. They would try to make the best of their lives while at the same time being forever fish out of water. Does the human spirit triumph in the worst of times? Sometimes it does, and sometimes it is merely crushed under foot. Our children and grandchildren will ultimately find out.

Lila Corwin Berman asks why, over the course of the twentieth century, American Jews became increasingly fascinated, even obsessed, with explaining themselves to their non-Jewish neighbors. What she discovers is that language itself became a crucial tool for Jewish group survival and integration into American life. Berman investigates a wide range of sources—radio and television broadcasts, bestselling books, sociological studies, debates about Jewish marriage and intermarriage, Jewish missionary work, and more—to reveal how rabbis, intellectuals, and others created a seemingly endless array of explanations about why Jews were indispensable to American life. Even as the content of these explanations developed and shifted over time, the very project of self-explanation would become a core element of Jewishness in the twentieth century.

Speaking Out of Turn is the first monograph dedicated to the forty-year oeuvre of feminist conceptual artist Lorraine O’Grady. Examining O’Grady’s use of language, both written and spoken, Stephanie Sparling Williams charts the artist’s strategic use of direct address—the dialectic posture her art takes in relationship to its viewers—to trouble the field of vision and claim a voice in the late 1970s through the 1990s, when her voice was seen as “out of turn” in the art world. Speaking Out of Turn situates O’Grady’s significant contributions within the history of American conceptualism and performance art while also attending to the work’s heightened visibility in the contemporary moment, revealing both the marginalization of O’Grady in the past and an urgent need to revisit her art in the present.

"Containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of the President", 1956-1992.