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America the Beautiful Part 2: America from 1800s to the Present
by Charlene NotgrassThis book is a continuation of America the Beautiful Part 1 in telling the American Story.
America the Beautiful Part 2: America from the Late 1800s to the Present
by Charlene NotgrassThis book has 75 lessons beginning with the late 1800s and continuing to modern times.
America the Beautiful: Montana
by R. Conrad SteinMontana is one of the nations largest states, but it is home to very few large towns or cities. Rather, it is defined by its vast wilderness areas, which range from the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains to the rolling hills and flatlands of the Great Plains. Readers will find out how Montana was settled and what role it has played in U.S. history. They will also explore the states rich culture and traditions.
America the Beautiful: North Carolina
by Ann HeinrichsNorth Carolina Is A Place Of Varied Landscapes. Its mountains are among the tallest and most rugged east of the Mississippi River, and its coastal plains are low and flat. High in the western mountains rises Mount Mitchell. At 6,684 feet (2,037 meters), it's the state's highest point. Hundreds of miles to the east, the land drops down to sea level along the Atlantic coast.
America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great
by Ben Carson Candy CarsonWhat is America becoming? Or, more importantly, what can she be if we reclaim a vision for the things that made her great in the first place? In America the Beautiful, Dr. Ben Carson helps us learn from our past in order to chart a better course for our future. From his personal ascent from inner-city poverty to international medical and humanitarian acclaim, Carson shares experiential insights that help us understand. . . what is good about America. . . where we have gone astray. . . which fundamental beliefs have guided America from her founding into preeminence among nations. Written by a man who has experienced America's best and worst firsthand, America the Beautiful is at once alarming, convicting, and inspiring. You'll gain new perspectives on our nation's origins, our Judeo-Christian heritage, our educational system, capitalism versus socialism, our moral fabric, healthcare, and much more. An incisive manifesto of the values that shaped America's past and must shape her future, America the Beautiful calls us all to use our God-given talents to improve our lives, our communities, our nation, and our world.
America the Ingenious: How a Nation of Dreamers, Immigrants, and Tinkerers Changed the World
by Kevin Baker“Among the many rewards of America the Ingenious, Kevin Baker’s survey of Yankee know-how, is stumbling on its buried nuggets. . . . Baker examines a wide range of the achievements that have made, and still make, America great again—and again.” —The Wall Street Journal All made in America: The skyscraper and subway car. The telephone and telegraph. The safety elevator and safety pin. Plus the microprocessor, amusement park, MRI, supermarket, Pennsylvania rifle, and Tennessee Valley Authority. Not to mention the city of Chicago or jazz or that magnificent Golden Gate Bridge. What is it about America that makes it a nation of inventors, tinkerers, researchers, and adventurers—obsessive pursuers of the never-before-created? And, equally, what is it that makes America such a fertile place to explore, discover, and launch the next big thing? In America the Ingenious, bestselling author Kevin Baker brings his gift of storytelling and eye for historical detail to the grand, and grandly entertaining, tale of American innovation. Here are the Edisons and Bells and Carnegies, and the stories of how they followed their passions and changed our world. And also the less celebrated, like Jacob Youphes and Loeb Strauss, two Jewish immigrants from Germany who transformed the way at least half the world now dresses (hint: Levi Strauss). And Leo Fender, who couldn’t play a note of music, midwifing rock ’n’ roll through his solid-body electric guitar and amplifier. And the many women who weren’t legally recognized as inventors, but who created things to make their lives easier that we use every day—like Josephine Cochran, inventor of the dishwasher, or Marion O’Brien Donovan, who invented a waterproof diaper cover. Or a guy with the improbable name of Philo Farnsworth, who, with his invention of television, upended communication as significantly as Gutenberg did. At a time when America struggles with different visions of what it wants to be, America the Ingenious shows the extraordinary power of what works: how immigration leads to innovation, what a strong government and strong public education mean to a climate of positive practical change, and why taking the long view instead of looking for short-term gain pays off many times over, not only for investors and inventors, but for the rest of us whose lives are made better by the new. America and its nation of immigrants have excelled at taking ideas from anywhere and transforming them into the startling, often unexpectedly beautiful creations that have shaped our world. This is that story.
America the Philosophical
by Carlin RomanoA bold, insightful book that rejects the myth of America the Unphilosophical, arguing that America today towers as the most philosophical culture in the history of the world, an unprecedented marketplace of truth and argument that far surpasses ancient Greece or any other place one can name. With verve and keen intelligence, Carlin Romano--Pulitzer Prize finalist, award-winning book critic, and professor of philosophy--takes on the widely held belief that ours is an anti-intellectual society. Instead, while providing a richly reported overview of American thought, Romano argues that ordinary Americans see through phony philosophical justifications faster than anyone else, and that the best of our thinkers abandon artificial academic debates for fresh intellectual enterprises, such as cyberphilosophy. Along the way, Romano seeks to topple philosophy's most fiercely admired hero, Socrates, asserting that it is Isocrates, the nearly forgotten Greek philosopher who rejected certainty, whom Americans should honor as their intellectual ancestor. America the Philosophical introduces readers to a nation whose existence most still doubt: a dynamic, deeply stimulating network of people and places drawn together by shared excitement about ideas. From the annual conference of the American Philosophical Association, where scholars tack wiseguy notes addressed to Spinoza on a public bulletin board, to the eruption of philosophy blogs where participants discuss everything from pedagogy to the philosophy of science to the nature of agency and free will, Romano reveals a world where public debate and intellectual engagement never stop. And readers meet the men and women whose ideas have helped shape American life over the previous few centuries, from well-known historical figures like William James and Ralph Waldo Emerson, to modern cultural critics who deserve to be seen as thinkers (Kenneth Burke, Edward Said), to the iconoclastic African American, women, Native American, and gay mavericks (Cornel West, Susan Sontag, Anne Waters, Richard Mohr) who have broadened the boundaries of American philosophy. Smart and provocative, America the Philosophical is a rebellious tour de force that both celebrates our country's unparalleled intellectual energy and promises to bury some of our most hidebound cultural clichés.
America's Alternative Religions (SUNY Series in Religious Studies)
by Timothy MillerThis is a single-volume source of reliable information on the most important alternative religions, covering for each such essentials as history, theology, impact on the culture, and current status. The chapters of the book were written by experts who study the movements they have written about.
America's Arab Nationalists: From the Ottoman Revolution to the Rise of Hitler (Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern History)
by Aaron BermanAmerica’s Arab Nationalists focuses in on the relationship between Arab nationalists and Americans in the struggle for independence in an era when idealistic Americans could see the Arab nationalist struggle as an expression of their own values. In the first three decades of the twentieth century (from the 1908 Ottoman revolution to the rise of Hitler), important and influential Americans, including members of the small Arab-American community, intellectually, politically and financially participated in the construction of Arab nationalism. This book tells the story of a diverse group of people whose contributions are largely unknown to the American public. The role Americans played in the development of Arab nationalism has been largely unexplored by historians, making this an important and original contribution to scholarship. This volume is of great interest to students and academics in the field, though the narrative style is accessible to anoyone interested in Arab nationalism, the conflict between Zionists and Palestinians, and the United States’ relationship with the Arab world.
America's Assembly Line
by David E. NyeFrom the Model T to today's "lean manufacturing": the assembly line as crucial, yet controversial, agent of social and economic transformation.The mechanized assembly line was invented in 1913 and has been in continuous operation ever since. It is the most familiar form of mass production. Both praised as a boon to workers and condemned for exploiting them, it has been celebrated and satirized. (We can still picture Chaplin's little tramp trying to keep up with a factory conveyor belt.) In America's Assembly Line, David Nye examines the industrial innovation that made the United States productive and wealthy in the twentieth century.The assembly line—developed at the Ford Motor Company in 1913 for the mass production of Model Ts—first created and then served an expanding mass market. It also transformed industrial labor. By 1980, Japan had reinvented the assembly line as a system of “lean manufacturing”; American industry reluctantly adopted the new approach. Nye describes this evolution and the new global landscape of increasingly automated factories, with fewer industrial jobs in America and questionable working conditions in developing countries. A century after Ford's pioneering innovation, the assembly line continues to evolve toward more sustainable manufacturing.
America's Bank
by Roger LowensteinA tour de force of historical reportage, America's Bank illuminates the tumultuous era and remarkable personalities that spurred the unlikely birth of America's modern central bank, the Federal Reserve. Today, the Fed is the bedrock of the financial landscape, yet the fight to create it was so protracted and divisive that it seems a small miracle that it was ever established. For nearly a century, America, alone among developed nations, refused to consider any central or organizing agency in its financial system. Americans' mistrust of big government and of big banks--a legacy of the country's Jeffersonian, small-government traditions--was so widespread that modernizing reform was deemed impossible. Each bank was left to stand on its own, with no central reserve or lender of last resort. The real-world consequences of this chaotic and provincial system were frequent financial panics, bank runs, money shortages, and depressions. By the first decade of the twentieth century, it had become plain that the outmoded banking system was ill equipped to finance America's burgeoning industry. But political will for reform was lacking. It took an economic meltdown, a high-level tour of Europe, and--improbably--a conspiratorial effort by vilified captains of Wall Street to overcome popular resistance. Finally, in 1913, Congress conceived a federalist and quintessentially American solution to the conflict that had divided bankers, farmers, populists, and ordinary Americans, and enacted the landmark Federal Reserve Act.Roger Lowenstein--acclaimed financial journalist and bestselling author of When Genius Failed and The End of Wall Street--tells the drama-laden story of how America created the Federal Reserve, thereby taking its first steps onto the world stage as a global financial power. America's Bank showcases Lowenstein at his very finest: illuminating complex financial and political issues with striking clarity, infusing the debates of our past with all the gripping immediacy of today, and painting unforgettable portraits of Gilded Age bankers, presidents, and politicians.Lowenstein focuses on the four men at the heart of the struggle to create the Federal Reserve. These were Paul Warburg, a refined, German-born financier, recently relocated to New York, who was horrified by the primitive condition of America's finances; Rhode Island's Nelson W. Aldrich, the reigning power broker in the U.S. Senate and an archetypal Gilded Age legislator; Carter Glass, the ambitious, if then little-known, Virginia congressman who chaired the House Banking Committee at a crucial moment of political transition; and President Woodrow Wilson, the academician-turned-progressive-politician who forced Glass to reconcile his deep-seated differences with bankers and accept the principle (anathema to southern Democrats) of federal control. Weaving together a raucous era in American politics with a storied financial crisis and intrigue at the highest levels of Washington and Wall Street, Lowenstein brings the beginnings of one of the country's most crucial institutions to vivid and unforgettable life. Readers of this gripping historical narrative will wonder whether they're reading about one hundred years ago or the still-seething conflicts that mark our discussions of banking and politics today. From the Hardcover edition.
America's Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve
by Roger LowensteinA tour de force of historical reportage, America's Bank illuminates the tumultuous era and remarkable personalities that spurred the unlikely birth of America's modern central bank, the Federal Reserve. Today, the Fed is the bedrock of the financial landscape, yet the fight to create it was so protracted and divisive that it seems a small miracle that it was ever established. For nearly a century, America, alone among developed nations, refused to consider any central or organizing agency in its financial system. Americans' mistrust of big government and of big banks--a legacy of the country's Jeffersonian, small-government traditions--was so widespread that modernizing reform was deemed impossible. Each bank was left to stand on its own, with no central reserve or lender of last resort. The real-world consequences of this chaotic and provincial system were frequent financial panics, bank runs, money shortages, and depressions. By the first decade of the twentieth century, it had become plain that the outmoded banking system was ill equipped to finance America's burgeoning industry. But political will for reform was lacking. It took an economic meltdown, a high-level tour of Europe, and--improbably--a conspiratorial effort by vilified captains of Wall Street to overcome popular resistance. Finally, in 1913, Congress conceived a federalist and quintessentially American solution to the conflict that had divided bankers, farmers, populists, and ordinary Americans, and enacted the landmark Federal Reserve Act.Roger Lowenstein--acclaimed financial journalist and bestselling author of When Genius Failed and The End of Wall Street--tells the drama-laden story of how America created the Federal Reserve, thereby taking its first steps onto the world stage as a global financial power. America's Bank showcases Lowenstein at his very finest: illuminating complex financial and political issues with striking clarity, infusing the debates of our past with all the gripping immediacy of today, and painting unforgettable portraits of Gilded Age bankers, presidents, and politicians.Lowenstein focuses on the four men at the heart of the struggle to create the Federal Reserve. These were Paul Warburg, a refined, German-born financier, recently relocated to New York, who was horrified by the primitive condition of America's finances; Rhode Island's Nelson W. Aldrich, the reigning power broker in the U.S. Senate and an archetypal Gilded Age legislator; Carter Glass, the ambitious, if then little-known, Virginia congressman who chaired the House Banking Committee at a crucial moment of political transition; and President Woodrow Wilson, the academician-turned-progressive-politician who forced Glass to reconcile his deep-seated differences with bankers and accept the principle (anathema to southern Democrats) of federal control. Weaving together a raucous era in American politics with a storied financial crisis and intrigue at the highest levels of Washington and Wall Street, Lowenstein brings the beginnings of one of the country's most crucial institutions to vivid and unforgettable life. Readers of this gripping historical narrative will wonder whether they're reading about one hundred years ago or the still-seething conflicts that mark our discussions of banking and politics today. From the Hardcover edition.
America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System
by Steven BrillAmerica's Bitter Pill is Steven Brill's much-anticipated, sweeping narrative of how the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was written, how it is being implemented, and, most important, how it is changing--and failing to change--the rampant abuses in the healthcare industry. Brill probed the depths of our nation's healthcare crisis in his trailblazing Time magazine Special Report, which won the 2014 National Magazine Award for Public Interest. Now he broadens his lens and delves deeper, pulling no punches and taking no prisoners. It's a fly-on-the-wall account of the fight, amid an onslaught of lobbying, to pass a 961-page law aimed at fixing America's largest, most dysfunctional industry--an industry larger than the entire economy of France. It's a penetrating chronicle of how the profiteering that Brill first identified in his Time cover story continues, despite Obamacare. And it is the first complete, inside account of how President Obama persevered to push through the law, but then failed to deal with the staff incompetence and turf wars that crippled its implementation. Brill questions all the participants in the drama, including the president, to find out what happened and why. He asks the head of the agency in charge of the Obamacare website how and why it crashed. And he tells the cliffhanger story of the tech wizards who swooped in to rebuild it. Brill gets drug lobbyists to open up on the deals they struck to protect their profits in return for supporting the law. And he buttresses all these accounts with meticulous research and access to internal memos, emails, notes, and journals written by the key players during all the pivotal moments. Brill is there with patients when they are denied cancer care at a hospital, or charged $77 for a box of gauze pads. Then he asks the multimillion-dollar executives who run the hospitals to explain why. He even confronts the chief executive of America's largest health insurance company and asks him to explain an incomprehensible Explanation of Benefits his company sent to Brill. And he's there as a group of young entrepreneurs gamble millions to use Obamacare to start a hip insurance company in New York's Silicon Alley. Vividly capturing what he calls the "milestone" achievement of Obamacare, Brill introduces us to patients whose bank accounts or lives have been saved by the new law--although, as he explains, that is only because Obamacare provides government subsidies for "tens of millions of new customers" to pay the same exorbitant prices that were the problem in the first place. All that is weaved together in an elegantly crafted, fast-paced narrative. But by chance America's Bitter Pill ends up being much more--because as Brill was completing this book, he had to undergo urgent open-heart surgery. Thus, this also becomes the story of how one patient who thinks he knows everything about healthcare "policy" rethinks it from a hospital gurney--and combines that insight with his brilliant reporting. The result: a surprising new vision of how we can fix American healthcare so that it stops draining the bank accounts of our families and our businesses, and the federal treasury.From the Hardcover edition.
America's Black Capital: How African Americans Remade Atlanta in the Shadow of the Confederacy
by Jeffrey O. OgbarThe remarkable story of how African Americans transformed Atlanta, the former heart of the Confederacy, into today&’s Black mecca Atlanta is home to some of America&’s most prominent Black politicians, artists, businesses, and HBCUs. Yet, in 1861, Atlanta was a final contender to be the capital of the Confederacy. Sixty years later, long after the Civil War, it was the Ku Klux Klan&’s sacred &“Imperial City.&” America&’s Black Capital chronicles how a center of Black excellence emerged amid virulent expressions of white nationalism, as African Americans pushed back against Confederate ideology to create an extraordinary locus of achievement. What drove them, historian Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar shows, was the belief that Black uplift would be best advanced by forging Black institutions. America&’s Black Capital is an inspiring story of Black achievement against all odds, with effects that reached far beyond Georgia, shaping the nation&’s popular culture, public policy, and politics.
America's Black Founders: Revolutionary Heroes & Early Leaders with 21 Activities
by Nancy SandersCelebrating the lesser known but significant lives and contributions of our nation's early African American leaders, this multicultural complement to most children's books on the American Revolution covers a wide spectrum of subjects, including military, art, religion, and science. Weaving the histories of dozens of men and women--soldiers, sailors, ministers, poets, merchants, doctors, and other community leaders--to properly recognize them among the founders of the United States of America, this text gives a better sense of what these individuals accomplished and the times in which they lived. Activities include celebrating Constitution Day, cooking colonial foods, publishing a newspaper, petitioning their government, and more. This valuable resource also includes a time line of significant events, a list of historic sites to visit or explore online, and Web resources for further study.
America's Black Sea Fleet
by Robert ShenkIn a high-tempo series of operations throughout the Black Sea, Aegean Sea and eastern Mediterranean, a small American fleet of destroyers and other naval vessels responded ably to several major international crises including the last days of the Russian Revolution and the 1920-1922 Turkish Nationalist Revolution. Officers and men of the navy's "four-piper" destroyers began by investigating circumstances on the ground in mainland Turkey right after World War I, and by transporting American relief teams to ports throughout Turkey and Southern Russia to aid the tens of thousands of orphans and refugees who had survived the wartime Armenian genocide.Then the destroyers assisted in the final evacuation of 150,000 White Russians from the Crimea to Constantinople (one of the final acts of the Russian Revolution); coordinated the visits of the Hoover grain ships to ports in Southern Russia where millions were enduring a horrendous famine; witnessed and reported on the terrible dolorosa of the Greeks of the Pontus region of Turkey; and, in September of 1922, conducted the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of Greek and Armenian refugees from burning Smyrna. This latter event was the cataclysmic conclusion of the Turkish Nationalist Revolution, which had begun in early 1920.After Smyrna, the destroyers escorted Greek steamers in their rescue of ethnic Christian civilians being expelled from all the ports of Anatolian Turkey. As the conclusion of a long war between Nationalist Turks and an invading Hellenic Greek army, these people were being forced out of their ancestral homes by the Turks. Sometimes American destroyers carried hundreds of such refugees to friendly ports on their own weather decks.Upon the burning of Smyrna in September of 1922, Admiral Mark Bristol's small fleet had grown to some 26 naval vessels, most of them destroyers, although some cruisers, naval repair vessels and supply ships also came, and the battleships Arizona and Utah also appeared briefly. It was during 1922 that the destroyer Bainbridge rescued 482 of 495 men, women and children from the burning French transport Vinh Long in the Sea of Marmora. The destroyer accomplished this by the expedient of ramming the large French ship so the exploding ammunition could not continue to force the vessels apart. For this action, Lieut. Commander W. Atlee Edwards was awarded the Medal of Honor by America, and the Legion of Honor by France.Over four years, Admiral Bristol maintained a strong grip on American naval and diplomatic affairs throughout the region. Headquartered at the American Embassy at Constantinople, Bristol also worked to further American business interests in Turkey, and tended to favor Turks over Greeks and Armenians in the process. Many Americans were convinced that Bristol was biased on behalf of the Turks, and a couple of navy captains risked their careers by speaking out about impending Turkish massacres that Bristol wanted to hush up.Several later-famous admirals saw duty in Bristol's small navy, including William Leahy, Thomas Kinkaid, Julian Wheeler, Tip Merrill, Japy Hepburn and Dan Gallery, while statesman Allen Dulles was one of Bristol's key diplomats. Most of these men and most of the sailors, too, enjoyed the terrific nightlife of Constantinople that existed right alongside all the refugee heartbreak. When their duties kept them at sea or alongside grain ships in Russia or moored at the spartan Black Sea ports, the Americans kept their spirits up by racing ships' boats, shooting game, sightseeing, and (especially) by playing baseball. Captain Pratt Mannix even took advantage of his ship's briefly anchoring near the Gallipoli battlefield to become the first American to swim the famous Hellespont
America's Boy: A Memoir
by Wade Rouse&“A revelatory story about acceptance, pride, and the many ways even a seemingly prejudiced family can surprise us&” by the bestselling author of Magic Season (The Washington Post).Indie Next List &“Great Read&” SelectionAmerican Library Association&’s Inaugural &“Rainbow List&” Selection In this memoir, writer and journalist Wade Rouse delivers a humorous and heartwarming account of his Midwestern childhood and coming of age as a gay man. Born in Granby, a small farm town in the southwest Missouri Ozarks, Wade was a fish out of water as long as he could remember—or at least since he participated in his family&’s mock Miss America pageant when he was just five years old, clad in his grandmother&’s red &“whore&” heels and his mother&’s black-and-white polka-dot bikini. Life didn&’t get easier in Wade&’s conservative hometown, especially after his older brother died just a month after Wade graduated junior high school. It was then that Wade buried his brother—and his sexuality, so his parents wouldn&’t mourn the loss of a second son. Finally, after years of a descent into obsessive-compulsive behaviors and overeating, Wade was able to come out to himself, losing weight and gaining confidence until he had nothing left to hide. Filled with memories of happiness and heartbreak, America&’s Boy is both &“a quirky tribute to [Rouse&’s] rural Ozark family, and an easily digestible, homespun tale of a bygone era in Middle America&” (Time Out Chicago).&“A storyteller and a memoirist in the best sense of the words. . . . Reading Rouse&’s memoir is more like sitting with a good friend and a cold beer, trading stories and remembering those things that may have been painful or tragic at the time, but must now be respected for what they are.&” —Metro Weekly
America's Civil War
by Brooks D. SimpsonBrief but thorough summarization of the history of the period, complete with an anotated biography.
America's Cold War: The Politics of Insecurity, Second Edition
by Fredrik Logevall Campbell Craig“A creative, carefully researched, and incisive analysis of U.S. strategy during the long struggle against the Soviet Union.” —Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy “Craig and Logevall remind us that American foreign policy is decided as much by domestic pressures as external threats. America's Cold War is history at its provocative best.” —Mark Atwood Lawrence, author of The Vietnam War The Cold War dominated world affairs during the half century following World War II. America prevailed, but only after fifty years of grim international struggle, costly wars in Korea and Vietnam, trillions of dollars in military spending, and decades of nuclear showdowns. Was all of that necessary? In this new edition of their landmark history, Campbell Craig and Fredrik Logevall include recent scholarship on the Cold War, the Reagan and Bush administrations, and the collapse of the Soviet regime and expand their discussion of the nuclear revolution and origins of the Vietnam War to advance their original argument: that America’s response to a very real Soviet threat gave rise to a military and political system in Washington that is addicted to insecurity and the endless pursuit of enemies to destroy. America’s Cold War speaks vividly to debates about forever wars and threat inflation at the center of American politics today.
America's Cold Warrior: Paul Nitze and National Security from Roosevelt to Reagan
by James Graham WilsonIn America's Cold Warrior, James Graham Wilson traces Paul Nitze's career path in national security after World War II, a time when many of his mentors and peers returned to civilian life. Serving in eight presidential administrations, Nitze commanded White House attention even when he was out of government, especially with his withering criticism of Jimmy Carter during Carter's presidency. While Nitze is perhaps best known for leading the formulation of NSC-68, which Harry Truman signed in 1950, Wilson contends that Nitze's most significant contribution to American peace and security came in the painstaking work done in the 1980s to negotiate successful treaties with the Soviets to reduce nuclear weapons while simultaneously deflecting skeptics surrounding Ronald Reagan. America's Cold Warrior connects Nitze's career and concerns about strategic vulnerability to the post-9/11 era and the challenges of the 2020s, where the United States finds itself locked in geopolitical competition with the People's Republic of China and Russia.
America's Colony: The Political and Cultural Conflict between the United States and Puerto Rico (Critical America #43)
by Pedro A MalavetThe precise legal nature of the relationship between the United States and the people of Puerto Rico was not explicitly determined in 1898 when the Treaty of Paris transferred sovereignty over Puerto Rico from Spain to the United States. Since then, many court cases, beginning in 1901, have been instrumental in defining this delicate relationship.While the legislation has clearly established the nonexistence of Puerto Rican nationhood and lack of independent Puerto Rican citizenship, the debate over Puerto Rico's status continues to this day.Malavet offers a critique of Puerto Rico’s current status as well as of its treatment by the U.S. legal and political systems. Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States, and Puerto Ricans living on this geographically separate island are subject to the United States’s legal and political authority. They are the largest group of U.S. citizens currently living under territorial status. Malavet argues that the Puerto Rican cultural nation experiences U.S. imperialism, which compromises both the island's sovereignty and Puerto Ricans’ citizenship rights. He analyzes the three alternatives to Puerto Rico's continued territorial status, examining the challenges manifest in each possibility, as well as illuminating what he believes to be the best course of action.
America's Commandos: U.S. Special Operations Forces of World War II and Korea (G.I.)
by Leroy ThompsonA photographic history of elite units in WWII and Korea, including uniforms, equipment, and more. America deployed a diverse group of special operations forces (SOF) throughout World War II and in Korea. These elite units quickly earned a redoubtable reputation and proved themselves adept at hit-and-run raids, gathering intelligence in long range patrols, rescuing POWs, and living and fighting in hostile environments. This valuable study includes more than 100 rare and unusual photographs of the men, uniforms, special equipment, and insignia of these elite troops, accompanied by informative captions. Units covered include the Marine Raider regiments and Paramarines, Ranger battalions, &“Merrill&’s Marauders,&” the Special Service Force, OSS teams, Naval CDUs, and ski and mountain troops. America&’s Commandos is a key addition to the G.I. Series and examines some of America&’s most feared and capable elite forces.
America's Communal Utopias
by Donald E. PitzerFrom the Shakers to the Branch Davidians, America's communal utopians have captured the popular imagination. Seventeen original essays here demonstrate the relevance of such groups to the mainstream of American social, religious, and economic life. The contributors examine the beliefs and practices of the most prominent utopian communities founded before 1965, including the long-overlooked Catholic monastic communities and Jewish agricultural colonies. Also featured are the Ephrata Baptists, Moravians, Shakers, Harmonists, Hutterites, Inspirationists of Amana, Mormons, Owenites, Fourierists, Icarians, Janssonists, Theosophists, Cyrus Teed's Koreshans, and Father Divine's Peace Mission. Based on a new conceptual framework known as developmental communalism, the book examines these utopian movements throughout the course of their development--before, during, and after their communal period. Each chapter includes a brief chronology, giving basic information about the group discussed. An appendix presents the most complete list of American utopian communities ever published. The contributors are Jonathan G. Andelson, Karl J. R. Arndt, Pearl W. Bartelt, Priscilla J. Brewer, Donald F. Durnbaugh, Lawrence Foster, Carl J. Guarneri, Robert V. Hine, Gertrude E. Huntington, James E. Landing, Dean L. May, Lawrence J. McCrank, J. Gordon Melton, Donald E. Pitzer, Robert P. Sutton, Jon Wagner, and Robert S. Weisbrot.
America's Congress: James Madison Through Newt Gingrich
by David R. MayhewTo understand American politics and government, we need to recognize that members of Congress are more than agents of societal interests and preferences -- they also act with some autonomy and consequence in the public sphere. In this illuminating book, a distinguished political scientist examines the actions of members of Congress throughout American history, assessing their patterns and importance and their role in the U. S. system of separation of powers.