In the midst of acne, social anxiety and training bras are the teen idols that make adolescent life a little more bearable. Whether their cutouts are plastered on bedroom walls or hidden behind locker
The New York Yankees—first known as the Highlanders—are perhaps baseball’s most storied team. They first played at Hilltop Park, then moved to the Polo Grounds, then Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium and b
This collection of new essays explores the many ways in which composers have been depicted in film and what audiences have taken away from such depictions. Beginning with some of the earliest silent f
Gregory Cagle was a 10 year-old car fanatic when his family moved from New Jersey to Germany in 1956. For the next five years he photographed unusual, rare and sometimes bizarre automobiles throughout
Hava (Eva) Bromberg and Ephraim Sokal were Jewish teenagers in Poland when the Nazis invaded their homeland in 1939. Hiding in plain sight, Bromberg evaded the Germans by living among the non–Jewish P
Over the past 60 seasons, the Los Angeles Dodgers have risen to the pinnacle of Major League Baseball, winning 21 National League pennants and 6 World Series titles. Amid the backdrop of Hollywood gli
The first superhero team from the Silver Age of comics, DC’s Justice League has seen many iterations since its first appearance in 1960. As the original comic book continued and spin-off titles prolif
"The right to participate in sports and competitive athletics is more than an issue of fair play--it's a matter of human rights. In 1972, Title IX of the Education Amendments became law, transforming
Critics have traditionally characterized classic horror by its use of shadow and suggestion. Yet the graphic nature of early 1930s films only came to light in the home video/DVD era. Along with gangst
From their heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, B movies declined in popularity through the 1970s. As the big Hollywood studios began to make genre films with sky-high budgets, independent producers of low-
"John Harrison Surratt, Jr., was a courier for the Confederate Secret Service and the only one of John Wilkes Booth's co-conspirators in the Lincoln assassination plot to escape hanging by the U.S. go
"The 1966 Green Bay Packers were one of the greatest teams in professional football history. Led by legendary head coach Vince Lombardi and 10 future Hall of Famers were the decisive winners of Super
"Playing trumpet in the 9th Infantry Division Band should have been a safe assignment but the Viet Cong swarmed the Mekong Delta and safety was nonexistent. This memoir of a conscripted musician in Vi
Taking readers behind Bob Dylan’s familiar image as the enigmatic rebel of the 1960s, this book reveals a different view—that of a careful craftsman and student of the art of songwriting. Drawing on r
From 1945 to 1973, more than 100,000 members of the U.S. military were advisors in Vietnam. Of these, 66,399 were combat advisors. Eleven were awarded the Medal of Honor, 378 were killed and 1393 were
This book tells the story of the retreat of Confederate General John Bell Hood's army from Nashville, Tennessee, and the period of 10 days of fighting in December 1864 during the Civil War after th
Alternate Worlds was first published in 1975 and became an instant classic, winning a Hugo award the next year. This edition brings the history of science fiction up to date with a chapter covering de
Vampire narratives are generally thought of as adult or young adult fare yet there is a long history of their appearance in books, film and other media meant for children. They emerge as expressions o
Walter McDermott graduated with honors from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1968, enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to the Mekong Delta in 1969—the height of the Vietnam War. A specialist w
This first biography of W. Glenn Killinger highlights his tenure as a nine-time varsity letterman at Penn State, where he emerged as one of the best football, basketball and baseball players in the U.
A childhood comic book fan turned comic book retailer, the author soon discovered the prevalence of scams in the world of comics collecting. This book is his tutorial on how to collect wisely and redu
An Iowa boy away at college, Verne Lyon was recruited by the CIA to spy on college professors and fellow students as part of Operation CHAOS, a massive domestic surveillance program carried out at the
James Lee Burke is best known for crime novels in which protagonists battle low-life thugs who commit violent crimes and corporate executives who exploit the powerless. He is best known for his Dave R
In the five months after Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese Navy won a string of victories in a campaign to consolidate control of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. In June 1942, Japan suffered a
Hugo Award winning writer James Gunn (1923–) has been called “the last Golden Age author” of science fiction. In a career spanning almost 70 years, he has written 28 books and dozens of short stories
[In 1941, the U.S. Army activated the 758th Tank Battalion, the first all-black tank battalion. This took years of protests and a lot of political clout because African Americans had to fight for the
[When most people are asked what the first animated movie is, they assume it’s Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. For three years (1923–1926), a young, female animation director, h
When Governor John White sailed for England from Roanoke Island in August 1587, he left behind more than 100 men, women and children. They were never seen again by Europeans. For more than four centur
Until recently, only a privileged few could read the rare, early writings that formed the basis of detective fiction in America and made it one of the most popular literary genres of the 19th century.
This work takes an in-depth look at the world of comic books through the eyes of a Native American reader and offers frank commentary on the medium's cultural representation of the Native American peo
"The Big Ten was the Western force in collegiate basketball. Minnesota, Wisconsin and Purdue were the first powers in the league, with a combined 23 titles by 1930. Over the next 30 years, the league
Groucho Marx's career as a solo performer began long before the Marx Brothers and lasted almost until the end of his life, with a series of controversial sold-out concerts in his eighties. In between
Bill Warren’s Keep Watching the Skies! was originally published in two volumes, in 1982 and 1986. It was then greatly expanded in what we called the 21st Century Edition, with new entries on several f
[Tony Scott was a thrill seeker who lived and loved life to the fullest... He was also one of the more cutting edge filmmakers of an entire generation. From the grey, industrial skies of Northern En
“It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us,” the apostles declared at the conclusion of their council described in Acts 15. This apostolic council was the first of many councils to come as Christian
Father James R. Cox was the voice of Pittsburgh’s poor and jobless during the worst years of the Great Depression. Long lines of needy people showed up daily at St. Patrick’s Church in the city’s hist
Few players in the history of baseball suffered as many professional setbacks as Roy Sievers (1926–2017). After an award winning rookie season in 1949, he endured a year and a half–long slump, a nearl
The names on the cast-bronze plaques hanging in the National Baseball Hall of Fame embody the history and drama of the sport—they are the royalty of baseball. Yet many inductees believed their entry i
Much of the scholarship on Thomas Jefferson characterizes him as a consummate immoralist. Yet he had a keen interest in morality and most of his reading—when he was not immersed in politics—was for mo
In 2013, the Nobel Prize for Literature was for the first time awarded to a short story writer, and to a Canadian, Alice Munro. The award focused international attention on a genre that had long been
