George A. Romero's classic 1968 film, "Night of the Living Dead", introduced a new era of gutmunching cinematic mayhem and inspired legions of directors and writers, among them Quentin Tarantino and George Lucas. John A. Russo co-wrote the screenplay for "Night of the Living Dead" and turned it into two blood-drenched novels, now combined in one gory, chilling volume.

Once the symbol of a robust steel industry and blue-collar economy, Youngstown, Ohio, and its famous Jeannette Blast Furnace have become key icons in the tragic tale of American deindustrialization. Sherry Lee Linkon and John Russo examine the inevitable tension between those discordant visions, which continue to exert great power over Steeltown's citizens as they struggle to redefine their lives.

When "the Jenny" was shut down in 1978, 50,000 Youngstown workers lost their jobs, cutting the heart out of the local economy. Even as the community organized a nationally recognized effort to save the mills, the city was rocked by economic devastation, runaway crime, and mob scandal, problems that persist twenty-five years later. In the midst of these struggles the Jenny remained standing as a proud symbol of the community's glory days, still a dominant force in the construction of both individual and collective identities in Youngstown.

Focusing on stories and images that both reflect and perpetuate how Youngstown understands itself as a community, Sherry Lee Linkon and John Russo have forged a historical and cultural study of the relationship between community, memory, work, and conflict. Drawing on written texts, visual images, sculptures, films, songs, and interviews with people who have lived and worked in Youngstown, the authors show the importance of memory in forming the collective identity of a place.

"Steeltown, U.S.A." is a richly developed portrait of a place, showing how images of the Jenny and of Youngstown have been used in national media and connecting these representations to the broader public conversation about work and place: Bruce Springsteen's song "Youngstown," the book Journey to Nowhere, and other pop culture artifacts have helped make Youngstown the symbolic epicenter of American deindustrialization. And while many people see the need to get over the past and on with the future, in rushing to erase the difficult parts of Youngstown's history they might also forget the powerful events that made the city so important, such as the struggles for economic and social justice that improved the lives of steelworkers.

This multifaceted study of the meaning of work and place in one community pointedly depicts the relationships among economic development, media representations, and community life. As we see how people's faith in the value of their work dwindled away in Youngstown, their stories can help us understand not only how the meaning of work has changed but also why the changing meaning of work matters.

From legendary horror and suspense writer JOHN RUSSO comes a harrowing tale where no one is safe

Dealey Plaza is one of the most notorious places in America, and when youthful conspiracy buffs go there in 1964 to stage their own reenactment of the Kennedy Assassination, four of them are brutally murdered -- the first victims of a hate-filled legacy that continues for four more decades.

The survivors of that long-ago Dallas trip, each of them now icons of the American way of life, are about to be honored -- or killed.

Who will live and who will die? Will it be country-western star Lori McCoy? Her loving husband? Her scheming ex-husband? Or the case-hardened FBI agent and longtime friend who risks his life trying to protect them?

This is JOHN RUSSO at his best

"From the Prologue: "

Dealey Plaza is one of the most notorious places in America, and in the spring of 1964 I went there with some college pals, conspiracy buffs, who wanted me to help them film their own version of the Kennedy Assassination.

On the way home, four of them were murdered and their footage went up in flames.

It was the first link in a chain of violent death that spanned four decades and caused me to abandon all my youthful hopes and dreams.

As the years went by, some of us who had survived that trip became rich, some became famous or notorious, and some of us were entangled in tricky or dangerous situations that life had thrown our way.

Now we were gathered together for Homecoming Weekend 2000 at Belmont University.

But a killer was waiting for us.

And he was nursing a deadly grudge that had its roots in the trip to Dallas we had embarked on long ago when we were young, adventurous and innocent.

The zombie apocalypse can really put a downer on your holiday... 38 holiday-themed zombie stories from new and established authors including Night of the Living Dead co-writer, John Russo, Tony Burgess, Shaun Jeffrey, Rod Glenn, Ian McKinnon, Matt Hilton, David Dunwoody, Wayne Simmons, Bowie V Ibarra, Joe McKinney, Remy Porter, A P Fuchs and Eric S Brown. Over 500 pages crammed full of flesh-eating horror and dark humour from the cream of UK, US and Canadian talent. Theme parks, serial killers, seaside resorts, Christmas, Thanksgiving and fishing trips. You'll scream, you'll laugh and you might even shed a tear... Holiday zombie horror has never been so entertaining.

In celebration of the classic motion picture that defined a unique genre of horror, award-winning author Christopher Andrews brings his unique talents to this blood-chilling novelization. Join Barbra, Ben, Tom and Judy, and the Coopers as they struggle to survive through the night surrounded by legions of the living dead.

In The Future without a Past, John Paul Russo goes beyond currently given reasons for the decline of the humanities and searches out its root causes in the technologization of everyday life. His main premise is that we are undergoing a transformation at the hands of technological imperatives such as rationalization, universalism, monism, and autonomy. The interface between ourselves and nature has thickened to such a degree that we live increasingly within a world of technology, not a world of nature. According to Russo, technological values have actually eroded human values instead of "humanizing" them. What are the implications of this significant shift for the humanities, traditionally seen as guardian of the human? Russo addresses this question by situating the decline of the humanities within the larger social and historical panorama. He explores how technological values have infiltrated the humanities to the point of weakening their instruction and undermining their force; at the same time, he shows how the humanities have resisted these trends and can continue to do so. Russo believes that if we understand how technology "works" and the nature of its powers, we will then know in which realms it must be accepted and where it should be resisted. Russo outlines the components of the technological system and examines their impact on the educational system. He also discusses the loss of historical memory, including the so-called loss of the self and the transformation of the library. He studies the parallels between technological and literary values in criticism and theory, and he concludes with a look at the writings of Don DeLillo, one of the most prominent contemporary novelists.DeLillo's exploration of technology in American life is matched by a powerful critique from a broadly humanistic and religious perspective, serving to summarize the themes of the book as a whole. The Future without a Past will appeal to scholars and students of literary studies, intellectual and cultural history, philosophy, ethics, media studies, and American studies, as well as to general readers who are seeking deeper insights into today's cultural debates.

"We put the working class, in all its varieties, at the center of our work. The new working-class studies is not only about the labor movement, or about workers of any particular kind, or workers in any particular place even in the workplace. Instead, we ask questions about how class works for people at work, at home, and in the community. We explore how class both unites and divides working-class people, which highlights the importance of understanding how class shapes and is shaped by race, gender, ethnicity, and place. We reflect on the common interests as well as the divisions between the most commonly imagined version of the working class industrial, blue-collar workers and workers in the 'new economy' whose work and personal lives seem, at first glance, to place them solidly in the middle class." from the Introduction

In John Russo and Sherry LeeLinkon's book, contributors trace the origins of the new working-class studies, explore how it is being developed both within and across fields, and identify key themes and issues. Historians, economists, geographers, sociologists, and scholars of literature and cultural studies introduce many and varied aspects of this emerging field. Throughout, they consider how the study of working-class life transforms traditional disciplines and stress the importance of popular and artistic representations of working-class life.

Contributors: Robert Bruno, University of Illinois; Renny Christopher, California State University Channel Islands; Jim Daniels, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh; Elizabeth Faue, Wayne State University; Lisa Jordan, University of Minnesota; Paul Lauter, Trinity College; Sherry Lee Linkon, Youngstown State University; Jack Metzgar, Roosevelt University in Chicago; Don Mitchell, Syracuse University; Kimberley L. Phillips, The College of William and Mary; Alessandro Portelli, University of Rome La Sapienza; David Roediger, University of Illinois, Rachel Lee Rubin, University of Massachusetts Boston; John Russo, Youngstown State University; Tim Strangleman, London Metropolitan University; Tom Zaniello, Northern Kentucky University and George Meany Center for Labor Studies; Michael Zweig, State University of New York at Stony Brook"