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The Democracy Machine: How One Engineer Made Voting Possible For All
by Jon Silman University of FloridaDriven to make it possible for people with disabilities to vote like everyone else, engineer Juan Gilbert, a specialist in human-centered computing, spent 10 years perfecting Prime III, software that does just that. His creation has already been tested in the real world and is earning rave reviews from elections supervisors around the country. Gatorbytes highlight for the intellectually curious the world of innovative research happening at the University of Florida. Written by professional journalists, Gatorbytes feature the top research and preeminence work being conducted at the University of Florida, written in a way that’s easy to understand.
Democracy's Lawyer: Felix Grundy of the Old Southwest (Southern Biography Series)
by J. Roderick IIIA central political figure in the first post-Revolutionary generation, Felix Grundy (1775--1840) epitomized the "American democrat" who so famously fascinated Alexis de Tocqueville. Born and reared on the isolated frontier, Grundy rose largely by his own ability to become the Old Southwest's greatest criminal lawyer and one of the first radical political reformers in the fledgling United States. In Democracy's Lawyer, the first comprehensive biography of Grundy since 1940, J. Roderick Heller reveals how Grundy's life typifies the archetypal, post--founding fathers generation that forged America's culture and institutions.After his birth in Virginia, Grundy moved west at age five to the region that would become Kentucky, where he lost three brothers in Indian wars. He earned a law degree, joined the legislature, and quickly became Henry Clay's main rival. At age thirty-one, after rising to become chief justice of Kentucky, Grundy moved to Tennessee, where voters soon elected him to Congress. In Washington, Grundy proved so voracious a proponent of the War of 1812 that a popular slogan of the day blamed the war on "Madison, Grundy, and the Devil." A pivotal U.S. senator during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, Grundy also served as Martin Van Buren's attorney general and developed a close association with his law student and political protégé James K. Polk. Grundy championed the ideals of the American West, and as Heller demonstrates, his dominating belief -- equality in access to power -- motivated many of his political battles. Aristocratic federalism threatened the principles of the Revolution, Grundy asserted, and he opposed fetters on freedom of opportunity, whether from government or entrenched economic elites.Although widely known as a politician, Grundy achieved even greater fame as a criminal lawyer. Of the purported 185 murder defendants that he represented, only one was hanged. At a time when criminal trials served as popular entertainment, Grundy's mere appearance in a courtroom drew spectators from miles around, and his legal reputation soon spread nationwide. One nineteenth-century Nashvillian declared that Grundy "could stand on a street corner and talk the cobblestones into life." Shifting seamlessly within the worlds of law, entrepreneurship, and politics, Felix Grundy exemplified the questing, mobile society of early nineteenth-century America. With Democracy's Lawyer, Heller firmly establishes Grundy as a powerful player and personality in early American law and politics.
Democracy's Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent
by Ernest FreebergIn 1920, socialist leader Eugene V. Debs ran for president while serving a ten-year jail term for speaking against America’s role in World War I. Though many called Debs a traitor, others praised him as a prisoner of conscience, a martyr to the cause of free speech. Nearly a million Americans agreed, voting for a man whom the government had branded an enemy to his country. In a beautifully crafted narrative, Ernest Freeberg shows that the campaign to send Debs from an Atlanta jailhouse to the White House was part of a wider national debate over the right to free speech in wartime. Debs was one of thousands of Americans arrested for speaking his mind during the war, while government censors were silencing dozens of newspapers and magazines. When peace was restored, however, a nationwide protest was unleashed against the government’s repression, demanding amnesty for Debs and his fellow political prisoners. Led by a coalition of the country’s most important intellectuals, writers, and labor leaders, this protest not only liberated Debs, but also launched the American Civil Liberties Union and changed the course of free speech in wartime. The Debs case illuminates our own struggle to define the boundaries of permissible dissent as we continue to balance the right of free speech with the demands of national security. In this memorable story of democracy on trial, Freeberg excavates an extraordinary episode in the history of one of America’s most prized ideals.
Democratic Dynasties
by Kanchan ChandraDynastic politics, usually presumed to be the antithesis of democracy, is a routine aspect of politics in many modern democracies. This book introduces a new theoretical perspective on dynasticism in democracies, using original data on twenty-first-century Indian parliaments. It argues that the roots of dynastic politics lie at least in part in modern democratic institutions - states and parties - which give political families a leg-up in the electoral process. It also proposes a rethinking of the view that dynastic politics is a violation of democracy, showing that it can also reinforce some aspects of democracy while violating others. Finally, this book suggests that both reinforcement and violation are the products, not of some property intrinsic to political dynasties, but of the institutional environment from which those dynasties emerge.
Democratic Justice: Felix Frankfurter, The Supreme Court, And The Making Of The Liberal Establishment
by Brad SnyderThe definitive biography of Felix Frankfurter, Supreme Court justice and champion of twentieth-century American liberal democracy. The conventional wisdom about Felix Frankfurter—Harvard law professor and Supreme Court justice—is that he struggled to fill the seat once held by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Scholars have portrayed Frankfurter as a judicial failure, a liberal lawyer turned conservative justice, and the Warren Court’s principal villain. And yet none of these characterizations rings true. A pro-government, pro-civil rights liberal who rejected shifting political labels, Frankfurter advocated for judicial restraint—he believed that people should seek change not from the courts but through the democratic political process. Indeed, he knew American presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson, advised Franklin Roosevelt, and inspired his students and law clerks to enter government service. Organized around presidential administrations and major political and world events, this definitive biography chronicles Frankfurter’s impact on American life. As a young government lawyer, he befriended Theodore Roosevelt, Louis Brandeis, and Holmes. As a Harvard law professor, he earned fame as a civil libertarian, Zionist, and New Deal power broker. As a justice, he hired the first African American law clerk and helped the Court achieve unanimity in outlawing racially segregated schools in Brown v. Board of Education. In this sweeping narrative, Brad Snyder offers a full and fascinating portrait of the remarkable life and legacy of a long misunderstood American figure. This is the biography of an Austrian Jewish immigrant who arrived in the United States at age eleven speaking not a word of English, who by age twenty-six befriended former president Theodore Roosevelt, and who by age fifty was one of Franklin Roosevelt’s most trusted advisers. It is the story of a man devoted to democratic ideals, a natural orator and often overbearing justice, whose passion allowed him to amass highly influential friends and helped create the liberal establishment.
Democrazy: A True Story of Weird Politics, Money, Madness, and Finger Food
by Trey RadelHow the Washington sausage really gets made: a brutally honest, outrageous memoir by former GOP congressman Trey Radel."DEMOCRAZY is the most puckish political memoir in recent memory ... enough to make you wish he were still in the House's GOP caucus under the Trump administration." - BookforumIn 2013, when Washington D.C. law enforcement learned that Trey Radel, then a Republican congressman from Florida, had bought cocaine, he quickly became the target of a police sting. In October of that year, Radel was arrested for attempting to buy cocaine from an undercover cop, and subsequently became the subject of intense media coverage and scrutiny. When Radel resigned in 2014, he left with insider knowledge that remains unknown to most American citizens.Democrazy is Radel's candid account of the making of a modern political star and the inner workings of Congress. In his memoir, Radel recounts his early days as a TV news reporter and radio show host before running for Congress in 2012, a decision that would launch the new, infamous chapter of his life. Radel entered the political sphere with the same ideological fervor of most first-time politicians--he loved America and wanted to serve his country and its people. But Radel's optimism waned as he witnessed the wheelings and dealings of Congress's most powerful members. Told with humor and irreverence, Radel's memoir is an entertaining, fascinating journey of an unlikely politician.
The Demon of the Steppes. The Life of Genghis Khan, Mongol Emperor
by Borja Loma Barrie Sophie MurtenHistorical novel. Biography. Life of Genghis Khan, first emperor of the Mongols. The empire of the Three Kingdoms. Conquest of China. The sack of Samakarand.
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
by Erik Larson#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War in this &“riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult&” (Los Angeles Times). &“A feast of historical insight and narrative verve . . . This is Erik Larson at his best, enlivening even a thrice-told tale into an irresistible thriller.&”—The Wall Street JournalOn November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter.Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln&’s election and the Confederacy&’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were &“so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.&”At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter&’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between them. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous secretary of state, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans.Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don&’t see a cataclysm coming until it&’s too late.
Demons in the Age of Light
by Whitney RobinsonWith the skill of a gifted novelist, twenty-three-year-old Whitney Robinson recounts the harrowing true story of her descent into mental illness soon after she arrived at college. Her doctor labeled the illness schizophrenia, but Whitney felt that she became possessed by a malevolent, seductive entity that attempted to influence her into harming herself and others. Institutionalized and heavily medicated, Whitney encounters other horrors and mysteries within the walls of a psychiatric hospital. Determined to release herself from pharmacological shackles, Whitney finally confronts and expels her demon through sheer will and alternative methods, including an attempted exorcism and shamanic healing. Whitney's saga parallels current discussions in the media regarding American psychiatry's dependence on drug-based treatments and the renewed interest in alternative healing methods of eastern and indigenous cultures, which, according to a recent New York Times article "The Americanization of Mental Illness," have been revealed to be at least as effective as pharmaceutically driven treatments. Whitney's story of survival and personal growth will serve as a living model for others on radio and television programs.
The Demons of Leonard Cohen (Canadian Studies)
by Francis Mus"With my jingle in your brain, Allow the Bridge to arch again" How are we to understand Leonard Cohen’s plea? Who speaks to whom in this oeuvre spanning six decades? In search of an answer to this question this study considers the different guises or “demons” that the Canadian singer-songwriter adopts. The countless roles assumed by Cohen’s personas are not some innocent game, but strategies in response to the sometimes conflicting demands of a “life in art”: they serve as masks that represent the performer’s face and state of mind in a heightened yet detached way. In and around the artistic work they are embodied by different guises and demons: image (the poser), artistry (the writer and singer), alienation (the stranger and the confidant), religion (the worshipper, prophet, and priest), and power (the powerful and powerless). Ultimately, Cohen’s artistic practice can be read as an attempt at forging interpersonal contact. The wide international circulation of Cohen’s work has resulted in a partial severing with the context of its creation. Much of it has filtered through the public image forged by the artist and his critics in concerts, interviews, and reflective texts. Less a biography than a reception study—supplemented with extensive archival research, unpublished documents, and interviews with colleagues and privileged witnesses—it sheds new light on the dynamic of a comprehensive body of work spanning a period of sixty years. Published in English.
Den of Spies: Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History of the Treason That Stole the White House
by Craig UngerThe explosive inside story of the October Surprise conspiracy, a stunning act of treason that changed American history. New York Times bestselling author Craig Unger reveals his thirty-year investigation into the secret collusion between Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign and Iran, raising urgent questions about what happens when foreign meddling in our elections goes unpunished and what gets remembered when the political price for treason is victory. It was a tinderbox of an accusation. In April 1991, the New York Times ran an op-ed alleging that Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign had conspired with the Iranian government to delay the release of 52 American hostages until after the 1980 election. The Iranian hostage crisis was President Jimmy Carter’s largest political vulnerability, and his lack of success freeing them ultimately sealed his fate at the ballot box. In return for keeping Americans in captivity until Reagan assumed the oath of office, the Republicans had secretly funneled arms to Iran. Treasonous and illegal, the operation—planned and executed by Reagan’s campaign manager Bill Casey—amounted to a shadow foreign policy run by private citizens that ensured Reagan’s victory.Investigative journalist Craig Unger was one of the first reporters covering the October Surprise—initially for Esquire and then Newsweek—and while attempting to unravel the mystery, he was fired, sued, and ostracized by the Washington press corps, as a counter narrative took hold: The October Surprise was a hoax. Though Unger later recovered his name and became a bestselling author on Republican abuses of power, the October Surprise remained his white whale, the project he—as well as legendary investigative journalist, the late Robert Parry—worked on late at night and between assignments.In Den of Spies, Unger reveals the definitive story of the October Surprise, going inside his three-decade reporting odyssey, along with Parry’s never-before-seen archives, and sharing startling truths about what really happened in 1980. The result is a real-life political thriller filled with double agents, CIA operatives, slippery politicians, KGB documents, wealthy Republicans, and dogged journalists. A timely and provocative history that presages our Trump-era political scandals, Den of Spies demonstrates the stakes of allowing the politics of the moment to obscure the writing of our history.
Denali: A Man, a Dog, and the Friendship of a Lifetime
by Ben MoonThe story of a dog, his human, and the friendship that saved both of their lives.When Ben Moon moved from the Midwest to Oregon, he hadn&’t planned on getting a dog. But when he first met the soulful gaze of a rescue pup in a shelter, Ben instantly felt a connection, and his friendship with Denali was born. The two of them set out on the road together, on an adventure that would take them across the American west and through some of the best years of their lives. But when Ben was diagnosed with colorectal cancer at age 29, he faced a difficult battle with the disease, and Denali never once left his side until they were back out surfing and climbing crags. It was only a short time later that Denali was struck by the same disease, and Ben had the chance to return the favor. Denali is the story of this powerful friendship that shaped Ben and Denali&’s lives, showing the strength and love that we give and receive when we have our friends by our side.
Denali: The Story of an Exceptional Dog
by Ben MoonIn the bestselling tradition of Finding Gobi and Marley & Me, the moving story of a dog, his human, and the friendship that saved both their lives – and inspired countless others. Ben Moon had no intention of getting a dog until he met the soulful gaze of a husky-pit bull cross pup in a rescue shelter. Ben instantly felt a connection, and his friendship with the extraordinary Denali was born. The two friends set out on the road together on an adventure that would take them through some of the best years of their lives. When Ben was diagnosed with colorectal cancer at 29, Denali never left his side until the pair were back out surfing and climbing crags. Soon after Denali was struck by the same disease, and Ben had the chance to return the favour. This is the story of an extraordinary friendship, and the power of the love we give and receive when we have our friends by our side. &‘Moon inspires and educates in this tear-jerking memoir of his best friend&’ Publishers Weekly
Denazificando Leni
by Luigia Pantalea Rovito Lázaro DroznesQuesta finzione drammatica ricostruisce il processo a Leni Riefenstahl condotto dalla Commissione di Denazificazione degli Alleati per determinare il suo grado di responsabilità nei crimini nazisti, come parte della campagna di denazificazione effettuata nella Germania post-bellica. Diverse scene dei suoi documentari vengono usate come prova a suo carico, sostenendo che furono realizzati come strumenti della propaganda di regime. Leni difende la propria indipendenza e autonomia in quanto artista. Durante lo svolgimento del processo, appare il tema della relazione tra gli artisti e il potere, la necessità di sviluppare una carriera artistica indipendente dal potere politico e la possibilità di creare arte per l'arte. Un'arte il cui fine sia l'arte stessa.
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China
by Ezra F. VogelNo one in the twentieth century had a greater impact on world history than Deng Xiaoping. And no scholar is better qualified than Ezra Vogel to disentangle the contradictions embodied in the life and legacy of China’s boldest strategist—the pragmatic, disciplined force behind China’s radical economic, technological, and social transformation.
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China
by Vogel Ezra F.Perhaps no one in the twentieth century had a greater long-term impact on world history than Deng Xiaoping. And no scholar of contemporary East Asian history and culture is better qualified than Ezra Vogel to disentangle the many contradictions embodied in the life and legacy of China's boldest strategist. Once described by Mao Zedong as a "needle inside a ball of cotton," Deng was the pragmatic yet disciplined driving force behind China's radical transformation in the late twentieth century. He confronted the damage wrought by the Cultural Revolution, dissolved Mao's cult of personality, and loosened the economic and social policies that had stunted China's growth. Obsessed with modernization and technology, Deng opened trade relations with the West, which lifted hundreds of millions of his countrymen out of poverty. Yet at the same time he answered to his authoritarian roots, most notably when he ordered the crackdown in June 1989 at Tiananmen Square. Deng's youthful commitment to the Communist Party was cemented in Paris in the early 1920s, among a group of Chinese student-workers that also included Zhou Enlai. Deng returned home in 1927 to join the Chinese Revolution on the ground floor. In the fifty years of his tumultuous rise to power, he endured accusations, purges, and even exile before becoming China's preeminent leader from 1978 to 1989 and again in 1992. When he reached the top, Deng saw an opportunity to creatively destroy much of the economic system he had helped build for five decades as a loyal follower of Mao-and he did not hesitate.
Denial: A Memoir
by Jessica SternIn this powerful memoir, a terrorism expert and assault survivor shares a clear-eyed, elucidating study of the profound reverberations of trauma” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).One of the world’s foremost experts on terrorism and post-traumatic stress disorder, Jessica Stern knows what it is to live through horror. In this brave and astonishingly frank examination of her own unsolved rape at the age of fifteen, she investigates how the rape and its aftermath came to shape her future and her work. The author of the New York Times Notable Book Terror in the Name of God, Stern brilliantly explores the nature of evil in an extraordinary volume that Louise Richardson, author of What Terrorists Want, calls, “Memorable, powerful and deeply courageous…a riveting read.”“Denial is one of the most important books I have read in a decade. . . . Brave, life-changing, and gripping as a thriller. . . . A tour de force.” —Naomi Wolf
The Denim Diaries: A Memoir
by Laurie Boyle CromptonLaurie Boyle Crompton’s coming of age in rural Pennsylvania and the New York City area in the 1970s and 1980s was anything but idyllic. In moving verse accompanied by diary-esque sketches, Crompton takes you along as she navigates relationships, plays the happy family at church despite discord at home, manages her mother’s ambitions and her father’s alcoholism, struggles with her self-image, and desperately tries to fit in at school by squeezing into too-tight designer denim. Both heartwarming and heartbreaking, The Denim Diaries follows Crompton’s journey through disordered eating and sexual assault to acceptance and recovery. Her vivid poems recall the highs and lows of a life filled with hardship and joy alike. At times both harrowing and humorous, this memoir brings new perspective to the importance of self-love and finding hope in the darkest of times.
Denis Oliver Barnett - In Happy Memory - His Letters From France And Flanders October 1914-August 1915
by Lieutenant Denis Oliver BarnettDenis Oliver Bartlett now lies in Poperinghe New Military Cemetery in Belgium, a bright young man who was cut down in his prime during the 1915: these letters home provide a lasting and fitting tribute to him.In August 1914, he enlisted in the Artists' Rifles: by October 27th he was in France. His own letters best tell the tale of what work he found to his hand and how he bore himself in that new world. It is enough to say here that upon going to the front he soon received a commission. He became 2nd lieutenant in the 2nd Batt. Leinster Regiment on January 1st 1915, and was promoted to be lieutenant on June 10th. All those who knew him speak with one voice in his praise. 'He was of the sort that don't know fear and would without doubt have greatly distinguished himself, had he been spared; he only wanted the opportunity. He was always wonderfully light-hearted and cheerful, so much so that I really believe he enjoyed warfare thoroughly, and the worse things were, the more cheerful he was. So 'twas no wonder he endeared himself to us all and that we all feel his loss as that of a dear brother and miss him at every turn.'On the 30th July he went back to Flanders for the last time. The rest is best told in the words of one of his fellow-officers. 'He was bomb officer and was in his element, leading all the bomb counter-attacks successfully and never getting a scratch. He could throw extraordinarily well and he used to frighten the Germans by getting tonite bombs into their trenches 150 yards away. That night (August 15th) Barnett had to start a working party at a place where our trench touched the German trench, with only twenty yards of unoccupied trench in between. He was warned to be careful, as the Germans had a machine gun and several rifles trained on the spot, but with his usual courage he got up on the parapet and from there directed the working-party. A flare showed him up and he was fired at immediately and one bullet hit him in the body.'
Denise Levertov: A Poet's Life
by Dana GreeneKenneth Rexroth called Denise Levertov (1923-1997) "the most subtly skillful poet of her generation, the most profound, . . . and the most moving." Author of twenty-four volumes of poetry, four books of essays, and several translations, Levertov became a lauded and honored poet. Born in England, she published her first book of poems at age twenty-three, but it was not until she married and came to the United States in 1948 that she found her poetic voice, helped by the likes of William Carlos Williams, Robert Duncan, and Robert Creeley. Shortly before her death in 1997, the woman who claimed no country as home was nominated to be America's poet laureate. Levertov was the quintessential romantic. She wanted to live vividly, intensely, passionately, and on a grand scale. She wanted the persistence of Cézanne and the depth and generosity of Rilke. Once she acclimated herself to America, the dreamy lyric poetry of her early years gave way to the joy and wonder of ordinary life. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, her poems began to engage the issues of her times. Vehement and strident, her poetry of protest was both acclaimed and criticized. The end of both the Vietnam War and her marriage left her mentally fatigued and emotionally fragile, but gradually, over the span of a decade, she emerged with new energy. The crystalline and luminous poetry of her last years stands as final witness to a lifetime of searching for the mystery embedded in life itself. Through all the vagaries of life and art, her response was that of a "primary wonder." In this illuminating biography, Dana Greene examines Levertov's interviews, essays, and self-revelatory poetry to discern the conflict and torment she both endured and created in her attempts to deal with her own psyche, her relationships with family, friends, lovers, colleagues, and the times in which she lived. Denise Levertov: A Poet's Life is the first complete biography of Levertov, a woman who claimed she did not want a biography, insisting that it was her work that she hoped would endure. And yet she confessed that her poetry in its various forms--lyric, political, natural, and religious--derived from her life experience. Although a substantial body of criticism has established Levertov as a major poet of the later twentieth century, this volume represents the first attempt to set her poetry within the framework of her often tumultuous life.
Denise Rosenthal. La vida en movimiento
by Denise RosenthalEl primer libro de la cantante y actriz Denise Rosenthal, una de las artistas e influencer más exitosas de Chile Algunos recordarán a Denise Rosenthal por su personaje en El blog de la Feña, otros por su participación en la serie Corazón Rebelde o por sus primeras canciones como solista. En este libro, los lectores podrán conocer a la persona detrás de estos roles, a la Denise niña que a los cuatro años ya quería cantar y conquistar al público, a la joven que perseguía sus sueños con tenacidad y no sabía bien cómo lidiar con el éxito, a la mujer que tras años de trabajo ha forjado una personalidad que irradia frescura, singularidad y talento. La vida en movimiento es una reflexión en torno al trabajo artístico, pero también, un cuestionamiento del papel de las mujeres en nuestra sociedad, una indagación en el autoconocimiento, en la reinvención, en la espiritualidad y, sobre todo, en la convicción de que con trabajo y constancia todos los objetivos se logran.
The Denison Family of Toronto: 1792-1925
by David GaganThe Denisons were an unusual and colourful family. For over a century – from the War of 1812 to the eve of the Depression – they were in the forefront of political, military, social, and intellectual life in Toronto. They took their duties to king and country seriously, serving in public and military office, and established family colonies on their estates in Toronto. As the story of the family unfolds, it reveals the story of Toronto – the spirit of the times, the turbulence of politics, and the exciting growth of a new city. The Denison Family of Toronto focuses on George Denison III (1839-1925), military historian, senior police magistrate, and supporter of the Canada First and Imperial Federation movements. His story proves that Canada has produced some memorable individuals whose activities have for too long been obscured by historians' preoccupation with grander themes. But more than that, the history of the Denisons' quarrel with the United States and their flamboyant nationalism challenges the reader to examine his own assumptions about the Canadian identity.
Denmark Vesey: The Buried Story of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It
by David M. RobertsonIn a remarkable feat of historical detective work, David Robertson illuminates the shadowy figure who planned a slave rebellion so daring that, if successful, it might have changed the face of the antebellum South. This is the story of a man who, like Nat Turner, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X, is a complex yet seminal hero in the history of African American emancipation.Denmark Vesey was a charasmatic ex-slave--literate, professional, and relatively well-off--who had purchased his own freedom with the winnings from a lottery. Inspired by the success of the revolutionary black republic in Haiti, he persuaded some nine thousand slaves to join him in a revolt. On a June evening in 1822, having gathered guns, and daggers, they were to converge on Charleston, South Carolina, take the city's arsenal, murder the populace, burn the city, and escape by ship to Haiti or Africa. When the uprising was betrayed, Vesey and seventy-seven of his followers were executed, the matter hushed by Charleston's elite for fear of further rebellion. Compelling, informative, and often disturbing, this book is essential to a fuller understanding of the struggle against slavery.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Denmark Vesey's Bible: The Thwarted Revolt That Put Slavery and Scripture on Trial
by Jeremy SchipperA timely and provocative account of the Bible&’s role in one of the most consequential episodes in the history of slaveryOn July 2, 1822, Denmark Vesey, a formerly enslaved man, was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina. He was convicted of plotting what might have been the largest insurrection against slaveholders in US history. Witnesses claimed that Vesey appealed to numerous biblical texts to promote and justify the revolt. While sentencing Vesey to death, Lionel Henry Kennedy, a magistrate at the trial, accused Vesey not only of treason but also of &“attempting to pervert the sacred words of God into a sanction for crimes of the blackest hue.&” Denmark Vesey&’s Bible tells the story of this momentous trial, examining the role of scriptural interpretation in the deadly struggle against American white supremacy and its brutal enforcement.Jeremy Schipper brings the trial and its aftermath vividly to life, drawing on court documents, personal letters, sermons, speeches, and editorials. He shows how Vesey compared people of African descent with enslaved Israelites in the Bible, while his accusers portrayed plantation owners as benevolent biblical patriarchs responsible for providing religious instruction to the enslaved. What emerges is an explosive portrait of an antebellum city in the grips of racial terror, violence, and contending visions of biblical truth.Shedding light on the uses of scripture in America&’s troubled racial history, Denmark Vesey&’s Bible draws vital lessons from a terrible moment in the nation&’s past, enabling us to confront racism and religious discord today with renewed urgency and understanding.
Dennett
by Tadeusz ZawidskiTadeusz Zawidzki outlines Dennett's reconciliation of three major components-thought, consciousness, and freedom of the will-with what science tells us about human nature. In the course of this exposition, the book highlights the important role that Darwinian thinking plays in Dennett's proposed reconciliation, as well as his innovative proposals regarding the 'reality' of our consciousness and its attributes.