Books published by Ivan R Dee, Inc

The most celebrated baseball writer of our time has selected his favorite pieces from the last forty years in this definitive volume of his most memorable work. "As a chronicler of the game, he's in a class with Ring Lardner and Red Smith."-Newsweek.

In these brilliant essays, Ms. Himmelfarb explores the many facets, public and private, of the Victorian idea of morality. She invites us to reconsider the complex and colorful panorama of ideas and attitudes, beliefs and behavior, that goes under the name of Victorianism-and it reconsiders as well our own relation to that much abused and misunderstood culture. "An important book."-New York Times Book Review.

A brilliant and dramatic narrative of the wise and the shortsighted, the bold and the timid, the generous and the grasping men and women who have been the stuff of American reform, beginning in the years after the Civil War. "One of the best-written historical works in a long time."-New York Times.

By guiding readers through the difficulties of plot and language, this Handbook leave them free to enjoy the depth, beauty, and vitality of Shakespeare's works.

The causes, consequences, and follies of the sixties revolt.

Medea, whose magical powers helped Jason and the Argonauts take the Golden Fleece, remains one of the strongest female characters ever to appear on stage. In the play she kills her own children. Plays for Performance Series.

Why do so many different people with widely dissimilar ideas and customs get along as Americans? In American Beliefs , John McElroy identifies and explains those essential ideas that promote the unity of a vast nation and a diverse people-because they have been shared and acted upon by generations of Americans.

Here, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author traces the development of trial by jury - "the palladium of justice". He summarises the issue, and offers explanations of the full implications of one of the most basic social rights.

Rejecting the views of both left and right, Mr. Levy evaluates the doctrine of "original intent" by examining the sources of constitutional law and landmark cases. "Merciless and brilliant. In fascinating detail...Mr. Levy demonstrates that there can be no such animal [as original intent]."-Anthony Lewis, New York Times Book Review.

For thirteen years, during a time of Democratic cogressional dominance in Washington, Dan Rostenkowski was one of the most influential American legislators of the twentieth century.

Offers an innovative, well-grounded explanation of witchcraft's link to organic illness. While most historians have concentrated on the accused, this book focuses on the afflicted. It compares the symptoms recorded in colonial diaries to those of the encephalitis epidemic and argues that the victims suffered from the same disease.

The tragedy of Oedipus, who unknowingly slays his father and marries his mother, is one of the mythical cornerstones of Western civilization. Plays for Performance Series.

These six plays present varying accounts of the battle of the sexes in the early years of the 20th century. The subjects include the double standard, the advent of the ¿New Woman¿ and turn-of-the-century feminism, and the clash between a woman's career and conventional marriage. ¿Delightful...these plays...provide wonderful insights into the collective mentality of the period.¿¿Library Journal.

This entertaining and enlightening book depicts the rise of popular culture in America by brilliantly recapturing the essence and commercial trappings of one of its most vital forms of entertainment-the vaudeville show. "A fascinating and highly readable social history...Snyder brilliantly illuminates the way city culture was made and worked in the lives of people at the turn of the century."-Thomas Bender. With a new preface by the author.

Books about Jane Addams¿founder of Hull House, social reformer, suffragist, pacifist, and one of the most greatly admired women in American history¿come and go, but Allen Davis's account of her life, work, and ideas remains the standard biography. ¿Davis has written not only the best study of Jane Addams, but perhaps the best biography of any great American woman.¿¿William L. O'Neill. With a new Introduction by the author.

Bruce Barton's 1925 effort to reconfigure Jesus for the Roaring Twenties turned into one of the great best-sellers of the century. No Puritan or Prohibitionist, here was Christ as the world's first advertising man, a great business executive who "picked up twelve men from the bottom ranks of business and forged them into an organization that conquered the world." In his Introduction, Richard M. Fried explores the book's rich insights into the culture of the 1920s.

A powerful and moving story of the racial transformation of an American neighborhood, told in memoir and oral narrative. "It deserves to become a classic....This text needs to be understood and performed at least as regularly as Thornton Wilder's Our Town."-Sandy Primm, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

In this cultural history of the "right-to-die" in America, Mr. Filene navigates the maze of bioethical arguments surrounding the issue, analyzing complex questions with remarkable lucidity. "A unique and valuable contribution."-Daniel Callahan, The Hastings Center.

Featuring a collection of essays which appeared in "The New Criterion", this book examines the origins and prospects of liberalism, from its roots in thinkers such as Rousseau and Mill to its troubled legacy in twentieth-century pursuits, and its compromising effects in the moral and intellectual life of our culture.

This thoughtful, inspiring, often humorous, and intensely spiritual collection brings together for the first time the most searching writings from the world of monks and nuns.

The all-too-brief period of relative tranquility that extended from the end of the Cold War to the beginning of the War on Terror is the subject of William L. O'Neill's brilliant new study of recent American history. Mr. O'Neill's sharp eye for the telling incident and the apt quotation combine with an acute historical judgment to make A Bubble in Time a compellingly readable informal history.

With a journalist's eye for revealing detail, Robert Shogan traces the 1954 Army-McCarthy Senate hearings and analyzes television's impact on government. Despite McCarthy's fall, Mr. Shogan points out, the hearings left a major item of unfinished business-the issue of McCarthyism, the strategy based on fear, smear, and guilt by association.

The fifth winner of the annual New Criterion Poetry Prize is Geoffrey Brock''s Weighing Light. From the glinting scales in a painting by Vermeer to the white lines that disappear beneath a headlight''s beam, Mr. Brock''s poems measure out the often elusive weights and distances of the known world, confronting the unruly powers that threaten his burnished surfaces. His acute observations of landscape and of the smallest gestures that pass between people give rise to affecting human dramas both stark and deeply felt. Once read, his keen perceptionsΓÇöall the more striking for the expertly cadenced music of his language and his supple use of poetic formΓÇöwill be long remembered.

A narrative analysis of the most ambitious and controversial American reform effort since the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt. Andrew examines underlying ideas and principle objectives, shows how the Great Society touched the lives of almost all Americans, and tells why much of it failed but continues to generate political controversy even today. American Ways Series.

In this fourth edition of his celebrated critical study, Mr. Howe analyzes all of Faulkner's works, emphasizing the themes that run throughout the novels and stories. "Mr. Howe is a shrewd critic....He has a good many observations that should help readers in going through the novels."-Alfred Kazin.

What businessmen thought-or thought they thought-in the age of the "robber barons." "Brightly written and thoughtful...a stimulating integration of economic and social history."-Journal of American History.

In focusing on Garrison and his critics on strategy and tactics, Ms. Kraditor sees a struggle between "respectability" and radical action which continues to reverberate. "Brilliantly successful...a fruitful exploration into the history of a great movement."-Harold M. Hyman, Book World.

A book based on the experiences of the author, a psychotherapist and counselor to children who are suffering with or dying of cancer, and their worried families and friends. Drawing lessons from each experience in love, family, courage, and belonging, it helps parents and family learn how to make it through the tragedy of their sick or lost child.