Claes Oldenburg’s commitment to familiar objects has shaped accounts of his career, but his associations with Pop art and postwar consumerism have overshadowed another crucial aspect of his work. In this revealing reassessment, Katherine Smith traces Oldenburg’s profound responses to shifting urban conditions, framing his enduring relationship with the city as a critical perspective and conceiving his art as urban theory. Smith argues that Oldenburg adapted lessons of context, gleaned from New York’s changing cityscape in the late 1950s, to large-scale objects and architectural plans. By examining disparate projects from New York to Los Angeles, she situates Oldenburg’s innovations in local geographies and national debates. In doing so, Smith illuminates patterns of urbanization through the important contributions of one of the leading artists in the United States.

This is the story of a city that shouldn’t exist. In the seventeenth century, what is now America’s most beguiling metropolis was nothing more than a swamp: prone to flooding, infested with snakes, battered by hurricanes. But through the intense imperial rivalries of Spain, France, and England, and the ambitious, entrepreneurial merchants and settlers from four continents who risked their lives to succeed in colonial America, this unpromising site became a crossroads for the whole Atlantic world. Lawrence N. Powell, a decades-long resident and observer of New Orleans, gives us the full sweep of the city’s history from its founding through Louisiana statehood in 1812. We see the Crescent City evolve from a French village, to an African market town, to a Spanish fortress, and finally to an Anglo-American center of trade and commerce. We hear and feel the mix of peoples, religions, and languages from four continents that make the place electric—and always on the verge of unraveling. The Accidental City is the story of land-jobbing schemes, stock market crashes, and nonstop squabbles over status, power, and position, with enough rogues, smugglers, and self-fashioners to fill a picaresque novel. Powell’s tale underscores the fluidity and contingency of the past, revealing a place where people made their own history. This is a city, and a history, marked by challenges and perpetual shifts in shape and direction, like the sinuous river on which it is perched.

"The Accidental Ecosystem tells the story of how cities across the United States went from having little wildlife to filling, dramatically and unexpectedly, with wild creatures. Today, many of these cities have more large and charismatic wild animals living in them than at any time in at least the past 150 years. Why have so many cities--the most artificial and human-dominated of all Earth's ecosystems--grown rich with wildlife, even as wildlife has declined in most of the rest of the world? And what does this paradox mean for people, wildlife, and nature on our increasingly urban planet? The Accidental Ecosystem is the first book to explain this phenomenon from a deep historical perspective, and its focus includes a broad range of species and cities. Digging into the natural history of cities and unpacking our conception of what it means to be wild, this book provides fascinating context for why animals are thriving more in cities than outside of them. Author Peter Alagona argues that the proliferation of animals in cities is largely the unintended result of human decisions that were made for reasons having little to do with the wild creatures themselves. Considering what it means to live in diverse, multispecies communities and exploring how human and non-human members of communities might thrive together, Alagona goes beyond the tension between those who embrace the surge in urban wildlife and those who think of animals as invasive or as public safety hazards. The Accidental Ecosystem calls on readers to reimagine interspecies coexistence in shared habitats as well as policies that are based on just, humane, and sustainable approaches"--Provided by publisher.

CIA operative Dean Wells has gotten into big-time trouble in Syria. He is trying to thwart terrorists' latest move in the Middle East when a man ends up dead in his hands. Is Dean to blame? The Syrians think so and put him on an international hit list. What's worse, Dean can't explain in his own defense how the assassination occurred. Enter Carla Martino, a hard-driving CIA psychologist to investigate the strange case of denial, or amnesia. Or is it something else? To clear his name, she must follow him to the ends of the earth. Enjoy this tightly plotted inside look at the CIA and high-stakes chase from Aleppo to Hebron, from Cairo to Sharm el-Sheikh, and from Amman to Jerusalem. You'll feel the desert wind blowing hot down your neck as Carla tries to unravel the mystery and Dean races to defeat the terrorists. Only by completing his dangerous mission can Dean solve the case of...the Accidental Assassin.

Heroes are often defined as ordinary characters who find themselves facing extraordinary circumstances and, through courage and a dash of luck, cement their place in history. Chosen as President Roosevelt's fourth term Vice President for his admired work ethic, good judgement and lack of enemies, Harry S. Truman was the prototypical ordinary man from small-town America. That is, until he was thrust in over his head following the sudden death of Roosevelt. With the world still caught up in the inferno of the Second World War, Truman found himself playing the roles of both judge and jury during the founding of the UN, the Potsdam Conference, the Manhattan Project, the German surrender, the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and the decision to drop the Bomb and bring the war to the end. Tightly focused, meticulously researched and drawing on documentation not available to previous biographers, The Accidental President escorts readers into the situation room with Truman during this tumultuous, history-making four months - when the stakes were high and the challenges even higher . . .

From the Author Having spent nearly ten years writing my memoirs, originally in Polish, I hope that with this English edition they will reach a wider circle of readers. They span more than eighty years of turbulent world historyand when is such history not turbulent?--and include details which may not be familiar to many readers. Those acquainted with the epoch I am describing may wander, before picking up the book, whether it is yet another retelling of an often described drama, the subject already of myriad historical classics. I would say, yes, but it is a retelling with a twist. This book is, above all, a tale of exceptional good fortune, which, in contrast to the experiences of many others of my generation, has been my oddly lucky lot. I have lived on the edge of a precipice, yet have somehow managed to miss the worst fate. I have been steps away from death, a refugee fleeing deportation, starvation, and death camps. While fighting on two fronts during World War II, I had been shot at innumerable times; while in combat, I have without a doubt caused the death of others. After the wars end, living under a Soviet-imposed communist regime, I was spared torture and prison. And I did not choose emigration, but circumstances forced meand my wife and daughterto accept it. Luckily, we found ourselves in Americaland of promise. Ironically, however, we arrived here during a difficult period of social upheaval and racial unrest. Political conflict, assassinations, bombings, and the tragedy of an interventionist war in Indochina formed the backdrop of our new life in our adopted country. Later, working in the Middle East, I witnessed the early seeds of the conflict that now besieges us all. Looking back, I can hardly believe that through it all my luck held out, and that I was able to write my memoirs in the peace and quiet of my own home. And I trust that you will enjoy reading them--the story of an incorrigible optimist.

The Accidental Playground explores the remarkable landscape created by individuals and small groups who occupied and rebuilt an abandoned Brooklyn waterfront. While local residents, activists, garbage haulers, real estate developers, speculators, and two city administrations fought over the fate of the former Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal (BEDT), others simply took to this decaying edge, transforming it into a unique venue for leisure, creative, and everyday practices. These occupiers and do-it-yourself builders created their own waterfront parks and civic spaces absent every resource needed for successful urban development, including plans, designs, capital, professional assistance, consensus, and permission from the waterfront’s owners. Amid trash, ruins, weeds, homeless encampments, and the operation of an active garbage transfer station, they inadvertently created the “Brooklyn Riviera” and made this waterfront a destination that offered much more than its panoramic vistas of the Manhattan skyline. The terminal evolved into the home turf for unusual and sometimes spectacular recreational, social, and creative subcultures, including the skateboarders who built a short-lived but nationally renowned skatepark, a twenty-five-piece “public” marching band, fire performance troupes, artists, photographers, and filmmakers. At the same time it served the basic recreational needs of local residents. Collapsing piers became great places to catch fish, sunbathe, or take in the views; the foundation of a demolished warehouse became an ideal place to picnic, practice music, or do an art project; rubble-strewn earth became a compelling setting for film and fashion shoots; a broken bulkhead became a beach; and thick patches of weeds dotted by ailanthus trees became a jungle. These reclamations, all but ignored by city and state governments and property interests that were set to transform this waterfront, momentarily added to the distinctive cultural landscape of the city’s most bohemian and rapidly changing neighborhood. Drawing on a rich mix of documentary strategies, including observation, ethnography, photography, and first-person narrative, Daniel Campo probes this accidental playground, allowing those who created it to share and examine their own narratives, perspectives, and conflicts. The multiple constituencies of this waterfront were surprisingly diverse, their stories colorful and provocative. When taken together, Campo argues, they suggest a radical reimagining of urban parks and public spaces, and the practices by which they are created and maintained. The Accidental Playground, which treats readers to an utterly compelling story, is an exciting and distinctive contribution to the growing literature on unplanned spaces and practices in cities today.

Transatlantic humorist David Bouchier brings wit, wisdom and a touch of philosophy to the everyday dramas of American suburban life. This book brings together more than a hundred essays, originally broadcast on National Public Radio, or published in his Out of Order column in the Sunday New York Times. When work and marriage brought David Bouchier to Long Island in 1986 the endless suburbs seemed mysterious and exotic to him. He was inspired to begin writing essays and newspaper columns about his life there - a personal and public diary of the Resident Alien experience. In 1992 a weekly public radio essay was added to the newspaper columns, and thousands of listeners still enjoy David's weekly radio broadcasts. These are the affectionate and sometimes acerbic observations of an Accidental Immigrant, who still finds life in America endlessly stimulating and wonderfully strange. David Bouchier's thoughts about love, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the suburbs will make you smile, and make you think. Boring suburban rituals like lawn care mall shopping, wedding rehearsals, and barbecues will never seem the same again.

How do we rebuild after causing accidental death or injury? Accidental injury is the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of forty-five. From fatal traffic accidents to firearms injuries to casualties of war to a deadly virus passed to an elderly loved one, accidental harm dates back almost as far as our human stories go. When these accidents occur, they pose profound and agonizing questions: What do we do when a death falls somewhere between a murder and an insurance claim? What if we are responsible for such harm? Is healing even possible? Rooted in research on moral injury, religious rituals of confession and cleansing, and psychology--as well as the hard-won wisdom of someone who has been there--Accidental explores the complicated reality of accidental death and injury and offers companionship to those affected by these tragedies. Author, military veteran, and Episcopal priest David W. Peters walks with us through his own lonely journey after he unintentionally killed someone in a traffic accident and the journey of his family, as his brother was killed by a bus. Peters investigates the cars, guns, and systems that put some people and communities at more risk than others, and then draws wisdom from ancient cities of refuge, where accidental killers could find asylum. Accidental helps readers accept responsibility, see themselves in the stories of others, be open to mystical experiences, and find absolution and community. We can begin the journey of accountability, forgiveness, and restoration by asking spiritual questions of grief, penitence, trauma, and tragedy.