What exactly is a children's book? How is children's literature defined as a genre? A leading scholar presents close readings of six classic stories to answer these questions and offer a clear definition of children's writing as a distinct literary form.

Perry Nodelman begins by considerin...

Revised in 2006 for its twenty-fifth anniversary, this best-selling book is the "bible" for families caring for people with Alzheimer disease, offering comfort and support to millions worldwide. In addition to the practical and compassionate guidance that have made The 36-Hour Day invaluable to c...

"One of the major works in the development of contemporary criticism and philosophy." -- J. Hillis Miller, Yale University

Jacques Derrida's revolutionary theories about deconstruction, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and structuralism, first voiced in the 1960s, forever changed the face of ...

How did thousands of Chinese migrants end up working alongside African Americans in Louisiana after the Civil War? With the stories of these workers, Coolies and Cane advances an interpretation of emancipation that moves beyond U.S. borders and the black-white racial dynamic. Tracing American ide...

From the medieval farm implements used by the first colonists to the invisible links of the Internet, the history of technology in America is a history of society as well. Arguing that "the tools and processes we use are a part of our lives, not simply instruments of our purpose," historian Carro...

This updated and revised edition of David Joyner's entertaining "hands-on" tour of group theory and abstract algebra brings life, levity, and practicality to the topics through mathematical toys.

Joyner uses permutation puzzles such as the Rubik's Cube and its variants, the 15 puzzle, the R...

Sophocles' Theban Plays -- Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone -- lie at the core of the Western literary canon. They are extensively translated, universally taught, and frequently performed. Chronicling the downfall of Oedipus, the legendary king of Thebes, and his descendants, th...

An estimated 4.1 million people in the United States participate in recreational sailing. Yet the large library of sailing literature leaves many of them high and dry. On one side are technical guides for America's Cup boat-builders; on the other, simplistic books for weekend sailors with little ...

This history of father-daughter incest in the United States explains how cultural mores and political needs distorted attitudes toward and medical knowledge of patriarchal sexual abuse at a time when the nation was committed to the familial power of white fathers and the idealized white family.

There is no group of birds more mysterious and fascinating than owls. The loudmouths of the raptor world, they peep, trill, toot, bark, growl, shriek, whistle, chittle, whoop, chuckle, boom, and buzz. Indeed, very few actually "hoot." They have become the stuff of lore and legend -- from the Roma...

Vincent J. Pitts chronicles the life and times of one of France's most remarkable kings in the first English-language biography of Henri IV to be published in twenty-five years. An unwelcome heir to the throne, Henri ruled over a kingdom plagued by religious civil war and political and economic i...

"The World Must Know by Michael Berenbaum is a skillfully organized and clearly told account of the German Holocaust that consumed, with unparalleled malevolence, six million Jews and millions of innocent others -- Protestants, Catholics, Poles, Russians, Gypsies, the handicapped, and so many oth...

Milton S. Eisenhower was one of the most honored and influential statesmen this country has produced. His career spanned government and higher education, and he was a shaping force in both.

This biography by Stephen E. Ambrose and Richard H. Immerman traces the 34th President's younger bro...

The Modern Period examines how and why Americans adopted radically new methods of managing and thinking about menstruation during the twentieth century.

In the early twentieth century women typically used homemade cloth "diapers" to absorb menstrual blood, avoided chills during their perio...

Why does a harpsichord sound different from a piano? For that matter, why does middle C on a piano differ from middle C on a tuning fork, a trombone, or a flute? Good Vibrations explains in clear, friendly language the out-of-sight physics responsible not only for these differences but also for t...

Baltimore Trails is a comprehensive and detailed guide to trails on public lands in and around Baltimore. Discover Hemlock Gorge, a small slice of Appalachia transported into northern Baltimore County, with its timeless peace and ancient gnarled hemlocks; or Black Marsh, where birds skulk among t...

Focusing the environmental debate on the principle of common commitment, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and eminent conservationist Terry L. Maple present A Contract with the Earth. They declare a need for bipartisan environmentalism -- a new era of environmental stewardship with princ...

You've called in sick today. Your back and legs hurt. Your abdomen is bloated and more than a little uncomfortable. You are having your period, and the bleeding is so heavy you can't even think about leaving the house. You have uterine fibroids.

One in every four women see their lives affec...

Mary Elizabeth Garrett was one of the most influential philanthropists and women activists of the Gilded Age. With Mary's legacy all but forgotten, Kathleen Waters Sander recounts in impressive detail the life and times of this remarkable woman, through the turbulent years of the Civil War to the...

"'I never got a chance to be a girl,' Kate O'Hare Palmer lamented, thirty-four years after her tour as an army nurse in Vietnam. Although proud of having served, she felt that the war she never understood had robbed her of her innocence and forced her to grow up too quickly. As depicted in a phot...

What is the maximum number of pizza slices one can get by making four straight cuts through a circular pizza? How does a computer determine the best set of pixels to represent a straight line on a computer screen? How many people at a minimum does it take to guard an art gallery?

Discrete m...

This provocative study of Jerusalem's Temple Mount unravels popular scholarly paradigms about the origins of this contested sacred site and its significance in Jewish and Christian traditions. In God's Mountain, Yaron Z. Eliav reconstructs the early story of the Temple Mount, exploring the way th...

This is the first collection to appear in twenty years from one of America's best short story writers. His thirteen stories are marvelous -- funny, heartbreaking, and wise by turns, and on occasion all three at once.

Praise for Max Apple:

"Apple may not be as well known a humorist as...

Memory loss can be one of the most terrifying aspects of a diagnosis of dementia. Yet the fear and dread of losing our memory make the experience of the disease worse than it needs to be, according to cultural critic and playwright Anne Davis Basting. She says, Forget memory. Basting emphasizes t...

David C. Cassidy's celebrated biography is more than the life story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant physicist who served as scientific director for the Manhattan Project. It also tells the hidden story of the political and social forces that shaped the world in the 20th century, when the ...

Revised in 2006 for its twenty-fifth anniversary, this best-selling book is the "bible" for families caring for people with Alzheimer disease, offering comfort and support to millions worldwide. In addition to the practical and compassionate guidance that have made The 36-Hour Day invaluable to c...

Enslaved mariners, white seamstresses, Irish dockhands, free black domestic servants, and native-born street sweepers all navigated the low-end labor market in post-Revolutionary Baltimore. Seth Rockman considers this diverse workforce, exploring how race, sex, nativity, and legal status determin...

For women facing decisions about treatment for the symptoms of menopause, the second edition of this landmark work features a new chapter that addresses the latest findings about hormone replacement therapy. Dr. Michele Moore helps patients make informed treatment choices and offers a balanced ac...

This is the definitive, comprehensive guide to motorcycle design. Tapping a deep well of knowledge and a lifetime of experience, motorcycle racer and historian Mick Walker sheds light on the evolution of one of the world's ultimate status symbols and style icons -- a development owing as much to ...

Unprecedented in scope and depth, this tour de force collection of poetry by French-speaking women contains over 600 poems from 56 different pens, from the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman Marie de France through such noted poets of the past century as Lucienne Desnoues, Liliane Wouters, and Albertin...

Philip Boucher analyzes the images -- and the realities -- of European relations with the people known as Island Caribs during the first three centuries after Columbus. Based on literary sources, travelers' observations, and missionary accounts, as well as on French and English colonial archives ...

Ever wonder where the bubbles in your beer came from, which way they are going, and why? Have you considered the physical differences among ales, lambics, and lagers? Do you contemplate your pint?

Accomplished homebrewer and physicist Mark Denny has crafted a scientifically sound and witty...

The Orgasm Answer Guide answers common questions many people have about one of life's most fascinating experiences.

In an accessible question-and-answer format, four of the world's leading sexuality experts address every aspect of orgasms: how they happen, why they don't, and what can be do...

Since its publication in 1989, The Riddle of Amish Culture has become recognized as a classic work on one of America's most distinctive religious communities. But many changes have occurred within Amish society over the past decade, from westward migrations and a greater familiarity with technolo...

Every year, millions of people are exposed to a sexually transmitted disease. And many people who are sexually active often worry about being infected. In her comprehensive guide to STDs, Dr. Lisa Marr tells readers everything they need to know about avoiding, preventing, and treating these disea...

Have you ever wondered how stealth planes achieve "invisibility," how sunken ships are found, or how fishermen track schools of fish in vast expanses of ocean? Radar and sonar echolocation -- a simple matter of sending, receiving, and processing signals.

Weaving history with simple science,...

Separating man from genius, Einstein offers a startling new portrait of the iconic physicist. Wild-haired eccentric, revolutionary scientist, peace activist, Albert Einstein is well established in the popular imagination. He is celebrated for his contributions to our understanding of the cosmos, ...

In the prevailing account of English empiricism, Locke conceived of self-understanding as a matter of mere observation, bound closely to the laws of physical perception. English Romantic poets and German critical philosophers challenged Locke's conception, arguing that it failed to account adequa...

According to Dieter Dettke, Germany's refusal to participate in the Iraq war signaled a resumption of the country's willingness to assert itself in global affairs, even in the face of contradictory U.S. desires.

Germany Says "No" reviews the country's actions in major international crises ...

According to the stereotype, late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century inventors, quintessential loners and supposed geniuses, worked in splendid isolation and then unveiled their discoveries to a marveling world. Most successful inventors of this era, however, developed their ideas within the ...

Venomous creatures such as snakes and spiders are the stuff of human nightmares. Yet toxins are a regular part of the animal world, an essential tool for hunting and defense. A surprising variety of insects, reptiles, and amphibians use venom in their daily lives, either to subdue their prey or t...

"His lordship's Arabian," a phrase often heard in eighteenth-century England, described a new kind of horse imported into the British Isles from the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary States of North Africa. Noble Brutes traces how the introduction of these Eastern blood horses transformed early mode...

Renowned as the creator of the detective story and a master of horror, the author of "The Red Mask of Death," "The Black Cat," and "The Murders of the Rue Morgue," Edgar Allan Poe seems to have derived his success from suffering and to have suffered from his success. "The Raven" and "The Tell-Tal...

An ancient Native American sport, lacrosse was originally played to resolve conflicts, heal the sick, and develop strong, virile men. In Lacrosse Legends of the First Americans, Thomas Vennum draws on centuries of oral tradition to collect thirteen legends from five tribes -- the Cherokee, Ho-Chu...

Although the monuments of Washington, D.C., honor more than two centuries of history and heroes, five years of that history produced more of the city's public commemorative sculpture than all the others combined. The heroes of the Civil War command Washington's choicest vantage points and most vi...

In this fast-paced and lively account, Jim Lang asks -- and mostly answers -- the questions that confront every new faculty member as well as those who dream of becoming new faculty members: Will my students like me? Will my teaching schedule allow me time to do research and write? Do I really wa...

Every year, millions of people are exposed to a sexually transmitted disease. And many people who are sexually active often worry about being infected. In her comprehensive guide to STDs, Dr. Lisa Marr tells readers everything they need to know about avoiding, preventing, and treating these disea...

Valium. Paxil. Prozac. Prescribed by the millions each year, these medications have been hailed as wonder drugs and vilified as numbing and addictive crutches. Where did this "blockbuster drug" phenomenon come from? What factors led to the mass acceptance of tranquilizers and antidepressants? And...

The history of the Baltimore Orioles is filled with amazing achievements, inspiring efforts, hilarious antics, and some bitter disappointments. The Orioles Encyclopedia traces the history, triumphs, and follies of the team from 1954 to the present.

Think you know everything about the Oriol...

In the nineteenth century, the new field of medical bacteriology identified microorganisms and explained how they spread disease. This book interweaves the history of this discipline and the biography of one of its founders, Nobel Prize--winning German physician Robert Koch (1843--1910).

K...

If readers of the twentieth century feel overwhelmed by the proliferation of writing and information, they can find in Samuel Johnson a sympathetic companion. Johnson's career coincided with the rapid expansion of publishing in England -- not only in English, but in Latin and Greek; not only in b...

Once we thought the universe was filled with shining stars, dust, planets, and galaxies. We now know that more than 98 percent of all matter in the universe is dark. It emits absolutely nothing yet bends space and time; keeps stars speeding around galaxies; and determines the fate of the universe...

This magisterial biography recounts the life and career of one of the U.S. Navy's most influential officers, Gustavus Vasa Fox. Ari Hoogenboom's examination of Fox's incredible life and distinguished career creates a vivid portrait of the man most responsible for the U.S. Navy's stellar performan...

Eighty percent of Americans experience back pain in varying degrees at some point in their lives. In fact, back pain is second only to the common cold as a reason why people visit a doctor.

In The Back Book, Johns Hopkins surgeons Ziya L. Gokaslan and Lee Hunter Riley explain the causes an...

Given the near incomprehensible enormity of the universe, it appears almost inevitable that humankind will one day find a planet that appears to be much like the Earth. This discovery will no doubt reignite the lure of interplanetary travel. Will we be up to the task? And, given our limited resou...

How do young and old social animals view each other? Are aged animals perceived by others as weaker? Or wiser? What is the relationship between age and power among social animals?

Taking a cue from Frans de Waal's seminal work examining the lives of chimpanzees, Anne Innis Dagg in this pion...

Medical school taught John Rich how to deal with physical trauma in a big city hospital but not with the disturbing fact that young black men were daily shot, stabbed, and beaten. This is Rich's account of his personal search to find sense in the juxtaposition of his life and theirs.

Young ...

This fascinating history shows how African-American military men and women seized their dignity through barracks culture and community politics during and after World War II.

Drawing on oral testimony, unpublished correspondence, archival records, memoirs, and diaries, Robert F. Jefferson e...

The trading, selling, and buying of personal transport has changed little over the past one hundred years. Whether horse trading in the early twentieth century or car buying today, haggling over prices has been the common practice of buyers and sellers alike. Horse Trading in the Age of Cars offe...

Presenting classical thermodynamics as a concise and discrete whole, Mere Thermodynamics is a perfect tool for teaching a notoriously difficult subject.

Accomplished teacher Don S. Lemons introduces the physical theory's concepts and methods and uses them to solve problems from a broad rang...

During the American Civil War, the Mennonites and Amish faced moral dilemmas that tested the very core of their faith. How could they oppose both slavery and the war to end it? How could they remain outside the conflict without entering the American mainstream to secure legal conscientious object...

Isaac Newton developed three laws of motion that govern the everyday world. These laws are usually presented in purely mathematical forms, but Jason Zimba breaks with tradition and treats them visually. This unique approach allows students to appreciate the conceptual underpinnings of each law be...

This comprehensive guide to ovarian cancer offers a wealth of information to ease the physical, emotional, and psychic suffering of women with the disease. The authors -- two Johns Hopkins gynecologic oncologists and a gynecologic-oncology clinical nurse -- put particular emphasis on the concept ...

From Assateague to Swallow Falls, from the Susquehanna River Trail to Rock Creek Park, Maryland offers residents and visitors a wealth of recreational opportunities in a remarkable variety of natural settings. Bryan MacKay's Hiking, Cycling, and Canoeing in Maryland has been the essential guide t...

Overcoming suspicion, ridicule, and outright opposition from the American Medical Association, the osteopathic medical profession today serves the health needs of more than thirty million Americans. The DOs chronicles the development of this controversial medical movement from the n...

Designed for people concerned about the air quality in their home, this step-by-step guide covers the nooks and crannies of indoor air pollution -- from what to look for to how to fix it. Jeffrey May and his wife, Connie May, draw from their professional expertise and previous books -- My House I...

Conceptual founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, William Barton Rogers was a highly influential scientific mind and educational reformer of the nineteenth century. A. J. Angulo recounts the largely unknown story of one man's ideas and how they gave way to the creation of one of Am...

Nearly one thousand colleges and universities in the United States face major challenges -- from catastrophic hurricanes to loss of accreditation to sagging enrollment. What can leaders of such at-risk institutions do to improve their situation? Turnaround gives college and university leaders the...

When eighteenth-century American men described "with a swelling of the heart" their friendships with other men, addressing them as "lovely boy" and "dearly beloved," celebrating the "ardent affection" that knit their hearts in "indissoluble bonds of fraternal love," their families, neighbors, and...

It's a world we barely see, but it is teeming with life. In the dust of a typical house, carpet beetles, mites, silverfish, and other creatures live and die, producing new generations every few months. Mold, bacteria, and yeast lurk undetected in heating and cooling systems. Debris dispersed into...

In this fresh look at moviemaking during the Great Depression, David Welky examines Hollywood's response to the rise of fascism and the beginning of the Second World War. Through innovative analysis of hundreds of movies -- including The Dawn Patrol, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and Sergeant York -- Welky...

Robots fascinate us, and they have become increasingly important in post--World War II industry and space exploration. Where did the idea for such devices come from? What varied uses do they serve in our world, and where do they seem to be headed? Lisa Nocks traces the history of the robot, from ...

As the first and only book in any language on contemporary women's movements in Hungary, this groundbreaking study focuses on the role of women's activism in a society where women are not yet adequately represented by established parties and political institutions. Drawing on eyewitness accounts ...

Rome's oldest known Latin inscription dates from the sixth century BC; the most recent major specimen was mounted in 2006 -- a span of more than two and a half millennia. Remarkably, many of these inscriptions are still to be found in situ, on the walls, gates, temples, obelisks, bridges, fountai...

The United States registered phenomenal economic growth between the establishment of the new republic and the end of the Civil War. Ross Thomson's fresh study accounts for the unprecedented technological innovations that helped propel antebellum growth.

Thomson argues that the transition of...

This guide offers parents fresh perspectives and simple skills to encourage good behavior in children and reduce stress for the entire family. Emphasizing personal choice, free will, and dispassionate parent-child interactions, Dr. William H. Hughes's step-by-step approach has been developed, tes...

It won't happen to me.

I'm too busy to worry about a living will.

My family will know what to do.

No one wants to plan for death or incapacitating illness. But, as the emotional legal battle in the Terri Schiavo case made all too clear, people of all ages need to document and co...

"Three generations of imbeciles are enough." Few lines from Supreme Court opinions are as memorable as this declaration by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in the landmark 1927 case Buck v. Bell. The ruling allowed states to forcibly sterilize residents in order to prevent "feebleminded and soci...

Life in the Chesapeake Bay is the most important book ever published on America's largest estuary. Since publication of the first edition in 1984, tens of thousands of naturalists, boaters, fishermen, and conservationists have relied on the book's descriptions of the Bay's plants, animals, and di...

This fascinating and comprehensive book is the first to explore the complex biological process leading to orgasm. Here, sexuality researcher and nurse Beverly Whipple, coauthor of the international best-selling book The G Spot and Other Discoveries about Human Sexuality, joins neuroscientist Barr...

Love and Limits In and Out of Child Care is a roadmap for parenting happy, healthy children. Coauthored by day care provider Margaret (Peggy) Thomas, her husband, Richard, and Lisa Dobberteen, a pediatrician who entrusted her own children to Peggy's care, this is an enjoyable and educational guid...

This history of Protestant pastoral counseling in America examines the role of pastoral counselors in the construction and articulation of a liberal moral sensibility. Analyzing the relationship between religion and science in the twentieth century, Susan E. Myers-Shirk locates this sensibility i...

Anyone can catch a sexually transmitted disease. STDs are widespread in all walks of life, regardless of gender, race, social status, or education. Seduced into complacency by the notion that "it can't happen to me," many sexually active teens and young adults are stunned when they are diagnosed ...

The airplane has redefined the way in which people travel, conduct commerce, spend their leisure time, and wage war. From the Wright brothers' wood-and-fabric Flyer to the modern jet aircraft, the airplane has evolved in countless ways as its many uses have unfolded. The development of safe and e...

Racial and gender inequities persist among college students, despite ongoing efforts to combat them. Students of color face alienation, stereotyping, low expectations, and lingering racism even as they actively engage in the academic and social worlds of college life. The Unchosen Me examines the...

Almost a decade ago, Peter S. Silin wrote Nursing Homes: The Family's Journey to provide family members with practical advice and emotional support. This successor volume incorporates the new and sometimes baffling world of assisted living. Nursing Homes and Assisted Living focuses on the psychol...

Assisted living is the fastest-growing alternative to skilled nursing care for frail older persons in the United States. The expectations, settings, and missions of these residences are varied, making it difficult for prospective residents and their families to anticipate what it would be like to...

Drivers in the nation's capital face a host of hazards: high-speed traffic circles, presidential motorcades, jaywalking tourists, and bewildering signs that send unsuspecting motorists from the Lincoln Memorial into suburban Virginia in less than two minutes. And parking? Don't bet on it unless y...

Beginning with World War II, missiles transformed the art of war. For the first time, cities of warring nations were vulnerable to sudden, unannounced, long-distance attacks. At the same time, rockets made possible one of the great triumphs of the modern age -- the exploration of space. Beginning...

This updated and revised edition of David Joyner's entertaining "hands-on" tour of group theory and abstract algebra brings life, levity, and practicality to the topics through mathematical toys.

Joyner uses permutation puzzles such as the Rubik's Cube and its variants, the 15 puzzle, the R...

The latest book from Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf explains why global imbalances cause financial crises -- including the one ravaging the United States right now -- and outlines the steps for ending this destructive cycle.

Reviewing global financial crises since 1980, Wolf lays bar...

James D. Rice's fresh study of the Potomac River basin begins with a mystery. Why, when the whole of the region offered fertile soil and excellent fishing and hunting, was nearly three-quarters of the land uninhabited on the eve of colonization? Rice wonders how the existence of this no man's lan...

While American leaders wage war on extremists in the Middle East, they are dangerously detached from a potentially greater threat closer to home. In Breeding Bin Ladens, Zachary Shore asserts that the growing ambivalence of Europe's Muslims poses risks to national identities, international securi...

In this provocative work, Mary Burgan surveys the deterioration of faculty influence in higher education. From campus planning, curriculum, and instructional technology to governance, pedagogy, and academic freedom, she urges far greater consideration for the perspective of the faculty.

Bu...

This engaging history of the house that has served as home to U.S. presidents for more than two centuries revises and enlarges William Seale's 1986 classic account of the White House's architectural, social, and cultural history. Besides updating the original volumes, the new edition includes cha...

Most "art and science" books focus on the science of perspective or the psychology of perception. Hidden Harmony does not. Instead, the book addresses the surprising common ground between physics and art from a novel and personal perspective. Viewing the two disciplines as creative processes, J. ...