Michael Kammen is a major American historian, whose books have received the Bancroft and Parkman prizes. This book collects his essays on American culture, of which he is one of the major historians.

Author Joe Verdegan has had a front-row seat to the stories, people, and politics that have captured the attention of northeast Wisconsin auto racing fans for decades. As the region's recognized racing historian, Verdegan provides an expert's perspective of the people and events that defined a turbulent era from roughly 1980-2017. Learn about the driver rivalries, family connections, and passionate dedication to the sport displayed by track owners and promoters in this follow-up to Verdegan's popular book, Life in the Past Lane - A History of Stock Car Racing in Northeast Wisconsin from 1950 - 1980.

From the New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah comes a powerful novel of love, loss, and the magic of friendship. . . . now a #1 Netflix series! In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the "coolest girl in the world" moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer's end they've become TullyandKate. Inseparable. So begins Kristin Hannah's magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives. From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness. Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn't know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she'll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she'll envy her famous best friend. . . . For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship---jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they've survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test. Firefly Lane is for anyone who ever drank Boone's Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. More than a coming-of-age novel, it's the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It's about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you---and knows what has the power to hurt you . . . and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you'll never forget . . . one you'll want to pass on to your best friend.

"If you are wondering how to begin confronting Anti-Black racism in your classroom, start with What Lane?"--School Library Journal: The Classroom Bookshelf "STAY IN YOUR LANE." Stephen doesn't want to hear that--he wants to have no lane. Anything his friends can do, Stephen should be able to do too, right? So when they dare each other to sneak into an abandoned building, he doesn't think it's his lane, but he goes. Here's the thing, though: Can he do everything his friends can? Lately, he's not so sure. As a mixed kid, he feels like he's living in two worlds with different rules--and he's been noticing that strangers treat him differently than his white friends . . . So what'll he do? Hold on tight as Stephen swerves in and out of lanes to find out which are his--and who should be with him. Torrey Maldonado, author of the highly acclaimed Tight, does a masterful job showing a young boy coming of age in a racially split world, trying to blaze a way to be his best self.

"More than three million high-school students take five million Advanced Placement exams each May, yet remarkably little is known about how this sixty-year-old, privately-run program, has become one of U.S. education's greatest successes. From its mid-century origin as a tiny option for privileged kids from posh schools, AP has also emerged as a booster rocket into college for hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged youngsters. It challenges smart kids, affects school ratings, affords rewarding classroom challenges to great teachers, tunes up entire schools, and draws vast support from philanthropists, education reformers and policymakers. AP stands as America's foremost source of college-level academics for high school pupils. Praised for its rigor and integrity, more than 22,000 schools now offer some-or many-of its thirty-eight subjects, from Latin to calculus, art to computer science. But challenges abound today, as AP faces stiffening competition (especially dual credit), curriculum wars, charges of elitism, misgivings by elite schools and universities, and the arduous work of infusing rigor into schools that lack it and academic success into young people unaccustomed to it. In today's polarized climate, can Advanced Placement maintain its lofty standards and overcome the hostility, politics and despair that have sunk so many other bold education ventures? Advanced Placement: The Unsung Success Story of American Education is a unique account-richly documented and thoroughly readable-of the AP program in all its strengths and travails, written by two of America's most respected education analysts"--

Nestled between Montreal, Boston, and New York City exists a magic land called "Vermont." It's a state of the union, a state of mind, a state of grace, and a state of confusion and contradiction. Because of its beauty, its scale, and its depth of culture, Vermont is truly a perfect state. The image of Vermont that leaps off the pages of Vermont Life is one of rolling hills, small villages, white churches with soaring steeples, town meetings, and blazing foliage. But there is another side of "A Perfect State," a complex composite of dirt roads turned to Mud Season quagmires, sharply divided citizens who cannot find common ground on critical issues such as school financing, gay marriage, environmental protection, and development. Joe Sherman portrays the last fifty years of Vermont history, a time when the state evolved from a bucolic bedrock of conservatism to a rural theme park on America's cutting edge. Whether the subject is sprawl, gourmet ice cream (Vermont is home to Ben & Jerry's), or rock and roll (Vermont is also home to the rock band Phish), Vermont finds itself at the center of the stage. Fast Lane on a Dirt Road is a raucous book about a rocky state from a perspective so fresh that controversy is unavoidable. Traditionalists will take issue with Sherman's portrayal of the state as a cauldron of social change, while newcomers might object to the homage paid to Vermont's past. Vermont was the last state to allow in a Wal-Mart, and the first to authorize domestic partnerships. It is the only state with a Socialist representative in Congress, a state where a Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate (dairy farmer Fred Tuttle) actually voted for his better-qualified opponent. Sherman is a journalist and a social historian more than an academic. He has not had the luxury of time to filter and clarify his observations. As he states in his own acknowledgments, "Writing contemporary history is risky business." Fast Lane on a Dirt Road is a great read for anyone interested in the rapid evolution of American culture. The quirky history of Vermont shows us both where we've been and where we're going. The rest of America can learn a lot from Vermont.