Around the nation today, St. Francis of Assisi is embraced as the patron saint of animals, beneficently presiding over hundreds of Blessing of the Animals services on October 4, St. Francis's Catholic feast day. Not only Catholics, however, but Protestants and other Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and nonreligious Americans commonly name him as one of their favorite spiritual figures. Appelbaum traces popular depictions and interpretations of...

"For twenty years now--yes, twenty--John Scalzi has been writing on his blog Whatever, writing about, well, whatever: Politics, writing, cats, the internet and the great social and cultural events of our times. In that time he's gone from being just another crank online to being a bestselling, award-winning crank, i.e., the very best kind of crank there is. With Virtue Signaling and Other Heresies, Scalzi looks back on the years 2013 through 2018....

A companion book to the groundbreaking PBS and BBC documentary series celebrates the pioneers and artists of American roots music--blues, gospel, folk, Cajun, Appalachian, Hawaiian, and Native American--without which there would be no jazz, rock, country, R & B, or hip hop today.

"U.S. history gets the star treatment with this essential guide to the Smithsonian's first permanent exhibition on pop culture"-- Provided by publisher.

The author takes readers on a tour of his personal museum of natural oddities and optical illusions as he explores the imaginative origins of art and science.

"America's current political divisions are backed by vitriolic anger on all sides--anger that is rooted in a long-term change in American character. A nation that once regarded unbridled anger as a personal weakness has become a nation that regards anger as self-empowerment and a tool for positive social change. But anger remains what it was always was: a force that can sweep away judgment and carry us, as individuals or groups, into foolish confrontations....

A lively account of how dinosaurs became a symbol of American power and prosperity and gripped the popular imagination during the Gilded Age, when their fossil remains were collected and displayed in museums financed by North America's wealthiest business tycoons. Although dinosaur fossils were first found in England, a series of dramatic discoveries during the late 1800s turned North America into a world center for vertebrate paleontology. At the...

"The primary purpose of this book is to document fashions that are typically overlooked by sources that survey the broad historical record of dress practices. Surveys of historical fashion purposely and rightfully document and explain the long-lasting fashion trends that may be said to define the visual landscape of dress in a given period. Fads, in contrast to trends, are shorter-lived, potentially not as widespread across demographics of age and...

Much has changed since Camille Paglia first burst onto the scene with her groundbreaking Sexual Personae, but the laser-sharp insights of this major American thinker continue to be ahead of the curve--not only capturing the tone of the moment but also often anticipating it. Opening with a blazing manifesto of an introduction in which Paglia outlines the bedrock beliefs that inform her writing--freedom of speech, the necessity of fearless inquiry,...

"One-half of the celebrated Men in Blazers duo, longtime culture and soccer commentator Roger Bennett traces the origins of his love affair with America, and how he went from a depraved, pimply faced Jewish boy in 1980's Liverpool to become the quintessential Englishman in New York"-- Provided by publisher. Being a teenager isn't easy, no matter where in the world you live. As a private-schooled Jewish kid in working-class, heavily Catholic Liverpool,...