AN EPIC HISTORICAL QUEST SET AT THE DAWN OF THE AGE OF GUNPOWDER. In the world after 1066, vast empires clamor for dominance. From the Normans in the north to the Byzantines in the south, battles rage across Europe and around its fringes. But in the east, an empire still mightier stirs, wielding a weapon to rule the world: gunpowder. Seeking the destructive might of this 'fire drug,' the mercenary Vallon -- a man made of grit and earth as much as of flesh and blood -- is sent by the defeated Byzantine emperor on a secret and near-impossible quest to the far off land of Song Dynasty China. Alongside a squadron of highly trained soldiers, Vallon is accompanied by the learned physician Hero, hermit-like tracker Wayland and a young, ego-driven upstart named Lucas. All have their own reasons for going, all have secrets. It's a quest that will lead them across treacherous seas and arid desserts and into an uncharted land of mountains and plains beyond the Silk Road. Many will die. . .but the rewards could be extraordinary.
Investigating a case of infidelity sounds simple—until it plunges Spenser and his beloved Susan into a politically charged murder plot that’s already left three people dead.
LBJ and Grassroots Federalism: Congressman Bob Poage, Race, and Change in Texas reveals the local ramifications of federal policy. Three case studies in the rising career of Lyndon B. Johnson show this in action: LBJ's formative experience as a New Dealer directing the National Youth Administration (NYA) in Texas; his key role as senate majority leader in breaking the deadlock to secure funds for the Lake Waco dam project; and the cumulative effect of his Great Society policies on urban renewal and educational reform among the Mexican American community in Waco. In each of these initiatives, Bob Poage—though far more politically conservative than Johnson—served as a conduit between LBJ and citizen activists in Poage’s congressional district, affirming the significance of grassroots engagement even during an era usually associated with centralization. Robert Harold Duke's careful analysis in LBJ and Grassroots Federalism also offers a unique insight into a transformational period when the federal government broke down barriers and opened doors to the engagement of African Americans and Mexican Americans in community planning processes and social policy.
Examines the ways our conceptions of Asian American food have been shaped Chop suey. Sushi. Curry. Adobo. Kimchi. The deep associations Asians in the United States have with food have become ingrained in the American popular imagination. So much so that contentious notions of ethnic authenticity and authority are marked by and argued around images and ideas of food. Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader collects burgeoning new scholarship in Asian American Studies that centers the study of foodways and culinary practices in our understanding of the racialized underpinnings of Asian Americanness. It does so by bringing together twenty scholars from across the disciplinary spectrum to inaugurate a new turn in food studies: the refusal to yield to a superficial multiculturalism that naively celebrates difference and reconciliation through the pleasures of food and eating. By focusing on multi-sited struggles across various spaces and times, the contributors to this anthology bring into focus the potent forces of class, racial, ethnic, sexual and gender inequalities that pervade and persist in the production of Asian American culinary and alimentary practices, ideas, and images. This is the first collection to consider the fraught itineraries of Asian American immigrant histories and how they are inscribed in the production and dissemination of ideas about Asian American foodways.
Marked by sharp ideological divisions over civil rights, Vietnam, and federal power, the 1964 presidential campaign between Democrat Lyndon Johnson and Republican Barry Goldwater proved a watershed election in American history. Although Johnson defeated Goldwater in a landslide and liberalism seemed to ride triumphant, the liberal wave crashed almost immediately and conservatives came to dominate a resurgent Republican Party in the late twentieth century. Thoroughly researched and beautifully written, this is the first historical account of this crucial election, and the transition it marked for the nation. Filled with colorful details and fascinating figures - Johnson, Goldwater, Wallace, Rockefeller, Nixon, Reagan, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., George Bush, and many more - it captures the full excitement, drama, and significance of "liberalism's last hurrah.
In America in the Sixties, Greene goes beyond the clichés and synthesizes thirty years of research, writing, and teaching on one of the most turbulent decades of the twentieth century. Greene sketches the well-known players of the period—John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Betty Friedan—bringing each to life with subtle detail. He introduces the reader to lesser-known incidents of the decade and offers fresh and persuasive insights on many of its watershed events. Combining an engrossing narrative with intelligent analysis, America in the Sixties enriches our understanding of that pivotal era.
Focuses primarily on the years of McKay's presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during some of the most turbulent times in American and world history.
Available in a new digital edition with reflowable text suitable for e-readers The presidency is hazardous to your health. Fully two-thirds of our presidents have died before reaching their life-expectancy- despite being wealthier, better educated, and better cared for that most Americans. In Mortal Presidency, the first complete account of death and illness in the White House, Robert E. Gilbert looks at modern presidents including Coolidge, FDR, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan. He shows- in some cases, for the first time- that all suffered from debilitating medical problems, physical and/or psychological, which they frequently managed to conceal from the public but which, in important ways, affected their political lives. This edition is updated to include a brief look at Presidents Clinton and Bush, both of whom suffered sudden and unpleasant indispositions while in office which to some degree affected their presidencies.
A history of the liberal movement in the 1960s argues that the government was largely responsible for many of the positive changes associated with the period, in an account that evaluates the cultural and political factors that enabled key reforms.
In this 20th anniversary edition, Kolker continues and expands his inquiry into the phenomenon of cinematic representation of culture by updating and revising the chapters on Kubrick, Scorsese, Altman and Spielberg.
James Carville famously reminded Bill Clinton throughout 1992 that "it's the economy, stupid." Yet, for the last forty years, historians of modern America have ignored the economy to focus on cultural, social, and political themes, from the birth of modern feminism to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now a scholar has stepped forward to place the economy back in its rightful place, at the center of his historical narrative. In More, Robert M. Collins reexamines the history of the United States from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Bill Clinton, focusing on the federal government's determined pursuit of economic growth. After tracing the emergence of growth as a priority during FDR's presidency, Collins explores the record of successive administrations, highlighting both their success in fostering growth and its partisan uses. Collins reveals that the obsession with growth appears not only as a matter of policy, but as an expression of Cold War ideology--both a means to pay for the arms build-up and proof of the superiority of the United States' market economy. But under Johnson, this enthusiasm sparked a crisis: spending on Vietnam unleashed runaway inflation, while the nation struggled with the moral consequences of its prosperity, reflected in books such as John Kenneth Galbraith's The Affluent Society and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. More continues up to the end of the 1990s, as Collins explains the real impact of Reagan's policies and astutely assesses Clinton's "disciplined growthmanship," which combined deficit reduction and a relaxed but watchful monetary policy by the Federal Reserve. Writing with eloquence and analytical clarity, Robert M. Collins offers a startlingly new framework for understanding the history of postwar America.
This account of the Kennedy assassination ("the most riveting ever," says The New York Times) is taken from Robert A. Caro's brilliant and bestselling The Passage of Power. Here is that tragic day in Dallas alive with startling details reported for the first time by the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Just as scandals that might end his career are about to break over Lyndon Johnson's head, the motorcade containing the presidential party is making its slow and triumphant way along the streets of Dallas. In Caro's breathtakingly vivid narrative, we witness the shots, the procession speeding to Parkland Memorial Hospital, the moment when Kennedy aide Lawrence O'Donnell tells Johnson "He's gone," and Johnson's iconic swearing in on Air Force One. Compelling. An eBook short.
Shaping Race Policy investigates one of the most serious policy challenges facing the United States today: the stubborn persistence of racial inequality in the post-civil rights era. Unlike other books on the topic, it is comparative, examining American developments alongside parallel histories of race policy in Great Britain and France. Focusing on on two key policy areas, welfare and employment, the book asks why America has had such uneven success at incorporating African Americans and other minorities into the full benefits of citizenship. Robert Lieberman explores the historical roots of racial incorporation in these policy areas over the course of the twentieth century and explains both the relative success of antidiscrimination policy and the failure of the American welfare state to address racial inequality. He chronicles the rise and resilience of affirmative action, including commentary on the recent University of Michigan affirmative action cases decided by the Supreme Court. He also shows how nominally color-blind policies can have racially biased effects, and challenges the common wisdom that color-blind policies are morally and politically superior and that race-conscious policies are merely second best. Shaping Race Policy has two innovative features that distinguish it from other works in the area. First, it is comparative, examining American developments alongside parallel histories of race policy in Great Britain and France. Second, its argument merges ideas and institutions, which are usually considered separate and competing factors, into a comprehensive and integrated explanatory approach. The book highlights the importance of two factors--America's distinctive political institutions and the characteristic American tension between race consciousness and color blindness--in accounting for the curious pattern of success and failure in American race policy.
The Evolution of Presidential Polling is a book about presidential power and autonomy. Since FDR, virtually all presidents have employed private polls in some capacity. This book attempts to explain how presidential polling evolved from a rarely conducted secretive enterprise, to a commonplace event that is now considered an integral part of the presidency. I contend that because presidents do not trust institutions such as Congress, the media and political parties--all of which also gauge public opinion--they opt to gain autonomy from these institutions by conducting private polls to be read and interpreted solely for themselves.
The only inner-circle operative not to have been mysteriously killed, the author steps out of the shadows to give riveting testimony. Morrow--who was a CIA covert agent--reveals how he came to purchase the rifles used by Oswald and others to kill JFK. Ties into the 30th anniversary of the assassination.
“One of the great reporters of our time and probably the greatest biographer.” —The Sunday Times (London) From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Power Broker and The Years of Lyndon Johnson: an unprecedented gathering of vivid, candid, deeply moving recollections about his experiences researching and writing his acclaimed books. Robert Caro gives us a glimpse into his own life and work in these evocatively written, personal pieces. He describes what it was like to interview the mighty Robert Moses and to begin discovering the extent of the political power Moses wielded; the combination of discouragement and exhilaration he felt confronting the vast holdings of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas; his encounters with witnesses, including longtime residents wrenchingly displaced by the construction of Moses' Cross-Bronx Expressway and Lady Bird Johnson acknowledging the beauty and influence of one of LBJ's mistresses. He gratefully remembers how, after years of working in solitude, he found a writers' community at the New York Public Library, and details the ways he goes about planning and composing his books. Caro recalls the moments at which he came to understand that he wanted to write not just about the men who wielded power but about the people and the politics that were shaped by that power. And he talks about the importance to him of the writing itself, of how he tries to infuse it with a sense of place and mood to bring characters and situations to life on the page. Taken together, these reminiscences—some previously published, some written expressly for this book—bring into focus the passion, the wry self-deprecation, and the integrity with which this brilliant historian has always approached his work. To understand more about Robert Caro's research, see the Sony Pictures Classic documentary “Turn Every Page.”
The two decades since the Watergate scandal have seen an unprecedented focus on ethics in government. The public integrity scandals of the Clinton administration have, once again, focused national attention on ethics in Washington. This work addresses this very topical subject and the authors come to some unusual conclusions. Tracing the origins of the modern public integrity war back to the very birth of the nation, the authors explain how conservatives and progressives have used allegations of unethical conduct in an effort to persuade the American public to accept their respective visions for American society. A cynical public, anesthetized to the distinction between actual wrongdoing and partisan attack, follows ideology and self-interest rather than character, allowing politicians to get away with even the most egregious conduct.
Thomas Dennis emigrated to America from England in 1663, settling in Ipswich, a Massachusetts village a long day's sail north of Boston. He had apprenticed in joinery, the most common method of making furniture in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain, and he became Ipswich's second joiner, setting up shop in the heart of the village. During his lifetime, Dennis won wide renown as an artisan. Today, connoisseurs judge his elaborately carved furniture as among the best produced in seventeenth-century America. Robert Tarule, historian and accomplished craftsman, brilliantly recreates Dennis's world in recounting how he created a single oak chest. Writing as a woodworker himself, Tarule vividly portrays Dennis walking through the woods looking for the right trees; sawing and splitting the wood on site; and working in his shop on the chest -- planing, joining, and carving. Dennis inherited a knowledge of wood and woodworking that dated back centuries before he was born, and Tarule traces this tradition from Old World to New. He also depicts the natural and social landscape in which Dennis operated, from the sights, sounds, and smells of colonial Ipswich and its surrounding countryside to the laws that governed his use of trees and his network of personal and professional relationships. Thomas Dennis embodies a world that had begun to disappear even during his lifetime, one that today may seem unimaginably distant. Imaginatively conceived and elegantly executed, The Artisan of Ipswich gives readers a tangible understanding of that distant past.
An updated and expanded version of this classic study of contemporary American film, the new edition of A Cinema of Loneliness reassesses the landscape of American cinema over the past decade, incorporating discussions of directors like Judd Apatow and David Fincher while offering assessments of the recent, and in some cases final, work from the filmmakers--Penn, Scorsese, Stone, Altman, Kubrick--at the book's core.
The best music of the 20th century "developed our capacity for feeling, deepened our compassion, and furthered our quest for and understanding of what Aristotle called 'the perfect end of life' ". — from the Foreword by NPR music critic Ted Libbey The single greatest crisis of the 20th century was the loss of faith. Noise—and its acceptance as music—was the product of the resulting spiritual confusion and, in its turn, became the further cause of its spread. Likewise, the recovery of modern music, the theme to which this book is dedicated, stems from a spiritual recovery. This is made explicitly clear by the composers whose interviews with the author are collected in this book. Robert Reilly spells out the nature of the crisis and its solution in sections that serve as bookends to the chapters on individual composers. He does not contend that all of these composers underwent and recovered from the central crisis he describes, but they all lived and worked within its broader context, and soldiered on, writing beautiful music. For this, they suffered ridicule and neglect, and he believes their rehabilitation will change the reputation of modern music. It is the spirit of music that this book is most about, and in his efforts to discern it, Reilly has discovered many treasures. The purpose of this book is to share them, to entice you to listen—because beauty is contagious. English conductor John Eliot Gardiner writes that experiencing Bach's masterpieces "is a way of fully realizing the scale and scope of what it is to be human". The reader may be surprised by how many works of the 20th and 21st centuries of which this is also true.
The author is a licensed Professional Engineer who has taken an interest in the United States Presidents and presidential parties. Since he is not a political historian, this book can be thought of as an alternative point of view toward American politics. In this book, a number of United States Presidents are classified as being great and a group of others, honorable mention. All are selected on the basis of the nature and magnitude of their achievements This book contains a plethora of information on all the United States presidents and political parties. It begins with an all-inclusive chart displaying the winner, loser, political party and year for each of the 57 elections held in the United States. There are also short factual summaries of all 44 presidents and political parties. For ease of reading comprehension, there are more pages of graphics then there are pages of text. For instance, for each of the 44 presidents, there is a state map locating the city in which he was born. Also, for each president, there is a U.S. map displaying the name and number of states comprising the country at the time of his term in office. All told, this book contains 224 years of United States political history wrapped up into one all-inclusive compact literary package.
My name is Bob, which I prefer over Robert William Seybold Jr. I wrote this book because I wanted my family and friends to know from my "mouth" that I am gay and was born this way. I had no choice in the matter. I have had to hide this from the people I love, afraid I would lose them once they heard from me personally. They probably have been in denial over my life, guessing and betting that they were right. It was and is my business, but I needed to let them know my side of the story. All my life I had had to hide the truth with employers, family, and friends. Coworkers included. I did not want to be fired or hated. Fear is a terrible thing! So I tried to make my life something special, which I accomplished by writing this book, Life and Times through My Eyes.
This sterling collection of original, never-before-published essays on six fascinating contemporary presidents by some of the leading presidential biographers of our time is must reading for anyone interested in American politics, the history of the American presidency, or the lives of the presidents. Each essay -- extending and elaborating on lectures originally delivered as part of the Montgomery Lecture Series at Dartmouth University -- explores how a particular president came to power, wielded power, and was changed by power, and how each presidency affected the power of the office itself. The presidencies addressed are those of Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan, and Clinton. Published as our nation begins the process of electing the 43rd president, during a time when some believe the independence of the office itself is at stake, Power and the Presidency is a timely and thought-provoking look at the nature of power in American democracy.
John Steinbeck is one of the most popular and important writers in American literature. Novels such as The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men,and East of Eden and the journal Travels with Charley convey the core of Steinbeck’s work—fiction that is reflective and compassionate. The Nobel prize winner cared deeply about people, and his writing captured the spirit, determination, and willingness of individuals to fight for their rights and the rights of others. His art of caring is critical for today’s readers and as a touchstone for our collective future. In Citizen Steinbeck: Giving Voice to the People, Robert McParland explains how the author’s work helps readers engage in moral reflection and develop empathy. McParland also looks at the ways educators around the world have used Steinbeck’s writings—both fiction and nonfiction—to impart ideals of compassion and social justice. These ideals are weaved into all of Steinbeck’s work, including his journalism and theatrical productions. Drawing on these texts—as well as interviews with secondary-level teachers—this book shows how Steinbeck’s work prompts readers to think critically and contextually about our values. Demonstrating the power a single author can have on generations of individuals around the world, Citizen Steinbeck enables readers to make sense of both the past and the present through the prism of this literary icon’s inspirational work.
America's debt is in the trillions--and yet, like those who worry about borrowing five dollars but not about their unaffordable mortgage, Americans fail to pay attention to this serious situation. The press hovers over annual budgets and the associated deficits (and rare surpluses), but pays little attention to the national debt and even less to the interest spent serving it. Federal politicians seem as powerless to control the debt as they are uninformed about its nature. After tracing fluctuations in the finances of the country from its beginning until 1940, this book examines the administrations of the next 12 presidents (FDR through George W. Bush) and the annual budget deficits and interest expenses that fed the national debt. The startup debt of each administration is shown; then the change in debt through the end of the administration is analyzed to show what areas of government incurred overspending and how much was overspent. Also included are brief biographies of each president, and discussions of foreign and domestic situations, including judicial decisions and sociological changes, that affected fiscal policies and fueled the urge to overspend.
When Freedom Would Triumph recalls the most significant and inspiring legislative battle of the twentieth century -- the two decades of struggle in the halls of Congress that resulted in civil rights for the descendants of American slaves. Robert Mann's comprehensive analysis shows how political leaders in Washington -- Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, John F. Kennedy, and others -- transformed the ardent passion for freedom -- the protests, marches, and creative nonviolence of the civil rights movement -- into concrete progress for justice. A story of heroism and cowardice, statesmanship and political calculation, vision and blindness, When Freedom Would Triumph, an abridged and updated version of Mann's The Walls of Jericho: Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell, and the Struggle for Civil Rights, is a captivating, thought-provoking reminder of the need for more effective government. Mann argues that the passage of civil rights laws is one of the finest examples of what good is possible when political leaders transcend partisan political differences and focus not only on the immediate judgment of the voters, but also on the ultimate judgment of history. As Mann explains, despite the opposition of a powerful, determined band of southern politicians led by Georgia senator Richard Russell, the political environment of the 1950s and 1960s enabled a remarkable amount of compromise and progress in Congress. When Freedom Would Triumph recalls a time when statesmanship was possible and progress was achieved in ways that united the country and appealed to our highest principles, not our basest instincts. Although the era was far from perfect, and its leaders were deeply flawed in many ways, Mann shows that the mid-twentieth century was an age of bipartisan cooperation and willingness to set aside party differences in the pursuit of significant social reform. Such a political stance, Mann argues, is worthy of study and emulation today.
For the first time in one place, the reader will see all the likely conspirators revealed. The Warren Commission and the FBI agreed that President John F. Kennedy was killed by a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald. Fifteen years later, the House Committee on Assassinations re-examined the evidence. They announced that he was not killed by a single gunman, but probably murdered as the result of a conspiracy. This House Committee hesitated to speculate on who might have been involved in that conspiracy or why John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas on November 22, 1963 In 1979, Michael Burke and former congressman Harold Ryan were asked to continue that investigation. This historical novel will take the reader back to that time. Burke and Ryan will peel back the passage of time and the layers of secrecy and denial to reveal the reasons so many elites were determined to stop the Kennedy agenda.
Drawing on previously unavailable material and never-before-opened archives, An Unfinished Life is packed with revelations large and small -- about JFK's health, his love affairs, RFK's appointment as Attorney General, what Joseph Kennedy did to help his son win the White House, and the path JFK would have taken in the Vietnam entanglement had he survived. Robert Dallek succeeds as no other biographer has done in striking a critical balance -- never shying away from JFK's weaknesses, brilliantly exploring his strengths -- as he offers up a vivid portrait of a bold, brave, complex, heroic, human Kennedy.
On The Forward Edge is an American Government text-novel. It teaches the basic principles of American Government through the medium of a novelistic account of young people working for change at the time of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Clark Schooler, a recent college graduate, begins his newspaper career by reporting on the sit-in demonstrations of the early civil rights movement. He covers the efforts of college students to use direct-action and protests to force the racial integration of a movie theater in Baltimore. His editor then sends him to the all-white University of Mississippi to witness and write about the campus riot that takes place when a black student, James Meredith, attempts to attend the University. After covering the 1963 March on Washington, Clark is given a journalistic internship in the Capitol Hill office of United States Senator Thomas H. Kuchel of California. Senator Kuchel is one of the floor leaders for the civil rights bill that will eventually be enacted as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In his capacity as a Senate aide, Clark observes first hand the inner workings of Congress, particularly the way in which senators supporting racial segregation are using the Senate filibuster to "talk to death" the civil rights bill. Clark works with Senator Kuchel to find 67 votes to "cloture" the civil rights bill and thereby end the filibuster. Clark meets Bonnie Kanecton, a young lawyer working for Senator Everett M. Dirksen of Illinois. Bonnie shows Clark how, through carefully crafted legislative compromises, Senator Dirksen is able to fashion a final version of the bill capable of winning 67 votes for cloture. But the battle is not over until the Supreme Court, in the late fall of 1964, upholds the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
This A-to-Z volume examines the role of African Americans in the political process from the early days of the American Revolution to the present. Focusing on basic political ideas, court cases, laws, concepts, ideologies, institutions, and political processes, this book covers all facets of African Americans in American government. Written by a nationally renowned scholar in the field, the Encyclopedia of African-American Politics, Third Edition will enlighten readers to the struggles and triumphs of African Americans in the American political system. Entries include: Abolitionist Movement African immigrants Barack Obama Black Lives Matter Black Panther Party Civil Rights Act of 1964 Emancipation Proclamation "Forty Acres and a Mule" Freedmen's Bureau Hurricane Katrina Institutional racism Integrationism Juneteenth Lynching Malcolm X Million Man March Raphael Warnock
This powerful book reveals all those involved in the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Robert Clayton Buick exposes with indisputable facts, official records, unbiased witness testimony, forensic evidences, the natural law of physics and his own personal knowledge and involvement those personalities behind the killing of the 35th President of the United States and the murder of his younger brother Bobby Kennedy.
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