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American Political Ideas, 1865-1917
by Charles MerriamCharles Merriam is scarcely read today, and even among scholars he is probably more often cited than read seriously. His ambiguous position in the study of American democracy is unfortunate. Between the two world wars, Merriman was the doyen of American political science. This was a period when the most formative characteristics of academic social sciences were taking shape, characteristics that were to dominate the remainder of the century. During this period, "science" and "progress" became virtually synonymous in the social sciences. Between the two world wars, the liberal progressive critique of America's founders, a critique that included scholars such as Woodrow Wilson, Charles Beard, and others, became the orthodoxy of a new political science. The heart of that critique, insofar as it turned on methodological questions of how to study American government, was very much the work of Charles Merriam. Anyone who seeks to understand why that period was so pivotal in the interpretation of American democracy must necessarily study Charles Merriam and his influence. His work represents the first comprehensive effort by a scholar in the liberal-progressive tradition to survey the entirety of American political thought. To read Merriam's political essays and writings is to read a political theory that the behavioral tradition would come to label as "normative." His essays included insightful interpretations of Hobbes and Rousseau in European political philosophy as well as an earlier work tracing American political thought from the founding to the Civil War. This is a fundamental work for scholars working in the liberal-progressive tradition.
American Political Speeches
by Richard Beeman Terry GolwayA selection of speeches by the most inspiring and persuasive orators in American history Penguin presents a series of six portable, accessible, and--above all--essential reads from American political history, selected by leading scholars. Series editor Richard Beeman, author of The Penguin Guide to the U.S. Constitution, draws together the great texts of American civic life to create a timely and informative mini-library of perennially vital issues. Whether readers are encountering these classic writings for the first time, or brushing up in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, these slim volumes will serve as a powerful and illuminating resource for scholars, students, and civic-minded citizens. American Political Speeches includes the best American rhetoric from inside and outside the White House. Some of the greatest words spoken in American history have come from men and women who lacked the biggest bully pulpit in the country, but who nevertheless were able to move the nation with words. Frederick Douglass explained the irony of Independence Day from the perspective of a slave. Martin Luther King, Jr. described his dream of an interracial America. William Jennings Bryan gave voice to social discontent with a single phrase, "a cross of gold." Barbara Jordan summoned the nation"s outrage during the impeachment hearings against Richard Nixon. And the best presidents, not by coincidence, have tended to be those with an appreciation for the use of language: Lincoln explaining a new birth of freedom at Gettysburg; John Kennedy voicing moral outrage at the Berlin Wall; Franklin D. Roosevelt chatting to a nation gathered in front of radios; Ronald Reagan addressing Congress freshly healed from an assassination attempt.
American Political Thought: An Alternative View
by Alex Zamalin Jonathan KellerThe twenty-first century presents unique political challenges, like increasing concern over racially based police brutality and mass incarceration, continuing economic and gender inequality, the rise of conservative and libertarian politics, and the appropriate role of religion in American politics. Current scholarship in American political thought research neither adequately responds to the contemporary moment in American politics nor fully captures the depth and scope of this rich tradition. This collection of essays offers an innovative expansion of the American political tradition. By exposing the major ideas and thinkers of the four major yet still underappreciated alternative traditions of American political thought—African American, feminist, radical and conservative—this book challenges the boundaries of American political thinking about such values like freedom, justice, equality, democracy, economy, rights, identity, and the role of the state in American life. These traditions, the various authors show in different ways, not only present a much fuller and more accurate characterization of what counts as American political thought. They are also especially unique for the conceptual resources they provide for addressing contemporary developments in American politics. Offering an original and substantive interpretation of thinkers and movements, American Political Thought will help students understand how to put American political thought into conversation with contemporary debates in political theory.
American Political Thought: The Philosophic Dimension of American Statesmanship
by Richard G. Stevens Morton J. FrischThis book focuses on the political thought of American statesmen. These statesmen have had consistent and comprehensive views of the good of the country and their actions have been informed by those views. The editors argue that political life in America has been punctuated by three great crises in its history the crisis of the Founding, the crisis of the House Divided, and the crisis of the Great Depression.The Second World War was a crisis not just for America but for the whole of Western Civilization and, in the wake of that war, a new crisis arose which came to be called the "Cold War." Just when that gave the appearance of being resolved, the world reached a new juncture, a new crisis, which Samuel P. Huntington dubbed the "clash of civilizations." The statesmen having political responsibility in confronting the first three crises in America's history came as close to philosophic grasp of the problems of liberal democracy as one could demand from those embroiled in the active resolution of events. Their reflection of political philosophy in the full sense informed their actions.Since we cannot confidently explain the future, Aristotle warned us to call no man happy while he still lives. Thus the book, in its third edition, keeps to its settled pattern of dealing with settled matters. The preface to the third edition confronts the three later crises and, to the extent consistent with truth, attempts to relate them to the first three.
American Politics Today 3rd Edition
by David T. Canon William T. BiancoPolitics is about conflict and compromise.<P> American Politics Today helps students understand the debates and controversies that they encounter in the news by emphasizing conflict and compromise as natural parts of politics. New book features--including highly visual "How It Works" infographics--show how the American political process resolves conflicts.
American Politics: A Beginner's Guide (Beginner's Guides)
by Jon RoperThis dynamic Beginner's Guide covers everything you need to know about American politics today. Exploring the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, Jon Roper asks whether the politics of personality have become too pervasive in the USA. Tackling the nature of the presidency, American foreign policy, and President Obama's administration, this is a sharp analysis of how history has shaped the way America governs itself today. Including a section on how religion impacts American politics, this is the perfect introduction for anyone interested in the politics of the world's oldest democratic republic. Jon Roper is a professor of American Studies who has taught at the University of Tennessee, the University of Wisconsin, and Ohio State University. He is the author of The Complete Illustrated Guide to the Presidents of America: An Authoritative History of the American Presidency.
American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony
by Samuel P. HuntingtonThis book examines the persistent, radical gap between the promise of American ideals and the performance of American politics. Samuel P. Huntington shows how Americans, throughout their history as a nation, have been united by the democratic creed of liberty, equality, and hostility to authority.
American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony
by Samuel P. HuntingtonThis stunningly persuasive book examines the persistent, radical gap between the promise of American ideals and the performance of American politics. Samuel P. Huntington shows how Americans, throughout their history as a nation, have been united by the democratic creed of liberty, equality, and hostility to authority. At the same time he reveals how, inevitably, these ideals have been perennially frustrated through the institutions and hierarchies required to carry on the essential functions of governing a democratic society. From this antagonism between the ideals of democracy and the realities of power have risen four great political upheavals in American history. Every third generation, Huntington argues, Americans have tried to reconstruct their institutions to make them more truly reflect deeply rooted national ideals. Moving from the clenched fists and mass demonstrations of the 1960s, to the moral outrage of the Progressive and Jacksonian Eras, back to the creative ideological fervor of the American Revolution, he incisively analyzes the dissenters’ objectives. All, he pungently writes, sought to remove the fundamental disharmony between the reality of government in America and the ideals on which the American nation was founded. Huntington predicts that the tension between ideals and institutions is likely to increase in this country in the future. And he reminds us that the fate of liberty and democracy abroad is intrinsically linked to the strength of our power in world affairs. This brilliant and controversial analysis deserves to rank alongside the works of Tocqueville, Bryce, and Hofstadter and will become a classic commentary on the meaning of America.
American Polygamy: A History of Fundamentalist Mormon Faith
by Craig L. Foster Marianne T. WatsonToday's Fundamentalist Mormons in the American West resist assimilation like their forefathers. Centered on faith, they survive despite efforts to permanently end their cherished plural family arrangements. While some Fundamentalists like Warren Jeffs go rogue and corrupt their beliefs in heinous crimes, most hold steadfastly to a religion they say is biblical and restored by the first Latter-day Saint prophet, Joseph Smith, in the early 1800s. Mormon historians Craig Foster and Marianne Watson present more than two hundred photos and exclusive insights to explain how an estimated thirty thousand Fundamentalist Mormons still venerate a much-debated legacy—despite its difficult challenges—and persist in living plural marriage.
American Pop Art in France: Politics of the Transatlantic Image (Routledge Research in Art History)
by Liam ConsidinePop art was essential to the Americanization of global art in the 1960s, yet it engendered resistance and adaptation abroad in equal measure, especially in Paris. From the end of the Algerian War of Independence and the opening of Ileana Sonnabend’s gallery for American Pop art in Paris in 1962, to the silkscreen poster workshops of May ’68, this book examines critical adaptations of Pop motifs and pictorial devices across French painting, graphic design, cinema and protest aesthetics. Liam Considine argues that the transatlantic dispersion of Pop art gave rise to a new politics of the image that challenged Americanization and prefigured the critiques and contradictions of May ’68.
American Pop: A Novel
by Snowden WrightAN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR“Mr. Wright’s imagined history of the rise and fall of the sugary drink empire is so robust and recognizable that you might feel nostalgic for the taste of a soda you’ve never had.” – Sam Sacks, TheWall Street JournalNAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK BY Parade • Cosmopolitan • Town & Country•AARP • InStyle • Garden & Gun • Vol. 1 BrooklynThe story of a family.The story of an empire. The story of a nation.Moving from Mississippi to Paris to New York and back again, a saga of family, ambition, passion, and tragedy that brings to life one unforgettable Southern dynasty—the Forsters, founders of the world’s first major soft-drink company—against the backdrop of more than a century of American cultural history. The child of immigrants, Houghton Forster has always wanted more—from his time as a young boy in Mississippi, working twelve-hour days at his father’s drugstore; to the moment he first laid eyes on his future wife, Annabelle Teague, a true Southern belle of aristocratic lineage; to his invention of the delicious fizzy drink that would transform him from tiller boy into the founder of an empire, the Panola Cola Company, and entice a youthful, enterprising nation entering a hopeful new age.Now the heads of a preeminent American family spoken about in the same breath as the Hearsts and the Rockefellers, Houghton and Annabelle raise their four children with the expectation they’ll one day become world leaders. The burden of greatness falls early on eldest son Montgomery, a handsome and successful politician who has never recovered from the horrors and heartbreak of the Great War. His younger siblings Ramsey and Lance, known as the “infernal twins,” are rivals not only in wit and beauty, but in their utter carelessness with the lives and hearts of others. Their brother Harold, as gentle and caring as the twins can be cruel, is slowed by a mental disability—and later generations seem equally plagued by misfortune, forcing Houghton to seriously consider who should control the company after he’s gone.An irresistible tour de force of original storytelling, American Pop blends fact and fiction, the mundane and the mythical, and utilizes techniques of historical reportage to capture how, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s words, “families are always rising and falling in America,” and to explore the many ways in which nostalgia can manipulate cultural memory—and the stories we choose to tell about ourselves.
American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy To Mp3
by Larry Starr Christopher WatermanIn American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3, Second Edition, Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman examine popular music in the United States from its beginnings into the 21st century, offering a comprehensive look at the music, the cultural history of the times, and the connections between them. Using well-chosen examples, insightful commentaries, and an engaging writing style, this text traces the development of jazz, blues, country, rock, Motown, hip-hop, and other popular styles,highlighting the contributions of diverse groups to the creation of distinctly American styles. It combines an in-depth treatment of the music itself--including discussions of stylistic elements and analyses of musical examples--with solid coverage of the music's attendant historical, social, and cultural circumstances. The authors incorporate strong pedagogy including numerous boxed inserts on significant individuals, recordings, and intriguing topics; coverage of early American popular music; and a rich illustration program. Detailed listening charts explain the most important elements of recordings discussed at length in the text. The charts are complemented by two in-text audio CDs and--new to this edition--an iMix published at iTunes, which makes most of the songs immediately available to students and instructors. Features of the Second Edition * Integrates full color throughout * Provides more coverage of women artists, with new material on women in rock 'n' roll inChapter 8 and a box on Queen Latifah in Chapter 14 * Reorganizes the discussion of post-1970s music: disco is now included with mainstream 70s pop, while hip-hop is treated in two chapters (12 and 14) in order to emphasize its significance and diversity * Adds new material on the recent alternative country music explosion * Includes new developments in music technology in the thoroughly revised concluding chapter * Offers revised and more vivid visual elements, including more than 100 new photos (most in full color) and an illustrated timeline * Provides redesigned listening guides, enhanced by an iMix published at iTunes (accessible at www. oup. com/us/popmusic) * Supplemented by a Companion Website at www. oup. com/us/popmusic (containing both student and instructor resources) and an Instructor's Manual and a Computerized Test Bank on CD * FREE with the purchase of this book: a 6-month subscription to Grove Music Online (www. grovemusic. com)--a $180 value Remarkably accessible,American Popular Music, Second Edition, is ideal for courses in American Popular Music, the History of Popular Music, Popular Music in American Culture, and the History of Rock 'n' Roll. Its welcoming style and warm tone will captivate readers, encouraging them to become more critically aware listeners of popular music.
American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3
by Larry Starr Christopher Waterman Brad OsbornExplore the rich terrain of American popular music with the most complete introduction of its kind. With the sixth edition of the bestselling text American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3, Starr and Waterman help students hear more in the music around them with a cultural and social history of popular music.
American Popular Music: New Approaches to the Twentieth Century
by Jeffrey Melnick Rachel RubinDesigned as a broad introductory survey, and written by experts in the field, this book examines the rise of American music over the 20th century - the period in which that music came into its own and achieved unprecedented popularity. Beginning with a look at music as a business, 11 essays explore a variety of popular musical genres, including Tin Pan Alley, blues, jazz, country, gospel, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, folk, rap, and Mexican American corridos. Reading these essays, we come to see that the forms created by one group often appeal to, and are in turn influenced by, other groups - across lines of race, ethnicity, class, gender, region and age. The chapters speak to one another, arguing for the primacy of such concepts as minstrelry, urbanization, hybridity and crossover as the most powerful tools for understanding American popular music. Moving beyond outdated music-industry categories and misleading genre labels, while acknowledging the complexities of the market, the book recovers and reinforces the essential blackness of much popular music - even a presumably white form like country and western.
American Populist: Huey Long of Louisiana
by Thomas E. PattersonThomas E. Patterson’s monumental biography of Huey Long is a profound reevaluation of his life and legacy, recognizing him as an inspirational progressive thinker, populist hero, and radical influence on the New Deal before an assassin’s bullet ended his life in 1935. First as governor and then as U.S. senator, Long transformed the politics of Louisiana by standing for the interests of citizens whom state officials had historically ignored. He eased suffrage restrictions so that more people could vote, and voters endorsed his program of more robust government services and shifting the tax burden to those better able to pay. In the United States Senate, during the darkest days of the Great Depression, he advocated loudly and ceaselessly for the redistribution of wealth, expanding public works, increasing the money supply, insuring bank deposits, paying old-age pensions and veterans’ benefits, delivering a minimum income for families, and funding college and vocational education. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, along with other politicians and pundits, dismissed Long’s proposals as nonsense put forth by a reckless demagogue in search of votes. Despite several biographies, acclaimed novels, and historical studies in the years since Long’s death, his reputation today is mostly caricature: a spellbinding speaker, a dictator, a populist firebrand who was unprincipled and corrupt. Using previously untapped personal papers of Long and his son Russell, other primary sources, recent scholarship, and his experience as a lawyer, Patterson provides a necessary corrective as he analyzes the contours of Long’s career, deconstructs the elements of his success, undercuts several myths related to his time in office, and explains the circumstances that led to his ultimate downfall. The result is the most comprehensive, balanced, and analytical study of the Kingfish to date.
American Power after the Financial Crisis
by Jonathan KirshnerThe global financial crisis of 2007–2008 was both an economic catastrophe and a watershed event in world politics. In American Power after the Financial Crisis, Jonathan Kirshner explains how the crisis altered the international balance of power, affecting the patterns and pulse of world politics. The crisis, Kirshner argues, brought about an end to what he identifies as the "second postwar American order" because it undermined the legitimacy of the economic ideas that underpinned that order—especially those that encouraged and even insisted upon uninhibited financial deregulation. The crisis also accelerated two existing trends: the relative erosion of the power and political influence of the United States and the increased political influence of other states, most notably, but not exclusively, China. Looking ahead, Kirshner anticipates a “New Heterogeneity” in thinking about how best to manage domestic and international money and finance. These divergences—such as varying assessments of and reactions to newly visible vulnerabilities in the American economy and changing attitudes about the long-term appeal of the dollar—will offer a bold challenge to the United States and its essentially unchanged disposition toward financial policy and regulation. This New Heterogeneity will contribute to greater discord among nations about how best to manage the global economy. A provocative look at how the 2007–2008 economic collapse diminished U.S. dominance in world politics, American Power after the Financial Crisis suggests that the most significant and lasting impact of the crisis and the Great Recession will be the inability of the United States to enforce its political and economic priorities on an increasingly recalcitrant world.
American Presidential Campaigns and Elections: Gilded Age Politics And The Front Porch Campaign Of 1888 (American Presidential Elections Ser.)
by Lewis L. Gould Brooks D. Simpson Robert W. Cherny James C. Bradford David E. Long Jeffrey L. Pasley Stuart Leibiger William G. Shade Frank Davis Ballard C. Campbell David Brian Robertson Mary C. Brennan Michael A. Morrison Andrew W. Robertson Michael J. Birkner Melanie Gustafson Julie Walsh Maureen A. Flanagan Brett Flehinger Dante J. Scala Philip Payne Mark Voss-Hubbard Richard M. Valelly WILLIAM G. SHADE; BALLARD C. CAMPBELL Craig R. Coenen Jonathan M. Atkins Judith A. Best Charles Calhoun Frank Colon Herbert B. Ershkowitz Todd A. Estes William A. Gudelunas Peter Knupfer Dean Kotlowski Philip J. Lampi Alan Lessoff James Mott Lynn H. Parsons Keith Ian Polakoff John W. Quist Patrick D. Reagan Jeff Singleton Mark W. Summers Philip R. VanderMeer Melanie Shell Weiss Jeffrey Randall WoodsPresidential campaigns and elections provide the drama and substance of America's democratic process. As democracy in action, they punctuate our nation's history in precise intervals, capturing the issues, the ideas, and the mood of the nation every four years. Every/campaign follows a similar format: candidates jockey for selection, nominations are made, candidates and party leaders hit the trail, and voters render their decision on Election Day. Yet despite this familiar process, every campaign is unique, featuring colorful personalities and unexpected events. This fully illustrated reference is packed with facts and information on every campaign from the election of 1788-89 through the hotly contested election of 2000. Each entry traces in detail the background and results of the election, provides biographical information on every presidential and vice-presidential candidate, and offers state-by-state tallies of every election. The set also features hundreds of rarely seen documents associated with the campaigns.
American Presidential Candidate Spouses: The Public's Perspective
by Brian Frederick Laurel Elder Barbara BurrellThe book offers a comprehensive analysis of public opinion toward presidential candidate spouses over the course of three decades, drawing on multiple theoretical frameworks including the concept of “new traditionalism” and a plethora of empirical data to explore why some spouses engender greater support than others—and what these reactions reveal about the American public and the gendered nature of the American presidency. Recognizing that presidential candidate spouses are important but understudied political actors, this book provides extensive analysis of public evaluations of Bill Clinton and Melania Trump during the 2016 presidential election as well as the presidential candidate spouses in the 1992 and 2012 elections and places public reaction to these individuals in historical context. The book considers important trends in U.S. elections including party polarization from the distinctive vantage points of candidate spouses and explores the symbolic importance of historic firsts including the first African American candidate spouse and the first male candidate spouse. No other work provides a systematic exploration of public opinion towards candidate spouses as distinct political entities across the modern political era.
American Presidential Power and the War on Terror: Does The Constitution Matter?
by Justin DePlatoThis book examines the use of presidential power during the War on Terror. Justin DePlato joins the debate on whether the Constitution matters in determining how each branch of the federal government should use its power to combat the War on Terror. The actions and words of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama are examined. DePlato's findings support the theory that executives use their own prerogative in determining what emergency powers are and how to use them. According to DePlato, the Presidents argue that their powers are implied in Article II of the Constitution, not expressed. This conclusion renders the Constitution meaningless in times of crisis. The author reveals that Presidents are becoming increasingly cavalier and that the nation should consider adopting an amendment to the Constitution to proffer expressed executive emergency powers.
American Presidential Statecraft: During the Cold War and After
by Ronald E. PowaskiThis book, the second of two volumes, examines the presidency in last half of twentieth century America and explores the successes and failures of presidents in their foreign policy initiatives. It examines each president's ability to apply his skills to a foreign policy issue in the face of opposition that may come from a variety of sources, including the Congress, the Pentagon, the State Department, the press, and often their own in-house advisers. This volume in particular focuses on John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush.
American Presidential Statecraft: From Isolationism to Internationalism
by Ronald E. PowaskiThis book, the second of two volumes, examines the presidency in last half of twentieth century America and explores the successes and failures of presidents in their foreign policy initiatives. It examines each president's ability to apply his skills to a foreign policy issue in the face of opposition that may come from a variety of sources, including the Congress, the Pentagon, the State Department, the press, and often their own in-house advisers. This volume in particular focuses on John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush.
American Presidents Year by Year
by Julie NelsonThis fascinating multi-volume set illuminates the panorama of American history through the personal and professional stories of the nation's presidents. Arranged chronologically, and covering George Washington to George W. Bush, it juxtaposes the lives of each year's current, former, and future living presidents against each other and the historical backdrop of their times. Each chapter opens with a summary of the year and describes the major issues and events the incumbent president faced. Separate sections within each chapter - "Former Presidents" and "Future Presidents" - detail important developments in the lives of past and future presidents month by month during that same year, highlighting political, social, and personal decisions that helped shape the course of American history.
American Priestess: The Extraordinary Story of Anna Spafford and the American Colony in Jerusalem
by Jane Fletcher GeniesseFor generations in Jerusalem, a fabled mansion has been the retreat for foreign correspondents, diplomats, pilgrims and spies but until now, few have known the true story of the house that became the American Colony Hotel or its bizarre history of tragedy, religious extremism, emotional blackmail, and peculiar sexual practices. During the boom years following the Civil War, in the country's heartland capital, Chicago, a prominent lawyer Horatio Spafford and his blue-eyed wife Anna rode the mighty wave of Protestant evangelicalism deluging the nation. When suddenly tragedy struck, the charismatic Spaffords, grieving, attracted followers eager to believe their prophecy that the Second Coming was at hand and in 1881 sailed with them to Jerusalem to see the Messiah alight on the Mount of Olives. No sooner had they settled into the Holy City than the U.S. Consul and the established Christian missionaries declared them heretics and whispered of sexual deviance. Yet Muslims and Jews admired their unflagging care of the sick and the needy, and Jews were intrigued with their advocacy of a Jewish Return to Zion. When Horatio died, Anna assumed leadership, shocking even her adherents by abolishing marriage and established a dictatorship that was not always benevolent. Ever dogged by controversy, she and her credulous followers lived through and closely participated in the titanic upheavals that eventually formed the modern Middle East. Written with flair and insight, American Priestess provides a fascinating exploration of the seductive power of evangelicalism and raises questions about the manipulation of religion to serve personal goals. A powerful narrative, the story sweeps through the dramatic collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the establishment of the British Mandate, and finally the founding of Israel where Anna's house in East Jerusalem, now the American Colony Hotel, stands as an exemplar of beauty and comfort, despite its turbulent history.
American Princess: A Novel of First Daughter Alice Roosevelt
by Stephanie Marie Thornton“As juicy and enlightening as a page in Meghan Markle's diary.”—InStyle“Presidential darling, America’s sweetheart, national rebel: Teddy Roosevelt’s swashbuckling daughter Alice springs to life in this raucous anthem to a remarkable woman.”—Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Alice NetworkA sweeping novel from renowned author Stephanie Marie Thornton...Alice may be the president's daughter, but she's nobody's darling. As bold as her signature color Alice Blue, the gum-chewing, cigarette-smoking, poker-playing First Daughter discovers that the only way for a woman to stand out in Washington is to make waves--oceans of them. With the canny sophistication of the savviest politician on the Hill, Alice uses her celebrity to her advantage, testing the limits of her power and the seductive thrill of political entanglements.But Washington, DC is rife with heartaches and betrayals, and when Alice falls hard for a smooth-talking congressman it will take everything this rebel has to emerge triumphant and claim her place as an American icon. As Alice soldiers through the devastation of two world wars and brazens out a cutting feud with her famous Roosevelt cousins, it's no wonder everyone in the capital refers to her as the Other Washington Monument--and Alice intends to outlast them all.
American Princess: The Remarkable Life of Marguerite Chapin Caetani
by Laurie DennettIn An American Princess, Laurie Dennett relates the remarkable story of a New England woman whose wealth, intelligence, and charm took her to the heart of aristocratic and intellectual Europe. Marguerite Chapin (1880–1963) was the product of two cultures: her father’s enterprising American one and her mother’s French heritage, which enabled her to move to Paris when she inherited a fortune at age twenty-one. There, she studied singing with the greatest tenor of the age, commissioned paintings from artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, and André Derain, and drew upon her many friendships with writers to found and edit the pioneering literary review Commerce. Her marriage, in 1911, to the composer Prince Roffredo Caetani, a member of one of Italy’s oldest dynasties, added a whole new dimension to her life. Not only did it bring her a title, but happiness, two children, and a set of extraordinarily talented in-laws. When Marguerite and Roffredo moved to Italy in 1932, she found refuge from fascism and an outlet for creativity at Ninfa, the estate where the Caetani had created a garden among the ruins of a medieval town. At age sixty-eight, having survived the death of her son, the war, and the German occupation, Marguerite launched the international review Botteghe Oscure. Its aim was to reclaim respectability for Italian writing, but through her discerning and generous editorial vision, it became a showcase for writers everywhere. An engrossing biography based on extensive original research, An American Princess celebrates Marguerite Chapin Caetani’s impressive accomplishments and legacy.