Current Series: About the Authors and the Books
Summers with Lincoln by James A. Percoco
About the Author
"James A. Percoco has been a teacher at West Springfield High School in Springfield, Virginia, for twenty-two years.
He is the author of A Passion for the Past: Creative Teaching of U.S. History (1998), which received the 2000 James Harvey
Robinson Prize from the American Historical Association; and Divided We Stand: Teaching About Conflict in U.S. History (2001).
In 1998 Percoco was named to the first USA Today All-USA Teacher Team and in 1993 he was named Outstanding Social Studies Teacher
at the Walt Disney Company American Teacher Awards. In the course of his career, Percoco has served as a con
sultant to the
National Park Service, the National Gallery of Art, the National Archives, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. He is a member
of the Board of Trustees of the National Council for History Education and the chair of the OAH Committee on Teaching." -
from http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/publichistory/percoco.html.
About the Book
Summers with Lincoln "examines many of the nearly 200 memorials erected in the memory of Abraham Lincoln as part of a quest to learn what these monuments meant when they were unveiled, mean to the nation today, and to him. This book is the first in 50 years to explore Lincoln sculpture within the construct of post Civil Rights America." - http://www.jamespercoco.com/summers.htm.
The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War by Lynn H. Nicholas
About the Author
"Lynn H. Nicholas, author of The Rape of Europa, was educated in the United States, England, and Spain, received her B.A.
from Oxford University and, upon her return to the U.S., worked for several years in the National Gallery of Art in Washington,
D.C. While living in Belgium in the early 1980’s, she initiated what would become 10 years of research for her first highly
acclaimed book. The Rape of Europa was a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. She was elected to the Légion d’Honneur
by the government of Franc
e, and in 2005 released her second book, Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web. Ms.
Nicholas and her husband live in Washington, D.C. " - from
http://www.rescuingdavinci.com/BehindTheScenes/bio_lynn.aspx.
About the Book
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.
The cast of characters includes Hitler and Goering, Gertrude Stein and Marc Chagall--not to mention works by artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Pablo Picasso. And the story told in this superbly researched and suspenseful book is that of the Third Reichs war on European culture and the Allies desperate effort to preserve it.From the Nazi purges of "Degenerate Art" and Goering's shopping sprees in occupied Paris to the perilous journey of the Mona Lisa from Paris and the painstaking reclamation of the priceless treasures of liberated Italy, The Rape of Europa is a sweeping narrative of greed, philistinism, and heroism that combines superlative scholarship with a compelling drama. - from http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/9780679756866.html
How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer
About the Author
"Franklin Foer is an American political journalist and the editor of The New Republic. Foer graduated from Columbia in 1996. Before joining The New Republic, Foer was a frequent contributor to the online magazine Slate. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Spin, U.S. News & World Report, Lingua Franca, The Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, New York and Foreign Policy. In 2004 he published his first book, How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization." - from http://fora.tv/speaker/3796/Franklin_Foer
About the Book
"The global power of soccer might be a little hard for Americans, living in a country that views the game with the same
skepticism used for the metric system and the threat of killer bees, to grasp fully. But in Europe, South America, and elsewhere,
soccer is not merely a pastime but often an expression of the social, economic, politica
l, and racial composition of the
communities that host both the teams and their throngs of enthusiastic fans. New Republic editor Franklin Foer, a lifelong devotee
of soccer dating from his own inept youth playing days to an adulthood of obsessive fandom, examines soccer's role in various
cultures as a means of examining the reach of globalization. Foer's approach is long on soccer reportage, providing extensive
history and fascinating interviews on the Rangers-Celtic rivalry and the inner workings of AC Milan, and light on direct
discussion of issues like world trade and the exportation of Western culture. But by creating such a compelling narrative of
soccer around the planet, Foer draws the reader into these sport-mad societies, and subtly provides the explanations he promises
in chapters with titles like "How Soccer Explains the New Oligarchs", "How Soccer Explains Islam's Hope", and "How Soccer Explains
the Sentimental Hooligan." Foer's own passion for the game gives his book an infectious energy but still pales in comparison to
the religious fervor of his subjects. His portraits of legendary hooligans in Serbia and Britain, in particular, make the most
die-hard roughneck New York Yankees fan look like a choirboy in comparison. Beyond the thugs, Foer also profiles Nigerian players
living in the Ukraine, Iranian women struggling against strict edicts to attend matches, and the parallel worlds of Brazilian
soccer and politics from which Pele emerged and returned. Foer posits that globalization has eliminated neither local cultural
identities nor violent hatred among fans of rival teams, and it has not washed out local businesses in a sea of corporate wealth
nor has it quelled rampant local corruption. Readers with an interest in international economics are sure to like How Soccer
Explains the World, but soccer fans will love it."--John Moe From
"http://www.amazon.com/How-Soccer-Explains-World-Globalization/dp/0066212340
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life By Barbara Kingsolver
About the Author
"Raised in Kentucky, Barbara Kingsolver was a journalist and science writer before the 1988 publication of her first novel, The
Bean Trees. The book drew critical praise, as have all her subsequent novels, including Animal Dreams (1990), Pigs in Heaven (1993),
The Poisonwood Bible (1998) and Prodigal Summer (2000). Kingsolver often writes about family and community in America, but she has
also written about the Congo, as well as essays, poems and stories. Her non-fiction books include Holding the Line: Women in the
Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 (1989) and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (2007)." - from
http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/barbarakingsolver.html
About the Book
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle chronicled Barbara Kingsolver's family's experiment of only eating what they could make or grow for one year. This included not only just vegetables they grew in their garden, but chickens that they raised from birth, and cheese they made from their milk from their own owns. Additionally, the family did not use any man-made techniques (ie canning) to keep the food from spoiling. Everything that was consumed was kept fresh without chemicals. While most of the book chronicles the family's diet, other chapters contrast what the now "traditional" methods of growing, packaging, preserving, and shipping similar meals take in terms of money, man power, and the carbon foot print left behind.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle met with some of the highest praises of any previously published Barbara Kingsolver book. Time Magazine declared it one of the Top Ten Nonfiction Books of the Year. - from http://www.mahalo.com/animal-vegetable-miracle.
