George Edward "Rube" Waddell was one of the zaniest characters ever to play baseball. The legendary Connie Mack, who saw quite a few cards during his nearly seven decade stint in the majors, once observed that no other screwball he ever saw could hold a candle to Rube. Mack also said that Rube's curveball was the best he'd ever seen. Indeed, Waddell was one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the game. Rube won 191 games in 13 seasons, had four straight 20-win seasons for Mack and the Philadelphia A's, and claimed six consecutive strikeout titles. In 1904 he struck out 349 batters, a record that held for six decades. This biography traces his early life in western Pennsylvania, the fits and starts of his first years in professional baseball, his big years with the A's, and his subsequent fade into obscurity and his early death in a sanatorium on April Fool's Day, 1914.

The Political Life of Bella Abzug, 1976 1998 is the second part of the first full biography of Bella Abzug. Alan H. Levy explores the political life of one of the most important women in politics in mid- and late-twentieth-century America. This second part takes up Abzug s life from the point in 1976 when she narrowly lost her bid for the New York Democratic Party s nomination for the U.S. Senate. The biography follows her subsequent failed effort to win the Democratic Party s nomination for Mayor of New York City in 1977, her leading a controversial National Women s Convention in Houston in late 1977, her failed attempt to return to the U.S. Congress in 1978, and her conflicts with President Jimmy Carter and his administration. The biography then traces the efforts in which Abzug was engaged to regain political prominence, and her work on behalf of women at both national and international levels. Through the events in Abzug s life, Levy explores tensions that surrounded the contrasts between political principles, which idealized a world in which gender posed no barriers to any human effort, and political views, which sought to extol and develop notions of gender and of ideas about its special meanings in human affairs and politics."

Many books have been written outlining problems with higher education in America. Many have been written in broad strokes. Where specific, many others have tended to focus on some of the nation's most famous schools. The average American family sends their children not to the Ivy League but to less noteworthy state schools, where quality could prevail but is often compromised. It is in such schools that many of the problems of American education continue to thrive without any meaningful reform. Levy's book endeavors to explain many of the problems which plague our schools and which shortchange students and their parents who pay the ever-higher costs. Looking in depth at a typical university, Levy reveals the ways that silly, at times corrupt, administrative and union games, marginal disciplines, and mediocre, at times fraudulent, academics have gained unjustifiably significant positions in schools and have needlessly truncated valuable resources which could otherwise be used to promote genuine quality and make universities serve the students and citizens who foot the bills.

Walter "Smokey" Alston is best known for his long and successful tenure as manager of the Dodgers-first in Brooklyn, then in Los Angeles. Yet few fans are aware of his years in the minors, where he honed the skills that would make him famous. Raised in rural Ohio, Alston graduated from Miami University, where he was noticed by scouts for the St. Louis Cardinals. Signed in 1935, he played on minor league teams in the Cardinals' system. He went to bat in the majors just once-and struck out. But Cardinals President Branch Rickey recognized other talents in Alston and made him a player-manager for several clubs. He steadily produced winning teams and in 1946 led the racially integrated Nashua "Little" Dodgers to a championship. In 1953, he was tapped to run the big club and over the next 23 seasons led the Dodgers to nine pennants and four World Series wins. This book traces Alston's rise through the minor and major leagues to become a Hall of Famer with more than 2000 career wins.

The Political Life of Bella Abzug, 1920-1976: Political Passions, Women's Rights, and Congressional Battles, by Alan H. Levy, marks the first full biography of Bella Abzug. Abzug was one of woman in politics in mid- and late-twentieth-century America. Levy traces the New York City world of Russian-Jewish immigrants into which Abzug was born. He then examines her education through Columbia Law School, her marriage, and her early work both as a labor attorney and as an advocate for many controversial causes, including that of an African-American falsely accused of raping a white woman in Jim Crow Era Mississippi. Levy studies Abzug's work for nuclear disarmament, her activism against the Vietnam War, and her successful bid for Congress in 1970. From there, the biography details the myriad of issues with which Abzug grappled as a Member of Congress from 1971 to 1977, and ends with her close loss to Daniel Patrick Moynihan in a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1976. A second book, studying the rest of Abzug's life from 1976 to 1998, is to follow.

The Political Life of Bella Abzug, 1920-1976: Political Passions, Women's Rights, and Congressional Battles, by Alan H. Levy, marks the first full biography of Bella Abzug. Abzug was one of, if not the most important woman in politics in mid and late 20th-century America. Levy traces the New York City world of Russian-Jewish immigrants into which Abzug was born. He then examines her education through Columbia Law School, her marriage, and her early work as a labor attorney and as an advocate for many controversial causes, including that of an African-American falsely accused of raping a white woman in Jim Crow-era Mississippi. This biography studies her work for nuclear disarmament, her activism against the Vietnam War, and her successful bid for Congress in 1970. From there the book details the myriad of issues with which she grappled as a Member of Congress from 1971 to 1977, and ends with her close loss to Daniel Patrick Moynihan in a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1976. A second book is to follow which studies the rest of Abzug's life from 1976 to 1998.

Joe McCarthy was headed towards a career as a plumber - until the parish priest intervened, and convinced McCarthy's mother that he could make more of himself in baseball. She relented, and Joseph Vincent McCarthy embarked on a career that ranks him among the greatest managers ever. In 24 years his teams took nine pennants, seven World Series titles, and never finished lower than fourth. This biography of Joe McCarthy details the 90-year life of one of the greatest managers in baseball's history. Baseball was McCarthy's ticket out of a working-class existence in Germantown, Pennsylvania, taking him to college, the minor leagues, managerial stints in baseball's backwaters, and on to remarkable years with the Yankees, Cubs and Red Sox - years filled with triumph and heartbreak. Seven championships and the highest managerial winning percentage ever earned him entry to the Hall of Fame, but McCarthy will always be remembered for his deft handling of his players. McCarthy's ability to handle even ""unmanageable"" players won him the respect of all. His effect on the lives of his young charges was, in his mind, his greatest legacy.

Floyd Patterson delivered a number of knockout punches during his Hall of Fame career, but it might have been the fights he won beyond the boxing ring that made him great. Born in 1935, he overcame poverty and prejudice to become the youngest world heavyweight championship in history. He would later became the first man to regain the crown after losing it. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali called Patterson the most skillful fighter he ever faced.In the first biography of the former heavyweight, Alan Levy covers Patterson's meteoric rise as boxer while giving equal attention to the boxer's life away from sport, including Patterson's work as an activist for civil rights causes in the 1960s. Joining Ali and George Frazier as boxers who used their celebrity to bring attention to social issues, he became an icon of the movement.