Critical Theory Today is the essential introduction to contemporary criticial theory. It provides clear, simple explanations and concrete examples of complex concepts, making a wide variety of commonly used critical theories accessible to novices without sacrificing any theoretical rigor or thoroughness. This new edition provides in-depth coverage of the most common approaches to literary analysis today: feminism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, reader-response theory, new criticism, structuralism and semiotics, deconstruction, new historicism, cultural criticism, lesbian/gay/queer theory, African American criticism, and postcolonial criticism. The chapters provide an extended explanation of each theory, using examples from everyday life, popular culture, and literary texts; a list of specific questions critics who use that theory ask about literary texts; an interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby through the lens of each theory; a list of questions for further practice to guide readers in applying each theory to different literary works; and a bibliography of primary and secondary works for further reading.

Safe, Supportive, and Successful Schools Step by Step is a "cookbook" for planning and funding three levels of school improvement: (1) schoolwide programs focusing on the social, ethical, and emotional development of ALL students; (2) early interventions for SOME students who have minor behavioral problems; and (3) intensive interventions for those FEW students who experience signficant emotional and behavioral disorders. The Step by Step kit includes a CD-ROM with vital components of the program: Early Warning, Timely Response guide (in Spanish and English); Action Guide (in Spanish and English); and Promising Practices for Safe and Effective Schools video.

Gibbon offers an explanation for why the Roman Empire fell, a task made difficult by a lack of comprehensive written sources, though he was not the only historian to tackle the subject. Most of his ideas are directly taken from what few relevant records were available: those of the Roman moralists of the 4th and 5th centuries.

The diary of Heinrich Witt (1799-1892) is the most extensive private diary written in Latin America known to us today. Written in English by a German migrant who lived in Lima, it is a unique source for the history of Peru, and for international trade and migration.

Based on the author's thesis (Ph.D., Anglia Ruskin University).