Was Roger Williams too pure for the Puritans, and what does that have to do with Rhode Island? Why did Augustine Herman take ten years to complete the map that established Delaware? How did Rocky Mountain rogues help create the state of Colorado? All this and more is explained in Mark Stein's new book.How the States Got Their Shapes Too follows How the States Got Their Shapes looks at American history through the lens of its borders, but, while How The States Got Their Shapes told ...

"[A] wonderfully entertaining account of an often-overlooked oddity of America's history: how the jigsaw-puzzle layout of the United States emerged." —VogueThe New York Times BestsellerWhy does Oklahoma have that panhandle? Did someone make a mistake?We are so familiar with the map of the United States that our state borders seem as much a part of nature as mountains and rivers. Even the oddities—the entire state of Maryland(!...

Leo Beagle has spent two years writing a 638 manifesto on human harmony that just might change the world. The problem is only that no one wants to read it, especially not Leo’s unharmonious family.An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Barbara Bain, Arye Gross, Mary Gross, Valerie Mahaffey, Marc-Bradley Phillips and Robert Symonds.Directed by Steve Albrezzi. Recorded before a live audience in Santa Monica, CA in March, 1992.

From the illegality of bowling in colonial America to violent video games and synthetic drugs, Vice Capades by bestselling author Mark Stein examines the nation's relationship with the actions, attitudes, and antics that have defined morality. This comprehensive, yet humorous, history reveals that our views of vice are not merely formed by morals but by power. By viewing a variety of vices across the span of American history, Vice Capades brings into focus the nation's in...

This offbeat slice of American history places the story of our great republic beneath an unexpected lens: that of fringe candidates for president of the United States. Mark Stein explores how their quest for our nation’s highest office helped to amplify voices otherwise quashed during their day. His careening tour through elections past includes the efforts of true pioneers in the quest for social equality in our country: the first woman to run for president, Victoria Woodhull in 1872; the...

This offbeat slice of American history places the story of our great republic beneath an unexpected lens: that of fringe candidates for president of the United States. Mark Stein explores how their quest for our nation’s highest office helped to amplify voices otherwise quashed during their day. His careening tour through elections past includes the efforts of true pioneers in the quest for social equality in our country: the first woman to run for president, Victoria Woodhull in 1872; the...

When Kelly Knights phone rings at three oclock in the morning, she knows it is not good news. Her mother has had a stroke. As she races to the hospital to meet her sister by her mothers bedside, Kelly has no idea she is about to take a journey of self-discovery that will awaken her from a slumber she has been in for years. While her mother valiantly fights for her life, Kelly begins reflecting on her own. As the layers begin to peel away, Kelly must come to grips with the traumas and fract...

A League of His Own tells the remarkable story of A.G. Spalding—the pitcher, mogul, and visionary who shaped baseball and the sporting goods empire.Albert Goodwill Spalding became the initial star pitcher of the first professional sports association, cofounded baseball’s National League, founded the world’s greatest sporting goods empire, owned the team that became the Chicago Cubs, organized an around-the-world tour to promote baseball, b...

The book examines sustainable food procurement policy and practice in the European Union and beyond, exploring the extent to which sustainability objectives have been achieved and evaluating the new developments taking place at both EU and national levels.While there is a growing recognition that public authorities can use public procurement as a policy tool to pursue multiple environmental, health and socio-economic objectives, contracting authorities still face many challenges. T...

Drawing on a rich lineage of anti-discriminatory scholarship, art, and activism, Locating African European Studies engages with contemporary and historical African European formations, positionalities, politics, and cultural productions in Europe.Locating African European Studies reflects on the meanings, objectives, and contours of this field. Twenty-six activists, academics, and artists cover a wide range of topics, engaging with processes of affiliation, discrimination,...

A hilarious new read aloud from Caldecott Honor-winning author/illustrator David Ezra Stein, about a grumpy bear whose animal friends are determined to wake him up after a long hibernation. Pairs perfectly with Grumpy Monkey and Ryan T. Higgins's Bruce books.Spring is here. The world is awake and abuzz, but one animal is still sleeping. Bear! When will he finally wake up from his slumber—and what sort of mood will he be in?Caldecott Honor ...

A Connecticut Yankee is Mark Twain’s most ambitious work, a tour de force with a science-fiction plot told in the racy slang of a Hartford workingman, sparkling with literary hijinks as well as social and political satire. Mark Twain characterized his novel as "one vast sardonic laugh at the trivialities, the servilities of our poor human race." The Yankee, suddenly transported from his native nineteenth-century America to the sleepy sixth-century Britain of King Arthur and the Ro...