Academic literature on the topic 'American Book Company'

The book entitled ‘The Amazon Way’ is a delightful book to read for many reasons. For one, it makes a departure from the past by highlighting the value of ‘disruptive thinking and doing’, which makes the company Amazon, different from others. This is a book about an ‘American corporation that actually lives it values.’

This book review appraises John Carreyrou’s non-fiction book Bad Blood. The text provides penetrating insights on Theranos, an American laboratory diagnostics company that promised to revolutionize laboratory medicine. The author’s award-winning prose relays the events leading to the eventual discovery of fraud at Theranos as well as the subsequent collapse of the company. The book can be faulted for being unripe. Publication prior to a full resolution to the Theranos affair precludes analysis of the longer-term impacts of this fraud. Notwithstanding Bad Blood’s imperfect timing, the book remains a seminal text amidst journalistic chronicles of medical innovation gone wrong.

Many people have written about the history of the Russian-American Company (RAC), some for scholars, others for a lay audience. Numerous writers have been Americans and Europeans who have had access to the records of the RAC that are held in the U.S. National Archives. But more records-preserved in Russia-were rarely accessible to Western scholars until the end of the Cold War. Dr. Andrei V. Grinëëv is one of the leading authorities on the history of Russian America. In the past two decades he has published two monographs, ten chapters in the three-volume Istoriya Russkoi Ameriki [The History of Russian America], and seventy-five articles in Russian, English, and Japanese. He writes not just about the Europeans who settled in Russia's transoceanic territories but also about Native Americans. Many of his works are unique in that he draws on both the ethnography and history of Native Americans. With regard to Russian America, he deals not only with the policies of governments and companies but with individuals as well. In pursuit of this task, Grinëëv has now written a book about everyone who had connections with Russian America. It contains more than 5,800 biographical sketches and was published in 2009. In the work below, he analyzes the writings of scholars who have tried to unravel historical details about individuals, companies, and governments that related to the Russian-American Company. This article was translated from Russian. Since a great deal of Russian literature is cited, it is important to understand the form of transliteration used with these titles. For a detailed description of the transliteration, please see the Translator's Note in the appendix.

“History of the village” is chronologically the last project in a series of major publishing projects of M. Gorky in the 1930s. The idea was not implemented. Work on the project began in February 1935. In January of this year, Gorky received a letter from Siberia, from the editor of a small Siberian newspaper N. Zharikov, who reported on the beginning of work on the history of the Siberian village. The Siberian theme as the starting point of the “History of the village” was initially rejected by Gorky. He insisted on describing “typical” villages and villages, which did not include Siberian villages. However, in a number of points of a large publishing project, the Siberian theme inevitably manifested itself, in particular, in two books that V. Ya. Zazubrin worked on. In the “History of the village” there were several major thematic blocks. A special place among them was occupied by the “Library of the collective farmer”. It was intended to be a “verbal illustration” of historical works of a popular science nature. Engaged in the “Library of the collective farmer” V. Ya. Zazubrin. He carried out the selection of texts, worked with commentators and authors of prefaces to collections. In the collection of selected chapters from the “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by A. N. Radishchev, he intended to add fragments of the diary of his Siberian journey. One of the latest versions of the plan for the “Library of the collective farmer” includes the “Book about Radishchev” by V. Ya. Zazubrin, which includes a biography of Radishchev, peasant chapters “Travels from St. Petersburg to Moscow” and excerpts from the Siberian travel diary. The Book dedicated to the Russian-American company was supposed to cover the company’s activities in Siberia. The idea of the book appeared in the plans of the series thanks to S. N. Markov, a colleague of Zazubrin in the “Siberian lights”, who in 1935 was exiled in Arkhangelsk. It was Markov who told Gorky about the part of the archive of the Russian-American company discovered in Vologda. While working on the inventory of this archive, Markov initiated his Pacific card index, on the basis of which he later wrote a number of works. The history of Russian America became the main theme of his work. V. Ya. Zazubrin’s participation in the project and Gorky’s correspondence with S. N. Markov especially contributed to the development of the Siberian theme in the “History of the village”. In the thematic and production plan of the “Library of the collective farmer” for 1937, compiled after Gorky’s death, was included the book about the Russian-American company by S. N. Markov under the editorship of V. Ya. Zazubrin. In 1947, based on his Pacific card index, Sergey Markov wrote the book “Chronicle of Alaska”.

-William Roseberry, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Peasants and capital: Dominica in the world economy. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Johns Hopkins Studies in Atlantic History and Culture, 1988. xiv + 344 pp.-Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Robert A. Myers, Dominica. Oxford, Santa Barbara, Denver: Clio Press, World Bibliographic Series, volume 82. xxv + 190 pp.-Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Robert A. Myers, A resource guide to Dominica, 1493-1986. New Haven: Human Area Files, HRA Flex Books, Bibliography Series, 1987. 3 volumes. xxxv + 649.-Stephen D. Glazier, Colin G. Clarke, East Indians in a West Indian town: San Fernando, Trinidad, 1930-1970. London: Allen and Unwin, 1986 xiv + 193 pp.-Kevin A. Yelvington, M.G. Smith, Culture, race and class in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Foreword by Rex Nettleford. Mona: Department of Extra-Mural Studies, University of the West Indies, 1984. xiv + 163 pp.-Aart G. Broek, T.F. Smeulders, Papiamentu en onderwijs: veranderingen in beeld en betekenis van de volkstaal op Curacoa. (Utrecht Dissertation), 1987. 328 p. Privately published.-John Holm, Peter A. Roberts, West Indians and their language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988 vii + 215 pp.-Kean Gibson, Francis Byrne, Grammatical relations in a radical Creole: verb complementation in Saramaccan. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, Creole Language Library, vol. 3, 1987. xiv + 294 pp.-Peter L. Patrick, Pieter Muysken ,Substrata versus universals in Creole genesis. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, Creol Language Library - vol 1, 1986. 315 pp., Norval Smith (eds)-Jeffrey P. Williams, Glenn G. Gilbert, Pidgin and Creole languages: essays in memory of John E. Reinecke. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1987. x + 502 pp.-Samuel M. Wilson, C.N. Dubelaar, The petroglyphs in the Guianas and adjacent areas of Brazil and Venezuela: an inventory. With a comprehensive biography of South American and Antillean petroglyphs. Los Angeles: The Institute of Archaeology of the University of California, Los Angeles. Monumenta Archeologica 12, 1986. xi + 326 pp.-Gary Brana-Shute, Henk E. Chin ,Surinam: politics, economics, and society. London and New York: Francis Pinter, 1987. xvii, 192 pp., Hans Buddingh (eds)-Lester D. Langley, Howard J. Wiarda ,The communist challenge in the Caribbean and Central America. With E. Evans, J. Valenta and V. Valenta. Lanham, MD: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. xiv + 249 pp., Mark Falcoff (eds)-Forrest D. Colburn, Michael Kaufman, Jamaica under Manley: dilemmas of socialism and democracy. London, Toronto, Westport: Zed Books, Between the Lines and Lawrence Hill, 1985. xvi 282 pp.-Dale Tomich, Robert Miles, Capitalism and unfree labour: anomaly or necessity? London. New York: Tavistock Publications. 1987. 250 pp.-Robert Forster, Mederic-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint-Mery, A civilization that perished: the last years of white colonial rule in Haiti. Translated, abridged and edited by Ivor D. Spencer. Lanham, New York, London: University Press of America, 1985. xviii + 295 pp.-Carolyn E. Fick, Robert Louis Stein, Léger Félicité Sonthonax: the lost sentinel of the Republic. Rutherford, Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Press, 1985. 234 pp.

Robert William Fogel and G. R. Elton. Which Road to the Past? Two Views of History. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983. Pp. vii, 136. Cloth, $14.95. Review by Stephen Kneeshaw of The School of the Ozarks. Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie. The Mind and Method of the Historian. Translated by Sian Reynolds and Ben Reynolds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981. Pp. v, 310. Paper, $9.95. Review by Richard Harvey of Ohio University. John E. O'Connor, ed. American History/ American Television: Interpreting the Video Past. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1983. Pp. 463. Cloth, $17.50; Paper, $8.95. Review by D' Ann Campbell of Indiana University. Foster Rhea Dulles & Melvyn Dubofsky. Labor in America: A History. Arlington Heights, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 1984. 4th edition. Pp. ix, 425. Cloth, $25.95. Paper, $15.95. Review by Robert W. Dubay of Bainbridge Junior College. Karen Ordahl Kupperman. Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony. Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman & Allanheld, 1984. Pp. viii, 182. Cloth, $24.95; Paper, $12.50. Review by John T. Reilly of Mount Saint Mary College. Kevin O'Reilly. Critical Thinking in American History: Exploration to Constitution. South Hamilton, Massachusetts: Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School, 1983. Pp. 86. Paper, $2.95. Teacher's Guides: Pp. 180. Paper, $12.95; Kevin O'Reilly. Critical Thinking in American History: New Republic to Civil War. South Hamilton, Massachusetts: Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School, 1984. Pp. 106. Paper, $2.95. Teacher's Guide: Pp. 190. Paper, $12.95. Review by James F. Marran of New Trier Township High School, Winnetka, Illinois. Michael J. Cassity, ed. Chains of Fear: American Race Relations Since Reconstruction. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1984. Pp. xxxv, 253. Cloth, $35.00. Review by Ann W. Ellis of Kennesaw College. L. P. Morris. Eastern Europe Since 1945. London and Exeter, New Hampshire: Heinemann Educational Books, 1984. Pp. 211. Paper, $10.00. Review by Thomas T. Lewis, Mount Senario College. John Marks. Science and the Making of the Modern World. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann Educational Books, Inc., 1983. Pp. xii, 507. Paper, $25.00. Review by Howard A. Barnes of Winston-Salem State University. Kenneth G. Alfers, Cecil Larry Pool, William F. Mugleston, eds. American's Second Century: Topical Readings, 1865-Present. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/ Hunt Publishing Co., 1984. Pp. viii, 381. Paper, $8.95. Review by Richard D. Schubart of Phillips Exeter Academy. Sam C. Sarkesian. America's Forgotten Wars: The Counterrevoltuionary Past and Lessons for the Future. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1984. Pp. xiv, 265. Cloth, $29.95. Review by Richard Selcer of Mountain View College. Edward Wagenknecht. Daughters of the Covenant: Portraits of Six Jewish Women. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1983. Pp. viii, 192. Cloth, $17.50. Review by Abraham D. Kriegel of Memphis State University. Morton Borden. Jews, Turks, and Infidels. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1984. Pp. x, 163. Cloth, $17.95. Review by Raymond J. Jirran of Thomas Nelson Community College. Richard Schlatter, ed. Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing Since 1966. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1984. Pp. xiii, 524. Cloth, $50.00. Review by Fred R. van Hartesveldt of Fort Valley State College. Simon Hornblower. The Greek World, 479-323 B.C. London and New York: Methuen, 1983. Pp. xi, 354. Cloth, $24.00; Paper, $11.95. Review by Dan Levinson of Thayer Academy, Braintree, Massachusetts. H. R. Kedward. Resistance in Vichy France. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. Paper edition 1983. Pp. ix, 311. Paper, $13.95. Review by Sanford J. Gutman of the State University of New York at Cortland.

Bruce D. Epperson, Bicycles in American Highway Planning: The Critical Years of Policy-Making 1969–1991 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2014), 248 pp., $45Carlton Reid, Roads Were Not Built for Cars: How Cyclists Were the First to Push for Good Roads & Became the Pioneers of Motoring (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2015), 360 pp., $30Karen O’Rourke, Walking and Mapping: Artists as Cartographers (London: MIT Press, 2016), 328 pp., £22.95Jason Weems, Barnstorming the Prairies: How Aerial Vision Shaped the Midwest (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015), 368 pp., 116 b&w photos, 16 color plates, $122.50 (hardback), $35 (paperback)Christopher Schaberg and Mark Yakich, eds., Airplane Reading (Alresford, UK: Zero Books, 2016), 213 pp., $22.95 (paperback)Catherine L. Phipps, Empires on the Waterfront: Japan’s Ports and Power, 1858–1899 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), 308 pp., 6 maps, 3 tables, $39.95James Longhurst, Bike Battles: A History of Sharing the American Road (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2015), 294 pp., $34.95David N. Lucsko, Junkyards, Gearheads, and Rust: Salvaging the Automotive Past (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016), 283 + xii pp., 10 illustrations, $44.95Steven E. Alford and Suzanne Ferris, An Alternative History of Bicycles and Motorcycles: Two-Wheeled Transportation and Material Culture (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016), 189 pp., $80Harald Fischer-Tiné, Pidgin-Knowledge: Wissen und Kolonialismus (Zurich and Berlin: Diaphanes, 2013), 104 pp., €10Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad (New York: Doubleday, 2016), 320 pp., $26.95

A book review dealing with the liberal arts' importance and the critiques made on the discipline taught in academic curriculum. The followings are the data about the book:Keyword:Education, Liberal Arts, American Education SystemPublisher:W.W. Norton & Company. Inc. 2015. New YorkLength:200 pagesPrice:$23.95 (hardcover)Reading rating:8 (1 = very difficult; 10 = very easy)Overall rating:3 (1 = average; 4 = outstanding)

In February 2001, Knopf Publishing Company, a division of Random House, reportedly purchased the rights to publish two novels by Stephen L. Carter for $4 million. As the Daily Variety Gotham stated, “Yale law professor Stephen L. Carter emerged from the ivory tower last week and shook the book world from its February doldrums” (Bing 43). And the New York Times wrote, “The advance is among the highest ever paid for a first novel and is all the more unusual because of the author's background. Mr. Carter, 46, is an African-American who has written several works of nonfiction, including ‘Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby’ and ‘The Culture of Disbelief‘” (Kirkpatrick, “Knopf”). Whether this purchase is considered “unusual” because it is a first novel or because the author is African American, it is part of an important shift for American literature: the jacket art, prepublication publicity, and sales materials shape this novel as a mainstream, blockbuster, best-selling legal thriller, not as an African American novel per se. The mainstream feel of Carter's novel brings up pertinent questions about race, literature, and the marketing of ethnic identity in the United States. Looking at the positioning of this novel allows us to understand how the publishers, newspaper reporters, and marketers have planted seeds that will influence the reception of the text by reviewers and readers.

SUMMARY ABSTRACTThe book discusses the socio-cultural background of the Euro-American elderly; focuses on social institutions such as family, the ethnic neighbourhood and the church; addresses programs and services; identifies program models and describes some intervention strategies. The issues discussed appear to apply to the ethnic elderly from a range of ethnic groups in addition to the ones analyzed. Besides practitioners, this book should prove of interest to researchers, policy makers and gerontology students.

The publication of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea in Life magazine, where it sold more than two million copies in 48 hours, capstones two midcentury debates about the proper format of literature (book or magazine) and the extent to which Hemingway's literary style--and modernism in general--have become synonymous with American popular culture. Simultaneously, the rise of television forces big magazines to conceptualize themselves as a “minor” form in 1950s media culture.

Camp leads the New Haven Clock Company as the company successfully builds a profitable business in inexpensive pocket watches. Factory expansions are made, the company builds a significant financial surplus, and sizable dividends are paid. Camp writes a series of three fictional sports books for boys from 1908 to 1911 and with assistance from ghostwriters publishes two more series: one, from 1911 to 1914, of six less expensive books under a pseudonym (Camp probably wrote the first book in this series) and another, from 1913 to 1915, of three books under Camp’s name (possibly all by a ghostwriter). A culture is growing around football, with a play on Broadway (The College Widow in 1904), added fight songs, homecoming festivities (beginning about 1910), and a first game at the Tournament of Roses (1902). The Intercollegiate Athletic Association becomes the NCAA and by 1909 has sixty-seven members; it is led until 1930 (except for the years 1913-16) by Palmer Pierce.

Olaudah Equiano is arguably the founder of the slave narrative, in his case one in which he explores his capture in Africa as a boy, his different masters, his conversion to evangelical Protestantism, his entrepreneurship, and his service in the navy—all requisites to being considered fully “British” at the time. This chapter explores his footnote in his Interesting Narrative acknowledging how Philadelphia Quaker abolitionist Anthony Benezet’s anthropology of West Africa informed his story, and how Benezet—who had never been to Africa—relied on the slavery-funded Library Company of Philadelphia, for books of travels to Africa for that anthropology. In doing so, it provides archival evidence of how Philadelphians exchanged their grain and other products for slaves and Caribbean slave plantation products. It also provides the first ever analysis of the library’s 1794–1812 circulation receipt book, showing the circulation of all the genres encapsulated in both men’s accounts.

This chapter recounts John Henry Comstock's 65th birthday on February 24, 1914, which he willingly celebrated. To him, it symbolized freedom from executive slavery and unfettered opportunity to do the work he loved best. The principal event in the Comstocks' lives that spring were the retirement of Henry and the 40th reunion of his class. He was very busy much of the time with correspondence in connection with the reunion and in making arrangements for the entertainment of the returning members. In addition, he was more or less anxious regarding his part in the exercises in connection with the presentation of the Comstock Memorial Library Fund. Meanwhile, in the fall, Anna Botsford Comstock was busy lecturing at Kalamazoo, Michigan, and at Dayton, Ohio. Her Pet Book, which she had written with the idea of making the lives of all sorts of pets happier, was published on December 2, 1914. She also attended the meetings of the Nature Study Society of America with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. At the same time, the Comstock Publishing Company already had enough books to make a display in the Corner Book Store of Ithaca windows.

This chapter provides an overview of the book. After documenting the Supreme Court’s movement toward ideological divisions that closely follow party lines, it explains why traditional political science models offer incomplete answers. The book then introduces a perspective based on social psychology that emphasizes the importance of elite audiences to the justices. It argues that the strongest influences on justices from outside of the Court are the elite social networks of which they are a part. Justices’ concern with their reputations in those powerful networks can dramatically shape their perspectives and their choices as decision makers in America’s highest Court.

When a biotechnology executive whose company I had often written about published a memoir, I got a chance to learn how he saw journalists—in particular, me. The executive, Michael West of Advanced Cell Technology Inc., in Worcester, Massachusetts, blamed me for some disastrous publicity that had befallen his small cloning company. On page 193 of his book, The Immortal Cell (2003), he let me have it: “Antonio Regalado is more of a detective than a reporter” (emphasis added). I think Dr. West was honestly surprised by the lengths to which I had gone to find out about his company's research. ACT was at that time pioneering a controversial technology called “therapeutic cloning.” I had gone to the patent office and delved through voluminous files. I had called just about everyone who'd ever worked with the company. I'd asked impertinent questions. I wouldn't take no for an answer. Although Dr. West's book portrays me as a somewhat dastardly fellow, being called a “detective” is one of the biggest compliments I've ever been paid. What's more, I learned from his comment that the approach to reporting I had taken was very different from that of other science journalists he'd dealt with. The fact is most science journalists are concerned with explaining science to a general audience. Reporters take difficult material and present it in a way that lay readers can understand. With so much of modern life based on science, explaining it clearly is probably our community's most important objective. But sometimes we science reporters can get a little complacent. We can be too trusting of scientists' good intentions, and we forget to be skeptical. Too often, we allow Science, Nature, and the Journal of the American Medical Association to spoon-feed us the news each week. Seth Shulman, a reporter who has covered toxic waste and government censorship of science, told me that his definition of an investigative project is “a story that doesn't want to be told.” That's why leaked reports or confidential memos so often play a role in investigative reports. Sometimes a physical paper trail is the only way to find out what people were really thinking. To be a science “detective” requires a more critical view of things.

The shooting star - Hilton Hotels have seen it all, oil boom in Texas, prohibition, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the landing on the Moon, the birth of digital age and expansion of social media, and many other events which have contributed not only to the development of business but, actually, influenced people’s lives the world over. It has been the aim of this book to tell the stories of a handful of properties which had to overcome various challenges on the path to the internationalisation of this American company. In all cases these are actually stories of people, those who created the Hilton Hotels, who made it expand, or sometimes, those who made it lose. Stories of struggle, success or defeat are not unique to Hilton, but some of the ways in which Hilton navigated through these challenges are, undeniably, worth remembering. This final chapter focuses on the key solutions employed by Hilton and its people to navigate the stormy waters of international business in the 20th Century. Historical events cannot, however, be studied in isolation from the wider socio-cultural context in which they unravelled, and the internationalisation of Hilton Hotels is no different in this respect. We have looked at the development of some of the most iconic of Hilton’s properties in this company’s early expansion and the destinations which hosted these ‘little Americas’ on their land. Yet, it is crucial to also take into consideration the wider changes which contributed to the internationalisation of other companies in the first half of the 20th Century, hospitality and tourism industry in particular.

This chapter introduces the terminology of studying alternative communities and interrogates the terms utopian, communal, and intentional as applicable to the subject of the book. Finding "intentional communities" to be the preferred term, the chapter provides five qualities that are shared by all groups who may be defined as such. An overview of the types of communities prevalent in American history follows, including religious movements such as the Shakers and Harmonists, social reform movements such as the Oneida Community and Brook Farm, and socialist experiments such as the Kaweah Co-operative Commonwealth and Llano del Rio Cooperative. The chapter explains why company towns, residential institutions, and temporary communities are not intentional communities and provides justification for the geographic limitations of the volume.

Charity is a big business and as such it should be run with business efficiency.¹ Richard Reuter, 1953 In 1990 Harold Gauer, former regional director of CARE in the American Midwest, published his professional memoirs entitled Selling Big Charity: The Story of C.A.R.E. In this book Gauer recalls his first CARE conference in the agency’s New York headquarters in 1950. Having gained the impression that “out-of-towners” like him “would do well to just keep quiet and listen,” Gauer silently observed how during the meeting “a parade of home office folk took turns telling the story of their jobs and how they did them. Which according to them was very capably indeed.” After the CARE delegates from other US cities had responded “with tales of their own special local situations and with copious advice on how to run the home office,” a group of “young intense” managers from the Lever Brothers Company showed up:...

A Way of Reading the Book of Job is Bugbee’s reflection on the story of Job from the point of view of Job himself. Despite the complete absence of any material evidence to the contrary, Job remains steadfast – laying claim to an understanding of cosmic justice both mysterious and resistant to any kind of anthropocentric moral compass.

A Lean New Technology Introduction (NTI) methodology is critical to any company that wishes to set the pace of the market, or even those that wish to keep pace with the competition. This paper describes the social and economic demands that lead forward-thinking companies to new technology introduction, as these demands were observed at five world-class companies. Since Womack, Jones and Roos’ 1990 book, The machine that changed the world, introduced the concept of Lean Production, and changed the face of America manufacturing, companies have increasingly trended toward “Lean”. That mentality has now extended beyond manufacturing into almost all aspects of the product development cycle, and into the corporate organizational structure. When a company identifies a business need, and targets a product application for the new technology, the company must then act quickly to develop, manufacture, and market the technology at pace with competitive market introductions. Review of five case studies revealed that lack of manufacturing readiness, in the form of non-satisfactory manufacturing processes, is a big culprit in the delay of technology introduction. The questions, “when will the new technologies be ready?” and “how can we integrate the new technologies into new products in a lean fashion?” continue to challenge product developers. While we do not suggest ways to address NTI in this paper, the ultimate goal of our research is to develop a methodology to address the NTI challenge.

Aim/Purpose: This paper provides the results of the preliminary analysis of the findings of an ongoing study that seeks to examine the social media use, cultural and political awareness, civic engagement, issue prioritization, and social activism of Gen Z students enrolled at four different institutional types located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The aim of this study is to look at the group as a whole as well as compare findings across populations. The institutional types under consideration include a mid-sized majority serving or otherwise referred to as a traditionally white institution (TWI) located in a small coastal city on the Atlantic Ocean, a small Historically Black University (HBCU) located in a rural area, a large community college located in a county that is a mixture of rural and suburban and which sits on the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and graduating high school students enrolled in career and technical education (CTE) programs in a large urban area. This exploration is purposed to examine the behaviors and expectations of Gen Z students within a representative American region during a time of tremendous turmoil and civil unrest in the United States. Background: Over 74 million strong, Gen Z makes up almost one-quarter of the U.S. population. They already outnumber any current living generation and are the first true digital natives. Born after 1996 and through 2012, they are known for their short attention spans and heightened ability to multi-task. Raised in the age of the smart phone, they have been tethered to digital devices from a young age with most having the preponderance of their childhood milestones commemorated online. Often called Zoomers, they are more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation and are on track to be the most well-educated generation in history. Gen Zers in the United States have been found in the research to be progressive and pro-government and viewing increasing racial and ethnic diversity as positive change. Finally, they are less likely to hold xenophobic beliefs such as the notion of American exceptionalism and superiority that have been popular with by prior generations. The United States has been in a period of social and civil unrest in recent years with concerns over systematic racism, rampant inequalities, political polarization, xenophobia, police violence, sexual assault and harassment, and the growing epidemic of gun violence. Anxieties stirred by the COVID-19 pandemic further compounded these issues resulting in a powder keg explosion occurring throughout the summer of 2020 and leading well into 2021. As a result, the United States has deteriorated significantly in the Civil Unrest Index falling from 91st to 34th. The vitriol, polarization, protests, murders, and shootings have all occurred during Gen Z’s formative years, and the limited research available indicates that it has shaped their values and political views. Methodology: The Mid-Atlantic region is a portion of the United States that exists as the overlap between the northeastern and southeastern portions of the country. It includes the nation’s capital, as well as large urban centers, small cities, suburbs, and rural enclaves. It is one of the most socially, economically, racially, and culturally diverse parts of the United States and is often referred to as the “typically American region.” An electronic survey was administered to students from 2019 through 2021 attending a high school dual enrollment program, a minority serving institution, a majority serving institution, and a community college all located within the larger mid-Atlantic region. The survey included a combination of multiple response, Likert scaled, dichotomous, open ended, and ordinal questions. It was developed in the Survey Monkey system and reviewed by several content and methodological experts in order to examine bias, vagueness, or potential semantic problems. Finally, the survey was pilot tested prior to implementation in order to explore the efficacy of the research methodology. It was then modified accordingly prior to widespread distribution to potential participants. The surveys were administered to students enrolled in classes taught by the authors all of whom are educators. Participation was voluntary, optional, and anonymous. Over 800 individuals completed the survey with just over 700 usable results, after partial completes and the responses of individuals outside of the 18-24 age range were removed. Findings: Participants in this study overwhelmingly were users of social media. In descending order, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Tik Tok were the most popular social media services reported as being used. When volume of use was considered, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Twitter were the most cited with most participants reporting using Instagram and Snapchat multiple times a day. When asked to select which social media service they would use if forced to choose just one, the number one choice was YouTube followed by Instagram and Snapchat. Additionally, more than half of participants responded that they have uploaded a video to a video sharing site such as YouTube or Tik Tok. When asked about their familiarity with different technologies, participants overwhelmingly responded that they are “very familiar” with smart phones, searching the Web, social media, and email. About half the respondents said that they were “very familiar” with common computer applications such as the Microsoft Office Suite or Google Suite with another third saying that they were “somewhat familiar.” When asked about Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Blackboard, Course Compass, Canvas, Edmodo, Moodle, Course Sites, Google Classroom, Mindtap, Schoology, Absorb, D2L, itslearning, Otus, PowerSchool, or WizIQ, only 43% said they were “very familiar” with 31% responding that they were “somewhat familiar.” Finally, about half the students were either “very” or “somewhat” familiar with operating systems such as Windows. A few preferences with respect to technology in the teaching and learning process were explored in the survey. Most students (85%) responded that they want course announcements and reminders sent to their phones, 76% expect their courses to incorporate the use of technology, 71% want their courses to have course websites, and 71% said that they would rather watch a video than read a book chapter. When asked to consider the future, over 81% or respondents reported that technology will play a major role in their future career. Most participants considered themselves “informed” or “well informed” about current events although few considered themselves “very informed” or “well informed” about politics. When asked how they get their news, the most common forum reported for getting news and information about current events and politics was social media with 81% of respondents reporting. Gen Z is known to be an engaged generation and the participants in this study were not an exception. As such, it came as no surprise to discover that, in the past year more than 78% of respondents had educated friends or family about an important social or political issue, about half (48%) had donated to a cause of importance to them, more than a quarter (26%) had participated in a march or rally, and a quarter (26%) had actively boycotted a product or company. Further, about 37% consider themselves to be a social activist with another 41% responding that aren’t sure if they would consider themselves an activist and only 22% saying that they would not consider themselves an activist. When asked what issues were important to them, the most frequently cited were Black Lives Matter (75%), human trafficking (68%), sexual assault/harassment/Me Too (66.49%), gun violence (65.82%), women’s rights (65.15%), climate change (55.4%), immigration reform/deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) (48.8%), and LGBTQ+ rights (47.39%). When the schools were compared, there were only minor differences in social media use with the high school students indicating slightly more use of Tik Tok than the other participants. All groups were virtually equal when it came to how informed they perceived themselves about current events and politics. Consensus among groups existed with respect to how they get their news, and the community college and high school students were slightly more likely to have participated in a march, protest, or rally in the last 12 months than the university students. The community college and high school students were also slightly more likely to consider themselves social activists than the participants from either of the universities. When the importance of the issues was considered, significant differences based on institutional type were noted. Black Lives Matter (BLM) was identified as important by the largest portion of students attending the HBCU followed by the community college students and high school students. Less than half of the students attending the TWI considered BLM an important issue. Human trafficking was cited as important by a higher percentage of students attending the HBCU and urban high school than at the suburban and rural community college or the TWI. Sexual assault was considered important by the majority of students at all the schools with the percentage a bit smaller from the majority serving institution. About two thirds of the students at the high school, community college, and HBCU considered gun violence important versus about half the students at the majority serving institution. Women’s rights were reported as being important by more of the high school and HBCU participants than the community college or TWI. Climate change was considered important by about half the students at all schools with a slightly smaller portion reporting out the HBCU. Immigration reform/DACA was reported as important by half the high school, community college, and HBCU participants with only a third of the students from the majority serving institution citing it as an important issue. With respect to LGBTQ rights approximately half of the high school and community college participants cited it as important, 44.53% of the HBCU students, and only about a quarter of the students attending the majority serving institution. Contribution and Conclusion: This paper provides a timely investigation into the mindset of generation Z students living in the United States during a period of heightened civic unrest. This insight is useful to educators who should be informed about the generation of students that is currently populating higher education. The findings of this study are consistent with public opinion polls by Pew Research Center. According to the findings, the Gen Z students participating in this study are heavy users of multiple social media, expect technology to be integrated into teaching and learning, anticipate a future career where technology will play an important role, informed about current and political events, use social media as their main source for getting news and information, and fairly engaged in social activism. When institutional type was compared the students from the university with the more affluent and less diverse population were less likely to find social justice issues important than the other groups. Recommendations for Practitioners: During disruptive and contentious times, it is negligent to think that the abounding issues plaguing society are not important to our students. Gauging the issues of importance and levels of civic engagement provides us crucial information towards understanding the attitudes of students. Further, knowing how our students gain information, their social media usage, as well as how informed they are about current events and political issues can be used to more effectively communicate and educate. Recommendations for Researchers: As social media continues to proliferate daily life and become a vital means of news and information gathering, additional studies such as the one presented here are needed. Additionally, in other countries facing similarly turbulent times, measuring student interest, awareness, and engagement is highly informative. Impact on Society: During a highly contentious period replete with a large volume of civil unrest and compounded by a global pandemic, understanding the behaviors and attitudes of students can help us as higher education faculty be more attuned when it comes to the design and delivery of curriculum. Future Research This presentation presents preliminary findings. Data is still being collected and much more extensive statistical analyses will be performed.