Research & Innovation

When it was first published in 1982, A Rhetoric of Argument developed a ground-breaking new approach to teaching argument. The "stasis approach" pioneered by Fahnestock and Secor distinguished among the four basic questions that arguments are written to answer: What is it? (Definition arguments); How did it get that way? (Causal arguments); Is it good or bad? (Evaluation arguments); What should we do about it? (Proposal arguments). These four questions, now standard in many argument texts, give students a constructive, engaging way to analyze readings by other writers and to construct their own arguments.

Set in the islands of the Malay Archipelago, Victory tells the story of a disillusioned Swede, Axel Heyst, who rescues Lena, a young English musician, from the clutches of a brutish German hotel owner. Seeking refuge at Heyst's remote island retreat on Samburan, the couple is soon besieged by three villains dispatched by the enraged hotelier. The arrival on the island of this trio of fiends sets off a terrifying series of events that ultimately ends in catastrophe. Edited, with notes and introduction, by Peter Mallios.

The classic account of the slave trade by native Africa, former slave, and loyal British subject, Olaudah Equiano. An exciting and often terrifying adventure story, as well as an important precursor to such famous nineteenth-century slave narratives as Frederick Douglass's autobiographies, The Interesting Narrative recounts Equiano's kidnapping in Africa at the age of ten through his later life as a leading and respected figure in the antislavery movement in England. The Interesting Narrative is a work of enduring literary and historical value.

From sumptuous illuminated and bejeweled medieval manuscripts to Gutenberg and the invention of movable type; from the diverse arts and crafts of bookmaking to the building of magnificent libraries for housing treasured volumes; from the ancient epic of Gilgamesh to the plays of Shakespeare and the tales of Beatrix Potter; and from the earliest illustrated books to revolutionary science texts.

The quality of scholarship, easy-to-navigate format, and vibrant supplementary features bring the ancient text to life.

The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Prizes have been awarded annually since 1921.

"James Hoch's poems contain an eerie and clarifying power that reminds that reminds me of Chardin's still lifes. Lake Chardin, Hoch celebrates the beauty and fragility of life by fixing on the luminous details of mortality. He does so through a dense but elegant syntx. Unlike most first books, experience drives Hoch's poems. A PARADE OF HANDS is so sure of itslef that raders will think of James Hoch's achievement and accomplishment rather than of his promise and potential"--Michael Collier.

Eighteen-year-old Lainey has a lot to deal with: her mother’s recent suicide, caring for her behaviorally challenging five-year-old adopted brother, the reappearance of her long-alienated older sister, and a too-perfect boyfriend who wants her to express her emotions. While this could make for a snowballing plotline of issues, Hoxter instead carefully balances real problems and creates a compelling character who develops some emotional maturity even as she gives up the independence she values. Without overexplaining, the author allows the reader access to Lainey’s motivations and offers indications of when she might be a less than entirely reliable narrator. The teen characters are fully developed, while the relative flatness of the adults can be attributed to the story being told from Lainey’s viewpoint. Whether teen readers share any of Lainey’s specific issues or not, they will appreciate the realism of her approach and response to conflicting demands. Grades 8-10. --Francisca Goldsmith

“Rich with imagery, with longing, memory, and self-assertion.”
--Hubbub

Selma detests my small considerations of strangers. When she catches me nodding at the panhandlers she ignores, or opening doors for women I don't know, she says nothing, but holds herself tall and aloof. She is doing it for the both of us. She is compensating for what she believes is a weakness in her husband that, even in this day and age, a black man still cannot afford. And she may be right. But at this stage of my life I feel not so much black or male, middle-aged or well-to-do or professional, as incomplete. I am son to my father, father to my boys, husband to my unhappy wife, but somehow more lost than found in the mix.