How is the American spirit holding up in these difficult times? Peter Funt, syndicated columnist and host of TV's "Candid Camera," looks beyond the headlines to find out. In six-dozen essays, Funt uses a light but penetrating touch to take the nation's temperature. "I've always been fascinated by small slices of life," he writes. "During my time in broadcast and print journalism, as well as in entertainment television, I've looked for the smaller items that, when taken together, create a bigger picture of who we are and where we're headed." Funt's columns appear regularly in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and many of his op-eds formed the basis for these essays. Funt's canvas is very much like the real world we deal with every day. Sure, Americans are concerned about taxes, education and crime. But we also care about mobile apps that talk back to us, Paul McCartney's hairdo, and raccoons that destroy our lawns. "On 'Candid Camera, ' Funt explains, "we celebrated the American spirit, and in the last five years of traveling, interviewing and researching, I'm happy to report that the spirit remains strong. That said, my opinion pieces often focus on the negative. That's inherent in news and commentary; we don't dismiss all the good, but we search out those things that need to be fixed." In "Cautiously Optimistic," Peter Funt finds the good, the bad and the occasionally hilarious. These essays are designed to make you think, but also to smile.

The definitive work on papercuts, a long-overlooked aspect of Jewish folk art.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Mallard Fillmore lampoons everything from political correctness to Phil, Oprah, and Geraldo to our government's insatiable appetite for spending our money. His marvelous supporting cast includes wickedly wonderful cariacatures of everyone who's anyone, from Hollywood to D.C. to Arkansas.

A vibrant chronicle of the life and work of a prolific painter and bohemian eccentric.

Matthew Baigell examines the work of Edward Hopper, Ben Shahn, Frank Stella, and other artists, relating their art works to the social contexts in which they were created. Identifying important and recurring themes in this body of art, such as the persistence of Emersonian values, the search for national and regional identity, and aspects of alienation, he also explores the personal and religious identities of artists as revealed in their works. Collectively, Baigell's work demonstrates the importance of America as the defining element in American art.

With chess game annotations by Nathan Divinsky.