Tom Sancton's Books

Song for My Fathers

A New Orleans Story in Black and White

By: Tom Sancton

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Song for My Fathers

A New Orleans Story in Black and White

By: Tom Sancton

Song for My Fathers is the story of a young white boy driven by a consuming passion to learn the music and ways of a group of aging black jazzmen in the twilight years of the segregation era. Contemporaries of Louis Armstrong, most of them had played in local obscurity until Preservation Hall launched a nationwide revival of interest in traditional jazz. They called themselves “the mens.” And they welcomed the young apprentice into their ranks. The boy was introduced into this remarkable fellowship by his father, an eccentric Southern liberal and failed novelist whose powerful articles on race had made him one of the most effective polemicists of the early Civil Rights movement. Nurtured on his father’s belief in racial equality, the aspiring clarinetist embraced the old musicians with a boundless love and admiration. The narrative unfolds against the vivid backdrop of New Orleans in the 1950s and ‘60s. But that magical place is more than decor; it is perhaps the central player, for this story could not have taken place in any other city in the world.

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363

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Other Press, LLC

Published Date

ISBN 10

1590513894

ISBN 13

9781590513897

Sweet Land of Liberty

America in the Mind of the French Left, 1848–1871

By: Tom Sancton

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Sweet Land of Liberty

America in the Mind of the French Left, 1848–1871

By: Tom Sancton

In Sweet Land of Liberty, Tom Sancton examines how the French left perceived and used the image of the United States against the backdrop of major historical developments in both countries between the Revolution of 1848 and the Paris Commune of 1871. Along the way, he weaves in the voices of scores of French observers—including those of everyday French citizens as well as those of prominent thinkers and politicians such as Alexis de Tocqueville, Victor Hugo, and Georges Clemenceau—as they looked to the democratic ideals of their American counterparts in the face of rising authoritarianism on the European continent. Louis Napoleon’s bloody coup in December 1851 disbanded France’s Second Republic and ushered in an era of increased political oppression, effectively forging together a disparate group of dissidents who embraced the tradition of the French Revolution and advocated for popular government. As they pursued their opposition to the Bonapartist regime, the French left looked to the American example as both a democratic model and a source of ideological support in favor of political liberty. During the 1850s, however, the left grew increasingly wary of the United States, as slavery, rapacious expansionism, and sectional frictions tarnished its image and diminished its usefulness. The Civil War, Sancton argues, marked a critical turning point. While Napoleon III considered joint Anglo-French recognition of the Confederacy and launched an ill-fated invasion of Mexico, his opponents on the left feared the collapse of the great American experiment in democracy and popular government. The Emancipation Proclamation, the Union victory, and Lincoln’s assassination ignited powerful pro-American sentiment among the French left that galvanized their opposition to the imperial regime. After the fall of the Second Empire and the founding of the conservative Third Republic in 1870, the relevance of the American example waned. Moderate republicans no longer needed the American model, while the more progressive left became increasingly radicalized following the bloody repression of the Commune in 1871. Sancton argues that the corruption and excesses of Gilded Age America established the groundwork for the anti-American fervor that came to characterize the French left throughout much of the twentieth century. Sweet Land of Liberty counters the long-held assumption that French workers, despite the distress caused by a severe cotton famine in the South, steadfastly supported the North during the Civil War out of a sense of solidarity with American slaves and lofty ideas of liberty. On the contrary, many workers backed the South, hoped for an end to fighting, and urged French government intervention. More broadly, Sancton’s analysis shows that the American example, though useful to the left, proved ill-adapted to French republican traditions rooted in the Great Revolution of 1789. For all the ritual evocations of Lafayette and the “traditional Franco-American friendship,” the two republics evolved in disparate ways as each endured social turmoil and political upheaval during the second half of the nineteenth century.

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333

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

080717498X

ISBN 13

9780807174982

The Last Baron

The Paris Kidnapping That Brought Down an Empire

By: Tom Sancton

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The Last Baron

The Paris Kidnapping That Brought Down an Empire

By: Tom Sancton

A riveting, on-the-edge-of-your-seat tale about the notorious 1978 kidnapping of Baron Édouard-Jean “Wado” Empain, intertwined with the story of his famous grandfather, the first baron and builder of the Paris Métro. A multigenerational saga told against the backdrops of both Belle Époque and 1970s high-fashion Paris. What does it take to create a dynasty? What does it take to keep one going? And what does it take to save the life of the dazzling but flawed man who inherited it all? Launched in the 1880s by the first baron, the Empain industrial empire spread from Belgium and France to span more than a dozen countries. When Wado took over, he further expanded the company, became a key player in France’s nuclear sector, and, by the mid-1970s, was one of the country’s most powerful business leaders—a self-described “master of the universe.” But these were also the “years of lead,” marked by a rash of high-profile kidnappings around the globe, including the headline-grabbing seizure of American heiress Patty Hearst. Wado’s vertiginous rise caught the eye of Alain Cailloll, a small-time gangster who had grown up in a wealthy family before embracing a life of crime. On January 23, 1978, Caillol and his confederates snatched the baron off the Paris streets, sure that they’d get the 80 million francs they demanded in ransom. To show they meant business, they chopped off Wado’s little finger and warned that more body parts would follow. But nothing unfolded as the kidnappers, or Wado himself, expected. Would Empain’s company pay? Could his family afford this astronomical sum? How much was the life of a leader, a father, and a husband worth? Most important, could a determined police chief and his crack investigators outsmart the kidnappers? The answers to those questions unspooled over two months in a tangle of events leading to a bloody showdown whose consequences would prove fatal to the Empain dynasty.

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368

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Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

0593183819

ISBN 13

9780593183816

Song for My Fathers

A New Orleans Story in Black and White

By: Tom Sancton

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Song for My Fathers

A New Orleans Story in Black and White

By: Tom Sancton

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363

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Other Press, LLC

Published Date

ISBN 10

1590513762

ISBN 13

9781590513767

The Bettencourt Affair

The World's Richest Woman and the Scandal That Rocked Paris

By: Tom Sancton

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The Bettencourt Affair

The World's Richest Woman and the Scandal That Rocked Paris

By: Tom Sancton

An NPR Best Book of 2017 Heiress to the nearly forty-billion-dollar L’Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt was the world’s richest woman and the fourteenth wealthiest person. But her gilded life took a dark yet fascinating turn in the past decade. At ninety-four, she was embroiled in what has been called the Bettencourt Affair, a scandal that dominated the headlines in France. Why? It’s a tangled web of hidden secrets, divided loyalties, frayed relationships, and fractured families, set in the most romantic city—and involving the most glamorous industry—in the world. The Bettencourt Affair started as a family drama but quickly became a massive scandal, uncovering L’Oréal’s shadowy corporate history and buried World War II secrets. From the Right Bank mansions to the Left Bank artist havens; and from the Bettencourts’ servant quarters to the office of President Nicolas Sarkozy; all of Paris was shaken by the blockbuster case, the shocking reversals, and the surprising final victim. It all began when Liliane met François-Marie Banier, an artist and photographer who was, in his youth, the toast of Paris and a protégé of Salvador Dalí. Over the next two decades, Banier was given hundreds of millions of dollars in gifts, cash, and insurance policies by Liliane. What, exactly, was their relationship? It wasn’t clear, least of all to Liliane’s daughter and only child, Françoise, who became suspicious of Banier’s motives and filed a lawsuit against him. But Banier has a far different story to tell... The Bettencourt Affair is part courtroom drama; part upstairs-downstairs tale; and part characterdriven story of a complex, fascinating family and the intruder who nearly tore it apart.

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Page Count

400

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

1101984481

ISBN 13

9781101984482

Her Worship

Hazel McCallion and the Development of Mississauga

By: Tom Urbaniak

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Her Worship

Hazel McCallion and the Development of Mississauga

By: Tom Urbaniak

Mississauga is Canada's sixth largest city and its largest suburban municipality. Toronto's upstart western neighbour, with its multicultural population of more than 700,000, is a place not only of endless subdivisions and monotonous industrial parks, wide thoroughfares, and even wider expressways, but also of some distinctive older communities, notable lakefront and riverside parks, and occasionally bold architecture. Hazel McCallion, Mississauga's octogenarian mayor, is a national celebrity and a municipal icon. Head of the city council since 1978, she holds a position with limited formal authority but remains the virtually undisputed - and often feared - leader of this sprawling city. The first full-length study of McCallion's politics and the development of Mississauga, Her Worship examines the mayor's shrewd pragmatism and calculated populism. Tom Urbaniak argues that McCallion's executive skills and dynamic personality only partially explain the mayor's dominant and pre-emptive political position. He points also to key historical and geographical factors that contributed to a kind of civic stability - but also to stagnation and missed opportunities - in a place that had once been fraught with political rivalry and heated conflicts over future growth. A fascinating account both of a remarkable public figure and of an area that is emblematic of "edge city" development in North America, Her Worship is a fresh look at municipal governance and politics in rapidly growing communities.

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Page Count

353

Publisher

University of Toronto Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1442693169

ISBN 13

9781442693166

The Armageddon Project

By: Tom Sancton,Thomas Alexander Sancton

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The Armageddon Project

By: Tom Sancton,Thomas Alexander Sancton

Now Sam is a prime target for the C.I.A., the French intelligence, and Israel's Mossad, who dispatch a sexy El Al stewardess to use any means necessary to stop him. To uncover the story and stay alive, he uses his reporter's instincts and the unwitting help of his foolish brother-in-law, who becomes an unlikely savior in the nick of time. From Paris' Latin Quarter, to the Italian Riviera, to England's Dover Castle, Sam races to reveal the truth before the "Armageddon Project" triggers a real apocalypse in the Middle East."--BOOK JACKET.

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376

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Other Press (NY)

Published Date

ISBN 10

1590512529

ISBN 13

9781590512524

The Bettencourt Affair

The World's Richest Woman and the Scandal That Rocked Paris

By: Tom Sancton

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The Bettencourt Affair

The World's Richest Woman and the Scandal That Rocked Paris

By: Tom Sancton

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417

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Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

110198449X

ISBN 13

9781101984499

A Viking Market Kingdom in Ireland and Britain

Trade Networks and the Importation of a Southern Scandinavian Silver Bullion Economy

By: Tom Horne

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A Viking Market Kingdom in Ireland and Britain

Trade Networks and the Importation of a Southern Scandinavian Silver Bullion Economy

By: Tom Horne

Viking-Age trade, network theory, silver economies, kingdom formation, and the Scandinavian raiding and settlement of Ireland and Britain are all popular subjects. However, few have looked for possible connections between these phenomena, something this book suggests were closely related. By allying Blomkvist’s network-kingdoms with Sindbæk’s nodal market-networks, it is argued that the political and economic character of Viking-Age Britain and Ireland – my ‘Insular Scandinavia’ – is best understood if Dublin and Jórvík are seen as being established as nodes of a market-based network-kingdom. Based on a dataset relating to the then developing bullion economies of the central and eastern Scandinavian worlds and southern Scandinavia in particular, it is argued that war-band leaders from, or familiar with, ‘Danish’ markets like Hedeby and Kaupang transposed to Insular Scandinavia the concept of polities based on establishment of markets and the protection of routeways between them. Using this book, readers can think of interlinked Dublin and Great Army elites creating an Insular version of a Danish-style nodal market kingdom based on commerce and silver currencies. A Viking Market Kingdom in Ireland and Britain will help specialist researchers and students of Viking archaeology make connections between southern Scandinavia and the market economy of the Uí Ímair (‘descendants of Ívarr’) operating out of the twin nodes of Dublin and Jórvík via the initial establishment of Hiberno-Scandinavian longphuirt and the related winter-camps of the Viking Great Army.

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Page Count

330

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

100053314X

ISBN 13

9781000533149

Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Heroes

The Mutant Melding of Two Volumes of Classic Interviews

By: Tom Weaver

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Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Heroes

The Mutant Melding of Two Volumes of Classic Interviews

By: Tom Weaver

The people who directed, produced, and starred in the scary and fantastic movies of the genre heyday over thirty years ago created memorable experiences as well as memorable movies. This McFarland Classic brings together over fifty interviews with the directors, producers, actors, and make-up artists of science fiction and horror films of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. From B movies to classics, Samuel Z. Arkoff to Acquanetta, these veteran vampire baits, swamp monsters, and flying saucers attackees share their memories. This classic volume represents the union of two previous volumes: Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers ("more fun than the lovably cheap movies that inspired it"--Booklist/RBB); and Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes ("candid...a must" --ARBA). Together at last, this combined collection of interviews offers a candid and delightful perspective on the movies that still make audiences squeal with fear, and occasionally, howl with laughter.

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Page Count

900

Publisher

McFarland

Published Date

ISBN 10

0786407557

ISBN 13

9780786407552

John Catt's Which School? 2012

By: Tom Wheare,Wendy Bosberry-Scott

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John Catt's Which School? 2012

By: Tom Wheare,Wendy Bosberry-Scott

First published in 1924, 'Which School?' brings together in one volume a wide range of information and advice, updated annually, on independent education for children up to the age of 18 years.

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442

Publisher

John Catt Educational Ltd

Published Date

ISBN 10

1908095261

ISBN 13

9781908095268

The Last Baron

The Paris Kidnapping That Brought Down an Empire

By: Tom Sancton

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The Last Baron

The Paris Kidnapping That Brought Down an Empire

By: Tom Sancton

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368

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Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

0593183819

ISBN 13

9780593183816

Sweet Land of Liberty

America in the Mind of the French Left, 1848–1871

By: Tom Sancton

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Sweet Land of Liberty

America in the Mind of the French Left, 1848–1871

By: Tom Sancton

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333

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

080717498X

ISBN 13

9780807174982

Death of a Princess

The True Story Behind Diana's Tragic End

By: Tom Sancton,Scott MacLeod

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Death of a Princess

The True Story Behind Diana's Tragic End

By: Tom Sancton,Scott MacLeod

For the twentieth anniversary of Diana's death, a new, updated edition of the headline-grabbing New York Times bestseller that told the definitive story of how the Princess of Wales lost her life in a high-speed car accident in the heart of Paris on August 31, 1997. What really happened on that fateful summer night? Rumors still abound: that Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed (son of wealthy Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al Fayed), were planning to marry and British intelligence was somehow involved in their deaths. Or, that the paparazzi, a second car, or Diana and Dodi's driver, may have been responsible. Written by Tom Sancton, Time's Paris bureau chief at the time, and Scott MacLeod, then the magazine's Middle East correspondent, Death of a Princess struck a chord in 1998 with its exhaustive account of what really happened in the months, days, hours, and minutes leading up to the fatal crash. The book remains a masterwork of strong, original reporting, firsthand interviews with key figures, and insider analysis of one of the twentieth century's most tragic and unforgettable events.

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Page Count

423

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

1524742481

ISBN 13

9781524742485

The Armageddon Project

By: Tom Sancton,Thomas Alexander Sancton

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The Armageddon Project

By: Tom Sancton,Thomas Alexander Sancton

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376

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Other Press (NY)

Published Date

ISBN 10

1590512529

ISBN 13

9781590512524

What's On God's Sin List for Today?

By: Tom Hobson

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What's On God's Sin List for Today?

By: Tom Hobson

Christians get confused about exactly what to do with the commands in the Bible. Do we need to give up pork and shellfish? Is it a sin to eat roadkill or to eat blood sausage? Is it a sin to wear mixed fabric? Is cross-dressing a crime? What about tattoos? What do we do with that command not to boil a kid in its mother's milk? And if none of these commands are for Christians today, then which Bible commands are for today? This book is designed to help you find solid answers to the question, ""Which parts of the Bible's teaching are timeless and universal, and which parts are only for the people to whom the Bible was first written?"" We will examine the laws in the Old Testament and the New Testament sin lists, and how they speak to issues such as sex, alcohol and drugs, obscene language, and gambling as they existed in the first-century world, as we seek to discover what's on God's sin list for us today. ""It is impressive to observe how such a detailed discussion on 'sin lists' in the entire Bible is presented in such a concise piece . . . I recommend this easy-to-read and rich-content piece to the average Christian reader, students of biblical ethics and reading groups at church sessions."" --Daniel Darko, PhD, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts ""Tom Hobson's What's on God's Sin List for Today . . . is a biblically sound and insightful approach that is convincing, convicting, and redemptive.'' --James Slone, Senior Pastor, St. Matthew United Methodist Church, Belleville, IL ""Dr. Hobson's book gives readers fresh insights into the relevance of Old Testament laws for our lives today. For those interested in Christian ethics, it will prove to be a valuable conversation partner.'' --Timothy Saleska, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Exegetical Theology, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri Tom Hobson has been a pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA) since 1983. He holds degrees from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.

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Page Count

114

Publisher

Wipf & Stock Publishers

Published Date

ISBN 10

1498259901

ISBN 13

9781498259903

Book's by Tom Sancton

Song for My Fathers

Song for My Fathers

Sweet Land of Liberty

Sweet Land of Liberty

The Last Baron

The Last Baron

Song for My Fathers

Song for My Fathers

The Bettencourt Affair

The Bettencourt Affair

Her Worship

Her Worship

The Armageddon Project

The Armageddon Project

The Bettencourt Affair

The Bettencourt Affair

A Viking Market Kingdom in Ireland and Britain

A Viking Market Kingdom in Ireland and Britain

Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Heroes

Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Heroes

John Catt's Which School? 2012

John Catt's Which School? 2012

The Last Baron

The Last Baron

Sweet Land of Liberty

Sweet Land of Liberty

Death of a Princess

Death of a Princess

The Armageddon Project

The Armageddon Project

What's On God's Sin List for Today?

What's On God's Sin List for Today?

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