2021 Choice Outstanding Academic TitleAs a major, public flagship university in the American South, so-called “Diversity University” has struggled to define its commitments to diversity and inclusion, and to put those commitments into practice. In Diversity Regimes, sociologist James M. Thomas draws on more than two years of ethnographic fieldwork at DU to illustrate the conflicts and contingencies between a core set of actors at DU over what dive...

'The Greatest Maritime Novels, Pirate Stories & Treasure-Hunt Tales' offers an exhilarating collection of high seas adventures and explorations that delve deep into the human spirit, struggles, and triumphs. Distinct in literary styles—ranging from the exhilarating romanticism of Hugo to the dark, intricate narratives of Poe—the anthology encapsulates the transitional dynamics of maritime literature. The overarching themes of bravery, treachery, and the relentless pursuit of treasure are i...

Explore the world of sociology through a defining feature of all societies: power.The Power of Sociology: Grasping Our Unequal World introduces students to sociology through the discipline’s primary concern: the causes and consequences of social inequality, and at its core, power. The central organizing principle of social life, power is relevant to every reader and fundamental to all major sub-areas of sociology. Authors Gudmundur Oddsson, Jenny M. Stuber...

Horror Classics: 560+ Titles in One Edition surveys the evolution of supernatural and psychological terror from Romanticism through Gothic sensation fiction, fin-de-siècle decadence, and early twentieth-century weird tales. Its extraordinary range encompasses ghost stories, occult investigations, monstrous encounters, Gothic romances, maritime nightmares, satire, and proto-cosmic horror. Canonical narratives of haunted houses, revenants, doubles, cursed artifacts, and forbidden knowledge s...

For decades, stand-up comedy has been central to the imbrication of popular culture and political discourse, reshaping the margins of political critique, and often within the contexts of urban nightlife entertainment. In Working to Laugh: Assembling Difference in American Stand-Up Comedy Venues, James M. Thomas (JT) provides an ethnographic analysis of urban nightlife sites where this popular form of entertainment occurs. Examining the relationship between the performance, the venue, and t...

Fortress of Terror: 550+ Horror Classics, Supernatural Mysteries & Macabre Tales is a formidable anthology that brings together a staggering array of horror and supernatural literature, spanning from the gothic shadows of the 18th century to the unsettling modern narratives of the early 20th century. With a rich tapestry woven by titans of the genre, this collection traverses various literary styles, from the nuanced and eerily atmospheric to the starkly terrifying. Each piece, whether eme...

Affective Labour explores four distinct landscapes in order to demonstrate how collective feelings are organized by social actors in order to both reproduce and contest hegemony. Utilizing a variety of methods, including participant observation, in-depth interviews across field sites, and content analysis of mass media, Correa and Thomas demonstrate the centrality of affective labor in enabling and constraining prevailing norms and practices of race, citizenship, class, gender, and sexuali...

The Ultimate Halloween Treat is a mesmerizing anthology that weaves together the fantastical, the eerie, and the mysterious from an impressive array of literary talents from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. This collection encapsulates the full spectrum of dark and imaginative storytelling—from the Gothic horror of pore-thrilling tales to the whimsical fantasies that traverse the boundaries of human experience. Readers will discover themes of supernatural intrigue, psychological depth...

SEA ADVENTURE gathers a capacious canon of maritime fiction, spanning pirate romance, castaway narrative, naval adventure, treasure quest, Gothic sea-tale, and proto-scientific voyage. Its selections move from storm-lashed realism and moral ordeal to extravagant islands, submerged worlds, mutiny, privateering, and imperial frontiers. The set's significance lies in its display of the sea as both material environment and imaginative threshold: a space where commerce, violence, exploration, a...

This book contains multiple stories about travelling from the world's greatest travellers: New Dependencies of the United States (OLIVER H. G. LEIGH) Winter and Summer in New England (HARRIET MARTINEAU) Niagara Falls and the Thousand Islands (CHARLES MORRIS) From New York to Washington in 1866 (HENRY LATHAM) The Natural Bridge and Tunnel of Virginia (EDWARD A. POLLARD) Plantation Life in War Times (WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL) Among Florida Alligators (S. C. CLARKE) In the Mammoth Cave (THÉRÈSE...

Diving deep into the mysterious and the macabre, *Into the Darkness* is an enthralling anthology that traverses the shadowy landscapes of 19th and early 20th-century literature. This collection brings together an eclectic mix of gothic horror, supernatural tales, and psychological explorations, each narratively rich in atmosphere and tension. From chilling tales of the spectral and the peculiar to the deeply introspective, the variety showcases the period's literary ingenuity and fascinati...

The Souls of Jewish Folk argues that late nineteenth-century Germany’s struggle with its “Jewish question”—what to do with Germany’s Jews—served as an important and to-date underexamined influence on W.E.B. Du Bois’s considerations of America’s anti-Black racism at the turn of the twentieth century. Du Bois is well known for his characterization of the twentieth century’s greatest challenge, “the problem of the color line.” This proposition gained prominence in the conception of D...