... private lusts "made public by her illegitimate child "disrupted the social order and threatened the very existence of the village. In times of plenty, notes Kingston, adultery might have been "only a mistake"; when the villagers needed everyone to work together to provide food, however, it became a crime. The ... aunt's memory or harming it? The ambiguous nature of "talk-story," a blend of the real and fantastic, surfaces again and again throughout the book. How is Kingston, in trying to make sense of her own life, able to tell from these talk-stories what is peculiar to her own ... "...

• Word Count: 6134
• Approx Pages: 25

... thanks to the wide ranging cultural references, from Spiro Agnew to The Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan (to whom, among others, the book is dedicated). Like Breakfast of Champions, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas contains intermittent graphics by British artist Ralph Steadman. It is telling ... to great verisimilitude) involves him directly participating in the search for - and death of - the American Dream. Despite being markedly different in style, each book has a shared theme and each author's vitriolic arrow is poised to hit the same target. Vonnegut's introduction shows the same politica...

• Word Count: 4213
• Approx Pages: 17

... of all charges. Jefferson returned home to Monticello in 1781, and buried himself in writing about Virginia. The pages of text turned into a manuscript later known as the Notes of Virginia. This book went into great detail about the beauty of external nature as in its clarification of moral, political, and social issues, was read by scientist of two continents for years ... Europe to arrange commercial agreements. He traveled throughout Europe and every place he went, he was not only an American diplomat, but also a student of the useful sciences. He took notes on making wine, cheese, p...

• Word Count: 2061
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... the strengths and weaknesses in each section. I will talk about the use of maps, illustrations and the references notes that are used through out the text. Ian K. Steele has the main objective in this book of creating a new image of how America was "created." Steele takes an Ethno historic and military, perspective ... reader a better understanding of how the invasions took place and the location that was most active during the time frame. The maps in the book are one of its greatest strengths. Whenever battles or confrontations take place it is good to know where they happened in relatio...

• Word Count: 1016
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Morris and Company, Armour and Company, Swift and Company , Brown, and Durham. Every week the managers of the trust got together and compared notes, and there was one scale for all the workers in the yards and one standard of efficiency. Brown and Durham were the two largest meat ... of The Jungle these laws were passed to make sure that sanitary c conditions and Federal Inspection took place in the slaughterhouses and packing plants. The book became famous and made Sinclair a good deal of money, but the socialist ideals that the author intended as the cure for the ills of capitalism .....

• Word Count: 4457
• Approx Pages: 18
• Grade Level: High School

... with the war by using his language to describe undescribables and it is a critique of American ideology as well. As a personal struggle, the book is a cathartic effort for Herr who disperses his pain of collected Vietnam memories on the last page with the dispelling chant, "Vietnam Vietnam ... Vietnam" [p. 260]. As a critique of American ideology, the book must be examined more closely. Using irony, first-hand accounts, and subjective interjections, Herr blasts through the detached, monolithic American view of the ... as necessary for the betterment of those opposing people. Herr calls ...

• Word Count: 1801
• Approx Pages: 7

... to do well on a ten question quiz the following school day, the thirty pages must have been read and fully comprehended. I did my best every day. I read the chapters, took notes on the lectures, assigned pages, and even bought a tape recorder to record lectures to ensure I did not miss a single point. This was the pace traveled at for three weeks until ... , not expecting to write an essay on the first test in one and one half hours. I blindly attempted to remember details from lectures, what I have been told every Thanksgiving, and book notes I could recall. I began to write, slowly tak...

• Word Count: 852
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... the different mother-daughter relationships between the characters, and even at a lower level, the relationships between friends, lovers, and even enemies. In this book, she presents the views and the stories of both sides, giving the reader and the characters, an understanding of the mentalities of both mother and ... best to become "Americanized," at the same time showing off their heritage while their mothers watch on, dismayed. The second section of the book is named The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates because in this section, the problem of communication and lack of understanding betwee...

• Word Count: 1447
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... Puritan predecessors. They wrote history for their own satisfaction and to explain to the enlightened world the success of men like themselves: free, bold, intelligent, and ambitious. Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia is a highly evolved product of this rationalist tradition. America is for Jefferson, as it was for the Puritans, a model for the world, but ... intellectuals, in other words, they were reformers. In 1913, Charles A. Beard, the most famous historian, published An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution. It was probably the most influential book ever writte...

• Word Count: 2043
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Schneebaum Throughout the book Keep The River On Your Right there appeared to be many differences between American culture and that of the Akarama; however, when more closely examined it can be seen that what seem to be differences, actually serve the same purpose. The Akarama people live and breathe to hunt and laugh. In all of Tobias" notes he recalled the ... was killed. His long life ahead of him was cut short because he wanted to be the biggest and the best before his time. As the pages turned through the book a sense of wanting to be in that jungle in that point of time would regu...

• Word Count: 720
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... no longer has a promise" (p. 42), "To Chinese people, fourteen carats isn't real gold . . . [my bracelets] must be twenty-four carats, pure inside and out." (p. 42) Towards the end of the book, there is a definite line between the differences of the two generations. Lindo-Jong, whose daughter, Waverly, doesn't even know four Chinese words, describes the complete difference and incompatibility of the ... Chinese character. She explains that there is no lasting shame in being born in America, and that as a minority you are the first in line for scholarships. Most importantly, she notes th...

• Word Count: 1223
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... no longer has a promise" (p. 42), "To Chinese people, fourteen carats isn't real gold . . . [my bracelets] must be twenty-four carats, pure inside and out." (p. 42) Towards the end of the book, there is a definite line between the differences of the two generations. Lindo Jong, whose daughter, Waverly, doesn't even know four Chinese words, describes the complete difference and incompatibility of the ... Chinese character. She explains that there is no lasting shame in being born in America, and that as a minority you are the first in line for scholarships. Most importantly, she notes th...

• Word Count: 444
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

After reading Peter Sacks" Standardized Minds, my discontent with the education system in the United States grew even more. Last year, I read another book that dealt with problems in education policy (Richard Kahlenberg's All Together Now: Creating Middle-Class Schools Through Public School Choice.) The latter discussed the issue of public school segregation by ... of standardized tests, and the notion of "teaching to the test." Standardized Minds also drives home the point of America's unhealthy obsession with the results of standardized tests. I found the book to be both informative and co...

• Word Count: 1692
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... was stricken by the unfairness and unequal treatment of Blacks in this country; however, he decided to address the injustice through his belief in faith, thus the title of his book The Substance of Things Hoped For. Booker T. Washington's key strategy can be summarized in one word, pragmatism "here and now. As a former slave, Washington's strategies were premised upon the ... that once there is an improvement in social integration of Black and white America, then will there be a change in governmental policies. Aside from social integration, like DuBois, Proctor also notes that Blacks n...

• Word Count: 1371
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... , would be foolish. In the early stages of the war American Ambassador to London was quoted saying "It's the end of the world, the end of everything". As Richard Overy notes in The Road To War, this growing division from Europe was not mere selfishness. They were the values expressed by secretary of state, Cordel Hull: "a primary interest in peace with ... dissenting voice. Eleanor Roosevelt noted that the effect of the Japanese attack was "to release my husband from months and pent-up tension and anxiety". Richard Overy says in his book The Road To War, "It is tempting to see Pearl Harb...

• Word Count: 1347
• Approx Pages: 5

... had to cut her hair short and people teased her because she looked like Peter Pan. Next she wanted her daughter to be remembered as an amazing child from the book "Ripley's Believe It or Not". Than it was the piano lessons, her mother exchanged cleaning services so that her daughter could receive lessons. Her mother got the idea from the ... Mr. Chong could not teach her anything because he was deaf. Mr. Chong could not hear her play the piano so how could he know if she was playing the notes right. Amy's mother made her feel as if she was not good enough to be her daughter. Everything ...

• Word Count: 1263
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School