"Cliff Dwellings of the Mesa Verde: A Study in Pictures" by Don Watson offers a captivating visual exploration of the ancient cliff dwellings found in the Mesa Verde region. Through stunning photography and insightful commentary, Watson captures the architectural ingenuity and cultural significance of these remarkable structures built by the Ancestral Puebloans. The book serves as both an artistic tribute and an educational resource, inviting readers to appreciate the historical context an...

"Indians of the Mesa Verde" by Don Watson offers a profound exploration of the ancient Puebloan culture that thrived in the Mesa Verde region of Colorado. The book delves into the lives of the Ancestral Puebloans, detailing their architectural achievements, social structures, and spiritual beliefs. Watson's vivid descriptions and thorough research bring to life the intricate cliff dwellings and the rich history of the people who inhabited this unique landscape. Readers gain insight into th...

**From revolution to civil rights, Old Hollywood to the Space Age—the extraordinary story of a nation that contains multitudes“A masterpiece of concision and analysis. Every American should read it.”—Judith Thurman, National Book Award–winning writer at The New Yorker**When Britain’s thirteen American colonies declared their independence on July 4, 1776, the United States of America was born. It became a profoundly powerful nation that, for much of its history, has...

This study of British amateur theatre in the inter-war period examines five different but interwoven examples of the belief, common in theatrical and educational circles at the time, that amateur drama had a purpose beyond recreation.Amateur theatre was at the height of its popularity as a cultural practice between the wars, so that by 1939 more British people had practical experience of putting on plays than at any time before or since.Providing an origina...

Corrosive, mad and frequently fatal, indignation is a great destructive force in human affairs, and just as often a wellspring of mirth and merriment. Don Watson traces this seemingly ineradicable emotion in a journey that takes us, via his forebears, Flaubert and The Sopranos, from the Old Testament to Donald Trump.Trump's pitch had less to do with offering voters money and security than with offering them vengeance. He exploited the anger we feel when we are slighted or ...

The United States was founded based on the monumental idea that everyone deserves the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet throughout our two hundred and fifty years as an independent country, we have faced many obstacles to these self-evident truths: slavery, wars, economic depressions. Still, the United States is one of the most powerful nations in the world and is a hub for global economics, innovation, and culture. How did a nation, which throughout its history has...

Don Watson takes us on a journey of indignation and how it has been expressed in his forebears. His ire towards US politicians has a new moving target: Donald Trump. The US President's primary pitch had less to do with giving people money or security than it was about vengeance. Trump exploited the anger we feel when we are slighted or taken for granted, turning the politics of a sophisticated democracy into something more like a blood feud. He promised to restore their dignity, slay their...

While most Australians live in cities clinging to the coastal fringe, our sense of what an Australian is, or should be, is drawn from the vast and varied inland called the bush. But what do we mean by 'the bush', and how has it shaped us? Starting with his forebears' battle to drive back nature and eke a living from the land, Don Watson explores the bush as it was and as it now is: the triumphs and the ruination, the commonplace and the bizarre, the stories we like to tell about ourselves ...

‘When you write speeches for other people for a living, any audience is a good audience. I address walls and poultry: I stand on a wheelbarrow and give after-dinner speeches as the moon rises over the fowl yard. I say, Eight and a half generations of you fowls I have known. The chooks treat it as a diversion, of course. They get on with the main game. They are pragmatists. Why change it if it works, they reckon, and tilt their heads back and let the water run down their throats.’ – Don Wat...