Product Description: The Battle of Midway is considered the greatest U.S. naval victory, but behind the luster is the devastation of the American torpedo squadrons. Of the 51 planes sent to attack Japanese carriers only 7 returned, and of the 127 aircrew only 29 survived...read more

Product Description: The beleaguered Joad family of Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" struggled in an era of disappointed dreams and empty pockets. But how might the grandchildren of that Dust Bowl generation fare in today's more promising times? In this volume Alvin Kernan sends various descendants of the original Joad family on a postmodern journey out of California and into the excesses of American culture at the beginning of the 21st century...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: In this candid and delightful memoir, Alvin Kernan recalls his life as a student, professor, provost, and dean during turbulent decades of change in the hallowed halls of Columbia, Williams, Oxford, Yale, and Princeton. His vividly remembered account is a unique personal story and more---it is also a history of what has been won, and lost, in the culture wars of the second half of the twentieth-century...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Soon after James Stuart became King of England in 1603, William Shakespeare, while still working in the public theatre, became the royal playwright, and his acting troupe became the premier playing company of the realm. How did this courtly setting influence Shakespeare's work? What was it like to view, perform in, and write plays conceived for the Stuart king? In this book the author explores these questions by looking at the court performances of some of Shakespeare's most famous plays, examining them in their settings at the royal palaces of Whitehall and Hampton Court...read more

Product Description: This volume of specially commissioned essays presents the thoughts of some of the most distinguished American academic commentators on the fundamental changes that have taken place in the humanities in the latter part of the 20th century...read more

Product Description: In this fascinating book, an eminent literary critic takes us back to the court performances of some of Shakespeare`s most famous plays, showing how the courtly setting influenced Shakespeare`s work. Alvin Kernan argues that Shakespeare was a great dramatist whose plays commented on political and social concerns of his patrons and who sought the most satisfactory way of adjusting his own art to court needs...read more

Looks at political and critical attacks on literature, suggests that traditional literature is no longer useful to our technological society, and argues that a new concept of literature is needed

Product Description: 'Writing as he does with energy and grace, Kernan is a thoughtful guide to the world Johnson lived in and helped to make...What is best about Kernan's book is that it is up to date but not voguish; he has assimilated new scholarship but not been overpowered by it...read more

Works selected from the most creative periods of the Western theater reveal the dramatic use of plot and character

Presents selected plays representing the dramatic styles of realism, naturalism, relativism, symbolism, expressionism and surrealism