Best Selling Books by Michael Meyer

Comprehensive and balanced history of the Reform Movement. The movement for religious reform in modern Judaism represents one of the most significant phenomena in Jewish history during the last two hundred years. It introduced new theological conceptions and innovations in liturgy and religious practice that affected millions of Jews, first in central and Western Europe and later in the United States. Today Reform Judaism is one of the three major branches of Jewish faith. Bringing to life the ideas, issues, and personalities that have helped to shape modern Jewry, Response to Modernity offers a comprehensive and balanced history of the Reform Movement, tracing its changing configuration and self-understanding from the beginnings of modernization in late 18th century Jewish thought and practice through Reform''s American renewal in the 1970s.

"Literature to Go is the long-trusted anthology, The Bedford Introduction to Literature, sized and priced to go...[it] is a brief and inexpensive collection of stories, poems, and plays supported by class-tested, reliable pedagogy and unique features, that bring literature to life for students"--Pref.

In the tradition of In Patagonia and Great Plains, Michael Meyer''s In Manchuria is a scintillating combination of memoir, contemporary reporting, and historical research, presenting a unique profile of China''s legendary northeast territory. For three years, Meyer rented a home in the rice-farming community of Wasteland, hometown to his wife''s family. Their personal saga mirrors the tremendous change most of rural China is undergoing, in the form of a privately held rice company that has built new roads, introduced organic farming, and constructed high-rise apartments into which farmers can move in exchange for their land rights. Once a commune, Wasteland is now a company town, a phenomenon happening across China that Meyer documents for the first time; indeed, not since Pearl Buck wrote The Good Earth has anyone brought rural China to life as Meyer has here. Amplifying the story of family and Wasteland, Meyer takes us on a journey across Manchuria''s past, a history that explains much about contemporary China--from the fall of the last emperor to Japanese occupation and Communist victory. Through vivid local characters, Meyer illuminates the remnants of the imperial Willow Palisade, Russian and Japanese colonial cities and railways, and the POW camp into which a young American sergeant parachuted to free survivors of the Bataan Death March. In Manchuria is a rich and original chronicle of contemporary China and its people.

Journalist Michael Meyer has spent his adult life in China, first in a small village as a Peace Corps volunteer, the last decade in Beijing--where he has witnessed the extraordinary transformation the country has experienced in that time. For the past two years he has been completely immersed in the ancient city, living on one of its famed hutong in a century-old courtyard home he shares with several families, teaching English at a local elementary school--while all around him "progress" closes in as the neighborhood is methodically destroyed to make way for high-rise buildings, shopping malls, and other symbols of modern, urban life. The city, he shows, has been demolished many times before; however, he writes, "the epitaph for Beijing will read: born 1280, died 2008...what emperors, warlords, Japanese invaders, and Communist planners couldn''t eradicate, the market economy can." The Last Days of Old Beijing tells the story of this historic city from the inside out-through the eyes of those whose lives are in the balance: the Widow who takes care of Meyer; his students and fellow teachers, the first-ever description of what goes on in a Chinese public school; the local historian who rallies against the government. The tension of preservation vs. modernization--the question of what, in an ancient civilization, counts as heritage, and what happens when a billion people want to live the way Americans do--suffuse Meyer''s story.

The Bedford Introduction to Literature is a best-seller for a reason: It brings literature to life for students — helping to make them lifelong readers and better writers. Classic works drawn from many periods and cultures exist alongside a hefty representation of today’s authors, including women, writers of color, and voices that reflect the quirkiness and humor of modern life. There is plenty of support for students, with a dozen chapters of critical reading and writing support, helpful sample close readings, writing assignments, and student papers. And, because everyone teaches and learns a little differently, there are lots of options for working with the literature, including in-depth chapters on major authors and case studies on individual works and themes that everyone can relate to.

The Bedford Introduction to Literature is a best-seller for a reason: It brings literature to life for students, helping to make them lifelong readers and better writers. Classic works drawn from many periods and cultures appear alongside a strong showing from today’s notable authors. There is plenty of support for students, with a dozen chapters of critical reading and writing support, helpful sample close readings, writing assignments, and student papers. And, because everyone teaches and learns a little differently, there are lots of options for working with the literature, including case studies on individual works and themes that everyone can relate to. In-depth chapters on major authors like Flannery O’Connor and Emily Dickinson take students deeper into their work, and the new tenth edition features a chapter on the fiction of Dagoberto Gilb, created in collaboration with the author himself — one more way that the anthology showcases literature as a living, changing art form.

The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature is a best-seller for a reason: it brings literature to life for students — helping to make them lifelong readers and better writers. Classic works from many periods and cultures exist alongside a diverse representation of today''s authors. Support for students includes a dozen chapters of critical reading and writing, with plenty of sample close readings, writing assignments, and student papers. And, because everyone teaches a little differently, there are lots of options for working with the literature, including in-depth chapters on major authors and case studies on individual works and themes that everyone can relate to. New to this edition are casebooks on short fiction and the natural world and a chapter created with Billy Collins. This anthology is now available with video! Learn more about VideoCentral for Literature.

''Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!'' This declamation by president Ronald Reagan when visiting Berlin in 1987 is widely cited as the clarion call that brought the Cold War to an end. The West had won, so this version of events goes, because the West had stood firm. American and Western European resoluteness had brought an evil empire to its knees. Michael Meyer, in this extraordinarily compelling account of the revolutions that roiled Eastern Europe in 1989, begs to differ. Drawing together breathtakingly vivid, on-the-ground accounts of the rise of Solidarity in Poland, the stealth opening of the Hungarian border, the Velvet Revolution in Prague, and the collapse of the infamous wall in Berlin, Meyer shows that western intransigence was only one of the many factors that provoked such world-shaking change. More important, Meyer contends, were the stands taken by individuals in the thick of the struggle, leaders such as poet and playwright Vaclav Havel in Prague; Lech Walesa; the quiet and determined reform prime minister in Budapest, Miklos Nemeth; and the man who realized his empire was already lost and decided, with courage and intelligence, to let it go in peace, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. Michael Meyer captures these heady days in all their rich drama and unpredictability. In doing so he provides not just a thrilling chronicle of perhaps the most important year of the 20th century but also a crucial refutation of American mythology and a misunderstanding of history that was deliberately employed to lead the United States into some of the intractable conflicts it faces today.

PACKAGE THIS TITLE WITH OUR 2016 MLA SUPPLEMENT, Documenting Sources in MLA Style (package ISBN-13: 9781319088606). Get the most recent updates on MLA citation in a convenient, 40-page resource based on The MLA Handbook, 8th Edition, with plenty of models. Browse our catalog or contact your representative for a full listing of updated titles and packages, or to request a custom ISBN. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature is a best-seller for a reason: It brings literature to life for students, helping to make them lifelong readers and better writers. Classic works drawn from many periods and cultures appear alongside a strong showing from today’s authors. There is plenty of support for students, with a dozen chapters of critical reading and writing support, helpful sample close readings, writing assignments, and student papers. And, because everyone teaches and learns a little differently, there are lots of options for working with the literature, including case studies on individual works and themes that everyone can relate to. In-depth chapters on major authors like Flannery O’Connor and Emily Dickinson take students deeper into their work, and the new tenth edition features a chapter on the fiction of Dagoberto Gilb, created in collaboration with the author himself—one more way that the anthology showcases literature as a living, changing art form.

′This volume is the most comprehensive overview to date of sociologically orientated approaches to text and discourse analysis and is worth reading even for those who are interested only in purely linguistiv approaches to text and discourse. Its main merit, I think, is that it intorduces approaches which up to now have hardley been admitted into the universe of scientific discourse′ - Discourse Studies Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis provides the most comprehensive overview currently available of linguistic and sociological approaches to text and discourse analysis. Among the 10 linguistic and sociological models surveyed in this book some of the more important are Grounded Theory, Content Analysis, Conversation Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis. The book presents each approach according to a standardised format, which allows for direct systematic comparisons. The fully annotated lists of sources provide readers with an additional means of evaluation of the competing analytical methods. Interdisciplinary and international in its aims, Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis suggests the benefits both linguists and sociologists will derive from a more intimate knowledge of each others′ methods and procedures.

''Makes the case for Annie Besant as a truly eminent Victorian, as brilliant and fearless as she was beautiful'' The Times _________ London, 1877. A petite young woman stands before an all-male jury, about to risk everything. She takes a breath, and opens her defence. Annie Besant and her confidant Charles Bradlaugh are on trial for the crime of publishing a birth control pamphlet. Remarkably, Annie is defending herself against obscenity charges 45 years before women can practice law in England. At a time when women were expected to be obedient, Annie''s fearless voice was a sensation and spotlighted issues of sex, censorship and morality. A Dirty, Filthy Book tells the gripping story of a little-known pioneer who refused to accept the role that the establishment assigned her, and chose instead to resist.

From the highly praised author of The Last Days of Old Beijing, a brilliant portrait of China today and a memoir of coming of age in a country in transition. In 1995, at the age of twenty-three, Michael Meyer joined the Peace Corps and, after rejecting offers to go to seven other countries, was sent to a tiny town in Sichuan. Knowing nothing about China, or even how to use chopsticks, Meyer wrote Chinese words up and down his arms so he could hold conversations, and, per a Communist dean''s orders, jumped into teaching his students about the Enlightenment, the stock market, and Beatles lyrics. Soon he realized his Chinese counterparts were just as bewildered by China''s changes as he was. Thus began an impassioned immersion into Chinese life. With humor and insight, Meyer puts readers in his novice shoes, introducing a fascinating cast of characters while winding across the length and breadth of his adopted country --from a terrifying bus attack on arrival, to remote Xinjiang and Tibet, into Beijing''s backstreets and his future wife''s Manchurian family, and headlong into efforts to protect China''s vanishing heritage at places like "Sleeping Dragon," the world''s largest panda preserve. In the last book of his China trilogy, Meyer tells a story both deeply personal and universal, as he gains greater – if never complete – assurance, capturing what it feels like to learn a language, culture and history from the ground up. Both funny and relatable, The Road to Sleeping Dragon is essential reading for anyone interested in China''s history, and how daily life plays out there today.

Teaching English covers all of the major issues and current trends in language learning and teaching, such as the trends toward empiricism, constructivism, differentiation, learner- and output-orientation, intercultural learning, and the use of multimedia. This book bridges the gap between the suggestions of theoretical approaches to foreign language teaching and the practical needs of both the educators (regardless of the institutions they are teaching and the experiences they have gathered) as well as the students. It will help readers profit from the materials and reflected practices for use in their own classrooms. And lastly, the book offers optimal preparation for exams in university courses and in teacher-training seminars.

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This ebook has been updated to provide you with the latest guidance on documenting sources in MLA style and follows the guidelines set forth in the MLA Handbook, 9th edition (April 2021). Become a lifelong reader and improve your writing skills as Bedford Introduction to Literature exposes you to classic and contemporary writers while thorough support and activities give you ample practice.

PACKAGE THIS TITLE WITH OUR 2016 MLA SUPPLEMENT, Documenting Sources in MLA Style (package ISBN-13: 9781319086251). Get the most recent updates on MLA citation in a convenient, 40-page resource based on The MLA Handbook, 8th Edition, with plenty of models. Browse our catalog or contact your representative for a full listing of updated titles and packages, or to request a custom ISBN. The Bedford Introduction to Literature is a best-seller for a reason: It brings literature to life for students, helping to make them lifelong readers and better writers. Classic works drawn from many periods and cultures--by the authors you love to teach--appear alongside a strong selection of today''s notable writers. There is ample support for students, with a dozen chapters of critical reading and writing support, helpful sample close readings, writing assignments, and student papers. And, because everyone teaches and learns a little differently, there are lots of options for working with the literature, including case studies on individual works and themes that everyone can relate to. In-depth chapters on major authors like Flannery O''Connor and Robert Frost take students deeper into their work, and chapters on the fiction of Dagoberto Gilb and the poetry of Billy Collins and Julia Alvarez--created in collaboration with the authors themselves--are one more way that the anthology showcases literature as a living, changing art form. Featuring a new thematic case study on war fiction and a new cultural case study on John Patrick Shanley''s celebrated play Doubt--a proven success in the classroom--the eleventh edition helps students draw lasting connections between the literature they read and the world around them