This book examines the Western genre in the period since Westerns ceased to be a regular feature of Hollywood filmmaking. For most of the 20th Century, the Western was a major American genre. The production of Westerns decreased in the 1960s and 1970s; by the 1980s, it was apparent that the genre occupied a less prominent position in popular culture. After an extended period as one of the most prolific Hollywood genres, the Western entered its “afterlife”. What does it now mean for a Holly...

An insightful and wide-ranging look at one of America’s most popular genres of music, Walking the Line: Country Music Lyricists and American Culture examines how country songwriters engage with their nation’s religion, literature, and politics. Country fans have long encountered the concept of walking the line, from Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line” to Waylon Jennings’s “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line.” Walking the line requires following strict codes, respecting territories, and, sometime...

This go-to book on peregrine falcons provides a timely, captivating, and educational blend of natural history, science, exhaustive research, and personal reflections on this dynamic raptor. Written by seasoned journalist and longtime raptor monitor Jim Wright, The Peregrine Falcon offers a comprehensive look at the world's fastest creature.Learn why peregrines live in cities, how they can reach speeds of 200 mph, and why they are so fast and fierce, as well as all the basic...

A visually stunning, comprehensive resource on North America's birds of prey, from the award-winning birder and author of Gulls Simplified.Always a popular group of birds, raptors symbolize freedom and fierceness, and in Pete Dunne's definitive guide, these traits are portrayed in hundreds of stunning color photographs showing raptors up close, in flight, and in action—fighting, hunting, and nesting.These gorgeous photographs enhance the comprehensi...

Mike Lewis, a San Francisco DA and one of the 28,000 hard-core fans of the F-16 flight simulation game, Falcon, will do anything to find that next great fight. When he and his old college buddy, Hap, hack into a defense network in search of the ultimate flight sim challenge—a fight against real fighter pilots—Steve's twin brother, an F-16 fighter pilot, winds up dead. To get their lives back and justice for Steve's brother, the two are forced to flee across the country as they slowly pull ...

From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine Black Mask published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and John D. MacDonald got their start in Black Mask. The urban crime stories that appeared in Black Mask helped to shape American culture. Modern computer games, films, and television are rooted in the fiction popularized by “the seminal an...