Bangkok diplomatic nightlife, Soviet spies, tranquil Buddhist monks, Thai princesses, Khmer Rouge, cave temples, cobras, a Nobel Prize and more fill the pages of Palace of Yawns. When a 29-year-old advisor was posted to Korea by an American foundation to advise the Ministry of Health on management of the national family planning program, he developed a breakthrough method allowing governments to reduce birth rates as rapidly as possible from fixed budgets. Based on his discovery, the United Nations recruited him, and from Bangkok he directed a UN program to assist Asian governments in resetting their demographic goals. Though eight countries requested the UN to help them implement the program, it failed to do so, instead turning out a barely read "study" much later. Palace of Yawns recounts this failure, its harmful growth consequences, and the amazing year which the adventurous young advisor spent in Southeast Asia as the Viet Nam War reached its historic climax.

Winner of the 2013 eLit Silver Award in Biography for books published in 2012 Remembering John Hanson re-illuminates the key Revolutionary War figure and Founding Father to whom George Washington reported when Hanson served as the first president of the original United States government chartered under the Articles of Confederation. This biography is the first in over seventy years on Hanson and, with the best documentation ever researched on him, spells out his two nation-saving triumphs which, as Lincoln would do later, kept the nation whole on the eve of independence and again as it struggled to form a government, and made him the unanimous choice by some of the greatest Americans who ever lived to be their and their nation's first president. Remembering John Hanson brings to light the astounding and tragic story of the destruction of Hanson's tomb in the 1980s and the author's rediscovery of its site in researching the book. Also covered are current efforts to rekindle the nation's memory of Hanson and to dispel odd Internet myths that have arisen about him in recent years. Peter H. Michael is publisher of Underground Railroad Free Press, the nation's top-circulation Underground Railroad news publication, and publisher of Underground Railroad Free Press Books. Peter Michael's other recent books are An American Family of the Underground Railroad, Guide to Freedom: Rediscovering the Underground Railroad, and Palace of Yawns, a 365-day Southeast Asia journal at the tumultuous end of the Viet Nam War. Peter Michael was educated at the University of Maryland, Berkeley and Princeton and lives with his wife on his family's ancestral farm founded in 1768 near Adamstown, Maryland. The first comprehensive biography of "the most forgotten major figure in American history," reading this volume is nothing if not enriching. Michael's narrative presents . . . a torrent of information in fine detail . . . a rich trove about a major historical figure. / Kirkus Reviews Some of the best information on Hanson I have ever seen. / Edward Edelen, Founder, The John Hanson Institute This work represents the most comprehensive and - equally important - extensively documented exploration of the life and contributions of John Hanson. It provides the context and critical analysis to properly elevate Hanson to the pantheon of the fathers of our nation. / Aldan Weinberg, Professor of Journalism and Director of the Communications Arts Program, Hood College You contribute greatly to our understanding of Hanson, his times, and why he became largely forgotten. Remembering John Hanson is also clearly and engagingly written, with excellent illustrations. / Ralph Levering, Hanson scholar and Professor of History, Davidson College I have found your information to confirm my arguments why Hanson was the more significant first president of the United States. The story of John Hanson is much greater than previous authors have given credit to. / John Cummings, John Hanson author

Guide to Freedom: Rediscovering the Underground Railroad In One United States County reveals Underground Railroad sites of Frederick County, Maryland, which lies amidst a major group of Underground Railroad routes just to the east of the Appalachians. Frederick County, a border county in a border state during the Civil War, directly adjoins the slave state of Virginia and the free state of Pennsylvania. Despite the geographic centrality of this county to Underground Railroad activity, most of its fascinating Underground Railroad history had nearly been lost to time. The recently rediscovered history of the Underground Railroad in the county presents one of the very few detailed pictures of the Underground Railroad in any border or southern state. Guide to Freedom lists all confirmed or suspected Underground Railroad safe-houses and routes in the county and rates each according to the likelihood that its oral tradition or documentation is authentic. What has emerged is a network of six confirmed routes, more than fifty confirmed or suspected safe-houses and a number of Underground Railroad safe-house operators and conductors. Of high interest to readers will be the stories of freedom seekers identified by name who passed through Frederick County including several who were sheltered at the author's own safe-house.

The Underground Railroad was a 280-year American phenomenon which served as the boldest and most active foil to slavery. Because the Underground Railroad was clandestine, its safe-house operators and conductors - black and white alike - who ushered people to freedom had to keep their roles hidden. If caught rendering aid to freedom seekers, they could be and were arrested, convicted of interfering with "property rights," and sentenced. All who rendered aid risked all they had to do so, and some lost all they had for doing so. Because those who rendered aid could still be prosecuted long after the Civil War and the Underground Railroad ended, most took their noble secrets to the grave. One who didn't was the author's great-grandfather Marion Michael who could not be prosecuted because he was a minor when he rendered aid. Marion Michael told of his family's work on the Underground Railroad, and his descendants keep this family history quite alive today. An American Family of the Underground Railroad is told by the actual safe-house operators' descendant who owns the very farm where his ancestors sheltered freedom seekers. Cooling Springs Farm might be the sole remaining Underground Railroad safe-house in the nation still owned by the same family that used it in Underground Railroad times. An American Family of the Underground Railroad provides to general reader and scholar alike a wealth of detail about more than fifty Underground Railroad sites in a single county with a map of the sites, and identifies several safe-house operators and a key Underground Railroad conductor there. With a bibliography of over 200 sources, this book might be the most thoroughly documented work on any singlesafe-house. An American Family of the Underground Railroad helps reawaken the nation to its defining heritage of the Underground Railroad.