Story of the coming of the American Civil War through the voices and from the viewpoints of thirteen principal players in the drama ... : [Thomas] Jefferson, [Henry] Clay, [Stephen A.] Douglas, [Jefferson] Davis, [Abraham] Lincoln, Nat Turner, William Lloyd Garrison, John C. Calhoun, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Fitzhugh, John Brown, and Mary Boykin Chesnut--Dust jacket.
In the summer of 1844, James K. Polk's political career was in ruins. As the Democratic National Convention approached, Polk had thought himself assured of the vice presidential nomination, but the presidential front-runner, former president Martin Van Buren, had made it clear that he had little interest in him. Van Buren was on a mission to regain the White House, which he had lost in 1840, and he needed a strong running mate. Polk had three strikes against him. First, Polk had been unable to deliver his and Andrew Jackson's home state of Tennessee in 1840, while Polk was governor. Second, he was fresh from having lost the governor's mansion - for a second time. And third, Van Buren - as well as the Whigs' candidate, Henry Clay - had just taken a stand against the annexation of Texas, whereas Polk had come out in its favor. "But as the delegates assembled in Baltimore, Polk perceived a wave of public sentiment in favor of bringing Texas into the Union, and he rode that wave all the way to the nomination and eventually the White House - the first "dark horse" candidate to do so. Congress soon annexed Texas, and Polk continued to look west, becoming the champion of what was known as "manifest destiny." He settled the disputed Oregon boundary with Great Britain, extending U.S. territory to the Pacific Ocean, and waged war on Mexico in hopes of winning California and New Mexico. The considerably smaller American army never lost a battle, and the southwest territories became part of the United States in 1848." "At home, however, Polk suffered a political firestorm of antiwar attacks, particularly from the Whigs. Despite tremendous accomplishments in just four years - from pushing the westward expansion to restoring an independent Treasury to ushering in an era of free trade - "Young Hickory" left office feeling the sting of criticism and suffering from a stressful presidency that had taken a heavy physical toll. He died within three months of departing Washington."--BOOK JACKET.
Argues that questions about the uses of literature are essential to a literary education and that reading not for only training and education, but also for pleasure, can change students' lives for the better.
Denny Hastert is one of the most powerful men in America - and yet chances are you know little or nothing about him. And Denny Hastert likes it that way. Not because he has anything to hide, but because he doesn't care about who gets the credit. He just wants to get the job done for the American people.."In Speaker: Lessons from Forty Years of Coaching and Politics, Denny Hastert breaks his silence to tell a remarkable American story: how he grew up among the fields of Northern Illinois, made a name for himself as a high school and collegiate wrestler, became a high school wrestling and football coach and civics teacher...and eventually found himself teaching, and learning about, civics in the most important forum in the world - the United States Congress as Speaker of the House, the third most powerful man in government."--BOOK JACKET.
For more than ten years, John Steele Gordon has written the widely read The Business of America" column in American Heritage magazine. Marked by a combination of erudition, wit, and eloquence, Gordon's stories have celebrated the high points, and occasional low points, in the history of business in this country, from colonial days to the present. Now, the best of his mini-histories have been gathered in one volume. As much as each stands on its own, together they gain in significance as they go beyond mere business to present an intriguing lens on the broad sweep of American history."--BOOK JACKET.
Michelle Malkin argues that America's border policies welcome criminals, terrorists, and other "undesirables," leading to an abuse of the system and other disastrous effects.
For Yugoslavia, the triumph of independent statehood following World War I became a tragedy seventy years later. "Yugoslavia was born in 1918 as the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, with King Alexander its sovereign. In 1929 the country was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After the Nazi invasion in World War II, Slovenia became part of Greater Germany, Croatia a Fascist state ruled by the Ustashi. Mass killings by the Ustashi followed, in concentration camps, churches, and homes, of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies. Killings of Serbs by Croats - both Slavic peoples and neighbors, speaking the same language but divided by religion and cultural allegiances." "In this highly informative and lucid account, Professor Dragnich discusses the ideals and hopes that the South Slavs brought to Yugoslavia, their tortured attempt to create a workable political system, and the reasons behind the chaos and violence of recent months."--BOOK JACKET.
Herblock: a cartoonist's life tells of the remarkable career that has spanned the era from Roosevelt to Clinton. Herb Block opposed isolationism before World War II; warned of nuclear hazards in the '40s; opposed McCarthyism in the '50s and racism in the '50s and '60s; and zeroed in on Watergate in the '70s and Iran-contra and other Reagan-Bush scandals in the '80s...first-hand account of the life and times of the foremost American political cartoonist of this century. It includes autobiographical anecdotes written with humor, notes on personalities and strong opinions by 'The Washington Post's' widely syndicated cartoon commentator. -- Book Jacket.
