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Presents a photographic chronicle of the peoples, places, and events that form the modern United States, focusing on America's shared heritage and hopes for the future despite the many nationalities of the country's citizens.
Robert Hughes begins where American art itself began, with the Native Americans and the first Spanish invaders in the Southwest; he ends with the art of today. In between, in a scholarly text that crackles with wit, intelligence and insight, he tells the story of how American art developed. Hughes investigates the changing tastes of the American public; he explores the effects on art of America's landscape of unparalleled variety and richness; he examines the impact of the melting-pot of cultures that America has always been. Most of all he concentrates on the paintings and art objects themselves and on the men and women - from Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins to Edward Hopper and Georgia O'Keeffe, from Arthur Dove and George Bellows to Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko -awho created them. This is an uncompromising and refreshingly opinionated exploration of America, told through the lens of its art.
In this interdisciplinary work, William L. Davis examines Joseph Smith's 1829 creation of the Book of Mormon, the foundational text of the Latter Day Saint movement. Positioning the text in the history of early American oratorical techniques, sermon culture, educational practices, and the passion for self-improvement, Davis elucidates both the fascinating cultural context for the creation of the Book of Mormon and the central role of oral culture in early nineteenth-century America. Drawing on performance studies, religious studies, literary culture, and the history of early American education, Davis analyzes Smith's process of oral composition. How did he produce a history spanning a period of 1,000 years, filled with hundreds of distinct characters and episodes, all cohesively tied together in an overarching narrative? Eyewitnesses claimed that Smith never looked at notes, manuscripts, or books—he simply spoke the words of this American religious epic into existence. Judging the truth of this process is not Davis's interest. Rather, he reveals a kaleidoscope of practices and styles that converged around Smith's creation, with an emphasis on the evangelical preaching styles popularized by the renowned George Whitefield and John Wesley.
How did the consumer system develop to pervade the whole of American culture? The rise of American mass culture helped to spread consumerism, turning the country into a nation of consumers.
This text provides a considered proposal to restructure the land-use pattern that prevails in most American metropolitan areas. It is intended for students studying urban issues.
The forces of globalization have transformed literary studies in America, and not for the better. The detailed critical reading of artistic texts has been replaced by newly minted catchphrases describing widely divergent snippets and anecdotes-deemed mere documents-regardless of the critic's expertise in the appropriate languages and cultures. Visions of Global America and the Future of Critical Reading by Daniel T. O'Hara traces the origin of this global approach to Emerson. But it also demonstrates another, tragic tradition of vision from Henry James that counters the Emersonian global imagination with the hard realities of being human. Building on this tradition, on Lacan's insights into the Real, and on Badiou's original theory of truth, O'Hara points to how we can, and should, reground literary study in critical reading. In Emerson's classic essay "Experience" (1844), America appears in and as a symptom of the critic's self-making that sacrifices the power of love to this visionary project-a literary version of the American self-made man. O'Hara rescues critical reading using James's late work, especially The Golden Bowl (1904), and builds on this vision with examinations of texts by St. Paul, Emerson, Wallace Stevens, James Purdy, John Cheever, James Baldwin, John Ashbery, and others.
At the heart of American studies is the idea of America itself. Here, Buck looks at the religious significance of America by examining those religions that have attached some kind of spiritual meaning to America. The author explores how American Protestantism-and nine minority faiths-have projected America into the mainstream of world history by defining-and by redefining-America's world role. Surveying the religious myths and visions of America of ten religions, Buck shows how minority faiths have redefined America's sense of national purpose. This book invites serious reflection on what it means to be an American, particularly from a religious perspective. Religious myths of America are thought-orienting narratives that serve as vehicles of spiritual and social truths about the United States itself. Religious visions of America are action-oriented agendas that articulate the goals to which America should aspire and the role it should play in the community of nations. Buck examines the distinctive perspectives held by ten religious traditions that inform and expand on the notion of America, and its place in the world. He covers Native American, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Christian Identity, Black Muslim, Islamic, Buddhist, and Baha'i beliefs and invites serious reflection on what it means to be an American, particularly from a religious perspective.
The ancient peoples of Mesoamerica were the builders of magnificent civilizations. Their cities and monuments have survived the centuries and serve as testimony to their architectural genius and their refined concepts of beauty. Architectural photographer Schezen spent several years traveling throughout Mexico and Central America to capture the grandeur, mystery,and mood of the buildings that comprise the historic sites of the pre-Columbians. Occasionally he captures "too much" mystery--his "soft-focus" shots sacrificing detail to mood. But mostly this is a treasure. 101/2x101/2". Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Looks at the history of the struggle for basic rights in America, focusing on the freedom of conscience and of expression, fundamental fairness, and equality