When Aldous Huxley's Brave New World first appeared in 1932, it presented in terms of purest fantasy a society bent on self-destruction. Few of its outraged critics anticipated the onset of another world war with its Holocaust and atomic ruin. In 1948, seeing that the probable shape of his anti-utopia had been altered inevitably by the facts of history, Huxley wrote Ape and Essence. In this savage novel, using the form of a film scenario, he transports...

Lady Jennifer Arden, who is unable to walk due a childhood illness, and Ben Ellis, the born-out-of-wedlock son of the Earl of Stratton, have long avoided one another for fear of offending the other regarding their circumstances. Though loved and accepted, they have both always felt like outsiders. When, at a gathering of family and friends, Ben and Jenny finally have a chance to become better acquainted, they realize that neither is in need of pity...

This reference work eschews a narrow focus on past presidents intellectuals, military heroes, and other exhaustively studied and well-remembered persons, and instead examines the history of ordinary Americans.

Set in the early twentieth century, this riveting tale follows Marie Little and Earl Layman, who left different parts of Appalachia to better themselves in Knoxville, Tennessee. It explores events central to the city, such as the tumultuous riot in 1919. Earl witnessed the event and steadfastly believed in the innocence of the Black man whose arrest sparked the violence. Marie was influenced by the Progressive Movement's insistence on temperance and...