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Countries and Cultures: United States Travel
This guide will help you find resources about countries and their cultures
Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck; Jay Parini (Introduction by)An intimate journey across America, as told by one of its most beloved writers A Penguin Classic In September 1960, John Steinbeck embarked on a journey across America. He felt that he might have lost touch with the country, with its speech, the smell of its grass and trees, its color and quality of light, the pulse of its people. To reassure himself, he set out on a voyage of rediscovery of the American identity, accompanied by a distinguished French poodle named Charley; and riding in a three-quarter-ton pickup truck named Rocinante. His course took him through almost forty states: northward from Long Island to Maine; through the Midwest to Chicago; onward by way of Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana (with which he fell in love), and Idaho to Seattle, south to San Francisco and his birthplace, Salinas; eastward through the Mojave, New Mexico, Arizona, to the vast hospitality of Texas, to New Orleans and a shocking drama of desegregation; finally, on the last leg, through Alabama, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to New York. Travels with Charley in Search of America is an intimate look at one of America's most beloved writers in the later years of his life--a self-portrait of a man who never wrote an explicit autobiography. Written during a time of upheaval and racial tension in the South--which Steinbeck witnessed firsthand--Travels with Charley is a stunning evocation of America on the eve of a tumultuous decade. This Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction by Jay Parini. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Call Number: E169.Z8 S83 1997
USA by Gina TeagueCulture Smart! provides essential information on attitudes, beliefs and behavior in different countries, ensuring that you arrive at your destination aware of basic manners, common courtesies, and sensitive issues. These concise guides tell you what to expect, how to behave, and how to establish a rapport with your hosts. This inside knowledge will enable you to steer clear of embarrassing gaffes and mistakes, feel confident in unfamiliar situations, and develop trust, friendships, and successful business relationships. Culture Smart! offers illuminating insights into the culture and society of a particular country. It will help you to turn your visit-whether on business or for pleasure-into a memorable and enriching experience. Contents include * customs, values, and traditions * historical, religious, and political background * life at home * leisure, social, and cultural life * eating and drinking * do's, don'ts, and taboos * business practices * communication, spoken and unspoken "Culture Smart has come to the rescue of hapless travellers." Sunday Times Travel "... the perfect introduction to the weird, wonderful and downright odd quirks and customs of various countries." Global Travel "...full of fascinating-as well as common-sense-tips to help you avoid embarrassing faux pas." Observer "...as useful as they are entertaining." Easyjet Magazine "...offer glimpses into the psyche of a faraway world." New York Times
Call Number: E161 .T43 2004
A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia Savage McAlester; Suzanne Patton Matty (Illustrator); Steve Clicque (Photographer)"For the house lover and the curious tourist, for the house buyer and the weekend stroller, for neighborhood preservation groups and for all who want to know more about their community -- here, at last, is a book that makes it both easy and pleasurable to identify the various styles and periods of American domestic architecture. Concentrating not on rare landmarks but on typical dwellings in ordinary neighborhoods all across the United States -- houses built over the past three hundred years and lived in by Americans of every social and economic background -- the book provides you with the facts (and frame of reference) that will enable you to look in a fresh way at the houses you constantly see around you. It tells you -- and shows you in more than 1,200 illustrations -- what you need to know in order to be able to recognize the several distinct architectural styles and to understand their historical significance. What does that cornice mean? Or that porch? That door? When was this house built? What does its style say about the people who built it? You'll find the answers to such questions here. This is how the book works- Each of thirty-nine chapters focuses on a particular sty
Call Number: NA7205 .M35 2013
Living in the USA by Alison R. Lanier; Jef C. DavisAs William Gay, distinguished adviser to the last edition, so aptly notes, the United States is "a country that is never what you think it is." Since that edition was introduced nearly ten years ago, the country has been struggling with troubling, divisive events and issues, especially the September 11, 2001, attacks and the resulting War on Terror. Despite these extraordinary times, the United States still holds promise and opportunity for those who take the time to understand it. Jef Davis, a seasoned interculturalist and long-time adviser to international travelers, had succeeded as few could in creating an important new version of Living in the U.S.A. that will guide you through the confusing, conflicted, exciting country and its diverse population at an extraordinary time in history. New material and significantly revised chapters help you understand: American Cultures, such as sections on African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native peoples, retirees, gays and lesbians and the disables, underscoring the incredible diversity of culture and values that comprise the American population; Twenty-First Century Issues, for example the continued rise in religious fundamentalism in the U.S. and abroad and the tension between security and personal liberties; Getting Here and Getting Settled, including security at the airport and elsewhere and new and trying immigration regulations. Short-term visitors to the U.S. will find advice for surviving customs and immigration, finding as apartment, doing business, obtaining health care, and navigating the supermarket, bank, and post office. If you plan to stay longer, you will find practical pointers for getting along at work, school, and at home; buying a house; making and keeping American friends; and understanding dominant American values in a diverse and complex society. Living in the U.S.A. is a comprehensive guide to attitudes, customs, manners and daily life in the United States.
The Top 100 Most Beautiful Rustic Vacations of North America by Dusty DaveWith over 600 gorgeous color photographs, this book highlights what makes the outdoors so wonderful. Activities highlighted include horseback riding, fishing, hiking, white-water rafting, canoeing, wildlife viewing, and much more.
Call Number: E158 .D37 2003
Volunteer Vacations Across America by Sheryl KayneThe second book in the Immersion Travel USA series offers a one-of-a-kind examination of volunteer immersion opportunities throughout the US. Volunteer immersion means grounding oneself completely in the place, the tasks, and the people you meet along the way, while keeping your own goals in mind. Kayne profiles over 200 volunteer programs throughout the U.S., highlighting the personal stories of volunteers, and offering essential logistical information on the programs. Volunteer Vacations includes trips appropriate for families, children, teens, and senior citizens, and profiles opportunities over a wide range of categories, including community outreach, wildlife conservancy, environmental advocacy, national parks, education groups, and scientific research.
Call Number: G156.5.V64 K39 2009
ISBN: 9780881508642
Historic Hiking Trails by Steve RajtarApproximately 900 hiking trails in the United States take hikers along routes or past sites of historical importance and offer commemorative embroidered patches or other souvenirs of the outing. These trails allow hikers to gain a new appreciation for history and actually experience it, instead of only reading about it--and have something to show for their hike. The first comprehensive guide to those trails, this work covers routes in all fifty states and the District of Columbia as well as interstate trails. The book categorizes each as historic, meaning that it played some significant role in history; historical, meaning that it takes the hiker by or into buildings or sites that have some relationship to a significant person or event, but do not themselves figure in history; nature or scenic, because of the wildlife or scenery available along the way that can be viewed along with the historical site; or recreational, meaning that the trail was established for the long-distance hiker and history buff. Each entry also tells who the trail's sponsor is, if alternate means of transportation are allowed, location, length, route, type of terrain, what type of awards are given and any associated costs, registration requirements, and sites along the trail.
Journey Through America by Wolfgang Koeppen; Michael KimmageAmerikafahrt by Wolfgang Koeppen is a masterpiece of observation, analysis, and writing, based on his 1958 trip to the United States. A major twentieth-century German writer, Koeppen presents a vivid and fascinating portrait of the US in the late 1950s: its major cities, its literary culture, its troubled race relations, its multi-culturalism and its vast loneliness, a motif drawn, in part, from Kafka's Amerika. A modernist travelogue, the text employs symbol, myth, and image, as if Koeppen sought to answer de Tocqueville's questions in the manner of Joyce and Kafka. Journey through America is also a meditation on America, intended for a German audience and mindful of the destiny of postwar Europe under many Americanizing influences.
Passage to America by Gloria Deák; Gloria DeákAmerica was a source of fascination to Europeans arriving there during the course of the nineteenth century. At first glance, the New World was very similar to the societies they left behind in their native countries, but in many aspects of politics, culture and society, the American experience was vastly different - almost unrecognisably so - from Old World Europe. Europeans were astounded that America could survive without a monarch, a standing army and the hierarchical society which still dominated Europe. Some travellers, such as the actress Fanny Kemble, were truly convinced America would eventually revert to a monarchy; others, such as Frances Wright and even Oscar Wilde, took their opinions further, and attempted to fix aspects of America - described in 1827 by the young Scottish captain Basil Hall, as 'one of England's "occasional failures"'. Many prominent visitors to the United States recorded their responses to this emerging society in their diaries, letters and journals; and many of them, like the fulminating Frances Trollope, were brutally and offensively honest in their accounts of the New World.They provide an insight into an America which is barely recognizable today whilst their writings set down a diverse and lively assortment of personal travel accounts. This book compares the impressions of a group of discerning and prominent Europeans from the cultural sphere - from the writers Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and Oscar Wilde to luminaries of music and theatre such as Tchaikovsky and Fanny Kemble. Their reactions to the New World are as revealing of the European and American worlds as they are colourful and varied, providing a unique insight into the experiences of nineteenth century travelers to America.
Call Number: eBook PN56.T7 D4298 2013
The American Revolution by Frances H. Kennedy (Editor)In 1996, Congress commissioned the National Park Service to compile a list of sites and landmarks connected with the American Revolution that it deemed vital to preserve for future generations. Some of these sites are well known--Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, Fort Ticonderoga--and in no danger of being lost; others less so-- Blackstock's Plantation in South Carolina or Bryan's Station in Kentucky--and more vulnerable. But all are central to the story of our nation's fight for independence. From battlefields to encampments, meeting houses to museums, these places offer us a chance to rediscover the remarkable men and women who founded this nation and to recognize the relevance of not just what they did, but where they did it.The American Revolution: A Historical Guidebook takes readers to nearly 150 of these sites, providing an overview of the Revolution through an exploration of the places where American independence was articulated, fought for, and eventually secured. Beginning with the Boston Common, first occupied by British troops in 1768, and closing with Fraunces Tavern in New York, where George Washington bid farewell to his officers on December 4, 1783, Kennedy takes readers on a tour of the most significant places of Revolutionary history. Accompanied by illuminating excerpts and essays from some of the foremost scholars in the field, including David McCullough, Barbara Tuchman, David Hackett Fischer, Eric Foner, and John Ferling, the entries move in a roughly chronological order from the pre-Revolutionary years up through 1787. Taken together, the combination of site, essay, and excerpt provides rich context and overview, giving a sense of the major figures and events as well as the course of the Revolution, and cover topics ranging from the Boston Tea Party to the frontier wars.The guide is encyclopedic in scope and covers a wide geographical sweep. Accompanied by historical maps, as well as a number of illuminating primary documents including the Declaration of Independence and letters from John Adams and George Washington, it offers a comprehensive picture of how the Revolutionary War unfolded on American soil, and also points readers to the best writing on the subject in the last fifty years. The American Revolution: A Historical Guidebook is an essential companion for anyone interested in the story and history of our nation's founding.
Call Number: eBook E230 .A43 2014
American Ways by Gary Althen; Amanda R. Doran; Susan J. SzmaniaTraveling to America soon? If the thought of extended exposure among Americans seems daunting, let American Ways: A Guide for Foreigners in the United States help you prepare. In this revised edition, Gary Althen has added material to provide the clearest insights yet into the American psyche and culture, including the rewritten chapter Ways of Reasoning, which provides one of the best-organized and clearest presentations of American thought processes to date, and a new chapter on race and ethnic relations that compares how foreign visitors and Americans alike perceive American subcultures. Within most chapters Althen has included a new section, Suggestions for Foreign Visitors, adding another practical dimension to the book. American Ways covers all the basic needs of the foreign student or businessperson, covering the trends and customs of day-to-day activities like driving, shopping and verbal and nonverbal communication as well as the more esoteric customs regarding cultural values, politics, education, religion and male-female relationships. As a comprehensive introduction to American culture, American Ways will prepare you for living, studying and working in America. It's that little tiny stuff that can affect how people get along.... T]here are lots and lots of different cues] on an underlying, unspoken level.-Gary Althen Althen gives advice to foreign visitors to the U.S. that is intended to help them understand the motivations, attitudes, communication styles, and actions of Americans. Emphasizing the interpretation of observed behavior, he covers ways of reasoning and American ideas about politics, family life, education, religion, the media, social relationships, racial and ethnic diversity, male-female relationships, sports and recreation, driving, shopping, personal hygiene, and organizational and public behavior. Over-generalization is an understandable danger in such a work as this, but Althen does make an effort to emphasize that there are variations among Americans, while he concentrates on the similarities.-Book News ContentsPreface to the Second EditionAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter I: General Ideas About American Culture1 American Values and Assumptions 2 The Communicative Style of Americans3 Ways of Reasoning4 Differences in CustomsChapter II: Specific Aspects of American Life5 Politics6 Family Life7 Education8 Religion9 The Media10 Social Relationships11 Racial and Ethnic Diversity12 Male-Female Relationships13 Sports and Recreation14 Driving15 Shopping16 Personal Hygiene17 Getting Things Done18 Behavior in Public Places19 Studying20 BusinessChapter III: Coping With Cultural Differences21 Some Helpful Ideas22 Activities for Learning About American CultureConclusionBibliographyAbout the Author
Call Number: eBook E158 .A46 2003
22 Accessible Road Trips by Candy B. HarringtonBronze Winner 2012 Foreword Reviews Book of The Year, Travel Guides Category22 Accessible Road Trips contains useful and detailed information about accessible travel, that's readable, informative and pertinent. The book is aimed at those who use wheelchairs, walkers or just have mobility issues. Organized geographically, the book is divided into 22 chapters, with each chapter detailing a loop driving route that can be completed in approximately 2-3 weeks. The routes are spaced throughout the US, with each route having a theme or a commonality. Each route begins in a gateway city with a major airport, so the trips can also be completed as fly-drive packages. And of course they can always be broken up into shorter trips, or even day excursions. Flexibility is the key with this book, with plenty of opportunity to personalize each route to meet individual tastes, time frames and budgets. Candy includes details about accessible lodging, sites, trails, attractions and restaurants. She also gives readers a real flavor of the drives, with off-the-beaten-path finds, unique roadside attractions and rural driving routes also included. After all, accessibility is in the eye of the beholder; and what may be accessible to one person can be filled with obstacles to someone else.
A Travel Guide to Basque America by Nancy ZubiriA Travel Guide to Basque America--the first-ever guide to America's Basque-American communities, their history, culture, and festivals--has been a best-seller since it first appeared in 1998. This new edition updates the original, listing dozens of new restaurants, Basque cultural clubs and events, and hundreds of Basque-related Web sites that have appeared since 1998, as well as adding new information about recent cultural events in the Basque Country, their impact on Basque-Americans, and new cultural and community efforts to preserve Basque culture in America. This is the essential guide for Basque-Americans seeking links to their ancient culture and its homeland, and to their counterparts in the U.S., as well as for any traveler interested in exploring one of this country's most vibrant and fascinating ethnic minorities.