Roving vigilantes, fear-mongering politicians, hysterical pundits, and the looming shadow of a 700-mile-long fence: the U.S.-Mexico border is one of the most complex and dynamic areas on the planet today--but too often its complexities are viewed through the myopic lens of illegal immigration, ignoring a multitude of other critical issues that include health, the environment, drug trafficking, free trade, and post-9/11 security. This book provides...

Provides critical overviews of the most-studied plays of all time periods, nations, and cultures. Includes discussions of themes, characters, critical reception, dramatic devices and traditions as well as cultural and historical context.

"Songbooks, a critical guide to American popular music writing, unfolds chronologically, with entries on authors, artists, and topics beginning with William Billings's 1770 New-England Psalm-Singer. Outsiders proliferate in these pages: women and/or writers of color, authors displaced by sexuality, self-educated scholars, elites deviating from norms. Their work routinely took non-academic shapes: compilations of songs, memoirs and biographies, fiction...

Provides coverage of environmental issues. Each article is written in a nontechnical style and provides current status, analysis, and suggested solutions whenever possible.