Pines and Plains Libraries

A reflection of where we were and are going as a people. The author tries to answer the question, "Will our children have better lives than we do?"

Chronicles the happiness pursuits of the Eriksons from their 1970s coming-of-age to the near-present day, in a story told from revolving viewpoints. It begins in 1973 when the Erickson family of Grenada, Iowa, gathers for the wedding of their eldest daughter, Anita. Even as they celebrate, the fault lines in the family emerge. The bride wants nothing more than to raise a family in her hometown, while her brother Ryan watches restlessly from the sidelines,...

Grit, merit, providence, individualism, thrift-and above all, pride in our country: These qualities, among others, are the reason that hundreds of millions of people worldwide look to America for hope, inspiration, and opportunity.But its precisely these virtues that now are under attack by the radical Left of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and their followers. America as we know it is eroding before our eyes and becoming what Fox...

Zeroes in on ten of the biggest fallacies that millions of Americans believe about our country-- in spite of incontrovertible facts to the contrary.

"As a boy, Robert Kaplan listened to his truck-driver father tell evocative stories about traveling across America in his youth, travels in which he learned to understand the country literally from the ground up. In Earning the Rockies, Kaplan undertakes his own cross-country journey to recapture an appreciation of American geography often lost in the jet age. Along the way, he witnesses both prosperity and decline--increasingly cosmopolitan cities...

Presents 100 interviews with a cross section of American people, both famous and non-famous, who discuss their personal lives and ambitions.

Explains how the influences of dreamers, zealots, hucksters, and superstitious groups shaped America's tendency toward a rich fantasy life, citing the roles of individuals from P.T. Barnum to Donald Trump in perpetuating conspiracy theories, self-delusion, and magical thinking.

Notable conservative historian Larry Schweikart takes an in-depth look at seven transformative moments in our nation's history and provides an analysis of how each of them spurred a trend that either confirmed or departed from the vision our Founding Fathers had for America.

Traditional areas of civic agreement are vanishing. We can't agree on what makes America special. We can't even agree that America is special. We're coming to the point that we can't even agree what the word America itself means. "Disintegrationists" say we're stronger together, but their assault on America's history, philosophy, and culture will only tear us apart. Who are the disintegrationists? From Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United...

Presents a comprehensive history of conspiracy theories in American culture and politics, from the colonial era to the War on Terror.