When the Equal Rights Amendment was first passed by Congress in 1972, Richard Nixon was president and All in the Family's Archie Bunker was telling his feisty wife Edith to stifle it. Over the course of the next ten years, an initial wave of enthusiasm led to ratification of the ERA by thirty-five states, just three short of the thirty-eight states needed by the 1982 deadline. Many of the arguments against the ERA that historically stood in the way...

The flaws in the American electoral process have become more apparent over many years. The contemporary tipping point in public awareness occurred during the 2000 election count, but several major structural weaknesses exacerbated doubts in the 2016 campaign, worsening party divisions and further corroding public trust in the electoral process. It is impossible to fix a problem without understanding its nature. To gather independent evidence about...

Citizen of Two Worlds, first published in 1960, is the autobiography of Mohammad Ata-Ullah (1905-1977), Pakistani doctor, mountaineer, and philosopher. Born into a Muslim family, Ata-Ullah is an example of a worldy human being who treated Christians and Hindus with respect and as brothers. After studying medicine in Lahore and London and becoming a doctor, Ata-Ullah served as an officer in the British India Army and traveled widely, working in central...

This unique translation of the Old Testament book, with reflections on Judaism's mournful history, "not only allows but demands rereading" (Pleiades). Distinguished poet David R. Slavitt here provides a translation of and meditation upon the Book of Lamentations, the biblical account of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 587 B.C., on the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av-Tish'a b'Av. (Six centuries later the Romans destroyed the second...

The dramatic story of how the superpowers collected secrets and used intelligence to build an advantage during the Cold War, the longest and most dangerous confrontation of the twentieth century. The Cold War, which lasted from the end of the Second World War to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was fought mostly in the shadows, with the superpowers maneuvering for strategic advantage in an anticipated global armed confrontation that thankfully...

The story behind two battles collectively known as the Battle of Saratoga makes an unforgettable tale, yet it's unfamiliar to many people. These battles are considered the turning point of the American Revolution. They halted Britain's southern advance and convinced France to provide invaluable military support and monetary aid to the American cause. Without victories in Saratoga, the American struggle for liberty may have fallen apart.

To increase trade to the Orient, commercial harbor development in the Ballona wetlands of western Los Angeles was attempted several times from 1880 to 1900, only to be destroyed by disastrous storm-fed floods. After the US Army Corps of Engineers installed revetments on Ballona Creek and moved tons of earth to raise the ground above sea level, Marina del Rey was federally authorized in 1954. Funded by federal, state, and Los Angeles County funds,...

American Advertising Cookbooks: How Corporations Taught Us to Love Spam, Bananas, and Jell-O is a deeply researched and entertaining survey of twentieth century American food. Connecting cultural, social, and geopolitical aspects, author Christina Ward (Preservation: The Art & Science of Canning , Fermentation, and Dehydration, Process 2017) uses her expertise to tell the fascinating and often infuriating story of American culinary culture. Readers...

'The story of India's most neglected region told by the narrative voice of a poor, petulant reporter… Stripped of the exotic, the Northeast in [this book] appears bare, burnt and betrayed…' -Scroll.in When violence broke out before elections in Assam in 2000, in which Hindi-speakers from North India were massacred, two out-of-work journalists, Anil Yadav and Anhes Shashwat, decided to go there, braving violence and uncertainty, with the hope...

Tiffin may be most well known because of the devastation caused by the flood of 1913; the 19 people who lost their lives over several weeks literally reshaped the city. But, it is defined by so much more than tragedy. Tiffin-named after Ohio's first governor, Edward Tiffin-was first settled in 1817. The seat of Seneca County has been home to businesses of wide renown: Tiffin Glass, National Machinery, and Ballreich's Potato Chips, among others. Tiffin's...