Mark Twain's life (1835–1910) spanned an era that witnessed the transformation of America and the world by the Industrial Revolution. With the expansion of transportation, manufacturing, and communications technology, the focus of American life in the North began to shift from its farms and small towns to its cities. For Twain, such technological, industrial, and urban developments were the means by which America might become a more prosperous and just society and also realize the nineteenth-century ideal of universal progress. But his conflicted love affair with his native South and its rural culture and traditions, his close observation of the natural world, and 

Whether physically battling or fighting for representation through the legislative process, African Americans, against great resistance, have striven for progress and achieved success in American politics.  From the shocking violence of the Boston Massacre t the groundbreaking acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention of 2008, the twenty-nine images in this book of postcards present profound and pivotal moments and movements in African American history.

A collaboration between The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the League of Professional Theatre Women, Curtain Call explores the work and the role of distinguished women designing for theater, dance, and opera. Filled with more than 200 images, it features wonderful drawings, photographs, and other artifacts from the  collections of the Performing Arts Library from the late 19th century to the 1950s, as well as the innovative creations of designers from 1960 to the present -- costumes, sketches, set models, lighting designs, and more. Enhanced by interviews with contemporary designers, Curtain Call provides a view behind the curtain that expands 

In Afghanistan, award-winning Australian photographer Stephen Dupont has covered everything from civil war and the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s to the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom and the ongoing war on terrorism. This book features selections from his portfolio Afghanistan, 1993-2008, as well as photographs from the series Axe Me Biggie, whose title is a phonetic rendering of the Dari for “Mister, take my picture!”  Dupont made these portraits during the course of one day (March 13, 2006) with a Polaroid camera in a makeshift studio in the streets of Kabul. Together, these photographs tell a story of poverty, warfare, and broken promises,