A rare and fascinating portrait of the American presidency from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Kennedy and Me and Five Days in November.Secret Service agent Clint Hill brings history intimately and vividly to life as he reflects on his seventeen years protecting the most powerful office in the nation. Hill walked alongside Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and Gerald R. Ford, seeing them through a long, tumultuous era - the Cold War; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy; the Vietnam War; Watergate; and the resignations of Spiro Agnew and Richard M. Nixon. Some of his stunning, never-before-revealed anecdotes include: -Eisenhower's reaction at Russian Prime Minister Khrushchev's refusal to talk following the U-2 incident -The torture of watching himself in the Zapruder film in a Secret Service training -Johnson's virtual imprisonment in the White House during violent anti-Vietnam protests -His decision to place White House files under protection after a midnight phone call about Watergate -The challenges of protecting Ford after he pardoned Nixon With a unique insider's perspective, Hill sheds new light on the character and personality of these five presidents, revealing their humanity in the face of grave decisions.
Gallery Books
|
9781476794136
|
Print book
The unfit heiress
By Farley, Audrey Clare
For readers of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and The Phantom of Fifth Avenue, a page-turning drama of fortunes, eugenics and womens reproductive rights framed by the sordid court battle between Ann Cooper Hewitt and her socialite mother. At the turn of the twentieth century, American women began to reject Victorian propriety in favor of passion and livelihood outside the home. This alarmed authorities, who feared certain "over-sexed" women could destroy civilization if allowed to reproduce and pass on their defects. Set against this backdrop, The Unfit Heiress chronicles the fight for inheritance, both genetic and monetary, between Ann Cooper Hewitt and her mother Maryon.In 1934, aided by a California eugenics law, the socialite Maryon Cooper Hewitt had her "promiscuous" daughter declared feebleminded and sterilized without her knowledge. She did this to deprive Ann of millions of dollars from her fathers estate, which contained a child-bearing stipulation. When a sensational court case ensued, the American public was captivated. So were eugenicists, who saw an opportunity to restrict reproductive rights in America for decades to come.This riveting story unfolds through the brilliant research of Audrey Clare Farley, who captures the interior lives of these women on the pages and poses questions that remain relevant today: What does it mean to be "unfit" for motherhood? In the battle for reproductive rights, can we forgive the women who side against us? And can we forgive our mothers if they are the ones who inflict the deepest wounds?
Publisher: n/a
|
9781538753354
|
Hardcover
The Time Traveler's Guide to Regency Britain
By Phd, Ian Mortimer
A vivid and immersive history of Georgian England that gives its reader a firsthand experience of life as it was truly lived during the era of Jane Austen, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the Duke of Wellington.This is the age of Jane Austen and the Romantic poets; the paintings of John Constable and the gardens of Humphry Repton; thesartorial elegance ofBeau Brummell and the poetic license of Lord Byron; Britain's military triumphs at Trafalgar and Waterloo; thethreat of revolution and the Peterloomassacre. In the latest volume of his celebrated series ofTime Traveler's Guides,IanMortimer turns to what is arguably the most-loved period in Britishhistory: the Regency, or Georgian England. A time of exuberance, thrills, frills and unchecked bad behavior, it was perhaps the last age of true freedom before the arrival ofthe stifling world ofVictorian morality.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781643138817
|
Hardcover
You Don't Belong Here
By Becker, Elizabeth
Kate Webb, an Australian iconoclast, Catherine Leroy, a French dare devil photographer, and Frances FitzGerald, a blue-blood American intellectual, arrived in Vietnam with starkly different life experiences but one shared purpose: to report on the most consequential story of the decade. At a time when women were considered unfit to be foreign reporters, Frankie, Catherine and Kate paid their own way to war, arrived without jobs, challenged the rules imposed on them by the military, ignored the belittlement and resentment of their male peers and found new ways to explain the war through the people who lived through it. In You Don't Belong Here, Elizabeth Becker uses these women's work and lives to illuminate the Vietnam War from the 1965 American buildup, through the Tet Offensive, the expansion into Cambodia, the American defeat and its aftermath.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781541768208
|
Hardcover
Roots
By Haley, Alex
A new eight-hour event series based on Roots will be simulcast on the History Channel, Lifetime, and A&E over four consecutive nights beginning Memorial Day, May 30, 2016"Early in the spring of 1750, in the village of Juffure, four days upriver from the coast of The Gambia, West Africa, a man-child was born to Omoro and Binta Kinte."So begins Roots, one of the most extraordinary and influential books of our time. Through the story of one family - his family - Alex Haley unforgettably brings to life the monumental two-century drama of Kunta Kinte and the six generations who came after him: slaves and freedmen, farmers and blacksmiths, lumber mill workmen and Pullman porters, lawyers and architects...and one author.A national and international phenomenon at the time of its original publication, Roots continues to enthrall readers with its masterful narrative drive and exceptional emotional power, speaking to us all with an undiminished resonance and relevance."In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage.... Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning no matter what our attainments in life." - Alex HaleyWith an introduction by Michael Eric DysonRootsTheBook.com
Da Capo
|
9780306824852
|
Paperback
Revolutionary
By O'connell, Robert L.
From an acclaimed military historian, a bold reappraisal of young George Washington, an ambitious if reckless soldier destined to become the legendary general who took on the British and, through his leadership, came to define the American character How did George Washington become an American icon? Robert L. O'Connell, the New York Times bestselling author of Fierce Patriot and The Ghosts of Cannae, introduces us to Washington before he was Washington: a young soldier champing at the bit for a commission in the British army, frustrated by his position as a minor Virginia aristocrat. Fueled by ego, Washington led a disastrous expedition in the Seven Years War but then the commander grew up. We witness George Washington take up politics and join Virginia's colonial governing body, the House of Burgesses, where he became ever more attuned to the injustices of life under the British Empire and the paranoid, revolutionary atmosphere of the colonies. When war seemed inevitable, he was the right man - the only man - to lead the nascent American army. We would not be here without George Washington, and O'Connell proves that Washington the general was at least as significant to the founding of the United States as Washington the president. He emerges here as cunning and manipulative, a subtle puppeteer among intimates, and a master cajoler - but all in the cause of rectitude and moderation. Washington became the embodiment of the Revolution itself. He draped himself over the Revolutionary process and tamped down its fires. As O'Connell writes, the war was decisive because Washington managed to stop a cycle of violence with the force of personality and personal restraint. In his trademark conversational, witty style, Robert L. O'Connell has written a compelling reexamination of General Washington and his revolutionary world. He cuts through enigma surrounding Washington to show how the general made all the difference and became a new archetype of revolutionary leader in the process. Revolutionary is a masterful character study and reexamination of America's founding conflict filled with lessons about conspiracy, resistance, and leadership that continue to resonate today.Advance praise for Revolutionary"Given the amount of ink spilled over the years, it is not easy to offer a fresh look at George Washington's leadership role during the war for American independence. But Robert O'Connell has done it in Revolutionary. The title announces the insight, which is the otherwise uncontrollable political and military energies released by the war that Washington was able to orchestrate." - Joseph J. Ellis, author of American Dialogues: The Founders and Us
Random House
|
9780812996999
|
Hardcover
Trump Revealed
By Kranish, Michael
Authoritative, timely, and provocative, this deeply researched biography of Donald Trump provides a complex portrait of the man who - despite broad skepticism - could be the next president of the United States.Who is Donald J. Trump? Despite decades of scrutiny, many aspects of his life are not well known. To discover Trump in full, TheWashington Post assembled a team of award-winning reporters and researchers to delve into every aspect of Trump's improbable life, from his privileged upbringing in Queens to his astonishing 2016 rise to seize the Republican candidacy for president. Coauthored by Washington Post investigative political reporter Michael Kranish and senior editor Marc Fisher, this comprehensive book documents Trump's fascinating family roots, his aggressive efforts to make a name for himself in New York social circles, and his penchant for big bets - on real estate, branded businesses, and, ultimately, on himself. The authors, seasoned journalists who interviewed Trump for this book, scrutinize everything from his youthful alliance with the power broker Roy Cohn to his alleged dealings with organized crime and his controversial projects in New York City, Atlantic City, Florida, Scotland, and Azerbaijan. The authors examine Trump's wealth, the evolution of his political beliefs, and his peculiar identity as a billionaire businessman, celebrity, global brand, television star, and now candidate for the most powerful office in the world. Few individuals have ever roamed so widely through such diverse realms as real estate, sports, entertainment, and national politics. How has Trump's life informed his bold statements on the economy, immigration, race, global trade, terrorism, and women? Drawn from in-depth reporting by TheWashington Post, Trump Revealed is essential reading as the 2016 American presidential election looms.
Scribner
|
9781501155772
|
Print book
The Achilles Trap
By Coll, Steve
From bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll, the definitive story of the decades-long relationship between the United States and Saddam Hussein, and a deeply researched and news-breaking investigation into how human error, cultural miscommunication, and hubris led to one of the costliest geopolitical conflicts of our timeWhen the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, its message was clear: Iraq, under the control of strongman Saddam Hussein, possessed weapons of mass destruction that, if left unchecked, posed grave danger to the world. But when no WMDs were found, the United States and its allies were forced to examine the political and intelligence failures that had led to the invasion and the occupation, and the civil war that followed.
Penguin Audio
|
9780525562269
|
Hardcover
How the Word Is Passed
By Smith, Clint
Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation’s collective history, and ourselves.
It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola, a former plantation–turned–maximum-security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers.
A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country’s most essential stories are hidden in plain view—whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women, and children has been deeply imprinted.
Informed by scholarship and brought to life by the story of people living today, Smith’s debut work of nonfiction is a landmark of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be.
Little, Brown & Company
|
9780316492935
|
Hardcover
Star Wars Year by Year
By Hidalgo, Pablo
The definitive history of "Star Wars" chronicling four decades of the world of "Star Wars"; decade by decade, year-by-year, month-by-month. Everything is covered, from the influences and creation of all six "Star Wars" movies, to the toys, books and video games that have shaped the "Star Wars" dynasty. The month-by-month format is brought to life by images from the movies, TV series, comic books and more.
Five Presidents
By Hill, Clint
A rare and fascinating portrait of the American presidency from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Kennedy and Me and Five Days in November.Secret Service agent Clint Hill brings history intimately and vividly to life as he reflects on his seventeen years protecting the most powerful office in the nation. Hill walked alongside Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and Gerald R. Ford, seeing them through a long, tumultuous era - the Cold War; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy; the Vietnam War; Watergate; and the resignations of Spiro Agnew and Richard M. Nixon. Some of his stunning, never-before-revealed anecdotes include: -Eisenhower's reaction at Russian Prime Minister Khrushchev's refusal to talk following the U-2 incident -The torture of watching himself in the Zapruder film in a Secret Service training -Johnson's virtual imprisonment in the White House during violent anti-Vietnam protests -His decision to place White House files under protection after a midnight phone call about Watergate -The challenges of protecting Ford after he pardoned Nixon With a unique insider's perspective, Hill sheds new light on the character and personality of these five presidents, revealing their humanity in the face of grave decisions.
The unfit heiress
By Farley, Audrey Clare
For readers of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and The Phantom of Fifth Avenue, a page-turning drama of fortunes, eugenics and womens reproductive rights framed by the sordid court battle between Ann Cooper Hewitt and her socialite mother. At the turn of the twentieth century, American women began to reject Victorian propriety in favor of passion and livelihood outside the home. This alarmed authorities, who feared certain "over-sexed" women could destroy civilization if allowed to reproduce and pass on their defects. Set against this backdrop, The Unfit Heiress chronicles the fight for inheritance, both genetic and monetary, between Ann Cooper Hewitt and her mother Maryon.In 1934, aided by a California eugenics law, the socialite Maryon Cooper Hewitt had her "promiscuous" daughter declared feebleminded and sterilized without her knowledge. She did this to deprive Ann of millions of dollars from her fathers estate, which contained a child-bearing stipulation. When a sensational court case ensued, the American public was captivated. So were eugenicists, who saw an opportunity to restrict reproductive rights in America for decades to come.This riveting story unfolds through the brilliant research of Audrey Clare Farley, who captures the interior lives of these women on the pages and poses questions that remain relevant today: What does it mean to be "unfit" for motherhood? In the battle for reproductive rights, can we forgive the women who side against us? And can we forgive our mothers if they are the ones who inflict the deepest wounds?
The Time Traveler's Guide to Regency Britain
By Phd, Ian Mortimer
A vivid and immersive history of Georgian England that gives its reader a firsthand experience of life as it was truly lived during the era of Jane Austen, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the Duke of Wellington.This is the age of Jane Austen and the Romantic poets; the paintings of John Constable and the gardens of Humphry Repton; thesartorial elegance ofBeau Brummell and the poetic license of Lord Byron; Britain's military triumphs at Trafalgar and Waterloo; thethreat of revolution and the Peterloomassacre. In the latest volume of his celebrated series ofTime Traveler's Guides,IanMortimer turns to what is arguably the most-loved period in Britishhistory: the Regency, or Georgian England. A time of exuberance, thrills, frills and unchecked bad behavior, it was perhaps the last age of true freedom before the arrival ofthe stifling world ofVictorian morality.
You Don't Belong Here
By Becker, Elizabeth
Kate Webb, an Australian iconoclast, Catherine Leroy, a French dare devil photographer, and Frances FitzGerald, a blue-blood American intellectual, arrived in Vietnam with starkly different life experiences but one shared purpose: to report on the most consequential story of the decade. At a time when women were considered unfit to be foreign reporters, Frankie, Catherine and Kate paid their own way to war, arrived without jobs, challenged the rules imposed on them by the military, ignored the belittlement and resentment of their male peers and found new ways to explain the war through the people who lived through it. In You Don't Belong Here, Elizabeth Becker uses these women's work and lives to illuminate the Vietnam War from the 1965 American buildup, through the Tet Offensive, the expansion into Cambodia, the American defeat and its aftermath.
Roots
By Haley, Alex
A new eight-hour event series based on Roots will be simulcast on the History Channel, Lifetime, and A&E over four consecutive nights beginning Memorial Day, May 30, 2016"Early in the spring of 1750, in the village of Juffure, four days upriver from the coast of The Gambia, West Africa, a man-child was born to Omoro and Binta Kinte."So begins Roots, one of the most extraordinary and influential books of our time. Through the story of one family - his family - Alex Haley unforgettably brings to life the monumental two-century drama of Kunta Kinte and the six generations who came after him: slaves and freedmen, farmers and blacksmiths, lumber mill workmen and Pullman porters, lawyers and architects...and one author.A national and international phenomenon at the time of its original publication, Roots continues to enthrall readers with its masterful narrative drive and exceptional emotional power, speaking to us all with an undiminished resonance and relevance."In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage.... Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning no matter what our attainments in life." - Alex HaleyWith an introduction by Michael Eric DysonRootsTheBook.com
Revolutionary
By O'connell, Robert L.
From an acclaimed military historian, a bold reappraisal of young George Washington, an ambitious if reckless soldier destined to become the legendary general who took on the British and, through his leadership, came to define the American character How did George Washington become an American icon? Robert L. O'Connell, the New York Times bestselling author of Fierce Patriot and The Ghosts of Cannae, introduces us to Washington before he was Washington: a young soldier champing at the bit for a commission in the British army, frustrated by his position as a minor Virginia aristocrat. Fueled by ego, Washington led a disastrous expedition in the Seven Years War but then the commander grew up. We witness George Washington take up politics and join Virginia's colonial governing body, the House of Burgesses, where he became ever more attuned to the injustices of life under the British Empire and the paranoid, revolutionary atmosphere of the colonies. When war seemed inevitable, he was the right man - the only man - to lead the nascent American army. We would not be here without George Washington, and O'Connell proves that Washington the general was at least as significant to the founding of the United States as Washington the president. He emerges here as cunning and manipulative, a subtle puppeteer among intimates, and a master cajoler - but all in the cause of rectitude and moderation. Washington became the embodiment of the Revolution itself. He draped himself over the Revolutionary process and tamped down its fires. As O'Connell writes, the war was decisive because Washington managed to stop a cycle of violence with the force of personality and personal restraint. In his trademark conversational, witty style, Robert L. O'Connell has written a compelling reexamination of General Washington and his revolutionary world. He cuts through enigma surrounding Washington to show how the general made all the difference and became a new archetype of revolutionary leader in the process. Revolutionary is a masterful character study and reexamination of America's founding conflict filled with lessons about conspiracy, resistance, and leadership that continue to resonate today.Advance praise for Revolutionary"Given the amount of ink spilled over the years, it is not easy to offer a fresh look at George Washington's leadership role during the war for American independence. But Robert O'Connell has done it in Revolutionary. The title announces the insight, which is the otherwise uncontrollable political and military energies released by the war that Washington was able to orchestrate." - Joseph J. Ellis, author of American Dialogues: The Founders and Us
Trump Revealed
By Kranish, Michael
Authoritative, timely, and provocative, this deeply researched biography of Donald Trump provides a complex portrait of the man who - despite broad skepticism - could be the next president of the United States.Who is Donald J. Trump? Despite decades of scrutiny, many aspects of his life are not well known. To discover Trump in full, The Washington Post assembled a team of award-winning reporters and researchers to delve into every aspect of Trump's improbable life, from his privileged upbringing in Queens to his astonishing 2016 rise to seize the Republican candidacy for president. Coauthored by Washington Post investigative political reporter Michael Kranish and senior editor Marc Fisher, this comprehensive book documents Trump's fascinating family roots, his aggressive efforts to make a name for himself in New York social circles, and his penchant for big bets - on real estate, branded businesses, and, ultimately, on himself. The authors, seasoned journalists who interviewed Trump for this book, scrutinize everything from his youthful alliance with the power broker Roy Cohn to his alleged dealings with organized crime and his controversial projects in New York City, Atlantic City, Florida, Scotland, and Azerbaijan. The authors examine Trump's wealth, the evolution of his political beliefs, and his peculiar identity as a billionaire businessman, celebrity, global brand, television star, and now candidate for the most powerful office in the world. Few individuals have ever roamed so widely through such diverse realms as real estate, sports, entertainment, and national politics. How has Trump's life informed his bold statements on the economy, immigration, race, global trade, terrorism, and women? Drawn from in-depth reporting by The Washington Post, Trump Revealed is essential reading as the 2016 American presidential election looms.
The Achilles Trap
By Coll, Steve
From bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll, the definitive story of the decades-long relationship between the United States and Saddam Hussein, and a deeply researched and news-breaking investigation into how human error, cultural miscommunication, and hubris led to one of the costliest geopolitical conflicts of our timeWhen the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, its message was clear: Iraq, under the control of strongman Saddam Hussein, possessed weapons of mass destruction that, if left unchecked, posed grave danger to the world. But when no WMDs were found, the United States and its allies were forced to examine the political and intelligence failures that had led to the invasion and the occupation, and the civil war that followed.
How the Word Is Passed
By Smith, Clint
Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation’s collective history, and ourselves.
It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola, a former plantation–turned–maximum-security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers.
A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country’s most essential stories are hidden in plain view—whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women, and children has been deeply imprinted.
Informed by scholarship and brought to life by the story of people living today, Smith’s debut work of nonfiction is a landmark of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be.
Star Wars Year by Year
By Hidalgo, Pablo
The definitive history of "Star Wars" chronicling four decades of the world of "Star Wars"; decade by decade, year-by-year, month-by-month. Everything is covered, from the influences and creation of all six "Star Wars" movies, to the toys, books and video games that have shaped the "Star Wars" dynasty. The month-by-month format is brought to life by images from the movies, TV series, comic books and more.