Book Description
Did you know that the Puritans did not celebrate Christmas? That trick or treating on Halloween began in the late 1930s? That Kwanzaa was created in the mid-sixties by Ron Karenga, a radical Black Nationalist and Black Panther? That Anne Marie Jarvis, the force behind getting Mother's Day, proclaimed a national holiday, later repudiated the holiday for its crass commercialism and strove to undo her handiwork until the day she died? Every holiday has a history, and this set sets out to describe them all. A chronologically organized reference guide to the history of American celebratory days, past, present, and emergent, the books focuse on each holiday's cultural and political significance. It includes major, minor, and bygone holidays, both civic and religious. The work has a distinctive multi-cultural tone, with special emphasis on recent additions to the national holiday pantheon, such as Kwanzaa, Cinco de Mayo, Gay Pride and Passover, among others, in addition to the more traditional Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Veterans Day. New "holidays", like The Superbowl and Mardi Gras, are included as well. Each entry tracks the changes in the celebration of the day, its origins, and its wider cultural significance. Presented chronologically, a range of holidays are examined. Some were once widely observed but have faded over time, some are currently widely accepted and celebrated, and some are emerging and gaining in popularity. Covered holidays include: BLAmerican Indian Day, BLCinco de Mayo, BLChristmas, BLKwanzaa, BLThe Super Bowl, BLMardi Gras, BLHalloween, BLSt. Patrick's Day, BLColumbus Day, BLPassover, BLMay Day / Loyalty Day, BLNegro Election Day / Pinkster / Emancipation celebrations, BLGay Pride Day, BLMother's Day, BLThanksgiving, BLIndependence Day, BLMemorial Day / Decoration Day, BLVeterans' Day / Armistice Day, BLMartin Luther King Day, BLLabor Day, BLHanukkah, BLConfederate Holidays, BLPow-Wow, and BLEarth Day. Every entry is signed, and concludes with suggested further readings. Sidebars offer brief overviews of many holidays, such as Presidents' Day, whose history is relatively straightforward. The Introduction provides an overview of the history of holidays in America, their uses and controversies. Illustrations, a robust bibliography, and a comprehensive index complete the work. ... Read more

Book Description
National Geographic magazine has long been a staple of home, school, and public libraries across the country. In Veils and Daggers, Linda Steet provides a critically insightful and alternative interpretation of National Geographic by examining one hundred years of its Arab world coverage.Steet's analysis of the discourses of Orientalism, patriarchy, and primitivism in the magazine's representation of the Arab world uncovers the ideological perspectives that have guided National Geographic throughout its history.Drawing on cultural, feminist, and postcolonial criticism, Steet generates alternative readings that challenge the magazine's claims to objectivity and to mirroring the world.In this fascinating journey, it becomes clear that neither textual nor visual constructions of Arab women andmen, of Islam, and of Arab culture in the magazine can be regarded as natural or self-evident, and it is artfully demonstrated that the act of representing others is never innocent.Steet turns National Geographic inside out showing that decade after decade, while Arabs were locked into predictable Orientalist interpretations, National Geographic was itself veiled and daggered.Veils and Daggers repositions and redefines National Geographic as an educational journal.Steet's work is an important and groundbreaking contribution in the areas of social foundations of education, cultural studies, feminist studies, social studies, and ethnic studies. Once encountered, readers of National Geographic will never regard it in the same manner again. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

It's about time
It's about time someone took National Geographic to task for their ethnocentric coverage of the world. Steet does this with a sophisticated, yet accessible (and sometimes humorous) understanding and use of theory. Her analysis and discussion of one hundred years of photographs published by NG is provocative and educational. This book is great for curriculum classes, journalism classes, photography classes, cultural studies, women studies, and many others I am sure. ... Read more

Amazon.com
This engaging resource contains information about 800 black historic sites in 42 states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Often, they are places where people lived, such as the Paul Laurence Dunbar House in Dayton, Ohio; or the Blanche K. Bruce house in Washington, D.C., home of the second black man who served in the U.S. Senate. But there are also schools, hospitals, clubs, colleges, forts, cemeteries, and more. The listings (organized alphabetically by state), include brief descriptions and addresses, making this useful for those curious about black historic sites in their town or state or for anyone planning a vacation tour of historic sites.Book Description
Culled from the records of the National Register of Historic Places, a roster of all types of significant properties across the United States, African American Historic Places includes over 800 places in 42 states and two U.S. territories that have played a role in black American history. Banks, cemeteries, clubs, colleges, forts, homes, hospitals, schools, and shops are but a few of the types of sites explored in this volume, which is an invaluable reference guide for researchers, historians, preservationists, and anyone interested in African American culture. Also included are eight insightful essays on the African American experience, from migration to the role of women, from the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement. The authors represent academia, museums, historic preservation, and politics, and utilize the listed properties to vividly illustrate the role of communities and women, the forces of migration, the influence of the arts and heritage preservation, and the struggles for freedom and civil rights. Together they lead to a better understanding of the contributions of African Americans to American history. They illustrate the events and people, the designs and achievements that define African American history. And they pay powerful tribute to the spirit of black America. ... Read more

Book Description
1871. An appeal to the people and their representatives. With this pamphlet the Society is calling attention of the people, and of their representatives, to the unfinished and neglected condition of the Monument and making an appeal on its behalf. All the facts and particulars touching the history of the structure, which an interested public would wish to know, will be found fully set forth in the succeeding pages of this booklet. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Wind Speaker, published by Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta (AMMSA) on June 1, 1998. The length of the article is 1080 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Canada prepares for National Aboriginal Day June 21.
Author: Rob McKinley
Publication: Wind Speaker (Newsletter)
Date: June 1, 1998
Publisher: Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta (AMMSA)
Volume: 16Issue: 2Page: 12-13(sup)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description

In 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark made the most important and widely known expedition in American history. Now their journey is recreated is recreated in the bicentennial edition of the best-selling National Geographic Guide to the Lewis & Clark Trail. Along with major television and film events, this book will feature prominently in National Geographic's upcoming celebration of the expedition's anniversary. This is the only full-color guide to Lewis and Clark's America, and its lavishly illustrated photographs and maps are evocative of the landscapes, animals, and native people of an unspoiled America. Distinctive among guides, this book is organized practically for easy trip planning and details essential visitor information along with suggestions for excursions by foot, boat, and country road to help travelers capture the sense and spirit of the pioneers.

Customer Reviews (3)

Best Trip Companion
On a Trip to Retrace Lewis & Clark's Route from Great Falls MO.to Clarkston WA. this Book was a valuable Trip Companion. It guided beautifully, helped to find important Places and explained them in detail once there.Glad we bought this Book before starting our Trip

Lewis and Clark, where to go
For anyone wishing to visit historic locations along the trail of Lewis and Clark's expedition, this is the best summary you can find.Tom Schmidt does an excellent job of collecting information from the Lewis and Clark Journals and relating this all to the sites we can all visit along the trail.

Great companion to "Along the Trail with Lewis and Clark"
Done in great National Geo style, with stunning photos, this is a great"pocket" guide to the Lewis and Clark Trail. However, with it'slack of maps, it needs to be used in concert with larger, more detailedguides, such as "Along the Trail with Lewis and Clark" by BarbaraFifer, et al.If you are among the many contemplating hitting the Trail,this book will come in handy. ... Read more

Amazon.com
The best travel guide to Civil War sites, this full-color book provides helpful overviews of what happened at key battlefields. It is not comprehensive, but roughly two dozen major spots have full descriptions. (No, they didn't forget to include Antietam--but don't expect to find anything on lesser-known attractions such as Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Florida.) Perhaps most useful is the practical information for people planning trips: directions to each battlefield, park hours, entrance fees, phone numbers, brief notes on what to expect, and lists of nearby historic inns. This book's compact size makes it an ideal traveling companion, even if you're planning to visit only one site and have limited trunk space. And the photos are typically beautiful--exactly what you would expect from National Geographic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great pocket companion for the Civil War tourist
This is a neat little guide to those who like to tour Civil War Battlefields.National Geographic did a good job with the pictures and brief overviews of various important battles of the Civil War.The book is divided up by states and the battles that were fought in the individual states.The guidebook is not much into the finite detail, but that is okay, it is not the objective of the guidebook.
This makes a nice "companion" to the Civil War enthusiast who wants to know the basic details about individual battlefields.It should not be limited to those who are visiting the actual battlefields themselves, but also to those "arm chair" historians who would just like to have a brief overview of the important battles of the Civil War.

Highly Recommended!

Packed with info and high quality maps
My original intent on purchasing this book was to use it as a atlas to accompany a large Civil War novel I was reading which had very generic maps. Instead, I got much more.
The two authors, who have lengthy resumes in Civil War studies, have provided ample information in this book to give the reader a vast understanding of the battlefield site, its involvement in the war, and what services are at the site today to help your visit to it.

23 National Battlefields are covered in full detail with a number of smaller venue sites like National Historic Landmarks having basic info listed (phone numbers and addresses).
The book is split up into chapters which cover each state that had an official Civil War engagement within its borders. The chapters begin with a brief introduction on what role the state served in the war. These two-page introductions pack a ton of interesting facts into them including number of troops and generals involved from that state, casualties, number of engagements in the state's borders, importance of the state to the Union or CSA and why it aligned to the side it fought for.
After the introduction, each major battle is covered in 2-5 pages by:
- a summary by the authors as to what happened, why it happened where it did and what the victor got out of the battle.
- fantastic, color maps showing troop movements, key geographical features and terrain type.
- wonderful photographs that live up to the well-respected reputation that National Geographic has always had with its periodical pics.
- park information including directions to the NPS headquarters, phone numbers and addresses for the Park, schedule, entrance fee, points of interests, tours, and nearby historic inns to stay at.
I highly recommend this to anyone planning a tour of battlesites because it gives you a detailed history of the past with outstanding visuals, and the info of the battlefield in the present that a visitor needs to make their trip an enjoyable one.

Must-have for Civil War Battlefield Travellers
Extremely beneficial must-have for anyone planning on visiting any or all Civil War battlefields.Even if you don't plan on travelling to the sites, the book is user-friendly with great information for any Civil War buff. ... Read more

Book Description

Foreword by Jimmy Carter.

Customer Reviews (1)

Summary of how national parks came to be
First I should note that this is a National Geographic book so that can give you some idea of what this book is like.In short it details the history and philosophy of the National Park System.The book is not a coffee table book.It does have a lot of nice pictures and illustrations - mostly from photographers or painters who were among the first to visit Yellowstone, Yosemite, or the Grand Canyon with expeditions.Don't expect nice color photos from modern photographers.Instead you get lots of early black & white photos along with paintings.

The text covers the idea of national parks starting with lands reserved for the King of England.It traces American Transcendentalists who helped popularize the idea of nature.It also details some of the early expeditions into the West to explore areas that became U.S. National Parks.The book also summarizes Teddy Roosevelt's importance in setting aside lands.It should be noted that Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon make up the bulk of the material. There is very little on any of the other parks here.In addition the book ends in the early 20th century so there is little on how the Park Service evolved or conservation fights later.

The book is a very good summary of how National Parks came to be for a general audience.If you are looking for a more meaty treatment of the subject look to "National Parks: The American Experience" by Alfred Runte.If you are looking for a general treatment with a lot of illustrations then this book may be what you are seeking.There are few books that will give you the history of parks in such a nice layout. ... Read more

Book Description
The Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Columbus Day, Labor Day, Martin Luther King's Birthday, and other celebrations matter to Americans and reflect the state of American local and national politics. Commemorations of cataclysmic events and light, apparently trivial observances mirror American political and cultural life. Both reveal much about the material conditions of the United States and its citizens' identities, historical consciousness, and political attitudes. Lying dormant within these festivals is the potential for political consequence, controversy, even transformation. American political fetes remain works in progress, as Americans use historical celebrations as occasions to reinvent themselves and their nation, often with surprising results. In six engaging chapters—assaying particular political holidays over the course of their histories, Red, White, and Blue Letter Days examines how Americans have shaped and been shaped by their calendar.

Matthew Dennis explores this vast political and cultural terrain, charting how Americans defined their identities through celebration. Independence Day invited African Americans to demand the equality promised in the Declaration of Independence, for example, just as Columbus Day—celebrating the Italian, Catholic explorer—helped immigrants proclaim their legitimacy as Americans. Native Americans too could use public holidays, such as Thanksgiving or Veterans Day, to express dissent or demonstrate their claims to citizenship. Merchants and advertisers colonized the American calendar, moving in to sell their products by linking them, often tenuously, with holiday occasions or casting consumption as a patriotic act. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

America through our holidays
There are many American histories out there, but in this one, the author Dennis traces our history through our holidays. Looking at our national holidays chronologically as they were adopted, he shows how these holidays developed and changed over time, as they were called into play for various civic and political reasons.A good example of this is Columbus Day, where he traces the legacy of Christopher Columbus as an icon and a demon for different groups including Catholics, immigrants and later the American Indian movement. All the while the invocation of Columbus' name could be seen in such events as the founding of the Knights of Columbus and other Columbian groups. Other holidays produce similar tracing of our national history, such as a brief look at the labor movement for Labor Day, the politics of reconciliation after the Civil War with Memorial Day and the politics of iconography with President's Day celebrating Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays. The writing at times can get dry, but the reader gains new insights into our history and will not view a day off quite the same again.

Historical Examination from All Perspectives
Matthew Dennis looks at the American Calendar in Red, White, and Blue Letter Days.This book examines the distinctively American holidays of Indepndence Day, Thanksgiving, Columbus Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.The author traces the origins and development of these holidays in an interesting, informative and thorough manner.The delight in this book, though, is the inclusive nature of its treatments.The examination of the Indian reaction to these holidays is wonderfully illuminating.In fact, the most important aspect of this book is the ways in which it demonstrates how all shades of the political spectrum and all peoples within the United States have used and developed these holidays.Eventually all of these holidays become drained of meaning but this road to complacency, as shown in this book, is fascinating and varied. ... Read more

Book Description
Manassas...Shiloh...Gettysburg...Antietam...

These are just some of the battlefields which, soon after the end of the Civil War, were set aside as memorials to "the brave men, living and dead," who took part in the war between the states.

Today, five score years and ten after the last shot was fired, the names still echo like a drumroll through the corridors of time, and millions of visitors every year stand transfixed, awed by the landscape's terrible majesty, where once the soldiers of the North and South gave their "last full measure of devotion."

Many of the most important sites, from Fort Sumter to Appomattox, are now National Parks, with markers and monuments pinpointing the location of specific events. This book, the essential guide to visiting the battlefields, has been edited by Civil War scholar Frank E. Vandiver, with features including:

-Official National Parks Service maps.
-Informative and authoritative historical text explaining the background to war and with analysis of the battles and events at each site.
-Eye-witness excerpts from generals' diaries to soldiers' letters from the front.
-Sketches and artwork by on-the-spot observers
-Stunning new photography of battle sites and landmarks.
-Statistics, facts, and figures.
-Points of interest the visitor can identify in the parks today.
-Park visitor information.
-Regional touring guides. ... Read more

Book Description
The eagerly-awaited final title in National Geographic's popular American Documents series completes the broad sweep of the collection by casting all the way back to our country's original document of record, the Mayflower Compact.

The date is November 10, 1620. After 66 days at sea crammed into a space about the size of a basketball court, the Pilgrims—as the 101 surviving passengers of the Mayflower became known—arrived on America's shores. They were an ocean away from their home country and hundreds of miles from where they were supposed to settle in the Virginia Colony. To survive in the wilderness of this strange, new land, they would need some rules for governing themselves and their community. The document they wrote is known as the Mayflower Compact. In fewer than 200 words, it laid the groundwork for democracy in America.

The Mayflower Compact includes: an engaging, interactive, and age-appropriate text, vetted by experts 40 pages generously illustrated with period artwork and archival photographs biographies of key figures in the document's historythe entire text of the original document and a complete list of its signatories excerpt from Mourt's Relation, written by Edward Winslow and William Bradford, two of the colony's founding fathers the charter of the Colony of New Plymouth Web links to further information a detailed glossary and index

The core curriculum topics of pre-colonial and colonial American history are viewed through the prism of this cornerstone document and students are made aware of its relevance to their 21st century lives. This book is essential for any school, public, or home library. The Mayflower Compact acts as a valuable reminder of the time when America was merely an ideal being shaped in the minds of our forefathers, eager to escape oppression and create a better world. ... Read more

Book Description