Dairy Queens

In a lively narrative that spans more than two centuries, the author tells the story of a royal and aristocratic building type that has been largely forgotten today: the pleasure dairy of early modern France. These garden statues have long been dismissed as the trifling follies of a reckless elite. The author challenges such assumptions and reveals the pivotal role that pleasure dairies played in cultural and political life, especially with respect to polarizing debates about nobility, femininity, and domesticity. Together with other forms of pastoral architecture such as model farms and hermitages, pleasure dairies were crucial arenas for elite women to exercise and experiment with identity and power.

In a lucid, brilliant work of nonfiction -- as close to an autobiography as his readers are likely to get -- Larry McMurtry has written a family portrait that also serves as a larger portrait of Texas itself, as it was and as it has become. Using as a springboard an essay by the German literary critic Walter Benjamin that he first read in Archer City's Dairy Queen, McMurtry examines the small-town way of life that big oil and big ranching have nearly destroyed. He praises the virtues of everything from a lime Dr. Pepper to the lost art of oral storytelling, and describes the brutal effect of the sheer vastness and emptiness of the Texas landscape on Texans, the decline of the cowboy, and the reality and the myth of the frontier. McMurtry writes frankly and with deep feeling about his own experiences as a writer, a parent, and a heart patient, and he deftly lays bare the raw material that helped shape his life's work: the creation of a vast, ambitious, fictional panorama of Texas in the past and the present. Throughout, McMurtry leaves his readers with constant reminders of his all-encompassing, boundless love of literature and books.

As the ÒQueen of DairyÓ, DQ captures the hearts and bellies of ice cream lovers worldwide. Dairy Queen began by selling soft serve ice cream cones with a curl on top. Soon, malts, shakes, banana splits, and more treats were added to the menu. Today, DQ has more than 6,000 stores that offer a variety of items, from thick Blizzards to crispy Chicken Strip Baskets. Readers will enjoy learning about Dairy Queen's history in this flavorful title for eager minds.

Contributors: Paul Burstein, University of WashingtonDavid B. Filvaroff, State University of New York, BuffaloLouis Ricardo Fraga, Stanford UniversityHugh Davis Graham, Vanderbilt UniversityJack Greenberg, Columbia UniversityGloria J. Hampton, Ohio State UniversityJoseph B. Kadane, Carnegie Mellon UniversityRandall Kennedy, Harvard Law SchoolJ. Morgan Kousser, California Institute of TechnologyRichard Lempert, University of MichiganPaula D. McCain, University of VirginiaCaroline Mitchell, Esq., Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaGary Orfield, Harvard UniversityJorge Ruiz-de-Velasco, Stanford UniversityBarbara Phillips Sullivan, Ford FoundationKatherine Tate, University of California, IrvineStephen L. Wasby, State University of New York, AlbanyRobin M. Williams Jr., Cornell UniversityRaymond E. Wolfinger, University of California, Berkeley

Minnesota-based writer and photographer Kazynski traces the transformation of the US from a network of places connected by rutted wagon trails to a maze of highways connected to other highways. He describes and illustrates road and bridge construction and the new roadside culture that threw up motels, restaurants, gas stations, and scenic perspectives.

Covers employers of various types from 100 to 2,500 employees in size (while the main volume covers companies of 2,500 or more employees). This book contains profiles of companies that are of vital importance to job-seekers of various types. It also enables readers to compare the growth potential and benefit plans of large employers.

A virtual romp through Minnesota's dining spots, this rich history also features a priceless collection of recipes for dishes made famous through the years. 1,000 illustrations, many in color.

Eating junk food and fast food is a great all-American passion. American kids and grownups love their candy bars, Big Macs and supersized fries, Doritos, Twinkies, and Good Humor ice cream bars. The disastrous health effects from the enormous appetite for these processed fat- and sugar-loaded foods are well publicized now. This was particularly dramatically evidenced by Super Size Me (2004), filmmaker Morgan Spurlock's 30-day all-McDonald's diet in which his liver suffered the same poisoning as if he had been on an extended alcohol binge. Through increased globalization, American popular food culture is being increasingly emulated elsewhere in the world, such as China, with the potential for similar disastrous consequences. This A-to-Z reference is the first to focus on the junk food and fast food phenomena from a multitude of angles in addition to health and diet concerns. More than 250 essay entries objectively explore the scope of the topics to illuminate the American way through products, corporations and entrepreneurs, social history, popular culture, organizations, issues, politics, commercialism and consumerism, and much more. Interest in these topics is high. This informative and fascinating work, with entries on current controversies such as mad cow disease and factory farming, the food pyramid, movie tie-ins, and marketing to children, will be highly useful for reports, research, and browsing. It takes readers behind the scenes, examining the significance of such things as uniforms, training, packaging, and franchising. Readers of every age will also enjoy the nostalgia factor, learning about the background of iconic drive-ins, the story behind the mascots, facts about their favorite candy bar, and collectables. Each entry ends with suggested reading. Besides an introduction, a timeline, glossary, bibliography, resource guide, and photos enhance the text. Sample entries: A&W Root Beer; Advertising; Automobiles; Ben & Jerry's; Burger King; Carhops; Center for Science in the Public Interest; Christmas; Cola Wars; Employment; Fair Food; Fast Food Nation; Hershey, Milton; Hollywood; Injury; Krispy Kreme; Lobbying; Nabisco; Obesity; PepsiCo; Salt; Soda Fountain; Teen Hangouts; Vegetarianism; White Castle; Yum! Brands, Inc.