American Education

Why do Americans love a bell that no longer rings? It is the Liberty Bell, and it once rang to announce the birth of a new country, the United States. Find out why Americans still treasure the bell, along with its famous crack.

How do Americans know that government papers are real? If you see an eagle holding a shield, and a pyramid with an eye above it, the papers are no fakes. Listen to Benjamin Franklin as he talks about the birth of the Great Seal in 1782 and why it's still so important to our country today.

From the early 1800s, American presidents and their families have called the White House home. But as secret service agent Keneesha explains, the White House is more than just a place to live; it's also the president's office and one of the country's greatest symbols of leadership.

Explore the life and achievements of Wallace Amos, entrepreneur and founder of Famous Amos cookies.

In The Ocean in the School, Rick Bonus tells the stories of Pacific Islander students as they and their allies struggled to transform a university they believed did not value their presence.

In folktales, the trickster can be the wise one or the fool, the one who fools or the one who is fooled. That is why children of all ages enjoy hearing these tales. The psychology of childhood is pretty much the same everywhere, giving these enjoyable stories universal appeal.

Here’s a chance to sit down with Kirk Cousins, record-setting former Michigan State Quaterback and draft pick of the NFL’s Washington Redskins. Get an inside look at high-stakes football and the experiences that helped Cousins put his values and faith into action, on and off the field. In this audiobook, Kirk Cousins tells stories from his own life under the bright lights of college and pro football.

Discover the essence of American English with "American Idioms for Everyday Use". This guide unlocks the special phrases and slang that define American conversations, from New York's hustle to California's laid-back vibes.

Award-winning author John Ferling is a leading authority on the American Revolution. His entertaining and enlightening histories have greatly improved our understanding of early America and the Founding Fathers. Now Ferling opens a window to the past and explores the contentious presidential election of 1800.

One of the predominant reasons that owners abandon or give up their pets (often leading to euthanasia) is because of unwanted behaviors. Many have tried to instruct proper cat training, but this is the first book of its kind to provide an in-depth understanding of the underlying reasons for a cat’s problem behavior, the essential key to unlocking the best for your cat and avoiding pitfalls. Decoding Your Cat gives owners new insight on promoting their cat’s physical and psychological health and wellness and maintaining a long and fulfilling relationship together.

How does the U.S. House of Representatives work? Discover who can be a representative, what they do, where they work, and more.

Known for decades as one of the NFL’s most iconic and spectacular playmakers, Deion Sanders remains college football's most intriguing newsmaker. In just three years, he has become the most talked about coach by recruiting elite players to moribund programs and reviving the spirit and pride of forgotten fanbases by winning. Along the way, he’s changing how we think about college sports while rejuvenating whole communities with the national attention that follows him and the fresh commerce a winning culture ignites.

Class ends. Students pack up and head back to their dorms. The professor, meanwhile, goes to her car...to catch a little sleep, and then eat a cheeseburger in her lap before driving across the city to a different university to teach another, wholly different class. All for a paycheck that, once prep and grading are factored in, barely reaches minimum wage.

Eve L. Ewing knows Chicago Public Schools from the inside: as a student, then a teacher, and now a scholar who studies them. And that perspective has shown her that public schools are not buildings full of failures - they're an integral part of their neighborhoods, at the heart of their communities, storehouses of history and memory that bring people together. Never was that role more apparent than in 2013 when Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced an unprecedented wave of school closings.

In The Spirit of Our Work, Dr. Cynthia Dillard centers the spiritual lives of Black women educators and their students, arguing that spirituality has guided Black people throughout the diaspora. She demonstrates how Black women teachers and teacher educators can heal, resist, and (re)member their identities in ways that are empowering for them and their students. Dillard emphasizes that any discussion of Black teachers’ lives and work cannot be limited to truncated identities as enslaved persons in the Americas.

The go-to instruction book to learn the rules, sets, and art of the game. How to Play Mah Jongg: A Beginner's Guide to American Mah Jongg offers first-time players an easy-to-follow guide to this complex game. Using simple, easy-to-follow instructions, this comprehensive guide walks you through each step of the game, including how to play, how to build a hand, how to record scores, how to develop winning strategies, and win like a pro.

The science of education is elusive. Educators, academics, and scientists have struggled with issues like how to make learning approachable yet challenging, what to include in the curriculum and when, what the optimal class size is, and so on. In this collection, we explore the many ways that learning is also a scientific process and offer the latest theories of teaching and learning.

In an increasingly secular, fragmented, and distracted culture, nothing brings Americans together quite like sports. On Sundays in September, more families worship at the altar of the NFL than at any church. This appeal, which cuts across all demographic and ideological lines, makes sports perhaps the last unifying mass ritual of our era, with huge numbers of people all focused on the same thing at the same moment. That timeless, live quality makes sports very powerful, and very lucrative. And the media spectacle around them is only getting bigger, brighter, and noisier.

Splendiferous Speech explores the main sources of the American vernacular - the expanding western frontier, the bumptious world of politics, and the sensation-filled pages of popular 19th-century newspapers. It's a process that started with the earliest English colonists (first word adoption - the Algonquian raccoon) and is still going strong today. Author Rosemarie Ostler takes listeners along on the journey as Americans learn to declare linguistic independence and embrace their own brand of speech.

Pulitzer Prize-winner David Halberstam's best seller takes you inside the football genius of Bill Belichick for an insightful profile in leadership. Bill Belichick's thirty-one years in the NFL have been marked by amazing success - most recently with the New England Patriots. In this groundbreaking audiobook, David Halberstam explores the nuances of both the game and the man behind it. He uncovers what makes Bill Belichick tick both on and off the field.