An Army of Phantoms is a major new work of history and film criticism from the highly regarded critic J. Hoberman. Here he applies the same dynamic... synergy of American politics and American popular culture to the Cold War’s first decade that he brought to the 1960s in the critically acclaimed The Dream Life.The years between 1946 and 1956 brought U.S. dominance over Europe and a new war in Asia, as well as the birth of the civil rights movement and the stirrings of a new youth culture. The period saw the movie industry purged of its political left while the rise of ideological action hero John Wayne came to dominate theaters. Analyzing movies and media events, Hoberman has organized a pageant of cavalry Westerns, apocalyptic sci-fi flicks, and biblical spectaculars wherein Cecil B. DeMille rubs shoulders with Douglas MacArthur, atomic tests are shown on live TV, God talks on the radio, and Joe McCarthy is bracketed with Marilyn Monroe. Here is a history of film that is also, to paraphrase Jean-Luc Godard, about the film of history.Essential reading for film and history buffs, An Army of Phantoms recasts a crucial era in the light of the silver screen.

In this first-hand account of the Revolutionary War, Joseph Plumb Martin narrates his true adventures as an eighteen-year-old private in the Continental... Army-and gives a rare glimpse of the earthy beginnings of our nation's history.

With a new afterword by William Chad Stanley Here a private in the Continental Army of the Revolutionary War narrates his adventures in the army of a... newborn country.

Even as a pup, Davy Crockett "always delighted to be in the very thickest of danger." In his own inimitable style, he describes his earliest days in... Tennessee, his two marriages, his career as an Indian fighter, his bear hunts, and his electioneering. His reputation as a b'ar hunter (he killed 105 in one season) sent him to Congress, and he was voted in and out as the price of cotton (and his relations with the Jacksonians) rose and fell. In 1834, when this autobiography appeared, Davy Crockett was already a folk hero with an eye on the White House. But a year later he would lose his seat in Congress and turn toward Texas and, ultimately, the Alamo.

This collection chronicles the fiction and non fiction classics by the greatest writers the world has ever known. The inclusion of both popular as well... as overlooked pieces is pivotal to providing a broad and representative collection of classic works.

Mary Jemison was one of the most famous white captives who, after being captured by Indians, chose to stay and live among her captors. In the midst of... the Seven Years War(1758), at about age fifteen, Jemison was taken from her western Pennsylvania home by a Shawnee and French raiding party. Her family was killed, but Mary was traded to two Seneca sisters who adopted her to replace a slain brother. She lived to survive two Indian husbands, the births of eight children, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the canal era in upstate New York. In 1833 she died at about age ninety.

Mary Jemison was taken by the Indians, in the year 1755, when only about twelve years of age, and has continued to reside amongst them to the present... time. CONTAINING An Account of the Murder of her Father and his Family; her sufferings; her marriage to two Indians; her troubles with her Children; barbarities of the Indians in the French and Revolutionary Wars; the life of her last Husband, &c.; and many Historical Facts never before published. Carefully taken from her own words, Nov. 29th, 1823.

A NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF MRS. MARY JEMISON, Who was taken by the Indians, in the year 1755, when only about twelve years of age, and has continued to... reside amongst them to the present time. CONTAINING An Account of the Murder of her Father and his Family; her sufferings; her marriage to two Indians; her troubles with her Children; barbarities of the Indians in the French and Revolutionary Wars; the life of her last Husband, etc.; and many Historical Facts never before published. Carefully taken from her own words, Nov. 29th, 1823.

Controversial, flamboyant, contentious, brilliant--Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) was certainly all of those. Few American artists have stirred so much... love and hatred as he did in a career that lasted almost seventy years. Although his painting aroused much controversy, perhaps equally as much was created by his words, for his piercing wit, profane sarcasms, and insightful condemnations were fired off without restraint. In this fiery and provocative autobiography, Benton presents an intriguing records of American art and society during his lifetime. The first installment of this work was published in 1937, but Benton continued his life story in chapters added to editions published in 1951 and 1968. This new edition includes seventy-six drawings that add much to his narrative, plus a foreword discussing Benton's place in American art and an afterword covering his career after 1968, both written by art historian Matthew Baigell. Although Benton is most famous as a regionalist painter and muralist, his complex and fascinating career brought him into contact with many of the most important artists and thinkers of the century, including Jackson Pollock, Grant Wood, Julian Huxley, Felix Frankfurter, Eugene Debbs, John Reed, and Harry Truman. While living in New York and on Martha's Vineyard in the 1920s and 1930s, Benton often associated with leading intellectuals and radicals. However, when his evolving principles of art led him away from an interest in Marxism, he was bitterly attacked by many of his former friends, and his account of that time reveals strikingly the fierce critical battles he faced in trying to establish his own artistic vision. Critics on the Left were not his only opponents, however, and equally revealing are his responses to the moral condemnations heaped on his murals done for the states of Indiana and Missouri and on his realistic nudes of the late 1930s. Throughout his account, from descriptions of his boyhood in southwest Missouri, his travels, and his career to discussions of specific works of art and other artists, Benton portrays people and events as vividly in words as he does in his paintings.

A guide to legal issues as they relate to artists and creative people. It gives a general overview of key legal concepts important to US artists and... includes landmark cases. Appendices include: resources for artists, Statutory References and Case References. The book is divided into seven chapters: 1. What does the artist own? 2. What is the artist selling? 3. What can and can t the artist use? 4. What is the artist allowed and not allowed to say? 5.How does the artist protect intellectual property? 6. What contracts does the artist make? 7. What happens to art when the artist no longer possesses it?

This practical reference book introduces basic materials and processes for drawing and painting. Each technique is clearly explained and discussed from... its historical roots to contemporary practice. Students are encouraged to explore the methods from scratch, encountering the work through preparation of the wood panel or canvas, the mixing of pigments and the application of paint. Richly illustrated throughout with over 400 images—historical and contemporary examples of works as well as photographs of studio practice—this book is an indispensable reference for students and anyone engaged in finding out about drawing and painting materials and techniques.

At the height of their power in the late eleventh century, the Chaco Anasazi dominated a territory in the American Southwest larger than any European... principality of the time. A vast and powerful alliance of thousands of farming hamlets and nearly 100 spectacular towns integrated the region through economic and religious ties, and the whole system was interconnected with hundreds of miles of roads. It took these Anasazi farmers more than seven centuries to lay the agricultural, organizational, and technological groundwork for the creation of classic Chacoan civilization, which lasted about 200 years--only to collapse spectacularly in a mere 40. Why did such a great society collapse? Who survived? Why? In this lively book anthropologist/archaeologist David Stuart presents answers to these questions that offer useful lessons to modern societies. His account of the rise and fall of the Chaco Anasazi brings to life the people known to us today as the architects of Chaco Canyon, the spectacular national park in New Mexico that thousands of tourists visit every year."Chaco's failure, Stuart argues, was a failure to adapt to the consequences of rapid growth. Foremost among Chacoans' problems were misuse of farmland, malnutrition, loss of community, and inability to deal with climatic catastrophe. The descendants of the Anasazi, the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest, adapted strategically to minimize the impact of these problems. Stuart sees the contrasting fates of the Anasazi and their Pueblo descendants as a parable for modern societies.Stuart's contributions reach out with commendable clarity, backed by well-researched discussions of archaeological evidence and impressive endnotes. Perhaps the book's greatest contribution is a well-crafted dialogue that unites archaeology with our present world. Anasazi America contrasts community conflict one thousand years ago with the bloodshed in Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland, making links that bring the Native American past into a tumultuous yet understandable present. Stuart relates the painful circumstances of high infant mortality among the ancestral Pueblo peoples to similarly devastating conditions in less economically developed parts of our own world. Stuart's depiction of the Chaco system as a failed experiment in power politics and overspecialized agricultural strategies is both compelling and correct. . . . From a dry and dusty archaeology, Stuart crafts an understandable story that is depicted in a thought-provoking and contemporary context."--Michael Adler, Science Magazine"An unusual and important book that calls attention to parallels between an ancient southwestern culture and modern America. Stuart has provided a rich and thought-provoking survey of the rise and collapse of the Chaco phenomenon, based on extraordinary recent findings of archaeologists. The author's clear, unpretentious prose will delight the general reader and will be appreciated by specialists seeking a straightforward summary. I can recommend this splendid work without hesitation."--Marc Simmons"A passionate and provocative book which argues that we have much to learn from the Chaco Anasazi and their successors. Every archaeologist, every student of anthropology, and anyone interested in the future of industrial society should read this stimulating essay, then read it again. Few books on the Southwest have such a general and urgent appeal."--Brian Fagan

An eloquent and vivid summary in shocking, never-before-seen photographs smuggled out of the People Republic of China, LAOGAI exposes the human rights... record of the world’s most authoritarian state—a nation whose own remarkable transformation has not extended to the basic demands of its people’s freedom.From the coal mines of Sichuan to the high tech factories of Guangdong, and from the tea farms of Zhejiang to the textile factories of Hubei, the vast spiderweb of the Chinese prison system has its tentacles into every corner of the country, with about five million slave laborers working to make the economic miracle happen. With essays from leading Chinese scholar Andrew Nathan and leading dissident Harry Wu, this book discusses the wide range of challenges China faces: to freedom of expression and religious choice, as well as controversial issues like torture, the death penalty, organ trafficking, forced sterilization, and more.This carefully researched and crafted book is filled with tales of heroism, heartbreak, and triumph, as dozens of former prisoners of the Laogai share their individual stories and reveal the pain and dirt that underlies China’s shiny modern surface.Moving and disturbing, Laogai gives lie to the notion that China is headed to democratization, and urges that on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary, we look at the People’s Republic with a chilling knowledge that despite its advances, the apparatus of control and oppression in the last great Communist party remain unchanged.The text includes a comprehensive history of human rights, timeline, reading list, and resource information.