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American Women and Flight since 1940: since 1940
by Deborah G. Douglas“Individual women’s stories enliven almost every page” of this comprehensive illustrated reference, now updated, from the National Air and Space Museum (Technology and Culture).Women run wind tunnel experiments, direct air traffic, and fabricate airplanes. American women have been involved with flight from the beginning. But until 1940, most people believed women could not fly, that Amelia Earhart was an exception to the rule. World War II changed everything. “It is on the record that women can fly as well as men,” stated General Henry H. Arnold, commanding general of the Army Air Forces. Then the question became “Should women fly?” Deborah G. Douglas tells the story of this ongoing debate and its impact on American history. From Jackie Cochran, whose perseverance led to the formation of the Women’s Army Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II to the more recent achievements of Jeannie Flynn, the Air Force’s first woman fighter pilot and Eileen Collins, NASA’s first woman shuttle commander, Douglas introduces a host of determined women who overcame prejudice and became military fliers, airline pilots, and air and space engineers. Not forgotten are stories of flight attendants, air traffic controllers, and mechanics. American Women and Flight since 1940 is a revised and expanded edition of a Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum reference work. Long considered the single best reference work in the field, this new edition contains extensive new illustrations and a comprehensive bibliography.
American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot
by Craig FergusonIn American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson delivers a moving and achingly funny memoir of living the American dream as he journeys from the mean streets of Glasgow, Scotland, to the comedic promised land of Hollywood. Along the way he stumbles through several attempts to make his mark--as a punk rock musician, a construction worker, a bouncer, and, tragically, a modern dancer. To numb the pain of failure, Ferguson found comfort in drugs and alcohol, addictions that eventually led to an aborted suicide attempt. (He forgot to do it when someone offered him a glass of sherry.) But his story has a happy ending: in 1993, the washed-up Ferguson washed up in the United States. Finally sober, Ferguson landed a breakthrough part on the hit sitcom The Drew Carey Show, a success that eventually led to his role as the host of CBS's The Late Late Show. By far Ferguson's greatest triumph was his decision to become a U.S. citizen, a milestone he achieved in early 2008, just before his command performance for the president at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. In American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson talks a red, white, and blue streak about everything our Founding Fathers feared. Notes: Frequent strong language. Some Scottish spellings, idioms, and punctuation. Photo pages of captions at the end.
American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot
by Craig FergusonThe comedian and former late-night host discusses his life, career, struggles with drugs & alcohol, and his love of the United States in this memoir.In American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson delivers a moving and achingly funny memoir of living the American dream as he journeys from the mean streets of Glasgow, Scotland, to the comedic promised land of Hollywood. Along the way he stumbles through several attempts to make his mark—as a punk rock musician, a construction worker, a bouncer, and, tragically, a modern dancer.To numb the pain of failure, Ferguson found comfort in drugs and alcohol, addictions that eventually led to an aborted suicide attempt. (He forgot to do it when someone offered him a glass of sherry.) But his story has a happy ending: success on the hit sitcom The Drew Carey Show, and later as the host of CBS’s Late Late Show. By far Ferguson’s greatest triumph was his decision to become a U.S. citizen, a milestone he achieved in early 2008.In American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson talks a red, white, and blue streak about everything our Founding Fathers feared.“Ferguson admirably avoids wisecracks and instead goes for something like wisdom. . . . If “American on Purpose” is, in part, a memoir about Ferguson’s alcoholism and his triumph over it, it is also an account of an addiction he’s unlikely to kick: his obsession with America.” —New York Times
American to the Backbone
by Christopher L. WebberThe incredible story of a forgotten hero--a former slave, Yale scholar, minister, and international leader of the Antebellum abolitionist movement At the age of 19, scared and illiterate, James Pennington, escaped from slavery in 1827 and soon became one of the leading voices against slavery prior to the Civil War. Just ten years after his escape, Pennington was ordained as a priest after studying at Yale and was soon traveling all over the world as an anti-slavery advocate. He was so well respected by European audiences that the University of Heidelberg awarded him an honorary doctorate, making him the first person of African descent to receive such a degree. This treatment was a far cry from his home across the Atlantic, where people like him, although no longer slaves, were still second-class citizens.As he fought for equal rights in America, Pennington's voice was not limited to the preacher's pulpit. He wrote the first-ever "History of the Colored People" as well as a careful study of the moral basis for civil disobedience, which would be echoed decades later by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. More than a century before Rosa Parks took her monumental bus ride, Pennington challenged segregated seating in New York City street cars. He was beaten and arrested, but eventually vindicated when the New York State Supreme Court ordered the cars to be integrated. Although the struggle for equality was far from over, Pennington retained a delightful sense of humor, intellectual vivacity, and inspiring faith through it all. American to the Backbone brings to life this fascinating, forgotten pioneer, who helped lay the foundation for the contemporary civil rights revolution and inspire generations of future leaders.
American to the Backbone: The Life of James W. C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists
by Christopher L. WebberThe incredible story of a forgotten hero of nineteenth century New York City--a former slave, Yale scholar, minister, and international leader of the Antebellum abolitionist movement. At the age of 19, scared and illiterate, James Pennington escaped from slavery in 1827 and soon became one of the leading voices against slavery prior to the Civil War. Just ten years after his escape, Pennington was ordained as a priest after studying at Yale and was soon traveling all over the world as an anti-slavery advocate. He was so well respected by European audiences that the University of Heidelberg awarded him an honorary doctorate, making him the first person of African descent to receive such a degree. This treatment was far cry from his home across the Atlantic, where people like him, although no longer slaves, were still second-class citizens. As he fought for equal rights in America, Pennington's voice was not limited to the preacher's pulpit. He wrote the first-ever "History of the Colored People" as well as a careful study of the moral basis for civil disobedience, which would be echoed decades later by Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. More than a century before Rosa Parks took her monumental bus ride, Pennington challenged segregated seating in New York City street cars. He was beaten and arrested, but eventually vindicated when the New York State Supreme Court ordered the cars to be integrated. Although the struggle for equality was far from over, Pennington retained a delightful sense of humor, intellectual vivacity, and inspiring faith through it all. American to the Backbone brings to life this fascinating, forgotten pioneer, who helped lay the foundation for the contemporary civil rights revolution and inspire generations of future leaders.
Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story
by Ray DaviesAs a boy in post-War England, legendary Kinks singer/songwriter Ray Davies fell in love with America—its movies and music, its culture of freedom, fed his imagination. Then, as part of the British Invasion, he toured the US with the Kinks during one of the most tumultuous eras in recent history—until the Kinks group was banned from performing there from 1965-69. Many tours and trips later, while living in New Orleans, he experienced a transformative event: the shooting (a result of a botched robbery) that nearly took his life. In Americana, Davies tries to make sense of his long love-hate relationship with the country that both inspired and frustrated him. From his quintessentially English perspective as a Kink, Davies—with candor, humor, and wit—takes us on a very personal road trip through his life and storied career as a rock star, and reveals what music, fame, and America really mean to him. Some of the most fascinating characters in recent pop culture make appearances, from the famous to the perhaps even-more-interesting behind-the-scenes players. The book also includes a photographic insert with images from Daviess own collection from the bands archive.
Americas Political Dynasties: From Adams to Clinton
by Stephen HessThe Constitution states that "no title of nobility shall be granted by the United States," yet it seems political nobility is as American as apple pie. As Hess illustrates, while there always have been dynasties in America, they have not always been the same families: Dynasties are born and dynasties die, their rise and fall is part of the flux of a constantly changing political scene. America was founded in rebellion against nobility and inherited status. Yet from the start, dynastic families have been conspicuous in national politics. The Adamses. The Lodges. The Tafts. The Roosevelts. The Kennedys. And today the Bushes and the Clintons. Longtime presidential historian Stephen Hess offers an encyclopedic tour of the families that have loomed large over America's political history. Starting with John Adams, who served as the young nation's first vice president and earned the nickname "His Rotundity," Hess paints the portraits of the men and women who, by coincidence, connivance, or sheer sense of duty, have made up America's political elite. There are the well-known dynasties such as the Roosevelts and the Kennedys, and the names that live on only in history books, such as the Bayards (sixgenerations of U. S. senators) and the Breckinridges (a vice president, two senators, and six representatives). Hess fills the pages of America's Political Dynasties with anecdotes and personality-filled stories of the families who have given the United States more than a fair share of its presidents, senators, governors, ambassadors, and cabinet members. This book also tells us the stories of the Bushes and what looks to be a political dynasty in waiting, the Clintons. Emblematic of America's growing diversity, Hess also examines how women, along with ethnic and racial minorities, have joined the ranks of dynastic political families.
Americashire: A Field Guide to a Marriage
by Jennifer RichardsonWhen an American woman and her British husband decide to buy a two-hundred-year-old cottage in the heart of the Cotswolds, they’re hoping for an escape from their London lives. Instead, their decision about whether or not to have a child plays out against a backdrop of village fêtes, rural rambles, and a cast of eccentrics clad in corduroy and tweed. Americashire: A Field Guide to a Marriage begins with the simultaneous purchase of a Cotswold cottage and Richardson’s ill-advised decision to tell her grandchild-hungry parents that she is going to try to have a baby. As she transitions from urban to rural life, she is forced to confront both her ambivalence about the idea of motherhood and the reality of living with a spouse who suffers from depression. Then, just when she is finally settling into English country life, she is struck by an attack of non-alcohol-related slurring that turns out to be a symptom of multiple sclerosis. Her indecision about moving forward with motherhood is brought to a head when her neurologist tells her that pregnancy may actually decrease her risk of developing full-blown MS. Part memoir, part travelogue—and including field guides to narrative-related Cotswold walks--Americashire is a candid, compelling tale of marriage, illness, and difficult life decisions.
America’s Most Famous Catholic: Stephen Colbert and American Religion in the Twenty-First Century (Catholic Practice In North America Ser.)
by Stephanie N. BrehmFor nine years, Stephen Colbert’s persona, “Colbert”—a Republican superhero and parody of conservative political pundits—informed audiences on current events, politics, social issues, and religion while lampooning conservative political policy, biblical literalism, and religious hypocrisy. As devout, vocal, and authoritative lay Catholics, religion is central to both the actor and his most famous character. Yet many viewers wonder, “Is Colbert a practicing Catholic in real life or is this part of his act?” America’s Most Famous Catholic (According to Himself) examines the ways in which Colbert challenges perceptions of Catholicism and Catholic mores through his faith and comedy.Religion and the foibles of religious institutions have served as rich fodder for scores of comedians over the years. What set “Colbert” apart on his Comedy Central show, The Colbert Report, was that his critical observations were made more powerful and harder to ignore because he approached religious material not from the predictable stance of the irreverent secular comedian but from his position as one of the faithful. He is a Catholic celebrity who can bridge critical outsider and participating insider, neither fully reverent nor fully irreverent.Providing a digital media ethnography and rhetorical analysis of Stephen Colbert and his character from 2005 to 2014, author Stephanie N. Brehm examines the intersection between lived religion and mass media, moving from an exploration of how Catholicism shapes Colbert’s life and world toward a conversation about how “Colbert” shapes Catholicism. Brehm provides historical context by discovering how “Colbert” compares to other Catholic figures, such Don Novello, George Carlin, Louis C.K., and Jim Gaffigan, who have each presented their views of Catholicism to Americans through radio, film, and television. The last chapter provides a current glimpse of Colbert on The Late Show, where he continues to be a voice for Catholicism on late night, now to an even broader audience.America’s Most Famous Catholic (According to Himself) also explores how Colbert carved space for Americans who currently define their religious lives through absence, ambivalence, and alternatives. Brehm reflects on the complexity of contemporary American Catholicism as it is lived today in the often-ignored form of Catholic multiplicity: thinking Catholics, cultural Catholics, cafeteria Catholics, and lukewarm Catholics, or what others have called Colbert Catholicism, an emphasis on the joy of religion in concert with the suffering. By examining the humor in religion, Brehm allows us to see clearly the religious elements in the work and life of comedian Stephen Colbert.
America’s Transatlantic Turn
by John M. Thompson Hans KrabbendamThis collection uses Theodore Roosevelt to form a fresh approach to the history of US and European relations, arguing that the best place to look for the origins of the modern transatlantic relationship is in Roosevelt's life and career.
Americo Vespucio
by Miguel BetanzosBiografía de Americo Vespucio Américo Vespucio ha pasado a la historia sobre todo como el personajeque dio nombre a un continente, pero su propia trayectoria personal espoco conocida. Denostado en su momento entre exploradores y científicos,al tiempo que recibía honores oficiales, sus inicios como diplomático alas órdenes de los Médici le pusieron en contacto con aventureros que lellevaron a participar en una expedición al Nuevo Mundo financiada por laCorona española, y aún habría otro viaje bajo pabellón portugués,siempre con el propósito de conocer a fondo el nuevo continente yofrecer a la comunidad científica y al mundo noticia fiel de lo que vioy averiguó acerca de la geografía, la meteorología, la fauna y la florarecién descubierta.
Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America
by Felipe Fernández-ArmestoIn this biography of the man for whom America is named, historian Fernandez-Armesto delves into life and explorations of Amerigo Vespucci. Vespucci was a prominent self-promoter in the 15th century and Fernandez-Armesto successfully narrates his achievements in this book which in 2007 marked the 500th anniversary of the naming of America.
Amiable Scoundrel: Simon Cameron, Lincoln's Scandalous Secretary of War
by Paul KahanFrom abject poverty to undisputed political boss of Pennsylvania, Lincoln’s secretary of war, senator, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and a founder of the Republican Party, Simon Cameron (1799–1889) was one of the nineteenth century’s most prominent political figures. In his wake, however, he left a series of questionable political and business dealings and, at the age of eighty, even a sex scandal. Far more than a biography of Cameron, Amiable Scoundrel is also a portrait of an era that allowed—indeed, encouraged—a man such as Cameron to seize political control. The political changes of the early nineteenth century enabled him not only to improve his status but also to exert real political authority. The changes caused by the Civil War, in turn, allowed Cameron to consolidate his political authority into a successful, well-oiled political machine. A key figure in designing and implementing the Union’s military strategy during the Civil War’s crucial first year, Cameron played an essential role in pushing Abraham Lincoln to permit the enlistment of African Americans into the U.S. Army, a stance that eventually led to his forced resignation. Yet his legacy has languished, nearly forgotten save for the fact that his name has become shorthand for corruption, even though no evidence has ever been presented to prove that Cameron was corrupt.Amiable Scoundrel puts Cameron’s actions into a larger historical context by demonstrating that many politicians of the time, including Abraham Lincoln, used similar tactics to win elections and advance their careers. This study is the fascinating story of Cameron’s life and an illuminating portrait of his times.
Amigas: Letters of Friendship and Exile
by Marjorie Agosin Emma SepulvedaThis collection of letters chronicles a remarkable, long-term friendship between two women who, despite differences of religion and ethnicity, have followed remarkably parallel paths from their first adolescent meeting in their native Chile to their current lives in exile as writers, academics, and political activists in the United States. Spanning more than thirty years (1966-2000), Agosín's and Sepúlveda's letters speak eloquently on themes that are at once personal and political—family life and patriarchy, women's roles, the loneliness of being a religious or cultural outsider, political turmoil in Chile, and the experience of exile.
Amir Sjarifoeddin: Politics and Truth in Indonesia, 1907-1948 (Cornell Modern Indonesia Project)
by Rudolf MrázekAmir Sjarifoeddin explores the experiences of a central figure in the Indonesian revolution, whose life mirrored the idealism and contradictions of the anti-colonial and post-war world of twentieth century Indonesia. Amir was born at the edge of an empire in a time of change. Imprisoned by the Dutch for anti-colonialism, he was sentenced to death by the Japanese for anti-fascism. He survived to become the prime minister of the new Indonesian republic. Disappointed by the direction the Indonesian elites were taking, Amir turned increasingly to the left. In 1948 he joined the armed uprising against both the Indonesian government and the corruption of the national revolution, and was captured and executed as a traitor. In Amir Sjarifoeddin, Rudolf Mrázek unveils the human dimensions of a figure who is widely mythologized but often poorly understood. Through Sjarifoeddin's life, it is possible to study the moral ambiguity and complexities of the political revolutions of the twentieth century.
Amiri Baraka and Edward Dorn: The Collected Letters (Recencies Series: Research and Recovery in Twentieth-Century American Poetics)
by Claudia Moreno PisanoFrom the end of the 1950s through the middle of the 1960s, Amiri Baraka (b. 1934) and Edward Dorn (1929–99), two self-consciously avant-garde poets, fostered an intense friendship primarily through correspondence. The early 1960s found both poets just beginning to publish and becoming public figures. Bonding around their commitment to new and radical forms of poetry and culture, Dorn and Baraka created an interracial friendship at precisely the moment when the Civil Rights Movement was becoming a powerful force in national politics. The major premise of the Dorn-Jones friendship as developed through their letters was artistic, but the range of subjects in the correspondence shows an incredible intersection between the personal and the public, providing a schematic map of what was so vital in postwar American culture to those living through it.Their letters offer a vivid picture of American lives connecting around poetry during a tumultuous time of change and immense creativity. Reading through these correspondences allows access into personal biographies, and through these biographies, profound moments in American cultural history open themselves to us in a way not easily found in official channels of historical narrative and memory.
Amish Confidential
by Ellis Henican Lebanon" Levi Stoltzfus"Lebanon" Levi Stoltzfus, star of the hit Discovery Channel reality show Amish Mafia, delivers a sizzling tell-all about Amish life today. From the forbidden joyrides to the senseless shunnings to the colorful family feuds, he shares his frank insider's view of this fascinating and secretive society.You've seen the pretty postcards and the shiny tourist brochures. Now, Amish Confidential takes readers beyond the buggies, bonnets, and beards--into the hidden heart of back-roads Amish country. The all-night field parties. The prohibited automobiles. The nosy neighbors and prissy tattletales. It's all here: the many "English temptations." The stitch-and-bitch quilting bees. The sex, alcohol, and illicit Wi-Fi. And the random acts of kindness and remarkable forgiveness, too. Interest in the Amish has never been greater. The tourist counts keep breaking new records. Amish Mafia is back for a fourth blockbuster season on TV, joined now by several spinoff shows. Amish Confidential taps right into America's fresh fascination with the throwback Amish. Stoltzfus weaves his never-before-told personal story through some high-profile Amish episodes that rocked the news in recent years, including the Nickel Mines shooting massacre, the Amish sisters' farm-stand kidnapping, and the Amish-Pagan drug gang. As America's most famous Amish tough guy makes clear on every page, there is nothing plain or simple about the plain-and-simple life.
Amkoullel, the Fula Boy
by Amadou Hampâté BâBorn in 1900 in French West Africa, Malian writer Amadou Hampâté Bâ was one of the towering figures in the literature of twentieth-century Francophone Africa. In Amkoullel, the Fula Boy, Bâ tells in striking detail the story of his youth, which was set against the aftermath of war between the Fula and Toucouleur peoples and the installation of French colonialism. A master storyteller, Bâ recounts pivotal moments of his life, and the lives of his powerful and large family, from his first encounter with the white commandant through the torturous imprisonment of his stepfather and to his forced attendance at French school. He also charts a larger story of life prior to and at the height of French colonialism: interethnic conflicts, the clash between colonial schools and Islamic education, and the central role indigenous African intermediaries and interpreters played in the functioning of the colonial administration. Engrossing and novelistic, Amkoullel, the Fula Boy is an unparalleled rendering of an individual and society under transition as they face the upheavals of colonialism.
Amma's Daughters: A Memoir (Our Lives: Diary, Memoir, and Letters)
by Meenal ShrivastavaAs a precocious young girl, Surekha knew very little about the details of her mother Amma’s unusual past and that of Babu, her mysterious and sometimes absent father. The tense, uncertain family life created by her parents’ distant and fractious marriage and their separate ambitions informs her every action and emotion. Then one evening, in a moment of uncharacteristic transparency and vulnerability, Amma tells Surekha and her older sister Didi of the family tragedy that changed the course of her life. Finally, her daughters begin to understand the source of their mother’s deep commitment to the Indian nationalist movement and her seemingly unending willingness to sacrifice in the name of that pursuit. In this re-memory based on the published and unpublished work of Amma and Surekha, Meenal Shrivastava, Surekha’s daughter, uncovers the history of the female foot soldiers of Gandhi’s national movement in the early twentieth century. As Meenal weaves these written accounts together with archival research and family history, she gives voice and honour to the hundreds of thousands of largely forgotten or unacknowledged women who, threatened with imprisonment for treason and sedition, relentlessly and selflessly gave toward the revolution.
Among Elms, in Ambush
by Bruce WeiglThis powerful new work by Bruce Weigl follows the celebrated poet and Vietnam War veteran as he explores combat, survival, and PTSD in brief prose vignettes. In compact, transcendent, and poetic prose, Bruce Weigl chronicles somber observations on the present day alongside painful memories of the war. Reflections on school shootings and the lightning-fast spread of news in the 21st century are set alongside elegies for forgotten soldiers and the lifelong struggle of waiting for the trauma of war to fade. Haunting and nuanced, Among Elms, in Ambush carries readers through meditations and medications, past the shapes of figures in the dark rice fields of Viet Nam and the milkweed pods in the frost-covered fields of Ohio, toward a hard-won determination to survive.
Among Flowers
by Jamaica KincaidIn this delightful hybrid of a book-part memoir and part travel journal-the bestselling author takes us deep into the mountains of Nepal with a trio of botanist friends in search of native Himalayan plants that will grow in her Vermont garden. Alighting from a plane in the dramatic Annapurna Valley, the ominous signs of Nepal's Maoist guerrillas are all around-an alarming presence that accompanies the travelers throughout their trek. Undaunted, the group sets off into the mountains with Sherpas and bearers, entering an exotic world of spectacular landscapes, vertiginous slopes, isolated villages, herds of yaks, and giant rhododendron, thirty feet tall. The landscape and flora and so much else of what Kincaid finds in the Himalaya-including fruit bats, colorful Buddhist prayer flags, and the hated leeches that plague much of the trip-are new to her, and she approaches it all with an acute sense of wonder and a deft eye for detail. In beautiful, introspective prose, Kincaid intertwines the harrowing Maoist encounters with exciting botanical discoveries, fascinating daily details, and lyrical musings on gardens, nature, home, and family.
Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya
by Jamaica KincaidAnyone familiar with Jamaica Kincaid's work knows that the natural world and in particular, plants and gardening are especially close to her heart. In this vivid account she invites us to accompany her on a seed-gathering trek in the Himalaya. For Kincaid and three botanist friends, Nepal is a paradise a place where a single day's hike can traverse climate zones from sub-tropical to alpine encompassing flora suitable for growing in their home grounds from Wales to Vermont. A wonderful blend of introspective insight and beautifully rendered description, Among Flowers is a seriously entertaining thoroughly engaging and characteristically frank memoir from one of the most distinctive and striking voices writing today.
Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya (National Geographic Directions Ser.)
by Jamaica KincaidIn this travel memoir, the acclaimed novelist Jamaica Kincaid chronicles a three-week trek through Nepal, the spectacular and exotic Himalayan land, where she and her companions are gathering seeds for planting at home. The natural world and, in particular, plants and gardening are central to Kincaid’s work; in addition to such novels as Annie John and Lucy, Kincaid is the author of My Garden (Book): a collection of essays about her love of cultivating plants and gardens throughout her life. Among Flowers intertwines meditations on nature and stunning descriptions of the Himalayan landscape with observations on the ironies, difficulties, and dangers of this magnificent journey.For Kincaid and three botanist friends, Nepal is a paradise, a place where a single day’s hike can traverse climate zones, from subtropical to alpine, encompassing flora suitable for growing at their homes, from Wales to Vermont. Yet as she makes clear, there is far more to this foreign world than rhododendrons that grow thirty feet high. Danger, too, is a constant companion—and the leeches are the least of the worries. Unpredictable Maoist guerillas live in these perilous mountains, and when they do appear—as they do more than once—their enigmatic presence lingers long after they have melted back into the landscape. And Kincaid, who writes of the looming, lasting effects of colonialism in her works, necessarily explores the irony of her status as memsahib with Sherpas and bearers.A wonderful blend of introspective insight and beautifully rendered description, Among Flowers is a vivid, engrossing, and characteristically frank memoir from one of our most striking voices.
Among Friends
by M. F. K. Fisher"Among Friends," is M.F.K. Fisher's fascinating memoir of her childhood in Whittier, California. In sharing these memorable and moving portraits of her family and of the town, we are given an enchanting glimpse into the early life of one of our most delightful and best-loved writers.
Among Heroes
by John David Mann Brandon WebbNow from Brandon Webb, Navy SEAL sniper and New York Times bestselling author, comes his personal account of the eight friends and fellow SEALs who made the ultimate sacrifice. "Knowing these great men--who they were, how they lived, and what they stood for--has changed my life. We can't let them be forgotten. So read about these amazing men, share their stories, and learn from them as I have. We've mourned their deaths. Let's celebrate their lives."--Brandon WebbAs a Navy SEAL, Brandon Webb rose to the top of the world's most elite sniper corps, experiencing years of punishing training and combat missions from the Persian Gulf to Afghanistan. Among the best of the best, he led the SEALs' clandestine sniper training program as course manager, instructing a new generation of the world's top snipers. Along the way, Webb served beside, trained, and supported men he came to know not just as fellow warriors, but as friends and, eventually, as heroes. Among Heroes gives his personal account of these eight extraordinary SEALs, who gave all for their comrades--and their country.Here are the true stories behind the remarkable valor and abiding humanity of those "sheepdogs" (as they call themselves) who protect us from the wolves of the world. Of Matt "Axe" Axelson, who perished on the Lone Survivor mission in Afghanistan. Of Chris Campbell, Heath Robinson, and JT Tumilson, who were among the thirty-eight casualties of Extortion 17, the Chinook helicopter shot down in August 2011. Of Glen Doherty, Webb's best friend for more than a decade, killed while helping secure the successful rescue and extraction of American CIA and State Department diplomats in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012; and other close friends, classmates, and fellow warriors.In Among Heroes, Webb offers eight intensely personal profiles of uncommon courage--who these men were, what they stood for, and how they came to make the ultimate sacrifice. These are men who left behind powerfully instructive examples of what it means to be alive--and what it truly means to be a hero.INCLUDES PHOTOS