Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Noted Fitzgerald biographer Matthew J. Bruccoli draws upon years of research to present the Fitzgerald's Jazz Age romance exactly as he intended according to the original manuscript, revisions, and corrections--with explanatory notes. Reprint.

The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence

The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence

by T. H. Breen

The Marketplace of Revolution offers a boldly innovative interpretation of the mobilization of ordinary Americans on the eve of independence. Breen explores how colonists who came from very different ethnic and religious backgrounds managed to overcome difference and create a common cause capable of galvanizing resistance. In a richly interdisciplinary narrative that weaves insights into a changing material... (more)

Invisible Man: A Novel

by Ralph Ellison

Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the... (more)

My Antonia

by Willa Cather

Willa Cather, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, considered My Ãntonia to be one of her best works, and critic H.L. Mencken claimed it was one of the best American novels ever written. Published in 1918, the novel compassionately and intimately traces the story of a Bohemian family as they settle on the Great Plains in Nebraska. This American classic is still lauded internationally by scholars and everyday... (more)

Catch-22

by Joseph Heller

Catch-22 is like no other novel. It is one of the funniest books ever written, a keystone work in American literature, and even added a new term to the dictionary. At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war. His efforts are perfectly understandable because as he furiously... (more)

Utilitarianism

by John Stuart Mill

This expanded edition of John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism includes the text of his 1868 speech to the British House of Commons defending the use of capital punishment in cases of aggravated murder. The speech is significant both because its topic remains timely and because its arguments illustrate the applicability of the principle of utility to questions of large-scale social policy.

The Sound and the Fury

by William Faulkner

First published in 1929, Faulkner created his "heart's darling," the beautiful and tragic Caddy Compson, whose story Faulkner told through separate monologues by her three brothers--the idiot Benjy, the neurotic suicidal Quentin and the monstrous Jason. From the Trade Paperback edition.

No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs

by Naomi Klein

With a new Afterword to the 2002 edition. No Logo employs journalistic savvy and personal testament to detail the insidious practices and far-reaching effects of corporate marketing—and the powerful potential of a growing activist sect that will surely alter the course of the 21st century. First published before the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, this is an infuriating, inspiring, and altogether... (more)

The Rise of David Levinsky (Penguin Classics)

The Rise of David Levinsky (Penguin Classics)

by Abraham Cahan

A novel of the good and bad in a Jew's Americanization in New York. The author also wrote "Yekl, a Tale of the New York Ghetto" also "The Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories".

Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America

Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America

by Jackson Lears

A "highly illuminating" ( Publishers Weekly , starred review) book that fundamentally transforms the whole debate about the cultural significance of advertising.

The Varieties of Religious Experience

by William James, Martin E. Marty

Hailed as "one of the greatest philosophical minds of all time" by English philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, William James is widely recognized as one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century Western philosophy and as the founder of the psychology of religion. An immediate bestseller upon its publication in June 1902, The Varieties of Religious Experience weaves together acute observations with... (more)

Hatless Jack: The President, the Fedora, and the History of American Style

Hatless Jack: The President, the Fedora, and the History of American Style

by Neil Steinberg

Boaters, derbies, fedoras—until just a generation or two ago, a man’s social status, if not his very masculinity, was defined by his hat. For centuries, men owned hats for all seasons and occasions. But in the 1960s, the male hat became obsolete. Just as women shed their white gloves for the sexual revolution, men cast aside centuries of tradition and stopped wearing hats. The hat’s demise has over... (more)

Keeping Time: Readings in Jazz History

Drawing from contemporary journalism, reviews, program notes, memoirs, interviews, and other sources, Keeping Time lets you experience, first hand, the controversies and critical issues that have accompanied jazz from its very birth. In the end, the focus here remains on how the music works and why people have cared about it. Keeping Time will increase one's historical awareness of jazz even as it provokes lively... (more)

Houses of Worship: An Identification Guide to the History and Style of American Religious Architecture

Houses of Worship: An Identification Guide to the History and Style of American Religious Architecture

by Jeffery W. Howe

A guidebook to the architectural styles of American churches and temples, Houses of Worship is highly illustrated with over 1000 color photographs and explanatory line drawings. A survey of American religious architecture, this book is a history of the development of American religious history, a guidebook to assist in the identification of the style of individual buildings based on historical examples of typical... (more)

One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy

One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy

by Thomas Frank

In a book that has been raising hackles far and wide, the social critic Thomas Frank skewers one of the most sacred cows of the go-go '90s: the idea that the new free-market economy is good for everyone. Frank's target is "market populism"--the widely held belief that markets are a more democratic form of organization than democratically elected governments. Refuting the idea that billionaire CEOs are looking... (more)

Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture

Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture

by William R. Leach

This monumental work of cultural history was nominated for a National Book Award. It chronicles America's transformation, beginning in 1880, into a nation of consumers, devoted to a cult of comfort, bodily well-being, and endless acquisition. 24 pages of photos.

The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg

The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg

by Richard Handler

The New History in an Old Museum is an exploration of "historical truth" as presented at Colonial Williamsburg. More than a detailed history of a museum and tourist attraction, it examines the packaging of American history, and consumerism and the manufacturing of cultural beliefs. Through extensive fieldwork—including numerous site visits, interviews with employees and visitors, and archival research—Richard... (more)

American Captivity Narratives: Selected Narratives With Introduction (New Riverside Editions)

American Captivity Narratives: Selected Narratives With Introduction (New Riverside Editions)

by Olaudah Equiano

This volume collects a wide variety of works from a uniquely American literary tradition, the captivity narrative. Beginning with an excerpt from Hans Staden's The True History of His Captivity, which influenced the American captivity narrative, this volume presents accounts by early settlers held captive by Native Americans (Mary Rowlandson, John Smith), narratives by African American slaves (Olaudah Equiano,... (more)

The Promised Land

by Mary Antin

Interweaving autobiography with history, introspection and political commentary, Mary Antin recounts the process of "uprooting, transportation, replanting, acclimatization, and development that took place in my own soul", and reveals the impact of a new culture on her family.

Eminent Victorians (Oxford World's Classics)

Eminent Victorians (Oxford World's Classics)

by Lytton Strachey

Eminent Victorians is a groundbreaking work of biography that raised the genre to the level of high art. It replaced reverence with skepticism and Strachey's wit, iconoclasm, and narrative skill liberated the biographical enterprise. His portraits of Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Arnold, and General Gordon changed perceptions of the Victorians for a generation. Lytton Strachey's biographical... (more)

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by F. Scott Fitzgerald