Kansas in August

Kansas in August
Author: Patrick Gale
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2016-08-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1504038606

A riotous dark comedy set in the backstreets of London about an unconventional love triangle, a lonely teacher, and a lost baby. Hilary Metcalfe is an English teacher who loathes his work so thoroughly that he requires a half bottle of scotch in order to grade a stack of homework. His only joys are private ones: American musicals, from South Pacific to The King and I, and his absolutely gorgeous lover, Rufus, whom he has utterly failed to domesticate. Once, he had dreams of being an actor, a star of London’s West End. Now he would settle for the knowledge that Rufus is his and his alone. He’ll get neither—but he may get something much better instead. When Rufus stands him up on his birthday, Hilary discovers something astonishing in the subway station: a frightened, abandoned baby boy. Drunk and lonely, Hilary brings the baby home to his seedy Shepherd’s Bush flat, and soon finds he cannot live without the child. As Rufus falls into a romantic encounter with, of all people, Hilary’s sister, the three are caught in a bizarre love triangle—with a baby in the middle. A spiritual sequel to Patrick Gale’s second London novel, Ease, this is a charming portrait of the British capital at its most cosmopolitan. For anyone who has ever wished for a life different from his own, Kansas in August is a captivating tale.


Bleeding Kansas

Bleeding Kansas
Author: Michael Woods
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2016-10-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317339134

Between 1854 and 1861, the struggle between pro-and anti-slavery factions over Kansas Territory captivated Americans nationwide and contributed directly to the Civil War. Combining political, social, and military history, Bleeding Kansas contextualizes and analyzes prewar and wartime clashes in Kansas and Missouri and traces how these conflicts have been remembered ever since. Michael E. Woods’s compelling narrative of the Kansas-Missouri border struggle embraces the diverse perspectives of white northerners and southerners, women, Native Americans, and African Americans. This wide-ranging and engaging text is ideal for undergraduate courses on the Civil War era, westward expansion, Kansas and/or Missouri history, nineteenth-century US history, and other related subjects. Supported by primary source documents and a robust companion website, this text allows readers to engage with and draw their own conclusions about this contentious era in American History.


Next Year Country

Next Year Country
Author: H. Craig Miner
Publisher:
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN:

A richly textured history of the resilience and adaptability of western Kansans to survive two major depressions and the epic Dust Bowl years--separated only by a brief "golden age" of war-related prosperity. Miner, known as the "dean of Kansas history," vividly relates the people's negotiation with the high plains environment, which happens to teach harsh lessons of mutability and perseverance better than most places.


Murder & Mayhem in Southeast Kansas

Murder & Mayhem in Southeast Kansas
Author: Larry E. Wood
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 108
Release: 2019-03-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1439666490

From railroad towns like Ladore to cow towns like Newton and Wichita, southeast Kansas pulsed with rowdy activity during the late nineteenth century. The unruly atmosphere drew outlaws, including the Dalton Gang, and even crazed serial killers the likes of the Bender clan. Violent incidents, from gunfights to lynchings, punctuated the region's Wild West era, and the allure of the frontier also attracted the everyday people whose passions sometimes spawned bloodshed as well. Award-winning author Larry E. Wood explores thirteen of these remarkable episodes in the criminal history of southeast Kansas.


What's the Matter with Kansas?

What's the Matter with Kansas?
Author: Thomas Frank
Publisher: Picador
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2007-04-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1429900326

One of "our most insightful social observers"* cracks the great political mystery of our time: how conservatism, once a marker of class privilege, became the creed of millions of ordinary Americans With his acclaimed wit and acuity, Thomas Frank turns his eye on what he calls the "thirty-year backlash"—the populist revolt against a supposedly liberal establishment. The high point of that backlash is the Republican Party's success in building the most unnatural of alliances: between blue-collar Midwesterners and Wall Street business interests, workers and bosses, populists and right-wingers. In asking "what 's the matter with Kansas?"—how a place famous for its radicalism became one of the most conservative states in the union—Frank, a native Kansan and onetime Republican, seeks to answer some broader American riddles: Why do so many of us vote against our economic interests? Where's the outrage at corporate manipulators? And whatever happened to middle-American progressivism? The questions are urgent as well as provocative. Frank answers them by examining pop conservatism—the bestsellers, the radio talk shows, the vicious political combat—and showing how our long culture wars have left us with an electorate far more concerned with their leaders' "values" and down-home qualities than with their stands on hard questions of policy. A brilliant analysis—and funny to boot—What's the Matter with Kansas? presents a critical assessment of who we are, while telling a remarkable story of how a group of frat boys, lawyers, and CEOs came to convince a nation that they spoke on behalf of the People. *Los Angeles Times


Celebrating Kansas Breweries: People, Places & Stories

Celebrating Kansas Breweries: People, Places & Stories
Author: Michael J. Travis
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2022-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1467151920

A Tour of the Kansas Beer Industry Breweries in the state of Kansas are opening at a fast pace, in communities from Council Grove to Olathe. As the industry grows, the opportunities for craft beer fans to enjoy the communities and beer abound. Check out Ryan Triggs and Nick Feightner at Tall Trellis Brew Co. where you can enjoy a pint while sitting next to hop bines. Visit Fields & Ivy Brewery, the only brewery in the state with an active grain silo. Author Michael Travis traveled for a year and visited every brewery, capturing the heartbeat and story behind the owners and head brewers who make the magic happen.


Kansas and Kansans in World War I

Kansas and Kansans in World War I
Author: Blake A. Watson
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Total Pages: 428
Release: 2024-10-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 0700637419

When president Woodrow Wilson spoke in Topeka on February 2, 1916, in favor of a stronger military, he faced skepticism and outright opposition from many Kansas residents—including Governor Arthur Capper and University of Kansas chancellor Frank Strong. But when war against Germany was declared two months later, Kansans joined forces to lend support in money and manpower. In Kansas and Kansans in World War I, Blake Watson helps readers understand how World War I affected Kansas and its residents, and how Kansans in turn had an impact on the outcome of the Great War. Through thorough and extensive use of letters, newspapers, and other documents, Watson brings individual soldiers’ service to life, using their own words to describe their attitudes and experiences. Watson also looks at Kansans’ service and support on the home front, chronicling Kansans’ participation in initiatives such as Liberty Loan bonds, newspapers’ publication of military service honor rolls and soldiers’ letters from abroad, and the xenophobia and hysteria that confronted Mennonites—who were pacifists—and German Americans. Finally, Watson describes postwar efforts to honor Kansas veterans and fallen soldiers with commemorations and memorials, including Haskell University’s Memorial Arch, the University of Kansas’s Memorial Stadium and Memorial Union, and Kansas State University’s Memorial Stadium.