As Canadians, we remember the stories told to us in high-school history class as condensed images of the past--the glorious Mountie, the fearsome Native, the Last Spike. National Dreams is an incisive study of the most persistent icons and stories in Canadian history, and how they inform our sense of national identity: the fundamental beliefs that we Canadians hold about ourselves. National Dreams is the story of our stories; the myths and truths...

From cultural icon Margaret Atwood comes a brilliant collection of essays - funny, erudite, endlessly curious, uncannily prescient - which seek answers to Burning Questions such as: Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories? How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating? How can we live on our planet? Is it true? And is it fair? In over 50 pieces Atwood aims her prodigious intellect and impish humour at the world, and reports...

Dedek paints a complex portrait of America's most famous highway.

In these wide-ranging essays, Erik Davis explores the codes--spiritual, cultural, and embodied--that people use to escape the limitation of their lives and enrich their experience of the world. These include Asian religious traditions and West African trickster gods, Western occult and esoteric lore, postmodern theory and psychedelic science, as well as festival scenes such as Burning Man (of which Davis is the best-known chronicler). Articles on...

Do you know the name of the Italian-American that the U.S. government now recognizes as the true inventor of the telephone? Do you know the name of the Tuscan colonist who Thomas Jefferson paraphrased in his famous all men are created equal clause in the Declaration of Independence? Did you know that if you wereItalian-American in the 1800s and early 1900s you were of the ethnicity second most likey to be lynched? More than likely, you answered, No,...

From its anarchic early days to its present dreams of world domination, this is the untold story of Burning Man-the most popular, unique, and enduring countercultural event of recent times in which alternative lifestyle enthusiasts erect a giant statue and construct a temporary city to live in for about a week in the Nevada desert. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world have made the dusty pilgrimage to Black Rock City to take part...