At sixteen, Michael and Annie, locked out of the house, took shelter from a rainstorm in her mother's car. As Annie slept, Michael whispered a lifelong vow he'd keep until his last breath: Through Vietnam's jungles, battles scarred his body, but his heart bore the deepest wound. Decades later, he shared his story with his best friend, John. When Afghanistan took Michael's life, John fulfilled his promise, contacting Annie with an untold tale of her first love. Unaware of its depth, thinkin...

Through biographies of China's most colorful and famous personalities, John Wills displays the five-thousand-year sweep of Chinese history from the legendary sage emperors to the tragedy of Tiananmen Square. This unique introduction to Chinese history and culture uses more than twenty exemplary lives--biographies of China's most colorful and famous personalities--including those of statesmen, philosophers, poets, and rulers, to provide the focus for accounts of key historical trends and pe...

If you’ve ever looked at those tiny, colorful greens on a restaurant plate and thought, “There’s got to be money in that…” — you’re right. And not just a little money. I’m talking about a lean, low-overhead, high-demand business you can run from a spare room, garage, basement… even a small apartment. How to Start a Microgreens Business is not a fluffy “urban farming dream” book. It’s a straight-talk, roll-up-your-sleeves blueprint for turning trays of seeds into steady weekly cash. No farm...

Cultural scholar John Wills takes readers on a cultural tour of Doom Town, USA, designed to be the model 1950s American city and destroyed by an atomic bomb on live television to educate Americans on the need to prepare for possible nuclear war—but also to sell new products in the emerging postwar economic boom.In March 1953 and May 1955, government officials—including the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA), the US Department of Defense, and the Atomic Ene...

This Companion maps the world of pop and rock, pinpointing the most significant moments in its history and presenting the key issues involved in understanding popular culture's most vital art form. Expert writers chart the changing patterns in the production and consumption of popular music, the emergence of a vast industry with a turnover of billions and the rise of global stars from Elvis to Public Enemy, Nirvana to the Spice Girls. They trace the way new technologies - from the amplifie...

In The World from 1450 to 1700, historian John Wills takes a fresh look at one of the most fascinating and tumultuous periods in world history. Assuming a global perspective, rather than the traditional Eurocentric view, Wills traces the interwoven changes that led from the world of Columbus, Luther, and the Mughal emperor Babur to the world of Locke, Louis XIV, and the Kangxi emperor. The book's multi-centered approach explores historical events not in isolation but rather in a d...

"A totally absorbing book…imaginative and erudite, full of startling juxtapositions and flashes of real perception." —Jonathan D. SpenceJohn E. Wills's masterful history ushers us into the worlds of 1688, from the suicidal exaltation of Russian Old Believers to the ravishing voice of the haiku poet Basho. Witness the splendor of the Chinese imperial court as the Kangxi emperor publicly mourns the death of his grandmother and shrewdly consolidates his power. Join th...

Are you curious about what it is like to manipulate and get into people's minds? What it feels like to sense what they are doing and be able to anticipate their next move?Are you as curious as me when it comes to Dark Psychology and how it was developed? If that's the case, you are on the right track!Dark psychology: It sounds insidious, and for a good reason. Dark psychology involves acknowledging that every person is capable of harming others, though the vast majority does...

Over the past century, Disney has grown from a small American animation studio into a multipronged global media giant. Today, the company’s annual revenue exceeds the GDP of over 100 countries, and its portfolio has grown to include Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, ABC, and ESPN. With a company so diversified, is it still possible to identify a coherent Disney vision or message?Disney Culture proposes that there is still a unifying Disney ethos, one that can be traced back to the...

Explores how games actively influence the ways people interpret and relate to American life.In 1975, design engineer Dave Nutting completed work on a new arcade machine. A version of Taito's Western Gun, a recent Japanese arcade machine, Nutting's Gun Fight depicted a classic showdown between gunfighters. Rich in Western folklore, the game seemed perfect for the American market; players easily adapted to the new technology, becoming pistol-wieldin...

An unprecedented look at nuclear politics in California Vehement, widespread opposition accompanied the rise of the U.S. nuclear industry during the 1960s and 1970s. In Conservation Fallout, John Wills examines one of the most controversial atomic projects of the period: Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s decision to build its premier nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon, a relatively unsettled, biologically rich, and especially scenic part of the central California coastline. Two...

While the Western was dying a slow death across the cultural landscape, it was blazing back to life as a video game in the early twenty-first century. Rockstar Games’ Red Dead franchise, beginning with Red Dead Revolver in 2004, has grown into one of the most critically acclaimed video game franchises of the twenty-first century. Red Dead Redemption: History, Myth, and Violence in the Video Game West offers a critical, interdisciplinary look at this cultural phen...