Most Americans share the perception that the Supreme Court is objective, but Erwin Chemerinsky, one of the country's leading constitutional lawyers, shows that this is nonsense and always has been. The Court is made up of fallible individuals who base decisions on their own biases. Today, the Roberts Court is promoting a conservative agenda under the guise of following a neutral methodology, but notorious decisions, such as Bush vs. Gore and United Citizens, are hardly recent exceptions. This devastating book details, case by case, how the Court has largely failed throughout American history at its most important tasks and at the most important times. Only someone of Chemerinsky's stature and breadth of knowledge could take on this controversial topic. Powerfully arguing for term limits for justices and a reassessment of the institution as a whole. The Case Against the Supreme Court is a timely and important book that will be widely read and cited for decades to come.

America's Horrible Histories are a rollicking read through the fascinating, the horrible, the absolutely awesome, and the positively wacky world of American history. Thoroughly researched, historically accurate, and hilariously illustrated, each book in this new series mixes facts and fun to tell the story of our glorious (and sometimes gory) past. There's even a wisecracking historical guide: a cockroach!

"Elissa and Rita have forever struggled to find their place in each other's worlds. Rita, an overreaching, makeup-addicted, narcissistic Manhattan singer couldn't be more different from Elissa, her gay, taciturn New England writer daughter. Stuck in an outrageous maelstrom of codependency, mother and daughter cannot seem to extricate themselves from the center of each other's lives. Motherland is their universal story: a kaleidoscopic journey built on the ferocity of mother-daughter love, moral obligation, and the possibility and promise of healing. Having survived a harrowing childhood at the hands of her mother, Elissa is finally settled in Connecticut with her wife of almost twenty years. After much time, therapy, and wine, Elissa is at last in a healthy place, orbiting around her mother, but keeping far enough away from her to preserve the independent, quiet life she has built for herself. All of this is suddenly at risk when Rita, whose days are spent traversing the streets of Manhattan from Bergdorf's to Bloomingdale's and back again, suffers an incapacitating fall that leaves her fully dependent on her only child. Forced to confront her mother's desperate need for beauty, her view of the world through a medley of men, her lost days in the spotlight, addiction, and the money that has mysteriously disappeared in the name of maintaining her youth, Elissa must navigate the waters of their shared history, obligation, the problems of caregiving and age, and the frenetic, co-dependent love that has defined their obsessive relationship. Motherland asks the universal mother-daughter question: How much love is too much love?"--

"Elissa and Rita have forever struggled to find their place in each other's worlds. Rita, an overreaching, makeup-addicted, narcissistic Manhattan singer couldn't be more different from Elissa, her gay, taciturn New England writer daughter. Stuck in an outrageous maelstrom of codependency, mother and daughter cannot seem to extricate themselves from the center of each other's lives. Motherland is their universal story: a kaleidoscopic journey built on the ferocity of mother-daughter love, moral obligation, and the possibility and promise of healing. Having survived a harrowing childhood at the hands of her mother, Elissa is finally settled in Connecticut with her wife of almost twenty years. After much time, therapy, and wine, Elissa is at last in a healthy place, orbiting around her mother, but keeping far enough away from her to preserve the independent, quiet life she has built for herself. All of this is suddenly at risk when Rita, whose days are spent traversing the streets of Manhattan from Bergdorf's to Bloomingdale's and back again, suffers an incapacitating fall that leaves her fully dependent on her only child. Forced to confront her mother's desperate need for beauty, her view of the world through a medley of men, her lost days in the spotlight, addiction, and the money that has mysteriously disappeared in the name of maintaining her youth, Elissa must navigate the waters of their shared history, obligation, the problems of caregiving and age, and the frenetic, co-dependent love that has defined their obsessive relationship. Motherland asks the universal mother-daughter question: How much love is too much love?"--

A dictionary of cultural terms, covering a wide range of disciplines in the humanities, social sciences and exact sciences. Separate chapters are dedicated to American history, politics and geography.

The Iranian nuclear crisis has dominated world politics since the beginning of the century, with the country now facing increasing diplomatic isolation, talk of military strikes against its nuclear facilities and a disastrous Middle East war. What is Iran's nuclear programme all about? What is its genesis? There is little real understanding of Iran's nuclear programme, in particular its history, which is now over fifty years old. This ground-breaking book is unprecedented in its scope. It argues that the history of Iran's nuclear programme and the modern history of the country itself are irretrievably linked, and only by understanding one can we understand the other. From the programme's beginnings under the Shah of Iran, the book details the central role of the US in the birth of nuclear Iran, and, through the relationship between the programme's founder and the Shah of Iran himself, the role that nuclear weapons have played in the programme since the beginning. The author's unique access to 'the father' of Iran's nuclear programme, as well as to key scientific personnel under the early Islamic Republic and to senior Iranian and Western officials at the centre of today's negotiations, sheds new light on the uranium enrichment programme that lies at the heart of global concerns. What emerges is a programme that has, for a variety of reasons, a deep resonance to Iran. This is why it has persisted with it for over half a century in the face of such widespread opposition. Drawing on years of research across the world, David Patrikarakos has produced the most comprehensive examination of Iran's nuclear programme - in all its forms to date.

The newest addition to the acclaimed Story in Photographs series illuminates the history of perhaps the most dynamic political couple on the planet: Bill and Hillary Clinton.ÿThe Clintons takes a fascinating look, through words and more than 220 images, at Bill's and Hillary's early lives, their personal and professional relationship, and their tumultuous but ultimately successful marriage. It examines Bill's difficult childhood and Hillary's evolution from Republican to Democrat; the couple's life in Arkansas when Bill was the nation's youngest governor and Hillary a corporate lawyer; the White House years when Bill balanced the budget and Hillary redefined the role of First Lady, and they weathered an impeachment scandal; and, finally, Hillary's run for president and her achievements as Secretary of State. This lavish volume features an artful combination of iconic images, rare photographs, insightful captions, notable speeches, and poignant quotes, as well as a foreword by Hardball host and John F. Kennedy biographer Chris Matthews.

In the 150 years since its humble birth, baseball has shown an infinite capacity for exhilarating triumphs, heart-breaking losses, amusing blunders, and awe-inspiring feats. Willie Mays's amazing catch of Vic Wertz's monstrous drive in the 1954 World Series, Bobby Thomson's "shot heard round the world," the "Black Sox" Scandal of 1919, DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, even the pitiful 1962 Mets, who finished 60 games (or two full months) out of first place--these are all part of baseball lore and part of its allure. A banquet for baseball fans, Baseball Anecdotes offers a colorful and highly entertaining anecdotal history of America's National Pastime, from the founding of the first professional baseball team, Cincinnati's Red Stockings, by George Wright (the son of a famous English cricketer) and the forming of the first league (in a New York bar on St. Patrick's Day), to the miraculous comeback of the Mets in the Sixth Game of the 1986 World Series. Here you will meet the game's great innovators (from John Montgomery Ward, who invented the pitching mound--and also pitched the second perfect game in history--to Bill Veeck, who introduced the exploding scoreboard in Comiskey Park); the colorful eccentrics (such as King Kelly, who was accompanied off the field by a black monkey and a Japanese valet) and the self-effacing stars (such as Harmon Killebrew, who, when asked what his hobbies were, said, "Well, I like to wash dishes"); the penny-pinching owners (when Babe Ruth requested tickets for the Yankee's 1936 season opener at The House That Ruth Built, the team management said sure, just send in a check); and, most of all, the legendary players: Ruth, Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Lefty Gomez, Sandy Koufax, Casey Stengel, Mickey Mantle, and countless others. Along the way, readers are treated to instant replays of some of baseball's most memorable moments, such as Roger Maris' quest for Ruth's 61-home-run record, Don Larsen's perfect World Series game, and Ted Williams' final major league at bat (he hit a home run). Okrent and Wulf, two highly regarded baseball writers, touch all the bases in this vividly written volume, capturing the whole human drama of baseball in a cascade of stories that offers a nostalgic feast (or, as Yogi Berra would put it, "Deja vu all over again") as well as a fascinating introduction to baseball lore for the newest generation of fans.

The first full-length portrait of the marriage of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln in more than fifty years, The Lincolns is a fascinating new work of American history by Daniel Mark Epstein, an award-winning biographer and poet known for his passionate understanding of the Civil War period. Although the private lives of political couples have in our era become front-page news, the true story of this extraordinary and tragic first family has never been fully told. The Lincolns eclipses earlier accounts with riveting new information that makes husband and wife, president and first lady, come alive in all their proud accomplishments and earthy humanity. Epstein gives a fresh close-up view of the couple’s life in Springfield, Illinois (of their twenty-two years of marriage, all but six were spent there). We witness the troubled courtship of an aristocratic and bewitching Southern belle and a struggling young lawyer who concealed his great ambition with self-deprecating humor; the excitement and confusion of the newlyweds as they begin their marriage in a small room above a tavern, and the early signs of Mary’s instability and Lincoln’s moodiness; their joyful creation of a home on the edge of town as Lincoln builds his law practice and makes his first forays into politics. We discover their consuming ambition as Lincoln achieves celebrity status during his famed debates with Stephen A. Douglas, which lead to Lincoln’s election to the presidency. The Lincolns’ ascent to the White House brought both dazzling power and the slow, secret unraveling of the couple’s unique bond. The Lincolns dramatizes certain well-known events with stunning new immediacy: Mary’s shopping sprees, her defrauding of the public treasury to increase her budget, and her jealousy, which made enemies for her and problems for the president. Yet she was also a brilliant hostess who transformed the shabby White House into a social center crucial to the Union’s success. After the death of their little boy, not a year after Lincoln took office, Mary turned for solace to spirit mediums, but her grief drove her to the edge of madness. In the end, there was little left of the Lincolns’ relationship save their enduring devotion to each other and to their surviving children. Written with enormous sweep and striking imagery, The Lincolns is an unforgettable epic set at the center of a crucial American administration. It is also a heartbreaking story of how time and adversity can change people, and of how power corrupts not only morals but affections. Daniel Mark Epstein’s The Lincolns makes two immortal American figures seem as real and human as the rest of us.

What will the post-Trump return to democracy in America look like, and what are its historical antecedents? National political correspondent and award-winning author D. D. Guttenplan’s The Next Republic is an extraordinarily intense and wide-ranging exploration of how democracy rises and falls in America. The Next Republic introduces us to some of the organizers and politicians who are helping to bring about change in America, like new labor activist JANE McALEVEY; racial justice campaigner (and mayor of Jackson, Mississippi) CHOKWE ANTAR LUMUMBA; environmental activist (and chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party) JANE KLEEB; Chicago’s first openly gay Latino public official, CARLOS RAMIREZ-ROSA; Justice Democrats communications director WALEED SHAHID; communications director for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2020 campaign CORBIN TRENT; and anti-corruption crusader ZEPHYR TEACHOUT. Guttenplan juxtaposes this new social movement with chapters on key transitions in our nation’s history: the Whiskey Rebellion, the Lincoln Republic, and the Roosevelt Republic. Altogether, Guttenplan deeply fathoms the great American problem that is our democracy, and the prospects for its resurgence. Both unyielding and resoundingly hopeful, The New Republic foresees the post-Trump era as one that may not only restore American values, but also see a radical new transformation of them to match the new challenges we face as a nation.

The Faber Classic Screenplay Series presents the very best writing from the history of cinema. Sweet Smell of Success is the smartest, most cynical American film of the 1950s. Written by Ernest Lehman ( North by Northwest , The Sound of Music ) and the celebrated leftist playwright Clifford Odets, it is a vicious dissection of the world of public relations and journalism which conjures up a wprld of creeping hysteria and acid disenchantment. Tony Curtis playing the Scuttling press agent Sidney Falco, and Burt Lancaster as the colimnist J.J. Hunsecker, gave the performances of their careers. With a specially commissioned introduction by Lehman, and an appreciation of the film's director, Alexander Mackendrick, by James Mangold. The Faber Classic Screenplay Series presents the very best writing from the history of cinema. Sweet Smell of Success is the smartest, most cynical American film of the 1950s. Written by Ernest Lehman ( North by Northwest , The Sound of Music ) and the celebrated leftist playwright Clifford Odets, it is a vicious dissection of the world of public relations and journalism which conjures up a wprld of creeping hysteria and acid disenchantment. Tony Curtis playing the Scuttling press agent Sidney Falco, and Burt Lancaster as the colimnist J.J. Hunsecker, gave the performances of their careers. With a specially commissioned introduction by Lehman, and an appreciation of the film's director, Alexander Mackendrick, by James Mangold.

After his landslide reelection in 2004, by the largest margin in New York State history, Senator Chuck Schumer gained national recognition during the mid-term elections as the principal architect of the Democrats' successful effort to win back the Senate. Set to appear in paperback, with a timely new chapter, as we approach the next presidential election, Positively American presents Senator Schumer's 10-point plan for capturing the middle class vote and moving his party back into the majority now and in the future. Addressing such vital issues as taxes, education, health, the energy crisis, and national security, Senator Schumer explains how his party can accomplish this without abandoning their traditional principles and concern for the vulnerable in society.

These are the reflections of a nonagenarian polymath describing the shift from a fifty-year-long career as a world-famous chemist to a subsequent twenty-five-year immersion in "science-in-fiction" and "science-in-theater," a change virtually unique among contemporary scientists. Sharply self-critical yet full of humor, this autobiographical account covers themes such as the future of sex in an age of technological reproduction, the history of the Pill seen through the eyes of one of its inventors, innovative--even unique--pedagogic experiments, the insoluble homelessness of a refugee, suicide, and art collecting.--Adapted from publisher description

These are the reflections of a nonagenarian polymath describing the shift from a fifty-year-long career as a world-famous chemist to a subsequent twenty-five-year immersion in "science-in-fiction" and "science-in-theater," a change virtually unique among contemporary scientists. Sharply self-critical yet full of humor, this autobiographical account covers themes such as the future of sex in an age of technological reproduction, the history of the Pill seen through the eyes of one of its inventors, innovative--even unique--pedagogic experiments, the insoluble homelessness of a refugee, suicide, and art collecting.--Adapted from publisher description

"Soccer is the world's favorite pastime, a passion for billions around the globe. In the United States, however, the sport is a distant also-ran behind football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. Why is America an exception? And why, despite America's leading role in popular culture, does most of the world ignore American sports in return? Offside is the first book to explain these peculiarities, taking us on a thoughtful and engaging tour of America's sports culture and connecting it with other fundamental American exceptionalisms. In so doing, it offers a comparative analysis of sports cultures in the industrial societies of North America and Europe. The authors argue that when sports culture developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, nativism and nationalism were shaping a distinctly American self-image that clashed with the non-American sport of soccer. Baseball and football crowded out the game. Then poor leadership, among other factors, prevented soccer from competing with basketball and hockey as they grew. By the 1920s, the United States was contentedly isolated from what was fast becoming an international obsession. The book compares soccer's American history to that of the major sports that did catch on. It covers recent developments, including the hoopla surrounding the 1994 soccer World Cup in America, the creation of yet another professional soccer league, and American women's global preeminence in the sport. It concludes by considering the impact of soccer's growing popularity as a recreation, and what the future of sports culture in the country might say about U.S. exceptionalism in general." http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/prin021/00061115.html

"A radical case for the repeal of the 2nd Amendment as the only way to control gun violence in America There's an average of one mass shooting per day in the United States. Given the ineffectiveness of the gun control lobby, it's time for a strategy with spine. In Repeal the Second Amendment, Allan J. Lichtman has written the first book that uses history, legal theory and up-to-the-minute data to make a compelling case for the amendment's repeal in order to create a clear road to sensible gun control in the US. Repeal the Second Amendment explores both the true history and current interpretation of the Second Amendment to expose the NRA's blatant historical manipulations and irresponsible fake news releases. Lichtman looks at the history of firearms and gun regulations from colonial times to the present to explain how a historically forgotten sentence in the Constitution has become a flash point of recent politics that benefits only of the gun industry, their lobbyists, and the politicians on their payroll. He probes court decisions and the effective lobbying and public relations strategies of the gun lobby as well as the ineffectiveness of the gun control movement for lessons in doing better. What emerges is a clear and cogent plan - repeal and replace the Second Amendment without taking guns away from anyone who has them now - to make the US a safer place. It's time to Repeal the Second Amendment, and Allan Lichtman is the man to bring this radical plan to America"--

In this spooky book from the nonfiction An Unsolved Mystery from History picture book series, set off on the high seas to a ghost ship left completely abandoned and adrift on the waves. The Mary Celeste was discovered adrift on the open sea by another ship in 1872—with no sign of captain or crew. What happened? Did the crew mutiny? Were they attacked by pirates? Caught in a storm? No one ever found out. Inside this book are the clues that were left behind and the theories of what people think happened aboard that ship. Become a detective, study the clues, and see if you can help solve this chilling mystery from history!

Jeffrey S. Gurock recounts the history of Orthodox Jews in America, from the time of the early arrivals in the 17th century to the present, and examines how Orthodox Jewish men and women coped with the personal, familial, and communal challenges of religious freedom, economic opportunity, and social integration. --from publisher description.