Author: Michael E. Parrish
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393311341
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 548
Book Description
"Impressively detailed. . . . An authoritative and epic overview."--Publishers Weekly
Anxious Decades
An Anxious Age
Author: Joseph Bottum
Publisher: Image
ISBN: 0385521464
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 285
Book Description
We live in a profoundly spiritual age, but not in any good way. Huge swaths of American culture are driven by manic spiritual anxiety and relentless supernatural worry. Radicals and traditionalists, liberals and conservatives, together with politicians, artists, environmentalists, followers of food fads, and the chattering classes of television commentators: America is filled with people frantically seeking confirmation of their own essential goodness. We are a nation desperate to stand of the side of morality--to know that we are righteous and dwell in the light. In An Anxious Age, Joseph Bottum offers an account of modern America, presented as a morality tale formed by a collision of spiritual disturbances. And the cause, he claims, is the most significant and least noticed historical fact of the last fifty years: the collapse of the mainline Protestant churches that were the source of social consensus and cultural unity. Our dangerous spiritual anxieties, broken loose from the churches that once contained them, now madden everything in American life. Updating The Protestant Ethic and the Sprit of Capitalism, Max Weber's sociological classic, An Anxious Age undertakes two case studies of contemporary social classes adrift in a nation without the religious understandings that gave them meaning. Looking at the college-educated elite he calls "the Poster Children," Bottum sees the post-Protestant heirs of the old mainline Protestant domination of culture: dutiful descendants who claim the high social position of their Christian ancestors even while they reject their ancestors' Christianity. Turning to the Swallows of Capistrano, the Catholics formed by the pontificate of John Paul II, Bottum evaluates the early victories--and later defeats--of the attempt to substitute Catholicism for the dying mainline voice in public life. Sweeping across American intellectual and cultural history, An Anxious Age traces the course of national religion and warns about the strange angels and even stranger demons with which we now wrestle. Insightful and contrarian, wise and unexpected, An Anxious Age ranks among the great modern accounts of American culture.
Publisher: Image
ISBN: 0385521464
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 285
Book Description
We live in a profoundly spiritual age, but not in any good way. Huge swaths of American culture are driven by manic spiritual anxiety and relentless supernatural worry. Radicals and traditionalists, liberals and conservatives, together with politicians, artists, environmentalists, followers of food fads, and the chattering classes of television commentators: America is filled with people frantically seeking confirmation of their own essential goodness. We are a nation desperate to stand of the side of morality--to know that we are righteous and dwell in the light. In An Anxious Age, Joseph Bottum offers an account of modern America, presented as a morality tale formed by a collision of spiritual disturbances. And the cause, he claims, is the most significant and least noticed historical fact of the last fifty years: the collapse of the mainline Protestant churches that were the source of social consensus and cultural unity. Our dangerous spiritual anxieties, broken loose from the churches that once contained them, now madden everything in American life. Updating The Protestant Ethic and the Sprit of Capitalism, Max Weber's sociological classic, An Anxious Age undertakes two case studies of contemporary social classes adrift in a nation without the religious understandings that gave them meaning. Looking at the college-educated elite he calls "the Poster Children," Bottum sees the post-Protestant heirs of the old mainline Protestant domination of culture: dutiful descendants who claim the high social position of their Christian ancestors even while they reject their ancestors' Christianity. Turning to the Swallows of Capistrano, the Catholics formed by the pontificate of John Paul II, Bottum evaluates the early victories--and later defeats--of the attempt to substitute Catholicism for the dying mainline voice in public life. Sweeping across American intellectual and cultural history, An Anxious Age traces the course of national religion and warns about the strange angels and even stranger demons with which we now wrestle. Insightful and contrarian, wise and unexpected, An Anxious Age ranks among the great modern accounts of American culture.
Born Anxious
Author: Daniel P. Keating
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 146688648X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
Why are we the way we are? Why do some of us find it impossible to calm a quick temper or to shake anxiety? The debate has always been divided between nature and nurture, but as psychology professor Daniel P. Keating demonstrates in Born Anxious, new DNA science points to a third factor that allows us to inherit both the nature and the nurture of previous generations—with significant consequences. Born Anxious introduces a new word into our lexicon: “methylated.” It’s short for “epigenetic methylation,” and it offers insight into behaviors we have all observed but never understood—the boss who goes ballistic at the slightest error; the infant who can’t be calmed; the husband who can’t fall asleep at night. In each case, because of an exposure to environmental adversity in utero or during the first year of life, a key stress system has been welded into the “on” position by the methylation process, predisposing the child’s body to excessive levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The effect: lifelong, unrelenting stress and its consequences–from school failure to nerve-wracking relationships to early death. Early adversity happens in all levels of society but as income gaps widen, social inequality and fear of the future have become the new predators; in Born Anxious, Daniel P. Keating demonstrates how we can finally break the cycle.
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 146688648X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
Why are we the way we are? Why do some of us find it impossible to calm a quick temper or to shake anxiety? The debate has always been divided between nature and nurture, but as psychology professor Daniel P. Keating demonstrates in Born Anxious, new DNA science points to a third factor that allows us to inherit both the nature and the nurture of previous generations—with significant consequences. Born Anxious introduces a new word into our lexicon: “methylated.” It’s short for “epigenetic methylation,” and it offers insight into behaviors we have all observed but never understood—the boss who goes ballistic at the slightest error; the infant who can’t be calmed; the husband who can’t fall asleep at night. In each case, because of an exposure to environmental adversity in utero or during the first year of life, a key stress system has been welded into the “on” position by the methylation process, predisposing the child’s body to excessive levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The effect: lifelong, unrelenting stress and its consequences–from school failure to nerve-wracking relationships to early death. Early adversity happens in all levels of society but as income gaps widen, social inequality and fear of the future have become the new predators; in Born Anxious, Daniel P. Keating demonstrates how we can finally break the cycle.
Anxious Wealth
Author: John Osburg
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 080478535X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
An ethnographic study of China’s new elites and their rarified world of debauchery and corruption: “A must have book for China studies” (Choice). This pioneering investigation reveals the private lives—and the nightlives—of the powerful entrepreneurs and managers redefining success and status in the Chinese city of Chengdu. For more than three years, anthropologist John Osburg accompanied wealthy Chinese businessmen as they courted clients, partners, and government officials. Now he invites readers along on his journey through the highly gendered world of luxury karaoke clubs, saunas, and massage parlors—places designed to cater to the desires of elite men. Within these spaces, a masculinization of business is taking place. Osburg details the complex code of behavior that governs businessmen as they go about banqueting, drinking, gambling, bribing, exchanging gifts, and obtaining sexual services. These intricate social networks play a key role in generating business, performing social status, and reconfiguring gender roles. Yet underneath the façade, many entrepreneurs feel trapped by their obligations and moral compromises in this evolving environment. Osburg examines their deep ambivalence about China’s future and their own complicity in the major issues of post-Mao Chinese society—corruption, inequality, materialism, and loss of trust.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 080478535X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
An ethnographic study of China’s new elites and their rarified world of debauchery and corruption: “A must have book for China studies” (Choice). This pioneering investigation reveals the private lives—and the nightlives—of the powerful entrepreneurs and managers redefining success and status in the Chinese city of Chengdu. For more than three years, anthropologist John Osburg accompanied wealthy Chinese businessmen as they courted clients, partners, and government officials. Now he invites readers along on his journey through the highly gendered world of luxury karaoke clubs, saunas, and massage parlors—places designed to cater to the desires of elite men. Within these spaces, a masculinization of business is taking place. Osburg details the complex code of behavior that governs businessmen as they go about banqueting, drinking, gambling, bribing, exchanging gifts, and obtaining sexual services. These intricate social networks play a key role in generating business, performing social status, and reconfiguring gender roles. Yet underneath the façade, many entrepreneurs feel trapped by their obligations and moral compromises in this evolving environment. Osburg examines their deep ambivalence about China’s future and their own complicity in the major issues of post-Mao Chinese society—corruption, inequality, materialism, and loss of trust.
America in the Twenties
Author: Ronald Allen Goldberg
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 9780815630333
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Book Description
This is the first book to offer a comprehensive look at American life in the 1920s as framed by the aspirations, scandals, and attitudes of the Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover presidencies. In fascinating detail, Goldberg examines how Victorian values were transformed into the freewheeling lifestyle of the Jazz Age and explores the effects of such far-reaching issues as isolationism vs. internationalism, massive immigration, labor-management relations, and the prevalence of big business. Even as he pierces the era's claim to being a time of "wonderful nonsense," Goldberg balances its giddy fads and foibles with a stinging critique of darker and/or significant social issues. From the rise of the Ku Klux Klan to black protests to the Scopes "Monkey Trial," from bootlegging and Prohibition to the Red Scare, Goldberg shows how the temper of the 1920s shaped the nation's future. Finally, he poses provocative questions about how mistakes might have been avoided and what consequences ensued.
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 9780815630333
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Book Description
This is the first book to offer a comprehensive look at American life in the 1920s as framed by the aspirations, scandals, and attitudes of the Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover presidencies. In fascinating detail, Goldberg examines how Victorian values were transformed into the freewheeling lifestyle of the Jazz Age and explores the effects of such far-reaching issues as isolationism vs. internationalism, massive immigration, labor-management relations, and the prevalence of big business. Even as he pierces the era's claim to being a time of "wonderful nonsense," Goldberg balances its giddy fads and foibles with a stinging critique of darker and/or significant social issues. From the rise of the Ku Klux Klan to black protests to the Scopes "Monkey Trial," from bootlegging and Prohibition to the Red Scare, Goldberg shows how the temper of the 1920s shaped the nation's future. Finally, he poses provocative questions about how mistakes might have been avoided and what consequences ensued.
Pivotal Decades
Author: John Milton Cooper
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393956559
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 438
Book Description
Contemporary American began in the first two decades of this century. These were the years in which two of our greatest presidents—Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson—transformed the office into the center of power; in which the United States entered the world stage and fought its first overseas war; in which the government's proper role in the economy became a public question; and in which reform became an imperative for muckraking reporters, progressive politicians, social activists, and writers. It was a golden age in American politics, when fundamental ideas were given compelling expression by thoughtful candidates. It was a trying time, however, for many Americans, including women who fought for the vote, blacks who began organizing to secure their rights, and activists on the Left who lost theirs in the first Red Scare of the century. John Cooper's panoramic history of this period shows us where we came from and sheds light on where we are.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393956559
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 438
Book Description
Contemporary American began in the first two decades of this century. These were the years in which two of our greatest presidents—Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson—transformed the office into the center of power; in which the United States entered the world stage and fought its first overseas war; in which the government's proper role in the economy became a public question; and in which reform became an imperative for muckraking reporters, progressive politicians, social activists, and writers. It was a golden age in American politics, when fundamental ideas were given compelling expression by thoughtful candidates. It was a trying time, however, for many Americans, including women who fought for the vote, blacks who began organizing to secure their rights, and activists on the Left who lost theirs in the first Red Scare of the century. John Cooper's panoramic history of this period shows us where we came from and sheds light on where we are.
Hoover
Author: Kenneth Whyte
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030774387X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 770
Book Description
"An exemplary biography—exhaustively researched, fair-minded and easy to read. It can nestle on the same shelf as David McCullough’s Truman, a high compliment indeed." —The Wall Street Journal The definitive biography of Herbert Hoover, one of the most remarkable Americans of the twentieth century—a wholly original account that will forever change the way Americans understand the man, his presidency, his battle against the Great Depression, and their own history. An impoverished orphan who built a fortune. A great humanitarian. A president elected in a landslide and then resoundingly defeated four years later. Arguably the father of both New Deal liberalism and modern conservatism, Herbert Hoover lived one of the most extraordinary American lives of the twentieth century. Yet however astonishing, his accomplishments are often eclipsed by the perception that Hoover was inept and heartless in the face of the Great Depression. Now, Kenneth Whyte vividly recreates Hoover’s rich and dramatic life in all its complex glory. He follows Hoover through his Iowa boyhood, his cutthroat business career, his brilliant rescue of millions of lives during World War I and the 1927 Mississippi floods, his misconstrued presidency, his defeat at the hands of a ruthless Franklin Roosevelt, his devastating years in the political wilderness, his return to grace as Truman's emissary to help European refugees after World War II, and his final vindication in the days of Kennedy's "New Frontier." Ultimately, Whyte brings to light Hoover’s complexities and contradictions—his modesty and ambition, his ruthlessness and extreme generosity—as well as his profound political legacy. Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times is the epic, poignant story of the deprived boy who, through force of will, made himself the most accomplished figure in the land, and who experienced a range of achievements and failures unmatched by any American of his, or perhaps any, era. Here, for the first time, is the definitive biography that fully captures the colossal scale of Hoover’s momentous life and volatile times.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030774387X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 770
Book Description
"An exemplary biography—exhaustively researched, fair-minded and easy to read. It can nestle on the same shelf as David McCullough’s Truman, a high compliment indeed." —The Wall Street Journal The definitive biography of Herbert Hoover, one of the most remarkable Americans of the twentieth century—a wholly original account that will forever change the way Americans understand the man, his presidency, his battle against the Great Depression, and their own history. An impoverished orphan who built a fortune. A great humanitarian. A president elected in a landslide and then resoundingly defeated four years later. Arguably the father of both New Deal liberalism and modern conservatism, Herbert Hoover lived one of the most extraordinary American lives of the twentieth century. Yet however astonishing, his accomplishments are often eclipsed by the perception that Hoover was inept and heartless in the face of the Great Depression. Now, Kenneth Whyte vividly recreates Hoover’s rich and dramatic life in all its complex glory. He follows Hoover through his Iowa boyhood, his cutthroat business career, his brilliant rescue of millions of lives during World War I and the 1927 Mississippi floods, his misconstrued presidency, his defeat at the hands of a ruthless Franklin Roosevelt, his devastating years in the political wilderness, his return to grace as Truman's emissary to help European refugees after World War II, and his final vindication in the days of Kennedy's "New Frontier." Ultimately, Whyte brings to light Hoover’s complexities and contradictions—his modesty and ambition, his ruthlessness and extreme generosity—as well as his profound political legacy. Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times is the epic, poignant story of the deprived boy who, through force of will, made himself the most accomplished figure in the land, and who experienced a range of achievements and failures unmatched by any American of his, or perhaps any, era. Here, for the first time, is the definitive biography that fully captures the colossal scale of Hoover’s momentous life and volatile times.
The Roaring Twenties
Author: Thomas Streissguth
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 1438108877
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 513
Book Description
Covers the social, political, and economic history of the 1920s, including developments in science, from astrophysics to laboratory science to discoveries and inventions; the creation of new professional sports leagues; the labor union movement; censorship, and writers, artists, and moviemakers. This volume captures the complexities of the 1920s.
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 1438108877
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 513
Book Description
Covers the social, political, and economic history of the 1920s, including developments in science, from astrophysics to laboratory science to discoveries and inventions; the creation of new professional sports leagues; the labor union movement; censorship, and writers, artists, and moviemakers. This volume captures the complexities of the 1920s.
The Revolution of ’28
Author: Robert Chiles
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150171418X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 211
Book Description
The Revolution of ’28 explores the career of New York governor and 1928 Democratic presidential nominee Alfred E. Smith. Robert Chiles peers into Smith’s work and uncovers a distinctive strain of American progressivism that resonated among urban, ethnic, working-class Americans in the early twentieth century. The book charts the rise of that idiomatic progressivism during Smith’s early years as a state legislator through his time as governor of the Empire State in the 1920s, before proceeding to a revisionist narrative of the 1928 presidential campaign, exploring the ways in which Smith’s gubernatorial progressivism was presented to a national audience. As Chiles points out, new-stock voters responded enthusiastically to Smith's candidacy on both economic and cultural levels. Chiles offers a historical argument that describes the impact of this coalition on the new liberal formation that was to come with Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, demonstrating the broad practical consequences of Smith’s political career. In particular, Chiles notes how Smith’s progressive agenda became Democratic partisan dogma and a rallying point for policy formation and electoral success at the state and national levels. Chiles sets the record straight in The Revolution of ’28 by paying close attention to how Smith identified and activated his emergent coalition and put it to use in his campaign of 1928, before quickly losing control over it after his failed presidential bid.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150171418X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 211
Book Description
The Revolution of ’28 explores the career of New York governor and 1928 Democratic presidential nominee Alfred E. Smith. Robert Chiles peers into Smith’s work and uncovers a distinctive strain of American progressivism that resonated among urban, ethnic, working-class Americans in the early twentieth century. The book charts the rise of that idiomatic progressivism during Smith’s early years as a state legislator through his time as governor of the Empire State in the 1920s, before proceeding to a revisionist narrative of the 1928 presidential campaign, exploring the ways in which Smith’s gubernatorial progressivism was presented to a national audience. As Chiles points out, new-stock voters responded enthusiastically to Smith's candidacy on both economic and cultural levels. Chiles offers a historical argument that describes the impact of this coalition on the new liberal formation that was to come with Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, demonstrating the broad practical consequences of Smith’s political career. In particular, Chiles notes how Smith’s progressive agenda became Democratic partisan dogma and a rallying point for policy formation and electoral success at the state and national levels. Chiles sets the record straight in The Revolution of ’28 by paying close attention to how Smith identified and activated his emergent coalition and put it to use in his campaign of 1928, before quickly losing control over it after his failed presidential bid.
In Their Time
Author: Anthony J. Mayo
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1591393450
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 478
Book Description
From little known heroes to legends like Sam Walton and Bill Gates, this absorbing book weaves history, economics, and personality to reveal the secrets behind the success of the last century’s greatest American business leaders. The authors show that a key to success was “contextual intelligence”: the ability to “read” and understand the context of the times and seize the unique opportunities within them. Leadership titles sell well for us, and this book should get strong review attention Powerful Resource: canon of the 20th century’s greatest business leaders in one volume Absorbing read: the stories include both well known and unfamiliar leaders New Leadership Theory: many leadership profiles focus on personality traits; the authors’ theory of “contextual intelligence” represents a fresh perspective Well-researched: based on a Harvard Business School Leadership Initiative Study of 1,000 great CEOs and Founders of American companies from 1900-1999 Many of the leaders profiled hail from non-US countries
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1591393450
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 478
Book Description
From little known heroes to legends like Sam Walton and Bill Gates, this absorbing book weaves history, economics, and personality to reveal the secrets behind the success of the last century’s greatest American business leaders. The authors show that a key to success was “contextual intelligence”: the ability to “read” and understand the context of the times and seize the unique opportunities within them. Leadership titles sell well for us, and this book should get strong review attention Powerful Resource: canon of the 20th century’s greatest business leaders in one volume Absorbing read: the stories include both well known and unfamiliar leaders New Leadership Theory: many leadership profiles focus on personality traits; the authors’ theory of “contextual intelligence” represents a fresh perspective Well-researched: based on a Harvard Business School Leadership Initiative Study of 1,000 great CEOs and Founders of American companies from 1900-1999 Many of the leaders profiled hail from non-US countries