The eighth edition of the hugely successful American Civilization offers students the perfect background and introductory information on contemporary American life, examining the central dimensions of American society from geography and the environment to government and politics, religion, education, sports, media and the arts.Fully and comprehensively updated throughout with regard to events, processes, attitudes and major figures in society, culture and politics in the U...

An in-depth look at the Norwegian American community of Minneapolis–St. Paul and its deep and complex role in the economic, political, and cultural life of the Twin Cities over more than 170 years.Since the earliest days of European settlement in the region, tens of thousands of Norwegians have found their way to Minnesota. Many early arrivals settled in the cities, while others who initially chose the countryside departed for urban settings after they had become a...

Thoroughly updated and revised, the ninth edition of the highly regarded British Civilization: An Introduction continues to be the ideal textbook on Britain, its country and people, religion, politics and government, international relations, legal system, economy, education, media and culture for students of British studies.Examining central structural features of British society, the book provides an introduction to British civilization that highlights its history of cult...

A history of American racial exploitation and resistance, told through the turbulent past of the city of St. Louis."A masterpiece that both haunts and inspires." —Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the WaterFrom Lewis and Clark's 1804 expedition to the 2014 uprising in Ferguson, American history has been made in St. Louis. And as Walter Johnson shows in this searing book, the city exemp...

An unsettling study of two tragic events at an Indian residential school in British Columbia which serve as a microcosm of the profound impact the residential school system had on Aboriginal communities in Canada throughout this century. The book's focal points are the death of a runaway boy and the suicide of another while they were students at the Williams Lake Indian Residential School during the early part of this century. Embedded in these stories is the complex relationship between t...

This indispensable guide to Canadian history is comprehensive, authoritative, and - above all - companionable. It is the essential guide to the significant events, issues, institutions, people, and places that have shaped Canadian life from earliest times to the late twentieth century.

North of the Color Line examines life in Canada for the estimated 5,000 blacks, both African Americans and West Indians, who immigrated to Canada after the end of Reconstruction in the United States. Through the experiences of black railway workers and their union, the Order of Sleeping Car Porters, Sarah-Jane Mathieu connects social, political, labor, immigration, and black diaspora history during the Jim Crow era.By World War I, sleeping car portering had become the excl...

Between 1867 and 2000, the Canadian government sent over 150,000 Aboriginal children to residential schools across the country. Government officials and missionaries agreed that in order to “civilize and Christianize” Aboriginal children, it was necessary to separate them from their parents and their home communities.For children, life in these schools was lonely and alien. Discipline was harsh, and daily life was highly regimented. Aboriginal languages and cultures were denigrated...

From nineteenth-century public baths to today’s private backyard havens, swimming pools have long been a provocative symbol of American life. In this social and cultural history of swimming pools in the United States, Jeff Wiltse relates how, over the years, pools have served as asylums for the urban poor, leisure resorts for the masses, and private clubs for middle-class suburbanites. As sites of race riots, shrinking swimsuits, and conspicuous leisure, swimming pools reflect many of the ...

The West has long attracted visionaries and schemers from around the world. And no other region in North America can outstrip British Columbia for the number of utopian or intentional settlement attempts in the past 150 years. Andrew Scott delves into the dramatic stories of these fascinating, but often doomed, communities. From Doukhobor farmers to Finnish coal miners, Quakers and hippies, many groups have struggled to build idealistic colonies in BC’s inspiring landscape. While most disc...

Americans have been riding bikes for more than a century now. So why are most American cities still so ill-prepared to handle cyclists? James Longhurst, a historian and avid cyclist, tackles that question by tracing the contentious debates between American bike riders, motorists, and pedestrians over the shared road.Bike Battles explores the different ways that Americans have thought about the bicycle through popular songs, merit badge pamphlets, advertising, films, newspa...

One of the smallest countries in Europe, Norway has created for itself a position in the world community, which is completely out of proportion to the size of its population. Originally the home of sub-Arctic hunters and gatherers, then of ferocious Vikings, it lost perhaps half of its population to the Black Death in 1349, ended up in a union with Denmark that lasted until 1814, and then became united with Sweden, gaining complete independence only as recently as 1905. Over the centuries ...