- Table View
- List View
First Polish Armoured Division 1938–47: A History
by Evan McGilvray Janusz JarzembowskiThe First Polish armored Division was formed in Scotland in February 1942 from Polish exiles who had escaped first Poland and then France. Its commander, Stanislaw Maczek, and many of its men had previously served in Polish 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade (10 BKS), which had taken part in the Polish invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and given a good account of itself in the defense of Poland against German and Soviet invasion of 1939. Under Maczek’s leadership the division was trained and equipped along British lines in preparation for the invasion of France. Attached to 1st Canadian Army, the division was sent to Normandy in late July 1944. It suffered heavily during Operation Totalize but went on to play a crucial role in preventing an orderly German withdrawal from the Falaise Pocket by its stand at Hill 262. They then played their part in the advance across Western Europe and into Germany. This detailed history, supported by dozens of archive photos, concludes by looking at the often-poor treatment of Maczek and his men after the war.
The First Populist: The Defiant Life of Andrew Jackson
by David S. BrownA revelatory, timely, and masterful biography of President Andrew Jackson that offers a new perspective on this charismatic figure in the context of American populism—identifying the reasons for his unprecedented appeal as it shows us the man and politician in his full complexity.A number of bestselling and award-winning biographies have been written about the seventh president of the US, but none have positioned Andrew Jackson so firmly in the forefront of the country&’s populist tradition. Now, historian David S. Brown traces Jackson&’s unusual life and legacy and sheds new light on his place in our nation&’s history, focusing on his role as a popular leader. Andrew Jackson rose from rural poverty to become the dominant figure in American politics between Jefferson and Lincoln. His reputation, however, defies easy description. Some regard him as the symbol of a powerful democratic movement that saw early 19th century suffrage restrictions recede for white men. Others stress his prominent role in removing Native American peoples from their ancestral lands, which were then opened to create a southern cotton kingdom, home to more than a million enslaved people. A self-defined champion of &“farmers, mechanics, and laborers,&” Jackson railed against the established ruling order, fostering a brand of democracy that struck a chord with the common man and helped catapult him into the presidency—he was the first westerner, first orphan, and thus far the only prisoner of war to occupy the office. Drawing on a wide range of research material, The First Populist takes a fresh look at Jackson&’s public career, including the momentous Battle of New Orleans and the far-reaching Bank War; it reveals his marriage to an already married woman, a deadly duel with a Nashville dandy, and analyzes his magnetic hold on much of the country at the time. Presenting a full portrait of a controversial American life, The First Populist offers a new way to interpret Jackson&’s legacy, connecting &“Old Hickory&” to a longer history of division, dissent, and partisanship that has come to define our current times.
The First Prejudice
by Christopher S. Grenda Chris BenekeIn many ways, religion was the United States' first prejudice--both an early source of bigotry and the object of the first sustained efforts to limit its effects. Spanning more than two centuries across colonial British America and the United States, The First Prejudice offers a groundbreaking exploration of the early history of persecution and toleration. The twelve essays in this volume were composed by leading historians with an eye to the larger significance of religious tolerance and intolerance. Individual chapters examine the prosecution of religious crimes, the biblical sources of tolerance and intolerance, the British imperial context of toleration, the bounds of Native American spiritual independence, the nuances of anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism, the resilience of African American faiths, and the challenges confronted by skeptics and freethinkers.The First Prejudice presents a revealing portrait of the rhetoric, regulations, and customs that shaped the relationships between people of different faiths in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America. It relates changes in law and language to the lived experience of religious conflict and religious cooperation, highlighting the crucial ways in which they molded U.S. culture and politics. By incorporating a broad range of groups and religious differences in its accounts of tolerance and intolerance, The First Prejudice opens a significant new vista on the understanding of America's long experience with diversity.
The First Princess of Wales: A Novel
by Karen HarperThe daughter of a disgraced earl, she matched wits with a prince. It is the fourteenth century, the height of the Medieval Age, and at the court of King Edward III of England, chivalry is loudly praised while treachery runs rampant. When the lovely and high-spirited Joan of Kent is sent to this politically charged court, she is woefully unprepared for the underhanded maneuverings of her peers. Determined to increase the breadth of his rule, the king will use any means necessary to gain control of France—including manipulating his own son, Edward, Prince of Wales. Joan plots to become involved with the prince to scandalize the royal family, for she has learned they engineered her father’s downfall and death. But what begins as a calculated strategy soon—to Joan’s surprise—grows into love. When Joan learns that Edward returns her feelings, she is soon fighting her own, for how can she love the man that ruined her family? And, if she does, what will be the cost? Filled with scandal, court intrigue, and prominent figures of the Medieval Age,The First Princess of Waleshas at its center a wonderful love story, which is all the more remarkable because it is true. Karen Harper’s compelling, fast-paced novel tells the riveting tale of an innocent girl who marries a prince and gives birth to a king. From the Trade Paperback edition.
First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country
by Thomas E. RicksThe Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author offers a revelatory new book about the founding fathers, examining their educations and, in particular, their devotion to the ancient Greek and Roman classics—and how that influence would shape their ideals and the new American nation. <p><p> On the morning after the 2016 presidential election, Thomas Ricks awoke with a few questions on his mind: What kind of nation did we now have? Is it what was designed or intended by the nation’s founders? Trying to get as close to the source as he could, Ricks decided to go back and read the philosophy and literature that shaped the founders’ thinking, and the letters they wrote to each other debating these crucial works—among them the Iliad, Plutarch’s Lives, and the works of Xenophon, Epicurus, Aristotle, Cato, and Cicero. For though much attention has been paid the influence of English political philosophers, like John Locke, closer to their own era, the founders were far more immersed in the literature of the ancient world. <p> The first four American presidents came to their classical knowledge differently. Washington absorbed it mainly from the elite culture of his day; Adams from the laws and rhetoric of Rome; Jefferson immersed himself in classical philosophy, especially Epicureanism; and Madison, both a groundbreaking researcher and a deft politician, spent years studying the ancient world like a political scientist. Each of their experiences, and distinctive learning, played an essential role in the formation of the United States. In examining how and what they studied, looking at them in the unusual light of the classical world, Ricks is able to draw arresting and fresh portraits of men we thought we knew. <p> First Principles follows these four members of the Revolutionary generation from their youths to their adult lives, as they grappled with questions of independence, and forming and keeping a new nation. In doing so, Ricks interprets not only the effect of the ancient world on each man, and how that shaped our constitution and government, but offers startling new insights into these legendary leaders. <p> <b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
The First Print Era: The Rise of Print Culture in China’s Northern Song Dynasty
by Daniel FriedThe First Print Era examines the rise of print culture during China’s Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127). Bringing together often-overlooked primary sources from the period and scholarship on many individual topics in Song print history, the book offers the first extended narrative in English of how print became entrenched as a sustained mode of textual dissemination in China. While discussing technical innovations and the growth of the print industry, the book focuses on how the rise of print affected several indispensable elements of Song intellectual culture: the expansion of the exam system, the canonization of Tang and earlier models, the rise of antiquarianism and connoisseurship, the birth of Neo-Confucianism as a new intellectual force, the growth of a new literati culture and new forms of literary production and critique, and the development of calligraphy as an art form that could be taught, critiqued, and divided into schools. Overall, the book describes a process by which print publication moved from a highly centralized state enterprise, back to expanded elite use, and eventually towards the popular print markets that would create new forms of expression during the Southern Song and Yuan dynasties. This book will be an essential read for students and scholars of Asian studies, Medieval studies, and those with a focus on print history and Chinese studies.
First Promise
by Ashapurna Debi Indira ChowdhuryIn a deceptively easy, conversational style, through episodes that sketch out the rituals, the quarrels and predicaments of women's lives, a compelling story emerges upon the landscapes of rural Bengal and colonial Calcutta.
The First Punic War
by John LazenbyFirst Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
First Raj of the Sikhs: The Life and Times of Banda Singh Bahadur
by Harish DhillonBanda Singh Bahadur appeared in Sikh history for a relatively short period (1708-1716) but, after the Sikh gurus, influenced it more significantly than any other individual. Banda Singh Bahadur is among the most colourful and fascinating characters in Sikh history. From an ascetic he was transformed into Guru Gobind Singh’s most trusted disciple. So much so that when the seriously injured guru could not lead his Sikh army against the Mughal forces, he appointed Banda Singh Bahadur as his deputy. As proof of this appointment he gave Banda his sword, a mighty bow, arrows from his own quiver, his battle standard and his war drum. Banda rode out from Nanded (where Guru Gobind Singh passed away; now in Maharashtra) at the head of a small band of Sikhs, which, by the time it reached the Punjab, had grown into a formidable army. Over the next few years his exploits against the Mughal rulers, both in pitched battles and in skirmishes, became the stuff of legends. He became the first of many legendary Sikh generals, famous both for their personal heroic courage and their skill in warfare. His many encounters with the Mughal rulers eroded the very foundation of the Mughal empire and ensured its quick demise. As he said when questioned on what he had achieved: ‘I have ensured that never again will the crown sit easily on the Mughal emperor’s head.’ He also prepared the coming generations of Sikhs for future conflicts, which later greatly helped Maharaja Ranjit Singh in creating a Sikh empire. Banda was a true leader who led from the front, not only in the battlefield but also in civil administration. He established a secular government which swept aside 700 years of slavery and the myth of domination by foreign powers, proclaimed freedom of worship, allowed the people to follow professions of their choice and stopped forcible marriages even while recovering abducted women for return to their families. His land revolution abolished zamindari in parts of North India, thereby redistributing land equally amongst the tillers. This book seeks to tell the story of this remarkable and brave man and his equally remarkable ahievements. Perhaps, the finest of Banda Singh Bahadur’s biographies.
The First Rasta: Leonard Howell and the Rise of Rastafarianism
by Stephen Davis Hélène LeeGoing far beyond the standard imagery of Rasta--ganja, reggae, and dreadlocks--this cultural history offers an uncensored vision of a movement with complex roots and the exceptional journey of a man who taught an enslaved people how to be proud and impose their culture on the world. In the 1920s Leonard Percival Howell and the First Rastas had a revelation concerning the divinity of Haile Selassie, king of Ethiopia, that established the vision for the most popular mystical movement of the 20th century, Rastafarianism. Although jailed, ridiculed, and treated as insane, Howell, also known as the Gong, established a Rasta community of 4,500 members, the first agro-industrial enterprise devoted to producing marijuana. In the late 1950s the community was dispersed, disseminating Rasta teachings throughout the ghettos of the island. A young singer named Bob Marley adopted Howell's message, and through Marley's visions, reggae made its explosion in the music world.
First Rate: The Greatest Warships in the Age of Sail
by Rif WinfieldIn the sailing era First Rates were the largest, most powerful and most costly ships to construct, maintain and operate. Built to the highest standards, they were lavishly decorated and given carefully considered names that reflected the pride and prestige of their country. They were the very embodiment of national power, and as such drew the attention of artists, engravers and printmakers. This means that virtually every British First Rate from the Prince Royal of 1610 to the end of sail is represented by an array of paintings, drawings, models or plans.This book is a celebration of these magnificent ships, combining an authoritative history of their development with reproductions of many of the best (and least familiar) images of the ships, chosen for their accuracy, detail and sheer visual power in an extra-large format that does full justice to the images themselves. It also includes comparative data on similar vessels in other navies, so it is a book that everyone with an interest in wooden warships will find both enlightening and a pleasure to peruse.
A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness (Playaway Adult Nonfiction Ser.)
by Nassir GhaemiAn investigation into the surprisingly deep correlation between mental illness and successful leadership, as seen through some of history's greatest politicians, generals, and businesspeople. In A First-Rate Madness, Nassir Ghaemi, who runs the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts University Medical Center, draws from the careers and personal plights of such notable leaders as Lincoln, Churchill, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. , JFK, and others from the past two centuries to build an argument at once controversial and compelling: the very qualities that mark those with mood disorders- realism, empathy, resilience, and creativity-also make for the best leaders in times of crisis. By combining astute analysis of the historical evidence with the latest psychiatric research, Ghaemi demonstrates how these qualities have produced brilliant leadership under the toughest circumstances. Take realism, for instance: study after study has shown that those suffering depression are better than "normal" people at assessing current threats and predicting future outcomes. Looking at Lincoln and Churchill among others, Ghaemi shows how depressive realism helped these men tackle challenges both personal and national. Or consider creativity, a quality psychiatrists have studied extensively in relation to bipolar disorder. A First-Rate Madness shows how mania inspired General Sherman and Ted Turner to design and execute their most creative-and successful-strategies. Ghaemi's thesis is both robust and expansive; he even explains why eminently sane men like Neville Chamberlain and George W. Bush made such poor leaders. Though sane people are better shepherds in good times, sanity can be a severe liability in moments of crisis. A lifetime without the cyclical torment of mood disorders, Ghaemi explains, can leave one ill equipped to endure dire straits. He also clarifies which kinds of insanity-like psychosis-make for despotism and ineptitude, sometimes on a grand scale. Ghaemi's bold, authoritative analysis offers powerful new tools for determining who should lead us. But perhaps most profoundly, he encourages us to rethink our view of mental illness as a purely negative phenomenon. As A First-Rate Madness makes clear, the most common types of insanity can confer vital benefits on individuals and society at large-however high the price for those who endure these illnesses. .
The First Rebellion (The Waverly Women Series #1)
by M. C. BeatonThe first Waverley Women Regency romance from the New York Times–bestselling author of the Six Sisters series. The Earl of Tredair had his fill of balls, routs, and silly misses, and he despaired of finding anyone out of the ordinary—that is, until he met Miss Fanny Waverley. Most unique and intriguing, she and her two sisters were the adopted daughters of the reclusive bluestocking Madame Waverley. They had been raised as her disciples to spread the word of women&’s rights and to encourage poor oppressed females to stand up against the iniquities of the male sex! The beautiful and farouche Miss Fanny, however, found it quite hard to think of all men as cruel and lustful beasts—how could she when now she found herself longing to kiss one of the most hated of his breed! Praise for M. C. Beaton and her novels &“The best of the Regency writers.&” —Kirkus Reviews &“A delightful tale . . . romance fans are in for a treat.&” —Booklist &“Nicely atmospheric, most notable for its gentle humor and adventurous spirit.&” —Publishers Weekly
The First Rebellion: The First Rebellion, Silken Bonds, The Love Match (Waverley Women #4)
by M.C. BeatonThe first book in M.C. Beaton's charming Waverly Women trilogy. His kiss has left her flushed and disconcerted - perhaps men are best avoided after all!The Earl of Tredair has had his fill of balls, routs, and silly misses, and he despairs of finding anyone out of the ordinary - that is, until he meets Miss Fanny Waverley.Most unique and intriguing, she and her two sisters are the adopted daughters of the reclusive bluestocking Madame Waverley. They have been raised as her disciples to spread the word of women's rights and to encourage poor oppressed females to stand up against the iniquities of the male sex. But, can they resist love?The beautiful Miss Fanny finds it quite hard to think of all men as cruel and lustful beasts - how can she, when now she finds herself longing to kiss one of the most hated of the species!'Romance fans are in for a treat' - Booklist'[M. C. Beaton] is the best of the Regency writers' - Kirkus Reviews
The First Rebellion (Waverley Women #1)
by M.C. BeatonHis kiss has left her flushed and disconcerted – perhaps men are best avoided after all!The Earl of Tredair has had his fill of balls, routs, and silly misses, and he despairs of finding anyone out of the ordinary - that is, until he meets Miss Fanny Waverley.Most unique and intriguing, she and her two sisters are the adopted daughters of the reclusive bluestocking Madame Waverley. They have been raised as her disciples to spread the word of women's rights and to encourage poor oppressed females to stand up against the iniquities of the male sex.The beautiful Miss Fanny, however, finds it quite hard to think of all men as cruel and lustful beasts - how can she, when now she finds herself longing to kiss one of the most hated of the species!
The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture)
by Van GosseIt may be difficult to imagine that a consequential black electoral politics evolved in the United States before the Civil War, for as of 1860, the overwhelming majority of African Americans remained in bondage. Yet free black men, many of them escaped slaves, steadily increased their influence in electoral politics over the course of the early American republic. Despite efforts to disfranchise them, black men voted across much of the North, sometimes in numbers sufficient to swing elections. In this meticulously-researched book, Van Gosse offers a sweeping reappraisal of the formative era of American democracy from the Constitution's ratification through Abraham Lincoln's election, chronicling the rise of an organized, visible black politics focused on the quest for citizenship, the vote, and power within the free states. Full of untold stories and thorough examinations of political battles, this book traces a First Reconstruction of black political activism following emancipation in the North. From Portland, Maine and New Bedford, Massachusetts to Brooklyn and Cleveland, black men operated as voting blocs, denouncing the notion that skin color could define citizenship.
“First Red Clausewitz”: Friedrich Engels And Early Socialist Military Theory
by Major Michael A. BodenBetween the European revolutions of the mid-nineteenth century and the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Friedrich Engels functioned as a writer, analyst, and critic concerning military affairs. His most essential commentaries were published, disseminated, and internalized by supporters of the proletarian revolution. This project concentrates on the tactical, operational, and technical aspects of Engels' military thought and the development of his concepts from his earliest writings until the Franco-Prussian War. Historians and commentators routinely ignore these aspects of military theory in examinations of Engels' work. This project will demonstrate that Engels possessed are markable level of military knowledge and a degree of insight at the operational and tactical levels of warfare and that that he should be considered not only as an important social and economic thinker, but also among the most significant contributors to the field of nineteenth-and twentieth-century military history and theory. Engels' most significant contributions exist in the manner by which he, as a key member of the socialist leadership in the nineteenth century, integrated the concept of armed insurgency into the conduct of a proletarian revolution. By drawing on the experiences of the French Revolution and the wars of Napoleon, and then the impact of mass-industrialization, Engels was the first person to specifically incorporate a force dynamic into the trajectory of a socialist revolution. Despite the fact that he was a civilian with no formal military training beyond service as a Prussian artilleryman in 1842, his contributions to the field of revolutionary military theory earn him distinction as one of the most important socialist writers of the nineteenth century.
The First Republican Army: The Army of Virginia and the Radicalization of the Civil War (A Nation Divided: Studies in the Civil War Era)
by John H. MatsuiAlthough much is known about the political stance of the military at large during the Civil War, the political party affiliations of individual soldiers have received little attention. Drawing on archival sources from twenty-five generals and 250 volunteer officers and enlisted men, John Matsui offers the first major study to examine the ways in which individual politics were as important as military considerations to battlefield outcomes and how the experience of war could alter soldiers' political views.The conservative war aims pursued by Abraham Lincoln's generals (and to some extent, the president himself) in the first year of the American Civil War focused on the preservation of the Union and the restoration of the antebellum status quo. This approach was particularly evident in the prevailing policies and attitudes toward Confederacy-supporting Southern civilians and slavery. But this changed in Virginia during the summer of 1862 with the formation of the Army of Virginia. If the Army of the Potomac (the major Union force in Virginia) was dominated by generals who concurred with the ideology of the Democratic Party, the Army of Virginia (though likewise a Union force) was its political opposite, from its senior generals to the common soldiers. The majority of officers and soldiers in the Army of Virginia saw slavery and pro-Confederate civilians as crucial components of the rebel war effort and blamed them for prolonging the war. The frustrating occupation experiences of the Army of Virginia radicalized them further, making them a vanguard against Southern rebellion and slavery within the Union army as a whole and paving the way for Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
The First Resort: The History of Social Psychiatry in the United States
by Matthew SmithSocial psychiatry was a mid-twentieth-century approach to mental health that stressed the prevention of mental illness rather than its treatment. Its proponents developed environmental explanations of mental health, arguing that socioeconomic problems such as poverty, inequality, and social isolation were the underlying causes of mental illness. The influence of social psychiatry contributed to the closure of psychiatric hospitals and the emergence of community mental health care during the 1960s. By the 1980s, however, social psychiatry was in decline, having lost ground to biological psychiatry and its emphasis on genetics, neurology, and psychopharmacology.The First Resort is a history of the rise and fall of social psychiatry that also explores the lessons this largely forgotten movement has to offer today. Matthew Smith examines four ambitious projects that investigated the relationship between socioeconomic factors and mental illness in Chicago, New Haven, New York City, and Nova Scotia. He contends that social psychiatry waned not because of flaws in its preventive approach to mental health but rather because the economic and political crises of the 1970s and the shift to the right during the 1980s foreclosed the social changes required to create a more mentally healthy society. Smith also argues that social psychiatry provides timely insights about how progressive social policies, such as a universal basic income, can help stem rising rates of mental illness in the present day.
First Resorts: Pursuing Pleasure at Saratoga Springs, Newport, and Coney Island
by Jon SterngassThis history of Saratoga Springs, Newport, and Coney Island explores the cultural and social forces that shaped tourism, defined leisure, and developed these places into the diverse vacation spots we know today."At the dawn of the nineteenth century, Saratoga Springs hosted no more than a thousand hardy travelers yearly, Newport floundered in the midst of a fifty-year commercial decline, and Coney Island's beach resembled a wind-swept wilderness. A hundred years later, the number of summer visitors to Saratoga had increased a hundredfold, the antics of high society at Newport transfixed America, and at least five million pleasure seekers visited Coney annually. 'Those who talk of the mushroom growth of our Western cities,' declared an astounded writer for Harper's Weekly in 1878, 'might better spend their wonder and enthusiasm upon our Eastern watering-place.'"—From the IntroductionIn First Resorts: Pursuing Pleasure at Saratoga Springs, Newport, and Coney Island, Jon Sterngass follows three of the best-known northeastern American resorts across a century of change. Saratoga Springs, Newport, and Coney Island began, he finds, as similar pleasure destinations, each of them featuring "grand" hotels where visitors swarmed public spaces such as verandas, dining rooms, and parlors. As the century progressed, however, Saratoga remained much the same, while Newport turned to private (and lavish) "cottages" and Coney Island shifted its focus to amusements for the masses. Fifty-nine illustrations enliven Sterngass's unique study of the commodification of pleasure that occurred as capitalist values flourished, travel grew more accessible, and leisure time became democratized. These three resorts, he argues, served as forerunners of twentieth-century pleasure cities such as Aspen, Las Vegas, and Orlando.
First Resorts: Pursuing Pleasure at Saratoga Springs, Newport & Coney Island
by Jon Sterngass“[A] scrupulously researched and beautifully crafted account of how nineteenth-century Americans went in search of health, rest, and diversion.” —Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker, coauthors of The Beach. The History of Paradise on EarthIn First Resorts: Pursuing Pleasure at Saratoga Springs, Newport, and Coney Island, Jon Sterngass follows three of the best-known northeastern American resorts across a century of change. Saratoga Springs, Newport, and Coney Island began, he finds, as similar pleasure destinations, each of them featuring “grand” hotels where visitors swarmed public spaces such as verandas, dining rooms, and parlors. As the century progressed, however, Saratoga remained much the same, while Newport turned to private (and lavish) “cottages” and Coney Island shifted its focus to amusements for the masses.Fifty-nine illustrations enliven Sterngass’s unique study of the commodification of pleasure that occurred as capitalist values flourished, travel grew more accessible, and leisure time became democratized. These three resorts, he argues, served as forerunners of twentieth-century pleasure cities such as Aspen, Las Vegas, and Orlando.“An engaging, creative book replete with evocative illustrations and witty quotes . . . a pleasant read.” —Thomas A. Chambers, New York Academy of History“Sterngass’s discussions about privacy, community, commercialization, consumption, leisure, and the desire to be conspicuous are important and new. With its well-chosen illustrations, this is a handsome book as well as an important one.” —Kathryn Allamong Jacob, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University“Having mined every conceivable source about his three sites, Sterngass has presented a wealth of interesting material not only about the resort experience but also about the residents, politicians, and entrepreneurs who built them.” —Journal of American History
First Responders: Inside the U.S. Strategy for Fighting the 2007-2009 Global Financial Crisis
by Ben S. Bernanke Timothy F. Geithner Henry M. Paulson Jr. J. Nellie LiangAn insider’s view of the U.S. government’s response to the 2007–2009 global financial crisis, as recounted by the people who made the key decisions In 2008, the world’s financial system stood on the brink of disaster. The United States faced an unprecedented crisis when the investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed, setting off a global panic. Faced with the prospect of a new Great Depression, the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and other agencies took extraordinary measures to contain the damage and steady the financial system and the economy. Edited by three of the policymakers who led the government’s response to the crisis, with chapters written by the teams tasked with finding policy solutions, this book provides a comprehensive accounting of the internal debates and controversies surrounding the measures that were taken to stabilize the financial system and the economy. Offering previously untold insight into the key choices (including rejected options) and a frank evaluation of successes and failures, this volume is both an important historical document and an indispensable guide for confronting future financial calamities.
First Russia, Then Tibet [Illustrated Edition]
by Robert ByronOver the course of several months during 1931 and 1932, Robert Byron journeyed to three countries teetering on the brink of change.In Russia, which was stricken by famine, Lenin had just died, Stalin's dictatorship was in its infancy and the Great Terror had yet to begin. Having taken the first commercial flight to India, which took an astounding seven days, Byron was thrown into the tumultuous last years of the British Raj. Gandhi was imprisoned, while rioting and clashes between Hindus and Muslims had become commonplace. Finally Byron entered Tibet, the forbidden country. Exploring "The Land of Snows", he saw Tibet as it was when the then Dalai Lama was still ensconced in the Potala Palace, twenty years before China's invasion.First Russia, Then Tibet is an invaluable first-hand account of transformative moments in periods of change and upheaval.-Print ed.Richly illustrated throughout.
The First Russian Radical: Alexander Radishchev 1749-1802 (David Marshall Lang's Journey from Russia to Armenia via Caucasian Georgia #1)
by David Marshall LangWhen this was originally published in 1959 it was the first full-length biography of Alexander Radishchev published outside Russia and was based on hitherto unpublished material, memoir literature and Radishchev’s own writings. Radishchev occupies a notable position in the history of European social thought, as the first writer to apply the criteria of the Western Age of Reason to conditions in Tsarist Russia. Sentenced to death on the orders of Catherine the Great and subsequently exiled in Siberia, Radishchev stands out as the first great figure of the Russian radical intelligentsia and the first literary victim of Tsarist official intolerance.
The First Salute
by Barbara W. TuchmanBarbara W. Tuchman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the classic The Guns of August, turns her sights homeward with this brilliant, insightful narrative of the Revolutionary War. In The First Salute, one of America's consummate historians crafts a rigorously original view of the American Revolution. Barbara W. Tuchman places the Revolution in the context of the centuries-long conflicts between England and both France and Holland, demonstrating how the aid to the American colonies of both these nations made the triumph of independence possible. She sheds new light on the key role played by the contending navies, paints a magnificent portrait of George Washington, and recounts in riveting detail the decisive campaign of the war at Yorktown. By turns lyrical and gripping, The First Salute is an exhilarating account of the birth of a nation. Praise for The First Salute "Nothing in a novel could be more thrilling than the moment in this glorious history when French soldiers arrive [to] see a tall, familiar figure: George Washington. . . . It is only part of Tuchman's genius that she can reconstitute such scenes with so much precision and passion."--People "Tuchman writes narrative history in the great tradition. . . . A persuasive book, which brings us entertaining pictures, scenes and characters."--Chicago Tribune "[A] tightly woven narrative, ingeniously structured."--The Christian Science MonitorFrom the Trade Paperback edition.