Yankee Doodle Days

As a teenager growing up on a farm near Healdsburg, California, MargeÕs head was filled with thoughts of proms, pranks and other school activities when the U.S. abruptly entered World War II. It was a time of great curiosity in equal measure with fear and a longing for things to return to normal. Her generation was forced to grow up fast, into a world that was never the same as it had been. Marge tells of the war years at San Jose State College, virtually an all-girls school, and her decision to join the Navy WAVES while still in college. She went off to boot camp at HunterÕs College in New York City and served on active duty at North Island Naval Air Base in San Diego, where she updated aeronautical charts for pilots and witnessed the amazing evolution from piston to jet-powered fighter aircraft. The book, sprinkled with correspondence between two WAVES, both working with airplanes, contains many original fighter plane photos taken by Marge and fellow WAVE, Jean Broadbent.

The United States faces the problems of ever-growing government, declining political participation, and the deterioration of moral society. It is a tumultuous and often troubling time in history. In Horse Sense for the New Millennium, author Wesley Allen Riddle offers a lens for interpreting modern political events and presents a conservative commentary on American life and politics. A collection of previously published columns, Horse Sense for the New Millennium offers a reservoir of creative conservative approaches distinct from more common ones advocated by progressive liberals. Compiling a decade of thoughts, Riddle discusses the state of American politics and government and shows that hope for Americas future lies in returning to the nations founding principles and applying them to the problems facing America today. He argues that the road map for success lies in the US Constitution. Horse Sense for the New Millennium presents an articulate and passionate critique of government in modern society including governments taking on too many roles, too many rules and regulations, and creating a nanny state that is socially and economically crippling the nation. Riddle explains the founders original intent and demonstrates their vision is still the key to Americas prosperity.

"Composer, lyricist, playwright, performer, director, theater owner, and star actor George M. Cohan (1878-1942) definitively shaped the burgeoning genre of musical comedy and the institution of Broadway in the early twentieth century. Remembered today for classic tunes like "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Give My Regards to Broadway," he has been called "the father of musical comedy" and is memorialized with a statue in Times Square. In his day, he was famous as the "Yankee Doodle Boy" from his hit song and as the "Man Who Owned Broadway" from his musical of the same name. His songs and shows captured the spirit of an era when staggering social change gave new urgency to efforts to define Americanism. This book, the first on Cohan in fifty years and the first scholarly study on the subject, is not a biography but rather situates Cohan as a central figure of his day, placing his multifaceted contributions within overlapping historical and cultural contextual webs to examine his wide-ranging cultural impact. Chapters interweave discussion of his songs and shows with explorations of the roles he played in public life-entertainer, Broadway magnate, Irish American, celebrity, and, above all, emblem of patriotism. This approach offers not only a fuller understanding of his shows and career but also new perspectives on fundamental debates about American identity and the performing arts in the early twentieth-century United States"--

By 1972, President Richard Nixon had reached the heights of political power and popularity, only to self-destruct due to his role in a “third-rate” burglary called “Watergate.” Nixon resigned in disgrace, and, for the first time in history, Americans came to be led by an unelected President and Vice President -- Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller. But Americans had much more on their minds than mere politics -- movies, TV, sports, earning a living, etc. Hollywood motion pictures, including “The Godfather,” “Jaws,” and “Star Wars,” captured their imaginations, while weekly TV shows such as “All in the Family” and “Happy Days” made them laugh, and “Monday Night Football” kept their competitive juices flowing. To no one’s surprise, UCLA continued to win NCAA basketball championships, and such schools as Alabama, Arkansas, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Penn State, Texas, and USC remained dominant on the gridiron. And professional sports, thanks to such super-stars as BIllie Jean King, Kareem Abul-Jabbar, Henry Aaron, Jack Nicklaus, Muhammad Ali, Al Unser, and Terry Bradshaw, became more popular than ever. But who could have predicted at the beginning of the decade that a young high school dropout named John Travolta and a band called the Bees Gees would become the kings of Disco Dancing? Or that a peanut farmer from Georgia would be elected President during our Bicentennial Year?