Ben Franklin is the most lovable of America's founding fathers. His wit, his charm, his inventiveness--even his grandfatherly appearance--are legendary. But this image obscures the scandals that dogged him throughout his life. In The Loyal Son, award-winning historian Daniel Mark Epstein throws the spotlight on one of the more enigmatic aspects of Franklin's biography: his complex and confounding relationship with his illegitimate son William. When he was twenty-four, Franklin fathered a child with a woman who was not his wife. He adopted the boy, raised him, and educated him to be his aide. Ben and William became inseparable. After the famous kite-in-a-thunderstorm experiment, it was William who proved that the electrical charge in a lightning bolt travels from the ground up, not from the clouds down. On a diplomatic mission to London, it was William who charmed London society. He was invited to walk in the procession of the coronation of George III; Ben was not. The outbreak of the American Revolution caused a devastating split between father and son. By then, William was royal governor of New Jersey, while Ben was one of the foremost champions of American independence. In 1776, the Continental Congress imprisoned William for treason. George Washington made efforts to win William's release, while his father, to the world's astonishment, appeared to have abandoned him to his fate. A fresh take on the combustible politics of the age of independence, The Loyal Son is a gripping account of how the agony of the American Revolution devastated one of America's most distinguished families. Like Nathaniel Philbrick and David McCullough, Epstein is a storyteller first and foremost, a historian who weaves together fascinating incidents discovered in long-neglected documents to draw us into the private world of the men and women who made America.

Norman Mailer, Susan Mailer's father, was among the most celebrated, talented, and controversial writers of the 20th Century. The Naked and the Dead (1948), inspired by his experience in World War II, was a bestseller and made him famous at the age of 25. Notoriously combative and egotistical, her father enjoyed a good fight both physically and verbally. Whether cheered or booed, Mailer was front and center in America's cultural battles for more than 50 years. He married six times and was father to nine children. Susan, born in 1949, is the eldest. Susan's parents separated when she was a baby. She grew up shuttling between her mother's home in Mexico and New York. Later she would marry a Chilean activist, spending the majority of her adult life in Chile, where she is a practicing psychoanalyst. In Another Place tells the story of her intense and complex relationship with her father, her five stepmothers and nine siblings, and the joys and pains of being part of the large Mailer clan. It is a tale of separation, and of the rewards and struggles of living in two very different cultures. Of being someone who belongs everywhere and nowhere, always longing for a life . . . In Another Place.

THE VIVID, SCANDAL-FILLED STORY OF A SHREWD, RAGS-TO-RICHES MILLIONAIRESS AND THE RUTHLESS POLITICIAN WHO PURSUED HER, TOLD AGAINST THE EFFERVESCENT BACKDROP OF AMERICA’S GOLDEN CITY—SAN FRANCISCO. San Francisco, until the mid-1940s, was a city that lived by its own rules, fast and loose. Formed by the gold rush and destroyed by the 1906 earthquake, it served as a pleasure palace for the legions of men who sought their fortunes in the California foothills. For the women who followed, their only choice was to support, serve, or submit. Inez Burns was different. She put everyone to shame with her dazzling, calculated, stone-cold ambition. Born in the slums of San Francisco to a cigar-rolling alcoholic, Inez transformed herself into one of California’s richest women, becoming a notorious powerbroker, grand dame, and iconoclast. A stunning beauty with perfumed charm, she rose from manicurist to murderess to millionaire, seducing one man after another, bearing children out of wedlock, and bribing politicians and cops along the way to secure her place in the San Francisco firmament. Inez ruled with incandescent flair. She owned five hundred hats and a closet full of furs, had two small toes surgically removed to fit into stylish high heels, and had two ribs excised to accentuate her hourglass figure. Her presence was defined by couture dresses from Paris, red-carpet strutting at the San Francisco Opera, and a black Pierce-Arrow that delivered her everywhere. She threw outrageous parties on her sprawling, eight-hundred-acre horse ranch, a compound with servants, cooks, horse groomers, and trainers, where politicians, judges, attorneys, Hollywood moguls, and entertainers gamboled over silver fizzes. Inez was adored by the desperate women who sought her out—and loathed by the power-hungry men who plotted to destroy her. During a time when women risked their lives with predatory practitioners lurking in back alleys, Inez and her team of women, clad in crisp, white nurse’s uniforms, worked night and day in her elegantly appointed clinic, performing fifty thousand of the safest, most hygienic abortions available during a time when even the richest wives, Hollywood stars, and mistresses had few options when they found themselves with an unwanted pregnancy. Inez’s illegal business bestowed upon her power and influence—until a determined politician by the name of Edmund G. (Pat) Brown—the father of current California Governor Jerry Brown—used Inez to catapult his nascent career to national prominence. In The Audacity of Inez Burns , Stephen G. Bloom, the author of the bestselling Postville, reveals a jagged slice of lost American history. From Inez’s riveting tale of glamour and tragedy, he has created a brilliant, compulsively readable portrait of an unforgettable woman during a moment when America’s pendulum swung from compassion to criminality by punishing those who permitted women to control their own destinies.

These conversations between two linguistic scholars who were also husband and wife cover such topics as the characterization of the phoneme, symbolist poetry, the genetic basis of language, linguistic universals, semiotic systems, and aphasia and the process of language acquisition by children. In an afterword Pomorska describes Jakobson's acquaintances, friendships, and collaborations with international poets and artists -- Provided by the publisher.

"Tough and witty, SportsWorld is a well-known commentator's overview of the most significant form of mass culture in America--sports. It's a sweaty Oz that has grown in a century from a crucible for character to a complex of capitalism, a place where young people can find both self-fulfillment and cruel exploitation, where families can huddle in a sanctuary of entertainment and be force fed values and where cities and countries can be pillaged by greedy team owners and their paid-for politicians. But this book is not just a screed, it's a guided visit with such heroes of sports as Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Joe Namath, who the author knew well, and with some he met in passing, like Richard Nixon, who seemed never to have gotten over missing the cut in college varsity football, a major mark of manhood. We see how SportsWorld sensibilities help elect our politicians, judge our children, fight our wars, and oppress our minorities. And now featuring a new introduction by the author,SportsWorld is a book that will provide the foundation for understanding today's world of sports and the time of Trump. In the America of 2017--where the SuperBowl is worth billions, athletes are penalized or forced out of sports for political and anti-racist activism, and Title IX is constantly questioned and undermined--Robert Lipsyte's 1975 critique remains startlingly and intensely relevant"--

The Imperial Republic based as it is on Raymond Aron's realist philosophy, is involved only indirectly or by implication in the disputes about moralism, revisionism, and even imperialism. Its main aim is to account for the diplomacy of the United States as it was in a special time period. Like all diplomacy, it can be explained only within the system of inter-state relations to which the protagonist belongs. United States diplomacy during the twenty- eight year period of 1945-73 is examined from strategic, political, and moral stand points were in diplomats openly declared their aim, and did they achieve it? Does the result justify accusations either of incompetence or of imperialism? Does not the reaction within the United States to a policy which had been a striking success now induce second thoughts about both the policy and its results? The imperial republic is trying to throw off its burden; once a missionary, it has lost the sense of mission; it is still capitalist, but its spoiled children no longer believe in money; it was puritan, but its cities abound in sex shops; it regards itself as scientific, yet mystical and nudist sects are common. The reader is not asked to endorse Aron's paradoxical interpretations, but to try to discover the reasons for any disagreement he may feel regarding differences in political judgment. People who have acquired the habit of thinking of the contemporary world in Manichaean terms-in terms of the reduction of whole populations to slavery by monsters, or in terms of capitalism, imperialism, or revisionism- may be out raged by a book that is not concerned with grounds for outrage and in which there are neither villains nor heroes; but rather with mixed messages by decent policymakers. At the time of its initial publication The Times Literary Supplement called The Imperial Republic "an important book"no other author does so much." It remains so!

"A bold case for massive population growth in the name of national greatness--from Vox co-founder and host of "The Weeds" podcast Matt Yglesias. America is in decline. Fewer children are born each year due to financial pressure. Thousands flee our iconic cities with their housing shortages and broken infrastructure. While we tie ourselves into knots trying to stop the flow of immigrants, our exhausted economy deflates the heartland's already shrinking population. To survive China's impending global takeover (not to mention Russia), we can't afford to be weak. We need to get bigger, much bigger. We need one billion Americans. In this timely and provocative book, Matthew Yglesias makes the case for massive population growth through humane family and immigration policy. Of course, more people requires more housing, not to mention better transportation, improved education, a revitalized welfare system, and climate change mitigation. Why not do it all, and stay on top forever? Written with Yglesias's signature humor and analytic rigor, One Billion Americans challenges readers across the political spectrum to take decline seriously. Drawing on economic theory and research from leading policy experts, he offers ideas from around the globe--from Singapore's approach to traffic jams to Canada's town planning--that move us beyond left-right divides, to explore the practical and creative solutions our times call for"--

"In her deeply engaging, astonishingly candid memoir, author and activist Letty Cottin Pogrebin exposes the fiercely-guarded lies and intricate cover-ups woven by dozens of members of her extended family. Beginning with her own long-suppressed secret, the story spirals through the hidden lives of her parents and relatives--revealing the truth about their origins, personal traumas, marital misery, abandoned children, religious transgressions, sexual identity, radical politics, and supposedly embarrassing illnesses. While unmasking their charades and disguises, Pogrebin also showcases her family's remarkable talent for reinvention in a narrative that is, by turns, touching, searing, and surprisingly universal." --

NOW FEATURING A NEW AFTERWORD, "PANDEMIC ETHICS" From two eminent scholars comes a provocative examination of bioethics and our culture’s obsession with having it all without paying the price. Shockingly, the United States has among the lowest life expectancies and highest infant mortality rates of any high-income nation, yet, as Amy Gutmann and Jonathan D. Moreno show, we spend twice as much per capita on medical care without insuring everyone. A “remarkable, highly readable journey” (Judy Woodruff ) sure to become a classic on bioethics, Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die explores the troubling contradictions between expanding medical research and neglecting human rights, from testing anthrax vaccines on children to using brain science for marketing campaigns. Providing “a clear and compassionate presentation” ( Library Journal ) of such complex topics as radical changes in doctor-patient relations, legal controversies over in vitro babies, experiments on humans, unaffordable new drugs, and limited access to hospice care, this urgent and incisive history is “required reading for anyone with a heartbeat” (Andrea Mitchell).

Nearly everywhere and at all times, marriage has enjoyed a privileged status as the primary social unit—the essential bond that created alliances between families and a bridge between the sexes. In joining a man and woman, marriage attempted to hold men to collective social standards, including responsibility for the women they impregnated and the children they fathered, while also stringently hedging in women’s sexuality. In short, marriage has always demanded that both men and women sacrifice a considerable measure of individual freedom. In marriage, “I” becomes “we,” and “we” frequently extends beyond the couple to extended family, clan, and society. For these reasons, both political and religious authorities typically have taken great care to present marriage as an institution to which individual interests must be subordinated. At the time of her death in January 2007, the celebrated historian Elizabeth Fox-Genovese was worried that these attitudes were in the process of being reversed. In this book, which she was in the midst of preparing for publication at the time of her passing, she argues that marriage is disintegrating under the rising demands that it serve not the good of the whole but the desires of the individual. A union that at one point was used to limit individual “rights” is now claimed as one right among many. The sexual liberation movements of the last forty years have seriously undermined marriage, argues Fox-Genovese, so much so that the institution seems to face the threat of extinction. Even so, she writes, “Marriage for love—the promise of an enduring and engulfing bond between a man and a woman—is a dream that refuses to die. . . . It still promises that we will finally be loved as we long to be loved.” That dream is the ultimate theme of this book, a fitting coda to Elizabeth Fox-Genovese’s distinguished career.

"The fabulous life and times of one of our wittiest and most endearing and enduring caricaturists--in his own words and inimitable art. Alongside more than 150 of his drawings, cartoons, and caricatures--and in prose as spirited and wickedly pointed as his artwork--Edward Sorel gives us an unforgettable self-portrait: a poor Depression-era childhood in the Bronx (surrounded by loving Romanian-immigrant grandparents and a clan of mostly left-leaning aunts and uncles); his first stabs at drawing when pneumonia kept him out of school at the age of eight; his time as a student at New York's famed High School of Music & Art; the scrappy early days of Push Pin Studios, founded with fellow Cooper Union alums Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast and which became the hottest design group of the 1960s; his two marriages and four children; his many friends in New York's art and literary circles. Sorel charts the highlights of his remarkable career as the "young lefty becomes an older lefty," and, in magazines and newspapers, murals, cartoons, and comic strips, he steadily lampooned--and celebrated--American cultural and political life. He sets his story in the parallel trajectory of American presidents, from FDR to the present day--with the candor and depth of insight that could only come from someone who lived through it all--revealing the uproarious ways in which the personal and political collide in his mordant artwork"--

Abigail & John offers readers the opportunity to view prominent scenes in American history through the remarkable lives of one of the country's most beloved couples-the Adams's. Exploring the historical significance of a partnership that spanned over five decades, the book details the love they shared for each other and the country. From carefree childhoods to years of war, to the births of their children, and the beginning of a new nation, Abigail & John looks into the unique roles the Adams's played in the formation of America, and contributions and sacrifices they made for the young country.From David Bruce Smith, author of American Hero: John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, and his mother Clarice Smith, world renowned artist, comes this compelling and insightful historical biography of Abigail and John Adams. This unique nonfiction children's book tells the story of one of America's most-treasured couples alongside stunning and original illustrations.

"100 Inspirational Stories and Beautiful, Uplifting Photos of Survivors. "You have cancer" are three of the most terrifying words a person can hear, and our culture does little to ease the fear. New Beginnings: 100 Cancer Survivors follows one hundred survivors who discovered that those words were the start of a new beginning, not an end to their lives. New Beginnings is a collection of narratives and energetic photographic portraits of men, women, children, and families that inspire and provide hope for anyone diagnosed with cancer as well as for their families and friends. The survivors vary in age, ethnicity, and diagnosis, but they all share the ability to turn a diagnosis of cancer into a positive force in their lives. Coming from all walks of life, survivors include Sally Craigen, who beat two different cancers three decades apart but who never let it stop her from enjoying life; Rabbi William Cutter, who had already survived three heart attacks by the time he faced down prostate cancer on two occasions; Sophia Colby, diagnosed with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis at fifteen months of age, who has survived more in her ten years than many people do in their entire lives; and professional basketball player Coby Karl, who hasn't let two bouts from thyroid cancer stop him from chasing his dreams; and ninety-six others. This is a project by and for cancer survivors: their words, Bill Aron's photographs, in collaboration with their ideas and sensibilities. This is their book"--

Barbara Katz Rothman, a noted sociologist who has explored motherhood in four previous books and has more recently explored the social implications of the human genome project, now turns her eye toward race and family. Weaving together the sociological, the historical, and the personal, Barbara Katz Rothman looks at the contemporary American family through the lens of race, race through the lens of adoption, and all--race, family, and adoption--within the context of the changing meanings of motherhood. Drawing on her own experience as the white mother of a black child, on historical research on white people raising black children from slavery to contemporary times, and pulling together work on race, adoption, and consumption, she offers us new insights for understanding the way that race and family are shaped in America today. This book is compelling reading, not only for those interested in family and society, but for anyone grappling with the myriad issues around raising a child of a different race--an estimated seven million American families in 2005. [from publisher description].

Just as every society has an economic and political structure, so too every society has a gender structure. Barbara Risman's original research on single fathers, married baby boom mothers, and heterosexual egalitarian couples and their children, reported in this intriguing book, weaves together qualitative and quantitative data from surveys, interviews, and observation. Risman shows how gender as a social structure affects individuals, organizes expectations attached to social positions, and becomes an integral part of social institutions. She provides empirical evidence that human beings are capable of enduring and affective intimate relationships without gender as the central organizing mechanism. The data also strongly indicate that men and women are capable of changing gendered ways of being throughout their lives. In her analysis of nontraditional families, Risman finds that gender expectations can be overcome if couples are willing to flout society and risk "gender vertigo." Most children of such families adopt their parents' beliefs about gender, but they do struggle with the contradictions between parental ideology and folk knowledge and expectations in peer relationships. The author argues that we can create a just society only by creating a society in which gender is an irrelevant category for social life--a post-gender society.

In the early 1980s, the National Basketball Association entered into an era of prominence that rivaled any in sports history. While the league had its share of stars, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Dr. J, it was the arrival of two fresh-faced, talented kids - Larry Bird and Earvin "Magic" Johnson - that infused new energy into the NBA at the beginning of the decade, sending the game into an upwards spiral that has made basketball the most exciting game in the world. The arrival of Bird and Johnson launched one of the greatest eras in the history of the sport, one that continues to this day. The game's popularity exploded, and its stars became household names throughout the world. Magic, Kareem, Larry, Dr. J and Michael became superstars, their images gracing the pages of magazines and the walls of adoring children. The game has everything: dynamic personalities, dramatic rivalries and the best athletes in the world. And its success is assured for years to come thanks to a new crop of superstars that includes Shaquille O'Neal, Grant Hill, Anfernee Hardaway and Chris Webber. NBA Hoop Shots captures this unprecedented era through the camera lens of NBA Senior Photographer Andrew D. Bernstein. From the efficiency of Kareem's skyhook, the precision of a Bird jumper and the jaw-dropping acrobatics of a Jordan slam, Bernstein's work will dazzle both the hard-core and casual fan with magical images of the game's greatest players. With a foreword by NBA Commissioner David Stern and an introduction by Magic Johnson, NBA Hoop Shots will take you to places of which you have only dreamed.

Follows three toddlers as they defy their parents from breakfast through bedtime in this picture book presentation of the 1984 song recorded by Twisted Sister.

A white youth from New York's East 70's discovers that although trumpet technique is not enough to gain entrance to the soul musician's world, friendship with a top jazzman gives him a broader perspective of his environment as well as of the alternatives the future offers.

In Russia, Molly and her mother didn't celebrate birthdays the way they do in America. When Molly's invited to a birthday party, she's excited to be able to taste a pink and white cake. Then something happens at Emma's party that Molly won't ever forget. She knows it's the week of Passover and she knows she shouldn't eat the cake. What should Molly do?

It's 1944 in New York City. Alan Silverman doesn't want to give up his stickball game for anyone-especially not for crazy-acting Naomi Kirshenbaum. But when he hears about her horrifying experience during the war in France, Alan changes his mind. Slowly, he struggles to befriend her, and one day-miraculously-she begins to trust him. Alan finds she is not only intelligent, but also fun to be with. But the scars of war are still very much with Naomi. ALA-Best of the Best for Children New York Times -Best Books for Children YALSA-Best of the Best List