Vividly articulates the despair and disillusionment of blue-collar America' Sunday Times 'Hillbilly Elegy' is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis-that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J.D. Vance...

Victorian poet and critic Matthew Arnold wrote the essays that constitute Culture and Anarchy between 1867 and 1869, a time of rapid social change and uncertainty. Defining culture as "the best that has been thought and said," Arnold offers concrete suggestions for its role as a corrective to the chaos of materialism, industrialism, and self-interest. Acclaimed by Commentary as "the classic defense of high culture against the depredations of modernity,"...

This book contains a series of sketches that aim to illustrate various aspects of social life in the Middle Ages. This volume is highly recommended for those with an interest in European history. Contents include: "The Precursors", "Bodo, A Frankish Peasant In The Time Of Charlemagne", "Marco Polo, A Venetian Traveller Of The Thirteenth Century", "Madame Eglentyne, Chaucer's Prioress In Real Life", "The Ménagier's Wife, A Paris Housewife In The Fourteenth...

Offers predictions as to what technological advances will truly bring, in a sobering look at the future that dispels the overly optimistic vision of the future as depicted in 1950s pop culture.

Sonita was born in a refugee camp in Pakistan after her family fled Afghanistan during the war in the early 2000s. Unwelcome in Pakistan, her family returns to Afghanistan, where Sonita and her family face new challenges. Interspersed with facts about Afghanistan and its people, this narrative tells a story common to many refugees fleeing the country. Readers will learn about the decades of conflict in Afghanistan and how they can help refugees in...

2016 Best Book Award, North American Society for the Sociology of Sport A human face on the realities of professional football, from the challenges players face after leaving the NFL to the factors that can enable them to continue to find success Is There Life After Football? draws upon the experiences of hundreds of former players as they describe their lives playing the sport and after their football days are over. The "bubble"-like conditions...

Five-year-old Roj's home is bombed during the civil war that has been raging in his homeland of Syria. He and his family are forced to flee the country secretly by boat, and they end up in a camp for refugees in Europe. Interspersed with facts about Syria and its people, this narrative tells a story common to many refugees fleeing the country. The book looks at the efforts being made around the world to assist the millions of refugees. Readers are...

Eight-year-old Etienne and his family live in The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Kidnapped by a rebel army and forced to be a child soldier, Etienne finally escapes and is sent to a camp for freed child soldiers. He is reunited with his family who then flee the country, arriving as refugees in Canada. Interspersed with facts about the DRC and its people, this narrative tells a story common to many refugees fleeing the country. Readers will...

"Hope High School in Providence, Rhode Island was once a model city school, graduating a wide range of students from different backgrounds. But the tumult of the 1960s and the drug wars of the 70s changed both Providence and Hope. Today, the aging school is primarily Hispanic and African-American, with kids traveling for miles by bus and foot each day. Hope was known for its state championship basketball teams in the 1960s, but its 2012 team is much...

A former special assistant to President George W. Bush chronicles his coming of age in a small Alabama community founded by freed slaves, where he learned valuable lessons about helping others, embracing faith, and fighting racial injustice.