The Brown Goose, the White Case Knife, Ora's Speckled Bean, Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter - these are just a few of the heirloom fruits and vegetables you'll encounter in Bill Best's remarkable ...history of seed saving and the people who preserve both unique flavors and the Appalachian culture associated with them. As one of the people at the forefront of seed saving and trading for over fifty years, Best has helped preserve numerous varieties of beans, tomatoes, corn, squashes, and other fruits and vegetables, along with the family stories and experiences that are a fundamental part of this world. While corporate agriculture privileges a few flavorless but hardy varieties of daily vegetables, seed savers have worked tirelessly to preserve genetic diversity and the flavors rooted in the Southern Appalachian Mountains - referred to by plant scientists as one of the vegetative wonders of the world. Saving Seeds, Preserving Taste will introduce readers to the cultural traditions associated with seed saving, as well as the remarkable people who have used grafting practices and hand-by-hand trading to keep alive varieties that would otherwise have been lost. As local efforts to preserve heirloom seeds have become part of a growing national food movement, Appalachian seed savers play a crucial role in providing alternatives to large-scale agriculture and corporate food culture. Part flavor guide, part people's history, Saving Seeds, Preserving Taste will introduce you to a world you've never known - or perhaps remind you of one you remember well from your childhood.
The richest place in America's musical landscape is that fertile ground occupied by jazz. Scott DeVeaux takes a central chapter in the history of jazz--the birth of bebop--and shows how our ...contemporary ideas of this uniquely American art form flow from that pivotal moment. At the same time, he provides an extraordinary view of the United States in the decades just prior to the civil rights movement. DeVeaux begins with an examination of the Swing Era, focusing particularly on the position of African American musicians. He highlights the role played by tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, a "progressive" committed to a vision in which black jazz musicians would find a place in the world commensurate with their skills. He then looks at the young musicians of the early 1940s, including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk, and links issues within the jazz world to other developments on the American scene, including the turmoil during World War II and the pervasive racism of the period. Throughout, DeVeaux places musicians within the context of their professional world, paying close attention to the challenges of making a living as well as of making good music. He shows that bebop was simultaneously an artistic movement, an ideological statement, and a commercial phenomenon. In drawing from the rich oral histories that a living tradition provides, DeVeaux's book resonates with the narratives of individual lives. While The Birth of Bebop is a study in American cultural history and a critical musical inquiry, it is also a fitting homage to bebop and to those who made it possible.
During the 1920s, sound revolutionized the motion picture industry and cinema continued as one of the most significant and popular forms of mass entertainment in the world. Film studios were ...transformed into major corporations, hiring a host of craftsmen and technicians including cinematographers, editors, screenwriters, and set designers. The birth of the star system supported the meteoric rise and celebrity status of actors including Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, and Rudolph Valentino while black performers (relegated to "race films") appeared infrequently in mainstream movies. The classic Hollywood film style was perfected and significant film genres were established: the melodrama, western, historical epic, and romantic comedy, along with slapstick, science fiction, and fantasy.
In ten original essays,American Cinema of the 1920sexamines the film industry's continued growth and prosperity while focusing on important themes of the era.
"Reefer Charlie" Fox rode the rails from 1928 to 1939; from 1939 to 1965 he hitched rides in automobiles and traveled by foot. From Indiana to British Columbia, from Arkansas to Texas, from ...Utah to Mexico, he was part of the grand hobo tradition that has all but passed away from American life. He camped in hobo jungles, slept under bridges and in sand houses at railroad yards, ate rattlesnake meat, fresh California grapes, and fish speared by the Indians of the Northwest. He quickly learned both the beauty and the dangers of his chosen way of life. One lesson learned early on was that there are distinct differences among hoboes, tramps, and bums. As the all-time king of hoboes, Jeff Davis, used to say, "Hoboes will work, tramps won't, and bums can't." Tales of an American Hobo is a lasting legacy to conventional society, teaching about a bygone era of American history and a rare breed of humanity who chose to live by the rails and on the road.
International audience; Dans les pages qui suivent, un angliciste réfléchit sur un métier qu’il aime et qu’il exerce depuis de longues années. Comme nombre de mes collègues, j’ai ressenti au début ...une vocation. L’anglais et moi, cela a été une histoire d’amour qui s’est étendue aussi aux communautés qui parlent cette langue : l’Angleterre, puis les États-Unis. Et l’enseignement a été un moyen de faire partager cet amour en célébrant toutes ces petites et ces grandes choses que j’avais pu découvrir avec émerveillement : Charlie Chaplin, Mr. Bean, la musique cajun, Purcell, le nonsense, le fish and chips, etc. Rapidement pourtant, derrière tous ces points de civilisation, n’ont cessé de profiler des réalités plus sombres. C’est comme si la médaille avait un revers et que l’on ne pouvait échapper à la souffrance, au sang, à l’horreur, au nettoyage ethnique, au génocide. Je veux dire par là que la tâche du professeur est non seulement de décrire les pays étrangers, leurs diverses communautés, leurs cultures, leurs mentalités, mais elle est aussi de juger. Il y a des choses qui sont inacceptables.
International audience; Dans les pages qui suivent, un angliciste réfléchit sur un métier qu’il aime et qu’il exerce depuis de longues années. Comme nombre de mes collègues, j’ai ressenti au début ...une vocation. L’anglais et moi, cela a été une histoire d’amour qui s’est étendue aussi aux communautés qui parlent cette langue : l’Angleterre, puis les États-Unis. Et l’enseignement a été un moyen de faire partager cet amour en célébrant toutes ces petites et ces grandes choses que j’avais pu découvrir avec émerveillement : Charlie Chaplin, Mr. Bean, la musique cajun, Purcell, le nonsense, le fish and chips, etc. Rapidement pourtant, derrière tous ces points de civilisation, n’ont cessé de profiler des réalités plus sombres. C’est comme si la médaille avait un revers et que l’on ne pouvait échapper à la souffrance, au sang, à l’horreur, au nettoyage ethnique, au génocide. Je veux dire par là que la tâche du professeur est non seulement de décrire les pays étrangers, leurs diverses communautés, leurs cultures, leurs mentalités, mais elle est aussi de juger. Il y a des choses qui sont inacceptables.
International audience; Dans les pages qui suivent, un angliciste réfléchit sur un métier qu’il aime et qu’il exerce depuis de longues années. Comme nombre de mes collègues, j’ai ressenti au début ...une vocation. L’anglais et moi, cela a été une histoire d’amour qui s’est étendue aussi aux communautés qui parlent cette langue : l’Angleterre, puis les États-Unis. Et l’enseignement a été un moyen de faire partager cet amour en célébrant toutes ces petites et ces grandes choses que j’avais pu découvrir avec émerveillement : Charlie Chaplin, Mr. Bean, la musique cajun, Purcell, le nonsense, le fish and chips, etc. Rapidement pourtant, derrière tous ces points de civilisation, n’ont cessé de profiler des réalités plus sombres. C’est comme si la médaille avait un revers et que l’on ne pouvait échapper à la souffrance, au sang, à l’horreur, au nettoyage ethnique, au génocide. Je veux dire par là que la tâche du professeur est non seulement de décrire les pays étrangers, leurs diverses communautés, leurs cultures, leurs mentalités, mais elle est aussi de juger. Il y a des choses qui sont inacceptables.
At the turn of the twentieth century, cinema was quickly establishing itself as a legitimate form of popular entertainment.
The essays inAmerican Cinema 1890-1909explore and define how the making of ...motion pictures flowered into an industry that would finally become the central entertainment institution of the world. Beginning with all the early types of pictures that moved, this volume tells the story of the invention and consolidation of the various processes that gave rise to what we now call "cinema." By examining the battles over patents, production, exhibition, and the reception of film, readers learn how going to the movies became a social tradition in American society.
In the course of these two decades, cinema succeeded both in establishing itself among other entertainment and instructional media and in updating various forms of spectacle.
