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A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America
by Stacy SchiffStacy Schiff draws from new and little-known sources to illuminate the least-explored part of Franklin's life. From these pages emerge a particularly human and yet fiercely determined Founding Father, as well as a profound sense of how fragile, improvisational, and international was our country's bid for independence.
A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America
by Stacy SchiffSoon to be a streaming series ● In this dazzling work of history, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author follows Benjamin Franklin to France for the crowning achievement of his careerIn December of 1776 a small boat delivered an old man to France." So begins an enthralling narrative account of how Benjamin Franklin--seventy years old, without any diplomatic training, and possessed of the most rudimentary French--convinced France, an absolute monarchy, to underwrite America's experiment in democracy. When Franklin stepped onto French soil, he well understood he was embarking on the greatest gamble of his career. By virtue of fame, charisma, and ingenuity, Franklin outmaneuvered British spies, French informers, and hostile colleagues; engineered the Franco-American alliance of 1778; and helped to negotiate the peace of 1783. The eight-year French mission stands not only as Franklin's most vital service to his country but as the most revealing of the man.In A Great Improvisation, Stacy Schiff draws from new and little-known sources to illuminate the least-explored part of Franklin's life. Here is an unfamiliar, unforgettable chapter of the Revolution, a rousing tale of American infighting, and the treacherous backroom dealings at Versailles that would propel George Washington from near decimation at Valley Forge to victory at Yorktown. From these pages emerge a particularly human and yet fiercely determined Founding Father, as well as a profound sense of how fragile, improvisational, and international was our country's bid for independence.
A Great Restlessness: The Life and Politics of Dorise Nielsen
by Faith JohnstonDorise Nielsen was a pioneering feminist, a radical politician, the first Communist elected to Canadaís House of Commons, and the only woman elected in 1940. But despite her remarkable career, until now little has been known about her.From her youth in London during World War I to her burial in 1980 in a heroís cemetery in China, Nielsen lived through tumultuous times. Struggling through the Great Depression as a homesteaderís wife in rural Saskatchewan, Nielsen rebelled against the poverty and injustice that surrounded her, and found like-minded activists in the CCF and the Communist Party of Canada. In 1940 when leaders of the Communist Party were either interned or underground, Nielsen became their voice in Parliament. But her activism came at a high price. As a single mother in Ottawa, she sacrificed a close relationship with her family for her career. As a woman in an emerging political organisation, her authority was increasingly usurped by younger male party members. As a committed communist, she moved to Mao's China in 1957 and dedicated her lifeís work to a cause that went seriously awry.Faith Johnston illuminates the life of a woman who paved the way for a generation of women in politics, who tried to be both a good mother and a good revolutionary, and who refused to give up on either.
A Great Rural Sisterhood
by Linda M. AmbroseAs the founding president of the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW), Madge Robertson Watt (1868-1948) turned imperialism on its head. During the First World War, Watt imported the "made-in-Canada" concept of Women's Institutes - voluntary associations of rural women - to the British countryside. In the interwar years, she capitalized on the success of the Institutes to help create the ACWW, a global organization of rural women. A feminist imperialist and a liberal internationalist, Watt was central to the establishment of two organizations which remain active around the world today.In A Great Rural Sisterhood, Linda M. Ambrose uses a wealth of archival materials from both sides of the Atlantic to tell the story of Watt's remarkable life, from her early years as a Toronto journalist to her retirement and memorialization after the Second World War.
A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster
by Wendy MoffatA REVELATORY LOOK AT THE INTIMATE LIFE OF THE GREAT AUTHOR--AND HOW IT SHAPED HIS MOST BE LOVED WORKS With the posthumous publication of his long-suppressed novel "Maurice "in 1970, E. M. Forster came out as a homosexual-- though that revelation made barely a ripple in his literary reputation. As Wendy Moffat persuasively argues in "A Great Unrecorded History," Forster's homosexuality was the central fact of his life. Between Wilde's imprisonment and the Stonewall riots, Forster led a long, strange, and imaginative life as a gay man. He preserved a vast archive of his private life--a history of gay experience he believed would find its audience in a "happier "time. "A Great Unrecorded History "is a biography of the heart. Moffat's decade of detective work--including first-time interviews with Forster's friends--has resulted in the first book to integrate Forster's public and private lives. Seeing his life through the lens of his sexuality offers us a radically new view--revealing his astuteness as a social critic, his political bravery, and his prophetic vision of gay intimacy. "A Great Unrecorded History "invites us to see Forster-- and modern gay history--from a completely new angle.
A Great and Terrible King: Edward I And The Forging Of Britain
by Marc MorrisThe first major biography of a truly formidable king, whose reign was one of the most dramatic and important of the entire Middle Ages, leading to war and conquest on an unprecedented scale. Edward I is familiar to millions as "Longshanks," conqueror of Scotland and nemesis of Sir William Wallace (in "Braveheart"). Yet this story forms only the final chapter of the king's action-packed life. Earlier, Edward had defeated and killed the famous Simon de Montfort in battle; travelled to the Holy Land; conquered Wales, extinguishing forever its native rulers and constructing a magnificent chain of castles. He raised the greatest armies of the Middle Ages and summoned the largest parliaments; notoriously, he expelled all the Jews from his kingdom.The longest-lived of England's medieval kings, he fathered fifteen children with his first wife, Eleanor of Castile, and, after her death, he erected the Eleanor Crosses--the grandest funeral monuments ever fashioned for an English monarch. In this book, Marc Morris examines afresh the forces that drove Edward throughout his relentless career: his character, his Christian faith, and his sense of England's destiny--a sense shaped in particular by the tales of the legendary King Arthur. He also explores the competing reasons that led Edward's opponents (including Robert Bruce) to resist him. The result is a sweeping story, immaculately researched yet compellingly told, and a vivid picture of medieval Britain at the moment when its future was decided.
A Grief Unveiled: Fifteen Years Later
by Gregory FloydA candid account of sudden grief and faith that has inspired thousands Gregory Floyd's journey through grief after the tragic death of his youngest son recounts the full impact of such a loss on a typical Catholic family. In this expanded edition, he more than ever before allows the reader into his heart as he grapples with emotions that question the goodness of God in the midst of unbearable grief. He also answers the question: What is it like to live with such grief ten, fifteen, twenty years later? With brutal honesty, this loving father openly reveals the depths of his pain as he struggles to maintain faith and provide leadership for his family. He also reflects as he watches his other children mature, get married, and begin their own independent lives in the time since his son's death. Each of the children adds his and her own brief reflections in a special appendix to this important volume.
A Grip of Time: When Prison Is Your Life
by Lauren Kessler“The book provides insight into life inside a maximum-security prison while illuminating the benefits of the craft of writing. . . . compassionate.” —Publishers WeeklyA Grip of Time (prison slang for a very long sentence behind bars) takes readers into a world most know little about—a maximum-security prison—and into the minds and hearts of the men who live there. These men, who are serving out life sentences for aggravated murder, join a fledgling Lifers’ Writing Group started by award-winning author Lauren Kessler. Over the course of three years, meeting twice a month, the men reveal more and more about themselves, their pasts, and the alternating drama and tedium of their incarcerated lives. As they struggle with the weight of their guilt and wonder if they should hope for a future outside prison walls, Kessler struggles with the fiercely competing ideas of rehabilitation and punishment, forgiveness and blame that are at the heart of the American penal system. Gripping, intense, and heartfelt, A Grip of Time: When Prison Is Your Life shows what a lifetime with no hope of release looks like up-close.“Takes us on a compelling, intensely personal journey into the rarely glimpsed end point of our justice system . . . What dignity, meaning, and success these lifers achieve despite the system’s design.” —Edward Humes, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Burned: A Story of Murder and the Crime That Wasn’t“A keenly observed and deeply felt narrative . . . so original and so compelling . . . it wouldn’t let me go.” —Alex Kotlowitz, national bestselling author of An American Summer
A Grizzly in the Mail and Other Adventures in American History
by Tim GroveFor more than twenty years, Tim Grove has worked at the most popular history museums in the United States, helping millions of people get acquainted with the past. This book translates that experience into an insider’s tour of some of the most interesting moments in American history. Grove’s stories are populated with well-known historical figures such as John Brown, Charles Lindbergh, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Sacagawea—as well as the not-so-famous. Have you heard of Mary Pickersgill, seamstress of the Star-Spangled Banner flag? Grove also has something to say about a few of our cherished myths, for instance, the lore surrounding Betsy Ross and Eli Whitney.Grove takes readers to historic sites such as Harpers Ferry, Fort McHenry, the Ulm Pishkun buffalo jump, and the Lemhi Pass on the Lewis and Clark Trail and traverses time and space from eighteenth-century Williamsburg to the twenty-first-century Kennedy Space Center. En route from Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic to Cape Disappointment on the Pacific, we learn about planting a cotton patch on the National Mall, riding a high wheel bicycle, flying the transcontinental airmail route, and harnessing a mule. Is history relevant? This book answers with a resounding yes and, in the most entertaining fashion, shows us why.
A Guarded Life: My story of the dark side of An Garda Síochána
by Majella MoynihanA GARDA, A FORCED ADOPTION, A FIGHT FOR JUSTICEIn 1984, Majella Moynihan was a fresh-faced young garda recruit when she gave birth to a baby boy. Charged with breaching An Garda Síochána's disciplinary rules - for having premarital sex with another guard, becoming pregnant, and having a child - she was pressured to give up her baby for adoption, or face dismissal. It forced her into a decision that would have devastating impacts on her life. Majella left the force in 1998 after many difficult years and, in 2019, following an RTÉ documentary on her case, she received an apology from the Garda Commissioner and Minister for Justice for the ordeal she endured as a young garda. Here, for the first time, she tells the full story. From an institutional childhood after the death of her mother when she was a baby, to realising her vocation of becoming a guard only to confront the reality of a police culture steeped in misogyny and prejudice, A Guarded Life is both a courageous personal account of hope and resilience in the darkest times, and a striking reflection on womanhood and autonomy in modern Ireland.
A Guarded Life: My story of the dark side of An Garda Síochána
by Majella MoynihanA GARDA, A FORCED ADOPTION, A FIGHT FOR JUSTICEIn 1984, Majella Moynihan was a fresh-faced young garda recruit when she gave birth to a baby boy. Charged with breaching An Garda Síochána's disciplinary rules - for having premarital sex with another guard, becoming pregnant, and having a child - she was pressured to give up her baby for adoption, or face dismissal. It forced her into a decision that would have devastating impacts on her life. Majella left the force in 1998 after many difficult years and, in 2019, following an RTÉ documentary on her case, she received an apology from the Garda Commissioner and Minister for Justice for the ordeal she endured as a young garda. Here, for the first time, she tells the full story. From an institutional childhood after the death of her mother when she was a baby, to realising her vocation of becoming a guard only to confront the reality of a police culture steeped in misogyny and prejudice, A Guarded Life is both a courageous personal account of hope and resilience in the darkest times, and a striking reflection on womanhood and autonomy in modern Ireland.
A Guarded Life: My story of the dark side of An Garda Síochána
by Majella MoynihanA GARDA, A FORCED ADOPTION, A FIGHT FOR JUSTICEIn 1984, Majella Moynihan was a fresh-faced young garda recruit when she gave birth to a baby boy. Charged with breaching An Garda Síochána's disciplinary rules - for having premarital sex with another guard, becoming pregnant, and having a child - she was pressured to give up her baby for adoption, or face dismissal. It forced her into a decision that would have devastating impacts on her life. Majella left the force in 1998 after many difficult years and, in 2019, following an RTÉ documentary on her case, she received an apology from the Garda Commissioner and Minister for Justice for the ordeal she endured as a young garda. Here, for the first time, she tells the full story. From an institutional childhood after the death of her mother when she was a baby, to realising her vocation of becoming a guard only to confront the reality of a police culture steeped in misogyny and prejudice, A Guarded Life is both a courageous personal account of hope and resilience in the darkest times, and a striking reflection on womanhood and autonomy in modern Ireland.
A Guest at the Feast: Essays
by Colm ToibinFrom bestselling and Booker-nominated author Colm Tóibín comes a beautiful collection of essays ranging from personal memoir to brilliantly acute writing on religion, literature and politics.From the melancholy and amusement within the work of the writer John McGahern to an extraordinary essay on his own cancer diagnosis, Tóibín delineates the bleakness and strangeness of life and also its richness and its complexity. As he reveals the shades of light and dark in a Venice without tourists and the streets of Buenos Aires riddled with disappearances, we find ourselves considering law and religion in Ireland as well as the intricacies of Marilynne Robinson's fiction.The imprint of the written word on the private self, as Tóibín himself remarks, is extraordinarily powerful. In this collection, that power is gloriously alive, illuminating history and literature, politics and power, family and the self.
A Guest at the Feast: Essays
by Colm ToibinNamed a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by LitHub and The Millions! From one of the most engaging and brilliant writers of our time comes a &“not to be missed&” (LitHub) collection of eleven essays about growing up in Ireland during radical change; about cancer, priests, popes, homosexuality, and literature.&“IT ALL STARTED WITH MY BALLS.&” So begins Colm Tóibín&’s fabulously compelling essay, laced with humor, about his diagnosis and treatment for cancer. Tóibín survives, but he has entered, as he says, &“the age of one ball.&” The second essay in this seductive collection is a memoir about growing up in the 1950s and &’60s in the small town of Enniscorthy in County Wexford, the setting for many of Tóibín&’s novels and stories, including Brooklyn, The Blackwater Lightship, and Nora Webster. Tóibín describes his education by priests, several of whom were condemned years later for abuse. He writes about Irish history and literature, and about the long, tragic journey toward legal and social acceptance of homosexuality. In Part Two, Tóibín profiles three complex and vexing popes—John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis. And in Part Three, he writes about a trio of authors who reckon with religion in their fiction. The final essay, &“Alone in Venice,&” is a gorgeous account of Tóibín&’s journey, at the height of the pandemic, to the beloved city where he has set some of his most dazzling scenes. The streets, canals, churches, and museums were empty. He had them to himself, an experience both haunting and exhilarating. &“A tantalizing glimpse into Tóibín&’s full fictional powers,&” (The Sunday Times, London) A Guest at the Feast is both an intimate encounter with a supremely creative artist and a glorious celebration of writing.
A Guest in my Own Country
by George KonradWinner of the 2007 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Biography, Autobiography & MemoirA powerful memoir of war, politics, literature, and family life by one of Europe's leading intellectuals.When George Konrad was a child of eleven, he, his sister, and two cousins managed to flee to Budapest from the Hungarian countryside the day before deportations swept through his home town. Ultimately, they were the only Jewish children of the town to survive the Holocaust.A Guest in My Own Country recalls the life of one of Eastern Europe's most accomplished modern writers, beginning with his survival during the final months of the war. Konrad captures the dangers, the hopes, the betrayals and courageous acts of the period through a series of carefully chosen episodes that occasionally border on the surreal (as when a dead German soldier begins to speak, attempting to justify his actions).The end of the war launches the young man on a remarkable career in letters and politics. Offering lively descriptions of both his private and public life in Budapest, New York, and Berlin, Konrad reflects insightfully on his role in the Hungarian Uprising, the notion of "internal emigration" - the fate of many writers who, like Konrad, refused to leave the Eastern Bloc under socialism - and other complexities of European identity. To read A Guest in My Own Country is to experience the recent history of East-Central Europe from the inside.
A Guest of the Reich: The Story of American Heiress Gertrude Legendre's Dramatic Captivity and Escape from Nazi Germany
by Peter Finn“I read A Guest of the Reich breathlessly, and found myself amazed by the pluck, guts, and courage of Gertrude Legendre.” —Lisa Birnbach, author of True Prep “Thrilling!” —Bill Dedman, author of Empty Mansions The dramatic story of a South Carolina heiress who joined the OSS and became the first American woman in uniform taken prisoner on the Western front—until her escape from Nazi Germany. Gertrude “Gertie” Legendre was a big-game hunter from a wealthy industrial family who lived a charmed life in Jazz Age America. Her adventurous spirit made her the inspiration for the Broadway play Holiday, which became a film starring Katharine Hepburn. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Legendre, by then married and a mother of two, joined the OSS, the wartime spy organization that preceded the CIA. First in Washington and then in London, some of the most closely-held United States government secrets passed through her hands. In A Guest of the Reich, Peter Finn tells the gripping story of how in 1944, while on leave in liberated Paris, Legendre was captured by the Germans after accidentally crossing the front lines. Subjected to repeated interrogations, including by the Gestapo, Legendre entered a daring game of lies with her captors. The Nazis treated her as a “special prisoner” of the SS and moved her from city to city throughout Germany, where she witnessed the collapse of Hitler’s Reich as no other American did. After six months in captivity, Legendre escaped into Switzerland. A Guest of the Reich is a propulsive account of a little-known chapter in the history of World War II, as well as a fascinating portrait of an extraordinary woman.
A Guide For Women In Religion, Revised Edition
by Mary E. Hunt Kecia Ali Monique MoultrieSignificantly updated and expanded, this indispensable resource offers students and scholars alike real advice in navigating the ever-changing academic landscape. Offering practical guidance on graduate school, dissertation-writing, job interviews, promotions, retirement, publications, conferences, and so much more, this is the essential resource.
A Guide to Living in the Truth: Saint Benedict's Teaching on Humility
by Michael CaseyThis is a beautifully written devotional book for those who want a better understanding of the Biblical intentions of humility. It also explores Saint Benedict's encouragement of all religious disciples to practice the Christlike characteristic.
A Guide to Thomas Jefferson's Virginia: History Through Architecture (Landmarks Ser.)
by Laura A. MacalusoTour Thomas Jefferson&’s Virginia, from Monticello to the Blue Ridge Mountains and beyond, with a guide that &“mixes historical background with how-tos&” (Daily Press). Few prominent Americans are as associated with a place as Thomas Jefferson is with Virginia. The heart of &“Jefferson Country&” is his house and plantation at Monticello, but Jefferson traveled the breadth of his home state, from his time at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg to the new state capital at Richmond and his retreat and plantation at Poplar Forest, near Lynchburg. While spending time in the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Jefferson was inspired to write his only book, Notes on the State of Virginia. Jefferson&’s life story, and his many endeavors as a scholar and statesman, are illustrated in this guide to the state he held dear. &“This book mixes historical background with the how-tos of visiting the places Jefferson spent time, including the Wren Building at the College of William and Mary, which he attended, and the George Wythe house, where he studied law in Williamsburg.&” —Daily Press
A Guide to Western Civilization, or My Story
by Joe Bob BriggsThis book will change your life. It's got chapters in here about how Joe Bob invented the American topless bar, how he solved the Kennedy assassination, how he learned to sin with fat girls, and of course how he became the monstrous country-western star he is today. This book also contains a complete history of the world.
A Guided Tour of Hell: A Graphic Memoir
by Samuel Bercholz Pema Namdol ThayeTake a trip through the realms of hell with a man whose temporary visitor's pass gave him a horrifying--and enlightening--preview of its torments. This true account of Sam Bercholz's near-death experience has more in common with Dante's Inferno than it does with any of the popular feel-good stories of what happens when we die. In the aftermath of heart surgery, Sam, a longtime Buddhist practitioner and teacher, is surprised to find himself in the lowest realms of karmic rebirth, where he is sent to gain insight into human suffering. Under the guidance of a luminous being, Sam's encounters with a series of hell-beings trapped in repetitious rounds of misery and delusion reveal to him how an individual's own habits of fiery hatred and icy disdain, of grasping desire and nihilistic ennui, are the source of horrific agonies that pound consciousness for seemingly endless cycles of time. Comforted by the compassion of a winged goddess and sustained by the kindness of his Buddhist teachers, Sam eventually emerges from his ordeal with renewed faith that even the worst hell contains the seed of wakefulness. His story is offered, along with the modernist illustrations of a master of Tibetan sacred arts, in order to share what can be learned about awakening from our own self-created hells and helping others to find relief and liberation from theirs.
A Guitar and a Pen: Stories by Country Music's Greatest Songwriters
by Robert HicksNothing tells a story better than the story-songs of country music. A Guitar and A Pen presents, for the first time, the literary work of some of the best storytellers in the world: the songwriters who cut and polish tales down to sparkling three-minute gems. A blend of humor and poignancy, these tales range from Kris Kristofferson's charming tale of how an explicit natural rock formation causes chaos in a small farming town, to the domestic drama of a Kentucky family with six daughters, to Charlie Daniels' character-driven fable of money and unhappiness, to Gary Nicholson's riveting tale of an albino African American singer/songwriter who inspired him to be a musician. A celebration of music and storytelling, other contributors include Hal Ketchum, Janis Ian, Mark D. Sanders, Tom T. Hall, Marshall Chapman, and Robert Hicks, among many other notable Nashville luminaries.
A Gull on the Roof: Tales from a Cornish Flower Farm (Minack Chronicles #5)
by Derek TangyeThe first title in the Minack Chronicles, which tell the story of how Derek and his wife Jeannie left behind their London home to establish a flower farm on the coast of Cornwall. From inauspicious beginnings, this book includes tales of the couple's first animals, including Monty the ginger cat, and takes us through trials and tribulations until the arrival of a gull on the roof provides the first augury of better times to come.
A Gunner's Great War: An Artilleryman's Experience from the Somme to the Subcontinent
by Ian RonayneIf the First World War had not happened when it did, Channel Islander Clarence Ahier would almost certainly have led a mostly unremarkable life. But it did, and in October 1915, aged just 23-years-old, Clarence left his home and volunteered to join the British Army. He would spend the next two and half years serving as an artillery man on the Western Front.Now this in itself is not remarkable—millions of other young men did the same thing. But Clarence Ahier did do something remarkable, and it was something to set him out from almost all his contemporaries. From the very beginning of his time at the front, he wrote a graphic and moving account of his experiences of war.Clarences ultimate plans for his meticulously written journal are unknown. But having lain unnoticed for years, it was recently discovered in a collection of dusty ephemera handed to a local history society.The complete journal consists of around 25,000 words, with a focus on Clarences experience during the Battle of the Somme, in the fighting around Ypres, and, after he was wounded for the second time, the journey to India and his time there as a member of the garrison. This will be supported by additional explanatory text.
A Gushing Fountain: A Novel
by David Dollenmayer Martin WalserAppearing for the first time in English, this masterful novel by one of the foremost figures of postwar German literature is an indelible portrait of Nazism slowly overtaking and poisoning a small town. Semi-autobiographical, it is also a remarkably vivid account of a childhood fraught with troubles, yet full of remembered love and touched by miracle. In a provincial town on Lake Constance, Johann basks in the affection of the colorful staff and regulars at the Station Restaurant. Though his parents struggle to make ends meet, around him the world is rich in mystery: the attraction of girls; the power of words and his gift for music; his rivalry with his best friend, Adolf, son of the local Brownshirt leader; a circus that comes to town bringing Anita, whose love he and Adolf compete to win. But in these hard times, with businesses failing all around them and life savings gone in an instant, people whisper that only Hitler can save them. As the Nazis gradually infiltrate the churches, the school, the youth organizations--even the restaurant--and come to power, we see through Johann’s eyes how the voices of dissent are silenced one by one, until war begins the body count that will include his beloved older brother.