Riding the Rails in the USA: Trains in American Life

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Riding the Rails in the USA: Trains in American Life

Preachers railed against it: "Traveling at speeds up to 20 miles per hour went against the Lord's plan!" Doctors told their patients that traveling on it would cause serious physical and mental ailments, including the boiling of the blood. Newspapers cried out, "It is a topsy-turvy, harum-scarum whirligig!" But it didn't matter: America loved the train and the freedom of movement that came with it. Riding the Rails in America traces the dynamic relationship of America with the train, showing how the railroad was the single largest influence on the development of the nation's history and economy as it became possible to move freight and people farther and faster than ever before.

ISBN: 0195132289

Author: Martin W. Sandler

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Rating: 3.33

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The Decline of American Power: The U.S. in a Chaotic World

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The Decline of American Power: The U.S. in a Chaotic World

The United States in decline? Its admirers and detractors alike claim the opposite: that America is now in a position of unprecedented global supremacy. But in fact, Immanuel Wallerstein argues, a more nuanced evaluation of recent history reveals that America has been fading as a global power since the end of the Vietnam War, and its response to the terrorist attacks of September 11 looks certain to hasten that decline. In this provocative collection, the visionary originator of world-systems analysis and the most innovative social scientist of his generation turns a practiced analytical eye to the turbulent beginnings of the 21st century. Touching on globalization, Islam, racism, democracy, intellectuals, and the state of the Left, Wallerstein upends conventional wisdom to produce a clear-eyed—and troubling—assessment of the crumbling international order.

ISBN: 1565847997

Author: Immanuel Wallerstein

Publisher: The New Press

Rating: 3.82

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Gold Nuggets Silver Bullets: Wisdom to Live Your Life and Career to the Fullest

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Gold Nuggets Silver Bullets: Wisdom to Live Your Life and Career to the Fullest

ISBN: 1581691130

Author: John Grogan

Publisher: Evergreen Press (AL)

Rating: 0.00

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Duane s Depressed

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Duane s Depressed

Funny, sad, full of wonderful characters and the word-perfect dialogue of which he is the master, McMurtry brings the Thalia saga to an end with Duane confronting depression in the midst of plenty. Surrounded by his children, who all seem to be going through life crises involving sex, drugs, and violence; his wife, Karla, who is wrestling with her own demons; and friends like Sonny, who seem to be dying, Duane can't seem to make sense of his life anymore. He gradually makes his way through a protracted end-of-life crisis of which he is finally cured by reading Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, a combination of penance and prescription from Dr. Carmichael that somehow works.
Duane's Depressed is the work of a powerful, mature artist, with a deep understanding of the human condition, a profound ability to write about small-town life, and perhaps the surest touch of any American novelist for the tangled feelings that bind and separate men and women.

ISBN: 0743230159

Author: Larry McMurtry

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Rating: 3.63

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Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression

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Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression

During the Great Depression, more than 250,000 teenagers left their homes and hopped freight trains crisscrossing the United States. They were looking for work and adventure; some wanted to leave their homes, and some had to. They grew up in speeding boxcars, living in hobo jungles, begging on the streets, and running from the police and club-wielding railroad guards.

The restless youth of these boxcar boys and girls, many who went from 'middle-class gentility to dirt poor' overnight, is recaptured in Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression. Whether as runaways or with blessings of parents, these boys and girls hit the road and went in search of a better life.

Illustrated with rare archival photos and drawing primarily on letters and oral histories of three thousand men and women who hopped freight trains, Riding the Rails brings to life a neglected saga of America in the 1930s. Self-reliance, compassion, frugality, and a love of freedom and country are at the heart of the lessons these teens learned. At journey's end, the resilience of these survivors is a testament of the indomitable strength of the human spirit.

ISBN: 0415945755

Author: Errol Lincoln Uys

Publisher: Routledge

Rating: 3.90

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What About the Kids?: Raising Your Children Before, During, and After Divorce

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What About the Kids?: Raising Your Children Before, During, and After Divorce

The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce gave us new and important insight into the long-term effects of divorce on children who have grown into adulthood. What About the Kids? is a new book that tells parents in unprecedented detail how to help their children over the long haul--what to say, what to do, what to expect--every step of the way.

Tapping into the latest findings on how children develop, this clearly written guidebook helps parents understand why children at different ages react the way they do to divorce and how to head off trouble before it begins. The book follows divorce chronologically so parents can find advice for whatever stage of the experience they are in, including how to help older children many years after the breakup.


Part One--The Immediate Breakup: What you need to know to get your own life back on track, what to tell the children, how children react, the reasons for their reactions, and thoughts on when is the best time to divorce.
Part Two--The First Few Years: Setting routines, getting legal help, choosing the right custody to fit your child, finding support, and how to realistically follow the advice 'don't fight.'
Part Three--Assessing the Post-Divorce Family Five and Ten Years Down the Road: Take another close look at yourself and your kids. Divorce requires a new kind of father, mother, and teenager.
Part Four--When Outsiders Join the Family: Dating, sex, remarriage, blended families, holidays, and what step-parents need to know.
Part Five--Conversations for a Lifetime: How to talk with your children as they enter young adulthood so they feel safe and free to seek relationships based on love, trust, and mutual commitment.
What About the Kids? is the ultimate resource for any person wishing to ease the effects of divorce on children, and for all divorced parents who want to ensure their children's future happiness.

ISBN: 0786868651

Author: Judith S. Wallerstein

Publisher: Hachette Books

Rating: 4.02

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The Jungle

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The Jungle

This story of the immigrant experience in the harrowing Chicago stockyards has drawn comment from historians, policymakers, and literary critics, and it is a widely assigned teaching text. The novel is accompanied by an introduction and explanatory annotations. "Contexts and Backgrounds" provides readers with an understanding of The Jungle's disparate social, historical, political, and literary dimensions. Included are autobiographical selections by the author; contemporary perspectives on the meatpacking industry, including writings by Theodore Dreiser, Adolphe Smith, and J. Ogden Armour; and commentary on the living conditions of immigrant workers. Historical studies by Jimmy Skaggs, Rick Halpern, James Barrett, Robert M. Crunden, John Braeman, William Cronon, and Eric Schlosser address the central issues: slaughterhouse abuses, protectionism and The Beef Trust, muckraking, Progressivism, and consumer rights. "Criticism" collects eight provocative readings of The Jungle as a literary text, as a historical document in its own right, as a contribution to Progressive-era muckraking, and as an important work in urban, economic, and labor history. Contributions include Jack London, Edward Clark Marsh, Winston Spencer Churchill, Walter Rideout, June Howard, Scott Derrick, Michael Brewster Folsom, and Christopher P. Wilson. A Selected Bibliography is also included.

ISBN: 039397779X

Author: Upton Sinclair

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Rating: 3.70

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