At the height of the Vietnam War, thousands of Americans wrote moving letters to Dr. Benjamin Spock, America’s pediatrician and a high-profile opponent of the war. Personal and heartfelt, thoughtful and volatile, these missives from Middle America provide an intriguing glimpse into the conflicts that took place over the dinner table as people wrestled with this divisive war and with their consciences. Providing one of the first clear views of the home front during the war, Dear Dr. Spock collects the best of these letters and offers a window into the minds of ordinary Americans. They wrote to Spock because he was familiar, trustworthy, and controversial. His book Baby and Child Care was on the shelves of most homes, second only to the Bible in the number of copies sold. Starting in the 1960s, his activism in the antinuclear and antiwar movements drew mixed reactions from Americans—some puzzled, some supportive, some angry, and some desperate. Most of the letters come from what Richard Nixon called the “silent majority”—white, middleclass, law-abiding citizens who the president thought supported the war to contain Communism. In fact, the letters reveal a complexity of reasoning and feeling that moves far beyond the opinion polls at the time. One mother of young children struggles to imagine how Vietnamese women could endure after their village was napalmed, while another chastises Spock for the “dark shadow” he had cast on the country and pledges to instill love of country in her sons. What emerges is a portrait of articulate Americans struggling mightily to understand government policies in Vietnam and how those policies did or did not reflect their own sense of themselves and their country.

"Providing one of the first clear views of the home front during the war, Dear Dr. Spock collects the best of these letters and offers a window into the minds of ordinary Americans. They wrote to Spock because he was familiar, trustworthy, and controversial. His book Baby and Child Care was a staple on the shelves of most homes, second only to the Bible in the number of copies sold. Starting in the 1960s, his activism in the antinuclear and antiwar movements drew mixed reactions from Americans - some puzzled, some supportive, some angry, and some desperate."--Jacket.

Benjamin Spock may have had a greater effect on the everyday lives of more people than any other living American. His personal life, however, was shaken by failure and tragedy. Thomas Maier's extensive interviews with Spock, his family, and others who knew him provide the first complete picture of this complicated man. Two photo inserts.

With fresh interpretations from two new authors, wholly reconceived themes, and a wealth of cutting-edge scholarship, the Fifth Edition of America: A Concise History is designed to work perfectly with the way you teach the survey today. Building on the book’s hallmark strengths — balance, explanatory power, and a brief-yet-comprehensive narrative — as well as its outstanding full-color visuals and built-in primary sources, authors James Henretta, Rebecca Edwards, and Robert Self have shaped America into the ideal brief book for the modern survey course, at a value that can’t be beat. Read the preface.

With fresh interpretations from two new authors, wholly reconceived themes, and a wealth of cutting-edge scholarship, the Fifth Edition of America: A Concise History is designed to work perfectly with the way you teach the survey today. Building on the book’s hallmark strengths—balance, explanatory power, and a brief-yet-comprehensive narrative—as well as its outstanding full-color visuals and built-in primary sources, authors James Henretta, Rebecca Edwards, and Robert Self have shaped America into the ideal brief book for the modern survey course, at a value that can’t be beat.

Ronald Reagan, one of America’s most beloved presidents, is now gone. But his voice lives on in this stirring and very personal collection of letters written during his presidency to his fellow Americans, showing us a new and surprisingly intimate side of our fortieth president. During even the busiest times in his presidency, Ronald Reagan took time out to respond to dozens of letters each week from the many friends and private citizens who wrote to him about their concerns. These letters, collected in the president’s “Handwriting File,” have never been examined by historians. Now Ralph E. Weber and his son, Ralph A. Weber, have culled the best of this collection, arranged chronologically to track the course of political events during the eight years of his presidency. A fascinating glimpse at the issues facing the United States during the 1980s, Letters from the Desk of Ronald Reagan traces history in the making.

Comedian Robin Williams said that if you remember the '60s, you weren't there. This encyclopedia documents the people, places, movements, and culture of that memorable decade for those who lived it and those who came after. Encyclopedia of the Sixties: A Decade of Culture and Counterculture surveys the 1960s from January 1960 to December 1969. Nearly 500 entries cover everything from the British television cult classic The Avengers to the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. The two-volume work also includes biographies of artists, architects, authors, statesmen, military leaders, and cinematic stars, concentrating on what each individual accomplished during the 1960s, with brief postscripts of their lives beyond the period. There was much more to the Sixties than flower power and LSD, and the entries in this encyclopedia were compiled with an eye to providing a balanced view of the decade. Thus, unlike works that emphasize only the radical and revolutionary aspects of the period to the exclusion of everything else, these volumes include the political and cultural Right, taking a more academic than nostalgic approach and helping to fill a gap in the popular understanding of the era.

America's favorite pediatrician, Dr. Benjamin Spock has helped two generations of parents raise their kids with his timeless bestseller, Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care. Now, today's parents can rejoice: a new compilation of Dr. Spock's timeless advice is here! Filled with Dr. Spock's insightful writings on the fruition of a child to college-aged adult, this first-time collection of essays provides parents with timely information on topics such as: a child's fears and anger coping with everyday stress teaching a child values and responsibilities understanding and dealing with violence in contemporary culture effective discipline prioritizing school work dealing with peer pressure discussing love, sex, and AIDS step-parenting With Dr. Spock's The School Years, parents everywhere will return again and again to Dr. Spock for all of their child-rearing questions.