Of the complex, richly rewarding masterworks he wrote in the last decade of his life, Little Dorrit is the book in which Charles Dickens most fully unleashed his indignation at the fallen state of mid-Victorian society. Crammed with persons and incidents in whose recreation nothing is accidental or spurious, containing, in its picture of the Circumlocution Office, the most witheringly exact satire of a bureaucracy we possess, Little Dorrit is a stunning...

The Road to Wigan Pier is a book by the English writer George Orwell, first published in 1937. The first half of this work documents his sociological investigations of the bleak living conditions among the working class in Lancashire and Yorkshire in the industrial north of England before World War II. The second half is a long essay on his middle-class upbringing, and the development of his political conscience, questioning British

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Perhaps the best written of all the slave narratives, Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American history. It recounts how Solomon Northup, born a free man in New York, was lured to Washington, D.C., in 1841 with the promise of fast money, then drugged and beaten and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana cotton plantation. After his rescue, Northup published...

Jane Austen's reputation rests on the six novels she wrote in her short life - enduringly popular novels which have become part of the fabric of English life, and which have reached new audiences through recent dramatisations on screen and stage. This book, which draws on her letters, describes Jane's life in the vicarage at Steventon and later at Bath and Chawton, and her relationships with family and friends - especially her beloved sister, Cassandra,...

Students will gain knowledge of map, chart, and graph reading, develop critical thinking skills, learn to examine primary source documents, and understand citizenship.

Students will gain knowledge of map, chart, and graph reading, develop critical thinking skills, learn to examine primary source documents, and understand citizenship.

Neil J. Smelser is university professor of sociology emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. His many books include Social Change in the Industrial Revolution, Problematics of Sociology, and Social Paralysis and Social Change. Terrorism is the most clear and present danger we confront today, yet no phenomenon is more poorly understood by policymakers, the media, and the general public. The Faces of Terrorism is the first serious interdisciplinary...

This title examines an important historic event - the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others in Tucson, Arizona. Easy-to-read, compelling text explores the man behind the shooting, Jared Loughner, and his history of mental illness, the disease schizophrenia, Giffords rise in politics, the political climate in America, including the hot button issue of health-care reform, Giffords's fight for her life, and the effects of this event...

In the face of injustice, people band together to work for change, and through their influence, what was once unthinkable becomes common. This title traces the history of the civil rights movement in the United States, including the key players, watershed moments, and legislative battles that have driven social change. Iconic images and informative sidebars accompany compelling text that follows the movement from the Reconstruction era through the...

In the face of injustice, people band together to work for change. Through their influence, what was once unthinkable becomes common. This title traces the history of the gay rights movement in the United States, including the key players, watershed moments, and legislative battles that have driven social change. Iconic images and informative sidebars accompany compelling text that follows the movement from before the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn...