Marcus Winters’s proposal to revise how teachers are hired, rewarded, and retained will infuse the debate about educational reform with energy, if not consensus, making his book worth reading for those who care about America’s public... Read More

No one reading this book will ever look at a glass of water the same way again—especially if they live in the West. Water determined how the West was settled and populated and, as the author graphically chronicles, will influence how... Read More

All of Us or None: Social Justice Posters of the San Francisco Bay Area takes us from the streets into the trenches of some of the twentieth century’s most vibrant social justice struggles: in the small print shops and art collectives... Read More

David Rynick was raised in a Presbyterian family and regards his gradual journey into Zen Buddhism as a natural step. “The teachings sounded like what I had been hearing all my life,” he explains. “What is most precious and sacred... Read More

From the 1950s up through the 1968 election, American toy maker Louis Marx produced a semi-educational series of presidential figurines. From Washington to Nixon, the presidents, each standing on a small base, were reduced to two and... Read More

The life of J. Richard Steffy (“Dick” to his friends) centered on ships and shipbuilding. Though he spent most of his working life as an electrician, his childhood fascination with ships and the history of their construction remained... Read More

Trying to put jazz into words can be tricky, like setting James Joyce to music. But Texas author, poet, and jazz expert Dave Oliphant has embraced a novel way to do so that is adventurous, just a little odd, and entirely satisfying.... Read More

The mention of Emily Dickinson’s name does not generally conjure up images of a hot-blooded hussy sneaking off for steamy encounters with a married man who was old enough to be her father. But that’s essentially the picture the... Read More