This book is the first biography of nineteenth-century magazine editor and reformer Charlotte Smith. Based on years of research, and previously untapped sources, it shows both why she should be remembered and why she was forgotten. Her story is quintessentially American: this daughter of Irish immigrants, despite having only a grade-school education and supporting two children alone, became a force to be reckoned with, first in journalism and then in reform. Her first periodical, the Inland Monthly, was doubly rare: edited by a woman but not a women's magazine; and a profitable venture, bringing a large sum when sold.

How America's individual inventors persisted alongside corporate R&D labs as an important source of inventions. During the nineteenth century, heroic individual inventors such as Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell created entirely new industries while achieving widespread fame. However, by 1927, a New York Times editorial suggested that teams of corporate scientists at General Electric, AT&T, and DuPont had replaced the solitary "garret inventor" as the wellspring of invention. But these inventors never disappeared. In this book, Eric Hintz argues that lesser-known inventors such as Chester Carlson (Xerox photocopier), Samuel Ruben (Duracell batteries), and Earl Tupper (Tupperware) continued to develop important technologies throughout the twentieth century. Moreover, Hintz explains how independent inventors gradually fell from public view as corporate brands increasingly became associated with high-tech innovation. Focusing on the years from 1890 to 1950, Hintz documents how American independent inventors competed (and sometimes partnered) with their corporate rivals, adopted a variety of flexible commercialization strategies, established a series of short-lived professional groups, lobbied for fairer patent laws, and mobilized for two world wars. After 1950, the experiences of independent inventors generally mirrored the patterns of their predecessors, and they continued to be overshadowed during corporate R&D's postwar golden age. The independents enjoyed a resurgence, however, at the turn of the twenty-first century, as Apple's Steve Jobs and Shark Tank's Lori Greiner heralded a new generation of heroic inventor-entrepreneurs. By recovering the stories of a group once considered extinct, Hintz shows that independent inventors have long been—and remain—an important source of new technologies.

-Your alma mater asks you to say a few words at an upcoming fundraising dinner -You've won an employee award and will have to give a short acceptance speech at the ceremony -Your parents are celebrating their 50th anniversary, and you'd like to make a toast at their party Everyone's counting on you to sound polished, to be prepared, to speak with savvy-in short, to give a speech that's as memorable as the occasion itself. Don't dread these invitations to speak. Instead, learn to prepare clear, concise, and engaging speeches that will live up to your audience's expectations and match the mood of the occasion. Award-winning corporate speechwriter Joan Detz offers solid advice for tackling this nerve-racking task-with pointers, tips, and trade secrets that will help you make the most of every speaking opportunity. Clearly written and fun to read, this invaluable guide provides all the practical advice and encouragement you need to deliver a winning speech.

An extensive collection of aphorisms of fundamental American moral rules and principles on a variety of subjects. Over the course of centuries, humanity has set down an accumulation of acute and succinct wisdom. It has the potential to be valuable and reliable, if they should be consistent in putting into practice the precepts which the best minds of the species have bequeathed them. Homo sapiens are fast learners and equally speedy forgetters. Therefore, from time to time, they should be reminded of this beneficial wisdom. In Dictionary of American Maxims, author David Kin collects a wide array of bon mots (and some wisecracks) attributed to American minds ranging from President George Washington to newspaper gossip columnist Walter Winchell. Kin has organized a vast array of wise sayings alphabetically by subject from “Ability” to “Zoroaster.” This is rich fare, certain to inspire, educate, and entertain.

This New York Times bestseller by the author of Blue Highways is “a majestic survey of land and time and people in a single county of the Kansas plains” (Hungry Mind Review). William Least Heat-Moon travels by car and on foot into the core of our continent, focusing on the landscape and history of Chase County—a sparsely populated tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills of central Kansas—exploring its land, plants, animals, and people until this small place feels as large as the universe. Called a “modern-day Walden” by the Chicago Sun-Times, PrairyErth is a journey through a place, through time, and into the human mind from the acclaimed author of Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories from the Road. “A sense of the American grain that will give [PrairyErth] a permanent place in the literature of our country.” —Paul Theroux, The New York Times

Wild Women of Michigan commemorates the women of this state who boldly left their marks. Countless Michiganian women performed extraordinary acts that challenged and improved the world. Madame Marie-Therese Cadillac served as the medicine woman in the frontier that became Detroit. Annie Taylor survived rolling over Niagara Falls in a barrel. After suffragist Anna Howard Shaw fought to vote, the state saw an influx of women running for office. In the 1970s, East Lansing's Patricia Beeman aided in efforts to end apartheid in South Africa. Suellen Finatri showcased an extreme side of equestrian sports by riding more than four thousand miles from St. Ignace to Skagway, Alaska. And World War II army flight nurse Aleda Lutz evacuated more than 3,500 wounded soldiers and is still recognized as one of America's most decorated servicewomen. Author and historian Norma Lewis commemorates the women who boldly left their marks.

New aspects of the misogyny that impacts girls and women worldwide continue to emerge every day. However, recent movements (e.g., #MeToo, Time's Up, the Women's March) indicate a strong hunger for a meaningful resource for thoughtful activists. Impassioned but practical, this book discusses the social contexts of misogyny, such as toxic masculinity and rape culture. It traces the history of misogyny and considers its meaning today-what is new and what is old. The author also proposes strategies for effective feminist action. Written for advocates of gender equality who are already aware of misogyny, the book includes Action Steps as tools for activism on both the individual and political levels. Misogyny is a timely text that offers concrete guidance as we strive for the egalitarian society that, despite all setbacks, we are capable of achieving.