social life and customs

This book charts the course of colonial America from Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of the new world in 1492 to the beginning of the Revolutionary War in 1775. Works and personal accounts by historical figures like John Smith and Benjamin Franklin provide students an understanding of topics like life in Jamestown and colonial education. In addition to learning about European settlers and explorers through primary sources, students will learn about the Native Americans who originally inhabited the country. Similarly, students will learn about African Americans who were forced into slave labor. Overall, students will gain an understanding of the colonies and how they became the United States of America.

High-school student and neuroscientist alike, the storytellers share their ventures into uncharted territory--and how their lives were changed indelibly by what they discovered there. With passion, and humor, they encourage us all to be more open, vulnerable, and alive.

Augusten Burroughs describes his experiences working in advertising in Manhattan and chronicles his battle with alcoholism.

"A galvanizing and powerful debut, Mill Town is an American story, a human predicament, and a moral wake-up call that asks: what are we willing to tolerate and whose lives are we willing to sacrifice for our own survival? Kerri Arsenault grew up in the rural working class town of Mexico, Maine. For over 100 years the community orbited around a paper mill that employs most townspeople, including three generations of Arsenault's own family. Years after she moved away, Arsenault realized the price she paid for that seemingly secure childhood. The mill, while providing livelihoods for nearly everyone, also contributed to the destruction of the environment and the decline of the town's economic, moral, and emotional health in a slow-moving catastrophe, earning the area the nickname 'Cancer Valley.' In Mill Town, Arsenault undertakes an excavation of a collective past, sifting through historical archives and scientific reports, talking to family and neighbors, and examining her own childhood to present a portrait of a community that illuminates not only the ruin of her hometown and the collapse of the working-class of America, but also the hazards of both living in and leaving home, and the silences we are all afraid to violate. In exquisite prose, Arsenault explores the corruption of bodies: the human body, bodies of water, and governmental bodies, and what it's like to come from a place you love but doesn't always love you back"--Provided by the publisher.

Archival photographs and text describe the history, social life, customs and buildings of Batavia, New York.

Introduces technological innovations from England during the Victorian era and teaches about fractions.

This photo book with text is written from a child's perspective on what Alaskan kids do during recess at 20 below.

In Tolstoy's masterpiece, the gorgeous Anna Karenina is married to a significant government minister but falls in love with a prosperous army officer named Count Vronsky. Frantic for truth and significance in life, Anna recklessly defies the norms of Russian society, often smoking opium with her lover as she abandons her son and husband. Damned and detested by her peers, Anna finds herself increasingly jealous and unfulfilled.

Tale of the manners and morals of New York society in the later 1800s. Newland Archer is a young attorney, handsome and eligible. Torn between his socially acceptable fiancee and the more earthy attractions of Countess Olenska, Archer is truly on the horns of a dilemma. The plot is unobvious, delicately developed, with a fine finale that exquisitely satisfies one's sense of fitness, and as always with Edith Wharton, the drama of character is greater than that of event.

Explores the history of Kwanzaa, first created in the 1960s in order to provide awareness of African-American heritage.