DIV In this fascinating book Monica Rico explores the myth of the American West in the nineteenth century as a place for men to assert their masculinity by “roughing it” in the wilderness and reveals how this myth played out in a transatlantic context. Rico uncovers the networks of elite men—British and American—who circulated between the West and the metropoles of London and New York. Each chapter tells the story of an individual who, by traveling these transatlantic paths, sought to resolve anxieties about class, gender, and empire in an era of profound economic and social transformation. All of the men Rico discusses—from the well known, including Theodore Roosevelt and Buffalo Bill Cody, to the comparatively obscure, such as English cattle rancher Moreton Frewen—envisioned the American West as a global space into which redemptive narratives of heroic upper-class masculinity could be written. /div

In 1871 Jennie Collins became one of the first working-class American women to publish a volume of her own writings: Nature?s Aristocracy. Merging autobiography, social criticism, fictionalized vignettes, and feminist polemics, her book examines the perennial problem of class in America. Collins loosely structures her series of sketches around the argument that nineteenth-century U.S. society, by deviating dangerously from the ideals set forth in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, had created a corrupt aristocracy and a gulf between the rich and the poor that the United States? founders had endeavored to prevent. ø Collins?s text serves as a mouthpiece for the little-heard voices of nineteenth-century poor and laboring women, employing sarcasm, irony, and sentimentality in condemning the empty philanthropic gestures of aristocratic capitalists and calling for justice instead of charity as a means to elevate the poor from their destitution. She also explores the necessity of suffrage for female workers who, while expected to work alongside men as their equals in labor, were hampered by lower wages and lack of control by their exclusion from the voting process.

An English language dictionary, in two volumes, that provides definitions, spellings, and pronunciations to more than 225,000 terms.

Florida's amazing landscapes and fascinating wildlife were sources of inspiration for early naturalists seeking new horizons. Among them was John James Audubon. Elegant herons, acrobatic terns, endearing pelicans and colorful roseate spoonbills all feature among his beloved artwork. But Audubon was not the first nature artist inspired by Florida. Mark Catesby, an English country squire turned adventurer, helped introduce the wonders of Florida to a European audience in the 1700s. And William Bartram, a Pennsylvania Quaker, traveled south to explore the Florida wilderness, where he canoed across a lake full of alligators and lived to sketch the creatures. Author Chris Fasolino shares the stories of these artistic expeditions in a collection replete with gorgeous artwork that includes high-definition images of Audubon's rarely seen original paintings.