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In a magisterial work of narrative nonfiction that weaves together the racially fraught history of public education in Milwaukee and the broader story of hypersegregation in the rust belt, "Lessons from the Heartland" tells of an iconic city's fall from grace--and of its chance for redemption in the twenty-first century. A symbol of middle American working-class values and pride, Wisconsin--and in particular urban Milwaukee--has been at the forefront of a half-century of public education experiments, from desegregation and "school choice," to vouchers and charter schools. Picking up where J. Anthony Lukas's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Common Ground" left off, "Lessons from the Heartland" offers a sweeping narrative portrait of an All-American city at the epicenter of American public education reform, and an exploration of larger issues of race and class in our democracy. Miner (whose daughters went through the Milwaukee public school system and who is a former "Milwaukee Journal" reporter) brings a journalist's eye and a parent's heart to exploring the intricate ways that jobs, housing, and schools intersect, underscoring the intrinsic link between the future of public schools and the dreams and hopes of democracy in a multicultural society. This book will change the way we think about the possibility and promise of American public education.
Howard Zinn was perhaps the best-known and most widely celebrated popular interpreter of American history in the twentieth century, renowned as a bestselling author, a political activist, a lecturer, and one of America's most recognizable and admired progressive voices. His rich, complicated, and fascinating life placed Zinn at the heart of the signal events of modern American history--from the battlefields of World War II to the McCarthy era, the civil rights and the antiwar movements, and beyond. A bombardier who later renounced war, a son of working-class parents who earned a doctorate at Columbia, a white professor who taught at the historically black Spelman College in Atlanta, a committed scholar who will be forever remembered as a devoted "people's historian"--Howard Zinn blazed a bold, iconoclastic path through the turbulent second half of the twentieth century. For the millions who were moved by Zinn's personal example of political engagement and by his inspiring "bottom up" history, here is an authoritative biography of this towering figure--by Martin Duberman, recipient of the American Historical Association's 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award. Given exclusive access to the previously closed Zinn archives, Duberman's impeccably researched biography is illustrated with never-before-published photos from the Zinn family collection. "Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left" is a major publishing event that brings to life one of the most inspiring figures of our time.
If the nation's gross national income--over $14 trillion--were divided evenly across the entire U.S. population, every household could call itself middle class. Yet the income-level disparity in this country is now wider than at any point since the Great Depression. In 2010 the average salary for CEOs on the S&P 500 was over $1 million--climbing to over $11 million when all forms of compensation are accounted for--while the current median household income for African Americans is just over $32,000. How can some be so rich, while others are so poor? In this provocative book, Peter Edelman, a former top aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy and a lifelong antipoverty advocate, offers an informed analysis of how this country can be so wealthy yet have a steadily growing number of unemployed and working poor. According to Edelman, we have taken important positive steps without which 25 to 30 million "more" people would be poor, but poverty fluctuates with the business cycle. The structure of today's economy has stultified wage growth for half of America's workers--with even worse results at the bottom and for people of color--while bestowing billions on those at the top. "So Rich, So Poor" delves into what is happening to the people behind the statistics and takes a particular look at the continuing crisis of young people of color, whose possibility of a productive life too often is lost on their way to adulthood. This is crucial reading for anyone who wants to understand the most critical American dilemma of the twenty-first century.
As China navigates the murky waters of a "third way" with liberal economic policies under a strict political regime, the surprising battleground for China's future emerges in the country's highest rated television network--China Central Television, or CCTV. With 16 internationally broadcast channels and over 1.2 billion viewers, CCTV is a powerhouse in conveying Chinese news and entertainment. The hybrid nature of the network has also transformed it into an unexpected site of discourse in a country that has little official space for negotiation. While CCTV programming is state sponsored--and censored--the popularity and profit of the station are determined by the people. And as the Chinese Communist Party seeks to exert its own voice on domestic and international affairs, the prospect of finding an amenable audience becomes increasingly paramount. Through a series of interviews with a fascinating cast of power players including a director of a special topic program that incited the 1989 student movement, current and past presidents of CCTV, and producers at the frontline of the network's rapidly evolving role in Chinese culture, celebrated media analyst Ying Zhu unlocks a doorway to political power that has long been shrouded in mystery.
"The story of the United States' intimate and pivotal relationship with the Arab world's largest nation over the course of six decades"--Provided by publisher.
"Bank Street College of Education professor Salvatore Vascellaro is a leading advocate of taking children and teachers into a wider world as the key to improving our struggling schools. Combining practical and theoretical guidance, Out of the Classroom and into the World visits a rich variety of classrooms transformed by innovative field trip curricula--showing how students' hearts and minds are opened as they discover how a suspension bridge works, what connects them to the people and places of their neighborhood, and as they come to understand the ecosystem of a river by following it to its source. Vascellaro shows, equally, that what teachers can offer children is fueled by their own engagement with the world, and he offers stunning examples of teachers awakened by their direct experiences with the social issues plaguing American society--from the flood-torn areas of New Orleans to the mining areas of West Virginia. Based on the core principles of progressive pedagogy, and the wisdom gained from Vascellaro's experience as a teacher, school administrator, and teacher educator, Out of the Classroom and into the World is a direct retort to test scores and standards as adequate measures of teaching and learning--an inspiring call and major new resource for anyone interested in reinvigorating America's classrooms"-- Provided by publisher.
After a long political season of listening to Glenn Beck's loony rants, Sarah Palin's off-kilter phraseology, and Rand Paul's downright oddball elocutions, authors Shelby Gragg and Stefan Petrucha were struck by an astonishing similarity to the beloved fill-in-the-blank games of their childhood. And so the hilarious spoof "What the (Active Verb) Is Wrong with the Right?" was born. This laugh-out-loud parody invites readers to create their own fanciful sentences that would make any right-wing nut proud. From the roots of the rabid right (testing our knowledge of the McCarthy hearings and Richard Nixon's Checkers speech), through the O'Reilly and Hannity ascendancy, and up to the heyday of Glenn and Sarah, "What the (Active Verb) Is Wrong with the Right?" touches on the greatest hits and the most outrageous misses of contemporary conservative rhetoric. Including favorites such as Ann Coulter and Ronald Reagan, along with a supporting cast of thousands of tea partiers and irate Fox News viewers, here's the ultimate impulse buy/graduation gift/stocking stuffer that will provide hours of cathartic and comic relief for the rest of us. Chuckle at the rabid right! Guffaw through O'Reilly and Hannity! Giggle at Glenn and Sarah! And laugh until you weep for the fate of the nation!
Written by the blogger who was the first to report on the lobbyists who brought us the Tea Parties, here is a groundbreaking expos of the plans to make America conservative again. "A Field Guide to the Right" dissects the rise of "patriot" hate groups, financing for Glenn Beck and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, and how former Bush operatives and current trade association heads have cleverly adapted to crush Obama and progressive reform.
When the historian Howard Zinn died in early 2010, millions mourned the loss of one of our foremost intellectual and political guides: a historian, activist, and truth-teller who, in the words of the "New York Times"'s Bob Herbert, "peel[ed] back the rosy veneer of much of American history." Designed to highlight Zinn's most important writings, "The Indispensable" Zinn includes excerpts from Zinn's bestselling "A People's History of the United States"; his memoir, "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train"; his inspiring writings on the civil rights movement; and the full text of his celebrated play "Marx in Soho." Noted historian and activist Timothy Patrick McCarthy provides essential historical and biographical context for each selection. With an introduction from Zinn's former Spellman College student and longtime friend Alice Walker and an afterword by Zinn's friend and colleague Noam Chomsky, "The Indispensable Zinn" is both a fitting tribute to the legacy of a man whose "work changed the way millions of people saw the past" (Noam Chomsky) and a powerful and accessible introduction for anyone discovering Zinn for the first time.
An oral history drawn from the collection of 9/11 interviews at Columbia University.
As public schools become increasingly embattled by budget shortfalls, crowded buildings, and ever-more-rigid curricula, the burden of these restrictions has drastically changed the way children are expected to learn. Nowhere is this more obvious or more devastating than classrooms in high-need urban areas. Drawing upon teachers' firsthand experiences in some of today's most demanding schools, leading education experts Beverly Falk and Megan Blumenreich provide an enlightening account of what our students really need--and how teachers are stepping up to provide what state standards and political posturing cannot. "Teaching Matters" takes us into a variety of classrooms to witness the art of teaching at its most creative and effective, with a focus on early childhood and elementary school. We follow educators as they strive to change systems that fail to address the needs of their students, from efforts to break the silence about homophobia in schools and multipronged strategies to build stronger relationships with immigrant families to the modification of ineffective curriculum to foster the growth of the "whole child." By confronting many misconceptions about urban education and school reform, Falk and Blumenreich provide a crucial insider's look at some of the most challenging and relevant questions in education today.
A sweeping historical travelogue of the contentious border of France and Spain, in the great tradition of Bruce Chatwin and Jan MorrisWith the Catalonia crisis making international headlines, the unique cultural and geographic region bordering Spain and France has once again moved to the center of the world's attention. In The Savage Frontier, acclaimed author and journalist Matthew Carr uncovers the fascinating, multilayered story of the Pyrenees region-at once a forbidding, mountainous frontier zone of stunning beauty, home to a unique culture, and a site of sharp conflict between nations and empires.Carr follows the routes taken by monks, soldiers, poets, pilgrims, and refugees. He examines the people and events that have shaped the Pyrenees across the centuries, with a cast of characters including Napoleon, Hannibal, and Charlemagne; the eccentric British climber Henry Russell; Francisco Sabaté Llopart, the Catalan anarchist who waged a lone war against the Franco regime across the Pyrenees for years after the civil war; Camino de Santiago pilgrims; and the cellist Pablo Casals, who spent twenty-three years in exile only a few miles from the Spanish border to show his disgust and disapproval of the Spanish regime.The Savage Frontier is a book that will spark a new awareness and appreciation of one of the most haunting, magical, and dramatic landscapes on earth.
The singular chronicle of life at the forefront of anti-racist activism.
Provides the reasoning behind Noam Chomsky's fearless lifelong questioning of the legitimacy of entrenched power. In these essays, Chomsky redeems one of the most maligned ideologies, anarchism, and places it at the foundation of his political thinking.
A preeminent political essayist writes about the perversion of America's democratic legacy under George W. Bush and makes a compelling case for impeachment.
This groundbreaking work reveals the disturbing reality that credit cards are in fact the new "safety net" being used by desperate middle- and low-income families to manage essential expenses in an increasingly volatile American economy.
"Having made his name in the late 1980s as a member of the indie band Galaxie 500, Damon Krukowski has watched cultural life lurch from analog to digital. And as an artist who has weathered the transition, he has challenging, urgent questions for both creators and consumers about what we have thrown away in the process: Are our devices leaving us lost in our own headspace even as they pinpoint our location? Does the long reach of digital communication come at the sacrifice of our ability to gauge social distance? Do streaming media discourage us from listening closely? Are we hearing each other fully in this new environment? Rather than simply rejecting the digital disruption of cultural life, Krukowski uses the sound engineer's distinction of signal and noise to reexamine what we have lost as a technological culture, looking carefully at what was valuable in the analog realm so we can hold on to it. Taking a set of experiences from the production and consumption of music that have changed since the analog era--the disorientation of headphones, flattening of the voice, silence of media, loudness of mastering, and manipulation of time--as a basis for a broader exploration of contemporary culture, Krukowski gives us a brilliant meditation and guide to keeping our heads amid the digital flux. Think of it as plugging in without tuning out."--Book jacket.
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