Catalog Search Results

From the author of the highly acclaimed heavy metal memoir, Fargo Rock City, comes another hilarious and discerning take on massively popular culture-set in Chuck Klosterman's den and your own-covering everything from the effect of John Cusack flicks to the crucial role of breakfast cereal to the awesome power of the Dixie Chicks. Countless writers and artists have spoken for a generation, but no one has done it quite like Chuck Klosterman. With...

The "Gateway to Africa," Ghana welcomes around a million tourists, aid workers, and business travelers a year-visitors who invariably come away with glowing reports of a fertile land, tropical scenic beauty, rich culture and traditions, and many first-rate tourist attractions. It is, however, the Ghanaians themselves who make the biggest impression. It is through their hospitality and love of peace that Ghana has a claim to be the safest and friendliest...

At each step of this journey through American cultural history, Louis Menand has an original point to make: he explains the real significance of William James's nervous breakdown, and of the anti-Semitism in T. S. Eliot's writing. He reveals the reasons for the remarkable commercial successes of William Shawn's New Yorker and William Paley's CBS. He uncovers the connection between Larry Flynt's Hustler and Jerry Falwell's evangelism, between the atom...

First published in 1962, this wonderfully provocative book introduced the notion of "pseudo-events"-events such as press conferences and presidential debates, which are manufactured solely in order to be reported-and the contemporary definition of celebrity as "a person who is known for his well-knownness." Since then Daniel J. Boorstin's prophetic vision of an America inundated by its own illusions has become an essential resource for any reader...

People of African descent have shaped New Orleans from its earliest days into the vibrant city it is today. From the slaves and indentured servants who drained the swamps, erected the buildings, constructed the levees, and dug the canals to the Freedom Riders who fought for racial equality in a segregated South, New Orleans' history and black history in America are intricately connected. Historian Keith Weldon Medley recounts the rich history of African...

"The technological society is a rigorous, detailed, and persuasive analysis of virtually every aspect of contemporary civilization. With unsparing honesty, M. Ellul examiens the impact of the technical view of life on politics, economics, and the totality of relationships in our culture. By technique he means not only the machine technology so many thinkers have attacked, but the standardization of procedures and behavior in order to develop 'the...

Culture and biology appear to have antagonized each other since the earliest stages of human history. Is this actually the case? Once the reproductive age is past, does nature have any "purpose" in prolonging life? A prominent biologist examines how humans have always tried to overcome the burden of biological limits by developing science, technology-and communities. By now, humans have defeated the typical logic that guides evolution by canceling...

This book is an account of the state of Arizona, seen through the lens of the Tucson shootings. On January 8, 2011, twenty-two-year-old Jared Lee Loughner opened fire at a Tucson meet-and-greet held by U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords. The incident left six people dead and eighteen injured, including Giffords, whom he shot in the head. The auhtor, a fifth generation Arizonan and longtime friend of Giffords's and a field organizer on her Congressional...