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The White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering
by Daniel LightThe true story of the thrill-seekers, map-makers, soldiers, occultists, artists and porters who paved the way for modern mountaineering. &‘A beautifully written and sure-footed history of mountaineering &“before Everest&”, full of wonderful stories and spanning continents and centuries. A splendid debut.&’ Sir Ranulph Fiennes, author of Shackleton Beautiful, remote and dangerous – for generations we have looked to the mountains in awe. Yet, for most, that is where the fascination ends. For a rare few, however, the allure of the peaks proved irresistible. There are the devout Incan priests who, scaling the Andes&’ icy slopes to pay tribute to each mountain&’s &‘Great Lord&’, travelled higher than any European would for centuries. The Gurkha riflemen who joined their commanders in canvassing the Karakoram, admiring the distant summits of Broad Peak and K2 with gleeful anticipation. The tweed-clad mountaineers who made the first serious assaults on Everest, hauling yards upon yards of battered rope through the cold. Tracing the world altitude record from the ashy slopes of the sacred volcano Llullaillaco to the icy crags and crevasses of the Karakoram, Daniel Light takes a panoramic journey through the storied history of mountaineering before Everest. Joining a cast of colourful characters, The White Ladder offers an ode to mountains&’ capacity to enthral, and the fundamental human drive to climb higher and higher. *** 'Thrilling... Daniel Light delivers stories that are poetic, spiritual and astonishing in their courage and drive.' Sonia Purnell, author of A Woman of No Importance &‘Daniel Light guides the reader through a mountain-scape that stretches from the Alps to the Himalaya... with the sure footing of a serious student of climbing history, and the élan of a skilled storyteller. This is a book to curl up with on a cold dark night in a comfortable armchair before a bright fire.&’ Maurice Isserman, co-author of Fallen Giants &‘Wonderful… a massive story with an enormous cast of characters, among them some of the most compelling figures of mountaineering history.&’ Wade Davis, author of Into the Silence
The White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering
by Daniel LightA sweeping history of mountaineering before Everest, and the epic human quest to reach the highest places on Earth. Whether in the name of conquest, science, or the divine, humans across the centuries have had myriad reasons to climb mountains. From the smoking volcanoes of South America to the great snowy ranges of the Himalaya, The White Ladder follows a cast of extraordinary characters—conquistadors and captains, scientists and surveyors, alpinists and adventurers—up the slopes of the world’s highest peaks. A masterpiece of edge-of-your-seat narrative history, The White Ladder describes the epic rise of mountaineering’s world altitude record, a story of ever higher climbs by figures great and small of mountaineering during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Daniel Light describes how climbers used revolutionary techniques to launch themselves into the most forbidding conditions. The expeditions illustrate evolutionary changes in climbing style, the advancement of high-altitude science, and the development of mountain climbing as an industry. Throughout, Light pays special attention to Incan climbers, Gurkha guides, Sherpa mountaineers, and many others who are often overlooked. He offers nuanced new perspectives on familiar characters, for example, calling out the famed female pioneer Fanny Bullock Workman for racism and for abusing her porters. He presents a complex new portrait of notorious occultist Aleister Crowley, who was at once a ruthless expedition leader, but also an innovative strategist who could read mountains and would risk everything trying to climb them. Light also makes bold new arguments about classic debates, for example, arguing that the much-maligned Jewish climber Oscar Eckenstein shaped mountaineering as we know it today. A story of innovation, invention, and determination, The White Ladder immerses readers in a fascinating historical period. With their breathtaking exploits, these climbers laid the groundwork for the historic ascents of K2 and Everest that came after—and heightened the spectacle of their dangerous sport.
White Lama: The Life of Tantric Yogi Theos Bernard, Tibet's Lost Emissary to the New World
by Douglas VeenhofAn amazing, often overlooked story of the man who brought Yoga and Tibetan culture to America. Theos Bernard's colorful, enigmatic, and sometimes contradictory life captures an intersection of East and West that changed our world. After years of forcibly stopping foreigners at the borders, the leaders of Tibet opened the doors to their kingdom in 1937 for Theos Bernard. He was the third American to set foot in Tibet and the first American ever initiated into Tantric practices by the highest lama in Tibet. When Bernard left that sacred land, he was sent home with fifty mule loads of priceless, essential Buddhist scriptures from government and monastery vaults. Bernard brought these writings to America, where he achieved celebrity as a spiritual master. Appearing four times on the cover of the largest-circulation magazine of the day, befriending some of the most famous figures of his era, including Charles Lindbergh, Lowell Thomas, Ganna Walska, and W. Y. Evans-Wentz, and working with legendary editor Maxwell Perkins, the charismatic and controversial "White Lama" introduced a new vision of life and spiritual path to American culture before mysteriously disappearing in the Himalayas in 1947.Biography, travel and adventure, a history of Tibet's opening to the West, and the story of Buddhism and Yoga's arrival in America, White Lama: The Life of Tantric Yogi Theos Bernard, Tibet's Lost Emissary to the West is the first work to tell his groundbreaking story in full and is a narrative that thrills from beginning to end.
White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America's Darkest Secret
by A. J. BaimeA riveting biography of Walter F. White, a little-known Black civil rights leader who passed for white in order to investigate racist murders, help put the NAACP on the map, and change the racial identity of America forever Walter F. White led two lives: one as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance and the NAACP in the early twentieth century; the other as a white newspaperman who covered lynching crimes in the Deep South at the blazing height of racial violence. Born mixed race and with very fair skin and straight hair, White was able to &“pass&” for white. He leveraged this ambiguity as a reporter, bringing to light the darkest crimes in America and helping to plant the seeds of the civil rights movement. White&’s risky career led him to lead a double life. He was simultaneously a second-class citizen subject to Jim Crow laws at home and a widely respected professional with full access to the white world at work. His life was fraught with internal and external conflict—much like the story of race in America. Starting out as an obscure activist, White ultimately became Black America&’s most prominent leader. A character study of White&’s life and career with all these complexities has never been rendered, until now. By the award-winning, best-selling author of The Accidental President,Dewey Defeats Truman, and The Arsenal of Democracy,White Lies uncovers the life of a civil rights leader unlike any other.
The White Light of Grace: Reflections On The Life Of A Spiritual Intuitive
by Lillie LeonardiEver since she was a little girl, Lillie Leonardi could hear the whispers of angels. No one else could hear or see them, but deep down she knew they were real, and that they would help guide and protect her. She spent years pushing these visions aside, but on September 11, 2001, her life, like so many others, was forever changed. After witnessing a legion of angels at the Flight 93 crash site, she experienced an incredible transformation that opened her up to the magic, mystery, and miracles of life. And she gained the courage to share her story with others . . .In this decades-spanning memoir, Lillie reveals how she first uncovered her intuitive gifts. She explains how her ancestry, her strict Catholic upbringing, and other significant events impacted her spiritual evolution and faith in God. From understanding love and marriage, becoming a mother, and finding her true purpose and vocation in law enforcement to confronting separation, death, and loss, Lillie describes times in her life when she called on the angels for blessings, and others when she learned how to rely on herself. Throughout her journey of self-discovery, her realizations about forgiveness, self-acceptance, and healing unfold and offer divine inspiration for readers.
White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing
by Gail LukasikWhite Like Her: My Family’s Story of Race and Racial Passing is the story of Gail Lukasik’s mother’s “passing,” Gail’s struggle with the shame of her mother’s choice, and her subsequent journey of self-discovery and redemption. <P><P>In the historical context of the Jim Crow South, Gail explores her mother’s decision to pass, how she hid her secret even from her own husband, and the price she paid for choosing whiteness. Haunted by her mother’s fear and shame, Gail embarks on a quest to uncover her mother’s racial lineage, tracing her family back to eighteenth-century colonial Louisiana. In coming to terms with her decision to publicly out her mother, Gail changed how she looks at race and heritage. <P><P>With a foreword written by Kenyatta Berry, host of PBS's Genealogy Roadshow, this unique and fascinating story of coming to terms with oneself breaks down barriers.
White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing
by Gail Lukasik Kenyatta BerryWhite Like Her: My Family’s Story of Race and Racial Passing is the story of Gail Lukasik’s mother’s “passing,” Gail’s struggle with the shame of her mother’s choice, and her subsequent journey of self-discovery and redemption. In the historical context of the Jim Crow South, Gail explores her mother’s decision to pass, how she hid her secret even from her own husband, and the price she paid for choosing whiteness. Haunted by her mother’s fear and shame, Gail embarks on a quest to uncover her mother’s racial lineage, tracing her family back to eighteenth-century colonial Louisiana. In coming to terms with her decision to publicly out her mother, Gail changed how she looks at race and heritage. With a foreword written by Kenyatta Berry, host of PBS's Genealogy Roadshow, this unique and fascinating story of coming to terms with oneself breaks down barriers.
White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son
by Tim WiseWith a new preface and updated chapters, White Like Me is one-part memoir, one-part polemical essay collection. It is a personal examination of the way in which racial privilege shapes the daily lives of white Americans in every realm: employment, education, housing, criminal justice, and elsewhere.Using stories from his own life, Tim Wise demonstrates the ways in which racism not only burdens people of color, but also benefits, in relative terms, those who are "white like him." He discusses how racial privilege can harm whites in the long run and make progressive social change less likely. He explores the ways in which whites can challenge their unjust privileges, and explains in clear and convincing language why it is in the best interest of whites themselves to do so. Using anecdotes instead of stale statistics, Wise weaves a narrative that is at once readable and yet scholarly, analytical and yet accessible.
White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son (Third edition)
by Tim WiseWith a new preface and updated chapters, White Like Me is one-part memoir, one-part polemical essay collection. It is a personal examination of the way in which racial privilege shapes the daily lives of white Americans in every realm: employment, education, housing, criminal justice, and elsewhere. Using stories from his own life, Tim Wise demonstrates the ways in which racism not only burdens people of color, but also benefits, in relative terms, those who are "white like him. " He discusses how racial privilege can harm whites in the long run and make progressive social change less likely. He explores the ways in which whites can challenge their unjust privileges, and explains in clear and convincing language why it is in the best interest of whites themselves to do so. Using anecdotes instead of stale statistics, Wise weaves a narrative that is at once readable and yet scholarly, analytical and yet accessible.
White Line Fever: The Autobiography
by Lemmy KilmisterLemmy's name was synonymous with notorious excess. His blood would have killed another human being. This is the up-to-date story of the heaviest drinking, oversexed speedfreak in the music business who tragically passed away earlier this year. Lemmy had quickly outgrown his local bands in Wales, and tripped through his early career with the Rocking Vicars, backstage touring with Jimi Hendrix, and his time with Hawkwind. In 1975 he went on to create speedmetal and form the legendary band Motörhead. Motörhead stand firm as conquerors of the rock world, their history spanning an insurrectionary forty years. While the Motörhead line-up saw many changes, Lemmy was always the soul of the machine. In the words of drummer Mikkey Dee, 'Lemmy was Motörhead.' White Line Fever has been completely updated post Lemmy's untimely death in 2016, and offers all Motörhead fans who loved his music a sometimes hilarious, often outrageous, highly entertaining ride with the frontman of (what was) the loudest rock band in history. A truly epic finale, and tribute, to Lemmy from those who loved him best.
White Line Fever
by Lemmy Kilmister"He made Keith Richards look like a choirboy and Mick Jagger look like a nun. And as the head of the legendary band Motorhead, he ploughed his way through so many drugs, so many women, and so much alcohol, that he gave a whole new meaning to the term Debau"
White Line Fever: The Autobiography
by Lemmy Garza Janiss KilmisterOne of music's most notorious frontmen leads a headbanging, voyeuristic odyssey into sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll that rivals Motley Crue's The Dirt and Aerosmith's Walk This Way. <P><P>He made Keith Richards look like a choirboy and Mick Jagger look like a nun. And as the head of the legendary band Motorhead, he ploughed his way through so many drugs, so many women, and so much alcohol, that he gave a whole new meaning to the term Debauchery. And he changed the face of music, conquering the rock world with such songs as Ace of Spades, Bomber, and Overkill and inventing a whole new form of music--speed metal. At the age of 57, Lemmy Kilmister remains a rock icon, both for his monumental talent and his hedonistic lifestyle. In White Line Fever, he recounts his incredible, pleasure-filled, and death-defying journey through music history. Born on Christmas Eve, 1945, in Wales, to a vicar and a librarian, Ian Fraser Kilmister learned early, he as he forthrightly puts it, what an incredible pussy magnet guitars were. A teenager at the birth of rock 'n' roll, Lemmy idolized Elvis and Buddy Holly and soon joined a band of his own. He would eventually head to London, where he became a roadie for Jimi Hendrix, played in Opal Butterfly, and joined space rockers Hawkwind's lineup in 1971. Four years later, speedfreak Lemmy was fired from the band for doing the wrong drugs. Vowing to form the dirtiest rock 'n' roll band in the world, he formed Motorhead, arguably the heaviest and loudest heavy metal band to ever take the stage. During their twenty-seven-year history, Motorhead would go on to release twenty-one albums, including the #1 record No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith and would earn a Grammynomination. Lemmy would also cheat death on more than one occasion, most notoriously in 1980, when his doctor told him, I cannot give you a blood transfusion because normal blood will kill you. . . and your blood would kill another human being, because you're so toxic. But through more than two decades of notorious excess, Lemmy has lived to tell the warts-and-all tale of a life lived over the edge. White Line Fever, a tour of overindulgence, metal, and the search for musical integrity, offers a sometimes hilarious, often outrageous, and always unbridled ride with the leader of the loudest rock band in the world. "
The White Masai
by Corinne HofmannCorinne Hofmann falls in love with a Masai warrior while on holiday with her boyfriend in Kenya. After overcoming all sorts of obstacles, she moves into a tiny shack with him and his mother in his village, and spends four years in Kenya. Slowly but surely the dream starts to crumble until she flees back home with her baby daughter born out of the seemingly indestructible love between a white European woman and a Masai. This is a major feature film to be released in the UK 2006.
White Matter
by Janet SternburgWhite Matter: A Memoir of Family and Medicine is the story of a Bostonian close-knit Jewish working-class family of five sisters and one brother and the impact they and their next generation endured due to the popularization of lobotomy during the 20th century. When Janet Sternburg's grandfather abandoned his family, and her uncle, Bennie, became increasing mentally ill, Sternburg's mother and aunts had to bind together and make crucial decisions for the family's survival. Two of the toughest familial decisions they made were to have Bennie undergo a lobotomy to treat his schizophrenia and later to have youngest sister, Francie, undergo the same procedure to treat severe depression. Both heartrending decisions were largely a result of misinformation disseminated that popularized and legitimized lobotomy.Woven into Sternburg's story are notable figures that influenced the family as well as the entire medical field. In 1949, Egas Moniz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for developing the lobotomy, and in the three years that followed his acceptance of the award, more Americans underwent the surgery than during the previous 14 years. By the early 1950s, Walter Freeman developed an alternate technique for lobotomy, which he proselytized during his travels throughout the country in a van he dubbed the "Lobotomobile."The phrase "prefrontal lobotomy" was common currency growing up in Janet Sternburg's family and in White Matter she details this scientific discovery that disconnects the brain's white matter, leaving a person without feelings, and its undeserved legitimization and impact on her family. She writes as a daughter consumed with questions about her mother and aunts-all well meaning women who decided their siblings' mental health issues would be best treated with lobotomies. By the late 1970s, the surgical practice was almost completely out of favor, but its effects left patients and their families with complicated legacies as well as a stain on American medical history. Every generation has to make its own medical choices based on knowledge that will inevitably come to seem inadequate in the future. How do we live with our choices when we see their consequences?
The White Mosque: A Memoir
by Sofia SamatarWinner of the Bernard J. Brommel Award for Biography & Memoir (Midland Authors Book Award)Finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book AwardA historical tapestry of border-crossing travelers, of students, wanderers, martyrs and invaders, The White Mosque is a memoiristic, prismatic record of a journey through Uzbekistan and of the strange shifts, encounters, and accidents that combine to create an identityIn the late nineteenth century, a group of German-speaking Mennonites traveled from Russia into Central Asia, where their charismatic leader predicted Christ would return.Over a century later, Sofia Samatar joins a tour following their path, fascinated not by the hardships of their journey, but by its aftermath: the establishment of a small Christian village in the Muslim Khanate of Khiva. Named Ak Metchet, &“The White Mosque,&” after the Mennonites&’ whitewashed church, the village lasted for fifty years.In pursuit of this curious history, Samatar discovers a variety of characters whose lives intersect around the ancient Silk Road, from a fifteenth-century astronomer-king, to an intrepid Swiss woman traveler of the 1930s, to the first Uzbek photographer, and explores such topics as Central Asian cinema, Mennonite martyrs, and Samatar&’s own complex upbringing as the daughter of a Swiss-Mennonite and a Somali-Muslim, raised as a Mennonite of color in America.A secular pilgrimage to a lost village and a near-forgotten history, The White Mosque traces the porous and ever-expanding borders of identity, asking: How do we enter the stories of others? And how, out of the tissue of life, with its weird incidents, buried archives, and startling connections, does a person construct a self?
The White Notebook
by André GideThis work lays bare the early brilliance and philosophical conflicts of André Gide, a towering figure in French literature Nobel Prize–winning writer André Gide lays bare his adolescent psyche in this early work, first conceived and published as part of his novel The Notebooks of André Walter, completed when he was just twenty years old. This profoundly personal work draws heavily on his religious upbringing and private journals to tell the story of a young man who, like the author, pines for his forbidden love, cousin Emmanuelle. This unique portrait of Gide as a young man presents the passions and conflicts, temptations and anguish he would explore in maturity.
The White Notebook
by André GideThis work lays bare the early brilliance and philosophical conflicts of André Gide, a towering figure in French literature Nobel Prize–winning writer André Gide lays bare his adolescent psyche in this early work, first conceived and published as part of his novel The Notebooks of André Walter, completed when he was just twenty years old. This profoundly personal work draws heavily on his religious upbringing and private journals to tell the story of a young man who, like the author, pines for his forbidden love, cousin Emmanuelle. This unique portrait of Gide as a young man presents the passions and conflicts, temptations and anguish he would explore in maturity.
White Out
by Michael W. CluneA classic of addiction and recovery.How do you describe an addiction in which your drug of choice creates a hole in your memory, a &“white out,&” so that every time you use it is the first time—new, fascinating, vivid? Michael W. Clune&’s story takes us straight inside such an addiction—what he calls &“the memory disease.&” With dark humor, and in crystalline prose, Clune&’s account of life inside the heroin underground reads like no other. Whisking us between the halves of his precarious double life—between the streets of Baltimore and the college classroom, where Clune is a graduate student teaching literature—we spiral along with him as he approaches rock bottom: from nodding off in a row house with a one-armed junkie and a murderous religious freak to having his life threatened in a Chicago jail while facing a felony possession charge. After his descent into addiction, we follow Clune through detox, treatment, and finally into recovery as he returns to his childhood home, where the memory disease and his heroin-induced white out begin to fade. White Out is more than a memoir. It is a rigorous investigation that offers clarity, hope, and even beauty to anyone who wants to understand the disease or its cure. This tenth anniversary edition includes a new preface by the author.
White Out: The Secret Life of Heroin
by Michael Wesley CluneClune’s gripping account of life inside the heroin underground reads like no other, as we enter the mind of the addict and navigate the world therein.How do you describe an addiction in which the drug of choice creates a hole in your memory, a “white out,” so that every time you use it is the first time--new, fascinating, and vivid? Michael W. Clune’s original, edgy yet literary telling of his own story takes us straight inside such an addiction--what he calls the Memory Disease.With black humor and quick, rhythmic prose, Clune’s gripping account of life inside the heroin underground reads like no other, as we enter the mind of the addict and navigate the world therein. Clune whisks us between the streets of Baltimore and the university campus, revealing his dual life while a graduate student teaching literature. We spiral downward with Clune--from nodding off in an abandoned row-house with a one-armed junkie and a murderous Jesus freak to scanning a crowded lecture hall for an enemy with a gun.After experiencing his descent into addiction, we go with him through detox, treatment, and finally into recovery as he returns to his childhood home and to the world of color. It is there that the Memory Disease and his heroin-induced white out begins to fade.
White Rajah: A Biography of Sir James Brooke
by Dr Nigel BarleySir James Brooke was an extraordinary 'eminent' Victorian, whose life was the stuff of legend.His curious career began in 1841 when he was caught up in a war in Brunei which had started because a party of local Dayaks had refused to furl their umbrellas in the presence of the Sultan. Brooke was an opportunist who, with the Sultan's backing, made war on the Dayaks tribespeople and eventually found himself ruling over Sarawak - a kingdom the size of England - as a result. How he achieved it is a romantic, sometimes horrifying story. Brooke is someone that George Macdonald Fraser would scarcely dare to invent. Errol Flynn wanted to play him in a movie, seventy years after his death and his dynasty is remembered throughout South-East Asia.
White Rajah: A Biography of Sir James Brooke
by Nigel BarleySir James Brooke was an extraordinary 'eminent' Victorian, whose life was the stuff of legend.His curious career began in 1841 when he was caught up in a war in Brunei which had started because a party of local Dayaks had refused to furl their umbrellas in the presence of the Sultan. Brooke was an opportunist who, with the Sultan's backing, made war on the Dayaks tribespeople and eventually found himself ruling over Sarawak - a kingdom the size of England - as a result. How he achieved it is a romantic, sometimes horrifying story. Brooke is someone that George Macdonald Fraser would scarcely dare to invent. Errol Flynn wanted to play him in a movie, seventy years after his death and his dynasty is remembered throughout South-East Asia.
The White Road
by Edmund De WaalExtraordinary new non-fiction, a gripping blend of history and memoir, by the author of the award-winning and bestselling international sensation, The Hare with Amber Eyes. In The White Road, bestselling author and artist Edmund de Waal gives us an intimate narrative history of his lifelong obsession with porcelain, or "white gold." A potter who has been working with porcelain for more than forty years, de Waal describes how he set out on five journeys to places where porcelain was dreamed about, refined, collected and coveted--and that would help him understand the clay's mysterious allure. From his studio in London, he starts by travelling to three "white hills"--sites in China, Germany and England that are key to porcelain's creation. But his search eventually takes him around the globe and reveals more than a history of cups and figurines; rather, he is forced to confront some of the darkest moments of twentieth-century history. Part memoir, part history, part detective story, The White Road chronicles a global obsession with alchemy, art, wealth, craft and purity. In a sweeping yet intimate style that recalls The Hare with Amber Eyes, de Waal gives us a singular understanding of "the spectrum of porcelain" and the mapping of desire.
White Robes and Broken Badges: Infiltrating the KKK and Exposing the Evil Among Us
by Joe MooreIn this shocking memoir, a former FBI informant reveals what he learned from successfully infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan in the backwoods of the Sunshine State, uncovering details about the hate group’s structure and its modern far-right spinoffs which are operating to achieve the same goal: inciting a second civil war by whatever violent means necessary.“We need you back.”It was a call FBI informant and former Army sniper Joe Moore never expected to get. He’d already infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan once before, and his contributions prevented an assassination attempt targeting then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. Moore nearly lost his life in the process. But now, the FBI needed Moore’s help once again.In White Robes and Broken Badges, Moore reveals the astounding true story of how he became one of the most entrenched and valuable undercover agents in the FBI’s history. Gripping, told with astonishing detail, this heart pounding and darkly propulsive memoir vividly recounts how he infiltrated the “Invisible Empire” at the highest levels—not once, but twice—becoming a Grand Knighthawk, overseeing security, defense, and internal communications for the domestic terrorist group across Florida and Georgia. Moore makes clear how the seeds of violence and hate spawned the tragedy in Charlottesville, the failed January 6 Capitol coup, and the growing threat posed by extremist militias—including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, Three Percenters, and others.Going undercover, Moore discovered the shocking connections between the KKK and law enforcement across Florida—police officers, prison guards, and sheriff’s deputies who all belonged to the Klan—and eventually exposed the terrifying presence of right-wing extremists throughout law enforcement today. Moore reflects on the steep personal costs of immersing himself in the Klan’s racist ideology and twisted rituals—and its effect on himself and his family—while secretly providing the FBI with invaluable information on the Klan’s inner workings, murderous plots, and plans for civil war.With a foreword by Congressman Jamie Raskin and illustrated with 8-pages of color photos, White Robes and Broken Badges is a comprehensive and unprecedented look at a growing threat in America and an urgent call-to-action—because ultimately, the answers to healing the divides in this country lie in its perilous history.
White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World
by Geoff DyerFrom "one of our most original writers" (Kathryn Schulz, New York magazine) comes an expansive and exacting book--firmly grounded but elegant, often hilarious, and always inquisitive--about travel, unexpected awareness, and the questions we ask when we step outside ourselves. Geoff Dyer's restless search--for what? is unclear, even to him--continues in this series of fascinating adventures and pilgrimages: with a tour guide who may not be a tour guide in the Forbidden City in Beijing; with friends in New Mexico, where D. H. Lawrence famously claimed to have had his "greatest experience from the outside world"; with a hitchhiker picked up on the way from White Sands; with Don Cherry (or a photo of him, at any rate) at the Watts Towers in Los Angeles. Weaving stories about places to which he has recently traveled with images and memories that have persisted since childhood, Dyer tries "to work out what a certain place--a certain way of marking the landscape--means; what it's trying to tell us; what we go to it for."With 4 pages of full-color illustrations.From the Hardcover edition.
White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America
by Fintan O'TooleA provocative new biography of the man who forged America's alliance with the IroquoisWilliam Johnson was scarcely more than a boy when he left Ireland and his Gaelic, Catholic family to become a Protestant in the service of Britain's North American empire. In New York by 1738, Johnson moved to the frontiers along the Mohawk River, where he established himself as a fur trader and eventually became a landowner with vast estates; served as principal British intermediary with the Iroquois Confederacy; command British, colonial, and Iroquois forces that defeated the French in the battle of Lake George in 1755; and created the first groups of "rangers," who fought like Indians and led the way to the Patriots' victories in the Revolution. As Fintan O'Toole's superbly researched, colorfully dramatic narrative makes clear, the key to Johnson's signal effectiveness was the style in which he lived as a "white savage." Johnson had two wives, one European, one Mohawk; became fluent in Mohawk; and pioneered the use of Indians as active partners in the making of a new America. O'Toole's masterful use of the extraordinary (often hilariously misspelled) documents written by Irish, Dutch, German, French, and Native American participants in Johnson's drama enlivens the account of this heroic figure's legendary career; it also suggests why Johnson's early multiculturalism unraveled, and why the contradictions of his enterprise created a historical dead end.