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Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography
Par Jeffrey Meyers. 1994
Scott Fitzgerald, a romantic and tragic figure who embodied the decades between the two world wars, was a writer who…
took his material almost entirely from his life. Despite his early success with The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald battled against failure and disappointment. This book, by the acclaimed biographer of Hemingway, is the first to analyze frankly the meaning as well as the events of Fitzgerald's life and to illuminate the recurrent patterns that reveal his inner self. Meyers emphasizes Fitzgerald's alcoholism, Zelda's illnesses and her doctors, Fitzgerald's love affairs both before and after her breakdown, and his wide-ranging friendships, from the polo star Tommy Hitchcock to the Hollywood executive Irving Thalberg. His writer friends included Ring Lardner, John Dos Passos, James Joyce, Edith Wharton, and Dorothy Parker. His friend and lifelong hero, Ernest Hemingway, was a harsh critic of both his behavior and his novels, but Fitzgerald accepted this with remarkable humility. Meyers portrays the volatile connection between these two writers and Fitzgerald's marriage to the schizophrenic Zelda with insight and poignancy. Meyers also discusses Fitzgerald's fascinating relationship with his daughter, Scottie. Exercising a fine critical balance, he details Fitzgerald's weaknesses but ultimately reveals a man capable of fierce loyalty and great moral courage.The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb
Par Philip Taubman. 2012
Offering a clear analysis of the danger of nuclear terrorism and how it can be prevented, The Partnership sheds light…
on one of the most divisive security issues facing Washington today. Award-winning New York Times journalist Philip Taubman illuminates our vulnerability in the face of this pressing terrorist threat—and the unlikely efforts of five key Cold War players to eliminate the nuclear arsenal they helped create. Bob Woodward calls The Partnership a “brilliant, penetrating study of nuclear threats, present and past,” and David Kennedy writes that it is “indispensable reading for all who would understand the desperate urgency of containing the menace of nuclear proliferation.”The Wife's Tale: A Personal History
Par Aida Edemariam. 2018
A Finalist for The Governor General’s Award for Nonfiction “The extraordinary memoir of a woman who lived through the cataclysmic events…
that shaped modern Ethiopian history. The narrative, which is lovingly and expertly put together by her granddaughter, is a window into a world that would otherwise be invisible to us.” — Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for StoneIn this indelible memoir that recalls the life of her remarkable ninety-five-year old grandmother, Guardian journalist Aida Edemariam tells the story of modern Ethiopia—a nation that would undergo a tumultuous transformation from feudalism to monarchy to Marxist revolution to democracy, over the course of one century.Born in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar in about 1916, Yetemegnu was married and had given birth before she turned fifteen. As the daughter of a socially prominent man, she also offered her husband, a poor yet gifted student, the opportunity to become an important religious leader.Over the next decades Yetemegnu would endure extraordinary trials: the death of some of her children; her husband’s imprisonment; and the detention of one of her sons. She witnessed the Fascist invasion of Ethiopia and the subsequent resistance, suffered Allied bombardment and exile from her city; lived through a bloody revolution and the nationalization of her land. She gained audiences with Emperor Haile Selassie I to argue for justice for her husband, for revenge, and for her children’s security, and fought court battles to defend her assets against powerful men. But sustained, in part, by her fierce belief in the Virgin Mary and in Orthodox Christianity, Yetemegnu survived. She even learned to read, in her sixties, and eventually made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.Told in Yetemegnu’s enthralling voice and filled with a vivid cast of characters—emperors and empresses, priests and scholars, monks and nuns, archbishops and slaves, Marxist revolutionaries and wartime double agents—The Wife’s Tale introduces a woman both imperious and vulnerable; a mother, widow, and businesswoman whose deep faith and numerous travails never quashed her love of laughter, mischief and dancing; a fighter whose life was shaped by direct contact with the volatile events that transformed her nation.An intimate memoir that offers a panoramic view of Ethiopia’s recent history, The Wife’s Tale takes us deep into the landscape, rituals, social classes, and culture of this ancient, often mischaracterized, richly complex, and unforgettable land—and into the heart of one indomitable woman.Lady at the O.K. Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp
Par Ann Kirschner. 2013
Lady at the O.K. Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp by Ann Kirschner is the definitive biography of…
a Jewish girl from New York who won the heart of Wyatt Earp.For nearly fifty years, she was the common-law wife of Wyatt Earp: hero of the O.K. Corral and the most famous lawman of the Old West. Yet Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp has nearly been erased from Western lore. In this fascinating biography, Ann Kirschner, author of the acclaimed Sala's Gift, brings Josephine out of the shadows of history to tell her tale: a spirited and colorful tale of ambition, adventure, self-invention, and devotion. Reflective of America itself, her story brings us from the post–Civil War years to World War II, and from New York to the Arizona Territory to old Hollywood.In Lady at the O.K. Corral, you’ll learn how this aspiring actress and dancer—a flamboyant, curvaceous Jewish girl with a persistent New York accent—landed in Tombstone, Arizona, and sustained a lifelong partnership with Wyatt Earp, a man of uncommon charisma and complex heroism.Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance
Par Carla Kaplan. 2013
Celebrated scholar Carla Kaplan’s cultural biography, Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance, focuses on white…
women, collectively called “Miss Anne,” who became Harlem Renaissance insiders. The 1920s in New York City was a time of freedom, experimentation, and passion—with Harlem at the epicenter. White men could go uptown to see jazz and modern dance, but women who embraced black culture too enthusiastically could be ostracized. Miss Anne in Harlem focuses on six of the unconventional, free-thinking women, some from Manhattan high society, many Jewish, who crossed race lines and defied social conventions to become a part of the culture and heartbeat of Harlem. Ethnic and gender studies professor Carla Kaplan brings the interracial history of the Harlem Renaissance to life with vivid prose, extensive research, and period photographs.The Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt, Captive of Maquinna
Par Hilary Stewart, John Jewitt. 1987
This new edition includes a full range of explanatory material, including annotations, numerous illustrations, and maps, as well as a…
comprehensive index. The text of the Narrative is taken from the 1851 Ithaca, New York, edition, and retains the original spelling and grammatical forms (including mistakes and typographical errors), as well as the nine rather quaint engravings. This edition will give readers a new and thoughtful insight into the history of British Columbia and its indigenous people, and they will view this early nineteenth-century saga with a humanistic understanding and sensitivity so often lacking in the populace of the past.The Iron Dice of Battle: Albert Sidney Johnston and the Civil War in the West
Par Timothy Smith. 2023
Killed in action at the bloody Battle of Shiloh, Confederate general Albert Sidney Johnston stands as the highest-ranking American military…
officer to die in combat. His unexpected demise had cascading negative consequences for the South’s war effort, as his absence created a void in adequate leadership in the years that followed. In The Iron Dice of Battle, noted Civil War historian Timothy B. Smith reexamines Johnston’s life and death, offering remarkable insights into this often-contradictory figure.As a commander, Johnston frequently faced larger and better-armed Union forces, dramatically shaping his battlefield decisions and convincing him that victory could only be attained by taking strategic risks while fighting. The final wager came while leading his army at Shiloh in April 1862. During a desperate gambit to turn the tide of battle, Johnston charged to the front of the Confederate line to direct his troops and fell mortally wounded after sustaining enemy fire.The first work to survey the general’s career in detail in nearly sixty years, The Iron Dice of Battle builds on recent scholarship to provide a new and incisive assessment of Johnston’s life, his Confederate command, and the effect his death had on the course of the Civil War in the West.One Life: The True Story of Sir Nicholas Winton
Par Barbara Winton. 2014
The book that inspired upcoming major motion picture ONE LIFE, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonham Carter.'Remarkable' - GuardianSir…
Nicholas Winton rescued 669 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia at the brink of World War II. Most never saw their parents again; nearly all left behind were murdered. This is his story.In 1938, 29-year-old 'Nicky' cancelled a ski holiday and instead spent nine months masterminding a seemingly impossible plan to rescue hundreds of Jewish children and find them homes in the UK. Over 6,000 people are alive today because of his efforts.What motivated an ordinary man to do something so extraordinary? This book, written by his daughter, Barbara, explores the 106-year life of an incredible humanitarian, a man whose legacy only came to public light decades later.His life story is a clarion call to choose action over apathy in the face of injustice, and a reminder that every one of us can change the world. 'If something is not impossible, then there must be a way to do it.''Those of us who came on a Kindertransport from Prague and owe our lives to Nicky will be so grateful to Barbara for writing something so special' - Lord Alf Dubs, ex-Labour minister and 'rescued child'[This book was first published in 2014 as If It's Not Impossible... The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton]One Life: The True Story of Sir Nicholas Winton
Par Barbara Winton. 2014
The book that inspired upcoming major motion picture ONE LIFE, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonham Carter.'Remarkable' - GuardianSir…
Nicholas Winton rescued 669 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia at the brink of World War II. Most never saw their parents again; nearly all left behind were murdered. This is his story.In 1938, 29-year-old 'Nicky' cancelled a ski holiday and instead spent nine months masterminding a seemingly impossible plan to rescue hundreds of Jewish children and find them homes in the UK. Over 6,000 people are alive today because of his efforts.What motivated an ordinary man to do something so extraordinary? This book, written by his daughter, Barbara, explores the 106-year life of an incredible humanitarian, a man whose legacy only came to public light decades later.His life story is a clarion call to choose action over apathy in the face of injustice, and a reminder that every one of us can change the world. 'If something is not impossible, then there must be a way to do it.''Those of us who came on a Kindertransport from Prague and owe our lives to Nicky will be so grateful to Barbara for writing something so special' - Lord Alf Dubs, ex-Labour minister and 'rescued child'[This book was first published in 2014 as If It's Not Impossible... The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton]Questioning popular belief, a historian and re-examines what exactly led to the British Empire&’s loss of the American Revolution.The loss…
of America was an unexpected defeat for the powerful British Empire. Common wisdom has held that incompetent military commanders and political leaders in Britain must have been to blame, but were they? This intriguing book makes a different argument. Weaving together the personal stories of ten prominent men who directed the British dimension of the war, historian Andrew O&’Shaughnessy dispels the incompetence myth and uncovers the real reasons that rebellious colonials were able to achieve their surprising victory. In interlinked biographical chapters, the author follows the course of the war from the perspectives of King George III, Prime Minister Lord North, military leaders including General Burgoyne, the Earl of Sandwich, and others who, for the most part, led ably and even brilliantly. Victories were frequent, and in fact the British conquered every American city at some stage of the Revolutionary War. Yet roiling political complexities at home, combined with the fervency of the fighting Americans, proved fatal to the British war effort. The book concludes with a penetrating assessment of the years after Yorktown, when the British achieved victories against the French and Spanish, thereby keeping intact what remained of the British Empire.&“A remarkable book about an important but curiously underappreciated subject: the British side of the American Revolution. With meticulous scholarship and an eloquent writing style, O'Shaughnessy gives us a fresh and compelling view of a critical aspect of the struggle that changed the world.&”—Jon Meacham, author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of PowerLiving with Hitler: Accounts of Hitlers Household Staff
Par Karl Krause, Herbert Döhring, Anna Plaim. 2018
This collection paints a picture of Hitler from members of his household in the unique position of being seemingly ever-present,…
yet totally unconnected to events.The reader is introduced to Hitler's Bodyguard Karl Krause (1934-39), his house administrator Herbert Dhring (1935-43) and chambermaid Anna Plaim (1941-43). From these accounts we get a deeper sense of Hitler in close proximity.These accounts massively add to our understanding of Hitler as a three dimensional character, especially from subjects like Plaim who only knew Hitler's home life, having rarely left Berghof.The series is able to shed light on his likes and dislikes from foods to his hobbies, creating a strange sense of humanity. This collection also provides the reader with fresh anecdotes, observations and portraits of Hitler's entourage and relatives. Plaim's images of Eva Braun come from finding torn fragments in the bin, whilst Dhring sheds light on Martin Bormann's demeanour.Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Staffordshire & the Potteries (Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths)
Par Nicholas Corder. 2013
In Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Staffordshire and the Potteries the chill is brought close to home as each…
chapter investigates the darker side of humanity in notorious cases of murder, deceit and pure malice that have marked the history of the area. For this journey into a bloody, neglected aspect of the past, Nicholas Corder has selected over 20 episodes that give a fascinating insight into criminal acts and the criminal mind. Recalled here are the Rugeley poisoner William Palmer, who disposed of his victims with strychnine, the vicious assaults on Issac Brooks and the miscarriage of justice that put George Edalji behind bars for three years and brought the creator of the world's greatest fictional detective to his rescue. The Canal boat killing of poor Christina Collins is described in graphic detail, as is the sad case of Thirza Tunstall's baby and the bizarre case of the headless corpse of Hednesford. The human dramas Nicholas Corder explores are often played out in the most commonplace of circumstances, but others are so odd as to be stranger than fiction. His grisly chronicle of the hidden history of staffordshire and the Potteries will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the darker side of human nature.Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life
Par Natalie Dykstra. 2012
A biography of one of the Gilded Age&’s most fascinating and mysterious society women that &“reads as well as any…
page-turning novel&” (Library Journal). At twenty-eight, Clover Adams, a fiercely intelligent Boston Brahmin, married the soon-to-be-eminent American historian Henry Adams. She thrived in her role as an intimate of power brokers in Gilded Age Washington, where she was admired for her wit and taste by such luminaries as Henry James, H. H. Richardson, and General William Tecumseh Sherman. Clover so clearly possessed, as one friend wrote, &“all she wanted, all this world could give.&” Yet at the center of her story is a haunting mystery. Why did Clover, having begun in the spring of 1883 to capture her world vividly through photography, end her life less than three years later by drinking a chemical developer she used in the darkroom? The key to the mystery lies, as Natalie Dykstra&’s searching account makes clear, in Clover&’s photographs themselves. The aftermath of Clover&’s death is equally compelling. Dykstra probes Clover&’s enduring reputation as a woman betrayed, and, most movingly, she untangles the complex, poignant—and universal—truths of her shining and impossible marriage.Soldier of Destiny: Slavery, Secession, and the Redemption of Ulysses S. Grant
Par John Reeves. 2023
Presenting an original, thought-provoking look at Ulysses S. Grant, Soldier of Destiny evokes the life of the general through his…
conflicted connection to slavery, allowing readers a clearer understanding of this great American. Captain Ulysses S. Grant, an obscure army officer who was expelled for alcohol abuse in 1854, rose to become general-in-chief of the United States Army in 1864. What accounts for this astonishing turn-around during this extraordinary decade? Was it destiny? Or was he just an ordinary man, opportunistically benefiting from the turmoil of the Civil War to advance to the highest military rank? Soldier of Destiny reveals that Grant always possessed the latent abilities of a skilled commander—and he was able to develop these skills out West without the overwhelming pressure faced by more senior commanders in the Eastern theater at the beginning of the Civil War. Grant was a true Westerner himself and it was his experience in the West—before and during the Civil War—that was central to his rise. From 1861 to 1864, Grant went from being ambivalent about slavery to becoming one of the leading individuals responsible for emancipating the slaves. Before the war, he lived in a pro-slavery community near St. Louis, where there were very few outright abolitionists. During the war, he gradually realized that Emancipation was the only possible outcome of the war that would be consistent with America&’s founding values and future prosperity. Soldier of Destiny tells the story of Grant&’s connection to slavery in far more detail than has been done in previous biographies. Grant&’s life story is an almost inconceivable tale of redemption within the context of his fraught relationships with his antislavery father and his slaveholding wife. This narrative explores the poverty, inequality, and extraordinary vitality of the American West during a crucial time in our nation&’s history. Writers on Grant have tended to overlook his St. Louis years (1854-1860), even though they are essential for understanding his later triumphs. Walt Whitman described Grant as &“a common trader, money-maker, tanner, farmer of Illinois—general for the republic, in its terrific struggle with itself, in the war of attempted secession. Nothing heroic, as the authorities put it—and yet the greatest hero. The gods, the destinies, seem to have concentrated upon him.&”A compelling, intimate history of the Revolutionary period through a series of charismatic and ambitious familes, revealing how the American…
Revolution was, in many ways, a civil war.&“Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your Freedom! —John Adams to Abigail Adams, 26 April 1777 All wars are tragic, but the "revolutionary generation" paid an exceptionally personal price. Foreign wars pull men from home to fight and die abroad leaving empty seats at the family table. But the ideological war that forms the foundation of a civil war also severs intimate family relationships and bonds of friendship in addition to the loss of live on the battle fields. In The Times That Try Men's Soul, Joyce Lee Malcolm masterfully traces the origins and experience of that division during the American Revolution—the growing political disagreements, the intransigence of colonial and government officials swelling into a flood of intolerance, intimidation and mob violence. In that tidal wave opportunities for reconciliation were lost. Those loyal to the royal government fled into exile and banishment, or stayed home to support British troops. Patriots risked everything in a fight they seemed destined to lose. Many people simply hoped against hope to get on with ordinary life in extraordinary times. The hidden cost of this war was families and dear friends split along party lines. Samuel Quincy, Josiah Quincy&’s only surviving son, sailed to England, abandoning his father, wife, and three children. John Adam&’s dearest friend, Jonathan Sewell, fled with his family to England after his home was stormed by a mob. Sewell&’s sister-in-law was married to none other than John Hancock. James Otis&’s beloved wife Ruth was a wealthy Tory. One daughter would marry a British Army captain and spend the rest of her life abroad while the other wed major general in the Continental Army. The pain of husbands divided from wives, fathers from children, sisters and brothers from each other and close friends caught on opposite sides in the throes of war has been explored in histories of other American wars, yet Malcolm reveals how this conflict reaches into the heart of our country's foundation. Loyalists who fled to England became strangers in a strange land who did not fit into British society. They were Americans longing for home, wondering whether there would—or could—be reconciliation. The grief of separated loyalties is an important and often ignored part of the revolutionary war story. Those who risked their lives battling the great British empire, and those who left home loyal to the government were all caught in a war without an enemy. In his rough draft of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson reflected sadly that &“we might have been a free and a great people together.&” The Times That Try Men's Souls is a poignant and vivid narrative that provides a fresh and timely perspective on a foundational part of our nation's history.Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Par Walter Isaacson. 2003
In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most…
fascinating of America's founders helped define our national character.Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. He explores the wit behind Poor Richard’s Almanac and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nation’s alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises that created a near-perfect Constitution.In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin’s amazing life, showing how he helped to forge the American national identity and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.To End All Wars: A True Story About the Will to Survive and the Courage to Forgive
Par Ernest Gordon. 2002
Now a major motion picture starring Robert Carlyle and Kiefer Sutherland "Waking from a dream, I suddenly realized where I was: in…
the Death House--in a prison camp by the River Kwai. I was a prisoner of war, lying among the dead, waiting for the bodies to be carried away so that I might have more room."When Ernest Gordon was twenty-four he was captured by the Japanese and forced, with other British prisoners, to build the notorious "Railroad of Death," where nearly 16,000 prisoners of war gave their life. Faced with the appalling conditions of the prisoners' camp and the brutality of the captors, he survived to become an inspiring example of the triumph of the human spirit against all odds.To End All Wars is Ernest Gordon's gripping true story behind both the Academy Award-winning film The Bridge on the River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness, and the new film To End All Wars, directed by David Cunningham.Liberty's Dawn: A People's History of the Industrial Revolution
Par Emma Griffin. 2013
&“Emma Griffin gives a new and powerful voice to the men and women whose blood and sweat greased the wheels…
of the Industrial Revolution&” (Tim Hitchcock, author of Down and Out in Eighteenth-Century London). This &“provocative study&” looks at hundreds of autobiographies penned between 1760 and 1900 to offer an intimate firsthand account of how the Industrial Revolution was experienced by the working class (The New Yorker). The era didn&’t just bring about misery and poverty. On the contrary, Emma Griffin shows how it raised incomes, improved literacy, and offered exciting opportunities for political action. For many, this was a period of new, and much valued, sexual and cultural freedom. This rich personal account focuses on the social impact of the Industrial Revolution, rather than its economic and political histories. In the tradition of bestselling books by Liza Picard, Judith Flanders, and Jerry White, Griffin gets under the skin of the period and creates a cast of colorful characters, including factory workers, miners, shoemakers, carpenters, servants, and farm laborers. &“Through the &‘messy tales&’ of more than 350 working-class lives, Emma Griffin arrives at an upbeat interpretation of the Industrial Revolution most of us would hardly recognize. It is quite enthralling.&” —The Oldie magazine &“A triumph, achieved in fewer than 250 gracefully written pages. They persuasively purvey Griffin&’s historical conviction. She is intimate with her audience, wooing it and teasing it along the way.&” —The Times Literary Supplement &“An admirably intimate and expansive revisionist history.&” —Publishers WeeklyLivia: First Lady of Imperial Rome
Par Anthony Barrett. 2008
The author of Rome Is Burning separates fact from fiction as he examines the life of an ancient Roman figure…
made famous in the TV miniseries I Claudius.Livia—wife of the first Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus, and mother of the second, Tiberius—wielded extraordinary power at the center of Roman politics. In this biography of Livia, the first in English, Anthony Barrett sets aside the portrait of a cunning and sinister schemer to reveal Livia as a complex figure whose enduring political influence helped shape Roman government long after her death.&“An excellent biography of Livia—as appealing to the general reader as it is satisfying to the scholar.&” —Colin M. Wells, Trinity University, San Antonio&“In reading Anthony Barrett&’s biography of Livia, I not only learned about this remarkable woman, but also gained a meaningful appreciation of life and society in her time.&” —Howard Alper, President, The Royal Society of Canada &“First-rate.&” —Mary Beard, Times Literary SupplementChurchill: Visionary. Statesman. Historian.
Par John Lukacs. 2002
&“Lukacs convincingly portrays a leader of an empire in irreversible decline and a towering, if flawed, hero of our time.&”—Publishers…
Weekly In previous works, John Lukacs told the story of Winston Churchill&’s titanic struggle with Adolf Hitler in the early days of World War II. Now, he turns his attention to the man himself, the workings of his historical imagination, and his successes and failures as a visionary statesman. Chapter by chapter, Lukacs assesses Churchill&’s vital relationships with Stalin, Roosevelt, and Eisenhower; his complex, farsighted political vision concerning the coming of WWII and the Cold War; his abilities as a historian looking backward into the origins of the conflicts of which he was so much a part; and the often contradictory ways in which he has been perceived by critics and admirers alike. In addition, Lukacs describes his three days spent in London attending Churchill&’s funeral in 1965. &“Superb…[a] tour de force.&”—Foreign Affairs &“Lukacs&’ ability to meld the scholarly with the popular is much in evidence here.&”—Booklist