Writing in 1935 in his brilliant and brooding Black Reconstruction, W. E. B. Du Bois lamented America's post-Civil War era as a missed opportunity to reconstruct the war-torn nation in deed as well as in word. 'If the Reconstruction of the Southern states, from slavery to free labor, and from aristocracy to industrial democracy, had been conceived as a major national program of America, whose accomplishment at any price was well worth the effort,'...

"In The Constitution, constitutional scholar Michael Stokes Paulsen and his son Luke provide a clear, accessible introduction to the history and meaning of this historic document. Beginning with the Constitution's birth in 1787, Paulsen and Paulsen offer a grand tour of its history and interpretations, introducing readers to the characters and controversies that have shaped this founding instrument in the 200-plus years since its creation. In order...

The right to express one's political views seems an indisputable part of American life. After all, the First Amendment proudly proclaims that Congress can make no law abridging the freedom of speech. But well into the twentieth century, that right was still an unfulfilled promise, with Americans regularly imprisoned merely for protesting government policies. Indeed, our current understanding of free speech comes less from the First Amendment itself...

"Today, we know that a mammoth is an extinct type of elephant that was covered with long fur and lived in the north country during the ice ages. But how do you figure out what a mammoth is if you have no concept of extinction, ice ages, or fossils? Long after the last mammoth died and was no longer part of the human diet, it still played a role in human life. Cultures around the world interpreted the remains of mammoths through the lens of their own...

An outline of a 1000 year chronicle of environmental and cultural history which attempts to explain broad patterns of interaction between humans and their environment. It uses North American geological and botanical remains, and looks at the behaviour of the Anasazi - prehistoric Pueblo Indians.

Archaeological work in the southwestern United States has undergone tremendous growth during the last fifteen years, prompting vigorous debate over interpretation of the archaeological record. But renewed theoretical conflicts have been accompanied by the recognition that prehistoric burial practices provide an unparalleled opportunity for understanding and reconstructing ancient civilizations and for identifying the influences that helped shape them.To...

"Opening with memories of the childhood homes and experiences that have shaped Schafer's own history, ... for Schafer, architecture is not just a career but a way of life, a calling. He describes how the many varied houses of his youth were informed as much by their style as by their sense of place, and how these experiences of home informed his idea of classicism as a set of values that he applies to many different kinds of architecture in places...