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Books > Humanities > History > American history
Founded by a small band of religious freedom seekers in 1639,
Newport, Rhode Island, subsequently became a bustling colonial
seaport teeming with artists, sailors, prosperous merchants and,
perhaps most distinctively, the ultra-rich families of the Gilded
Age. Clinging to the lavish coattails of these newly minted
millionaires and robber barons was a stream of con artists and
hangers-on who attempted to leech off their well-to-do neighbors.
From the Vanderbilts to the Dukes, the Astors to the Kennedys, the
City by the Sea has served as a sanctuary for the elite--and a
hotbed of corruption. Local historian Larry Stanford pulls back the
curtain on over 350 years of history, uncovering the real stories
behind many of Newport's most enduring mysteries, controversial
characters and scintillating scandals.
Tales of hauntings, strange happenings and other local lore
throughout the Sunshine state!
Bob Woodward exposes one of the final pieces of the Richard Nixon
puzzle in his new book The Last of the President's Men. Woodward
reveals the untold story of Alexander Butterfield, the Nixon aide
who disclosed the secret White House taping system that changed
history and led to Nixon's resignation. In 46 hours of interviews
with Butterfield, supported by thousands of documents, many of them
original and not in the presidential archives and libraries,
Woodward has uncovered new dimensions of Nixon's secrets,
obsessions and deceptions. Butterfield provides the intimate
details of what it was like working and living just feet from the
most powerful man in the world as he sought to navigate the
obligations to his president and the truth of Nixon's obsessions
and deceptions. The Last of the President's Men could not be more
timely and relevant as the public in America and around the world
question how much do we know about President Donald Trump and the
people who won the presidency with him in 2016 - what really drives
them, how do they really make decisions, who do they surround
themselves with, and what are their true political and personal
values?
The Battle of Fredericksburg is known as the most disastrous defeat
the Federal Army of the Potomac experienced in the American Civil
War. The futile assaults by Federal soldiers against the
Confederate defensive positions on Marye's Heights and behind the
infamous stone wall along the "Sunken Road" solidified Ambrose
Burnside's reputation as an inept army commander and reinforced
Robert E. Lee's undefeatable image. Follow historian James Bryant
behind the lines of confrontation to discover the strategies and
blunders that contributed to one of the most memorable battles of
the Civil War.
An "exciting and enlightening revisionist history" (Walter
Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author) that upends the
myth of the 1950s as a decade of conformity and celebrates a few
solitary, brave, and stubborn individuals who pioneered the radical
gay rights, feminist, civil rights, and environmental movements,
from historian James R. Gaines. An "enchanting, beautifully written
book about heroes and the dark times to which they refused to
surrender" (Todd Gitlin, bestselling author of The Sixties). In a
series of character portraits, The Fifties invokes the accidental
radicals-people motivated not by politics but by their own most
intimate conflicts-who sparked movements for change in their time
and our own. Among many others, we meet legal pathfinder Pauli
Murray, who was tortured by both her mixed-race heritage and her
"in between" sexuality. Through years of hard work and
self-examination, she turned her demons into historic victories.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg credited her for the argument that made sex
discrimination unconstitutional, but that was only one of her gifts
to the 21st-century feminism. We meet Harry Hay, who dreamed of a
national gay rights movement as early as the mid-1940s, a time when
the US, Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany viewed gay people as
subversives and mentally ill. And in perhaps the book's unlikeliest
pairing, we hear the prophetic voices of Silent Spring's Rachel
Carson and MIT's preeminent mathematician, Norbert Wiener, who from
their very different perspectives-she is in the living world, he in
the theoretical one-converged on the then-heretical idea that our
mastery over the natural world carried the potential for disaster.
Their legacy is the environmental movement. The Fifties is an
"inspiration...[and] a reminder of the hard work and personal
sacrifice that went into fighting for the constitutional rights of
gay people, Blacks, and women, as well as for environmental
protection" (The Washington Post). The book carries the powerful
message that change begins not in mass movements and new
legislation but in the lives of the decentered, often lonely
individuals, who learn to fight for change in a daily struggle with
themselves.
Originally published between 2002 and 2011, the first 6
meticulously researched and extensive volumes of this set cover a
vast period of US financial and economic history, from the
'discovery' of America, through Civil War, Independence, two World
Wars, the Great Depression, and on through the turbulent 20th and
early 21st Centuries. An entirely new volume brings the series up
to date to the Pandemic of 2020. Carefully documented and lucidly
written by Jerry W. Markham, these volumes give an unparalleled
insight into financial scandals; corporate governance issues; the
development of US securities, derivative and mortgage markets;
housing boom and bust and stock market panics. The final (entirely
new) 7th volume is divided into three chronological sections: the
first section describes the recovery of financial markets after the
Great Recession. It begins with an overview of the state of the
economy at the start of the new decade, including some of the
political storms affecting the economy and financial markets. The
second section sets forth regulatory responses to the Financial
Crisis of 2008, including the massive fines imposed on large banks
by a swarm of regulators. The third section describes the rules
adopted under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 that broadly affected
financial markets. It also recounts the Trump trade wars and ends
with an account of the financial and economic turmoil that occurred
during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Beginning in 1541 with Hernando De Soto's Spanish expedition for
gold, African Americans have held a prominent place in
Chattanooga's history. Author Rita Lorraine Hubbard chronicles the
ways African Americans have shaped Chattanooga, and presents
inspirational achievements that have gone largely unheralded over
the years.
The Life of Wesley was one of Southey's most influential and
bestselling works. It was the first biography of John Wesley - the
major figure in the largest religious movement of the eighteenth
century - to be published by anyone beyond the Methodist community.
In addition, it was a major history of the rise of a phenomenon
that Southey and many others saw as a defining sign of contemporary
history - the rise of sectarianism and of religious cults. This
two-volume edition will represent the full text of the 1820
edition. It will include a comprehensive critical apparatus that
will make sense of the major issues posed by the text and how it
contributes to studies of both Southey and Romanticism. The edition
will feature a critical and contextual introduction, which will set
out the origins and composition of the text together with its
publication history, as well as offer a carefully considered view
of the interplay between the Life and other biographies of Wesley
and accounts of Methodism, bringing into view the wide array of
sources and influences Southey drew from. It will also examine the
book's reception history, incorporating material from reviews of
the period and detailing the controversy it caused in the Methodist
community.
Enter Somerville, a city packed with stories larger than itself, to
salute a heritage that justifies the fierce pride of its citizens.
Share a perch on one of Somerville's celebrated hills with Dee
Morris and Dora St. Martin and watch the raising of America's first
flag and the stringing of its first telephone line. Strolling from
neighborhood to neighborhood, this brief history knocks on the
doors of everyone from the father of Fenway Park to Missy LeHand,
Franklin D. Roosevelt s private secretary and steadfast companion.
Even the notoriously elusive Captain Kidd is caught for inspection
as he tries to slip through a trapdoor in a bedroom closet.
Originally published in 1979, the first volume of the bestselling "Gonzo Papers" is now back in print. The Great Shark Hunt is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's largest and, arguably, most important work, covering Nixon to napalm, Las Vegas to Watergate, Carter to cocaine. These essays offer brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in signature Thompson style. Ranging in date from the National Observer days to the era of Rolling Stone, The Great Shark Hunt offers myriad, highly charged entries, including the first Hunter S. Thompson piece to be dubbed "gonzo" -- "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved," which appeared in Scanlan's Monthly in 1970. From this essay a new journalistic movement sprang which would change the shape of American letters. Thompson's razor-sharp insight and crystal clarity capture the crazy, hypocritical, degenerate, and redeeming aspects of the explosive and colorful '60s and '70s.
The "delightfully macabre" (The New York Times) true tale of a
brilliant and eccentric surgeon...and his quest to transplant the
human soul.In the early days of the Cold War, a spirit of desperate
scientific rivalry birthed a different kind of space race: not the
race to outer space that we all know, but a race to master the
inner space of the human body. While surgeons on either side of the
Iron Curtain competed to become the first to transplant organs like
the kidney and heart, a young American neurosurgeon had an even
more ambitious thought: Why not transplant the brain? Dr. Robert
White was a friend to two popes and a founder of the Vatican's
Commission on Bioethics. He developed lifesaving neurosurgical
techniques still used in hospitals today and was nominated for the
Nobel Prize. But like Dr. Jekyll before him, Dr. White had another
identity. In his lab, he was waging a battle against the limits of
science and against mortality itself--working to perfect a surgery
that would allow the soul to live on after the human body had died.
This "fascinating" (The Wall Street Journal), "provocative" (The
Washington Post) tale follows his decades-long quest into tangled
matters of science, Cold War politics, and faith, revealing the
complex (and often murky) ethics of experimentation and remarkable
innovations that today save patients from certain death. It's a
"masterful" (Science) look at our greatest fears and our greatest
hopes--and the long, strange journey from science fiction to
science fact.
On June 27, 1835, New Hampshire chartered the Boston & Maine
Railroad, and a juggernaut was born. By 1900, the B&M operated
some 2,300 miles of track in northern New England, having taken
over an astonishing forty-seven different railroads since its
inception. The B&M loomed particularly large in the Granite
State, where it controlled 96 percent of all tracks and was the
primary conveyance through the rugged heart of New England s most
formidable mountain range.
From the gravity-defying Mount Washington Cog Railway to logging
transport trains to the famous Depression-era Snow Train, "A
History of the Boston & Maine Railroad" traces the fascinating
history of New England's most renowned railway.
Two distinct communities which share equally vibrant histories, the
twin cities of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor possess a rich heritage
rooted in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and tourism.
Through more than 200 photographs, this book documents the cities'
development from the time when pioneers first struggled to create a
community in the wilderness. It pays tribute to the men and women
who labored to establish farms and industries, and celebrates the
delightful beaches and amusement parks-such as the House of David
and Silver Beach-that have brought joy to generations of residents
and visitors alike.
From cooking ?coon and ?possum to recalling the heyday of Melrose
Plantation, these are the heartwarming stories of Hilton Head,
Bluffton and Daufuskie before, as the Gullahs might say, ?it all
change up.? In this second volume of personal memories collected by
Hilton Head journalist Fran Heyward Marscher, area old-timers tell
of the adventures, the industry and the heart of the Lowcountry
itself. Before the golf courses and resorts, the residents of
Beaufort and Jasper Counties often scraped to make a living, but
they left behind stories of enduring devotion and perseverance.
Keeping lighthouses on the coast, developing a method for catching
crabs with only sticks and hunting quail in Hilton Head are only a
few of the tales preserved by local old-timers from the early days
of the twentieth century to the times of economic transition after
World War II. In ice cream and butter beans, picking oysters and
exploring the beach, these memories of the Lowcountry will last for
generations.
Druid Hill Park lies at the hears of Baltimore and made history as
one of the first public parks in America. This beautifully
illustrated history tells the story of Druid Hill from the
seventeenth century until today, and celebrates this natural refuge
for fun and relaxation in urban Baltimore.
An argument against the myth of American exceptionalism Endless
Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire
helps us to come to terms with what we have long suspected: the
rise of the U.S. Empire has relied upon an almost unimaginable loss
of life, from its inception during the European colonial period, to
the present. And yet, in the face of a series of endless holocausts
at home and abroad, the doctrine of American exceptionalism has
plagued the globe for over a century. However much the ruling class
insists on U.S. superiority, we find ourselves in the midst of a
sea change. Perpetual wars, deteriorating economic conditions, the
resurgence of white supremacy, and the rise of the Far Right have
led millions of people to abandon their illusions about this
country. Never before have so many people rejected or questioned
traditional platitudes about the United States. In Endless
Holocausts author David Michael Smith demolishes the myth of
exceptionalism by demonstrating that manifold forms of mass death,
far from being unfortunate exceptions to an otherwise benign
historical record, have been indispensable in the rise of the
wealthiest and most powerful imperium in the history of the world.
At the same time, Smith points to an extraordinary history of
resistance by Indigenous peoples, people of African descent, people
in other nations brutalized by U.S. imperialism, workers, and
democratic-minded people around the world determined to fight for
common dignity and the sake of the greater good.
The American experiment rests on three ideas-"these truths",
Jefferson called them-political equality, natural rights and the
sovereignty of the people. And it rests, too, "on a dedication to
inquiry, fearless and unflinching", writes Jill Lepore in a
ground-breaking investigation into the American past that places
truth at the centre of the nation's history. Telling the story of
America, beginning in 1492, These Truths asks whether the course of
events has proven the nation's founding truths or belied them.
Finding meaning in contradiction, Lepore weaves American history
into a tapestry of faith and hope, of peril and prosperity, of
technological progress and moral anguish. This spellbinding
chronicle offers an authoritative new history of a great, and
greatly troubled, nation.
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