342 results for "Autobiography"

The Notorious Benedict Arnold A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery

Steve Sheinkin
New York Times bestselling author, Newbery Honor recipient, and National Book Award finalist Steve Sheinkin presents both the heroism and the treachery of one of the Revolutionary War's most infamous players in his biography of Benedict Arnold. Winner of the Boston Globe -Horn Book Award for Nonfiction Winner of the YALSA-ALA Award for Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Most people know that Benedict Arnold was America's first, most notorious traitor. Few know that he was also one of its greatest Revolutionary War heroes. Steve Sheinkin's accessible biography, The Notorious Benedict Arnold , introduces young readers to the real Arnold: reckless, heroic, and driven. Packed with first-person accounts, astonishing American Revolution battle scenes, and surprising twists, this is a gripping and true adventure tale from history. “Sheinkin sees Arnold as America's ‘original action hero' and succeeds in writing a brilliant, fast-paced biography that reads like an adventure novel...The author's obvious mastery of his material, lively prose and abundant use of eyewitness accounts make this one of the most exciting biographies young readers will find.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Several complex political, social, and military themes emerge, one of the most prominent being that within the Continental army, often simplistically depicted as single-minded patriots, beat hearts scheming with political machinations that are completely familiar today...Arnold's inexorable clash with Gates and his decision to turn traitor both chill and compel.” — Horn Book Magazine (starred review) Also by Steve Sheinkin: Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America
Square Fish 2013-02-19 368 pages

The impossible presidency: the rise and fall of America's highest office

Suri, Jeremi
Why have recent presidents failed to create the change they promised? Should we blame the individual men, all flawed in their own ways? Or are there fundamental reasons why modern presidents fail to deliver, time and time again? In The Impossible Presidency, historian Jeremi Suri charts the long rise and quick fall of the world's most important job, from the 1790s to the present day. As he shows, early presidents greatly expanded the power of the office beyond the limited role envisioned by the founders. Suri argues that the immense accomplishments of Washington, Jackson, Lincoln and FDR left their successors with outsized and unrealistic expectations. John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan lost control of their agendas as they were buffeted by the onrush of events and threats their predecessors never had to face. Clinton and Obama were propelled to the presidency by their personal stories but hamstrung by prurient, partisan, and prejudiced criticisms of their leadership. Contemporary presidents must react to a truly globalized world and a rapid twenty-four-our news cycle. There is little room left for bold, strategic thinking. Suri traces our disenchantment with recent presidents to the current mismatch between presidential promises and the limitations of the office.
Basic Books 2017-09-12 343 pages

No Surrender The Story of an Ordinary Soldier's Extraordinary Courage in the Face of Evil

Christopher Edmonds,Douglas Century
Part contemporary detective story, part World War II historical narrative, No Surrender is the inspiring true story of Roddie Edmonds, a Knoxville-born enlistee who risked his life during the final days of World War II to save others from murderous Nazis, and the lasting effects his actions had on thousands of lives—then and now. Captured in the Battle of the Bulge, Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds was the highest-ranking American soldier at Stalag IXA, a prisoner of war camp near Ziegenhain, Germany. A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Roddie was a simple, soft-spoken man of deep inner strength and unwavering Christian faith. Though he was driven to the limits of endurance, Roddie refused to succumb to Nazi brutality toward the Jewish-American GIs with whom he was serving. Through his inspiring leadership and bravery Roddie saved the lives of hundreds of U.S. infantrymen in those perilous final days of the Second World War. His fearless actions continue to reverberate today. Growing up, Pastor Chris Edmonds knew little of his father’s actions in the war. To learn the truth, he followed a trail of clues, a journey that spanned seven decades and linked a sprawling cast of heroes, both known and unknown, from every corner of the country. In No Surrender, Pastor Chris, joined by New York Times bestselling co-author Douglas Century, chronicles his odyssey to tell the unforgettable story of his father and his remarkable valor. He also provides startling details (and vantage points) of some of the major events of World War II and United States Army initiatives that helped the Allies win the war, including the Battle of the Bulge, the massacre at Malmedy, and the now-little-known Army Specialized Training Program which prepared brilliant young “soldier-scholars”—or “Quiz Kids”—from across the nation to battle the Nazis. As compelling as the number-one New York Times bestsellers Unbroken, Boys on the Boat, Band of Brothers, and Schindler’s List, illustrated with photographs and historical documents throughout, No Surrender is an epic story of bravery, compassion, and faith, and an inspiring testament to man’s goodness. It is also a clarion call for our narcissistic age—a shining example of the transformative and redemptive power of moral courage.
HarperCollins 2019-10-15 432 pages

The Matter of Black Lives Writings from the New Yorker

Jelani Cobb,David Remnick
A collection of the New Yorker's groundbreaking writing on race in America, including work by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hilton Als, Zadie Smith, and more From the pages of the New Yorker comes a bold and telling portrait of Black life in America, with astonishing early work from Rebecca West's account of a lynching trial and James Baldwin's 'Letter from a Region in My Mind' (which later formed the basis of The Fire Next Time) to more recent writing by Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Zadie Smith, Hilton Als, Jamaica Kincaid, Malcolm Gladwell, Elizabeth Alexander, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Doreen St. Félix, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Kelefa Sanneh, and more. Reaching back across the last century, The Matter of Black Lives includes a wide array of material from the New Yorker archives ranging across essays, reported pieces, profiles, criticism, and historical pieces. This book addresses everything from the arts to civil rights, matters of justice, and politics, and brings us up to the present day with accounts of what Jelani Cobb calls "The American Spring." The result is a startling, nuanced and, ultimately, indelible portrait of America's complex relationship with race.
William Collins 2021 848 pages

Angler The Cheney Vice Presidency

Barton Gellman
The landmark exposé of the most powerful and secretive vice president in American history Barton Gellman shared the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for a keen-edged reckoning with Dick Cheney's domestic agenda in The Washington Post . In Angler , Gellman goes far beyond that series to take on the full scope of Cheney's work and its consequences, including his hidden role in the Bush administration's most fateful choices in war: shifting focus from al Qaeda to Iraq, unleashing the National Security Agency to spy at home, and promoting cruel and inhumane methods of interrogation. Packed with fresh insights and untold stories, Gellman parts the curtains of secrecy to show how the vice president operated and what he wrought. An inspiration for the film Vice, starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Steve Carrell.
National Geographic Books 2009-08-25 512 pages

The long hard road out of hell

Manson, Marilyn,Strauss, Neil
The best-selling autobiography of America’s most controversial celebrity icon, Marilyn Manson (with a bonus chapter not in the hardcover). In his twenty-nine years, rock idol Manson has experienced more than most people have (or would want to) in a lifetime. Now, in his shocking and candid memoir, he takes readers from backstage to gaol cells, from recording studios to emergency rooms, from the pit of despair to the top of the charts, and recounts his metamorphosis from a frightened Christian schoolboy into the most feared and revered music superstar in the country. Illustrated with dozens of exclusive photographs and featuring a behind-the-scenes account of his headline-grabbing Dead to the World tour.
Regan 1999-03-03 269 pages

The Destruction of Hillary Clinton

Bordo, Susan
"If you want to understand not only what happened in 2016, but what's going to happen tomorrow, this book is essential reading. Susan Bordo brings a scholar's rigor and a lioness' heart to this important work." --Paul Begala "Among the best books I've read on the 2016 election . . . the perfect companion to Clinton's What Happened ." --Peter Daou The Destruction of Hillary Clinton is an answer to the question many have been asking: How did an extraordinarily well-qualified, experienced, and admired candidate--whose victory would have been as historic as Barack Obama's--come to be seen as a tool of the establishment, a chronic liar, and a talentless politician? In this masterful narrative of the 2016 campaign year and the events that led up to it, Susan Bordo unpacks the Rights' assault on Clinton and her reputation, the way the left provoked suspicion and indifference among the youth vote, the inescapable presence of James Comey, questions about Russian influence, and the media's malpractice in covering the candidate. Urgent, insightful, and engrossing, The Destruction of Hillary Clinton is an essential guide to understanding the most controversial presidential election in American history.
Melville House 2017 244 pages

Two Miserable Presidents Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War

Steve Sheinkin
New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Honor recipient Steve Sheinkin gives young readers the causes and curses that divided America into Union and Confederate nations in Two Miserable Presidents: The Amazing, Terrible, and Totally True Story of the Civil War , illustrated by Tim Robinson. A Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year A Beacon of Freedom Award Winner Get the feeling something big is about to happen? Welcome to the Civil War—one of the scariest, saddest, and occasionally wackiest stories in American History. 1856 : Northern and Southern settlers attack each other in Kansas. 1858 : Congressmen start sneaking guns and knives into the Senate chamber. 1860 : President James Buchanan is heard wailing, “I am the last president of the United States!” Unraveling a very complicated string of events--the small things, the personal ones, the big issues--Steve Sheinkin takes readers behind the scenes that led to The Civil War. It is a time and a war that threatened America's very existence, revealed in the surprising true stories of the soldiers and statesmen who battled it out. “Chatty and accessible, this book does double duty: it introduces Civil War history for readers who don't know much about it and supplies browsable commentary for those familiar with the big picture...Beginning with a look at the role cotton played in the history, his fast-paced narrative is broken into short, tersely titled vignettes...The horrors of slavery and battlefield slaughter are clear, as are achievements of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, and many more.” — Booklist Also by Steve Sheinkin: Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America
Square Fish 2015-09-22 272 pages

Yours for Justice, Ida B. Wells The Daring Life of a Crusading Journalist

Philip Dray
The award-winning picture book tells the inspirational story of journalist Ida B. Wells and her crusade for justice and civil rights. A must-have for American, Black, and women's history collections. In 1863, when Ida B. Wells was not yet two years old, the Emancipation Proclamation freed her from the bond of slavery. Blessed with a strong will, an eager mind, and a deep belief in America's promise of "freedom and justice for all," young Ida held her family together, defied society's conventions, and used her position as a journalist to speak against injustice. But Ida's greatest challenge arose after one of her friends was lynched. How could one headstrong young woman help free America from the looming "shadow of lawlessness"? Author Philip Dray tells the inspirational story of Ida B. Wells and her lifelong commitment to end injustice. Stephen Alcorn's remarkable illustrations recreate the tensions that threatened to upend a nation while paying tribute to a courageous American hero.
Holiday House 2021-11-02 48 pages

Capone The Man and the Era

Laurence Bergreen
In this brilliant history of Prohibition and its most notorious gangster, acclaimed biographer Laurence Bergreen takes us to the gritty streets of Chicago where Al Capone forged his sinister empire. Bergreen shows the seedy and glamorous sides of the age, the rise of Prohibition, the illicit liquor trade, the battlefield that was Chicago. Delving beyond the Capone mythology. Bergreen finds a paradox: a coldblooded killer, thief, pimp, and racketeer who was also a devoted son and father; a self-styled Robin Hood who rose to the top of organized crime. Capone is a masterful portrait of an extraordinary time and of the one man who reigned supreme over it all, Al Capone.
Simon and Schuster 1996-08-05 701 pages

From the ground up: a journey to reimagine the promise of America

Schultz, Howard,Gordon, Joanne
"From the longtime CEO and chairman of Starbucks, a bold, dramatic work about the new responsibilities that leaders, businesses, and citizens share in American society today--as viewed through the intimate lens of one man's life and work. What do we owe one another? How do we channel our drive, ingenuity, even our pain, into something more meaningful than individual success? And what is our duty in the places where we live, work, and play? These questions are at the heart of the American journey. They are also ones that Howard Schultz has grappled with personally since growing up in the Brooklyn housing projects and while building Starbucks from eleven stores into one of the world's most iconic brands. In From the Ground Up, Schultz looks for answers in two interwoven narratives. One story shows how his conflicted boyhood--including experiences he has never before revealed--motivated Schultz to become the first in his family to graduate from college, then to build the kind of company his father, a working-class laborer, never had a chance to work for: a business that tries to balance profit and human dignity. A parallel story offers a behind-the-scenes look at Schultz's unconventional efforts to challenge old notions about the role of business in society. From health insurance and free college tuition for part-time baristas to controversial initiatives about race and refugees, Schultz and his team tackled societal issues with the same creativity and rigor they applied to changing how the world consumes coffee. Throughout the book, Schultz introduces a cross-section of Americans transforming common struggles into shared successes. In these pages, lost youth find first jobs, aspiring college students overcome the yoke of debt, post-9/11 warriors replace lost limbs with indomitable spirit, former coal miners and opioid addicts pave fresh paths, entrepreneurs jump-start dreams, and better angels emerge from all corners of the country. From the Ground Up is part candid memoir, part uplifting blueprint of mutual responsibility, and part proof that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. At its heart, it's an optimistic, inspiring account of what happens when we stand up, speak out, and come together for purposes bigger than ourselves. Here is a new vision of what can be when we try our best to lead lives through the lens of humanity."--Dust jacket.
Random House 2019 352 pages

Rebel Cinderella From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes

Adam Hochschild
From the best-selling author of King Leopold's Ghost and Spain in Our Hearts comes the astonishing but forgotten story of an immigrant sweatshop worker who married an heir to a great American fortune and became one of the most charismatic radical leaders of her time. Rose Pastor arrived in New York City in 1903, a Jewish refugee from Russia who had worked in cigar factories since the age of eleven. Two years later, she captured headlines across the globe when she married James Graham Phelps Stokes, scion of one of the legendary 400 families of New York high society. Together, this unusual couple joined the burgeoning Socialist Party and, over the next dozen years, moved among the liveliest group of activists and dreamers this country has ever seen. Their friends and houseguests included Emma Goldman, Big Bill Haywood, Eugene V. Debs, John Reed, Margaret Sanger, Jack London, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Rose stirred audiences to tears and led strikes of restaurant waiters and garment workers. She campaigned alongside the country's earliest feminists to publicly defy laws against distributing information about birth control, earning her notoriety as "one of the dangerous influences of the country" from President Woodrow Wilson. But in a way no one foresaw, her too-short life would end in the same abject poverty with which it began. By a master of narrative nonfiction, Rebel Cinderella unearths the rich, overlooked life of a social justice campaigner who was truly ahead of her time.
HarperCollins Publishers 2021-03-02 320 pages

Under a rock

Stein, Chris
ONE OF WATERSTONES BEST ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS OF 2024 'Sometimes fate deals up a wild card. There's a lot to be said for one of these wild cards and from what I've learned over the fifty or so years of our friendship, Chris is a card from the unexpected deck' - from the foreword by Debbie Harry Musician, photographer, storyteller, and longtime partner to Debbie Harry, Chris Stein defined the sound of an era, catapulting the icon band Blondie to #1 and selling over 20 million copies of Parallel Lines. In this no-holds-barred autobiography, Stein reveals himself-this time not in songwriting or photography, which he's previously been known for, but in words. From a Brooklyn boyhood, a move across the river to the gritty and fecund East Village in the late 1970s allowed Stein to tap the explosive creativity that defined the era in the city. It was a time when David Bowie and the Ramones were also making music, when Andy Warhol was still alive and promoting Jean-Michel Basquiat's work, when cool was defined not by where you came from but by what you could contribute to culture. UNDER A ROCK is a plunge into that vanished time period, and into the moments that turned the fresh sound and new look of punk and new wave into a giant artistic and commercial sensation. Stein takes us there in this revelatory, propulsive, distinctive memoir.
Corsair 2024-06-06 304 pages

Moving pictures

MacGraw, Ali
In this candid, courageous autobiography, MacGraw discusses her artistic, emotionally cold parents, her schooling at Wellesley College and her stint as Diana Vreeland's "girl" at Harper's Bazaar. The focus, however, is on her struggle with addiction--alcoholism and "male dependency"--that grew as her acting career and personal life sputtered. A sudden star in her first major role 'Goodbye, Columbus' in 1969, and the following year with the even more popular 'Love Story' she felt immediately that she was "in way over my head," mainly because of her fear of the camera ("I was scarcely trained at all as an actress"). Alcohol compounded problems and she continued to run after unavailable or hard-drinking or cold men. (Third husband Steve McQueen forbade MacGraw from working yet convinced her to sign a prenuptial agreement that left her penniless after their divorce). In 1986, the actress spent a month at the Betty Ford clinic. Although she receives few film or TV job offers today, MacGraw is sober and "growing up at last."
Bantam Books 1991 228 pages

Starstruck: my unlikely road to Hollywood

Maltin, Leonard
Hollywood historian and film reviewer Leonard Maltin invites readers to pull up a chair and listen as he tells stories, many of them hilarious, of 50+ years interacting with legendary movie stars, writers, directors, producers, and cartoonists. Maltin grew up in the first decade of television, immersing himself in TV programs and accessing 1930s and '40s movies hitting the small screen. His fan letters to admired performers led to unexpected correspondences, then to interviews and publication of his own fan magazine. Maltin's career as a free-lance writer and New York Times-bestselling author as well as his 30-year run on Entertainment Tonight, gave him access to Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Sean Connery, Shirley Temple, and Jimmy Stewart among hundreds of other Golden Age stars, his interviews cutting through the Hollywood veneer and revealing the human behind each legend. Starstruck also offers a fascinating glimpse inside the Disney empire, and Maltin's tenure teaching USC's popular film course reveals insights into moviemaking along with access to past, current, and future stars of film, such as George Lucas, Kevin Feige, Quentin Tarantino, and Guillermo del Toro.
GoodKnight Books, an imprint of Paladin Communications 2021 307 pages

Breach of Faith

Theodore White
Beginning with his last days in the White House, Theodore H. White provides readers with the details of Richard Nixon’s presidency and how he used the politics of manipulation to fool not only the American people but those working closest to him. Richard Nixon fooled and threatened the government and people of the United States in ways no one immediately understood during the Nixon crisis of 1973 and 1974. Now, with the drama and confusion of a president’s betrayal stripped away, it is apparent that the problem was that Nixon placed himself above the law, and the nation had to decide whether or not that would be allowed. Beginning at the time that those closest to him realized they had been deceived by Nixon and made the decision that they would have to force him, Theodore H. White starts the story of the fall of the former President during his final days in the White House. Then, going back twenty years to the start of Nixon’s manipulations, White shares with readers how the Nixon team came to see politics as a war, with the White House acting as a command post where the ordinary rules didn’t apply and power could be harnessed without restraint.
Scribner 2016-01-16 392 pages

MOST DANGEROUS : DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE VIETNAM WAR

Sheinkin, Steve
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War is New York Times bestselling author Steve Sheinkin's award-winning nonfiction account of an ordinary man who wielded the most dangerous weapon: the truth. “Easily the best study of the Vietnam War available for teen readers.”— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award winner A National Book Award finalist A Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon book A Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature finalist Selected for the Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People List In 1964, Daniel Ellsberg was a U.S. government analyst, helping to plan a war in Vietnam. It was the height of the Cold War, and the government would do anything to stop the spread of communism—with or without the consent of the American people. As the fighting in Vietnam escalated, Ellsberg turned against the war. He had access a top-secret government report known as the Pentagon Papers, and he knew it could blow the lid off of years of government lies. But did he have the right to expose decades of presidential secrets? And what would happen to him if he did it? A lively book that interrogates the meanings of patriotism, freedom, and integrity, the National Book Award finalist Most Dangerous further establishes Steve Sheinkin—author of Newbery Honor book Bomb as a leader in children's nonfiction. This thoroughly-researched and documented book can be worked into multiple aspects of the common core curriculum. “Gripping.”— New York Times Book Review “A master of fast-paced histories...[this] is Sheinkin’s most compelling one yet. ”— Washington Post Also by Steve Sheinkin: Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America
FABER AND FABER 2018 400 pages