Since the Gilded Age, social scientists, middle-class reformers, and writers have left the comforts of their offices to "pass" as steel workers, coal miners, assembly-line laborers, waitresses, hoboes, and other working and poor people in an attempt to gain a fuller and more authentic understanding of the lives of the working class and the poor. In this first, sweeping study of undercover investigations of work and poverty in America, award-winning historian Mark Pittenger examines how

The best way to make yourself feel great? Do a random act of kindness for someone! These stories will make you smile...because kindness really does matter.Make miracles happen for yourself and others. It’s easy. Just open your mind and your heart.There are so many ways that you can help—and it turns out the biggest beneficiary may be you! Scientific studies have shown that “doing good” is not only good for the recipient of the good deed, but also for the pe...

Storytelling at its funniest! And a much-needed reminder that no matter what ails you, laughter is ALWAYS the best medicine.If laughter is the best medicine, this book is your prescription. Turn off the news, shut down social media, and spend a few days ignoring current events. Instead, return to the basics—humanity’s ability to laugh at itself.We’ve gathered one hundred great writers to share the mishaps and misadventures of everyday life. There’s no holdi...

You don’t realize how strong you are until the tough times are upon you, and then you discover your power and resilience.These 101 true and inspiring stories of resilience, hope, and triumph over adversity are a testament to the human spirit—and an invitation for you to find your own Inner Strength. People from all walks of life share their personal advice and experiences, serving as role models for anyone going through a tough time. Money, health, family issues, l...

You’ll be laughing your way through these feel-good stories that will bring some sunshine into your life!Chicken Soup for the Soul has gathered some great storytellers to document the mishaps and misadventures of everyday life and celebrate humanity’s ability to laugh at itself. There’s no holding back in these pages, so prepare for lots of good, clean (and not so clean) fun.This is storytelling at its funniest! No one is safe in these true stories...

The “monumental” (The Washington Post), field-defining history of gay life in New York City in the early to mid-20th centuryGay New York brilliantly shatters the myth that before the 1960s gay life existed in the closet, where all gay men were isolated, invisible, and ashamed. Based on years of research in diaries, letters, newspaper stories, and police reports, George Chauncey describes the saloons, speakeasies, and streets where queer m...

Published in 1982, But Some of Us Are Brave was the first-ever Black women's studies reader and a foundational text of contemporary feminism.Featuring writing from eminent scholars, activists, teachers, and writers, such as the Combahee River Collective and Alice Walker, All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Bravechallenges the absence of Black feminist thought in women’s studies, confronts racism, and investigates th...

"A dramatic and inspiring account of the accomplishments by two generations of lesbian and gay activists . . . Magnificent." — The Village VoiceWith thorough documentation of the oppression of homosexuals and biographical sketches of the lesbian and gay heroes who helped the contemporary gay culture to emerge, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities supplies the definitive analysis of the homophile movement in the U.S. from 1940 to 19...

**"As mesmerizing as it is appalling." -- The Boston GlobeHarvard's Secret Court reveals the controversial true story of an appalling scandal at Harvard University, when a group of deans and scholars attempted to expel a group of students for their sexuality.**In 2002, a researcher for The Harvard Crimson came across a restricted archive labeled "Secret Court Files, 1920." The mystery he uncovered involved a tragic scandal in which Harvard Univers...

Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940) is one of the most violent and revolutionary works in the American canon. Controversial and compelling, its account of crime and racism remain the source of profound disagreement both within African-American culture and throughout the world.This guide to Wright's provocative novel offers:an accessible introduction to the text and contexts of Native Sona critical history, surveying the many interp...

In the 1920s, Americans talked of their times as “modern,” which is to say, fundamentally different, in pace and texture, from what went before—a new era. With the end of World War I, an array of dizzying inventions and trends pushed American society from the Victorian era into modernity.The New Era provides a history of American thought and culture in the 1920s through the eyes of American intellectuals determined to move beyond an older role as gatekeepers of cultural respectabil...

Mary Helen Washington recovers the vital role of 1950s leftist politics in the works and lives of modern African American writers and artists. While most histories of McCarthyism focus on the devastation of the blacklist and the intersection of leftist politics and American culture, few include the activities of radical writers and artists from the Black Popular Front. Washington's work incorporates these black intellectuals back into our understanding of mid-twentieth-century African Amer...