Dancing in the English style explores the development, experience, and cultural representation of popular dance in Britain from the end of the First World War to the early 1950s. It describes the rise of modern ballroom dancing as Britain's predominant popular style, as well as the opening of hundreds of affordable dancing schools and purpose-built dance halls. It focuses in particular on the relationship between the dance profession and dance hall industry and the consumers who formed the dancing public. Together these groups negotiated the creation of a 'national' dancing style, which constructed, circulated, and commodified ideas about national identity. At the same time, the book emphasizes the global, exploring the impact of international cultural products on national identity construction, the complexities of Americanisation, and Britain's place in a transnational system of production and consumption that forged the dances of the Jazz Age.

From the mid-1920s, the dance hall occupied a pivotal place in the culture of working- and lower-middle-class communities in Britain - a place rivalled only by the cinema and eventually to eclipse even that institution in popularity. Going to the Palais examines the history of this vital social and cultural institution, exploring the dances, dancers, and dance venues that were at the heart of one of twentieth-century Britain's most significant leisure activities. Going to the Palais has several key focuses. First, it explores the expansion of the dance hall industry and the development of a 'mass audience' for dancing between 1918 and 1960. Second, the impact of these changes on individuals and communities is examined, with a particular concentration on working and lower-middle-class communities, and on young men and women. Third, the cultural impact of dancing and dance halls is explored. A key aspect of this debate is an examination of how Britain's dance culture held up against various standardizing processes (commercialization, Americanization, etc.) over the period, and whether we can see the emergence of a 'national' dance culture. Finally, the volume offers an assessment of wider reactions to dance halls and dancing in the period. Going to the Palais is concerned with the complex relationship between discourses of class, culture, gender, and national identity and how they overlap - how cultural change, itself a response to broader political, social, and economic developments, was helping to change notions of class, gender, and national identity.

A rare historical treasure that tells the riveting story of a Dutch family's survival in World War II. Melanie Wiggins, author of Torpedoes in the Gulf, Fatal Ascent, U-Boat Adventures, and They Made Their Own Law In May 1940, fourteen-year-old Johanna de Wilde was just like any other teenage girl in Nijmegen, Holland, who loved boys and music, but when Hitler and his German troops invaded her town during World War II, her life was changed forever. As bombs exploded around her house, Johanna was encouraged by her father to document their large family's struggles to survive as they desperately searched for food; fearfully hid Jewish friends; and bravely endured SS brutality, Gestapo searches, and resistance activities. Johanna shares how she was forced to write secretly and keep the pages of her diary well-hidden to avoid discovery by the Gestapo who would have surely shot her father and sent the rest of the family to concentration camps as punishment. As her town became the focal point of the huge Allied invasion, Operation Market Garden, Johanna provides an in-depth glimpse into how teenagers behaved during a traumatic time in history as they searched for excitement, danced and romanced, and played tricks on the enemy in order to offset hunger, earsplitting noise, and privation that persisted for five long years. Please read and see more at: www.dancinginbombshelters.com

A fun, fact-filled, and thoroughly researched journey of country and western dancing from the roots of Western Swing to Hank Williams, the Urban Cowboy two-step of John Travolta, and the nationwide sensation of country line dancing. Country & Western Dance turns the spotlight on a uniquely American form of dance, one that has been scuffing the floorboards for nearly a century but is often overlooked. Fun, lively, and thoroughly researched, this revealing volume tells the full story of country and western dance music from the days of Bob Wills and Tulsa to Oklahoma's Cain's Ballroom to John Travolta and Gilley's of Houston, Texas. Each chapter provides information on the historical roots of the most popular country and western dances as well as the pioneers of the music of a particular era, all in the context of changing cultural, social, political, and economic forces in America. The book also examines the seminal impact of radio, television, and the movies in helping spread the music, the moves, and the good times on the country dance floor.

Discusses the impact of World War II on life in the United States, including preparations for the war, civil defense, the changing work force, family life, and the end of the war.

An extraordinarily vivid and personal portrait of America's greatest political family and its enormous impact on our nation--the tie-in volume to the PBS documentary to air in the fall of 2014.

The Extreme Principle is to do what matters most and to do what works best. When educational decisions and actions are guided by The Extreme Principle, results improve. The Extreme Principle helps teachers, school administrators, superintendents, school board members, and politicians make decisions and take actions that improve schools because the decisions and actions are based on what matters most and what works best. This book gives the reader a critique of the typical, bureaucratic, mandated education reform efforts which often fail and which often lead to another education reform effort which also is likely to fail. This book shows a better way to improve what is done in classrooms, throughout a school, in an entire school district, and at the state or national levels of education policy development. The better way is guided by application of The Extreme Principle. The reader of this book_teacher, school administrator, political leader, citizen_will find that the common sense ideas and real world examples from this book lead to a very obvious conclusion: that the way to improve education is to do what matters most and to do what works best.

Margot Fonteyn's closest friends don't appear in Daneman's detailed biography. Lita Legarda (a doctor) gets a one line mention. Angie Novello (Margot's Washington Hostess), Theodora Christon (Margot's personal secretary) and Ken Ludden aren't mentioned at all. These were the people she trusted most, who kept her confidences and never spoke to the press. Everyone knew Margot differently. BQ, her mother, knew one Margot. Tito, her husband, knew another. Ludden, her circle's youngest by a large margin, knew yet another side of Margot: hence the title 'My Margot'. Ken shares that Margot--who taught him so much about ballet and life, and with whom he worked to plan ballet's future. Beyond Margot we learn about Ken's delightful relationship with BQ, a close friendship between a teenager and a woman of eighty. Ken also writes with unflinching honesty of the hostile relationship he had with Rudolf Nureyev, which developed over time into a grudging mutual respect and a shared grief when Margot died.

Us and Them chronicles the depth to which Canada and Canadians were part of The Beatles’ story—their formation, growth and break up. Entertaining and well researched, Us and Them places John, Paul, George and Ringo as a band and as solo artists in a uniquely Canadian setting; it blends rich stories, facts, analysis, and even dabbles in several plausible but little known accounts that create a new ripple in The Beatles’ history. After consuming Us and Them, readers will never again listen to albums Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the White Album, or singles “Come Together”, “Give Peace a Chance”, “All Things Must Pass”, “Imagine” and “Mull of Kintyre” without thinking about these masterworks in a Canadian context. Us and Them is a thorough account of the Fab Four's relationship with Canada, filling an important gap in their narrative and discography.