Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal’s ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’ movement went global many years ago – it is now practiced all over the world by a wide range of different groups from political activists and practitioners of political (or ‘applied’) theatre to students at all levels. This major new DVD contains carefully curated footage from his many documented workshops, masterclasses and lectures.

McElvaney (project manager, Esri) provides a collection of case studies in geodesign, the concept of integrating natural environments into design processes. The author addresses the primary steps, processes, and technologies used in geodesign or--as the author puts it '...the geodesign process helps us move from designing around nature to designing with it.' Amply illustrated and written in a very readable style, the book will interest urban planners, geographers, and landscape architecture students and faculty. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Down and Out in the Great Depression is a moving, revealing collection of letters by the forgotten men, women, and children who suffered through one of the greatest periods of hardship in American history. Sifting through some 15,000 letters from government and private sources, Robert McElvaine has culled nearly 200 communications that best show the problems, thoughts, and emotions of ordinary people during this time.

Unlike views of Depression life 'from the bottom up' that rely on recollections recorded several decades later, this book captures the daily anguish of people during the thirties. It puts the reader in direct contact with Depression victims, evoking a feeling of what it was like to live through this disaster.

Following Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration, both the number of letters received by the White House and the percentage of them coming from the poor were unprecedented. The average number of daily communications jumped to between 5,000 and 8,000, a trend that continued throughout the Rosevelt administration. The White House staff for answering such letters—most of which were directed to FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, or Harry Hopkins—quickly grew from one person to fifty.

Mainly because of his radio talks, many felt they knew the president personally and could confide in him. They viewed the Roosevelts as parent figures, offering solace, help, and protection. Roosevelt himself valued the letters, perceiving them as a way to gauge public sentiment. The writers came from a number of different groups—middle-class people, blacks, rural residents, the elderly, and children. Their letters display emotional reactions to the Depression—despair, cynicism, and anger—and attitudes toward relief.

In his extensive introduction, McElvaine sets the stage for the letters, discussing their significance and some of the themes that emerge from them. By preserving their original spelling, syntax, grammar, and capitalization, he conveys their full flavor.

The Depression was far more than an economic collapse. It was the major personal event in the lives of tens of millions of Americans. McElvaine shows that, contrary to popular belief, many sufferers were not passive victims of history. Rather, he says, they were 'also actors and, to an extent, playwrights, producers, and directors as well,' taking an active role in trying to deal with their plight and solve their problems.

The Depression and New Deal is a collection of primary sources documenting American life during the longest and deepest economic collapse in American history. From the prosperity and rampant consumerism of the 1920s, the book moves forward to cover the double shock of the stock market crash and dust bowl and then on to the recovery efforts of Roosevelt's New Deal. Some of the most revealing testaments to the times-including songs by Woody Guthrie, articles from sources as diverse as Fortune magazine and the communist periodical New Masses, murals and posters sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, excerpts from literary classics such as The Grapes of Wrath and selections from Eleanor Roosevelt's 'My Day' column-have been assembled to provide a well-rounded portrait of the age.
The battle among conflicting political and economic forces is brought to life with political cartoons, Roosevelt's 'Forgotten Man' radio address and first inaugural address, Supreme Court decisions, newspaper editorials, text from the National Labor Relations Act, and many other documents. Some of the most compelling elements of this history record the impact of the depression on ordinary people. The experiences of Americans of both sexes, all ages, and various racial and ethnic groups are explored through documents such as Farm Security Administration photographs, interviews, letters to the Roosevelts, and the memoirs of a 'southern white girl.' A special section of Hollywood film stills demonstrates how the changing values of the nation were reflected in popular culture. Renowned historian Robert McElvaine provides expert commentary linking the documents into a fascinating and seamless narrative.

Textbooks may interpret history, but the books in the Pages from History series are history. Each title, compiled and edited by a prominent historian, is a collection of primary sources relating to a particular topic of historical significance. Documentary evidence including news articles, government documents, memoirs, letters, diaries, fiction, photographs, and facsimiles allows history to speak for itself and turns every reader into a historian. Headnotes, extended captions, sidebars, and introductory essays provide the essential context that frames the documents. All the books are amply illustrated and each includes a documentary picture essay, chronology, further reading, source notes, and index.

One of the classic studies of the Great Depression, featuring a new introduction by the author with insights into the economic crises of 1929 and today.
 
In the twenty-five years since its publication, critics and scholars have praised historian Robert McElvaine's sweeping and authoritative history of the Great Depression as one of the best and most readable studies of the era. Combining clear-eyed insight into the machinations of politicians and economists who struggled to revive the battered economy, personal stories from the average people who were hardest hit by an economic crisis beyond their control, and an evocative depiction of the popular culture of the decade, McElvaine paints an epic picture of an America brought to its knees—but also brought together by people's widely shared plight.
 
In a new introduction, McElvaine draws striking parallels between the roots of the Great Depression and the economic meltdown that followed in the wake of the credit crisis of 2008. He also examines the resurgence of anti-regulation free market ideology, beginning in the Reagan era, and argues that some economists and politicians revised history and ignored the lessons of the Depression era.