The saga of the flags on Iwo Jima has fascinated America for decades. Hammel himself grew up in the company of WWII veterans and has always been intrigued by 'The Photo' of the flag, which became a powerful symbol of patriotism and national pride. But the story of how the flag got there, and even the identity of the soldiers in the photo, has been muddied by history. Eric Hammel here sets the record straight, viewing complex events through the lens of the story of the infantry company in which all the flag raisers served.Joe Rosenthal's "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" photo is one of the best-known images of US war history. The photo captures the moment that the first American flag flew over the core of Imperial Japanese territory on the top of Mount Suribachi. The focus of this book lies on the 28th Marine Regiment's self-contained battle in February 1945 for Mount Suribachi, the 556-foot-high volcano on Iwo Jima. It was here that this one regiment defeated more than 1500 heavily armed Japanese combatants who were determined to hold the highest vantage point on the island.Two Flags over Iwo Jima reveals the all-but-forgotten first-flag raising, and the aftermath of the popularization campaign undertaken by the post-WWII Marine Corps and national press. Hammel attempts to untangle the various battles which led up to the first and second flag raisings, as well as following the men of the 28th Marine Regiment in the events which took place after. Not only is the full story behind one of the most iconic photographs ever taken revealed, but also the real heroism and stories of the men behind this most fervent expression of American patriotism.
Casemate
|
9781612006291
|
Hardcover
Lincoln and Churchill
By Lehrman, Lewis E
Lewis E. Lehrman, renowned historian and National Humanities Medal winner, gives new perspective on great statesmen and their leadership in wars of national survivalAbraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, as commanders in chief, led their nations to victory in wars of national survival - Lincoln in the Civil War, Churchill in World War II. They became revered leaders - statesmen for all time. Yet these two world-famous war leaders have never been seriously compared at book length. Acclaimed historian Lewis Lehrman, in his pathbreaking comparison of both statesmen, finds that Lincoln and Churchill - with very different upbringings and contrasting personalities - led their war efforts, to some extent, in similar ways. As supreme war lords, they were guided not only by principles of honor, duty, freedom, but also by the practical wisdom to know when, where, and how to apply these principles. They made mistakes which Lehrman considers carefully. But the author emphasizes that, despite setbacks, they never gave up. Even their writings and speeches were swords in battle. Gifted literary stylists, both men relied on the written and spoken word to steel their citizens throughout desperate wars of national survival. Although both statesmen unexpectedly left office near the end of their wars - Lincoln by the bullet, Churchill by the ballot - they knew they had gained victory.
Stackpole Books
|
9780811719674
|
Hardcover
The Season
By Richardson, Kristen
A Smithsonian Best History Book of 2019 In this enthralling history of the debutante ritual, Kristen Richardson sheds new light on contemporary ideas about women and marriage.
Kristen Richardson, from a family of debutantes, chose not to debut. But as her curiosity drove her to research this enduring custom, she learned that it, and debutantes, are not as simple as they seem.
The story begins in England six hundred years ago when wealthy fathers needed an efficient way to find appropriate husbands for their daughters. Elizabeth Is exclusive presentations at her court expanded into Londons full season of dances, dinners, and courting, extending eventually to the many corners of the British empire and beyond.
Richardson traces the social seasons of young women on both sides of the Atlantic, from Georgian England to colonial Philadelphia, from the Antebellum South and Whartons New York back to England, where debutante daughters of Gilded Age millionaires sought to marry British aristocrats. She delves into Jazz Age debuts, carnival balls in the American South, and the reimagined ritual of elite African American communities, which offers both social polish and academic scholarships.
The Season shares the captivating stories of these young women, often through their words from diaries, letters, and interviews that Richardson conducted at contemporary balls. The debutantes give voice to an array of complex feelings about being put on display, about the young men they meet, and about what their future in society or as wives might be.
While exploring why the debutante tradition persists -- and why it has spread to Russia, China, and other nations -- Richardson has uncovered its extensive cultural influence on the lives of daughters in Britain and the US and how they have come to marry.
8 pages of illustrations
W. W. Norton & Company
|
9780393608731
|
Hardcover
Funding Feminism
By Johnson, Joan Marie
Joan Marie Johnson examines an understudied dimension of women's history in the United States: how a group of affluent white women from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries advanced the status of all women through acts of philanthropy. This cadre of activists included Phoebe Hearst, the mother of William Randolph Hearst; Grace Dodge, granddaughter of Wall Street "Merchant Prince" William Earle Dodge; and Ava Belmont, who married into the Vanderbilt family fortune. Motivated by their own experiences with sexism, and focusing on women's need for economic independence, these benefactors sought to expand women's access to higher education, promote suffrage, and champion reproductive rights, as well as to provide assistance to working-class women. In a time when women still wielded limited political power, philanthropy was perhaps the most potent tool they had. But even as these wealthy women exercised considerable influence, their activism had significant limits. As Johnson argues, restrictions tied to their giving engendered resentment and jeopardized efforts to establish coalitions across racial and class lines. As the struggle for full economic and political power and self-determination for women continues today, this history reveals how generous women helped shape the movement. And Johnson shows us that tensions over wealth and power that persist in the modern movement have deep historical roots.
The University of North Carolina Press
|
9781469634692
|
Hardcover
The Mound Builder Myth
By Colavito, Jason
Say you found that a few dozen people, operating at the highest levels of society, conspired to create a false ancient history of the American continent to promote a religious, white-supremacist agenda in the service of supposedly patriotic ideals. Would you call it fake news? In nineteenth-century America, this was in fact a powerful truth that shaped Manifest Destiny. The Mound Builder Myth is the first book to chronicle the attempt to recast the Native American burial mounds as the work of a lost white race of "true" native Americans. Thomas Jefferson's pioneering archaeology concluded that the earthen mounds were the work of Native Americans. In the 1894 report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Cyrus Thomas concurred, drawing on two decades of research.
Publisher: n/a
|
9780806164618
|
Paperback(First Edition)
West Like Lightning
By Defelice, Jim
"A GROUNDBREAKING WORK," hails True West: The #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of American Sniper brings the Pony Express to life in this rich and rollicking new history"One can hear horse hooves pounding across the prairie and sense the fear and courage and excitement." - Tom Clavin, author of Dodge CityOn the eve of the Civil War, three American businessmen launched an audacious plan to create a financial empire by transforming communications across the hostile territory between the nation's two coasts. In the process, they created one of the most enduring icons of the American West: the Pony Express. Daring young men with colorful names like "Bronco Charlie" and "Sawed-Off Jim" galloped at speed over a vast and unforgiving landscape, etching an irresistible tale that passed into myth almost instantly. Equally an improbable success and a business disaster, the Pony Express came and went in just eighteen months, but not before uniting and captivating a nation on the brink of being torn apart. Jim DeFelice's brilliantly entertaining West Like Lightning is the first major history of the Pony Express to put its birth, life, and legacy into the full context of the American story.The Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company - or "Pony Express," as it came to be known - was part of a plan by William Russell, Alexander Majors, and William Waddell to create the next American Express, a transportation and financial juggernaut that already dominated commerce back east. All that stood in their way were almost two thousand miles of uninhabited desert, ice-capped mountains, oceanic plains roamed by Indian tribes, whitewater-choked rivers, and harsh, unsettled wilderness.The Pony used a relay system of courageous horseback riders to ferry mail halfway across a continent in just ten days. The challenges the riders faced were enormous, yet the Pony Express succeeded, delivering thousands of letters at record speed. The service instantly became the most direct means of communication between the eastern United States and its far western territories, helping to firmly connect them to the Union.Populated with cast of characters including Abraham Lincoln (news of whose electoral victory the Express delivered to California) , Wild Bill Hickock, Buffalo Bill Cody (who fed the legend of the Express in his Wild West Show) , and Mark Twain (who celebrated the riders in Roughing It) , West Like Lightning masterfully traces the development of the Pony Express and follows it from its start in St. Joseph, Missouri - the edge of the civilized world - west to Sacramento, the capital of California, then booming from the gold rush. Jim DeFelice, who traveled the Pony's route in his research, plumbs the legends, myths, and surprising truth of the service, exploring its lasting relevance today as a symbol of American enterprise, audacity, and daring.
WILLIAM MORROW
|
9780062496768
|
Hardcover
Barack Before Obama
By Katz, David
A personal, intimate, photographic celebration of President Barack Obama in the years prior to his presidency, from friend and former aide David KatzFrom 2004 to 2008, David Katz worked alongside then senate-hopeful Barack Obama as a personal aide, an unofficial documentarian, and a friend. During this time, the President and Katz spent approximately six days per week campaigning across downstate Illinois and developed a close, personal relationship. What began as two friends mounting a longshot senate run culminated with the election of America's first African-American president in 2008.During this time, David was never without his camera, capturing quotidian scenes from the life of a man who would soon become known the world over: a dad playing with his small daughters; a young, unknown politician walking the streets of New York by himself with no one noticing; a devoted husband lovingly making faces at his wife in an elevator mirror; messy offices and midnight burger runs.
Ecco
|
9780063028746
|
Hardcover
Heroes Beneath the Waves
By Smith, Mary Nida
The unbelievable stories of the heroic men who sailed under the sea. In Heroes Beneath the Waves, many brave men who rode submarines to great depths and across the oceans into unknown territory share their experiences, fears, and thoughts. They allow us to travel back in time through their memories. Trained for years to keep silent - for "loose lips sink ships" - many still believe what they know to be classified and refuse to disclose even the minutest of recollections. Others, however, want to leave a legacy of reminiscences for people to learn and live by - to know that freedom is not free. Some stories will never be told. Held within the secret confines of their souls, these deep sea veterans block them out for self-perseverance. Yet, there are others who will never escape their own minds; they relive their underwater experiences over and over with eyes open or shut.
Skyhorse Publishing
|
9781634505123
|
Paperback
Bob Ballard
By Ballard, Robert D.
The legendary explorer of Titanic and Lusitania looks back on his life behind his famous exploits and unveils a major new discovery on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the Titanic find.Best known for finding the wreck of the Titanic, celebrated adventurer Robert Ballard has a lifetime of stories about exploring the ocean depths. From discovering new extremophile life-forms thriving at 750F hydrothermal vents in 1977 to finding famous shipwrecks including the Bismarck and PT 109, Ballard has made history. Now the captain of E/V Nautilus, a state-of-the-art scientific exploration vessel rigged for research in oceanography, geology, biology, and archaeology,leads young scientists as they map the ocean floor, collect artifacts from ancient shipwrecks, and relay live-time adventures from remote-controlled submersibles to reveal amazing sea life.
National Geographic
|
9781426220999
|
Hardcover
The S.S. Officer's Armchair
By Lee, Daniel
Based on documents discovered concealed within a simple chair for seventy years, this gripping investigation into the life of an S.S. officer encapsulates the tragic experience of a generation of Europeans in WWII.One night at a dinner party in Florence, historian Daniel Lee was told about a remarkable discovery. An upholsterer in Amsterdam had found a bundle of swastika-covered documents inside the cushion of an armchair he was repairing. They belonged to Dr. Robert Griesinger, a lawyer from Stuttgart, who joined the S.S. and worked at the Reich's Ministry of Economics and Labour in Occupied Prague during the war. An expert in the history of the Holocaust, Lee was fascinated to know what circumstances and choices had led to the man's dreadful fate -- and how his most precious documents ended up hidden inside a chair, hundreds of miles from Prague and Stuttgart.
Two Flags over Iwo Jima
By Hammel, Eric
The saga of the flags on Iwo Jima has fascinated America for decades. Hammel himself grew up in the company of WWII veterans and has always been intrigued by 'The Photo' of the flag, which became a powerful symbol of patriotism and national pride. But the story of how the flag got there, and even the identity of the soldiers in the photo, has been muddied by history. Eric Hammel here sets the record straight, viewing complex events through the lens of the story of the infantry company in which all the flag raisers served.Joe Rosenthal's "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" photo is one of the best-known images of US war history. The photo captures the moment that the first American flag flew over the core of Imperial Japanese territory on the top of Mount Suribachi. The focus of this book lies on the 28th Marine Regiment's self-contained battle in February 1945 for Mount Suribachi, the 556-foot-high volcano on Iwo Jima. It was here that this one regiment defeated more than 1500 heavily armed Japanese combatants who were determined to hold the highest vantage point on the island.Two Flags over Iwo Jima reveals the all-but-forgotten first-flag raising, and the aftermath of the popularization campaign undertaken by the post-WWII Marine Corps and national press. Hammel attempts to untangle the various battles which led up to the first and second flag raisings, as well as following the men of the 28th Marine Regiment in the events which took place after. Not only is the full story behind one of the most iconic photographs ever taken revealed, but also the real heroism and stories of the men behind this most fervent expression of American patriotism.
Lincoln and Churchill
By Lehrman, Lewis E
Lewis E. Lehrman, renowned historian and National Humanities Medal winner, gives new perspective on great statesmen and their leadership in wars of national survivalAbraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, as commanders in chief, led their nations to victory in wars of national survival - Lincoln in the Civil War, Churchill in World War II. They became revered leaders - statesmen for all time. Yet these two world-famous war leaders have never been seriously compared at book length. Acclaimed historian Lewis Lehrman, in his pathbreaking comparison of both statesmen, finds that Lincoln and Churchill - with very different upbringings and contrasting personalities - led their war efforts, to some extent, in similar ways. As supreme war lords, they were guided not only by principles of honor, duty, freedom, but also by the practical wisdom to know when, where, and how to apply these principles. They made mistakes which Lehrman considers carefully. But the author emphasizes that, despite setbacks, they never gave up. Even their writings and speeches were swords in battle. Gifted literary stylists, both men relied on the written and spoken word to steel their citizens throughout desperate wars of national survival. Although both statesmen unexpectedly left office near the end of their wars - Lincoln by the bullet, Churchill by the ballot - they knew they had gained victory.
The Season
By Richardson, Kristen
A Smithsonian Best History Book of 2019 In this enthralling history of the debutante ritual, Kristen Richardson sheds new light on contemporary ideas about women and marriage.
Kristen Richardson, from a family of debutantes, chose not to debut. But as her curiosity drove her to research this enduring custom, she learned that it, and debutantes, are not as simple as they seem.
The story begins in England six hundred years ago when wealthy fathers needed an efficient way to find appropriate husbands for their daughters. Elizabeth Is exclusive presentations at her court expanded into Londons full season of dances, dinners, and courting, extending eventually to the many corners of the British empire and beyond.
Richardson traces the social seasons of young women on both sides of the Atlantic, from Georgian England to colonial Philadelphia, from the Antebellum South and Whartons New York back to England, where debutante daughters of Gilded Age millionaires sought to marry British aristocrats. She delves into Jazz Age debuts, carnival balls in the American South, and the reimagined ritual of elite African American communities, which offers both social polish and academic scholarships.
The Season shares the captivating stories of these young women, often through their words from diaries, letters, and interviews that Richardson conducted at contemporary balls. The debutantes give voice to an array of complex feelings about being put on display, about the young men they meet, and about what their future in society or as wives might be.
While exploring why the debutante tradition persists -- and why it has spread to Russia, China, and other nations -- Richardson has uncovered its extensive cultural influence on the lives of daughters in Britain and the US and how they have come to marry.
8 pages of illustrationsFunding Feminism
By Johnson, Joan Marie
Joan Marie Johnson examines an understudied dimension of women's history in the United States: how a group of affluent white women from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries advanced the status of all women through acts of philanthropy. This cadre of activists included Phoebe Hearst, the mother of William Randolph Hearst; Grace Dodge, granddaughter of Wall Street "Merchant Prince" William Earle Dodge; and Ava Belmont, who married into the Vanderbilt family fortune. Motivated by their own experiences with sexism, and focusing on women's need for economic independence, these benefactors sought to expand women's access to higher education, promote suffrage, and champion reproductive rights, as well as to provide assistance to working-class women. In a time when women still wielded limited political power, philanthropy was perhaps the most potent tool they had. But even as these wealthy women exercised considerable influence, their activism had significant limits. As Johnson argues, restrictions tied to their giving engendered resentment and jeopardized efforts to establish coalitions across racial and class lines. As the struggle for full economic and political power and self-determination for women continues today, this history reveals how generous women helped shape the movement. And Johnson shows us that tensions over wealth and power that persist in the modern movement have deep historical roots.
The Mound Builder Myth
By Colavito, Jason
Say you found that a few dozen people, operating at the highest levels of society, conspired to create a false ancient history of the American continent to promote a religious, white-supremacist agenda in the service of supposedly patriotic ideals. Would you call it fake news? In nineteenth-century America, this was in fact a powerful truth that shaped Manifest Destiny. The Mound Builder Myth is the first book to chronicle the attempt to recast the Native American burial mounds as the work of a lost white race of "true" native Americans. Thomas Jefferson's pioneering archaeology concluded that the earthen mounds were the work of Native Americans. In the 1894 report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Cyrus Thomas concurred, drawing on two decades of research.
West Like Lightning
By Defelice, Jim
"A GROUNDBREAKING WORK," hails True West: The #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of American Sniper brings the Pony Express to life in this rich and rollicking new history"One can hear horse hooves pounding across the prairie and sense the fear and courage and excitement." - Tom Clavin, author of Dodge CityOn the eve of the Civil War, three American businessmen launched an audacious plan to create a financial empire by transforming communications across the hostile territory between the nation's two coasts. In the process, they created one of the most enduring icons of the American West: the Pony Express. Daring young men with colorful names like "Bronco Charlie" and "Sawed-Off Jim" galloped at speed over a vast and unforgiving landscape, etching an irresistible tale that passed into myth almost instantly. Equally an improbable success and a business disaster, the Pony Express came and went in just eighteen months, but not before uniting and captivating a nation on the brink of being torn apart. Jim DeFelice's brilliantly entertaining West Like Lightning is the first major history of the Pony Express to put its birth, life, and legacy into the full context of the American story.The Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company - or "Pony Express," as it came to be known - was part of a plan by William Russell, Alexander Majors, and William Waddell to create the next American Express, a transportation and financial juggernaut that already dominated commerce back east. All that stood in their way were almost two thousand miles of uninhabited desert, ice-capped mountains, oceanic plains roamed by Indian tribes, whitewater-choked rivers, and harsh, unsettled wilderness.The Pony used a relay system of courageous horseback riders to ferry mail halfway across a continent in just ten days. The challenges the riders faced were enormous, yet the Pony Express succeeded, delivering thousands of letters at record speed. The service instantly became the most direct means of communication between the eastern United States and its far western territories, helping to firmly connect them to the Union.Populated with cast of characters including Abraham Lincoln (news of whose electoral victory the Express delivered to California) , Wild Bill Hickock, Buffalo Bill Cody (who fed the legend of the Express in his Wild West Show) , and Mark Twain (who celebrated the riders in Roughing It) , West Like Lightning masterfully traces the development of the Pony Express and follows it from its start in St. Joseph, Missouri - the edge of the civilized world - west to Sacramento, the capital of California, then booming from the gold rush. Jim DeFelice, who traveled the Pony's route in his research, plumbs the legends, myths, and surprising truth of the service, exploring its lasting relevance today as a symbol of American enterprise, audacity, and daring.
Barack Before Obama
By Katz, David
A personal, intimate, photographic celebration of President Barack Obama in the years prior to his presidency, from friend and former aide David KatzFrom 2004 to 2008, David Katz worked alongside then senate-hopeful Barack Obama as a personal aide, an unofficial documentarian, and a friend. During this time, the President and Katz spent approximately six days per week campaigning across downstate Illinois and developed a close, personal relationship. What began as two friends mounting a longshot senate run culminated with the election of America's first African-American president in 2008.During this time, David was never without his camera, capturing quotidian scenes from the life of a man who would soon become known the world over: a dad playing with his small daughters; a young, unknown politician walking the streets of New York by himself with no one noticing; a devoted husband lovingly making faces at his wife in an elevator mirror; messy offices and midnight burger runs.
Heroes Beneath the Waves
By Smith, Mary Nida
The unbelievable stories of the heroic men who sailed under the sea. In Heroes Beneath the Waves, many brave men who rode submarines to great depths and across the oceans into unknown territory share their experiences, fears, and thoughts. They allow us to travel back in time through their memories. Trained for years to keep silent - for "loose lips sink ships" - many still believe what they know to be classified and refuse to disclose even the minutest of recollections. Others, however, want to leave a legacy of reminiscences for people to learn and live by - to know that freedom is not free. Some stories will never be told. Held within the secret confines of their souls, these deep sea veterans block them out for self-perseverance. Yet, there are others who will never escape their own minds; they relive their underwater experiences over and over with eyes open or shut.
Bob Ballard
By Ballard, Robert D.
The legendary explorer of Titanic and Lusitania looks back on his life behind his famous exploits and unveils a major new discovery on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the Titanic find.Best known for finding the wreck of the Titanic, celebrated adventurer Robert Ballard has a lifetime of stories about exploring the ocean depths. From discovering new extremophile life-forms thriving at 750F hydrothermal vents in 1977 to finding famous shipwrecks including the Bismarck and PT 109, Ballard has made history. Now the captain of E/V Nautilus, a state-of-the-art scientific exploration vessel rigged for research in oceanography, geology, biology, and archaeology,leads young scientists as they map the ocean floor, collect artifacts from ancient shipwrecks, and relay live-time adventures from remote-controlled submersibles to reveal amazing sea life.
The S.S. Officer's Armchair
By Lee, Daniel
Based on documents discovered concealed within a simple chair for seventy years, this gripping investigation into the life of an S.S. officer encapsulates the tragic experience of a generation of Europeans in WWII.One night at a dinner party in Florence, historian Daniel Lee was told about a remarkable discovery. An upholsterer in Amsterdam had found a bundle of swastika-covered documents inside the cushion of an armchair he was repairing. They belonged to Dr. Robert Griesinger, a lawyer from Stuttgart, who joined the S.S. and worked at the Reich's Ministry of Economics and Labour in Occupied Prague during the war. An expert in the history of the Holocaust, Lee was fascinated to know what circumstances and choices had led to the man's dreadful fate -- and how his most precious documents ended up hidden inside a chair, hundreds of miles from Prague and Stuttgart.