Download or read book West of the West written by Mark Arax and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2011-04 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teddy Roosevelt once exclaimed, ''When I am in California, I am not in the West, I am west of the West,'' and in this book, Mark Arax sets out to explain just what TR meant. His is a compelling, sometimes ominous portrait of a place and its people who are often surviving on the edge, reliving history, and losing their way in the promised land: ''The Summer of the Death of Hilario Guzman'' is a deeply-felt portrait of an immigrant family from Oaxaca, followed through harrowing border crossings and raisin harvests; ''the Last Okie of Lamont,'' (the inspiration for the town featured in The Grapes of Wrath) has only one Okie left, who tells Arax his life story as he drives to a funeral to bury one more Dust Bowl migrant; and ''Highlands of Humboldt'' is a visit to the marijuana growing capital of the U.S., where the local bank collects a sizeable daily deposit of cash, most of which reeks of marijuana.Combining hard-hitting reporting and stellar writing, Arax captures both the atmosphere of social upheaval and the sense of being rooted in a community. Once you meet the people portrayed in this book, you won't forget them.
Download or read book West of West written by Laura Barton and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2020-01-23 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Swim out into the Pacific and look back to the shore. To the couple kissing in the hot afternoon, and the young girl rollerskating along the front, and the family setting up camp on the soft, warm sand. To the blues and yellows and pinks of fierce, determined revelry. Santa Monica, where the wooden pier juts out into the Pacific Ocean, marks the end of Route 66. The great American journey west culminates here, and it is on this short stretch of coast that Sarah Lee began shooting her photographic series in 2015. In West of West Sarah Lee and Laura Barton explore the idea of the West in shaping American identity, with its idealism and notions of the frontier, and what the American West means in an age of political turbulence, when the East is the rising global force and the frontier is shifting once more.
Download or read book The Rise of the West written by William H. McNeill and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-07-30 with total page 866 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rise of the West, winner of the National Book Award for history in 1964, is famous for its ambitious scope and intellectual rigor. In it, McNeill challenges the Spengler-Toynbee view that a number of separate civilizations pursued essentially independent careers, and argues instead that human cultures interacted at every stage of their history. The author suggests that from the Neolithic beginnings of grain agriculture to the present major social changes in all parts of the world were triggered by new or newly important foreign stimuli, and he presents a persuasive narrative of world history to support this claim. In a retrospective essay titled "The Rise of the West after Twenty-five Years," McNeill shows how his book was shaped by the time and place in which it was written (1954-63). He discusses how historiography subsequently developed and suggests how his portrait of the world's past in The Rise of the West should be revised to reflect these changes. "This is not only the most learned and the most intelligent, it is also the most stimulating and fascinating book that has ever set out to recount and explain the whole history of mankind. . . . To read it is a great experience. It leaves echoes to reverberate, and seeds to germinate in the mind."—H. R. Trevor-Roper, New York Times Book Review
Download or read book West of Slavery written by Kevin Waite and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When American slaveholders looked west in the mid-nineteenth century, they saw an empire unfolding before them. They pursued that vision through diplomacy, migration, and armed conquest. By the late 1850s, slaveholders and their allies had transformed the southwestern quarter of the nation – California, New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Utah – into a political client of the plantation states. Across this vast swath of the map, white southerners defended the institution of African American chattel slavery as well as systems of Native American bondage. This surprising history uncovers the Old South in unexpected places, far beyond the region's cotton fields and sugar plantations. Slaveholders' western ambitions culminated in a coast-to-coast crisis of the Union. By 1861, the rebellion in the South inspired a series of separatist movements in the Far West. Even after the collapse of the Confederacy, the threads connecting South and West held, undermining the radical promise of Reconstruction. Kevin Waite brings to light what contemporaries recognized but historians have described only in part: The struggle over slavery played out on a transcontinental stage.
Download or read book West by West written by Jonathan Coleman and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2011-10-19 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He is one of basketball's towering figures: "Mr. Clutch," who mesmerized his opponents and fans. The coach who began the Lakers' resurgence in the 1970s. The general manager who helped bring "Showtime" to Los Angeles, creating a championship-winning force that continues to this day. Now, for the first time, the legendary Jerry West tells his story-from his tough childhood in West Virginia, to his unbelievable college success at West Virginia University, his 40-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and his relationships with NBA legends like Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kobe Bryant. Unsparing in its self-assessment and honesty, West by West is far more than a sports memoir: it is a profound confession and a magnificent inspiration.
Download or read book The Abandonment of the West written by Michael Kimmage and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2020-04-21 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This definitive portrait of American diplomacy reveals how the concept of the West drove twentieth-century foreign policy, how it fell from favor, and why it is worth saving. Throughout the twentieth century, many Americans saw themselves as part of Western civilization, and Western ideals of liberty and self-government guided American diplomacy. But today, other ideas fill this role: on one side, a technocratic "liberal international order," and on the other, the illiberal nationalism of "America First." In The Abandonment of the West, historian Michael Kimmage shows how the West became the dominant idea in US foreign policy in the first half of the twentieth century -- and how that consensus has unraveled. We must revive the West, he argues, to counter authoritarian challenges from Russia and China. This is an urgent portrait of modern America's complicated origins, its emergence as a superpower, and the crossroads at which it now stands.
Download or read book The Decline of the West written by Oswald Spengler and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1991 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spengler's work describes how we have entered into a centuries-long "world-historical" phase comparable to late antiquity, and his controversial ideas spark debate over the meaning of historiography.
Download or read book The Fate of the West written by Bill Emmott and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2017-04-27 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When faced with global instability and economic uncertainty, it is tempting for states to react by closing borders, hoarding wealth and solidifying power. We have seen it at various times in Japan, France and Italy and now it is infecting much of Europe and America, as the vote for Brexit in the UK has vividly shown. This insularity, together with increased inequality of income and wealth, threatens the future role of the West as a font of stability, prosperity and security. Part of the problem is that the principles of liberal democracy upon which the success of the West has been built have been suborned, with special interest groups such as bankers accruing too much power and too great a share of the economic cake. So how is this threat to be countered? States such as Sweden in the 1990s, California at different times or Britain under Thatcher all halted stagnation by clearing away the powers of interest groups and restoring their societies' ability to evolve. To survive, the West needs to be porous, open and flexible. From reinventing welfare systems to redefining the working age, from reimagining education to embracing automation, Emmott lays out the changes the West must make to revive itself in the moment and avoid a deathly rigid future.
Download or read book Journey to the West written by Wu Cheng'en and published by Asiapac Books Pte Ltd. This book was released on 2018-08-14 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling Journey to the West comic book by artist Chang Boon Kiat is now back in a brand new fully coloured edition. Journey to the West is one of the greatest classics in Chinese literature. It tells the epic tale of the monk Xuanzang who journeys to the West in search of the Buddhist sutras with his disciples, Sun Wukong, Sandy and Pigsy. Along the way, Xuanzang's life was threatened by the diabolical White Bone Spirit, the menacing Red Child and his fearsome parents and, a host of evil spirits who sought to devour Xuanzang's flesh to attain immortality. Bear witness to the formidable Sun Wukong's (Monkey God) prowess as he takes them on, using his Fiery Eyes, Golden Cudgel, Somersault Cloud, and quick wits! Be prepared for a galloping read that will leave you breathless!
Download or read book The Minds of the West written by Jon Gjerde and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2000-11-09 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the century preceding World War I, the American Middle West drew thousands of migrants both from Europe and from the northeastern United States. In the American mind, the region represented a place where social differences could be muted and a distinctly American culture created. Many of the European groups, however, viewed the Midwest as an area of opportunity because it allowed them to retain cultural and religious traditions from their homelands. Jon Gjerde examines the cultural patterns, or "minds," that those settling the Middle West carried with them. He argues that such cultural transplantation could occur because patterns of migration tended to reunite people of similar pasts and because the rural Midwest was a vast region where cultural groups could sequester themselves in tight-knit settlements built around familial and community institutions. Gjerde compares patterns of development and acculturation across immigrant groups, exploring the frictions and fissures experienced within and between communities. Finally, he examines the means by which individual ethnic groups built themselves a representative voice, joining the political and social debate on both a regional and national level.
Download or read book And West Is West written by Ron Childress and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2016-07-05 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A calculated nail-biter that shines a dark light on life in the 21st century.” —The Washington Post “A story no one has ever written before, and one we all need to read . . . Impressive and keenly relevant to our time.” —Barbara Kingsolver When Jessica, a young Air Force drone pilot in Nevada, is tasked with launching a missile against a suspected terrorist halfway across the world, she has no choice but to comply, even if it means women and children will be killed too. Meanwhile, Ethan, a young Wall Street quant, develops an algorithm that enables his company’s clients to profit by exploiting the international financial instability caused by exactly this kind of antiterrorist strike. These two are only minor players, but their actions have global implications that tear lives apart--including their own, as they are cast out by a flawed system and forced to take the blame for the orders of their superiors. Award-winning author Ron Childress has crafted a powerful, politically charged, and terrifyingly real novel for our time. “Extraordinary.” —The Kansas City Star “This compelling debut novel . . . dramatically examines the insidious role unrestrained technology plays in the moral and ethical corruption of people, institutions, and government . . . An excellent story, well told, suspenseful, and tragic.” —Publishers Weekly “This powerful and morally chilling tale depicts the chasm modern technology can create between actions and consequences.” —Library Journal “A smart, satisfying work about real people navigating the uneasy compromises of today’s world. With sharp writing and likeable characters, Ron Childress has woven a very human story out of the tangle of conflicts--military, political, financial--that bind us together.” —Washington Independent Review of Books, “2015 Best Novels of the Year” “A master study in how people can emotionally detach themselves from the damage they cause in our computer-driven world.” —The Washington Post
Download or read book People of the West written by Dayton Duncan and published by Little Brown. This book was released on 1996 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This companion book to the 8-part documentary series about the history of the West looks at the lives of the peoples who inhabited it.
Download or read book The West written by Geoffrey C. Ward and published by Back Bay Books. This book was released on 2008-12-21 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This vivid narrative history -- magnificently illustrated with more than 400 photographs, many of them never before published -- takes us on a gripping journey through the turbulent history of the region that has come to symbolize America around the world. Drawing on hundreds of letters, diaries, memoirs, and journals as well as the latest scholarship, The West presents a cast as rich and diverse as the western landscape itself: explorers and soldiers and Indian warriors, settlers and railroad builders and gaudy showmen. The book is filled with stories of heroism and hope, enterprise and adventure, as well as tragedy and disappointment. It explores the tensions between whites and the native peoples they sought to displace, but it also encompasses the Hispanic experience in the West. Gracefully written, handsomely designed, meticulously researched, The West is an unrivaled work of history that brilliantly captures all the drama and excitement, the sober realities and bright myths of the American West. Book jacket.
Download or read book Mr West written by Sarah Blake and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-09 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mr. West covers the main events in superstar Kanye West’s life while also following the poet on her year spent researching, writing, and pregnant. The book explores how we are drawn to celebrities—to their portrayal in the media—and how we sometimes find great private meaning in another person’s public story, even across lines of gender and race. Blake’s aesthetics take her work from prose poems to lineated free verse to tightly wound lyrics to improbably successful sestinas. The poems fully engage pop culture as a strange, complicated presence that is revealing of America itself. This is a daring debut collection and a groundbreaking work. An online reader’s companion will be available at http://sarahblake.site.wesleyan.edu.
Download or read book The Idea of the West written by Alastair Bonnett and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-04-29 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The West is on everyone's lips: it is defended, celebrated, hated. But how and why did it emerge? And whose idea is it? This book is about representations of the West. Drawing on sources from across the world - from Russia to Japan, Iran to Britain - it argues that the West is not merely a Western idea but something that many people around the world have long been creating and stereotyping. The Idea of the West looks at how the great political and ethnic forces of the last century defined themselves in relation to the West, addresses how Soviet communism, 'Asian spirituality', 'Asian values' and radical Islamism used and deployed images of the West. Both topical and wide-ranging, it offers an accessible but provocative portrait of a fascinating subject and it charts the complex relationship between whiteness and the West.
Download or read book The Triumph of the West written by J. M. Roberts and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2001 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illuminating and authoritative account, greatly expanded from a 13-part television series, of the history of western civilization from its earliest roots. J.M. Roberts uncovers what it was that gave European culture its confident energy for so many centuries while exposing its flaws and its irreversible impact on the rest of the world.
Download or read book How to Read the American West written by William Wyckoff and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2014-06-05 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From deserts to ghost towns, from national forests to California bungalows, many of the features of the western American landscape are well known to residents and travelers alike. But in How to Read the American West, William Wyckoff introduces readers anew to these familiar landscapes. A geographer and an accomplished photographer, Wyckoff offers a fresh perspective on the natural and human history of the American West and encourages readers to discover that history has shaped the places where people live, work, and visit. This innovative field guide includes stories, photographs, maps, and diagrams on a hundred landscape features across the American West. Features are grouped according to type, such as natural landscapes, farms and ranches, places of special cultural identity, and cities and suburbs. Unlike the geographic organization of a traditional guidebook, Wyckoff's field guide draws attention to the connections and the differences between and among places. Emphasizing features that recur from one part of the region to another, the guide takes readers on an exploration of the eleven western states with trips into their natural and cultural character. How to Read the American West is an ideal traveling companion on the main roads and byways in the West, providing unexpected insights into the landscapes you see out your car window. It is also a wonderful source for armchair travelers and people who live in the West who want to learn more about the modern West, how it came to be, and how it may change in the years to come. Showcasing the everyday alongside the exceptional, Wyckoff demonstrates how asking new questions about the landscapes of the West can let us see our surroundings more clearly, helping us make informed and thoughtful decisions about their stewardship in the twenty-first century. Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYSmp5gZ4-I
