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A Revolution in Three Acts: The Radical Vaudeville of Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, and Julian Eltinge
by David Hajdu John CareyBert Williams—a Black man forced to perform in blackface who challenged the stereotypes of minstrelsy. Eva Tanguay—an entertainer with the signature song “I Don’t Care” who flouted the rules of propriety to redefine womanhood for the modern age. Julian Eltinge—a female impersonator who entranced and unnerved audiences by embodying the feminine ideal Tanguay rejected. At the turn of the twentieth century, they became three of the most provocative and popular performers in vaudeville, the form in which American mass entertainment first took shape.A Revolution in Three Acts explores how these vaudeville stars defied the standards of their time to change how their audiences thought about what it meant to be American, to be Black, to be a woman or a man. The writer David Hajdu and the artist John Carey collaborate in this work of graphic nonfiction, crafting powerful portrayals of Williams, Tanguay, and Eltinge to show how they transformed American culture. Hand-drawn images give vivid visual form to the lives and work of the book’s subjects and their world.This book is at once a deft telling of three intricately entwined stories, a lush evocation of a performance milieu with unabashed entertainment value, and an eye-opening account of a key moment in American cultural history with striking parallels to present-day questions of race, gender, and sexual identity.
A Revolution of Their Own: Voices of Women in Soviet History
by Barbara Alpern Engel Anastasia Posadskaya-VanderbeckThe stories of these eight Russian women offer an extremely rare perspective into personal life in the Soviet era. Some were from the poor peasantry and working class, groups in whose name the revolution was carried out and who sometimes gained unprecedented opportunities after the revolution. Others, born to “misfortune” as the daughters of nobles, parish priests, or those peasants termed well-to-do, suffered bitterly as enemies to a new government. The women interviewed here speak candidly about family life, work, sexual relations, marriage and divorce, childbirth and childbearing, and legalized abortion and the underground pursuit of such services after abortion was outlawed in 1936.As no previous book has done, A Revolution of Their Own illuminates the harsh reality of women’s daily lives in the Soviet Union as well as reveals the accomplishments made possible by the expanded opportunities that the new Soviet government provided for women. Their stories show why many Russian women continue to take pride in the public achievements of the Soviet period despite, or perhaps because of, the painful price each was made to pay.
A Revolutionary Friendship: Washington, Jefferson, and the American Republic
by Francis D. CoglianoThe first full account of the relationship between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, countering the legend of their enmity while drawing vital historical lessons from the differences that arose between them.Martha Washington’s worst memory was the death of her husband. Her second worst was Thomas Jefferson’s awkward visit to pay his respects subsequently. Indeed, by the time George Washington had died in 1799, the two founders were estranged. But that estrangement has obscured the fact that for most of their thirty-year acquaintance they enjoyed a productive relationship. Precisely because they shared so much, their disagreements have something important to teach us.In constitutional design, for instance: Whereas Washington believed in the rule of traditional elites like the Virginia gentry, Jefferson preferred what we would call a meritocratic approach, by which elites would be elected on the basis of education and skills. And while Washington emphasized a need for strong central government, Jefferson favored diffusion of power across the states. Still, as Francis Cogliano argues, common convictions equally defined their relationship: a passion for American independence and republican government, as well as a commitment to westward expansion and the power of commerce. They also both evolved a skeptical view of slavery, eventually growing to question the institution, even as they took only limited steps to abolish it.What remains fascinating is that the differences between the two statesmen mirrored key political fissures of the early United States, as the unity of revolutionary zeal gave way to competing visions for the new nation. A Revolutionary Friendship brilliantly captures the dramatic, challenging, and poignant reality that there was no single founding ideal—only compromise between friends and sometime rivals.
A Revolver to Carry at Night: A Novel
by Monika ZgustovaA captivating, nuanced portrait of the life of Véra Nabokov, who dedicated herself to advancing her husband&’s writing career, playing a vital role in the creation of his greatest works.Véra Nabokov (1902–1991) was in many ways the epitome of the wife of a great man: keenly aware of her husband&’s extraordinary talent, she decided to make his success her ultimate goal, throughout fifty-two years of marriage until his death in 1977. The first reader of his texts, Véra worked as typist and editor. She organized their lives in exile, as they traveled to Berlin, Paris, Switzerland, and, most importantly, the US, where she convinced Vladimir to focus on writing novels in English. She not only controlled the family&’s finances and contract negotiations, but also attempted to control his friendships—particularly with women—going so far as to audit his classes.In this rich, sweeping novel, Monika Zgustova immerses us in the daily life of this remarkable couple, offering insights into their complex personal and professional relationships, as well as the real people behind characters such as Lolita. Véra considered herself an independent woman, but was she really, when her husband took up so much space? And without Véra, could Nabokov have become one of the twentieth century&’s greatest writers?
A Rifleman Goes To War [Illustrated Edition]
by Captain Herbert W. McBrideIncludes the First World War Illustrations Pack - 73 battle plans and diagrams and 198 photosThe classic account of sniping on the Western Front."Herbert Wesley McBride was a Captain in the Twenty-first Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, during the First World War. He was a sniper and commander of a machine gun unit known as the "Emma Gees." He was also the author of two books on the war: "A Rifleman Went To War" (1933) and "The Emma Gees" (1918)...When the war started, he volunteered in a Canadian rifle company in Ottawa because he wanted to see action as quickly as possible. He was commissioned as an officer, but was reduced to a private due to several drunken incidents. He shipped to England for training and then to the Western Front, where he participated in battles around Ypres and the Somme throughout 1916. In his book, "A Rifleman Went To War," he recounts killing more than 100 German soldiers as a sniper. This book is highly regarded by students of riflery, it's mandatory reading in the U.S. Marine Corps Sniping School. It is also considered one of the best first-person accounts of World War I, often being compared favorably to "Storm of Steel" by Ernst Junger. However McBride notes in his book that by the end of 1916 he felt in his heart "the game was over," and a series of alcoholic binges resulted in his court martial and dismissal from the Canadian Expeditionary Force in February 1917. He then joined the United States Army's 38th Division, serving out the war as a marksmanship and sniping instructor at Camp Perry. He resigned in October 1918. After the war, he worked in the lumber industry in Oregon for most of his later years. He died in Indianapolis of a sudden heart failure on March 17, 1933, shortly after finishing "A Rifleman Went To War." He was 60."-Canadaatwar.com
A Rift in Time: Travels with My Ottoman Uncle
by Raja ShehadehThe quest for his great-uncle Najib Nassar, an Ottoman journalist - the details of his life, and the route of his great escape from occupied Palestine - consumed award-winning writer Raja Shehadeh for two years. As he traces Najib's footsteps, he discovers that today it would be impossible to flee the cage that Palestine has become. "A Rift in Time" is a family memoir written in luminescent prose, but it is also a reflection on how Palestine - in particular the disputed Jordan Rift Valley - has been transformed. Most of Palestine's history and that of its people is buried deep in the ground: whole villages have disappeared and names have been erased from the map. Yet by seeing the bigger picture of the landscape and the unending struggle for freedom as Shehadeh does, it is still possible to look towards a better future, free from Israeli or Ottoman oppression.
A Rift in Time: Travels with My Ottoman Uncle
by Raja ShehadehAn engrossing family memoir that shines a light on Palestine&’s history, offering a wise, sobering view of how radically conditions there have changed since the late Ottoman Empire, from the award-winning author of We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I.Raja Shehadeh&’s great-great-uncle Najib Nassar, a journalist born in 1865, spent the first 4 decades of his life under the Ottoman Empire. Ruled by a Muslim Sultan, the region nevertheless saw the coexistence of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and a freedom of movement unthinkable in the present-day Middle East. On a 2-year quest to discover Najib&’s fascinating story, Shehadeh follows his footsteps through what are now Lebanon and Israel, tracing the fall of the Empire after World War I and the disastrous British Mandate. A family memoir written in luminescent prose, A Rift in Time also reflects on how Palestine—in particular the disputed Jordan Rift Valley—has been transformed. Most of Palestine&’s history and that of its people is buried deep in the ground: whole villages have disappeared, and names have been erased from the map. Yet by seeing the bigger picture of the landscape and the unending struggle for freedom as Shehadeh does, it is still possible to look toward a better future.
A Rift in the Earth: Art, Memory, and the Fight for a Vietnam War Memorial
by James Reston Jr.A Distinguished and Bestselling Historian and Army Veteran Revisits the Culture War that Raged around the Selection of Maya Lin's Design for the Vietnam Memorial A Rift in the Earth tells the remarkable story of the ferocious “art war” that raged between 1979 and 1984 over what kind of memorial should be built to honor the men and women who died in the Vietnam War. The story intertwines art, politics, historical memory, patriotism, racism, and a fascinating set of characters, from those who fought in the conflict and those who resisted it to politicians at the highest level. At its center are two enduring figures: Maya Lin, a young, Asian-American architecture student at Yale whose abstract design won the international competition but triggered a fierce backlash among powerful figures; and Frederick Hart, an innovative sculptor of humble origins on the cusp of stardom. James Reston, Jr., a veteran who lost a close friend in the war and has written incisively about the conflict's bitter aftermath, explores how the debate reignited passions around Vietnam long after the war’s end and raised questions about how best to honor those who fought and sacrificed in an ill-advised war. Richly illustrated with photographs from the era and design entries from the memorial competition, A Rift in the Earth is timed to appear alongside Ken Burns's eagerly anticipated PBS documentary, The Vietnam War. “The memorial appears as a rift in the earth, a long polished black stone wall, emerging from and receding into the earth."—Maya Lin "I see the wall as a kind of ocean, a sea of sacrifice. . . . I place these figures upon the shore of that sea." —Frederick Hart
A Right Royal Scandal: Two Marriages That Changed History
by Joanne Major Sarah MurdenFrom the authors of An Infamous Mistress: &“The tale of two juicy 19th-century scandals, both concerning the aristocratic Cavendish-Bentinck family&” (Cheshire Life). Almost two books in one, A Right Royal Scandal recounts the fascinating history of the irregular love matches contracted by two successive generations of the Cavendish-Bentinck family, ancestors of the British royal family. The first part of this intriguing book looks at the scandal that erupted in Regency London, just months after the Battle of Waterloo, when the widowed Lord Charles Bentinck eloped with the Duke of Wellington&’s married niece. Over two decades later and while at Oxford University, Lord Charles&’ eldest son fell in love with a beautiful Romany girl, and secretly married her. When his alliance was discovered, he was cast adrift by his family—with devastating consequences. A love story as well as a brilliantly researched historical biography, this is a continuation of Joanne Major and Sarah Murden&’s first biography, An Infamous Mistress, about the eighteenth-century courtesan Grace Dalrymple Elliott, whose daughter was the first wife of Lord Charles Bentinck. The book ends by showing how, if not for a young gypsy and her tragic life, the British monarchy would look very different today. &“An easy read of a subject that keeps you engrossed from start to finish. This book is brilliant for those who enjoy the scandals of historical television, with the added authenticity of historical fact.&” —History of Royals &“The plots may seem to come straight out of the world of Regency Romance but they are all true, and carefully annotated and verified by Major and Murden.&” —Naomi Clifford, author of The Murder of Mary Ashford
A Right Worthy Woman: A Novel
by Ruth P. WatsonIn the vein of The Engineer&’s Wife and Carolina Built, an inspiring novel based on the remarkable true story of Virginia&’s Black Wall Street and the indomitable Maggie Lena Walker, the daughter of a formerly enslaved woman who became the first Black woman to establish and preside over a bank in the United States.Maggie Lena Walker was ambitious and unafraid. Her childhood in 19th-century Virginia helping her mother with her laundry service opened her eyes to the overwhelming discrepancy between the Black residents and her mother&’s affluent white clients. She vowed to not only secure the same kind of home and finery for herself, but she would also help others in her community achieve the same. With her single-minded determination, Maggie buckled down and went from schoolteacher to secretary-treasurer of the Independent Order of St. Luke, founder of a newspaper, a bank, and a department store where Black customers were treated with respect. With the help of influential friends like W.E.B. DuBois and Mary McLeod, she revolutionized Richmond in ways that are still felt today. Now, her rich, full story is revealed in this stirring and intimate novel.
A Riot of Our Own
by Johnny Green Garry Barker'Hugely enjoyable ... Green's great achievement is to recapture exactly how those moments felt, but remain sufficiently detached about the whole thing to render the experience honestly' MOJOJohnny Green first met the Clash in 1977. A RIOT OF OUR OWN is his tale of three delirious years of rock 'n' roll madness as confidant and road manager of the Clash, from the early punk days to LONDON CALLING and touring America. Ray Lowry accompanied the band as official 'war artist' on the second American tour and designed the London Calling album cover. Together, in words and pictures, Green and Lowry give the definitive, inside story on one of the most magnificent rock 'n' roll bands ever.
A Riot of Our Own: Night And Day On The Road With The Clash
by Johnny Green Garry Barker'Hugely enjoyable ... Green's great achievement is to recapture exactly how those moments felt, but remain sufficiently detached about the whole thing to render the experience honestly' MOJOJohnny Green first met the Clash in 1977. A RIOT OF OUR OWN is his tale of three delirious years of rock 'n' roll madness as confidant and road manager of the Clash, from the early punk days to LONDON CALLING and touring America. Ray Lowry accompanied the band as official 'war artist' on the second American tour and designed the London Calling album cover. Together, in words and pictures, Green and Lowry give the definitive, inside story on one of the most magnificent rock 'n' roll bands ever.
A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder And Its Aftermath
by Jeanine CumminsIt was a headline story in the New York Times and USA Today. It was covered by Court TV and profiled on the Ricki Lake Show. Now, here is the intimate memoir of a shocking crime and its aftermath. . . one family's immediate and unforgettable story of what victims can suffer long after they should be safe. .
A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder and Its Aftermath
by Jeanine CumminsA Rip in Heaven is Jeanine Cummins's story of a night in April 1991, when her two cousins Julie and Robin Kerry and her brother, Tom, were assaulted on the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, which spans the Mississippi River just outside of St. Louis. When, after a harrowing ordeal, Tom managed to escape the attackers and flag down help, he thought the nightmare would soon be over. He couldn't have been more wrong. Tom, his sister Jeanine, and their entire family were just at the beginning of a horrific odyssey through the aftermath of a violent crime, a world of shocking betrayal, endless heartbreak, and utter disillusionment. It was a trial by fire from which no family member would emerge unscathed. A Rip in Heaven is the intimate, immediate, and unforgettable story of what victims can suffer long after they should be safe.
A River of Words: The Story Of William Carlos Williams
by Jen BryantThis book traces the childhood urges to write of William Carlos Williams
A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams (Incredible Lives for Young Readers)
by Jen Bryant2009 Caldecott Honor BookAn ALA Notable BookA New York Times Best Illustrated Children&’s BookA Charlotte Zolotow Honor BookNCTE Notable Children&’s Book When he wrote poems, he felt as free as the Passaic River as it rushed to the falls. Willie&’s notebooks filled up, one after another. Willie&’s words gave him freedom and peace, but he also knew he needed to earn a living. So he went off to medical school and became a doctor -- one of the busiest men in town! Yet he never stopped writing poetry. In this picture book biography of William Carlos Williams, Jen Bryant&’s engaging prose and Melissa Sweet&’s stunning mixed-media illustrations celebrate the amazing man who found a way to earn a living and to honor his calling to be a poet.
A Road Taken
by David Mclean Patricia FinnNineteen years ago, David McLean was appointed by the prime minister of Canada to the board of directors of CN, after which he was elected chairman. McLean has been reelected each year and will retire in April 2014. In A Road Taken, the longest-serving chairman of the board in CN history explains complex business issues in very human terms. McLean's stories include his leadership role in the privatization of the company and the intrigue and egos in the behind-the-scenes race to launch the biggest IPO in Canadian history at that time. They also include the adventure and challenge of a prairie childhood, a university education fuelled by team sports and ambition, and a successful career in law and business. McLean plumbs the depths and delivers a treatise on leadership in business and life that is as moving as it is honest.
A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano
by Katie HafnerThe story of a legendary pianist's obsession with the unique, temperamental instrument he loved. Important figures in Gould's life are introduced including his nearly blind tuner.
A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides
by David Rohde Kristen Mulvihill"New York Times" reporter David Rohde and his wife, Kristen Mulvihill, present the compelling and insightful account of Rodhe's abduction in 2008 by the Taliban, and Mulvihill's struggle to free him.
A Rope and a Prayer: The Story of a Kidnapping
by David Rohde Kristen MulvihillThe compelling and insightful account of a New York Times reporter's abduction by the Taliban, and his wife's struggle to free him. <P><P> Invited to an interview by a Taliban commander, New York Times reporter David Rohde and two Afghan colleagues were kidnapped in November 2008 and spirited to the tribal areas of Pakistan. For the next seven months, they lived in an alternate reality, ruled by jihadists, in which paranoia, conspiracy theories, and shifting alliances abounded. Held in bustling towns, they found that Pakistan's powerful military turned a blind eye to a sprawling Taliban ministate that trained suicide bombers, plotted terrorist attacks, and helped shelter Osama bin Laden. In New York, David's wife of two months, Kristen Mulvihill, his family, and The New York Times struggled to navigate the labyrinth of issues that confront the relatives of hostages. Their methodical, Western approach made little impact on the complex mix of cruelty, irrationality, and criminality that characterizes the militant Islam espoused by David's captors. In the end, a stolen piece of rope and a prayer ended the captivity. The experience tested and strengthened Mulvihill and Rohde's relationship and exposed the failures of American effort in the region. The tale of those seven months is at once a love story and a reflection of the great cultural divide-and challenge-of our time.
A Rosa e a Espada. Hernán Cortés no México.
by Borja Loma Barrie Eliana Vitorio de OliveiraComo e por que fez o que fez o conquistador de Tenochtitlán Romance histórico sobre Hernán Cortés e a conquista do México. Biografia de Hernán Cortés. História da Mesoamérica. Civilizações indígenas da Mesoamérica. Astecas. Maias.
A Rose For Her Grave And Other True Cases (Ann Rule's Crime Files #1)
by Ann RuleAnn Rule's Crime Files books have delivered the very best in true crime reading since A Rose for Her Grave, first in the acclaimed series, made its debut. Distinguished by the former Seattle policewoman's razor-sharp eye for telling detail and her penetrating analysis of the criminal mind, this gripping collection of accounts drawn from her personal files features the twisting case of Randy Roth, who married -- and murdered -- for profit. In her trademark narrative style, Ann Rule weaves a tale that is riveting, enraging, and heartbreaking all at once, and brilliantly chronicles the fateful confluence of a killer and his female victims, as well as the shattering investigation into Roth's heinous crimes.
A Rose Trampled
by Dianna ThomasThey are thieves of innocence, murderers of dreams, and administrants of nightmares. Rapists and pedophiles have no soul. We’ve all had our family members watch our children from time to time—after all, they’re family. Once you’ve read A Rose Trampled: The Samantha Douglas Story, you will rethink about any family member keeping watch over your young children without you being present. I am a retired police officer after 23 years of service and have talked to countless women in my lifetime. Samantha Douglas’ true-life story is unlike any story I’ve ever heard. Samantha had been sexually abused since the age of four. Doctors say maybe as early as two or three. She was thrown out of the house at the age of fifteen because of rebellion against her mother for not confronting her abuser, a mature male relative. She was homeless, severely depressed, and only had the clothes on her back. Later, as an adult, Samantha finally found and married a man, and after several attempts at pregnancy, she had to bury five children. She divorced her husband—infidelity being the reason—and remarried, only to find out he was a murderer. Finally, she found true love and gave birth to her one and only child, Joshua. Joshua was a sick little boy and had major health problems. Then, without warning, her husband suddenly died. Life’s thorns could have destroyed her, but instead, they made her stronger. So, if you think you’ve been to hell and back, just read A Rose Trampled: The Samantha Douglas Story. I promise you’ll change your mind.
A Rose for Winter: Travels in Andalusia
by Laurie LeeA passionate ode to the magic of Spain, composed by one of its most ardent admirersFifteen years after the events described in his acclaimed autobiographies, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment of War, Laurie Lee returned to Spain, the land of his youth and experience. He found a country bowed but not broken, where the heavy gloom of the recent past was shot through with the vibrant rays of tradition: the exquisite ecstasy of the flamenco, the pomp and circumstance of the bullfight, the eternal glory of Christ and church.From the smuggler&’s paradise of Algeciras to the Moorish majesty of Granada, Lee paints the wonders of Spain with a poet&’s brush. To read A Rose for Winter is to be transported to one of the most enchanted places on earth.
A Rose for the Crown: A Novel
by Anne Easter SmithAN UNFORGETTABLE HEROINE, A KING MISUNDERSTOOD BY HISTORY, A LOVE STORY THAT HAS NEVER BEEN TOLD In A Rose for the Crown, we meet one of history's alleged villains through the eyes of a captivating new heroine -- the woman who was the mother of his illegitimate children, a woman who loved him for who he really was, no matter what the cost to herself. As Kate Haute moves from her peasant roots to the luxurious palaces of England, her path is inextricably intertwined with that of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III. Although they could never marry, their young passion grows into a love that sustains them through war, personal tragedy, and the dangerous heights of political triumph. Anne Easter Smith's impeccable research provides the backbone of an engrossing and vibrant debut from a major new historical novelist.