A comprehensive social history looks at the many forces that shaped this most American of art forms and the many influences that gave rise to jazz's post-war styles.

Presents a history of humor, from fart jokes on clay Sumerian tablets all the way up to the latest Twitter memes, that tells the story of how comedy came to rule the modern world.

"Harold Bloom ... returns with a definitive yet personal book on twelve American writers upon whose work he believes the American canon is built. While his references to American writers are wide-ranging, he focuses on twelve: Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Mark Twain, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, and Hart Crane-- those writers whose works make...

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, with marginal notes and explanations and full descriptions of each character.

"Open your mind to some of the most breathtaking and magnificent pieces of music ever created, and find out why the rebels and revolutionaries who wrote them are responsible for every track on your phone today. Discover their backstories and how each one shaped and defined classical music. Learn about the structure of an orchestra, the language of music, and the history of musical periods. With jaw-dropping artwork and avant-garde design, this visually...

Through essays contributed by modern thriller writers such as David Baldacci, Lee Child, Sandra Brown, and many others, this book explores 100 works of suspense from the ancient world to modern times.

Ed Ward covers the first half of the history of rock & roll in this sweeping and definitive narrative-from the 1920s, when the music of rambling medicine shows mingled with the songs of vaudeville and minstrel acts to create the very early sounds of country and rhythm and blues, to the rise of the first independent record labels post-World War II, and concluding in December 1963, just as an immense change in the airwaves took hold and the Beatles...

Learn about how different genres started-including classical, folk, jazz, gospel, rock 'n' roll, country, punk, grunge and pop. Explore the histories of music linked to particular cultures or regions-including Indigineous American, Asian, and African music; Son Cubano and Caribbean styles; and Australian bush music. Discover the stories of music maestros from around the world-including Beethoven, Wei Liangfu, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie,...