The Houses of Irvington- Architecture of An American Village by Steven M. Reiss presents a unique perspective on the residential design of this small coastal Virginia community. Reiss has built on the villages' selection in 2000 into the National Register of Historic Places by examining its wide range of unique and well-preserved architectural house styles. Reiss sees Irvington as a living example of the chronology of American residential design. He believes that the history of any community can be better understood through the architectural lens of its homes constructed over time. The book offers a visual history of the evolution of American house design using photographs of over 40 Irvington homes and nine distinct home styles. The book examines each of these house styles in detail beginning with Irvington's oldest house, the 1740 Colonial designed Wilders Grant and takes the reader through the next several centuries of American houses up to and including a number of contemporary houses in Irvington. Using historic and current photographs and pen and ink sketches of each house style by the author the book frames the houses of Irvington from the mid-1700s through the Steamboat Era to the picturesque Irvington of today.” A special section of the book is titled Yesterday and Today, which looks at a number of photographs of Irvington buildings and compares them with photographs from when they were first built.?The Houses of Irvington reinforces how a community's character is deeply rooted in its past and that while structures can not always be saved, they should be remembered as their stories are told and retold through time.

Scorched Earth is the first book to chronicle the effects of chemical warfare on the Vietnamese people and their environment, where, even today, more than 3 million people—including 500,000 children—are sick and dying from birth defects, cancer, and other illnesses that can be directly traced to Agent Orange/dioxin exposure. Weaving first-person accounts with original research, Vietnam War scholar Fred A. Wilcox examines long-term consequences for future generations, laying bare the ongoing monumental tragedy in Vietnam, and calls for the United States government to finally admit its role in chemical warfare in Vietnam. Wilcox also warns readers that unless we stop poisoning our air, food, and water supplies, the cancer epidemic in the United States and other countries will only worsen, and he urgently demands the chemical manufacturers of Agent Orange to compensate the victims of their greed and to stop using the Earth’s rivers, lakes, and oceans as toxic waste dumps. Vietnam has chosen August 10—the day that the US began spraying Agent Orange on Vietnam—as Agent Orange Day, to commemorate all its citizens who were affected by the deadly chemical. Scorched Earth will be released upon the third anniversary of this day, in honor of all those whose families have suffered, and continue to suffer, from this tragedy.

This comprehensive and insightful illustrated survey of 500 of America's most distinguished buildings provides a unique overview of the thousand-year architectural development of the United States. It examines our nation's architecture from its earliest days to the present, ranging from cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde to Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House in Chicago to James Ingo Freed's Holocaust Museum in Washington. Indispensable in any library, it also serves as a general introduction to American architecture or as a splendid guide for tourists.