A Mind of Her Own: Helen Connor Laird and Family, 1888 - 1982 captures the public achievement and private pain of a remarkable Wisconsin woman and her family, whose interests and influence extended well beyond the borders of the state. The eldest child of William Duncan Connor, a major figure in Wisconsin's emerging hardwood lumber industry and its turbulent turn-of-the-century political scene, Helen Connor Laird spent almost her entire ninety-three years in central and northern Wisconsin. Nevertheless, her voracious reading and probing mind connected her to the world. Her early life in frontier communities, home influences, Presbyterian background, and education, as well as the talents she recognized in herself, impelled her to lead. Marriage, duty, and four sons did not stem that desire. By the time her third child, Melvin R Laird Jr, became secretary of defense in 1969, she had served in leadership positions in her community, district, and state. While business absorbed her competitive family, her own interests lay elsewhere: in politics and education. Throughout her life, she kept records of the evolving world she and her family inhabited, and of her own emotional states. ""Remember, we are all lonely,"" the ""closet poet"" said. Spanning almost a century, the family's history speaks to the way we were and are: a stridently materialistic nation with a deep and persistent spiritual component.

This study analyzes the family life and public careers of six generations of a notable Parisian family, the Cochins. Bourgeois merchants in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Cochins earned nobility through the office of alderman (" DEGREESD'echevin") of Paris. Their family ethos fostered a much-needed element in French public life: a cautious, critical, liberal reform that reflected an independence from the Left, the Legitimist--and later nationalist--Right, as well as the Catholic Church. Still, even these reforming conservatives, however liberal, ultimately found themselves opposing the Third Republic.

Winnie highlights the contributions made by the Cochins and the opposition of the Third Republic. He approaches this task not by looking at a mere series of political crises, but rather by examining the cultural background and the family ethos that sustained them from the Old Regime to World War I. Like much of the latest work in modern French social history, this book finds a significant cultural divide between revolutionary republicanism and even liberal notables from the Old Regime. It demonstrates how these tensions continued through the 19th and into the 20th century. This reflects the fundamental incompatibility between France's political legacies--sustained by powerful and abiding social and cultural factors--that has shaped French life to this day.

From Martha Washington to Laura Bush, the wife of each U.S. president has found her place in history, often setting trends and doing important work for the nation.

This reference work traces the lineage of all presidents, wives, arranged alphabetically from Abigail Adams to Jane Wyman. Genealogy reveals that some of the women are connected to one another through common ancestry, sometimes even through royal blood, for example, the bloodlines of Laura Bush and Abigail Adams join at King Henry II and can then be traced to King Pepin the Short, born in 714. Several others can be traced back to King John, William the Conqueror, Charlemagne, and Lady Godiva.

Clearly organized and easy to use, the work includes not only ancestors but offspring, listing children and grandchildren for each woman. Dates of birth, death, and marriage of ancestors, children and grandchildren are included where known.

The half-century since Elizabeth II's coronation in 1952 has witnessed many changes, some for good and some for ill. Among these, she has been one of the few constants.

Fifty Years the Queen recounts her amazing life as Canada and the Commonwealth celebrate the Golden Jubilee of her accession to the throne. Elizabeth II is a figure whose faultless devotion to duty flourishes in an age of individual self-gratification. endowed with high spirits and a great sense of humour, she at the same time carries out her duties with unfailing dignity and decorum.

The special Golden Jubilee tribute is filled with many beautiful illustrations, including some rarely seen.

Originally published in 1914, this is a wonderfully learned and detailed book that contains, "A Concise Description of the Several Terms Used and a Dictionary of Every Designation in the Science." Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include: Origin of Coat of Arms - The Right to Arms - The Heraldic Executive - Arms of Dominion, Etc, Tinctures, Furs - Lines Used in Parting the Field, Differences, External Ornaments of the Shield - Marshalling Charges on Escutcheons By the Rules of Heraldry - Order of Precedency - Dictionary of Heraldic Terms - The Royal Arms, Union Jack, Heraldry in Connection with History - Architecture, Interior Decoration, Costume, Etc

Journey Beyond the Narrows explores the history of an American family whose origin is traced to eleven immigrants who arrived in America in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. These individuals came through the Narrows into upper New York Harbor to begin their American journey. They were escaping famine in Ireland, poverty, political oppression, or lack of opportunity-or all three combined in Finland, Germany, and Scotland. Journey Beyond the Narrows does not provide just names and facts about these individuals but puts their lives in the context of the times in which they lived in their home countries and in America. It is the story of how two of their descendants reared six children in the Bronx, New York.