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The Virgin Warrior: The Life and Death of Joan of Arc
Par Larissa Juliet Taylor. 1994
&“A fresh and provocative biography of La Pucelle . . . her transformation from a naive girl to a strong-willed,…
bold, and gifted captain of war.&”—Frederic J. Baumgartner, author of France in the Sixteenth CenturyFrance&’s great heroine and England&’s great scourge: whether a lunatic, a witch, a religious icon, or a skilled soldier and leader, Joan of Arc&’s contemporaries found her as extraordinary and fascinating as the legends that abound about her today. But her life has been so endlessly cast and recast that we have lost sight of the remarkable girl at the heart of it—a teenaged peasant girl who, after claiming to hear voices, convinced the French king to let her lead a disheartened army into battle. In the process she changed the course of European history.In The Virgin Warrior, Larissa Juliet Taylor paints a vivid portrait of Joan as a self-confident, charismatic and supremely determined figure, whose sheer force of will electrified those around her and struck terror into the hearts of the English soldiers and leaders. The drama of Joan&’s life is set against a world where visions and witchcraft were real, where saints could appear to peasants, battles and sieges decided the fate of kingdoms and rigged trials could result in burning at the stake. Yet in her short life, Joan emboldened the French soldiers and villagers with her strength and resolve. A difficult, inflexible leader, she defied her accusers and enemies to the end. From her early years to the myths and fantasies that have swelled since her death, Taylor &“goes deep into Joan of Arc&’s heart and soul and shows us the maiden, the warrior and the heroine&” (Kate Williams, New York Times bestselling author).Engineers of Human Souls: Four Writers Who Changed Twentieth-Century Minds
Par Simon Ings. 2024
Four writers. Four dictators. One world, changed out of all recognition. ENGINEERS OF HUMAN SOULS is an intimate and shocking…
shadow history of creative vanity in a time that turned writers - once the faithful servants of authority - into figures of political consequence.Maurice Barrès, who first wielded the politics of identity. Gabriele D'Annunzio, whose poetry became a blueprint for fascism. Maxim Gorky, dramatist of the working class and Stalin's cheerleader. The Maoist Ding Ling, whose stories exculpated the regime that kept her imprisoned.All four nursed extravagant visions of the future, and believed they were vital to its realisation. Each was lured to the centre of political action. Each established a dangerous and damaging relationship with a notorious dictator. And when writers and rulers find a use for each other, the consequences can be shattering for us all. These stories - of courage and compromise, vanity and malevolence - speak urgently to the uncontrollable power of words.John Brown's Spy: The Adventurous Life and Tragic Confession of John E. Cook
Par Steven Lubet. 2012
A &“compulsively readable&” account of the fugitive who betrayed John Brown after the bloody abolitionist raid on Harper&’s Ferry (Booklist,…
starred review).John Brown&’s Spy tells the nearly unknown story of John E. Cook, the person John Brown trusted most with the details of his plans to capture the Harper&’s Ferry armory in 1859. Cook was a poet, a marksman, a boaster, a dandy, a fighter, and a womanizer—as well as a spy. In a life of only thirty years, he studied law in Connecticut, fought border ruffians in Kansas, served as an abolitionist mole in Virginia, took white hostages during the Harper&’s Ferry raid, and almost escaped to freedom. For ten days after the infamous raid, he was the most hunted man in America with a staggering one-thousand dollar bounty on his head.Tracking down the unexplored circumstances of John Cook&’s life and disastrous end, Steven Lubet is the first to uncover the full extent of Cook&’s contributions to Brown&’s scheme. Without Cook&’s participation, the author contends, Brown might never have been able to launch the insurrection that foreshadowed the Civil War. Had Cook remained true to the cause, history would have remembered him as a hero. Instead, when Cook was captured and brought to trial, he betrayed John Brown and named fellow abolitionists in a full confession that earned him a place in history&’s tragic pantheon of disgraced turncoats.&“Lubet is especially effective at capturing the courtroom drama . . . A crisply told tale fleshing out one of American history&’s more intriguing footnotes.&” —Kirkus Reviews&“Take[s] readers on a ride through the frantic days surrounding Brown&’s raid that will make them &‘feel&’ the moment as much as understand it.&” —Library Journal (starred review)Turncoat: Benedict Arnold and the Crisis of American Liberty
Par Stephen Brumwell. 2018
A historian examines how a once-ardent hero of the American Revolutionary cause became its most dishonored traitor. General Benedict Arnold&’s…
failed attempt to betray the fortress of West Point to the British in 1780 stands as one of the most infamous episodes in American history. In the light of a shining record of bravery and unquestioned commitment to the Revolution, Arnold&’s defection came as an appalling shock. Contemporaries believed he had been corrupted by greed; historians have theorized that he had come to resent the lack of recognition for his merits and sacrifices. In this provocative book Stephen Brumwell challenges such interpretations and draws on unexplored archives to reveal other crucial factors that illuminate Arnold&’s abandonment of the revolutionary cause he once championed. This work traces Arnold&’s journey from enthusiastic support of American independence to his spectacularly traitorous acts and narrow escape. Brumwell&’s research leads to an unexpected conclusion: Arnold&’s mystifying betrayal was driven by a staunch conviction that America&’s best interests would be served by halting the bloodshed and reuniting the fractured British Empire. &“Gripping… In a time when charges of treason and disloyalty intrude into our daily politics, Turncoat is essential reading.&”—R. R. B. Bernstein, City College of New York &“The most balanced and insightful assessment of Benedict Arnold to date. Utilizing fresh manuscript sources, Brumwell reasserts the crucial importance of human agency in history.&”—Edward G. Lengel, author of General George Washington &“An incisive study of the war and the very meaning of the American Revolution itself…. The defining portrait of Arnold for the twenty-first century.&”—Francis D. Cogliano, author of Revolutionary AmericaFrederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
Par David W. Blight. 2017
**Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History** &“Extraordinary…a great American biography&” (The New Yorker) of the most important African-American of…
the nineteenth century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists and writers of the era.As a young man Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness to the brutality of slavery. Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass spoke widely, using his own story to condemn slavery. By the Civil War, Douglass had become the most famed and widely travelled orator in the nation. In his unique and eloquent voice, written and spoken, Douglass was a fierce critic of the United States as well as a radical patriot. After the war he sometimes argued politically with younger African Americans, but he never forsook either the Republican party or the cause of black civil and political rights. In this &“cinematic and deeply engaging&” (The New York Times Book Review) biography, David Blight has drawn on new information held in a private collection that few other historian have consulted, as well as recently discovered issues of Douglass&’s newspapers. &“Absorbing and even moving…a brilliant book that speaks to our own time as well as Douglass&’s&” (The Wall Street Journal), Blight&’s biography tells the fascinating story of Douglass&’s two marriages and his complex extended family. &“David Blight has written the definitive biography of Frederick Douglass…a powerful portrait of one of the most important American voices of the nineteenth century&” (The Boston Globe). In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Frederick Douglass won the Bancroft, Parkman, Los Angeles Times (biography), Lincoln, Plutarch, and Christopher awards and was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Time.The Sixties: Diaries:1960–1969
Par Christopher Isherwood. 2010
“An intimate portrait of the life of a beautiful if neurotic mind… streaked with gossip, flinty observations, great good humor…
and—despite Isherwood’s fundamental discretion—plenty of frank talk.” — Dwight Garner, New York Times“These diaries are, in their core, a love story…thanks to [them], we bear witness to it all—and are all the richer for it.” — New York Journal of Books“A good writer…intensely self-aware…a fascinating companion…THE SIXTIES [is] accessible to everyone…a true piece of social history.” — Edmund White, New York Times Book Review“The diary entries in The Sixties are a mix of quotidian detail, social observation, moody reverie, gossip and self-rebuke.” — Wall Street Journal“Gossipy, funny, wide-ranging, and revealing…[Isherwood] comes across as approachable, aware, and passionately interested.” — Publishers WeeklyLittle Chapel on the River: A Pub, a Town and the Search for What Matters Most
Par Wendy Bounds. 2005
“A seamless, shining tale.” — Nancy Cobb, author of In Lieu of Flowers“Stunning. Little Chapel on the River is beautifully…
written, artfully crafted and lovingly told.” — Stefan Fatsis, author, Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players“Compelling . . . I could not put it down.” — Dennis Smith, author, Report from Engine Co. 82, A Song for Mary and Report from Ground Zero“Reading Wendy Bounds’s very fine book is much like a delightful night spent visiting a pub in Ireland.” — Frank Gannon, author, Mid-Life Irish“Gwendolyn Bounds has perfectly captured the sounds, flavors--indeed, the soul--of a quickly disappearing kind of small town life.” — Billy Collins, Poet Laureate, author of Picnic, Lightning“Set aside a huge chunk of time to read this book as putting it down would cause heartache.” — Malachy McCourt, author of A Monk Swimming“Timely and meaningful…extraordinary…highly recommended.” — Library Journal“Bounds captures the warmth of the place and the rootedness it [Guinan’s] symbolizes.” — Booklist“Compelling.” — Chicago Tribune “A true romance--with a place.” — Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers“Bounds’ elegiac tale of transformation is a story filled with sweet surprises that never becomes cloying...” — New York Post“In an age of spiky-heeled chick-lit, this book is a refreshing change.” — Milwaukee Journal SentinelThe Confession
Par James E. McGreevey. 2006
Gorgeous George: The Outrageous Bad-Boy Wrestler Who Created American Pop Culture
Par John Capouya. 2008
“Finally, the tawdry but glamorous details behind the legend of one of my first childhood heroes. Gorgeous George is such…
a good read I felt like bleaching my hair afterwards.” — John Waters“Capouya’s biography vividly re-creates Gorgeous George’s antics and the world in which he had more shock value than a numerically named wideout could hope for today.” — Sports Illustrated“Compelling. . . . The tension between George’s excess and his era’s reserve is one of many in his story, and those are what make Capouya’s cultural anthropology so interesting.” — Newsweek“Terrifically, tantalizingly weird. . . . GORGEOUS GEORGE does leave the words of one long-ago sports reporter ringing in your ears: ‘Oh, my, what a strut. If only this man had been born in the barnyard. What a rooster he would have made.’” — New York Times“...[Capouya] delivers a solid, entertaining book about a long-forgotten character and a peculiar slice of American history.” — Entertainment Weekly“Capouya vividly portrays the ins and outs of wrestling and [Wagner’s] own struggle to maintain the ‘Gorgeousness’ of a public life in his private life as well.” — Publishers Weekly“In GORGEOUS GEORGE, Capouya combines extensive research and interviews with a colorful writing style and presents Gorgeous George as a cultural pioneer...Capouya’s words are as fast-paced as the action in the ring and connect with the reader as solidly as a dropkick to George’s kisser.” — Tampa Tribune“Compulsively entertaining...” — Penthouse“You see the title of John Capouya’s biography of Gorgeous George - which claims the flamboyant wrestler “created pop culture” - and you are struck by its audacity. A wrestler responsible for something that important? Impossible. But as you go through the pages, you can’t help but agree.” — New York Post“Gorgeous George invented a style of showmanship that was imitated by entertainers and athletes. With this biography, John Capouya has done an excellent job in introducing the most inventive of sport’s anti-heroes to a new generation of readers.” — Ishmael Reed (novelist, poet, and cultural critic)NO DOUBT OF IT: GEE GEE’S THE BIGGEST THING IN TV — Washington Post, 1949“I don’t know if I was made for television, or television was made for me.” — Gorgeous George“Liberace stole my entire act, including the candelabra!” — Gorgeous George“One can explain the American condition as an eternal, televised battle between the Babyface and the Heel. That said, there’s never been a heel like Gorgeous George. John Capouya has done a fine job here, excavating a forgotten life and explaining why it mattered.” — Mark Kriegel, author of Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich; National Columnist for FOXSports.com“Like the man himself, this inside look at a legendary performer challenges the reader to think beyond the wrestling ring. We give it four suplexes out of five.” — Pro Wrestling Illustrated“Former Newsweek editor John Capouya reveals the gory underworld of pre-WWE wrestling and shows how the Gorgeous One inspired James Brown, who loved George’s robes, and Muhammad Ali, whose “I am the prettiest” echoed the wrestler’s own vainglorious boasts.” — Los Angeles Magazine“As a show-biz bio and, for those who subscribe to a loose definition of sport, a sports bio, too, this is great stuff, entertaining and well referenced.” — BooklistIn this thoughtful mix of history and politics, the New York Times bestselling author and editor of National Review—the conservative…
bible founded by William F. Buckley, Jr.—traces Abraham Lincoln's ambitious climb from provincial upstart to political powerhouse and calls for a renewal of the Lincoln ethic of relentless striving.Revered today across the political spectrum, Abraham Lincoln believed in a small but active government in a nation defined by aspiration. Fired by an indomitable ambition from a young age, the man who would be immortalized as the "railsplitter" never wanted to earn his living with an ax. He educated himself in a frontier environment characterized by mind-numbing labor and then turned his back on that world. All his life, he preached a gospel of work and discipline toward the all-important ends of self-improvement and individual advancement. As a Whig and then a Republican, he worked to smash the rural backwardness in which he was raised and the Southern plantation economy that depended on human bondage.Both were unacceptably stultifying of human potential. In short, Lincoln lived the American Dream and succeeded in opening a way to it for others. He saw in the nation's founding documents the unchanging foundation of an endlessly dynamic society. He embraced the market and the amazing transportation and communications revolutions beginning to take hold. He helped give birth to the modern industrial economy that arose before the Civil War and that took off after it.His vision of an upwardly mobile society that rewards and supports individual striving was wondrously realized. Now it is under threat. Economic stagnation and social breakdown are undermining mobility and the American way. To meet these challenges, Rich Lowry draws us back to the lessons of Lincoln. It is imperative, he argues, to preserve a fluid economy and the bourgeois virtues that make it possible for individuals to thrive within it.Here, Right Matters: An American Story
Par Alexander Vindman. 2021
“Compelling . . . . Even those who know the details of Trump’s impeachment will find it chilling to hear…
them related by one of the event’s chief figures. . . . The story of an ordinary man placed in extraordinary circumstances who did the right thing.” — New York Times Book Review“Vindman reminds us of what genuine patriotism can look like. . . . Vindman’s regional knowledge allows him to unpack the reasons that so many Democrats thought Trump’s phone conversation should be the basis of the nation’s third presidential impeachment. In meticulous fashion, he details the stunning number of high-ranking officials—such as Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union—who were in on the game.” — Washington Post“An important book from a true patriot whose oath to the Constitution could not allow him to look away.” — Kirkus Reviews"Compelling." — Christian Science MonitorFirst Families: The Impact of the White House on Their Lives
Par Bonnie Angelo. 2005
First Mothers: The Women Who Shaped the Presidents
Par Bonnie Angelo. 2001
In this highly acclaimed book, Bonnie Angelo celebrates a group of remarkable women who played a pivotal role in developing…
the characters of the modern American presidents — their mothers. Angelo, a veteran reporter and writer for TIME magazine, explores the lives, thoughts and feelings of these women who so influenced the twentieth century’s most powerful leaders. From the aristocratic and formidable Sara Delano Roosevelt to diehard Democrat Martha Truman, from stoic Hannah Milhous Nixon to the hard-living Virginia Clinton Kelly, First Mothers is an in-depth look at the special mother-son relationship that has nurtured America’s presidents and helped them to achieve great things. A veteran correspondent at TIME magazine and the first woman to head a TIME foreign bureau, Bonnie Angelo has reported on the White House and presidential families throughout eight administrations. As a Washington correspondent and bureau chief in London and New York, she has covered newsmakers and major events in all fifty states and around the world. “A fascinating book, gracefully written ... gives the reader fresh insights into how the characters and values of our recent presidents were shaped.” — Washington Post Book WorldOne Matchless Time: A Life of William Faulkner
Par Jay Parini. 2004
William Faulkner was a literary genius, and one of America's most important and influential writers. Drawing on previously unavailable sources…
-- including letters, memoirs, and interviews with Faulkner's daughter and lovers -- Jay Parini has crafted a biography that delves into the mystery of this gifted and troubled writer. His Faulkner is an extremely talented, obsessive artist plagued by alcoholism and a bad marriage who somehow transcends his limitations. Parini weaves the tragedies and triumphs of Faulkner's life in with his novels, serving up a biography that's as engaging as it is insightful.A book as effervescent and alive as the city itself.My First New York features candid accounts of coming to New…
York by more than fifty of the most remarkable people who have called the city home. Here are true stories of long nights out and wild nights in, of first dates and lost loves, of memorable meals and miserable jobs, of slow walks up Broadway and fast subway rides downtown.The contributors—a mix of actors, artists, comedians, entrepreneurs, musicians, politicians, sports stars, writers, and others—reflect an enormous variety of experiences: few have arrived with less than filmmaker Jonas Mekas, a concentration-camp survivor on a UN refugee ship; few have swanned in with more than designer Diane von Furstenberg, a princess. And an extraordinary number managed to land in New York just as something historic was happening—the artist Cindy Sherman arrived in the middle of the Summer of Sam; restaurateur Danny Meyer came on the day John Lennon was shot.Arranged chronologically, these moving and memorable stories combine to form an impressionistic history of New York since the Great Depression. They also provide an accidental encyclopedia of New York hotspots through the ages: from the Cedar Tavern and the Gaslight to Lutèce and Elaine's, from Max's Kansas City and the Mudd Club to the Odeon and Bungalow 8, they're all here, dots on the unbroken line of the Next Next things.Taken together, My First New York is a collection of fifty-six testaments to a larger revelation, one that new arrivals of all stripes and all eras have experienced again and again in New York, regardless of how the city proceeds to treat them: what the songwriter Rufus Wain-wright calls "having cracked the code of living life to the fullest."Twenty Letters to a Friend: A Memoir
Par Svetlana Alliluyeva. 2016
In this riveting, New York Times bestselling memoir—first published by Harper in 1967—Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva, subject of Rosemary Sullivan’s critically…
acclaimed biography, Stalin’s Daughter, describes the surreal experience of growing up in the Kremlin in the shadow of her father, Joseph Stalin. In 1967, she fled the Soviet Union for India, where she approached the U.S. Embassy for asylum. Once there, she showed her CIA handler something remarkable: a manuscript about her life that she’d written in 1963. The Indian Ambassador to the USSR, whom she’d befriended, had smuggled the manuscript out of the Soviet Union the previous year.Structured as a series of letters to a “friend”—Svetlana refused to identify him, but we now know it was her close friend, the physicist Fyodor Volkenstein—this astounding memoir, also in some ways a love letter to Russia, with its ancient heritage and spectacularly varied geography, exposes the dark human heart of the Kremlin. Each letter adds a new strand to her story; some are wistful, while others are desperate exorcisms of the tragedies that plagued her life. Candid, surprising, and compelling, Twenty Letters to a Friend offers one of the most revealing portraits of life inside Stalin’s inner circle, and of the notorious dictator himself.The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie and the 1970s
Par Peter Doggett. 2012
The Man Who Sold the World is a critical study of David Bowie's most inventive and influential decade, from his…
first hit, "Space Oddity," in 1969, to the release of the LP Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) in 1980. Viewing the artist through the lens of his music and his many guises, the acclaimed journalist Peter Doggett offers a detailed analysis—musical, lyrical, conceptual, social—of every song Bowie wrote and recorded during that period, as well as a brilliant exploration of the development of a performer who profoundly affected popular music and the idea of stardom itself.Dissecting close to 250 songs, Doggett traces the major themes that inspired and shaped Bowie's career, from his flirtations with fascist imagery and infatuation with the occult to his pioneering creation of his alter-ego self in the character of Ziggy Stardust. What emerges is an illuminating account of how Bowie escaped his working-class London background to become a global phenomenon. The Man Who Sold the World lays bare the evolution of Bowie's various personas and unrivaled career of innovation as a musician, singer, composer, lyricist, actor, and conceptual artist. It is a fan's ultimate resource—the most rigorous and insightful assessment to date of Bowie's artistic achievement during this crucial period.The Day the American Revolution Began: 19 April 1775
Par William H. Hallahan. 2000
At 4 AM on April 19, 1775, several companies of light infantry from the British Army marched into Lexington, Massachusetts…
and confronted 77 colonists drawn up on the village green. British orders were to disarm the local rebels, but things went terribly wrong. By the end of the day, American colonists had routed the British and chased them back to the safety of Boston. Thus began the Revolution. In The Day the American Revolution Began, William H. Hallahan outlines, hour by hour, how this extraordinary day unfolded. Drawing on diaries, letters, and memoirs, Hallahan tells the unforgettable story of how twenty-four hours decided the fate of two nations. William H. Hallahan is the award-winning author of history books, mystery novels and occult fiction. His works include The Dead of Winter, The Ross Forgery and Misfire. He lives in New Jersey. “A fascinating story worthy of the attention of everyone wanting to learn more about the stirring early days of the American Revolution ... Highly recommended.” — James Kirby Martin, author of Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero