Trading Cultures


Book Description




Twentieth-Century America


Book Description

As this most tumultuous century draws to a close, the need for a concise and trustworthy history is clear. Recent decades have seen the publication of American histories that are either bloated with unnecessary detail or infused with a polemical purpose that undermines their authority. InTwentieth-Century America, Thomas C. Reeves provides a fluidly written narrative history that combines the rare virtues of compression, inclusiveness, and balance. From Progressivism and the New Deal right up to the present, Reeves covers all aspects of American history, providing solid coverage of each era without burying readers in needless detail or trivia. This approach allows readers to grasp the major developments and continuities of American history and to come away with a cohesive picture of the whole of the twentieth century. The volume stresses social and well as political history, emphasizing the roles played by all Americans--including immigrants, minorities, women, and working people--and pays special attention to such topics as religion, crime, public health, national prosperity, and the media. Reeves is careful throughout to present both sides of controversial subjects and yet does not leave readers bewildered about which interpretations are most strongly supported or where to explore these issues more thoroughly. At the conclusion of each chapter, the author cites ten authoritative volumes for further study. The bibliographies, as well as the text, are refreshing in their lack of ideological bent. "Objectivity," Reeves suggests, "is an illusive but worthy goal for the historian." For anyone wishing to achieve a lucid historical overview of the past 100 years, Twentieth-Century America is the best place to start.




Sociology of Sport


Book Description

"Now in its twelfth edition, Sociology of Sport offers a compact yet comprehensive and integrated perspective on sport in North American society. Bringing a unique viewpoint to the subject, George H. Sage, D. Stanley Eitzen, Becky Beal, and Matthew Atencio analyze and, in turn, demythologize sport. This method promotes an understanding of how a sociological perspective differs from commonsense perceptions about sport and society, helping students to understand sport in a new way"--




Business America


Book Description

Includes articles on international business opportunities.




The Olympics, Media and Society


Book Description

When the general public follow the Olympic Games on television, on the internet, even in the newspapers, they feel like they have themselves experienced the performances of the athletes. This book explores whether it is ever possible to experience the Olympic Games as an athletic event without considering the effect of the media. It addresses a multitude of ways in which the intermediary of media production alters the experience of the Olympics. Spectators watching Olympic events from the stands are less subjected to the language of the commentators, journalists, and even the athlete interviews as they form impressions and understandings of the games. However, even those who sit in the stands for the opening ceremonies or walk down the streets of the Olympic Village and the host city are treated to media spectacles that are intentionally produced to display the attitudes, values, and beliefs of the host country and its Olympic Committee. This book performs the important task of analysing ways in which the media serves as both an integral component and an arbiter of the Games for society. This book was originally published as a special issue of Mass Communication and Society.




E Pluribus Unum


Book Description

This book describes the importance of America being unitede pluribus unumaccording the original US motto. It contrasts what happened in the United States with the rest of the Americas. The United States, because of its manifest destiny or exceptionalism, one common language, and immigration assimilation, is a nation that, because of its union, should be emulated. Following geographical distribution, only three Americas should exist: North America (Canada, United States, and Mexico), Central America, and South America, which could be seen in figure 3. It starts with the United States of North America; the English colony; the American Revolution in 1776; its founding father, George Washington; and Abraham Lincoln. Then more recently, Barack Obama and Donald J. Trump are reviewed as well as their titanic efforts to maintain the union. This union was achieved after the original thirteen colonies were expanded with the Mexican-American war, the purchase of Louisiana and Florida, and the annexation of Alaska, Texas, and Hawaii. It triplicated its surface size. It is the third largest country in the world at 9,826,675 square kilometers. As a contrast in Latin America with rampant division, more than twenty countries were founded. Efforts to unite Central America, the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, and the South American Free Countries (Federal League of the Free Countries) have been unsuccessful with many caudillos and heroes like Marti, Bolivar, Artigas, Juana Azurduy de Padilla, OHiggins, and San Martin, whose efforts have unfortunately been a failure. Many revolutions, civil wars, and corruption among its presidents, such as Cristina Kirchner, Evo Morales, and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have eroded the rest of the Americas. In the USA, the common language and the embrace of a multicultural nation with exceptionalism manifest destiny has been the formula of success. Two parties, Republicans and Democrats, vs. many parties in the rest of the Americas have contributed to the preservation of the union. This country has been successful in maintaining the union, but not without severe and sanguineous experiences such as the civil war and the abolition of slavery with 750, 000 deaths when the Confederate States of America existed from 1861 to 1865. Now the challenge remains. Will Donald J. Trump maintain the union and resolve the division that until now still exists? Time will tell.




The Erosion of the American Sporting Ethos … Reconsidered


Book Description

This work examines American sport from its traditional roots to the influence of the 1960s-era counterculture and the rise of a post-Cold War ethos that reinterprets competition as a relic of a misbegotten past and anathema to American life.




The Erosion of the American Sporting Ethos


Book Description

"This volume provides an analysis of the nature of competition in contemporary American sport. This work traces American sport from American culture to the influence of the 1960s counterculture and the resulting rise of a post-Cold War ethos that continues to reinterpret competitiveness as a relic of a misbegotten past and anathema to American life"--Provided by publisher.




American Values


Book Description

With rich detail, compelling honesty, and a storyteller’s gift, RFK Jr. describes his life growing up Kennedy in a tumultuous time in history that eerily echoes the issues of nuclear confrontation, religion, race, and inequality that we confront today. “With emotion and striking detail, RFK Jr. recalls both the private joys and very public pain of his childhood.”— Independent Catholic News In this powerful book that combines the best aspects of memoir and political history, the third child of Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of JFK takes us on an intimate journey through his life, including watershed moments in the history of our nation. Stories of his grandparents Joseph and Rose set the stage for their nine remarkable children, among them three U.S. senators—Teddy, Bobby, and Jack—one of whom went on to become attorney general, and the other, the president of the United States. We meet Allen Dulles and J. Edgar Hoover, two men whose agencies posed the principal threats to American democracy and values. We live through the Cuban Missile Crisis, when insubordinate spies and belligerent generals in the Pentagon and Moscow brought the world to the cliff edge of nuclear war. At Hickory Hill in Virginia, where RFK Jr. grew up, we encounter the celebrities who gathered at the second most famous address in Washington, members of what would later become known as America’s Camelot. Through his father’s role as attorney general we get an insider’s look as growing tensions over civil rights led to pitched battles in the streets and 16,000 federal troops were called in to enforce desegregation at Ole Miss. We see growing pressure to fight wars in Southeast Asia to stop communism. We relive the assassination of JFK, RFK’s run for the presidency that was cut short by his own death, and the aftermath of those murders on the Kennedy family. RFK Jr. also shares his own experiences, not just with historical events and the movers who shaped them but also with his mother and father, with his own struggles with addiction, and with the ways he eventually made peace with both his Kennedy legacy and his own demons. A lyrically written book that provides insight, hope, and steady wisdom for Americans as they wrestle, as never before, with questions about America’s role in history and the world and what it means to be American.