Nancy and her partner for the talent show are very different. They don't have any of the same talents. How will they ever come up with an act?

Kikko sets out after her father with a forgotten pie for Grandma. When she arrives at a strange house in the wintry woods, a peek in the window reveals that the footprints Kikko had been following did not belong to her father at all, but to a bear in a long coat and hat! Alice in Wonderland meets Little Red Riding Hood in this charmed tale.

Hailing themselves as heirs to the American Revolution, the Tea Party movement staged tax day protests in over 750 US cities in April 2009, quickly establishing a large and volatile social movement. Tea Partiers protested at town hall meetings about health care across the country in August, leading to a large national demonstration in Washington on September 12, 2009. The movement spurred the formation (or redefinition) of several national organizations and many more local groups, and emerged as a strong force within the Republican Party. Self-described Tea Party candidates won victories in the November 2010 elections. Even as activists demonstrated their strength and entered government, the future of the movement's influence, and even its ultimate goals, are very much in doubt. In 2012, Barack Obama, the movement’s prime target, decisively won re-election, Congressional Republicans were unable to govern, and the Republican Party publicly wrestled with how to manage the insurgency within. Although there is a long history of conservative movements in America, the library of social movement studies leans heavily to the left. The Tea Party movement, its sudden emergence and its uncertain fate, provides a challenge to mainstream American politics. It also challenges scholars of social movements to reconcile this new movement with existing knowledge about social movements in America. Understanding the Tea Party Movement addresses these challenges by explaining why and how the movement emerged when it did, how it relates to earlier eruptions of conservative populism, and by raising critical questions about the movement's ultimate fate.

A historian looks at the remarkable rise of the Tea Party movement and its effect on American politics. The Tea Party burst on the national political scene in 2009–2010, powered by right-wing grassroots passion and Astroturf big money. Its effect is undeniable, but the message, aims, and staying power of the loosely organized groups seem unclear. In this book, American political historian Ronald P. Formisano probes the rise of the Tea Party movement during a time of economic crisis and cultural change and examines its impact on American politics. A confederation of intersecting and overlapping organizations, with a strong connection to the Christian fundamentalist Right, the phenomenon could easily be called the Tea Parties. The American media’s fascination with the Tea Party?and the tendency of political leaders embracing the movement to say and do outlandish things?not only helped the movement, but also has diverted attention from its roots, agenda, and the influence it holds over the Republican Party and the American political agenda. Looking at the Tea Party’s claims to historical precedent and patriotic values, Formisano locates its anti-state and libertarian impulses deep in American political culture as well as in recent voter frustrations. He sorts through the goals the movement’s different factions espouse and shows that, ultimately, the contradictions of Tea Party libertarianism reflect those ingrained in the broad mass of the electorate. Throughout American history, movements have emerged to demand reforms or radical change, only to eventually fade away, even if parts of their programs often are later adopted. Whether the Tea Party endures remains to be seen, but Formisano’s brief history certainly offers clues.

Everyone knows about the Boston Tea Party, in which colonists stormed three British ships and dumped 92,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. But did you know about the Philadelphia Tea Party (December 1773)? How about the ones in York, Maine (September 1774) or Wilmington, North Carolina (March 1775)? This is the first book to chronicle all these uniquely American protests. Author and historian Joseph Cummins begins with the history of the East India Company (the biggest global corporation in the eighteenth century) and their staggering financial losses from the Boston Tea Party (more than a million dollars in today's money). In Philadelphia, Captain Samuel Ayres was nearly tarred and feathered by a mob of 8,000 angry patriots. In Annapolis, Maryland, a brigantine carrying 2,320 pounds of the "wretched weed" was burned to ashes. Together, these stories illuminate the power of Americans banding together as Americans--for the first time in the fledgling nation's history.--From publisher description.

The Tea Party has been the most high profile and controversial social movement in the US of recent times. But real analysis of the Tea Party remains slim - is it a genuine social movement or a topdown interest group created by the Republican Party and corporate funding? Crashing the Tea Party is based on first-hand observation of local Tea Party chapters, and undertakes a critical journalistic and scholarly examination from the national and local level. Paul Street and Anthony DiMaggio provide a carefully documented account which challenges conventional wisdoms. Crashing the Tea Party fills the gap in public understanding about this particular social movement, and how social movements in general relate today to the ideologies of left and right and the mass media.

Share in fifty years of magic... Celebrate your very own special moment with this incredible book containing all you need for your own party; based on the classic story of Sophie and her extraordinary teatime guest that was first published fifty years ago!