Nature's New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement

Nature's New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement Review

The Great Depression coincided with a wave of natural disasters, including the Dust Bowl and devastating floods of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Recovering from these calamities--and preventing their reoccurrence--was a major goal of the New Deal.
In Nature's New Deal, Neil M. Maher examines the history of one of Franklin D. Roosevelt's boldest and most successful experiments, the Civilian Conservation Corps, describing it as a turning point both in national politics and in the emergence of modern environmentalism. Indeed, Roosevelt addressed both the economic and environmental crises by putting Americans to work at conserving natural resources, through the Soil Conservation Service, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Civilian Conservation Corps (or CCC). The CCC created public landscapes--natural terrain altered by federal work projects--that helped environmentalism blossom after World War II, Maher notes. Millions of Americans devoted themselves to a new vision of conservation, one that went beyond the old model of simply maximizing the efficient use of natural resources, to include the promotion of human health through outdoor recreation, wilderness preservation, and ecological balance. And yet, as Maher explores the rise and development of the CCC, he also shows how the critique of its campgrounds, picnic areas, hiking trails, and motor roads frames the debate over environmentalism to this day.
From the colorful life at CCC camps, to political discussions in the White House and the philosophical debates dating back to John Muir and Frederick Law Olmsted, Nature's New Deal captures a key moment in the emergence of modern environmentalism.

Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music (Clarendon Paperbacks)

Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music (Clarendon Paperbacks) Review

Analyzing popular music from a musical, rather than a sociological or political viewpoint, this book examines the nineteenth-century split between classical and popular music and surveys all styles of Western popular music to uncover the musical language uniting them.

Media Journal: Reading and Writing About Popular Culture (2nd Edition)

Media Journal: Reading and Writing About Popular Culture (2nd Edition) Review

There is a major distinction between those who absorb media images as spectators, and those who absorb them as commentators. Responding to images as a journalist, broadcaster, essayist, or critic, requires keen precision and a unique originality. In today's media-saturated environment, the only way to be heard over the din of all the other news reports and commentaries is to write and respond in a manner that is fresh and inviting. MEDIA JOURNAL is a reader containing 40 selections focusing on cultural studies, the media and popular culture. The authors have organized the book by asking readers to do three things: to keep media journals in which they reflect on the uses they make of the voices and images of popular culture, to read and respond to the work of other media critics, and to try their hands at writing media criticism themselves. Readings are drawn from a wide range of writings, and are selected for their liveliness, contemporaneity, and insight. Updated readings better address the diverse media culture of the 1990s. Each reading selection is followed by: "Coming to Terms"--understanding the author in one's own words; "Reading as a Writer"--looking at style and strategy; and "Writing Criticism"--making an author's words and ideas a source for one's own writing. Journalists, writers, cultural historians, critics, philosophers, and anyone interested in popular culture, the media, and cultural studies.

Genreflecting: A Guide to Popular Reading Interests (Genreflecting Advisory Series)

Genreflecting: A Guide to Popular Reading Interests (Genreflecting Advisory Series) Review

This is the classic readers' advisory tool and text, updated and improved for today's users. Genres and reading trends are demystified as more than 5,000 titles are classified, with two new chapters on Christian fiction and emerging genres. You'll also find essays by genre experts and the foremost proponents of readers' advisory today.

For the past 150 years, America's public libraries have supplied billions of books to billions of people, and most of those books have been (and continue to be) popular fiction. The new edition of Genreflecting explains not only what library patrons are reading, but why. In the process, it casts reading in a new light, demonstrating the way in which it functions as an essential information service that creates communities in culturally democratic ways.

Focusing on what today's readers read, this classic guide introduces current genre fiction and popular reading tastes. By defining genres, describing their features and characteristics, and grouping titles by genre, subgenre, and theme, the book helps those who work with readers understand distinct patterns in reading habits and book selection. It thus helps users identify read-alikes and other titles their patrons will enjoy.

Genreflecting has become a standard reference and readers' advisory tool for library practitioners, and an insightful text for students of library and information science. Building upon previous editions, this new volume features informative essays on the essence, history, and latest trends of various genres, contributed by top scholars and genre experts, edited by Dr. Wayne Wiegand. New chapters on Christian fiction and emerging genres (women's fiction and chick lit) have been added. In addition, more than 5,000 titles, approximately one-third new to this edition, are classified, focusing on titles published since the last edition along with perennial classics and benchmark titles. The popular feature D's Picks identifies new and noteworthy titles in each genre. Other features new to this edition include lists of selected classic authors and titles in each genre, sections on genreblends in those areas where they occur (e.g., horror/humor, mystery/romance), and three new essays. The Social Nature of Reading by Dr. Wiegand, The Readers' Advisory Interview by Dr. Catherine Ross, and A Brief History of Readers' Advisory by Melanie A. Kimball offer further insight into the nature and importance of this field. A standard professional tool for readers' advisors, and an invaluable collection development guide and text, this is a must-purchase for all libraries. Young adult and adult or Grades 10 and up.

She's Mad Real: Popular Culture and West Indian Girls in Brooklyn

She's Mad Real: Popular Culture and West Indian Girls in Brooklyn Review

"She's mad real. She don't front for nobody. If you listen to her music you learn stuff about her life and how she struggled to get where she is. She's not just singing about how she's out at the club."
New York high school student China on R&B singer Mary J. Blige

Overwhelmingly, Black teenage girls are negatively represented in national and global popular discourses, either as being "at risk" for teenage pregnancy, obesity, or sexually transmitted diseases, or as helpless victims of inner city poverty and violence. Such popular representations are pervasive and often portray Black adolescents' consumer and leisure culture as corruptive, uncivilized, and pathological.
In She's Mad Real, Oneka LaBennett draws on over a decade of researching teenage West Indian girls in the Flatbush and Crown Heights sections of Brooklyn to argue that Black youth are in fact strategic consumers of popular culture and through this consumption they assert far more agency in defining race, ethnicity, and gender than academic and popular discourses tend to acknowledge. Importantly, LaBennett also studies West Indian girls' consumer and leisure culture within public spaces in order to analyze how teens like China are marginalized and policed as they attempt to carve out places for themselves within New York's contested terrains.

The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction

The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction Review

The New Deal shaped our nation's politics for decades, and was seen by many as tantamount to the "American Way" itself. Now, in this superb compact history, Eric Rauchway offers an informed account of the New Deal and the Great Depression, illuminating its successes and failures.

Rauchway first describes how the roots of the Great Depression lay in America's post-war economic policies--described as "laissez-faire with a vengeance"--which in effect isolated our nation from the world economy just when the world needed the United States most. He shows how the magnitude of the resulting economic upheaval, and the ineffectiveness of the old ways of dealing with financial hardships, set the stage for Roosevelt's vigorous (and sometimes unconstitutional) Depression-fighting policies. Indeed, Rauchway stresses that the New Deal only makes sense as a response to this global economic disaster. The book examines a key sampling of New Deal programs, ranging from the National Recovery Agency and the Securities and Exchange Commission, to the Public Works Administration and Social Security, revealing why some worked and others did not. In the end, Rauchway concludes, it was the coming of World War II that finally generated the political will to spend the massive amounts of public money needed to put Americans back to work. And only the Cold War saw the full implementation of New Deal policies abroad--including the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.

Today we can look back at the New Deal and, for the first time, see its full complexity. Rauchway captures this complexity in a remarkably short space, making this book an ideal introduction to one of the great policy revolutions in history.

About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

The Winner's Attitude: Using the "Switch" Method to Change How You Deal with Difficult People and Get the Best Out of Any Situation at Work

The Winner's Attitude: Using the "Switch" Method to Change How You Deal with Difficult People and Get the Best Out of Any Situation at Work Review

A powerful approach to help you find your full potential at work and in life

Have you ever wondered how much more you could achieve if you could maximize your brain power? In The Winner's Attitude, motivational gurus Jeff and Val Gee introduce you to Switch, a personal performance technology that's nothing short of an upgrade for the human mind.

Never again will you be overwhelmed by angry customers, bad managers, and stresses that undermine your confidence. Instead of reacting with anger or fear, you'll greet challenges with the calm focus of a born winner. Using the powerful Switch methods and tools in this book, you'll:

• Channel stress and make it work for you
• Spontaneously tailor a winning approach to every person or situation
• Connect with managers, co-workers, and customers like never before
• Take the leap from adequate to outstanding in everything you do

"A 'must read' for anyone who is committed to living a quality life. Warning--it could change the way you see the world!"--Barbara M. Low, RODP, SPHR; Director, MB University; MB Financial Bank

"At times a spiritual development manual, at times a performance improvement workbook for customer-focused professionals and managers, it is always a challenging guide to better, fuller and more productive living."--Patrick Canavan, Senior Vice President, Global Governance, (formerly Acting EVP Human Resources and Acting CIO) Motorola Inc.

Every Day, Everywhere: Global Perspectives on Popular Culture

Every Day, Everywhere: Global Perspectives on Popular Culture Review

With a thematic focus on global popular culture, this unique multi-genre reader offers students the opportunity to read, talk, and write about familiar topics of modern life.

Taking Time for Me: How Caregivers Can Effectively Deal With Stress (Golden Age Books)

Taking Time for Me: How Caregivers Can Effectively Deal With Stress (Golden Age Books) Review

If those who care for the ill and the infirm are to remain effective, they must confront the reality of stress and their obligation, both to themselves and their loved ones, to take the time to find ways of relieving these pressures. In "Taking Time for Me", Katherine L Karr's insightful observations and suggestions - enhanced by compelling personal accounts of real care providers who are struggling with their own needs while tending to the needs of others - demonstrate that caregivers can overcome their personal conflicts and develop innovative ways of renewing their strength without jeopardizing the well-being of those who depend on them. From exercise regimens and support groups to recognizing the humor in everyday situations, this book can revitalize caregivers for the challenges ahead.

The World is a Text: Writing, Reading and Thinking About Visual and Popular Culture (3rd Edition)

The World is a Text: Writing, Reading and Thinking About Visual and Popular Culture (3rd Edition) Review

The book teaches readers the usefulness of learning to actively "read" their surroundings. The new edition features a greatly expanded section on writing, editing, and making arguments.  This cultural studies reader directly engages the process of reading and writing about the “texts” one sees in everyday life. Using the lenses of rhetoric, semiotics and cultural studies, students are encouraged to become effective academic writers while gaining deeper insights into such popular culture categories as movies, technology, race, ethnicity, television, media, relationships, public space, and more.  For anyone who enjoys provocative and engaging material, and is interested in developing an appreciation for diverse cultural literary works.

The Anxiety Workbook for Teens: Activities to Help You Deal with Anxiety and Worry

The Anxiety Workbook for Teens: Activities to Help You Deal with Anxiety and Worry Review

If you feel anxious most of the time, you're not alone. About one in three people your age struggles with feelings of worry, fear, and panic. And the scary thing is, if you don't find a way to cope with anxiety, it can get worse as you get older. The good news is that there are a lot of effective techniques you can use, both on your own and with the help of a counselor, to reduce your feelings of anxiety and learn how to keep them from taking over your life. This workbook offers a set of simple activities you can do to make it happen.

The Anxiety Workbook for Teens will show you how to deal with the day-to-day challenges of anxiety. It will help you develop a positive self-image and recognize your anxious thoughts. The workbook also includes resources for seeking additional help and support if you decide you need it. What are you waiting for? Don't spend another minute paralyzed by anxiety.