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  Bob Fosse & George Balanchine:...

  Editors Charles River

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  By the turn of the 20th century, American entertainment was still preoccupied with European-style operetta, as embodied in the works of cellist-composer Victor Herbert. Traditional dance forms moved from European stories to the American prairie in Oklahoma by the late 1940s, and what was once the property of Bavarian princes became the singing standards of cowboys riding through the corn fields in Oh What a Beautiful Morning and Out of My Dreams. 	At the time, the availability of classical ballet in America was scant. In contrast to the evolution of an American style in musical theater, Broadway, and film, ballet in the United States was ushered in largely through the efforts of an individual who brought with him a strong traditional sense from Russia and the rest of Europe but was intent on producing a distinctly American style. Other experimentalists appeared, such as Isadora Duncan, but it was George Balanchine who managed to institutionalize and fund both a hybrid traditional as well as experimental form.  
  In the 1960s, Bob Fosse emerged as one of the leading dancers, actors, choreographers, directors, screenwriters and film directors on Broadway and in Hollywood. He became famous for conquering several fields on the musical stage and film simultaneously in a way that no one has before or since. It is said that “only Busby Berkeley compares” to Fosse despite the fact that Berkeley was never a dancer, and that Fosse enjoyed eight Broadway hits to Berkeley’s one. Fosse forever changed the way the modern audience viewed dance on stage and film. Coupling his rise with the sexual freedom movement, he is known for an “intense, unbelievably driven, provocative, entertaining…sexual, physically demanding” choreographic style. Difficult for even the best dancers, the range of expression encompasses “joyous humor, as well as bleak cynicism.”

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  Mouse Tracks - The Story of Walt...

  Greg Ehrbar, Tim Hollis, Leonard...

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  Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records chronicles for the first time the fifty-year history of the Disney recording companies launched by Walt Disney and Roy Disney in the mid-1950s, when Disneyland Park, Davy Crockett, and the Mickey Mouse Club were taking the world by storm. The book provides a perspective on all-time Disney favorites and features anecdotes, reminiscences, and biographies of the artists who brought Disney magic to audio. 
   
   
   
  Authors Tim Hollis and Greg Ehrbar go behind the scenes at the Walt Disney Studios and discover that in the early days Walt Disney and Roy Disney resisted going into the record business before the success of "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" ignited the in-house label. Along the way, the book traces the recording adventures of such Disney favorites as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Cinderella, Bambi, Jiminy Cricket, Winnie the Pooh, and even Walt Disney himself. Mouse Tracks reveals the struggles, major successes, and occasional misfires. Included are impressions and details of teen-pop princesses Annette Funicello and Hayley Mills, the Mary Poppins phenomenon, a Disney-style "British Invasion," and a low period when sagging sales forced Walt Disney to suggest closing the division down. 
   
   
   
  Mouse Tracks is a collector's bonanza of information on this little-analyzed side of the Disney empire.

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  Madisons The: The Lives and...

  Editors Charles River

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  The Founding Fathers have become so revered by Americans in the last 200 years that the “Father of the Constitution” himself is often overlooked among the rest of the pantheon. Today James Madison’s legacy mostly pales in comparison to the likes of George Washington, Ben Franklin and his closest colleague, Thomas Jefferson, but Madison’s list of important accomplishments is monumental. 
  A lifelong statesman, Madison was the youngest delegate at the Continental Congress from 1780-83, and at 36 he was one of the youngest men who headed to Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Despite his age, he was the Convention’s most influential thinker, and the man most responsible for the final draft of the U.S. Constitution. Along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, Madison was one of the most persuasive advocates for ratifying the Constitution. But his work was far from done; along with Thomas Jefferson, Madison was one of the founders and ideological cornerstones of the Democratic-Republican Party that guided the young nation in the first 30 years of the 19th century. That included his own presidency, in which he oversaw the War of 1812. 
  James Madison may have been the Father of the Constitution, but his wife Dolley all but defined the responsibilities and customs of being the president’s wife. Dolley had served as an informal First Lady for the widowed Thomas Jefferson, but when her husband entered the White House in 1809, Dolley went about furnishing the White House to such an extent that much of the style and items she chose were still in place when Mary Todd Lincoln became the First Lady in 1861. Dolley also became a folk hero of sorts and the center of a colorful legend that had her saving Gilbert Stuart’s priceless painting of George Washington just ahead of the British while her husband was denigrated for fleeing as Washington D.C. was burned. 

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  Famous Men of Greece

  John Henry Haaren, A. B. Poland

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  Greeks were history’s great men of thought. John Haaren has collected stories from the lives of thirty famous Greek men, detailing the rise, Golden Age, and fall of Greece. Among these men are Aristotle, Ptolemy, Ulysses, Pericles, and Alexander the Great. Children will be delighted to read and understand why the scope of Greek accomplishment is still known today as the “Greek Miracle.” 
  This book provides a great introduction to ancient Greece, not only for children, but for adults who missed out on a classical education. The title (originally given when the book was first published in 1904) is a little misleading, as the book introduces gods and goddesses, as well as talking about the famous heroes and leaders of the former nation. However, the book is a very good resource to help both adults and children understand references in literature and elsewhere to these individuals who have had influence on our own stories and government.

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  Carry on Jeeves and Right Ho...

  P. G. Wodehouse

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  P.G. Wodehouse, the master of British humor, produced dozens of books and hundreds of short stories in his long and prolific career. But none of his creations has quite captured the world's imagination as much as his bumbling, empty-headed, man-about-town Bertie Wooster and Bertie's faithful, knight-in-shining tuxedo Jeeves.  Collected here are two of Wodehouse's most beloved "Jeeves and Wooster" creations - ten short stories from the anthology "Carry On, Jeeves" and the complete novel "Right Ho, Jeeves" - each a master class in comedic writing. Along with Jeeves and Bertie, we are introduced to an entire cast of beloved Wodehouse characters: Bingo Little, James "Corky" Corcoran, Honoria Glossop, Rockmetteller Todd and the terrifying and bombastic Aunt Agatha.  These two books are presented here in their original and unabridged form.

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  The Best of Enemies - Diaries...

  Norman Fowler

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  The tempestuous years of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. An insider's account of the rivalries and battles that eventually brought down the Conservative government.
  
  The Best of Enemies is the political diaries of Norman Fowler, one of the most significant politicians of the late twentieth century. Covering the entire Thatcher/Major era – from the former's election in 1979 to the latter's defeat in 1997 – during which time Fowler held prominent positions in the Cabinet. As Transport Secretary he was responsible for making seat belts compulsory and later, as Health Secretary, he worked to draw public attention to the dangers of Aids. He was Chairman of the party from 1992–94.
  His diaries observe both Prime Ministers, and their Cabinet colleagues, at close quarters and Fowler brings his training as a journalist to bear on them. The diaries are full of insights and anecdotes and they resonate powerfully with the situation facing the Conservative Party today, including industrial strife, waning authority and a Labour Party looking like a government in waiting.
  The entries raise other issues that remain unresolved. They range from the effect that a minister's private sexual conduct should have on their career to whether an entirely 'hands-off' approach to industrial strategy is in the national interest.
  Fowler's diaries provide a ringside seat to the struggles of their time. These are not the diaries of an ex-minister seeking to justify their own record. They are the story of how two Prime Ministers rose and fell and caused their party to split apart, told by someone who was there.

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