In his unusual new book, Mr. Peretti charts the birth and development of jazz since 1900 alongside the historical context that both contributed to and reflected this distinctive music. Three aspects of this connection interest Mr. Peretti: the music itself, the musicians who have played it, and the audience. Within these motifs, he traces the emergence of jazz out of ragtime just after the turn of the century, during a tumultuous period of urban and...

"In This Green and Growing Land: Evnironmental Activism in American History, historian Kevin C. Armitage shows how the story of American enviornmentalism -- part philosophy, part social movement -- is in no small way a story of America itself, the way citizens have self-organizd, how they have thought of their communities and their government, and how they have used their power to protect and enrich the land. Armitage skillfully analyzes the economic...

"In Of Thee I Sing, Ben Railton describes a spectrum of competing visions of patriotism that can be traced across key moments and texts in American history and that comprise a crucial debate in our 21st century moment. Drawing on the four verses as of America the Beautiful, Railton finds four central competing threads of American patriotism: celebratory, mythologizing, active, and critical. He traces each of these competing visions across a series...