" One of the most important women of the 20th Century, Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) was also one of its most prolific letter writers. Yet never before has a selection of her letters to public figures, world leaders, and individuals outside her family been made available to general readers and to historians unable to visit the archives at Hyde Park. It Seems to Me demonstrates Roosevelt's significance as a stateswoman and professional politician, particularly after her husband's death in 1945. These letters reveal a dimension of her personality often lost in collections of letters to family members and friends, that of a shrewd, self-confident woman unafraid to speak her mind. In her letters, Roosevelt lectured Truman, badgered Eisenhower, and critiqued Kennedy. She disagreed with the Catholic Church over aid to parochial schools, made recommendations for political appointments, expressed her opinion on the conviction of Alger Hiss. Some letters demonstrate her commitment to civil rights, many her understanding of Cold War politics, and still others her support of labor unions. As a whole, this collection provides unique insights into both Eleanor Roosevelt's public life, as well as American culture and politics during the decades following World War II.

The only available historical dictionary devoted exclusively to the 1940s, this book offers readers a ready-reference portrait of one of the twentieth century's most tumultuous decades. In nearly 600 concise entries, the volume quickly defines a historical figure, institution, or event, and then points readers to three sources that treat the subject in depth. In selecting topics for inclusion, the editors and authors offer a representative slice of life as contemporaneous Americans saw it - with coverage of people; movements; court cases; and economic, social, cultural, political, military, and technological changes. The book focuses chiefly on the United States, but places American lives and events firmly within a global context.

The gilded age was a formative period in the development and extension of American libraries. Between 1868 and 1901, the field of librarianship saw many notable changes, including the founding of the American Library Association, the introduction of the Dewey decimal classification system, and the establishment of the pioneer library school at Columbia University, among other key developments. This book brings together the writings of foundational figures in Gilded Age librarianship, including Charles Ammi Cutter, Melvil Dewey, Andrew Carnegie and Richard Rogers Bowker. Featuring seminal works of library scholarship alongside previously unpublished letters and reprints of long forgotten journal articles, the book places each selection in chronological order and includes an introductory narrative for each entry.