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Books > Biography
Pennsylvania, first home of the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution, has a tradition of political progress. However, along
with the good, the political playground of Pennsylvania has also
seen the brazenly bad behavior of its political leaders. For over
twenty-five years, political columnist John Baer has had a
front-row seat to the foibles and follies of the Keystone State's
political system. Baer takes readers through his memories of
covering state politics for the last quarter century, from
Democratic governor Milton Shapp's short-lived run for
president--in which he finished behind "no preference" in the
Florida primary--to highlights of some of the game-changing
campaign missteps and maneuvers that moved administrations in and
out of the capital. With a delightfully gruff wit, Baer gives
readers a behind-the-scenes view of the politics and personalities
that have passed through Harrisburg.
"Ty Seidule scorches us with the truth and rivets us with his
fierce sense of moral urgency." --Ron Chernow In a forceful but
humane narrative, former soldier and head of the West Point history
department Ty Seidule's Robert E. Lee and Me challenges the myths
and lies of the Confederate legacy--and explores why some of this
country's oldest wounds have never healed. Ty Seidule grew up
revering Robert E. Lee. From his southern childhood to his service
in the U.S. Army, every part of his life reinforced the Lost Cause
myth: that Lee was the greatest man who ever lived, and that the
Confederates were underdogs who lost the Civil War with honor. Now,
as a retired brigadier general and Professor Emeritus of History at
West Point, his view has radically changed. From a soldier, a
scholar, and a southerner, Ty Seidule believes that American
history demands a reckoning. In a unique blend of history and
reflection, Seidule deconstructs the truth about the
Confederacy--that its undisputed primary goal was the subjugation
and enslavement of Black Americans--and directly challenges the
idea of honoring those who labored to preserve that system and
committed treason in their failed attempt to achieve it. Through
the arc of Seidule's own life, as well as the culture that formed
him, he seeks a path to understanding why the facts of the Civil
War have remained buried beneath layers of myth and even outright
lies--and how they embody a cultural gulf that separates millions
of Americans to this day. Part history lecture, part meditation on
the Civil War and its fallout, and part memoir, Robert E. Lee and
Me challenges the deeply-held legends and myths of the
Confederacy--and provides a surprising interpretation of essential
truths that our country still has a difficult time articulating and
accepting.
Envisioning a Tibetan Luminary examines the religious biography of
Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen (1859-1934), the most significant modern
figure representing the Tibetan Boen religion-a vital minority
tradition that is underrepresented in Tibetan studies. The work is
based on fieldwork conducted in eastern Tibet and in the Boen exile
community in India, where traditional Tibetan scholars collaborated
closely on the project. Utilizing close readings of two versions of
Shardza's life-story, along with oral history collected in Boen
communities, this book presents and interprets the biographical
image of this major figure, culminating with an English translation
of his life story. William M. Gorvine argues that the
disciple-biographer's literary portrait not only enacts and shapes
religious ideals to foster faith among its readership, but also
attempts to quell tensions that had developed among his original
audience. Among the Boen community today, Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen
has come to be unequivocally revered for an impressive textual
legacy and a saintly death. During his lifetime, however, he faced
prominent critics within his own lineage who went so far as to
issue polemical attacks against him. As Gorvine shows, the
biographical texts that inform us about Shardza's life are best
understood when read on multiple registers, with attention given to
the ways in which the religious ideals on display reflect the
broader literary, cultural, and historical contexts within which
they were envisioned and articulated.
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Washington, Dc, Jazz
(Paperback)
Regennia N Williams, Sandra Butler-truesdale; Foreword by Willard Jenkins
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R609
R552
Discovery Miles 5 520
Save R57 (9%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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A majestic biography of two young geniuses who merged their talents to create one of the greatest bodies of music in history.
John & Paul begins in 1957, when two teenagers in suburban Liverpool meet and decide to play rock n'roll together. It ends twenty-three years later, when one of them is murdered. In between, we see them become global stars, create countless indelible songs, and play a central role in shaping the modern world.
Lennon and McCartney were more than friends, rivals or collaborators. They were intimates who both had the fabric of their world ruptured at a young age, and who longed to make emotional connections; with each other, and with audiences. The pop song was a vessel into which they poured feelings of grief and euphoria and everything in between. When they couldn't speak what they felt, they sang it. After the break-up of their group, they maintained a musical dialogue at a distance, in songs full of recrimination, regret, and affection.
Ian Leslie traces the twists and turns of their relationship through the music it produced and offers rich insights into the nature of creativity, collaboration and human connection. Drawing on recently released footage and recordings, this is a startlingly fresh take on two of the greatest icons in music history.
Leslie's majestic and wildly enjoyable biography will make us see and hear Lennon and McCartney anew.
Die eiesoortige vriendskap tussen Winston Churchill en Jan Smuts is ’n studie in kontraste. In hul jeug het hulle uiteenlopende wêrelde bewoon: Churchill was die weerbarstige en energieke jong aristokraat; Smuts die asketiese, filosofiese Kaapse plaasseun, wat later aan Cambridge sou gaan studeer. Daar sou hy die eerste student word wat albei dele van die finale regskursus in dieselfde jaar neem en al twee met onderskeiding slaag.
Nadat hulle in die Anglo-Boereoorlog eers as vyande, en later in die Eerste Wêreldoorlog as bondgenote byeengebring is, het die mans ’n vriendskap gesmee wat oor die eerste helfte van die twintigste eeu gestrek het en tot Smuts se dood in 1950 voortgeduur het. Richard Steyn, die skrywer van Jan Smuts: Afrikaner sonder grense, bestudeer dié hegte vriendskap deur twee wêreldoorloë aan die hand van ’n magdom argiefstukke, briewe, telegramme en die omvangryke boeke wat oor albei mans geskryf is.
Dit is ’n fassinerende verhaal oor twee besonderse individue in oorlog en vrede – die een die leier van ’n groot ryk, die ander die leier van ’n klein, weerspannige lid van daardie ryk.
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Hitler
(Hardcover)
Michael Lynch
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R3,892
Discovery Miles 38 920
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Ships in 12 - 19 working days
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Adolf Hitler is the most notorious political figure of the
twentieth century. The story of his life, how he became a dictator,
and how he managed to convince so many to follow his cause is a
subject of perennial fascination.
Balancing narrative and analysis, this biography employs a
chronological approach to describe the main features of Hitler s
career. Set against the background of developments in Germany and
Europe during his lifetime, the text tells the extraordinary story
of how an Austrian layabout rose to become F hrer of the Third
Reich.
The chapters incorporate into their narrative the major debates
surrounding Hitler s ideas, behaviour and historical significance.
Particular attention is paid to his experience as a soldier in 1914
-18 and to the reasons why his original left-wing sympathies
transmuted into Nazism. Arguments over the real character of Hitler
s dictatorship are analysed and a measured assessment is offered on
the disputed issues of how far Hitler initiated the Third Reich s
domestic and foreign policies himself and to what extent he was
controlled by events. His destructive leadership of wartime Germany
is now a subject of close scrutiny among historians and the book s
final chapters deal with this theme and offer a set of reflections
on Hitler s relationship with the German people and his legacy to
the German nation.
Michael Lynch provides a balanced guide to this most difficult
of figures that will be enlightening for students and general
readers alike
A portrait of the writer Mikhail Bulgakov, fighting for his work
and his life in a society riven with fear of Stalin's tyranny
Mikhail Bulgakov was born in Kiev in 1891. He started as a career
writing articles and satiric short stories about the revolution and
the economic reconstruction in the young Soviet state. He drew on
these writings in many of his stage plays which brought him into
conflict with the authorities. He died in 1940.
"The book is the product of a protracted, laborious and scrupulous
research and draws on a most extensive and varied assembly of
documents. But the archival evidence, factual accounts and even
personal narratives would have remained remote, dry and cold if not
for the author's remarkable gift of empathy. Barbara Engelking
gives the witnesses of the Holocaust a voice which readers of this
book will understand....Under her pen memories come alive
again."--from the Foreword by Zygmunt BaumanOriginally published in
Polish to great acclaim and based on interviews with survivors of
the Holocaust in Poland, Holocaust and Memory provides a moving
description of their life during the war and the sense they made of
it. The book begins by looking at the differences between the
wartime experiences of Jews and Poles in occupied Poland, both in
terms of Nazi legislation and individual experiences. On the Aryan
side of the ghetto wall, Jews could either be helped or blackmailed
by Poles. The largest section of the book reconstructs everyday
life in the ghetto. The psychological consequences of wartime
experiences are explored, including interviews with survivors who
stayed on in Poland after the war and were victims of anti-Semitism
again in 1968. These discussions bring into question some of the
accepted survivor stereotypes found in Holocaust literature. A
final chapter looks at the legacy of the Holocaust, the problems of
transmitting experience and of the place of the Holocaust in Polish
history and culture.
In this perceptive and original study of one of the most popular of
English poets, Douglas Kerr has written the life of Wilfred Owen's
language. The book explores the meaning in Owen's life of the
family, the Church, the army, and English poets of the past. It
examines the language of these four communities, and shows how
their discourses helped to mould the poet's own. The language in
which Owen's extraordinary poems and letters are written was
learned in and from these communities which shaped his short
career. But there were times too when he hated each of them. As
Douglas Kerr shows, much of the power of Owen's writing derives
from his desire to transform the communities which formed him.
Accessible and lucid, and informed by the insights of recent
theory, Wilfred Owen's Voices throws important new light on the
best-known of the English war poets, and on both the cultural
history and intense personal drama to be read in his work.
Pringle's autobiography offers a graphic and often painful account
of his experiences with major marathons, including the Marathon des
Sables and the Yukon Arctic Ultra. Journalists and scientists
monitor his progress as he pushes his body to the very limits, as
he competes in extreme sporting events which have already claimed
lives. A growing sense of self-knowledge and a sense of unity with
the natural world lead him to overcome his inner demons, and to
find a distinctive and transformational spiritual path.
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