A central political figure in the first post-Revolutionary generation, Felix Grundy (1775--1840) epitomized the "American democrat" who so famously fascinated Alexis de Tocqueville. Born and reared on the isolated frontier, Grundy rose largely by his own ability to become the Old Southwest's greatest criminal lawyer and one of the first radical political reformers in the fledgling United States. In Democracy's Lawyer, the first comprehensive biography of Grundy since 1940, J. Roderick Heller reveals how Grundy's life typifies the archetypal, post--founding fathers generation that forged America's culture and institutions. After his birth in Virginia, Grundy moved west at age five to the region that would become Kentucky, where he lost three brothers in Indian wars. He earned a law degree, joined the legislature, and quickly became Henry Clay's main rival. At age thirty-one, after rising to become chief justice of Kentucky, Grundy moved to Tennessee, where voters soon elected him to Congress. In Washington, Grundy proved so voracious a proponent of the War of 1812 that a popular slogan of the day blamed the war on "Madison, Grundy, and the Devil." A pivotal U.S. senator during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, Grundy also served as Martin Van Buren's attorney general and developed a close association with his law student and political protégé James K. Polk. Grundy championed the ideals of the American West, and as Heller demonstrates, his dominating belief -- equality in access to power -- motivated many of his political battles. Aristocratic federalism threatened the principles of the Revolution, Grundy asserted, and he opposed fetters on freedom of opportunity, whether from government or entrenched economic elites. Although widely known as a politician, Grundy achieved even greater fame as a criminal lawyer. Of the purported 185 murder defendants that he represented, only one was hanged. At a time when criminal trials served as popular entertainment, Grundy's mere appearance in a courtroom drew spectators from miles around, and his legal reputation soon spread nationwide. One nineteenth-century Nashvillian declared that Grundy "could stand on a street corner and talk the cobblestones into life." Shifting seamlessly within the worlds of law, entrepreneurship, and politics, Felix Grundy exemplified the questing, mobile society of early nineteenth-century America. With Democracy's Lawyer, Heller firmly establishes Grundy as a powerful player and personality in early American law and politics.
A central political figure in the first post-Revolutionary generation, Felix Grundy (1775--1840) epitomized the "American democrat" who so famously fascinated Alexis de Tocqueville. Born and reared on the isolated frontier, Grundy rose largely by his own ability to become the Old Southwest's greatest criminal lawyer and one of the first radical political reformers in the fledgling United States. In Democracy's Lawyer, the first comprehensive biography of Grundy since 1940, J. Roderick Heller reveals how Grundy's life typifies the archetypal, post--founding fathers generation that forged America's culture and institutions. After his birth in Virginia, Grundy moved west at age five to the region that would become Kentucky, where he lost three brothers in Indian wars. He earned a law degree, joined the legislature, and quickly became Henry Clay's main rival. At age thirty-one, after rising to become chief justice of Kentucky, Grundy moved to Tennessee, where voters soon elected him to Congress. In Washington, Grundy proved so voracious a proponent of the War of 1812 that a popular slogan of the day blamed the war on "Madison, Grundy, and the Devil." A pivotal U.S. senator during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, Grundy also served as Martin Van Buren's attorney general and developed a close association with his law student and political protégé James K. Polk. Grundy championed the ideals of the American West, and as Heller demonstrates, his dominating belief -- equality in access to power -- motivated many of his political battles. Aristocratic federalism threatened the principles of the Revolution, Grundy asserted, and he opposed fetters on freedom of opportunity, whether from government or entrenched economic elites. Although widely known as a politician, Grundy achieved even greater fame as a criminal lawyer. Of the purported 185 murder defendants that he represented, only one was hanged. At a time when criminal trials served as popular entertainment, Grundy's mere appearance in a courtroom drew spectators from miles around, and his legal reputation soon spread nationwide. One nineteenth-century Nashvillian declared that Grundy "could stand on a street corner and talk the cobblestones into life." Shifting seamlessly within the worlds of law, entrepreneurship, and politics, Felix Grundy exemplified the questing, mobile society of early nineteenth-century America. With Democracy's Lawyer, Heller firmly establishes Grundy as a powerful player and personality in early American law and politics.
The Battle of the Crater is one of the lesser known yet most interesting battles of the Civil War. This book, detailing the onset of brutal trench warfare at Petersburg, Virginia, digs deeply into the military and political background of the battle. Beginning by tracing the rival armies through the bitter conflicts of the Overland Campaign and culminating with the siege of Petersburg and the battle intended to lift that siege, this book offers a candid look at the perception of the campaign by both sides.
Maps is the definitive collection of John Sladek's uncollected work put together by his friend, fellow writer and critic David Langford who also provides an introduction. It includes all the solo stories - science fiction, detective puzzles, mainstream, "non-fact" pieces - as well as poems, playlets, pseudonymous fiction, all the short collaborations with Thomas M. Disch (including three never previously published) and some witty autobiographical essays. Sladek, was as good a writer of satire as Vonnegut, and without the Vonnegut mannerisms. Unfortunately he never received the appropriate credit, except from a small following of devoted readers.
Jacob Burckhardt and the Crisis of Modernity -- the first major study in English dedicated entirely to Burckhardt -- offers a compelling and timely analysis of Burckhardt's challenge to the values and assumptions of modern society. Unlike conventional accounts, which characterize him as an apolitical aesthete, John Hinde shows that Burckhardt was a thinker of profound importance whose conservative anti-modernism ranks him with Friedrich Nietzsche. Book jacket.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, picturesque Provincetown-- incorporated in 1727--was no longer one of the major seaports of Massachusetts involved in the whaling industry. The fishing industry was still going strong due to the hard-working Portuguese fishermen, but commercial interests looked towards tourism as they had in many other towns and cities. Where once fishing shacks and warehouses dotted the shoreline off Commercial Street, comfortable and well-appointed guesthouses and restaurants emerged to support the growing numbers of day-trippers (many of whom arrived by ferry from Boston) and vacationers who were discovering this charming town at the very tip of Cape Cod. Tourists had visited Provincetown early on. Henry David Thoreau made three walking trips on Cape Cod around 1850, but it was not until the turn of the century that artists, followed by playwrights, authors, and musicians, realized they could live inexpensively in a community that fostered creativity. The artistic and literary culture of Provincetown was enhanced by hangers-on who enjoyed the Bohemian lifestyle. Counter-culture hippies of the 1960s blended in with the colorful personalities of those individuals who came to "P-town" to pursue an alternative lifestyle. Gays and Lesbians have transformed many aspects of the town--both architectural and cultural--in its evolution from a fishing village to a popular and prosperous year-round resort community. Provincetown Volume I, published in 1997, focuses on the architecture and social history of this atypical town. This eagerly anticipated sequel features views of the shore, harbor, and ocean, the whaling and fishing industries, art and artists, playwrights and authors, entertainers, and alternative lifestyles.
Much writing about comedy tends to begin and end with Aristotle’s claim that comedy is inferior to tragedy, trivializing comedy as cheap or as a temporary distraction from things that "really matter." Such writing either presents exhaustive taxonomies of kinds of humor—like wit, puns, jokes, humor, satire, irony—or engages in pointless political endgames, moral dialogues, or philosophical perceptions. Comedy is rarely presented as a mode of thought in its own right, as a way of understanding, not something to be understood. John Bruns’ guiding assumption is that comedy is not simply a literary or theatrical genre, to be differentiated from tragedy or from romance, but a certain way of disclosing, perhaps undoing, the way the world is organized. When we view the world in terms of what is incompatible, we are reading comically. In this sense, comedy exists outside the alternatives of tragic and comic. Loopholes argues that trivialization of comedy comes from fear that it will address our anxieties with honesty—and it is this truth that scares us. John Bruns discusses comedy as a mode of thought with a cognitive function. It is a domain of human understanding, a domain far more troubling and accessible than we care to acknowledge. To "read comically" we must accept our fears. If we do so, we will realize what Bruns refers to as the most neglected premise of comedy, that the world itself is a loophole—both incomplete and limitless.
This much-awaited final volume of The Birds of British Columbia completes what some have called one of the most important regional ornithological works in North America. It is the culmination of more than 25 years of effort by the authors who, with the assistance of thousands of dedicated volunteers throughout the province, have created the basic reference work on the avifauna of British Columbia. Volume 4 covers the last half of the passerines and describes 102 species, including the warblers, sparrows, grosbeaks, blackbirds, and finches. The text builds upon the authoritative format of the previous volumes and is supported by hundreds of full-colour illustrations, including detailed distribution maps, unique habitat shots, and beautiful photographs of the birds, their nests, eggs, and young. In addition, a species update lists and describes 27 species of birds new to the province since the first three volumes were published. The book concludes with Synopsis: The Birds of British Columbia into the 21st Century, which synthesizes data and information from all four volumes and looks at the conservation challenges facing birds in the new millennium. The four volumes in The Birds of British Columbia provide unprecedented coverage of the region's birds, presenting a wealth of information on the ornithological history, regional environment, habitat, breeding habits, migratory movements, seasonality and distribution patterns of 472 species of birds. It is the complete reference work for birdwatchers, ornithologists and naturalists.
The first serious study of his discourse in nearly a quarter century, John F. Kennedy and the Liberal Persuasion examines the major speeches of Kennedy’s presidency, from his famed but controversial inaugural address to his belated but powerful demand for civil rights. It argues that his eloquence flowed from his capacity to imagine anew the American liberal tradition—Kennedy insisted on the intrinsic moral worth of each person, and his language sought to make that ideal real in public life. This book focuses on that language and argues that presidential words matter. Kennedy’s legacy rests in no small part on his rhetoric, and here Murphy maintains that Kennedy’s words made him a most consequential president. By grounding the study of these speeches both in the texts themselves and in their broader linguistic and historical contexts, the book draws a new portrait of President Kennedy, one that not only recognizes his rhetorical artistry but also places him in the midst of public debates with antagonists and allies, including Dwight Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, Richard Russell, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy. Ultimately this book demonstrates how Kennedy’s liberal persuasion defined the era in which he lived and offers a powerful model for Americans today.
The American West conjures up images of pastoral tranquility and wide open spaces, but by 1970 the Far West was the most urbanized section of the country. Exploring four intriguing cityscapes—Disneyland, Stanford Industrial Park, Sun City, and the 1962 Seattle World's Fair—John Findlay shows how each created a sense of cohesion and sustained people's belief in their superior urban environment. This first book-length study of the urban West after 1940 argues that Westerners deliberately tried to build cities that differed radically from their eastern counterparts. In 1954, Walt Disney began building the world's first theme park, using Hollywood's movie-making techniques. The creators of Stanford Industrial Park were more hesitant in their approach to a conceptually organized environment, but by the mid-1960s the Park was the nation's prototypical "research park" and the intellectual downtown for the high-technology region that became Silicon Valley. In 1960, on the outskirts of Phoenix, Del E. Webb built Sun City, the largest, most influential retirement community in the United States. Another innovative cityscape arose from the 1962 Seattle World's Fair and provided a futuristic, somewhat fanciful vision of modern life. These four became "magic lands" that provided an antidote to the apparent chaos of their respective urban milieus. Exemplars of a new lifestyle, they are landmarks on the changing cultural landscape of postwar America.
In this moving account, “America’s Superintendent” John Kuhn lays bare the scare tactics at the root of the modern school “reform” movement. Kuhn conveys a deeply held passion for the mission and promise of public education through his own experience as a school administrator in Texas. When his “Alamo Letter” first appeared in the Washington Post, it galvanized the educational community in a call to action that was impossible to ignore. This powerful book requires us to question whether the current education crisis will be judged by history as a legitimate national emergency or an agenda-driven panic, spurred on by a media that is, for the most part, uninterested in anything but useless soundbites. Essential reading for teachers, administrators, policymakers, and everyone concerned with public education, Fear and Learning in America: Analyzes school reform from the perspective of a practicing school administrator who isn’t sold on the corporate reform package. Places school reform in the historical context of similar episodes of national hand-wringing. Offers encouragement and appreciation to classroom teachers who are exhausted by the vilification that modern school reform has served up. “John Kuhn’s book is packed with more wisdom than any 10 books that I have read about American education. It is the wisdom born of experience. It is the wisdom of a man who cares about children, families, and community.” —From the Foreword by Diane Ravitch, author of Reign of Error “In Fear and Learning in America, John Kuhn weaves together stories from his life as a teacher and missionary with tales from history. The result is a fresh way of thinking about schools and educational policy. Refuting A Nation at Risk, Mr. Kuhn warns, persuasively, of ‘a rising tide of inequality.’ His message, artfully delivered in this important book, should be heeded.” —John Merrow, education correspondent, PBS NewsHour, and president, Learning Matters, Inc. “Kuhn is a superb educator and his valuable book effectively dissects the myths about today’s high-stakes testing environment and the worsening conditions under which educators are expected to make miracles every day, or else. His cogent arguments against such policies demonstrate what is really important and should inform the debate about public education.” —Randi Weingarten, president, American Federation of Teachers “This book is a brilliantly clear defense of public education as our nation’s most valuable asset. John Kuhn fearlessly names the fact that today’s education reformers, like the renowned emperor, wear no clothes.” —Christine Sleeter, professor emerita, California State University Monterey Bay John Kuhn is a public school administrator in Texas and a vocal advocate for public education. His “Alamo Letter” and YouTube videos of his 2011 speech at a Save Texas Schools rally went viral, as did his 2012 essay, “The Exhaustion of the American Teacher.”
Based largely on Neville Chamberlain's own words and official government documents, this book describes how were it not for Chamberlain's powerful, dominating presence in the British government, World War II might have been avoided. Was Adolf Hitler hell-bent on inciting a war, and there was no course of action by any national leader that could have prevented World War II? Or, did Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy with Germany and slowness in strengthening England's armed forces directly encourage Hitler to strike, dooming Chamberlain's successor Winston Churchill to face the war that could have been prevented? This book provides an in-depth look at one of the most pivotal moments in England's history, tapping a variety of primary sources to reveal rarely considered perspectives on the story behind the road to World War II. It explains how Chamberlain was driven by a personal agenda to destroy Socialism, which was the primary force behind Chamberlain's "double policy" of gradual rearmament and appeasement of the German dictator that enabled Hitler to strengthen his position in Europe. Author John Ruggiero takes exception to the Revisionist argument that Chamberlain had no choice but to appease Hitler, instead arguing that Charmberlain's pursuit of a policy of appeasement powered Germany's war machine, and as the most important figure in the British government, he therefore bears full responsibility for the failure of that policy. Students of international relations and history will be surprised to learn that Hitler was not wholly responsible for the war, while scholars will be interested in the manner in which Chamberlain managed to control the agenda—and his rationale for doing so.
Depicting the evolution of 20th-century Harvard in the broader context of national and world events, this text shows how changes in the structure and aspirations of American society led the University to remake itself after World War II, and to do so again after the social upheavals of the Vietnam era.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.