Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
12
result(s) for
"United States Social life and customs 20th century Anecdotes."
Sort by:
The Moth presents All these wonders : true stories about facing the unknown
\"From storytelling [radio hour] The Moth, a collection about risk, courage, and facing the unknown, drawn from the ... stories .. told on their stages, [featuring] voices both familiar and new. Storytellers include Louis C.K., Tig Notaro, John Turturro, and Meg Wolitzer, as well as a hip hop 'one hit wonder,' an astronomer gazing at the surface of Pluto for the first time, and a young female spy risking everything as part of Churchill's 'secret army' during World War II. They share their ventures into uncharted territory--and how their lives were changed forever by what they found there\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
The Pecan Orchard
This is a true story of the struggle, survival, and ultimate success of a large black family in south Alabama who, in the middle decades of the 20th century, lifted themselves out of poverty to achieve the American dream of property ownership. Descended from slaves and sharecroppers in the Black Belt region, this family of hard-working parents and their thirteen children is mentored by its matriarch, Moa, the author’s beloved great grandmother, who passes on to the family, along with other cultural wealth, her recipe for moonshine. Without rancor or blame, and even with occasional humor, The Pecan Orchard offers a window into the inequities between blacks and whites in a small southern town still emerging from Jim Crow attitudes. Told in clean, straightforward prose, the story radiates the suffocating midday heat of summertime cotton fields and the biting winter wind sifting through porous shanty walls. It conveys the implicit shame in “Colored Only” restrooms, drinking fountains, and eating areas; the beaming satisfaction of a job well done recognized by others; the “yessum” manners required of southern society; and the joyful moments, shared memories, and loving bonds that sustain—and even raise—a proud family.
eBook
A Boyhood Dream Realized
This collection of columns from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal is Texas Folklore Society Extra Book #27. The editorial columns included herein tell stories, and tell about telling stories. They also reflect boyhood dreams . . . and foolishness, fears, beliefs, customs, traditions, and sometimes things that are no longer part of our culture but we wish were. All reflect what was—and for many, still is—important. If “the traditional knowledge of a culture” is how we define what folklore is, this volume provides an intimate look at the folklore of Lubbock, Texas, and the greater area of the South Plains. You don’t have to be an avid reader of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, or even be from Lubbock or know where Moran is to relate to the issues covered in these pieces.
eBook
The Moth presents a point of beauty
\"From storytelling phenomenon and hit podcast The Moth, featuring contributions from Elizabeth Gilbert, Quiara Alegría Hudes, and Lin-Manuel Miranda alongside tales of an international rescue mission for Paddington Bear, a family matriarch running numbers in Detroit, an epic Lucha libre showdown in Mexico City, and more. An inspiring and entertaining collection of unforgettable true stories about finding unexpected beauty in life's transitions. Carefully selected by the creative minds at The Moth and adapted to the page to preserve the raw energy of stories told live, onstage and without notes, readers of The Moth Presents: A Point of Beauty will encounter moments that cut and moments that heal. If we look closely enough, we can find real beauty in moments when our lives change forever-for better or for worse\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Growing Up in a Land Called Egypt
In Growing Up in a Land Called Egypt: A Southern Illinois Family Biography , author Cleo Caraway fondly recalls how she and her siblings came of age on the family farm in the 1930s and 1940s. Like many others, the Caraways were affected by the economic hardships of the Great Depression, but Cleo’s parents strived to shelter her and her six siblings from the dire circumstances affecting the nation and their home and allowed them to bask in their idealistic existence. Her love for her family clearly shines from every page as she writes of a simpler time, before World War II divided the family. Caraway revels in the life her family lived on a southern Illinois hilltop in Murphysboro township, marveling at the mix of commonplace and adventure she experienced in her childhood. She remembers her first day of school, walking three miles to the wondrous one-room building with her siblings; reminisces about strolling through the countryside with her mother, investigating the various plants and flowers, fruits and nuts; and recollects her fascination with the Indian relics she found buried near her home, a hobby she shared with her father. She also writes of seeing Gone with the Wind on the big screen at the Hippodrome in Murphysboro, of learning to sew dresses for her dolls, and of idyllic life on the farm—milking cows, hatching chicks, feeding pigs. Along with her personal memories Caraway includes interviews with neighbors and many fascinating photographs with detailed captions that make the images come alive.             A delightful follow-up to her father’s popular Foothold on a Hillside: Memories of a Southern Illinoisan , Caraway’s book is a pleasant change from the typical accounts of southern Illinois before, during, and after the Great Depression. Instead of hardscrabble grit, Growing Up in a Land Called Egypt offers a refreshingly different view of the period and is certain to be embraced by southern Illinois natives as well as anyone interested in the experiences of a rural family that thrived despite the difficult times. The author’s lighthearted prose, self-deprecating humor, and genuine affection for her family make reading this book a rich and memorable experience.  
eBook
The enjoy agenda : at home and abroad
\"Rick Bailey writes with humor and wit about how his life experiences reflect the issues and conflicts of contemporary American life--environmental change, life in digital times, and the vicissitudes of arriving at ripe old age.\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
Little Big World
Jeffrey Hammond'sLittle Big World: Collecting Louis Marx and the American Fiftiesis the story of a middle-aged man's sudden compulsion to collect the toys of his childhood: specifically themed playsets produced by the Louis Marx Toy Company. Hammond never made a conscious decision to become a collector of any kind, so he was surprised when his occasional visits to web sites turned into hours spent gazing at, and then impulsively purchasing, the tiny plastic people and animals in the Civil War set, the Fort Apache set, Roy Rogers Ranch, and Happi-Time Farm-just a few of the dozens of playsets the Marx Company produced.
Hammond interweaves childhood memories with reflections on what they reveal about the culture and values of cold war America, offering an extended meditation on toys as powerful catalysts for the imagination of both children and adults. Never sentimentalizing his childhood in an effort to get his old toys back, Hammond exposes the dangers of nostalgia by casting an unsettling light on the culture of the fifties and the era's lasting impact on those who grew up in it.
Writing in a lovably quirky voice, Hammond not only attempts to understand his personal connection to the Marx toys but also examines the psychology of his fellow eBay denizens. In this warm, funny, and contemplative work, the reader encounters an online community of serious adult collectors who, as the author suspects, are driven to obsession by middle-aged nostalgia. When Hammond questions this preoccupation with the past, he comes to realize that his own collecting has prevented him from moving forward. With this insight, he offers an insider's take on the culture and psychology of collecting.
eBook
Naked in the Woods
In 1970, Margaret Grundstein abandoned her graduate degree at Yale and followed her husband, an Indonesian prince and community activist, to a commune in the backwoods of Oregon. Together with ten friends and an ever-changing mix of strangers, they began to build their vision of utopia.
Naked in the Woods chronicles Grundstein's shift from reluctant hippie to committed utopian—sacrificing phones, electricity, and running water to live on 160 acres of remote forest with nothing but a drafty cabin and each other. Grundstein, (whose husband left, seduced by \"freer love\") faced tough choices. Could she make it as a single woman in man's country? Did she still want to? How committed was she to her new life? Although she reveled in the shared transcendence of communal life deep in the natural world, disillusionment slowly eroded the dream. Brotherhood frayed when food became scarce. Rifts formed over land ownership. Dogma and reality clashed.
Many people, baby boomers and millennials alike, have romantic notions about the 1960s and 70s. Grundstein's vivid account offers an unflinching, authentic portrait of this iconic and often misreported time in American history. Accompanied by a collection of distinctive photographs she took at the time, Naked in the Woods draws readers into a period of convulsive social change and raises timeless questions: how far must we venture to find the meaning we seek, and is it ever far out enough to escape our ingrained human nature?
eBook