Winner of the Bancroft Prize""
"The New York Times Book Review," Editor's Choice
American Heritage, Best of 2009
In this vivid new biography of Abigail Adams, the most illustrious woman of the founding era, Bancroft Award-winning historian Woody Holton offers a sweeping reinterpretation of Adams's life story and of women's roles in the creation of the republic.
Using previously overlooked documents from numerous archives, Abigail Adams shows that the wife of the second president of the United States was far more charismatic and influential than historians have realized. One of the finest writers of her age, Adams passionately campaigned for women's education, denounced sex discrimination, and matched wits not only with her brilliant husband, John, but with Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. When male Patriots ignored her famous appeal to "Remember the Ladies," she accomplished her own personal declaration of independence: Defying centuries of legislation that assigned married women's property to their husbands, she amassed a fortune in her own name.
Adams's life story encapsulates the history of the founding era, for she defined herself in relation to the people she loved or hated (she was never neutral), a cast of characters that included her mother and sisters; Benjamin Franklin and James Lovell, her husband's bawdy congressional colleagues; Phoebe Abdee, her father's former slave; her financially naive husband; and her son John Quincy.
At once epic and intimate, Abigail Adams, sheds light on a complicated, fascinating woman, one of the most beloved figures of American history.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Finished in 1947, House of Earth is Woody Guthrie's only fully realized novel--a powerful portrait of Dust Bowl America, filled with the homespun lyricism and authenticity that have made his songs a part of our national consciousness.

Tike and Ella May Hamlin struggle to plant roots in the arid land of the Texas Panhandle. The husband and wife live in a precarious wooden farm shack, but Tike yearns for a sturdy house that will protect them from the treacherous elements. Thanks to a five-cent government pamphlet, Tike has the know-how to build a simple adobe dwelling, a structure made from the land itself--fireproof, windproof, Dust Bowl-proof. A house of earth.

Though they are one with the farm and with each other, the land on which Tike and Ella May live and work is not theirs. Due to larger forces beyond their control--including ranching conglomerates and banks--their adobe house remains painfully out of reach.

A story of rural realism, and in many ways a companion piece to Guthrie's folk anthem "This Land Is Your Land," House of Earth is a searing portrait of hardship and hope set against a ravaged landscape.

When 14 year-old Dale Bonham's eccentric Uncle Ike buys her an unusual bottle at a garage sale, she is less than impressed. But Dale soon learns its terrifying secret after the bottle is accidentally broken and she is confronted with its prisoner, the malevolent and powerful Genie Lord Shrikescream. Together with her brother Dwayne, best friend Jill, and Uncle Ike, Dale finds herself caught in a deadly duel between Shrikescream and his archrival Lord Marcuros. At stake is the hand of the beautiful yet venomous Princess Allurie, heir to the Genie throne. A dangerous and seemingly impossible quest lies before Dale and her friends. In only three days, they must find Excalibur, the sword of the legendary King Arthur for Shrikescream, so he may present it to the princess as a wedding gift. If the quest fails, Shrikescream promises the destruction of earth at his own hands. Given a star sapphire alarm clock by Shrikescream to guide them on their quest, Dale and her friends are transported to a nightmare future where the vicious alien Mor-Drett have conquered earth, and the remnant of humanity battles against hopeless odds for their lives. Dale and her friends must not only survive the Mor-drett, but also man-eating dinosaurs, poisonous fog, and worst of all, the wrath of Lord Marcuros, who tries to sabotage their quest. Along the way, three strange companions join in the search for the sword: a brazen Pooka named Nibs, his loyal friend William, and T'Shren Lightfoot, prince of an alien world and fugitive from the Mor-Drett. Dale Bonham has never been one to surrender or compromise her beliefs. But against such adversity, how can she and her friends survive and ensure that life as she knows it will go on?

During the last two decades of the twentieth century, China built a manufacturing juggernaut that propelled the offshoring phenomenon and led to the loss of millions of US manufacturing jobs. To compete with the onslaught of cheap imported products, many US companies began cutting corners. They sacrificed quality, which drove even more people to buy foreign-made goods. Michael McKeldon Woody, formerly an executive at a domestic pen manufacturer, learned the hard way that these competitors were relentless, and eventually acquiesced to the inevitability of offshoring. But in 2006 he stumbled upon a US textile business, Trans-Tex LLC, which gave him the opportunity to pursue a rematch with his old nemesis, China.

This is the first volume to chronicle the story of the evolution of the symbiotic relationship between the presidential press secretaries and reporters who covered White House news during the terms of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Author Woody Klein has been both a reporter (for the Washington Post and the New York World-Telegram & Sun) and a press secretary himself to New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay, who ran for president in 1972. The book reveals how the presidential press secretaries' role has evolved from old-fashioned public relations into a smooth-working system of releasing news and responding to reporters' questions at daily briefings by portraying the president in the best possible light. Klein ferrets out fresh, anecdotal information and includes interviews with nationally known personalities—including former White House press secretaries and notable journalists who have covered the White House. He brings to life the personalities and views of every presidential spokesman on how the job has grown in stature as the press secretaries or spinmeisters have become high-profile officials. Klein reveals how the tension between government and the media—normally healthy in any democracy—has resulted in the manipulation of facts and the release of favorable official news. It started subtly in the Roosevelt administration and has been carefully honed with the transformation of the media in the information and technology revolution; he shows how it has been refined to the point where it is now recognized for what it is: slanting or packaging the news in favor of the president to make it acceptable—even desired—by the public. Perception quickly becomes reality, and once the facts of a situation have been accepted by the establishment—politicians and the press alike—it becomes virtually impossible to change people's minds about them. The book documents scores of examples of White House spin by topic rather than chronologically—for example, how different press secretaries managed the news in wartime, in foreign policy, in scandals, and in a host of domestic issues such as education and national disasters. Twenty-three press secretaries are included. The most notable among them are Steve Early (Roosevelt), James Hagerty (Eisenhower), Pierre Salinger (Kennedy), Bill Moyers (Johnson), Ron Ziegler (Nixon), Marlin Fitzwater (Reagan and G. H. W. Bush), Dee Dee Myers (Clinton), Mike McCurry (Clinton), Joe Lockhart (Clinton), Ari Fleischer (Bush), Scott McClellan (Bush), and Tony Snow (Bush).

More than 40 years have passed since the bodies of two prominent businessmen and a stranger were found in an isolated field near a Western North Carolina tourist town. It was no secret that the two male victims were gay lovers, but the link to the unknown female victim was never confirmed. The detectives investigating the unsolved murders were quickly led into a troubling world of wild parties, drugs, sex, conspiracy and blackmail... possibly involving some of the most prominent citizens of the community. Even today, secrets remain untold and rumors are hushed to a whisper about the horrific crime, only adding to the suspicion of a possible coverup. Fear continues to have a strong hold on the mountain town... as no one, up to now, has had the courage to write about the murders and the intriguing mysteries surrounding them.