"Seeing Straight introduces students to key concepts in gender and sexuality through the lens of privilege and power. After an accessible overview, the book asks students to examine the privilege inherent in approaching heterosexual and cisgender identities as 'normal, ' as well as the problems of treating queer gender and sexuality as 'abnormal.' Compelling real-life examples illustrate theory and empirical research, revealing phenomena that shape...

"Middle-class American life is defined by relentless competition among families, waged from elite preschools to youth sports to selective universities. The lengths to which parents will go to give their children a leg up have become notorious: ostentatious birthday parties to wow the neighbors, fistfights on the soccer sidelines over playing time, criminal conspiracies to cheat at college admissions. Such excesses make it easy to say that parents...

"Omar must contend with being treated like a second-class citizen when he gets a scholarship to an elite boarding school"--

"A sociologist and former fashion model takes readers inside the elite global party circuit of "models and bottles" to reveal how beautiful young women are used to boost the status of men Million-dollar birthday parties, megayachts on the French Riviera, and $40,000 bottles of champagne. In today's New Gilded Age, the world's moneyed classes have taken conspicuous consumption to new extremes. In Very Important People, sociologist, author, and former...

"From the nationally bestselling author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls comes a story of 1950s Texas socialites and the one irresistible, controversial woman at the bright, hot center of it all. Joan Fortier is the epitome of Texas glamour and the center of the 1950s Houston social scene. Tall, blonde, beautiful, and strong, she dominates the room and the gossip columns. Every man who sees her seems to want her; every woman just wants to...

"Daughter of New York financier Leonard Jerome, Jennie was born into wealth - and scandal. Upon her parents' separation, her mother took Jennie and her sisters to Paris, where Mrs. Jerome was determined to marry her daughters into the most elite families. The glamorous city became the girls' tumultuous finishing school until it fell to revolt. After fleeing to Queen Victoria's England, Jennie soon caught the eye of aristocrat Randolph Spencer-Churchill,...

A History of the Samurai tells the complete story of Japan's legendary warrior class from beginning to end-an epic tale of intrigue, bloodshed and bravery that is central to an understanding of the Japanese character and of Japanese history. It describes in detail the core Samurai philosophy of Bushido, 'the way of the warrior' a complex code of conduct embracing ideals of honour and loyalty that continues to govern the Japanese way of life today....

"Inspired by the real-life experiences of his grandfather, J. R. R. Tolkien, during World War I, Simon Tolkien delivers a...novel rife with class tension, period detail, and stirring action, ranging from the sharply divided society of northern England to the trenches of the Somme."--