14302 results for "History"

Abraham Lincoln, pro-wrestler

Sheinkin, Steve
From nonfiction powerhouse Steve Sheinkin comes a hilarious new fictional chapter book series where history and hijinks collide, featuring Abraham Lincoln as a pro-wrestler. WARNING: DO NOT BELIEVE THE STORY YOU’RE ABOUT TO READ. Well, you can believe some of it. There is some real history. But also hijinks. Time travel. And famous figures setting off on adventures that definitely never happened—till now. Time is getting twisted, and it’s up to two kids to straighten things out. When Abraham Lincoln overhears a classroom of kids say “history is boring,” he decides to teach them a lesson. Lincoln escapes from 1860—to pursue his dream of becoming a professional wrestler! Now siblings Doc and Abby have to convince Lincoln to go back to Springfield, Illinois, and accept the presidency . . . before everything spins out of control! Featuring illustrations by Neil Swaab, Abraham Lincoln, Pro Wrestler is the first chapter book in the Time Twisters series from acclaimed author Steve Sheinkin. Also check out Abigail Adams, Pirate of the Caribbean ! This title has Common Core connections.
Square Fish 2019-06-25 176 pages

Reign of terror: how the 9/11 era destabilized America and produced Trump

Ackerman, Spencer
"An examination of the profound impact that the War on Terror had in pushing American politics and society in an authoritarian direction for an entire generation, at home and abroad, the United States has waged an endless conflict known as the War on Terror. In addition to multiple ground wars, it has pioneered drone strikes and industrial-scale digital surveillance, as well as detaining people indefinitely and torturing them. These conflicts have yielded neither peace nor victory, but they have transformed America. What began as the persecution of Muslims and immigrants has become a normalized, paranoid feature of American politics and security, expanding the possibilities for applying similar or worse measures against other targets at home. A politically divided country turned the War on Terror into a cultural and then tribal struggle, first on the ideological fringes and ultimately expanding to conquer the Republican Party, often with the timid acquiescence of the Democratic Party. Today's nativist resurgence walked through a door opened by the 9/11 era. Reign of Terror will show how these policies created a foundation for American authoritarianism and, though it is not a book about Donald Trump, it will provide a critical explanation of his rise to power and the sources of his political strength. It will show that Barack Obama squandered an opportunity to dismantle the War on Terror after killing Osama bin Laden. That mistake turns out to have been portentous. By the end of his tenure, the war metastasized into a broader and bitter culture struggle in search of a demagogue like Trump to lead it. A union of journalism and intellectual history, Reign of Terror will be a pathbreaking and definitive book with the power to transform how America understands its national security policies and their catastrophic impact on its civic life"--
Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC 2021 428 pages

East West street: on the origins of genocide and crimes against humanity

Sands, Philippe
When human rights lawyer Philippe Sands received an invitation to deliver a lecture in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, he began to uncover a series of extraordinary historical coincidences. It set him on a quest that would take him halfway around the world in an exploration of the origins of international law and the pursuit of his own secret family history, beginning and ending with the last day of the Nuremberg Trials. Part historical detective story, part family history, part legal thriller, Philippe Sands guides us between past and present as several interconnected stories unfold in parallel. The first is the hidden story of two Nuremberg prosecutors who discover, only at the end of the trials, that the man they are prosecuting may be responsible for the murder of their entire families in Nazi-occupied Poland, in and around Lviv. The two prosecutors, Hersch Lauterpacht and Rafael Lemkin, were remarkable men, whose efforts led to the inclusion of the terms 'crimes against humanity' and 'genocide' in the judgement at Nuremberg. The defendant, Hans Frank, Hitler's personal lawyer and Governor-General of Nazi-occupied Poland, turns out to be an equally compelling character. The lives of these three men lead Sands to a more personal story, as he traces the events that overwhelmed his mother's family in Lviv and Vienna during the Second World War. At the heart of this book is an equally personal quest to understand the roots of international law and the concepts that have dominated Sands' work as a lawyer. Eventually, he finds unexpected answers to his questions about his family, in this powerful meditation on the way memory, crime and guilt leave scars across generations, and the haunting gaps left by the secrets of others.
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2016 464 pages

East West Street: on the origins of genocide and crimes against humanity

Sands, Philippe
When human rights lawyer Philippe Sands received an invitation to deliver a lecture in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, he began to uncover a series of extraordinary historical coincidences. It set him on a quest that would take him halfway around the world in an exploration of the origins of international law and the pursuit of his own secret family history, beginning and ending with the last day of the Nuremberg Trials. Part historical detective story, part family history, part legal thriller, Philippe Sands guides us between past and present as several interconnected stories unfold in parallel. The first is the hidden story of two Nuremberg prosecutors who discover, only at the end of the trials, that the man they are prosecuting may be responsible for the murder of their entire families in Nazi-occupied Poland, in and around Lviv. The two prosecutors, Hersch Lauterpacht and Rafael Lemkin, were remarkable men, whose efforts led to the inclusion of the terms 'crimes against humanity' and 'genocide' in the judgement at Nuremberg. The defendant, Hans Frank, Hitler's personal lawyer and Governor-General of Nazi-occupied Poland, turns out to be an equally compelling character. The lives of these three men lead Sands to a more personal story, as he traces the events that overwhelmed his mother's family in Lviv and Vienna during the Second World War. At the heart of this book is an equally personal quest to understand the roots of international law and the concepts that have dominated Sands' work as a lawyer. Eventually, he finds unexpected answers to his questions about his family, in this powerful meditation on the way memory, crime and guilt leave scars across generations, and the haunting gaps left by the secrets of others.
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2016 464 pages

Who Rules the World?

Noam Chomsky
A New York Times Bestseller With a New Afterword The world’s leading intellectual offers a probing examination of the nature of U.S. policies post-9/11, and the perils of valuing power above democracy and human rights. In an incisive, thorough analysis of the current international situation, Noam Chomsky examines the way that the United States, despite the rise of Europe and Asia, still largely sets the terms of global discourse. Drawing on a wide range of examples, from the sordid history of U.S. involvement with Cuba to the sanctions on Iran, he details how America’s rhetoric of freedom and human rights so often diverges from its actions. He delves deep into the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel-Palestine, providing unexpected and nuanced insights into the workings of imperial power on our increasingly chaotic planet. And, in a new afterword, he addresses the election of Donald Trump and what it shows about American society. Fierce, unsparing, and meticulously documented, Who Rules the World? delivers the indispensable understanding of the central issues of our time that we have come to expect from Chomsky. An American Empire Project
Picador 2017-05-02 336 pages

The Beatles Come to America

Martin Goldsmith
When the Beatles touched down in New York on February 7, 1964 for their first visit to America, they brought with them a sound that hadn't been heard before. By the time they returned to England two weeks later, major changes in music, fashion, the record industry, and the image of an entire generation had been set into motion. Coming less than three months after the assassination of President Kennedy, the Beatles' visit helped rouse the country out of mourning. A breathless and condescending media concentrated on the band's hairstyles and their adoring fans, but their enduring importance lay in their music, their wit, and style, a disconnect that signaled the beginning of the generation gap. In this intriguing cultural history, Martin Goldsmith examines how and why the Beatles struck such a lasting chord.
John Wiley & Sons Canada, Limited 2004-01-26 210 pages

Havana A Subtropical Delirium

Mark Kurlansky
A city of tropical heat, sweat, ramshackle beauty, and its very own cadence--a city that always surprises--Havana is brought to pulsing life by New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky. Award-winning author Mark Kurlansky presents an insider's view of Havana: the elegant, tattered city he has come to know over more than thirty years. Part cultural history, part travelogue, with recipes, historic engravings, photographs, and Kurlansky's own pen-and-ink drawings throughout, Havana celebrates the city's singular music, literature, baseball, and food; its five centuries of outstanding, neglected architecture; and its extraordinary blend of cultures. Like all great cities, Havana has a rich history that informs the vibrant place it is today--from the native Taino to Columbus's landing, from Cuba's status as a U.S. protectorate to Batista's dictatorship and Castro's revolution, from Soviet presence to the welcoming of capitalist tourism. Havana is a place of extremes: a beautifully restored colonial city whose cobblestone streets pass through areas that have not been painted or repaired since long before the revolution. Kurlansky shows Havana through the eyes of Cuban writers, such as Alejo Carpentier and Jose Marti, and foreigners, including Graham Greene and Hemingway. He introduces us to Cuban baseball and its highly opinionated fans; the city's music scene, alive with the rhythm of Son; its culinary legacy. Through Mark Kurlansky's multilayered and electrifying portrait, the long-elusive city of Havana comes stirringly to life. "
Thorndike Press 2017 293 pages

Radical enlightenment: philosophy and the making of modernity, 1650-1750

Israel, Jonathan
Arguably the most decisive shift in the history of ideas in modern times was the complete demolition during the late 17th and 18th centuries — in the wake of the Scientific Revolution — of traditional structures of authority, scientific thought, and belief by the new philosophy and the philosophes, culminating in Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau. In this revolutionary process, which effectively overthrew all justification for monarchy, aristocracy, and ecclesiastical power, as well as man's dominance over woman, theological dominance of education, and slavery, substituting the modern principles of equality, democracy, and universality, the Radical Enlightenment played a crucially important part. Despite the present day interest in the revolutions of the late 18th century, the origins and rise of the Radical Enlightenment have been little studied doubtless largely because of its very wide international sweep and the obvious difficulty of fitting it into the restrictive conventions of ‘national history’ which until recently tended to dominate all historiography. The greatest obstacle to the Radical Enlightenment finding its proper place in modern historical writing is simply that it was not French, British, German, Italian, Jewish, or Dutch, but all of these at the same time. In this novel interpretation of the Radical Enlightenment down to La Mettie and Diderot, two of its key exponents, particular stress is placed on the pivotal role of Spinoza and the widespread underground international philosophical movement known before 1750 as Spinozism.
Oxford University Press 2001-03-29 810 pages

The Legends Club Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Valvano, and an Epic College Basketball Rivalry

John Feinstein
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The riveting inside story of college basketball's fiercest rivalry among three coaching legends—University of North Carolina's Dean Smith, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, and North Carolina State's Jim Valvano—by the king of college basketball writers. "One of Feinstein’s best."— Chicago Tribune On March 18, 1980, the Duke basketball program announced the hiring of Mike Krzyzewski, the man who would restore glory to the team. The only problem: no one knew who Krzyzewski was. Nine days later, Jim Valvano was hired by North Carolina State to be their new head coach. The hiring didn't raise as many eyebrows, but the two new coaches had a similar goal: to unseat North Carolina's Dean Smith as the king of college basketball. And just like that, the most sensational competitive decade in history was about to unfold. In the skillful hands of John Feinstein, The Legends Club captures an era in American sport and culture, documenting the inside view of a decade of absolutely incredible competition. Feinstein pulls back the curtain on the recruiting wars, the intensely personal competition that wasn't always friendly, the enormous pressure and national stakes, and the battle for the very soul of college basketball.
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group 2017-02-21 512 pages

The Assault on Truth

Jeffrey Masson
A fearless investigation into Freud’s greatest reversal—and the century of silence that followed— The Assault on Truth exposes how the father of psychoanalysis buried his own discovery about childhood trauma, reshaping the course of psychology forever. In 1896, Sigmund Freud presented his revolutionary “seduction theory,” arguing that childhood sexual abuse directly caused adult mental illness. Just nine years later, he completely reversed this stance, insisting these traumatic memories were mere fantasies. Why did Freud retract his original theory? And why has the psychoanalytic community gone to such lengths to conceal this critical reversal? In the landmark book, The Assault on Truth , Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson draws on unique access to formerly sealed and hidden papers to uncover the truth behind this pivotal moment in psychoanalytic history. Masson dares to explore the reality that neither Freud nor his followers could bear to face. This investigation reveals the enduring impact of Freud's decision on the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. Bracing in its honesty and gripping in its revelations, The Assault on Truth is the book that prompted Masson’s dramatic break with the psychoanalytic establishment and launched his brilliant career as an independent thinker and writer.
Histria Books 2026-06-16 380 pages

An army of phantoms: American movies and the making of the Cold War

Hoberman, J.
An Army of Phantoms- a major new work of film history and cultural criticism from J. Hoberman, one of the foremost film critics writing todayùaddresses the dynamic synergy of American politics and American popular culture during the Cold War's first decade. Heralded by a mushroom cloud over Hiroshima, the years between 1946 and 1956 brought an explosion of affluence and anxiety. Along with U.S. dominance over Europe and a new war in Asia came the birth of the civil rights movement and the first stirrings of a new youth culture. The period saw the movie industry purged of its political left at the same time as the ideological action hero John Wayne reached the peak of his career. Analyzing Hollywood's cavalry Westerns, apocalyptic sci-fi flicks, and biblical spectaculars, along with media events, congressional hearings and political campaigns, and drawing on FBI files and studio records, Hoberman has orchestrated a colorful, sometimes surreal pageant wherein Cecil B. DeMille rubs shoulders with Douglas MacArthur, atomic tests are shown on live TV, God talks on the radio, and Joe McCarthy is bracketed with Marilyn Monroe. Essential reading for film and history buffs, An Army of Phantoms expands on the analysis of the 1960's found in Hoberman's critically acclaimed The Dream Life and offers a lively and astute history of film that is also, to paraphrase Jean-Luc Godard, about the film of history. --Book Jacket
The New Press 2011 383 pages

Origins of the Kabbalah

Scholem, Gershom
One of the most important scholars of our century, Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) opened up a once esoteric world of Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalah, to concerned students of religion. The Kabbalah is a rich tradition of repeated attempts to achieve and portray direct experiences of God: its twelfth-and thirteenth-century beginnings in southern France and Spain are probed in Origins of the Kabbalah, a work crucial in Scholem's oeuvre. The book is a contribution not only to the history of Jewish medieval mysticism but also to the study of medieval mysticism in general and will be of interest to historians and psychologists, as well as to students of the history of religion. -- Back cover.
Jewish Publication Society, Princeton University Press 2018 487 pages

Garry Kasparov on my great predecessors

Kasparov, G. K.
This book, the fifth in Garry Kasparov's magnificent history of the World Chess Championship, catalogues the "post-Fischer" period in the 1970s and early 1980s. This period was dominated by the Anatoly Karpov (world champion from 1975 to 1985) and his three-time challenger, Viktor Korchnoi. Anatoly Karpov gained the right to challenge Bobby Fischer for the world title by winning through the Candidates series in 1974. As is well known, Fischer refused to defend the title and in 1975 Karpov became champion "by default." Although he did not have to contest a Championship match to gain the title, Karpov proved that he was a worthy champion by winning virtually every major tournament over the next decade. In this book, a must for all serious chess players Kasparov analyzes deeply Karpov's greatest games and assesses the legacy of this great Russian genius. Also under the microscope are the games of Viktor Korchnoi who was at his peak during this period and twice challenged Karpov for his world title.
Gloucester Publishers 2003 480 pages

Age of ambition: chasing fortune, truth, and faith in the new China

Osnos, Evan
"A vibrant, colorful, and revelatory inner history of China during a moment of profound transformation From abroad, we often see China as a caricature: a nation of pragmatic plutocrats and ruthlessly dedicated students destined to rule the global economy--or an addled Goliath, riddled with corruption and on the edge of stagnation. What we don't see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes. As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party's struggle to retain control. He asks probing questions: Why does a government with more success lifting people from poverty than any civilization in history choose to put strict restraints on freedom of expression? Why do millions of young Chinese professionals--fluent in English and devoted to Western pop culture--consider themselves "angry youth," dedicated to resisting the West's influence? How are Chinese from all strata finding meaning after two decades of the relentless pursuit of wealth? Writing with great narrative verve and a keen sense of irony, Osnos follows the moving stories of everyday people and reveals life in the new China to be a battleground between aspiration and authoritarianism, in which only one can prevail"--
Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2015-05-05 403 pages

The Story of American Freedom

Eric Foner
Freedom: a promised land, a battle ground, America's cultural bond and fault line. In this history, Eric Foner describes the concept of freedom, not as a fixed set of inherited ideas, but as something that has evolved through time, being altered - or even entirely reinvented - by the various groups of people who have claimed a right to it. Foner shows how freedom's meaning has been shaped not only in political debates and treatises, but on plantations and picket lines, in parlours and bedrooms. Its cast of characters ranges from Thomas Jefferson, through Margaret Sanger, to Franklin D. Roosevelt; from former slaves seeking to breathe real meaning into emancipation, to the union organizers and women's rights advocates of our time.
University of Cape Town 1994 22 pages

Democracy in One Book Or Less How It Works, Why It Doesn't, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think

David Litt
Bill Bryson meets Thomas Frank in this deeply insightful, unexpectedly hilarious story of how politicians hijacked American democracy and how we can take it back The democracy you live in today is different--completely different--from the democracy you were born into. You probably don't realize just how radically your republic has been altered during your lifetime. Yet more than any policy issue, political trend, or even Donald Trump himself, our redesigned system of government is responsible for the peril America faces today. What explains the gap between what We, the People want and what our elected leaders do? How can we fix our politics before it's too late? And how can we truly understand the state of our democracy without wanting to crawl under a rock? That's what former Obama speechwriter David Litt set out to answer. Poking into forgotten corners of history, translating political science into plain English, and traveling the country to meet experts and activists, Litt explains how the world's greatest experiment in democracy went awry. (He also tries to crash a party at Mitch McConnell's former frat house. It goes poorly.) The result of Litt's journey is something you might not have thought possible: a page-turner about the political process. You'll meet the Supreme Court justice charged with murder, learn how James Madison's college roommate broke the Senate, encounter a citrus thief who embodies what's wrong with our elections, and join Belle the bill as she tries to become a law (a quest far more harrowing than the one in Schoolhouse Rock!). Yet despite his clear-eyed assessment of the dangers we face, Litt remains audaciously optimistic. He offers a to-do list of bold yet achievable changes--a blueprint for restoring the balance of power in America before it's too late.
HarperCollins Publishers 2020-06-16 592 pages