Robert Gordon

Examines the economic growth of the United States since the Civil War, arguing that the rate of growth between 1870 and 1970 cannot be repeated and that a number of issues are further stagnating the already slow rate of productivity growth. "In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, home appliances, motor vehicles, air travel,...

In the summer of 1968 television news changed forever. Dead last in the ratings, ABC hired two towering public intellectuals to debate each other during the Democratic and Republican national conventions. William F. Buckley Jr. was a leading light of the new conservative movement. A Democrat and cousin to Jackie Onassis, Gore Vidal was a leftist novelist and polemicist. Armed with deep-seated distrust and enmity, Vidal and Buckley believed each other’s...

The fabled city of Memphis has been essential to American music--home of the blues, the birthplace of rock and roll, a soul music capital. We know the greatest hits, but celebrated author Robert Gordon takes us to the people and places history has yet to record. A Memphis native, he whiles away time in a crumbling duplex with blues legend Furry Lewis, stays up late with barrelhouse piano player Mose Vinson, and sips homemade whiskey at Junior Kimbrough's...

"If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off watching some other movie," warns our narrator, Lemony Snicket. "In this movie," he continues gravely, "not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle." This is the story of the Baudelaire children -- three "clever and reasonably attractive orphans"--Who embark on a shaky adventure after their home burns down, killing...

Trouble ensues when a motorcycle gang stops in a small southern town while heading to the races at Daytona.

Four years after agents J and K averted an intergalactic disaster J is still working for the MIB while K has returned to the comforts of civilian life. While investigating a seemingly routine crime, J uncovers a diabolical plot masterminded by Serleena, an evil Kylothian monster who disguises herself as a sexy lingerie model. It's a race against the clock as J must find and convince K--who not only has no memory of his time spent with the agency,...

Charts the history of the blues from its rural roots in the American South, focusing on the key musicians and singers who brought it recognition worldwide.