Former President Harry Truman as a civil rights advocate because it was the right—not politically expedient—position for America after World War II. He initially supported civil rights because he was repulsed by the treatment... Read More

Since Horace Wilson, an American schoolteacher in the “land of the rising sun,” introduced baseball to his students in 1872, Japanese have been mad for the game. The author, a writer, actor, filmmaker, and director of the Nisei... Read More

“How do you know I am a ‘good American?’” Macdonald demands of a British editor who has thusly praised him. Hardly the reaction one would expect, but perfectly in character for this journalist, editor, and critic, who took every... Read More

These are violent times. Even before the terrorists and war, some teens were so drenched in the culture of mayhem they thought it made sense to open fire on their classmates. The author, who was a psychiatric clinical specialist at New... Read More

In an early journal, John Muir listed his address as “Earth-planet, Universe.” His interests, beyond the American wilderness he defended so staunchly, included the Amazon, the planned destination of his youthful 1,000-mile walk... Read More

Abundant with beaches, sails, and spray, these poems celebrate both the seductiveness and the destructive power of the sea, letting the fact of its unpredictability become a metaphor for human behavior. “The future has its limit, but... Read More

From 1927 to the mid-1960s American popular songs poured from Broadway and Hollywood. Written by the likes of Porter, Hart, and Berlin, these songs were played on the pianos of thousands of households, and the words and tunes were... Read More

Tens of thousands of Vietnamese women were involved in the dregs of the Vietnam War—burying the dead, defusing bombs, monitoring the Ho Chi Minh Trail—both in the North and the South. They suffered as much as the men, but were left... Read More