history and criticism

Presents the companion book to the PBS television series on the history of American Broadway musicals and includes over five hundred images with lyrics, maps, and archival material.

A Broadway reference book featuring information about Broadway musicals, with a variety of statistics and inside information, plus critical reception, cast lists, and pithy commentary about each show.

Discusses the American musical and shows how musicals happen, what makes them work, how they captivate audiences, and how one landmark show leads to the next.

[An] exploration of the poetic power of popular songs, from Tin Pan Alley to the Beatles to Beyonce and beyond. Encompassing a century of recorded music, this pathbreaking book reveals the poetic artistry of popular songs. Pop songs are music first. They also comprise the most widely disseminated poetic expression of our time. Adam Bradley traces the song lyric across musical genres from early twentieth-century Delta blues to mid-century rock 'n' roll to today's hits.

"Akron, Ohio, 1851: A brother and sister listen to Sojourner Truth deliver her speech. Aligned with curriculum standards, these narrative-nonfiction books also highlight key 21st Century content: Global Awareness, Media Literacy, and Civic Literacy. Thought-provoking content and hands-on activities encourage critical thinking. Book includes a table of contents, glossary of key words, index, author biography, sidebars, and timeline"--.

The author reveals how he and his wife were changed by what they saw and captured on film as they risked their lives--and their marriage--again and again, to save the environment.

". . . Marina Warner digs into a rich hoard of fairy tales . . . in order to define a genre and evaluate a literary form that keeps shifting through time and history. Drawing on . . . examples, from classics such as 'Red Riding Hood,' 'Cinderella,' and 'The Sleeping Beauty,' the Grimm Brothers' 'Hansel and Gretel,' and Hans Andersen's 'The Little Mermaid,' to modern-day realizations including Walt Disney's 'Snow White,' Warner forms a persuasive case for fairy tale as a crucial repository of human understanding and culture"--Provided by the publisher.

Bernard O'Donoghue examines the many different forms of writing which have been called 'poetry', beginning with the Greeks. As well as questioning what poetry is, he asks what poetry is for, and considers contemporary debates on its value.

"... discusses why horror stories disturb us, and how society responds to literary and film representations of the gruesome and taboo"--Amazon.

"In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with [this book], the time has come, and the results are everything his . . . fans--and all movie lovers--could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining. At once film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history, it is all written in the singular voice recognizable immediately as QT's and with the rare perspective about cinema possible only from one of the greatest practitioners of the artform ever"--Provided by publisher.