"As the most destructive war in history ravaged Europe, many of the world's most cherished cultural objects were in harm's way. The Greatest Treasure Hunt in History recounts the astonishing true story of eleven men and one woman who risked their lives amidst the bloodshed of World War II to preserve churches, libraries, monuments, and works of art that for centuries defined the heritage of Western civilization. As the war raged, these American and...

"At once incendiary and icy, mischievous, and provocative, celebratory and elegiac, a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, and American culture through the prism of the author's rarefied upbringing and education among a black elite concerned to distance itself from whites and the black generality, while tirelessly measuring itself against both. Born in 1947 in upper-crust black Chicago--her father was for years head of pediatrics at Provident, at...

"Award-winning author Eddie Chuculate recounts his experience growing up in rural Oklahoma, from boyhood to young manhood, in an evocative and vivid voice. "Granny was full-blooded Creek, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs insisted she was thirteen-sixteenths. She showed her card to me. I'd sit at the kitchen table and stare at her when she was eating, wondering how you could be thirteen-sixteenths of anything and if so, what part of her constituted...

"Acclaimed author Kent Nerburn creates an incisive character study of a Native American elder, against the unflinching backdrop of contemporary reservation life and the majestic spaces of the western Dakotas. Nerburn draws us deep into the world of this elder, identified only as Dan, as we journey to where the vast Dakota skies overtake us and the whisperings of the wind speak of ancestral voices. As this spellbinding story unfolds, Dan speaks eloquently...

Discover the exceptional artistry and rich traditions being kept alive by Japanese artisans in the twenty-first century.0In an era where global interest in handmade, small-batch products is heightening as a response to mass production, Handmade in Japan takes a look inside the workshops of the country?s artisans, revealing their endless pursuit of excellence, and what it means to dedicate one?s life to the stewardship of irreplaceable cultural heritage....