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A Ruse of Shadows (The Lady Sherlock Series #8)
by Sherry ThomasCharlotte Holmes is accustomed to solving crimes, not being accused of them, but she finds herself in a dreadfully precarious position as the bestselling Lady Sherlock series continues. Charlotte&’s success on the RMS Provence has afforded her a certain measure of time and assurance. Taking advantage of that, she has been busy, plotting to prise the man her sister loves from Moriarty&’s iron grip. Disruption, however, comes from an unexpected quarter. Lord Bancroft Ashburton, disgraced and imprisoned as a result of Charlotte&’s prior investigations, nevertheless manages to press Charlotte into service: Underwood, his most loyal henchman, is missing and Lord Bancroft wants Charlotte to find Underwood, dead or alive. But then Lord Bancroft himself turns up dead and Charlotte, more than anyone else, meets the trifecta criteria of motive, means, and opportunity. Never mind rescuing anyone else, with the law breathing down her neck, can Charlotte save herself from prosecution for murder?
A Rush of Wings
by Laura E. WeymouthFor fans of Serpent & Dove and A House of Salt and Sorrows comes a &“transportive and beautiful&” (Chloe Gong, New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights) romantic fantasy about an untrained witch who must unlock her power to free her brothers from a terrible curse and save her home.Rowenna Winthrop has always known there&’s magic within her. But though she hears voices on the wind and possesses unusual talents, her mother Mairead believes Rowenna lacks discipline, and refuses to teach her the craft that keeps their Scottish village safe. And when Mairead dies a sinister death, it seems Rowenna&’s only chance to grow into her power has died with her. Then, on a fateful, storm-tossed night, Rowenna rescues a handsome stranger named Gawen from a shipwreck, and her mother miraculously returns from the dead. Or so it appears. The resurrected Mairead is nothing like the old one. To hide her new monstrous nature, she turns Rowenna&’s brothers and Gawen into swans and robs Rowenna of her voice. Forced to flee, Rowenna travels to the city of Inverness to find a way to break the curse. But monsters take many forms, and in Inverness, Rowenna is soon caught in a web of strangers who want to use her raw magic for their own gain. If she wishes to save herself and the people she loves most, Rowenna will have to take her fate into her own hands and unlock the power that has evaded her for so long.
A Rush to Judgment: The Unfair Trial of Louis Riel
by Roger E. SalhanyDid Louis Riel have a fair trial? The trial and conviction of Louis Riel for treason in the summer of 1885 and his execution on November 16, 1885, have been the subjects of historical comment and criticism for over one hundred years. A Rush to Judgment challenges the view held by some historians that Riel received a fair trial. Roger Salhany argues that the presiding judge allowed the prosecutors to control the proceedings, was biased in his charge to the jury, and failed to properly explain how the jury was to consider the evidence of legal insanity. He also argues that the government was anxious to ensure the execution of Riel, notwithstanding the recommendation of the jury for clemency, because of concerns that if Riel was sent to a mental hospital or prison, he would eventually be released and cause further trouble. Salhany compels readers to reconsider Canada's most famous trial in court history.
A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia
by Anna PolitkovskayaA devastating account of contemporary Russia by a great and brave writer. A Russian Diary is the book that Anna Politkovskaya had recently completed when she was murdered in a contract killing in Moscow. It covers the period from the Russian elections of December 2003 to the tragic aftermath of the Beslan school siege in late 2005. The book is an unflinching record of the plight of millions of Russians and a pitiless report on the cynicism and corruption of Vladimir Putin's presidency. She interviews people whose lives have been devastated by Putin's policies, including the mothers of children who died in the Beslan siege, those of Russian soldiers maimed in Chechnya then abandoned by the State, and of "disappeared" young men and women. Elsewhere she meets traumatized and dangerous veterans of the Chechen wars, and a notorious Chechen warlord in his fortified lair. Putin is re-elected as President in farcically undemocratic circumstances and yet Western leaders, reliant on Russia's oil and gas reserves, continue to pay him homage. Politkovskaya offers a chilling account of his dismantling of the democratic reforms made in the 1990s. She also criticizes the inability of liberals and democrats to provide a united, effective opposition and a population slow to protest against government legislative outrages. A Russian Diary is clear-sighted, passionate and marked with the humanity that made Anna Politkovskaya known to many as "Russia's lost moral conscience" and a heroine to readers throughout the world.
A Russian Factory Enters the Market Economy (Routledge Contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe Series #Vol. 11)
by Claudio MorrisonThis book charts the experiences of a textile enterprise in Russia during the 1990s, analysing post-Soviet management and managerial practices in order to illuminate the content, nature and direction of industrial restructuring in the Russian privatised sector during the years of economic transition. Based on extensive factory-level fieldwork, it focuses upon changes in ownership, management and labour organisation, unveiling the complex texture of social, communal and gender relations in the workplace over an extended period of time, including through crisis and bankruptcy, acquisition by new capitalist owners and attempted restructuring. It argues, contrary to dominant Western managerial theories which blame the failure of transition on the irrationality of Russian managerial strategies, that the rationale for the continued reliance on Soviet era managerial practices lay in the peculiar form of social relations in the workplace which were characteristic of the Soviet system. It engages with key issues, often neglected in the literature, such as social domination, power and conflict, that capture the problematic and open-ended character of social and economic transformation in post-Soviet production. It demonstrates that far from a simple transition to a market economy, the post-Soviet transition has reproduced most of the features of the old Soviet system, including its patterns of labour relations.
A Russian Journal (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)
by John SteinbeckSteinbeck and Capa&’s account of their journey through Cold War Russia is a classic piece of reportage and travel writing.A Penguin ClassicJust after the Iron Curtain fell on Eastern Europe, Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Steinbeck and acclaimed war photographer Robert Capa ventured into the Soviet Union to report for the New York Herald Tribune. This rare opportunity took the famous travelers not only to Moscow and Stalingrad – now Volgograd – but through the countryside of the Ukraine and the Caucasus. Hailed by the New York Times as "superb" when it first appeared in 1948, A Russian Journal is the distillation of their journey and remains a remarkable memoir and unique historical document.What they saw and movingly recorded in words and on film was what Steinbeck called "the great other side there … the private life of the Russian people." Unlike other Western reporting about Russia at the time, A Russian Journal is free of ideological obsessions. Rather, Steinbeck and Capa recorded the grim realities of factory workers, government clerks, and peasants, as they emerged from the rubble of World War II—represented here in Capa&’s stirring photographs alongside Steinbeck&’s masterful prose. Through it all, we are given intimate glimpses of two artists at the height of their powers, answering their need to document human struggle. This edition features an introduction by Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
A Russian Paints America: The Travels of Pavel P. Svin'in, 1811-1813
by Marina Swoboda William Whisenhunt Pavel P. Svin'inA Russian Paints America presents the first complete English translation of Svin'in's fascinating memoir. Thirty-one original watercolours complement his provocative views on topics such as slavery, religion, politics, and the fine arts. Introductory essays by Marina Swoboda and William Whisenhunt examine Russian-American relations, consider Svin'in's life and particular role in Russian history, and set his work in the context of the genre of picturesque travel - Svin'in clearly did not set out to produce a scholarly account of the United States but a work of literature, at a time when Russian literary language was in its earliest stages of development.
A Russian Sister: A Novel
by Caroline AddersonIn this witty and colourfully peopled novel, Caroline Adderson effortlessly plunges the reader into a nineteenth-century Russian tragicomedy. Aspiring painter Masha C. is blindly devoted to Antosha, her famous writer-brother. Through the years Antosha takes up with numerous women from Masha’s circle of friends, yet none of these relationships threaten the siblings’ close ties until the winter he falls into a depression. Then Masha invites into their Moscow home a young woman who teaches with her—the beautiful, vivacious and deeply vulnerable Lika Mizanova—with the express hope she might help Antosha recover. The appearance of Lika sets off a convolution of unrequited love, jealousy and scandal that lasts for seven years. If the famously unattainable writer has lost his heart to Lika as everyone claims, why does he undertake a life-threatening voyage to Sakhalin Island? And what will happen to Masha if she is demoted from “woman of the house” to “spinster sister”? While Antosha and Lika push and pull, Masha falls in love herself—with a man and with a mongoose—only to have her dreams crushed twice. From her own heartbreak Masha comes to recognize the harm that she has done to her friends by encouraging their involvement with Antosha, but it is too late for Lika, who will both sacrifice herself for love and be immortalized as the model for Nina in Chekhov’s The Seagull. A Russian Sister offers a clever commentary on the role of women as prey for male needs and inspiration, a role they continue to play today. At the same time the novel is a plea for sisterhood, both familial and friendly. Chekhov’s The Seagull changed the theatre. A Russian Sister gives the reader a glimpse behind the curtain to the fascinating real-life people who inspired it and the tragedy that followed its premiere.
A Rustle of Silk (Gabriel Taverner Mystery #1)
by Alys Clare1603. Former ship's surgeon Gabriel Taverner is attempting to re-establish himself as a country physician in rural Devon. But it's not easy to gain the locals' trust, and a series of disturbing incidents, increasing in menace and intensity, convinces him that at least one person does not welcome his presence. Called out to examine a partially decomposed body found beside the river, Gabriel discovers he has a personal connection to the dead man. Teaming up with Coroner Theophilus Davey to find out how the man died, Gabriel uncovers the darker aspects of the lucrative silk trade which operates from nearby Plymouth. The more he finds out, the more frighteningly apparent it becomes that the people closest to him have been keeping dangerous secrets.
A Rússia de Putin
by Anna PolitkóvskayaObra de leitura essencial para compreender o regime de Putin, a Guerra na Ucrânia e a Rússia de hoje. Anna Politkovskaya, conhecida por muitos como a «consciência moral perdida da Rússia», foi uma voz incómoda do regime de Putin e um arauto dos tempos sombrios que hoje vivemos, e que ela tão bem anteviu, com audácia e mestria, nas páginas bem documentadas e dramáticas que compõem este livro. Bestseller internacional. Prefácio à edição portuguesa de José Manuel Fernandes Elza Kungaeva, Natalia Gorbanevskaya, Pavel Fedulev ou Yaroslav Fadeev são alguns dos rostos de Moscovo, de São Petersburgo ou da Chechénia que protagonizam estas histórias da vida pública e privada da Rússia moderna e levantam o véu sobre o estado de coisas no longo inverno político de Vladimir Putin: a degeneração do Exército, o desaparecimento da intelligentsia, a estalinização do país, o crime organizado ou a corrupção endémica nas estruturas de poder. Anna Politkovskaya deu-lhes voz, reportando a verdade sobre Putin e o clima de medo instaurado na Nova Rússia, num espírito inquebrável de luta pela liberdade e na esperança de acordar uma sociedade que só quer ser embalada até adormecer. Obra de leitura essencial para compreender o regime de Putin, a Guerra na Ucrânia e a Rússia de hoje, A Rússia de Putin é o último livro publicado em vida por esta autora, uma das figuras mais célebres e premiadas do jornalismo internacional, ativista dos direitos humanos, cujo assassinato à porta de casa, em 2006, chocou o mundo. «Anna Politkovskaya recusou-se a mentir; o seu assassinato foi um ataque perpetrado contra a literatura mundial.» Nadine Gordimer «Continuaremos a lê-la e a aprender com ela durante muitos anos.» Salman Rushdie «Uma jornalista heroica.» The Guardian
A SUMMER AFFAIR: A Regency Romance (The Calhoun Chronicles #5)
by Susan WiggsA gifted but troubled physician, Blue Calhoun runs a thriving medical practice from his Nob Hill mansion in San Francisco while raising his son alone after an unthinkable tragedy. Then one day a female fugitive with a gunshot wound appears in Blue's surgery. Even though she holds a pistol aimed at his heart, the desperation in her eyes awakens Blue's compassion. Reluctantly he is drawn to her fragile beauty, her nerves of steel and the mystery surrounding her circumstances.Isabel Fish-Wooten has spent most of her life on the run, but everything changes when she forces a stranger to save her life. Yet her rescue comes with an unexpected price. As Isabel recovers from her wounds, she finds herself touched by this remarkable man and yearns to reach out to him and his rebellious son.From danger-filled back alleys to the glittering ballrooms of high society, Isabel and Blue confront the violence and corruption that threatens their newfound passion. Theirs is an unforgettable quest to discover a rare and special love, and the precious gift of a second chance at happiness.
A Sacred Feast: Reflections on Sacred Harp Singing and Dinner on the Ground (At Table)
by Kathryn EastburnSome have called Sacred Harp singing America&’s earliest music. This powerful nondenominational religious singing, part of a deeply held Southern culture, has spread throughout the nation over the past two centuries. In A Sacred Feast, Kathryn Eastburn journeys into the community of Sacred Harp singers across the country and introduces readers to the curious glories of a tradition that is practiced today just as it was two hundred years ago. Each of the book&’s chapters visits a different region and features recipes from the accompanying culinary tradition—dinner on the ground, a hearty noontime feast. From oven-cooked pulled pork barbeque to Dollar Store cornbread dressing to red velvet cake, these recipes tell a story of nourishing the body, the soul, and the voice. The Sacred Harp&’s deeply moving sound and spirit resonate through these pages, captured at conventions in Alabama, Kentucky, Texas, Colorado, and Washington, conveyed in portraits of singers, and celebrated in the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of all-day singing and dinner on the ground echoing through generations and centuries.
A Sacred Space Is Never Empty: A History of Soviet Atheism
by Victoria SmolkinWhen the Bolsheviks set out to build a new world in the wake of the Russian Revolution, they expected religion to die off. Soviet power used a variety of tools--from education to propaganda to terror—to turn its vision of a Communist world without religion into reality. Yet even with its monopoly on ideology and power, the Soviet Communist Party never succeeded in overcoming religion and creating an atheist society.A Sacred Space Is Never Empty presents the first history of Soviet atheism from the 1917 revolution to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Drawing on a wealth of archival material and in-depth interviews with those who were on the front lines of Communist ideological campaigns, Victoria Smolkin argues that to understand the Soviet experiment, we must make sense of Soviet atheism. Smolkin shows how atheism was reimagined as an alternative cosmology with its own set of positive beliefs, practices, and spiritual commitments. Through its engagements with religion, the Soviet leadership realized that removing religion from the "sacred spaces" of Soviet life was not enough. Then, in the final years of the Soviet experiment, Mikhail Gorbachev—in a stunning and unexpected reversal—abandoned atheism and reintroduced religion into Soviet public life.A Sacred Space Is Never Empty explores the meaning of atheism for religious life, for Communist ideology, and for Soviet politics.
A Sacred Storm: Where History Meets Fantasy, For Fans Of Bernard Cornwall And George Rr Martin (The Wanderer Chronicles #2)
by Theodore BrunBound by honor. Haunted by loss. 8th Century Sweden: Erlan Aurvandil, a Viking outlander, has pledged his sword to Sviggar Ivarsson, King of the SveÄrs, and sworn enemy of the Danish king Harald Wartooth. But Wartooth, hungry for power, is stirring violence in the borderlands. As the fires of this ancient feud are reignited Erlan is bound by honor and oath to stand with King Sviggar. But, unbeknownst to the old King his daughter, Princess Lilla, has fallen under Erlan's spell. As the armies gather Erlan and Lilla must choose between their duty to Sviggar and their love for each other. Blooded young, betrayed often, Erlan is no stranger to battle. And hidden in the shadows, there are always those determined to bring about the maelstrom of war.
A Sad Fiasco: Colonial Concentration Camps in Southern Africa, 1900–1908 (War and Genocide #29)
by Jonas KreienbaumOnly in recent years has the history of European colonial concentration camps in Africa—in which thousands of prisoners died in appalling conditions—become widely known beyond a handful of specialists. Although they preceded the Third Reich by many decades, the camps’ newfound notoriety has led many to ask to what extent they anticipated the horrors of the Holocaust. Were they designed for mass killing, a misbegotten attempt at modernization, or something else entirely? A Sad Fiasco confronts this difficult question head-on, reconstructing the actions of colonial officials in both British South Africa and German South-West Africa as well as the experiences of internees to explore both the similarities and the divergences between the African camps and their Nazi-era successors.
A Safe Haven
by Rowena SummersA pirate offers a twenty-one-year-old widow a chance for romance, adventure, and freedom in this touching saga of love and passion.Sussex, 1763: As young widow Sarah Huxley celebrates her twenty-first birthday at the family seat of her uncle, Lord Endor, the festivities are interrupted by an uninvited guest: the notorious pirate Black Robbie, along with his crew. By the time Robbie has collected his spoils from the partygoers, it is clear to Sarah that he is no common cutthroat, and she is irresistibly drawn towards him, just as he is towards her. So when Sarah discovers that her uncle has arranged a second marriage for her, she finds in Robbie an unlikely savior, as he helps her escape. But as ghosts from their past threaten to encircle them both, they must endure their troubles to earn the safe haven they so desperately seek. A must read for fans of Katie Flynn, Rosie Goodwin, and Lyn Andrews.
A Safe Haven (The Devon Sagas)
by Irene NorthanFour orphans struggle to find new lives and fresh hope in this poignant historical saga from the author of To Dream Again and Daughter of the River. When Amy Kennedy is sent from Lambeth Workhouse to Devon alongside her closest friends Seth, Jed and Daisy, it finally seems like life is taking a turn for the better. But life at the seaside is not the safe haven they&’d hoped for. Though Amy finds a happy escape from her difficult job in the arms of handsome Daniel Newton, Seth flounders in the harsh realities of a fisherman&’s life despite Jed&’s protection, and Daisy faces abuse at the lecherous hands of her employer. Now, as tragedy strikes, they each face repercussions their days as orphans could never have prepared them for.
A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel
by Ronald Radosh Allis Radosh“[This] revelatory account of Truman's vital contributions to Israel's founding. . .is told. . . with an elegance informed by thorough research." —Wall Street Journal"Even knowing how the story ends, A Safe Haven had me sitting on the edge of my seat.” —Cokie Roberts A dramatic, detailed account of the events leading up to the creation of a Jewish homeland and the true story behind President Harry S. Truman’s controversial decision to recognize of the State of Israel in 1948, drawn from Truman’s long-lost diary entries and other previously unused archival materials.
A Safeway in Arizona
by Tom ZoellnerA riveting account of the state of Arizona, seen through the lens of the Tucson shootings On January 8, 2011, twenty-two-year-old Jared Lee Loughner opened fire at a Tucson meet-and-greet held by U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords. The incident left six people dead and eighteen injured, including Giffords, whom he shot in the head. Award-winning author and fifth generation Arizonan Tom Zoellner, a longtime friend of Giffords's and a field organizer on her Congressional campaign, uses the tragedy as a jumping-off point to expose the fault lines in Arizona's political and socioeconomic landscape that allowed this to happen: the harmful political rhetoric, the inept state government, the lingering effects of the housing market's boom and bust, the proliferation and accessibility of guns, the lack of established communities, and the hysteria surrounding issues of race and immigration. Zoellner's account includes interviews with those directly involved and effected, including Arizona's controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Zoellner offers a revealing portrait of the Southwestern state at a critical moment in history- and as a symbol of the nation's discontents and uncertainties. Ultimately, it is his rallying cry for a saner, more civil way of life
A Saga of the New South: Race, Law, and Public Debt in Virginia
by Brent TarterIn the lead-up to the Civil War, Virginia, like other southern states, amassed a large public debt while striving to improve transportation infrastructure and stimulate economic development. A Saga of the New South delves into the largely untold story of the decades-long postwar controversies over the repayment of that debt. The result is a major reinterpretation of late-nineteenth-century Virginia political history. The post-Civil War public debt controversy in Virginia reshaped the state's political landscape twice. First it created the conditions under which the Readjuster Party, a biracial coalition of radical reformers, seized control of the state government in 1879 and successfully refinanced the debt; then it gave rise to a counterrevolution that led the elitist Democratic Party to eighty years of dominance in the state's politics. Despite the Readjusters' victory in refinancing the debt and their increased spending for the popular new system of free public schools, the debt controversy generated a long train of legal disputes--at least eighty-five cases reached the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, and twenty-nine reached the Supreme Court of the United States. Through an in-depth look at these political and legal contests, A Saga of the New South sheds new light on the many obstacles that reformers faced in Virginia and the South after the Civil War.
A Sailor's History of the U.S. Navy
by Thomas J. CutlerAdopted by the U.S. Navy for issue to all new Sailors, A Sailor's History of the U.S. Navy brings to life the events that have shaped and inspired the Navy of today while highlighting the roles of all Sailors-from seaman to admiral. Rather than focus entirely upon such naval icons as Stephen Decatur and Chester Nimitz, as most histories do, author Thomas J. Cutler, a retired lieutenant commander and former second class petty officer, brings to the forefront the contributions of enlisted people. You'll read about Quartermaster Peter Williams, who steered the ironclad Monitor into history, and Hospital Corpsman Tayinikia Campbell, who saved lives in USS Cole after she was struck by terrorists in Yemen.Unlike most histories, A Sailor's History is arranged thematically rather than chronologically. Chapters are built around the Navy's core values of honor, courage, and commitment, its traditions of "Don't Tread on Me" and "Don't Give Up the Ship," and other significant aspects of the Navy.As Cutler states in his preface, the book is not a whitewash. He includes mistakes and defeats along with the achievements and victories as he draws a portrait of a Navy growing stronger and smarter while turning tragedy into triumph. The result is a unique account that captures the Navy's heritage as much as its history and provides inspiration as well as information while emphasizing that most essential element of naval history: the Sailor.
A Sailor's Logbook: A Season Aboard Great Lakes Freighters
by Mark L. ThompsonIn this firsthand account of life aboard the ships of the Great Lakes, Mark Thompson weaves together the threads of a story that relives a centuries-old tradition. Thompson began his logbook after he reported for duty aboard the Calcite II at Fraser Shipyard in Superior, Wisconsin, for the 1996 shipping season. A Sailor's Logbook is the first such book to chronicle a sailor's life at the end of the twentieth century. Not just a detailing of weather, cargo, and crew relations, A Sailor's Logbook is also an account of the daily lives of a diverse group of crewmembers as they share their sailing knowledge, "sea stories," and the many memories that accompany the pictures. Although there are ample resources in museums, archival collections, and company files regarding statistical logbook information, A Sailor's Logbook details the intricacies of daily life on a Great Lakes freighter. Thompson navigates the reader through the waters of the Great Lakes and his own life in this very special narrative.
A Sailor’s Odyssey: The Autobiography of Admiral of the Fleet, Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope
by Admiral Andrew Browne CunninghamFirst published in 1951, this is the autobiography of a distinguished commander of WWII. Serving in both wars, he was Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean at the outbreak of war, forced to cope with inadequate resources and virtually no air cover. After a short spell in Washington as a Naval Representative he returned as Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean and worked with Eisenhower and Alexander.His unique insight into the meetings with Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt make this a riveting read.“My main reasons for yielding to the suggestion [of setting down this record of my life] were because I wished to do justice to those under whom I served and from whom I learnt so much in my earlier years at sea, and also to pay a deserved tribute to those many whom I later had the honour and privilege to command in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. Further, before memory became dimmed by the passage of time, I was anxious to describe what I saw of the part played by the Royal Navy in the two great wars of the present century which lasted in all for more than ten years.“In describing the years of war I have kept as closely as possible to those matters with which, and in which, the Navy was primarily concerned and engaged. Moreover, as nearly as may be, I have tried to concentrate upon that portion of the Navy with which I happened to be serving. […] success in war cannot be attributed to any single Service. Each one is helpless without the closest and most loyal co-operation with the other two. This applies equally to our two great Sea Services. In war the Royal and the Merchant Navies have always been interdependent and indivisible.”
A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American
by Kathleen Sprows CummingsWhat drove U.S. Catholics in their arduous quest, full of twists and turns over more than a century, to win an American saint? The absence of American names in the canon of the saints had left many of the faithful feeling spiritually unmoored. But while canonization may be fundamentally about holiness, it is never only about holiness, reveals Kathleen Sprows Cummings in this panoramic, passionate chronicle of American sanctity. Catholics had another reason for petitioning the Vatican to acknowledge an American holy hero.A home-grown saint would serve as a mediator between heaven and earth, yes, but also between Catholicism and American culture. Throughout much of U.S. history, the making of a saint was also about the ways in which the members of a minority religious group defined, defended, and celebrated their identities as Americans. Their fascinatingly diverse causes for canonization—from Kateri Tekakwitha and Elizabeth Ann Seton to many others that are failed, forgotten, or still under way—represented evolving national values as Catholics made themselves at home. Cummings's vision of American sanctity shows just how much Catholics had at stake in cultivating devotion to men and women perched at the nexus of holiness and American history—until they finally felt little need to prove that they belonged.
A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American
by Kathleen Sprows CummingsWhat drove U.S. Catholics in their arduous quest, full of twists and turns over more than a century, to win an American saint? The absence of American names in the canon of the saints had left many of the faithful feeling spiritually unmoored. But while canonization may be fundamentally about holiness, it is never only about holiness, reveals Kathleen Sprows Cummings in this panoramic, passionate chronicle of American sanctity. Catholics had another reason for petitioning the Vatican to acknowledge an American holy hero. A home-grown saint would serve as a mediator between heaven and earth, yes, but also between Catholicism and American culture. Throughout much of U.S. history, the making of a saint was also about the ways in which the members of a minority religious group defined, defended, and celebrated their identities as Americans. Their fascinatingly diverse causes for canonization—from Kateri Tekakwitha and Elizabeth Ann Seton to many others that are failed, forgotten, or still under way—represented evolving national values as Catholics made themselves at home. Cummings's vision of American sanctity shows just how much Catholics had at stake in cultivating devotion to men and women perched at the nexus of holiness and American history—until they finally felt little need to prove that they belonged.