From North Dakota, where "emptiness / takes up a lot / of space," to Alabama, where a mother offers "nothing / Less than plenty," David Starkey's poems mark him as nothing less than a "fool / For life." His book gives us a fireworks display of creativity as varied and strange as the states it conjures. We scoot along here in a word-RV bound for just about everywhere, from North Carolina, which possesses, so Starkey claims, an atomic peanut (while Texas doesn't, but provides blowing sage) to D. C., memorable for kids in the backseat who won't shut up, to Connecticut centered on "publish or perish" at Yale. The wonders here depend on constant shifts of focus: sometimes the poems inhabit personae-Thoreau, Sojourner Truth, Elvis (not in Tennessee but in Wisconsin)-sometimes they speak for the poet as memoir; always they surprise and thrill with their oddity of attack, their tart-voiced fearlessness, their range of subject as vast as the great country they so fully evoke. -Barry Spacks, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate The book is illustrated by Rafael Perea de la Cabada

In the wake of George W. Bush's reelection, a provocative study looks at the goals, values, and attitudes of politically progressive writers living in so-called conservative "red" states, featuring contributions by Jonis Agee, Stephen Corey, Robin Hemley, Lee Martin, David Morrell, and David Romtvedt, who offer an insightful look at American politics and issues. Original.

'A soaring account of the months that transformed a messy feudal squabble into Magna Carta...his crisp storytelling, based around short chapters and rolling rhetoric, is extremely entertaining.' Dan Jones, Mail on Sunday 'I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Good history is descriptive, narrative and analytical. This is good history.' Gerard DeGroot, The Times At Runnymede, on the banks of the River Thames, on 15 June 1215, the seal of King John was attached to the Magna Carta, and peace descended upon the land. Or that's what successive generations have believed. But is it true? And have we been persuaded (or persuaded ourselves) that the events of 15 June 1215 not only ended a civil war between the king and the barons but - as if by magic - established a British constitution beloved and copied throughout the world? Often viewed as a victory for the people over the monarchy and a cornerstone of democracy, the true significance of Magna Carta is misunderstood and misrepresented. In Magna Carta: The True Story Behind the Charter, David Starkey paints a vivid portrait of the years 1215-1225, ten revolutionary years of huge significance that produced not one but four charters. Peopled by colourful historical figures - John, the boy-king Henry, Pope Innocent III, Archbishop Stephen Langton, William Marshal - Starkey tells a story of treachery and idealism, politics and peace-making that is surprising and enthralling. Informative, entertaining and controversial, Magna Carta: The True Story Behind the Charter challenges centuries of myth-making to demonstrate how important it is we understand the true significance of that day beside the Thames, over eight hundred years ago.

This selection of poems in blank verse contains observations of the very good, the good, the bad, and the ugly within the corporate world. The first segment, Corporate Disruptive Poetry, compiles observations of the Corporate Continuum. The second segment, Personnel Disruptive Poetry, is an omnium-gatherum of reflections on some elements of the professional world that impacted, or were impacted by, Roger's personal and professional journey. The third segment, Personal Disruptive Poetry, reflects elements of his own discernment process of evolution through personal change.

Re-examines the European invasion of North America in the 17th- and 18th-centuries. Challenging the historical tradition thta has denigrated Indians as "savages" and celebrated the triumph of European "civilization", the author of this text presents milit

In this text, David Starkey examines the personalities and politics of Henry VIII in Great Britain during the years 1509-1547.

David Starkey's Music and Monarchyoffers us a new history of Britain through music, showing how the Royal Court shaped the musical landscape in ways that speak directly to our national identity. Many of our current musical symbols of nationhood - from the 'Last Night of the Proms' to football terraces erupting in song - have their origins in the way the Crown deliberately shaped the national soundtrack. This is a story of song and power, exploring how Henry VIII subverted the Reformation he started by protecting a sacred choral tradition he loved; how Henry Purcell's music was designed to help make Charles II more palatable to his subjects; how opera in Georgian London is a story of political infighting between the King and his son; and how the coronation of Elizabeth II, and the music of Vaughan Williams, represented the last dramatic moment of Church and State coming together in all its grandeur. David Starkey's Music and Monarchywill change the way you hear our country's most iconic musical masterpieces.