In the sixth novel in Jerry Apps's "Ames County series," a proposed frac sand mine in the local community park divides small-town neighbors into factions.

In this combination memoir and craft book, award-winning author Jerry Apps shares the next phase in his life story begun in Limping through Life and Once a Professor. Beginning with a boyhood surrounded by storytellers, Jerry takes readers along on his path to becoming one of the Midwest’s best-known and most revered writers. In characteristic no-nonsense style, he shares the joys, disappointments, and frustrations of the writing life and describes the genesis and creation of many of his best-known books. In recounting his nearly six-decade writing career, Jerry provides an insider’s view into the creative process, delving into sources for ideas, research strategies, and guidelines and essential tools for writing. Along the way he recalls his relationships with publishers, editors, TV producers, librarians, booksellers, and others and shares a scrapbook’s worth of stories—some funny, some heartwarming, a few of them harrowing—from the road. A book for book lovers!

A first-of-its-kind handbook, allowing the reader to combine the processes of critical and creative thinking with a detailed discussion of the environmental challenges facing our planet Planting an Idea is part guidebook for better critical and creative thinking and part overview of the environmental challenges that face our planet today. It is designed to help readers young and old examine and develop opinions on a variety of environmental issues based on substance, creativity, and fact. Apps and Kassulke take the reader through an examination of critical and creative thinking, providing a foundation for these skills— a foundation that can be used in all matter of public discourse. They then provide a brief history of the environmental movement, followed by a deep exploration of various environmental issues, ranging from climate change to land use to clean air and water. In each section, Apps and Kassulke show how the processes of critical and creative thinking can be used to evaluate the issues and define potential actions and solutions. Inside, a wide variety of topics are covered, including: Agriculture Endangered Species Land Use Air Quality And lots more This book allows readers to better understand their positions, developing the tools they need to provide evidence that is accurate and reliable and to consider other perspectives along the way. An essential read for anyone interested in protecting the environment, Planting an Idea will enable readers to unlock ways to navigate some of today' s most pressing and important challenges.

In Delta Empire: Lee Wilson and the Transformation of Agriculture in the New South Jeannie Whayne employs the fascinating history of a powerful plantation owner in the Arkansas delta to recount the evolution of southern agriculture from the late nineteenth century through World War II. After his father’s death in 1870, Robert E. “Lee” Wilson inherited 400 acres of land in Mississippi County, Arkansas. Over his lifetime, he transformed that inheritance into a 50,000-acre lumber operation and cotton plantation. Early on, Wilson saw an opportunity in the swampy local terrain, which sold for as little as fifty cents an acre, to satisfy an expanding national market for Arkansas forest reserves. He also led the fundamental transformation of the landscape, involving the drainage of tens of thousands of acres of land, in order to create the vast agricultural empire he envisioned. A consummate manager, Wilson employed the tenancy and sharecropping system to his advantage while earning a reputation for fair treatment of laborers, a reputation—Whayne suggests—not entirely deserved. He cultivated a cadre of relatives and employees from whom he expected absolute devotion. Leveraging every asset during his life and often deeply in debt, Wilson saved his company from bankruptcy several times, leaving it to the next generation to successfully steer the business through the challenges of the 1930s and World War II. Delta Empire traces the transition from the labor-intensive sharecropping and tenancy system to the capital-intensive neo-plantations of the post–World War II era to the portfolio plantation model. Through Wilson’s story Whayne provides a compelling case study of strategic innovation and the changing economy of the South in the late nineteenth century.

In this autobiography, John Reynolds recounts his fascinating life story and reflects on the major events and ideas of his time. The book covers a wide range of topics, from politics and society to religion and philosophy. Reynolds provides a unique perspective on the world of the mid-19th century, and his insights remain relevant to this day. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.