Originally published in France between 1876 and 1888, Auguste Racinet's Le Costume Historique was in its day the most wide-ranging and incisive study of clothing ever attempted. Covering the world history of costume, dress, and style from antiquity through to the end of the 19th century, the six volume work remains completely unique in its scope and detail.

This TASCHEN reprint presents Racinet's exquisitely precise color illustrations, as well as his delightful descriptions and often witty commentary. Spanning everything from ancient Etruscan attire to French women's couture, material is arranged according to Racinet's original plan by culture and subject. As expansive in its reach as it is passionate in its research and attention to detail, Racinet's Costume History is an invaluable reference for students, designers, artists, illustrators, and historians; and a rich source of inspiration for anyone with an interest in clothing and style.

The New York Times-bestselling author explores the history of American healthcare system, what went wrong, and how it can be remedied.

Popular progressive radio host and bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals how and why attempts to implement affordable universal healthcare in the United States have been thwarted and what we can do to finally make it a reality.

For-profit health insurance is the largest con job ever perpetrated on the American people--one that has cost trillions of dollars and millions of lives since the 1940s, says Thom Hartmann.

Other countries have shown us that affordable universal healthcare is not only possible but also effective and efficient. Taiwan's single-payer system saved the country a fortune as well as saving lives during the coronavirus pandemic, enabling the country to implement a nationwide coronavirus test-and-contact-trace program without shutting down the economy. This resulted in just ten deaths, while more than 500,000 people have died in the United States.

Hartmann offers a deep dive into the shameful history of American healthcare, showing how greed, racism, and oligarchic corruption led to the current sickness for profit system. Modern attempts to create versions of government healthcare have been hobbled at every turn, including Obamacare.

There is a simple solution: Medicare for all. Hartmann outlines the extraordinary benefits this system would provide the American people and economy and the steps we need to take to make it a reality. It's time for America to join every industrialized country in the world and make health a right, not a privilege.

This invaluable reference guide illustrates every standard automobile license plate issued in the United States, from 1903 to 1993. Author James K. Fox, a lifelong collector and former director of the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association (ALPCA), comprehensively lists all of the plates by year for each state. He meticulously photographed the actual plates, in full color, and offers key information and unique characteristics about each one. Overviews explain the history of plates in each state, including examples of some plates issued prior to statehood. Of particular interest for automobile historians and restorers is a section detailing the color codes for each year and validation systems used by each individual state. This cornerstone resource covers all plates, from early porcelains to modern graphic plates, and is a must-have publication for every plate collector and automotive history enthusiast.

This absorbing and profusely illustrated book describes in detail scores of early American tools and the wooden and metal artifacts made with them. Informally and expressively written, the text covers bulding tools and methods; farm and kitchen implements; and the tools of curriers, wheelwrights, coopers, blacksmiths, coachmakers, loggers, tanners, and many other craftsmen of the pre-industrial age. Scores of pen-and-ink sketches by the author accurately depict special tools for every job, among them a hollowing gouge, hay fork, cornering chisel, apple butter paddle, boring auger, mortising chisel, a holding dog, hauling sledge, winnowing tray, reaping hooks, splitting wedge, felling axe, propping saw horse, and other traditional implements. Sure to be prized by cultural historians, this volume will delight woodcrafters interested in making their own tools and thrill general readers with its store of Americana.

The Definitive Reference Guide for U.S. License Plates

This invaluable reference guide illustrates every standard automobile license plate issued in the United States, from 1903 to 1993. Author James K. Fox, a lifelong collector and former director of the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association (ALPCA), comprehensively lists all of the plates by year for each state. He meticulously photographed the actual plates, in full color, and offers key information and unique characteristics about each one. Overviews explain the history of plates in each state, including examples of some plates issued prior to statehood. Of particular interest for automobile historians and restorers is a section detailing the color codes for each year and validation systems used by each individual state. It even includes a price guide by Bob and Chuck Crisler. This cornerstone resource covers all plates, from early porcelains to modern graphic plates, and is a must-have publication for every plate collector and automotive history enthusiast.

Steve Reif, a Kalona Iowa native, grew up in a family which operated the small town's historic general store. The business often received point of purchase displays. For many years, Steve had noticed large, ornate spool cabinets in antique stores. He was drawn to the beautiful woodwork, and fascinated by the colorful spools. With his first purchase, Steve was hooked and began a life-long hobby, which has grown into one of the US' premier collections of these treasures, and has made him arguably into one of the foremost experts on spool cabinets. The only book of its kind, this volume serves as a catalog of the spool cabinets and other sewing memorabilia, which Steve and his daughter, Nancy, have collected for over 40 years.

A Very Vintage Holiday celebrates the joy and sentimentality associated with all the major holidays on the calendar, from Easter to Halloween to Christmas--and many more. Vintage decorations, customs, history, and lush images offer up great comfort, connection, and continuity in this fast-paced world. Each holiday is opportunity to slow down and connect. There's a mindfulness associated with carving pumpkins, dying Easter eggs, or stringing popcorn and cranberry garlands that helps us to bond with loved ones in ways that both conjure up good memories and enable us to make new ones. Coupled with beautiful photographs, tips on collecting, and secret shopping haunts, A Very Vintage Holiday offers a 360-degree look at all the traditional and joyful ways we celebrate holidays and gives suggestions on how to make family heirlooms, vintage finds, and holiday activities work for today's audience. Each chapter is focused on a different holiday and there is a common thread that runs through them all: the love of beautiful holiday decorations as well as an interest in their history, preservation, and relevance in today's world. Now, more than ever, we need holidays to connect us. A Very Vintage Holiday helps the everyday collector and enthusiast make the most of what they've already collected and build upon it for future generations to enjoy.

A richly illustrated presentation of the latest research on traditional American folk art

Americana Insights 2024 is the second volume of an annual series that presents the latest research and discoveries on traditional American folk art and material culture. This installment explores a diverse range of craftspeople and artifacts, treating readers to a journey from Appalachia to the mid-Atlantic and New England, and even onto the Atlantic Ocean. Each essay offers a fresh perspective on American creativity and ingenuity, introducing readers to the makers and materials of early America. This remains the only interdisciplinary publication devoted exclusively to traditional Americana and folk art.

Contributors cover a range of topics including historic Cherokee river cane basket weaving traditions, New England folk artists Sturtevant J. Hamblin, the almshouse paintings of German immigrant Charles Hofmann, and the display of American antiques on mid-twentieth-century ocean liners. Additional subjects include Pennsylvania German fraktur, carousel carving, carriage signs, quilts, and game boards.

Contributors: Trevor Brandt, Paul D'Ambrosio, Tobin Fraley, Emelie Gevalt, Christopher Malone, Richard Miller, Matthew Monk, Amelia Peck, Christian Roden, Cynthia Schaffner, Eileen M. Smiles, Jennifer Swope.

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming Wow! What a Ride! Hunter S. Thompson

• Essential Hunter S. Thompson's quotes now at your fingertips
• A great way to explore the ideas and philosophy of Hunter S. Thompson
• Perfect for casual reading, taking ideas, and finding inspiration
• Makes for a unique gift idea for friends and family

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There is something fresh and crisp about the first hours of a Caribbean day, a happy anticipation that something is about to happen, maybe just up the street or around the next corner. Hunter S. Thompson
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Walk tall, kick ass, learn to speak Arabic, love music and never forget you come from a long line of truth seekers, lovers and warriors. Hunter S. Thompson

A fast and engaging read, Equity helps leaders create more inclusive organizations using human-centered design and behavior change principles.

Even the most passionate advocates for diversity, equity, and inclusion have been known to treat equity as the middle child--the concept they skip over to get to the warm, fuzzy feelings of inclusion. But Minal Bopaiah shows throughout this book that equity is critical if organizations really want to leverage differences for greater impact.

Equity allows leaders to create organizations where employees can contribute their unique strengths and collaborate better with peers. Bopaiah explains how leaders can effectively raise awareness of systemic bias and craft new policies that lead to better outcomes and lasting behavioral changes. This book is rich in real-world examples, such as managing partners at a consulting firm who learn to retell their personal stories of success by crediting their systemic advantages and news managers at NPR who redesign their processes to support greater diversity among news sources. This slender book expands DEI past human resources initiatives and shows how leaders can embed equity into core business functions like marketing and communications.

Filled with humor, heart, and pragmatism, Equity is a guidebook for change, answering the question of how that so many leaders are asking today.

The photos in this edition are black and white.

Trends in automotive modification come and go; some are outlandish, some are practical. Currently, the trend is Pro Touring. While it's expensive, it definitely leans toward the practical. It was originally a name used for GM cars, but Pro Touring has come to mean a style for all cars from many years. It is essentially the art of adding modern technology to aged designs to create cars that start, stop, drive, handle, and behave like modern performance cars. You can do this in many ways and choose from many suppliers.

Detroit Speed is at the forefront of the Pro Touring movement. The company is in a unique position to design and manufacture parts; they also build cars and test the parts for their effectiveness on the street and track. Kyle and Stacy Tucker have used their considerable engineering skill and marketing savvy to create a unique company that leads the Pro Touring movement.

You will discover the history of Detroit Speed and how they design performance parts. Learn-to-install sections cover front subframe and rear suspension assemblies as well as upgrades to wheel tubs, brakes, fuel system, driveline, cooling system, and more; also included is an LS swap. The featured cars are customer builds as well as Detroit Speed test cars including a number of different Chevrolet products, a 1966 Mustang, and a 1969 Charger. Detroit Speed's How to Build a Pro Touring Car is an important edition to every performance enthusiast's library.

A new approach to helping teams solve complex and stubborn problems from the acclaimed author of Collaborating with the Enemy.

It's becoming less straightforward for people to move forward together. They face increasing complexity and decreasing control. They need to work with more people from across more divides. In such situations, the most common ways of advancing--some people telling others what to do, or everyone just doing what they think they need to--aren't adequate.

One better way is through facilitating. But the most common approaches to facilitating--bossy vertical directing from above or collegial horizontal accompanying from alongside--also aren't adequate. They often leave the participants frustrated and yearning for breakthrough.

This book describes a new approach: transformative facilitation. Instead of choosing the bossy vertical or collegial horizontal approach: It cycles back and forth between them. Rather than forcing or cajoling, the facilitator removes the obstacles that stand in the way of people contributing and connecting equitably, enabling them to bring their whole selves to the process.

This book is for anyone who helps people work together to transform their situation, be it a professional facilitator, manager, consultant, coach, chairperson, organizer, mediator, stakeholder, or friend. It offers a broad and bold vision of the contribution that facilitation can make to helping people collaborate to make progress.

Praise for Adam Kahane's books

Thought-provoking discourse on handling difficult situations. --Publishers Weekly

Profound . . . a wise way to negotiate our toughest group, community, and societal challenges. --William Ury, New York Times-bestselling coauthor of Getting to Yes

In 1898, Peter Henderson & Company published an abundantly illustrated trade catalog advertising tools, fertilizers, insecticides, and other essentials for the turn-of-the-century garden, farm, greenhouse, lawn, orchard, poultry yard, stable, and household. The comprehensive tools and implements catalog, with its nearly 700 line illustrations and descriptive captions, advertised such commonly used equipment as a one-horse disc harrow for $21; a string-tooth cultivator, $6.75; a corn sheller with feed table, $11.25; and a Eureka Steam Cooker, capable of cooking a variety of food for 12 to 20 people, for $6.50.
This excellent reprint of an extremely rare volume also features a lice-killing machine, cast-iron field rollers, manure spreaders, broadcast seeders, corn harvesters and huskers, root cutters, grinding and cider mills, Siamese lawn sprinkler attachments, veterinary remedies, an improved winged shovel plow, and hundreds of other items. Informative captions provide a detailed description of each product and its price.
Of interest to social historians, this intriguing book will also be indispensable to collectors and antique dealers, of immense value to artists and designers in search of permission-free images, and a delight to lovers of Americana.

Handsome in appearance, simple in construction, and remarkably efficient, early American tools were true marvels of ingenuity. In the hands of skilled workers, they were used to create everything from simple shelters, wagons, and fences to intricately carved chairs, fireplace mantels, and door moldings.
In this richly illustrated book, author and master craftsman Alex Bealer tells the fascinating story of early American woodworking, enthusiastically describing and clearly depicting a wide array of devices -- from axes wielded by frontiersmen to clear the land and build log cabins, to carpenters' saws, planes, and hammers, and furniture makers' chisels, calipers, bevels, and lathes. More than 300 drawings and photographs illustrate implements as they were once actually used in colonial times and as they are still employed today by many woodworkers.
A book that will delight crafters at all levels of expertise, The Tools That Built America is must reading for lovers of antique tools, Americana enthusiasts, and anyone sufficiently inspired by the revival of woodcrafting to build their own furniture or shelter.

The key to solving big, complex problems: a powerful and flexible organizing system that can span regions, teams, and silos of all kinds.

The social and environmental challenges we face today are not only complex, they are also systemic and structural and have no obvious solutions. They require diverse combinations of people, organizations, and sectors to coordinate actions and work together even when the way forward is unclear. Even so, collaborative efforts often fail because they attempt to navigate complexity with traditional strategic plans, created by hierarchies that ignore the way people naturally connect.

By embracing a living-systems approach to organizing, impact networks bring people together to build relationships across boundaries; leverage the existing work, skills, and motivations of the group; and make progress amid unpredictable and ever-changing conditions. As a powerful and flexible organizing system that can span regions, organizations, and silos of all kinds, impact networks underlie some of the most impressive and large-scale efforts to create change across the globe.

David Ehrlichman draws on his experience as a network builder; interviews with dozens of network leaders; and insights from the fields of network science, community building, and systems thinking to provide a clear process for creating and developing impact networks. Given the increasing complexity of our society and the issues we face, our ability to form, grow, and work through networks has never been more essential.

Networks are the organizing system of the future, and this book is your guide. --Philip Li, President and CEO, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation

Americana Insights 2023 presents the latest research and discoveries on traditional American folk art and material culture. Groundbreaking essays by leading scholars provide a wealth of new insights on a wide array of artistic traditions. Covering a broad geographic area--including New England, the mid-Atlantic, South, and mid-West--and spanning the colonial era to early twentieth century, these essays enhance our understanding of the diverse American experience. This is the only interdisciplinary publication devoted exclusively to traditional Americana and folk art.

Contributors cover a range of topics including portraiture, furniture, jewelry, textiles, and works on paper. In the first volume, authors share groundbreaking research on the use of hooked rugs in the colonial revival era; revisit the work of a famed Connecticut portrait painter known as the Beardsley Limner and his namesake sitters; Rufus Porter's work as an artist and entrepreneur; a distinctive group of paint-decorated dressing tables from New Hampshire; delicate cutworks made by an incarcerated inmate in Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary; painted tavern signs; jewelry in folk portraiture; New Jersey schoolmaster and calligrapher Thomas Earl; and signature quilts from the nineteenth century.

Contributors: Deborah M. Child, Pamela and Brian Ehrlich, Cynthia Fowler, Emelie Gevalt, Mark D. Mitchell, Eileen M. Smiles, Laura Fecych Sprague.

Dive into the fascinating nexus of art and economics with this riveting exploration that unveils the surprising intersections between creativity and commerce. From Renaissance masterpieces to modern-day installations, discover how economic forces have shaped the art world, influencing everything from artistic movements to the value of cultural treasures. Prepare to be captivated by the dynamic relationship between supply, demand, and the transformative power of artistic expression. Whether you're an art enthusiast or a seasoned economist, this provocative journey will challenge your perceptions and ignite your passion for the intertwined realms of art and economics.

Over 13,000 years ago ... those ancient people in North America at the end of the Ice Age were already using almost every source of good knapping stone which we know about today. How could the Clovis culture possibly be the first people on this continent? Traveling, hunting and exploring all of this vast land on foot ... discovering and making extensive use of virtually every known stone resource in every corner of the continent ... all in a period of just 300 or 400 years? How was it possible for a small, pioneering population to discover everything, everywhere, with no local inhabitants to guide their travels and discoveries, even as they spread their unique flint knapping technology from coast to coast in as few as 10 or 15 generations? Does it make practical sense to claim that no one else was here exploring before the Clovis culture arrived? Perhaps the very idea that any single pioneering group would be able to and then actually would almost immediately discover all of the existing lithic resources stretches credulity to the breaking point. That's the heart and core of my theory in CLOVIS The First Americans? ... and I'm stickin' to it. What do you think? Includes additional section showing two more Clovis points, one from Florida made from fossilized coral, and one from New Mexico, found in 1927 in Roosevelt County. 55 pages, full color.

Whet Your Appetites for A Fascinating History of American Food

Terrific food journalism. Page uncovers the untold backstories of American food. A great read. --George Stephanopoulos, Good Morning America, This Week and ABC News' Chief Anchor

2021 International Book Awards finalist in History: United States
Living Now Book Award, Silver - Cookbooks, Ethnic Holiday
#1 New Release in History Humor, Food & Cooking, and Media Tie-In Cooking

David Page changed the world of food television by creating, developing, and executive-producing the groundbreaking show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Now from this two-time Emmy winner comes Food Americana, an entertaining mix of food culture, pop culture, nostalgia, and everything new on the American plate.

The remarkable history of American food. What is American cuisine, what national menu do we share, what dishes have we chosen, how did they become American, and how are they likely to evolve from here? David Page answers all these questions and more.

Engaging, insightful, and often humorous. The inside story of how Americans have formed a national cuisine from a world of flavors. Sushi, pizza, tacos, bagels, barbecue, dim sum―even fried chicken, burgers, ice cream, and many more―were born elsewhere and transformed into a unique American cuisine.

Food Americana is a riveting ride into everything we eat and why. From a lobster boat off the coast of Maine to the Memphis in May barbecue competition. From the century-old Russ & Daughters lox and bagels shop in lower Manhattan to the Buffalo Chicken Wing Festival. From a thousand-dollar Chinese meal in San Francisco to birria tacos from a food truck in South Philly.

Meet engaging characters and legends including:

• Alice Waters
• Daniel Boulud
• Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's
• Mel Brooks

If you enjoyed captivating food history books like A History of the World in 6 Glasses, On Food and Cooking, or the classic Salt by Mark Kurlansky, you'll love Food Americana.