Explore the centre of the Black Country in this fully illustrated A-Z guide to its history, people and places.

An A-Z of Modern America is a comprehensive cultural dictionary which defines contemporary America through its history and civilization. The book includes entries on: key people from presidents to Babe Ruth American life, customs, clothing and education legal, religious and governmental practices multiculturalism, minorities and civil rights An A-Z of Modern America offers accessible and lively definitions of over 3,000 separate items. The book is cross-referenced and thus provides associated links and cultural connections while the appendices contain essential extra information on American institutions, structures and traditions.

An engaging journey through the Staffordshire cathedral city of Lichfield highlighting its people, places and heritage.

John Shipley takes the reader on a grand tour of the curious and bizarre, the strange and the unusual from Shropshire's past. Here you will find out where an African Prince is interred; which pub is reputedly haunted by the ghost of John (Mad Jack) Mytton of Halston Hall; and which village lays claim to the oldest cottage in Europe. Along the way you will read about earthquakes and floods, giants and witches, highwaymen and bandits, scandalous residents and inventors. Richly illustrated, The A-Z of Curious Shropshire is great for dipping into, but can equally be enjoyed from cover to cover.

School improvement is an increasingly complex field with developments in policy, research, practice and language making it difficult to get a complete picture. Leading authors David Woods and Tim Brighouse pull together the approaches, characteristics and technical terms needed for busy school leaders, teachers, governors and parents to quickly get to grips with current approaches and best practice. Combining their extensive experience of school improvement in action, they provide an authoritative and up-to-date overview of the field and easy access to the wide range of information, ideas and practices on making schools the best they can be. A comprehensive A-Z introduces the characteristics, approaches and language of school improvement ranging from appreciative enquiry to zero tolerance. Quotations, case studies and 'butterflies' (little ideas with big impact) illustrate the entries and bring them to life through the experiences of real schools. They include discussion of key debates and controversies to stimulate discussion and guided reading by topic to help with further research.

The A-Z of South African Politics 2004 is an essential and entertaining guide for navigating the corridors of power in South Africa today. Written by Mail & Guardian reporters and other experts associated with the award-winning newspaper, the book will give readers an under-the-skin look at the country's political movers and shakers. Three previous editions of the A-Z of SA Politics have been best sellers. The M&G decided to compile a fourth edition after continual requests by readers and booksellers for another edition looking at who's in, who's out and who's important in South African political life - and what it means for the rest of us. This lively reference work covers national government, judges, priests and premiers -- and those people, out of government, whom it would be folly to ignore.

The arrival of telegraphy and railroads changed power relations throughout the world in the nineteenth century. In the Mesilla region of the American Southwest, it contributed to two distinct and rapid shifts in political and economic power from the 1850s to the 1920s. Torsten Kathke illustrates how the changes these technologies wrought everywhere could be seen at a much accelerated pace here. A local Hispano elite was replaced first by a Hispano-Anglo one, and finally a nationally oriented Anglo elite. As various groups tried to gain, hold, and defend power, the region became bound ever closer to the US economy and to the federal government.