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Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War
by David Herbert DonaldIn a period when senators exercised more influence than presidents, Senator Charles Sumner was one of the most powerful forces in the American government. His uncompromising moral standards made him a lightning rod in an era fraught with conflict.<P><P> Pulitzer Prize Winner
Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party
by George R. StewartThe tragedy of the Donner party constitutes one of the most amazing stories of the American West. In 1846 eighty-seven people -- men, women, and children -- set out for California, persuaded to attempt a new overland route. After struggling across the desert, losing many oxen, and nearly dying of thirst, they reached the very summit of the Sierras, only to be trapped by blinding snow and bitter storms. Many perished; some survived by resorting to cannibalism; all were subjected to unbearable suffering. Incorporating the diaries of the survivors and other contemporary documents, George Stewart wrote the definitive history of that ill-fated band of pioneers.
Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years (Volume II, The War Years 1861-1864)
by Carl SandburgHe was a natural to write a biography of the prairie president. Sandburg has his roots there as well, and understood the plain speech, the wry humor, and the hard work. His portrayal of Lincoln had a quiet dignity about it and kept to the point, which was to describe how Lincoln grew up, read the law, took his ethics into the city, ran for office, waged war, and died just before he got to the promised land. Later biographies have emphasized Lincoln's psychology, or the rigors of his personal life, but Sandburg's portrait comes from two people of the prairie, himself and Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years (Volume III, The War Years 1864-1865)
by Carl SandburgThe War years, 1864-1865, examines the bitter election of 1864, the conclusion of the War, the evolution of Lincoln's reconstruction policy, and finally the terrible assassination. Concluding volume of the 3-volume set.
My Life
by Golda Meir"My Life" by Golda Meir is a compelling autobiography of an amazing woman, from her early days in poverty-stricken Kiev to her tenure as Prime Minister of Israel. This is a frank portrayal of her personality, motivations and goals.
First Blood: The Story of Fort Sumter
by W. A. SwanbergA gripping account of the American Civil War, including eyewitness testimony and profiles of key personalities.
Guerrilla Warfare
by Ernesto Che GuevaraIn this, the most famous book produced by the Cuban Revolution, a charismatic guerrilla leader presents his manifesto on asymmetrical warfare. The Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928-1967) establishes the principles of waging a popular rebellion, outlining his theories on insurrection and discussing their application in Cuba and elsewhere. Guevara's essays remain remarkably relevant to the twenty-first century, and his example of dedication, commitment, and self-sacrifice continues to inspire freedom fighters around the world.
Common Cents: A Retiring Six-Term Congressman Reveals How Congress Really Works-And What We Must Do to Fix It
by Timothy J. Penny Major GarrettTorn Country: An Oral History of the Israeli War of Independence
by Lynne Reid Banks"Torn Country" is not so much a history of the Arab-Israeli war but rather a series of recollections and assessments of it by participants. Banks collected interviews and arranged them, to give as clear a picture of the events that took place as possible through the memories and in the words of a wide variety of people who remember them -- sometimes as if they happened yesterday, more often with perspective: events that shaped Jewish history.
The Medieval Vision: Essays in History and Perception
by Carolly EricksonWriting primarily of the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the author explores religious belief, clergy, land and property heresy, women, lawlessness, kingship and the ever present supernatural world, relying on contemporary accounts chosen to reveal the shared perception of the educated and the illiterate. Throughout the collection, the visionary imagination becomes a touchstone for discovering the gap between modern and medieval perception, a key that informs our understanding of medieval personalities, thought and society and gives them fresh meaning.
Darby's Rangers: We Led The Way
by William O. Darby William H. BaumerHistory of Darby's Rangers from North Africa to Italy.
Beyond a Boundary
by C. L. R. JamesIn C.L.R. James' classic "Beyond a Boundary", the sport is cricket and the scene is the colonial West Indies. Always eloquent and provocative, James shows us how, in the rituals of performance and conflict on the field, we are watching not just prowess but politics and psychology at play. Part memoir of a boyhood in a black colony, part passionate celebration of an unusual and unexpected game, "Beyond a Boundary" raises, in a warm and witty voice, serious questions about race, class, politics and the facts of colonial oppression. Originally published in England in 1963 and in the United States twenty years later, this edition brings back in to print this emphatic statement on race and sport in society.
H.M.S. Ulysses
by Alistair MacLeanThe order flashed from the command ships SCATTER AND PROCEED INDEPENDENTLY Ahead of the convoy, lying in wait in the Arctic storm, was a German cruiser and battle squadron. The Allied ships wheeled and zig-zagged away from each other. All except the H.M.S. Ulysses. She did not change course. She was sheeted in ice and her bow leaped clear of the water as her great engines thrust her forward. The upper decks were a twisted, unbelievable shambles of broken steel. A Stuka had crashed into the fo'c'sle. Smoke plumed from great holes near the water line. Aft, a flag twenty feet in length streamed below the yardarm. It was red and blue and whiter than the Arctic snow. Streaming straight for the enemy, the H.M.S. Ulysses had broken out her battle ensign.
Lady from Savannah: The Life of Juliette Low
by Gladys Denny Shultz Daisy Gordon LawrenceBased on extensive research, this is a detailed biography of Juliette Low and a portrait of her family and background. Known throughout her life as "Daisy," Low was born in Savannah, GA, in 1860 and grew up amid privilege and comfort. She married into the British aristocracy. In midlife, after her husband's death due to alcoholism, she determined that she wanted to make a contribution to the world and hurled herself into the British Girl Guide movement. In 1912 she brought the movement to the U.S. as the Girl Scouts. The book draws upon Low's rich correspondence and the letters and diaries of her parents and siblings. /
The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas
by Charles Edward RussellThe history of the American orchestra.<P><P> Pulitzer Prize Winner
One Small Candle: The Pilgrims' First Year in America
by Thomas J. FlemingOne Small Candle focuses on the vivid, deeply moving drama of the Pilgrims' first year in the New World. The book begins in London as Pilgrim representatives sign a contract with Christopher Jones, the crusty captain of the old freighter Mayflower. We accompany them on their harrowing voyage across the Atlantic, and march with them over the barren, wintry landscape of Cape Cod in their desperate search for the homesite they eventually find at Plymouth. Howling Indians harass this reconnaissance party, while the weary women and children left aboard the Mayflower struggle against despair. Plymouth at last discovered, we watch "Saints" and "Strangers" forge a common solidarity in their struggle against brutal weather and epidemic disease. But the story is by no means entirely grim and solemn. Young explorers get lost in the woods and climb trees to escape "roaring lions." There is a comic duel for the hand of a headstrong fifteen-year-old. We are present at a bizarre visit to the great Indian chief, Massasoit. With masterly skill, Mr. Fleming gives us life-size portraits of the Pilgrim leaders. The Pilgrims' unique achievements--the Mayflower Compact, their tolerance for other faiths, the strict separation of church and state--are discussed in the context of the first year's anxieties and crises. Special attention is given to the younger men who emerged in this first year as the real leaders of the colony--William Bradford and Miles Standish. And new insights are provided into the deep humanity and tolerance of the Pilgrims' spiritual shepherd, Elder William Brewster. The book ends with the first Thanksgiving. Already in the Pilgrim mind there is a dawning consciousness that they are the forerunners of a great nation. It is implicit in William Bradford's words, "As one small candle may light a thousand, so the light kindled here has shone unto many...."
We Die Alone
by David HowarthLeft Jacket: "David Howarth's book opens as the small fishing boat containing Jan Baalsrud and the three other members of his sabotage group closes with the Norwegian coast. From that moment everything goes wrong. The plan is betrayed by a Quisling. A German warship appears in the fjord where they are hidden, and all but Jan are killed or taken prisoner. Alone, wounded, wet to the skin and woefully ill-equipped to withstand the rigours of the Arctic blizzards, Baalsrud fights to retain his freedom. As the pace quickens and the fugitive grows weary and progressively unable to cope with his surroundings, the writing takes on an urgency that makes the reader turn the pages with tense excitement. From now on Jan is hidden by a succession of heroic men and women who risk their lives and the lives of their families to help him get away. This is indeed a story of quiet heroism, of the triumph of human courage, fortitude and charity over the forces of oppression."
The Greek Way to Western Civilization
by Edith HamiltonIn centuries long past, which reached their summit in the few years of the Great Age of Pericles, literature, science, philosophy, art, democracy, religion -- the main achievements of the modern world -- developed almost overnight, full blown in many cases and as perfect as they could ever be. Edith Hamilton has illumined it for us with a spirit similar to its own, a complete sympathy and identification, and in a style that is an echo of the Greek grace, clarity, simplicity and warmth.
Passions and Impressions
by Margaret Sayers Peden Pablo NerudaPablo Neruda is known first as a poet, but the prose pieces in this collection reflect the enormous hunger he demonstrated throughout his career for new modes of expression, new adventures, new challenges. "Passions and Impressions" is both a sequel to and an enlargement of Neruda's "Memoirs", recording a lifetime of travel, of friendships and enmities, of exile and homecoming, of loss and discovery, and of history both public and personal. Above all, it is a testament to Neruda's love for Chile-for its citizens, its flora and fauna, its national identity. His abiding devotion pervades these notes on a life fully lived.
The Green Gauntlet (A Horseman Riding By #3)
by R. F. DelderfieldIn "The Green Gauntlet", we return to the seven families whose lives are rooted in the green acres of the great farming valley of Shallowford. The time is just at the outbreak of the Second World War, when the valiant pilots of the RAF are locked in combat with the Luftwaffe in the skies above Devon and England stands imperiled as never before by the dark shadow of Nazi invasion. The hero again is Paul Craddock -- older, wiser, but still fiercely dedicated to his land, to his children and grandchildren, to his tenants and to the vanishing way of life they represent.
The Emperor's Winding Sheet
by Jill Paton WalshFamished, terrified, exhausted, a boy drops from the tree in which he has hidden just as Constantine, last Emperor of the Romans, is about to receive his crown in a monastery garden. By this accident, Piers Barber, a shipwrecked young seaman from Bristol, England, now renamed Vrethiki ("lucky find"), becomes an unwilling talisman to the Emperor, for it has been prophesied that if there is even one person who is at his side when he takes the crown, stays with him always, the City will not perish. This is the story of the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and of the siege that marked the end of the proud, ancient Byzantine Empire. Corrupt, driven by bigotries, jealousies, and natural vanities, the City nevertheless commanded such bravery and loyalty as the world has seldom seen. Through the darkening months, Vrethiki is brought out of his sullen despair as he lives in the midst of a heroism and treachery, dogged endurance and blazing faith. And in time he comes to see the City as a vision worth dying for and the Emperor as his own true lord.
The Queen's Confession
by Victoria HoltThe unforgettable story of Marie Antoinette, told as if she might have written it through her letters and memoirs. Follow her life from her pampered childhood in imperial Vienna, to the luxury and splendor of her days as Queen of France, to her tragic end upon the scaffold in the bloodbath of the Revolution.