The author examines Miller's novel, its publishing history, and its place in American letters. The work was labeled pornography for its graphic language and explicit sexuality, and tested American censorship laws. Tropic of Cancer was published in 1934 by a pornographer in Paris, but was banned in the United States until 1961, when Grove Press was able to publish it despite the censors. The author states that Tropic of Cancer is "lawless, violent,...

Explores how the music of Dolly Parton and other prominent women country artists has both reflected and validated the harsh realities of rural working-class American women. Growing up amid Kansas wheat fields and airplane factories, Smarsh witnessed firsthand the vulnerabilities and strengths of women in working poverty. Meanwhile, country songs by female artists played in the background, telling powerful stories about life, men, hard times, and...

If the Bible isn't a science book or an instruction manual, then what is it? What do people mean when they say the Bible is inspired? When Rachel Held Evans found herself asking these questions, she began a quest to better understand what the Bible is and how it is meant to be read. What she discovered changed her--and it will change you too. Drawing on the best in recent scholarship and using her well-honed literary expertise, Evans examines some...