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A Sad Fiasco: Colonial Concentration Camps in Southern Africa, 1900–1908 (War and Genocide #29)
by Jonas KreienbaumOnly in recent years has the history of European colonial concentration camps in Africa—in which thousands of prisoners died in appalling conditions—become widely known beyond a handful of specialists. Although they preceded the Third Reich by many decades, the camps’ newfound notoriety has led many to ask to what extent they anticipated the horrors of the Holocaust. Were they designed for mass killing, a misbegotten attempt at modernization, or something else entirely? A Sad Fiasco confronts this difficult question head-on, reconstructing the actions of colonial officials in both British South Africa and German South-West Africa as well as the experiences of internees to explore both the similarities and the divergences between the African camps and their Nazi-era successors.
A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel
by Ronald Radosh Allis Radosh“[This] revelatory account of Truman's vital contributions to Israel's founding. . .is told. . . with an elegance informed by thorough research." —Wall Street Journal"Even knowing how the story ends, A Safe Haven had me sitting on the edge of my seat.” —Cokie Roberts A dramatic, detailed account of the events leading up to the creation of a Jewish homeland and the true story behind President Harry S. Truman’s controversial decision to recognize of the State of Israel in 1948, drawn from Truman’s long-lost diary entries and other previously unused archival materials.
A Safe and Sustainable World: The Promise Of Ecological Design
by Nancy Jack ToddIn the late sixties, as the world awoke to a need for Earth Day, a pioneering group founded a small non-profit research and education organization they called the New Alchemy Institute. Their aim was to explore the ways a safer and more sustainable world could be created. In the ensuing years, along with scientists, agriculturists, and a host of enthusiastic amateurs and friends, they set out to discover new ways that basic human needs--in the form of food, shelter, and energy--could be met. A Safe and Sustainable World is the story of that journey, as it was and as it continues to be.The dynamics and the resilience of the living world were the Institute's model and inspiration for their research. Central to their efforts then and now is, along with science, a spiritual quest for a more harmonious human role in our planet's future. The results of this work have now entered mainstream science through the emerging discipline of ecological design.Nancy Jack Todd relates a fascinating journey from lofty ideals through the hard realities encountered in learning how to actually grow food, harness the energy of the sun and wind, and design green architecture. She also introduces us to some of the heroes and mentors who played a vital role in those efforts, from Buckminster Fuller to Margaret Mead.Successfully proving through the Institute's designs and investigations that basic land sustainability is achievable, John Todd and the author founded a second non-profit research group, Ocean Arks International. A Safe and Sustainable World demonstrates what has, can, and must be done to integrate human ingenuity and four billion years of evolutionary intelligence into healthy, decentralized, local dreams.
A Safety Valve Model of Equity as Anti-opportunism (Elements in Law, Economics and Politics)
by Kenneth Ayotte Ezra Friedman Henry E SmithEquity can be defined as the use of a more flexible, morally judgmental, and subjective mode of legal decision making that roughly corresponds with historical equity. This Element presents a simple contracting model that captures the role of equity as a safety valve, and shows how it can solve problems posed by opportunists–agents with unusual willingness and ability to take advantage of necessary imperfections in the law. In this model, a simple but imperfect formal legal regime is able to achieve first best in the absence of opportunists. But when opportunists are added, a more flexible regime (equity), can be preferred. However, equity is also vulnerable to being used opportunistically by the parties it intends to protect. Hence, the Element shows that it is often preferable to limit equity, reserving it for use only against those who appear sufficiently likely to be opportunists.
A Sage on the Stage: Common Sense Reflections on Teaching and Learning
by Michael ZwaagstraA collection of articles on what works for teachers and learners in the classroom - and what doesn't. Covers topics from school discipline to content knowledge to no-zero policies. Michael Zwaagstra is a public high school teacher and author. He has extensive teaching experience at a variety of grade levels and currently teaches high school social studies in Manitoba.
A Sage on the Stage: Common Sense Reflections on Teaching and Learning
by Michael ZwaagstraA collection of articles on what works for teachers and learners in the classroom - and what doesn't. Covers topics from school discipline to content knowledge to no-zero policies. Michael Zwaagstra is a public high school teacher and author. He has extensive teaching experience at a variety of grade levels and currently teaches high school social studies in Manitoba.
A Sales Tax for Alberta: Why and How
by Elizabeth Smythe Melville McMillan Graham Thomson Ergete Ferede Ian Glassford Kenneth J. McKenzie Trevor W. HarrisonThe days of buoyant capital investment, jobs, and wealth are passing Alberta by as the boom-and-bust cycle runs its course and the global climate crisis becomes more acute. As the province scrambles to boost the dying oil economy and curb spending, one solution is all but ignored—a sales tax. In this collection, Alberta scholars and policy experts map out why and how a provincial sales tax can and should be implemented. They examine energy revenues, household incomes, and political support as well as opportunities for improving democracy and reducing the volatility of government revenues. Finally, this volume offers recommendations on structuring a consultative review process to improve Alberta’s long-term fiscal sustainability. Contributions by Ergete Ferede, Ian Glassford, Kenneth J. McKenzie, Melville McMillan, Elizabeth Smythe, and Graham Thomson.
A Satellite Empire: Romanian Rule in Southwestern Ukraine, 1941–1944
by Vladimir SolonariSatellite Empire is an in-depth investigation of the political and social history of the area in southwestern Ukraine under Romanian occupation during World War II. Transnistria was the only occupied Soviet territory administered by a power other than Nazi Germany, a reward for Romanian participation in Operation Barbarossa.Vladimir Solonari's invaluable contribution to World War II history focuses on three main aspects of Romanian rule of Transnistria: with fascinating insights from recently opened archives, Solonari examines the conquest and delimitation of the region, the Romanian administration of the new territory, and how locals responded to the occupation. What did Romania want from the conquest? The first section of the book analyzes Romanian policy aims and its participation in the invasion of the USSR. Solonari then traces how Romanian administrators attempted, in contradictory and inconsistent ways, to make Transnistria "Romanian" and "civilized" while simultaneously using it as a dumping ground for 150,000 Jews and 20,000 Roma deported from a racially cleansed Romania. The author shows that the imperatives of total war eventually prioritized economic exploitation of the region over any other aims the Romanians may have had. In the final section, he uncovers local responses in terms of collaboration and resistance, in particular exploring relationships with the local Christian population, which initially welcomed the occupiers as liberators from Soviet oppression but eventually became hostile to them. Ever increasing hostility towards the occupying regime buoyed the numbers and efficacy of pro-Soviet resistance groups.
A Savage Order: How the World's Deadliest Countries Can Forge a Path to Security
by Rachel KleinfeldThe most violent places in the world today are not at war. More people have died in Mexico in recent years than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. These parts of the world are instead buckling under a maelstrom of gangs, organized crime, political conflict, corruption, and state brutality. Such devastating violence can feel hopeless, yet some places—from Colombia to the Republic of Georgia—have been able to recover. In this powerfully argued and urgent book, Rachel Kleinfeld examines why some democracies, including our own, are crippled by extreme violence and how they can regain security. Drawing on fifteen years of study and firsthand field research—interviewing generals, former guerrillas, activists, politicians, mobsters, and law enforcement in countries around the world—Kleinfeld tells the stories of societies that successfully fought seemingly ingrained violence and offers penetrating conclusions about what must be done to build governments that are able to protect the lives of their citizens. Taking on existing literature and popular theories about war, crime, and foreign intervention, A Savage Order is a blistering yet inspiring investigation into what makes some countries peaceful and others war zones, and a blueprint for what we can do to help.
A Savage Republic: Inside the Plot to Destroy America
by Michael SavageFrom New York Times Bestselling Author and Host of the Michael Savage Podcast A Warning to All Freedom-Loving AmericansMichael Savage predicted the chaos that is Biden&’s legacy. Now he tells us whether the destruction can be stopped! The prophetic author of bestsellers including Stop Mass Hysteria, A Savage Life, and Our Fight for America, Dr. Michael Savage is back with his most urgent and important work. Listeners of Dr. Savage&’s top-rated podcast, The Michael Savage Show podcast, know him to be an articulate and engaged spokesman for traditional American values of borders, language, and culture. Now, after just a few short years of the Biden Gang, Dr. Savage lays out an irrefutable case for how our nation has been undermined by adversaries from without, by anarchists from within, by an incompetent president and politicians with contempt for the Constitution and the law, and by a complicit liberal media. With words and topics that are as insightful as they are timely, he makes an ironclad case for the dangers we face from the Biden administration and the progressive movement. He also explains what the conservative movement must do to regain control of our government, our country, and our national soul. Your rights are under attack from the Biden administration, the Democrats, and the radical left-wing socialists who are infiltrating every aspect of American life. Michael Savage covers all the dangerous hot-topics currently engulfing United States politics and threatening the American way of life: · cancel culture, · out-of-control immigration, · business-destroying lockdowns, · crime gone crazy, · silencing of free speech, · threats to freedom of religion, · and much, much more. A Savage Republic: Inside the Plot to Destroy America will lay out the threats we face, prepare you for what&’s next, and offer solutions to save our republic. Wake up and fight back before it is too late!
A School for Fools
by Sasha Sokolov Alexander BoguslawskiBy turns lyrical and philosophical, witty and baffling, A School for Fools confounds all expectations of the novel. Here we find not one reliable narrator but two "unreliable" narrators: the young man who is a student at the "school for fools" and his double. What begins as a reverie (with frequent interruptions) comes to seem a sort of fairy-tale quest not for gold or marriage but for self-knowledge. The currents of consciousness running through the novel are passionate and profound. Memories of childhood summers at the dacha are contemporaneous with the present, the dead are alive, and the beloved is present in the wind. Here is a tale either of madness or of the life of the imagination in conversation with reason, straining at the limits of language; in the words of Vladimir Nabokov, "an enchanting, tragic, and touching book."or which he was imprisoned. In 1975, he was allowed to leave the country following an international human rights scandal. The manuscript of A School for Fools, his first novel, was smuggled out of the Soviet Union that same year, and published to great acclaim in the west. A School for Fools has been translated into over twenty languages. Sokolov is the recipient of the prestigious Andrei Bely Prize in 1981, and of the Pushkin Prize for Literature in 1996. He is also the author of novels Astrophobia and Between Dog and Wolf, and of a book of essays In the House of the Hanged.
A School of Our Own: The Story of the First Student-Run High School and a New Vision for American Education
by Susan Engel Samuel LevinThe remarkable true story of the high school junior who started his own school—and earned acclaim nationwide—&“will make you laugh, cry and cheer&” (John Merrow, author of The Influence of Teachers). Samuel Levin, a teenager who had already achieved international fame for creating Project Sprout—the first farm-to-school lunch program in the United States—was frustrated with his own education, and saw disaffection among his peers. In response, he lobbied for and created a new school based on a few simple ideas about what kids need from their high school experience. The school succeeded beyond anyone&’s wildest expectations and went on to be featured on NPR and in Newsweek and the Washington Post. Since its beginnings in 2010, the Independent Project serves as a national model for inspiring student engagement. In creating his school, Samuel collaborated with Susan Engel, the noted developmental psychologist, educator, and author—and Samuel&’s mother. A School of Our Own is their account of their life-changing year in education, a book that combines poignant stories, educational theory, and practical how-to advice for building new, more engaging educational environments for our children.
A Schoolmaster's War: Harry Ree - A British Agent in the French Resistance
by Jonathan ReeThe wartime adventures of the legendary SOE agent Harry Rée, told in his own words A school teacher at the start of the war, Harry Rée renounced his former pacifism with the fall of France in 1940. He was deployed into a secret branch of the British army and parachuted into central France in April 1943. Harry showed a particular talent for winning the confidence of local resisters, and guided them in a series of dramatic sabotage operations, before getting into a hand-to-hand fight with an armed German officer, from which he was lucky to escape. This might seem like a romantic story of heroism and derring-do, but Harry Rée's own war writings, superbly edited and contextualized by his son, the philosopher Jonathan Rée, are far more nuanced, shot through with doubts, regrets, and grief.
A Scourge of Vipers: A Mulligan Novel (Liam Mulligan #4)
by Bruce DeSilvaA Rhode Island reporter throws his life into jeopardy after investigating corruption in this crime thriller by an Edgar Award–winning author.To solve Rhode Island’s budget crisis, the state’s colorful governor, a defrocked Roman Catholic sister known as Attila the Nun, wants to legalize sports gambling. But the announcement of her plan has unexpected consequences. Organized crime, professional sports leagues, and others who have a lot to lose—or gain—if gambling is made legal flood the state with money to buy the legislators’ votes.Liam Mulligan, a reporter for the struggling Providence Dispatch, wants to investigate who will benefit most, but his bottom-feeding corporate bosses have no interest in serious reporting. So Mulligan goes rogue, digging into the story on his own time. When a powerful state legislator turns up dead, an out-of-state bag man gets shot, and his cash-stuffed briefcase goes missing, Mulligan’s investigation makes him a target for shadowy forces who seek to thwart him by destroying his career, his reputation, and perhaps even his life . . .A Scourge of Vipers is at once a suspenseful crime story and a serious exploration of the hypocrisy surrounding sports gambling and the corrupting influence of big money on politics.“A consistently well-written hard-boiled series. . . . This excellent addition features a bit of romance, a lot of action, plenty of snappy repartee, and social commentary on the fate of newspaper journalism and the corrupting role of money in the political process. Quality all the way.” —Library Journal (starred review)“The lean prose and clever plotting will remind hard-boiled fans of Loren Estleman’s Amos Walker novels.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A Search for Sovereignty
by Lauren BentonA Search for Sovereignty approaches world history by examining the relation of law and geography in European empires between 1400 and 1900. Lauren Benton argues that Europeans imagined imperial space as networks of corridors and enclaves, and that they constructed sovereignty in ways that merged ideas about geography and law. Conflicts over treason, piracy, convict transportation, martial law, and crime created irregular spaces of law, while also attaching legal meanings to familiar geographic categories such as rivers, oceans, islands, and mountains. The resulting legal and spatial anomalies influenced debates about imperial constitutions and international law both in the colonies and at home. This study changes our understanding of empire and its legacies and opens new perspectives on the global history of law.
A Season for Martyrs: A Novel
by Bina ShahA harrowing account of the last three months of Benazir Bhutto&’s life October, 2007. Pakistan&’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returns home after eight years of exile to seek political office once more. Assigned to cover her controversial arrival is TV journalist Ali Sikandar, the estranged son of a wealthy landowner from the interior region of Sindh. While her presence ignites fierce protests and assassination attempts, Ali finds himself irrevocably drawn to the pro-democracy People&’s Resistance Movement, a secret that sweeps him into the many contradictions of a country still struggling to embrace modernity. As Shah weaves together the centuries-old history of Ali&’s feudal family and its connection to the Bhuttos, she brilliantly reveals a story at the crossroads of the personal and the political, a chronicle of one man&’s desire to overcome extremity to find love, forgiveness, and even identity itself.
A Seat at the Table: Congresswomen's Perspectives on Why Their Presence Matters
by Kira Sanbonmatsu Susan J. Carroll Kelly DittmarThe presence of women in Congress is at an all-time high—approximately one of every five members is female—and record numbers of women are running for public office for the 2018 midterms. At the same time, Congress is more polarized than ever, and little research exists on how women inCongress view their experiences and contributions to American politics today. <p><p>Drawing on personal interviews with over three-quarters of the women serving in the 114th Congress, the authors analyze how these women navigate today's stark partisan divisions, and whether they feel effective in their jobs. Unlike other studies of women in Congress, this book avoids looking at gender in a vacuum, instead considering how gender interacts with political party, race and ethnicity, seniority, chamber, and district characteristics to shape women's representational influence and behavior. <p><P>Through first-person perspectives, A Seat at the Table looks at what motivates these women's legislative priorities and behavior, details the ways in which women experience service within a male-dominated institution, and highlights why it matters that women sit in the nation's federal legislative chambers. It describes the strategies women employ to "slog through" any challenges they confront as well as the opportunities available to them. Importantly, the book looks at the myriad ways in which different women's representation matters, beyond gender dichotomies and "women's issues"—finding that two of the most complicating factors to a singular narrative of women's congressional representation are party and race and ethnicity. While their perspectives, experiences, and influence are neither uniform nor interchangeable, congresswomen believe their presence matters in myriad ways, affecting congressional culture, priorities, processes, debates, and outcomes.
A Seat at the Table: Huston Smith in Conversation with Native Americans on Religious Freedom
by Huston Smith Gary Rhine Phil CousineauIn this collection of illuminating conversations, renowned historian of world religions Huston Smith invites ten influential American Indian spiritual and political leaders to talk about their five-hundred-year struggle for religious freedom. Their intimate, impassioned dialogues yield profound insights into one of the most striking cases of tragic irony in history: the country that prides itself on religious freedom has resolutely denied those same rights to its own indigenous people. With remarkable erudition and curiosity―and respectfully framing his questions in light of the revelation that his discovery of Native American religion helped him round out his views of the world's religions―Smith skillfully helps reveal the depth of the speakers' knowledge and experience. <p><p> American Indian leaders Vine Deloria, Jr. (Standing Rock Sioux), Winona LaDuke (Anishshinaabeg), Walter Echo-Hawk (Pawnee), Frank Dayish, Jr. (Navajo), Charlotte Black Elk (Oglala Lakota), Douglas George-Kanentiio (Mohawk-Iroquois), Lenny Foster (Dine/Navajo), Tonya Gonnella Frichner (Onondaga), Anthony Guy Lopez (Lakota-Sioux), and Oren Lyons (Onondaga) provide an impressive overview of the critical issues facing the Native American community today. Their ideas about spirituality, politics, relations with the U.S. government, their place in American society, and the continuing vitality of their communities give voice to a population that is all too often ignored in contemporary discourse. The culture they describe is not a relic of the past, nor a historical curiosity, but a living tradition that continues to shape Native American lives.
A Seat at the Table: The Life and Times of Shirley Chisholm
by Glenn L. StarksWhen Shirley Chisholm was asked why she would dare run for president, her response was, why not her? Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm rose from being the child of immigrants to the United States to running for the highest office in the land. Her achievement in doing this as a Black woman was not in spite of her background but rather because of it. She became both the first African American woman elected to the US Congress and the first female African American of a major political party to make a serious run for president of the United States. She persevered by being steadfast in her political convictions and unwillingness to compromise on the issues she believed in. Chisholm directly challenged the political establishment and was successful because she galvanized women, minorities, young people, and the poor not only in her home district in Brooklyn, New York, but across the country. She was that catalyst for change who gave a political voice to so many segments of society who were, up until that time, ignored: women, minorities, the young, members of the gay community, domestic and agricultural workers, and the poor. Her run for the presidency in 1972 was a win in terms of her forging a unified grassroots campaign in which the voices of the previously voiceless joined together for a single cause of voting for someone who supported their diverse but collective interests.As many historians have pointed out, without Shirley Chisholm there may not have been a Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or Kamala Harris.
A Seat at the Table: The Nancy Pelosi Story
by Elisa BoxerThis inspiring picture-book biography about Nancy Pelosi shows her journey from the child of Baltimore's mayor to her marble-ceiling-shattering four terms as Speaker of the House, including the historic events of January 6th, 2021. Nancy Pelosi grew up watching her father, the mayor of Baltimore, welcome in people of all different backgrounds to sit at their table and make their voices heard. Nancy's mother always stood beside him, working behind the scenes to help her husband and the people he served. When Nancy grew up, she continued working behind the scenes in politics until a friend asked her to run for Congress herself--jump-starting a 33 year career as a political representative and taking her higher than she could have once imagined.Young girls, especially, will be inspired by Nancy's journey and her commitment to using her voice to help others and to make sure women are heard in government. The backmatter also includes an exclusive interview with Nancy Pelosi herself.
A Second Chance for Europe: Economic, Political and Legal Perspectives of the European Union
by Jo RitzenThis book calls upon us to rethink and reboot the European Union. The authors dissect the EU's many vulnerabilities: how some Member States are backsliding on the rule of law, freedom of the press, and control of corruption - and how globalization's 'discontents' are threatening the liberal international order. It examines the need for a common immigration policy; the need to rethink the unsustainable debt overhang of some Eurozone countries; and the need to use education to foster a European identity. Given the sum total of these vulnerabilities, the book argues, the EU may not survive beyond 2025 in its present form - that is, unless decisive action is taken. In turn, the book puts forward a number of workable solutions: a European economic model to secure full employment; a stronger European Court of Human Rights to counter systemic violations; a points-based immigration policy; clear exit options for the Eurozone; and an Open Education Area with a common second language. These solutions may reduce the number of EU countries, but would increase cohesion and overall survivability.
A Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola
by Ricardo CortésFrom the cocreator of Go the Fuck to Sleep presents an illustrated history of the intermingling of Coffee, Coca-Cola, and Cocaine. VERY SHORT LIST chose A Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola for the #1 Spot on their November 16 Food E-mail A Brain Pickings Favorite Food Book of 2012 and one of their Best Graphic Novels & Graphic Nonfiction of 2012 Featured in Columbia College Today's Bookshelf section A Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola tells how one of the biggest companies in the world bypasses an international ban on coca. The book also explores histories of three of the most consumed substances on earth, revealing connections between seemingly disparate icons of modern culture: caffeine, cocaine, and Coca-Cola. A Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola is an illustrated book disclosing new research in the coca leaf trade conducted by The Coca-Cola Company. 2011 marked the 125th anniversary of its iconic beverage, and the fiftieth anniversary of the international drug control treaty that allows Coca-Cola exclusive access to the coca plant. Most people are familiar with tales of cocaine being an early ingredient of "Coke" tonic; it's an era the company makes every effort to bury. Yet coca leaf, the source of cocaine which has been banned in the U.S. since 1914, has been part of Coca-Cola's secret formula for over one hundred years. This is a history that spans from cocaine factories in Peru, to secret experiments at the University of Hawaii, to the personal files of U.S. Bureau of Narcotics Commissioner Harry Anslinger (infamous for his "Reefer Madness" campaign against marijuana, lesser known as a long-time collaborator of The Coca-Cola Company). Coca-Cola is the most popular soft drink on earth, and soft drinks are the number one food consumed in the American diet. Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive substance. Cocaine . . . well, people seem to like reading about cocaine. An illustrated chronicle that will appeal to fans of food and drink histories (e.g., Mark Kurlansky's Salt and Cod; Mark Pendergrast's For God, Country & Coca-Cola), graphic novel enthusiasts, and people interested in drug prohibition and international narcopolitics, the book follows in the footsteps of successful pop-history books such as Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation—but has a unique style that blends such histories with narrative illustration and influences from Norman Rockwell to Art Spiegelman.
A Secret Life
by Benjamin WeiserIn August 1972, Ryszard Kuklinski, a highly respected colonel in the Polish Army, embarked on what would become one of the most extraordinary human intelligence operations of the Cold War. Despite the extreme risk to himself and his family, he contacted the American Embassy in Bonn, and arranged a secret meeting. From the very start, he made clear that he deplored the Soviet domination of Poland, and believed his country was on the wrong side of the Cold War. Over the next nine years, Kuklinski rose quickly in the Polish defense ministry, acting as a liaison to Moscow, and helping to prepare for a "hot war" with the West. But he also lived a life of subterfuge--of dead drops, messages written in invisible ink, miniature cameras, and secret transmitters. In 1981, he gave the CIA the secret plans to crush Solidarity. Then, about to be discovered, he made a dangerous escape with his family to the West. He still lives in hiding in America. Kuklinski's story is a harrowing personal drama about one man's decision to betray the Communist leadership in order to save the country he loves, and the intense debate it spurred over whether he was a traitor or a patriot. Through extensive interviews and access to the CIA's secret archive on the case, Benjamin Weiser offers an unprecedented and richly detailed look at this secret history of the Cold War.
A Secret Society History of the Civil War
by Mark A. LauseThis unique history of the Civil War considers the impact of nineteenth-century American secret societies on the path to as well as the course of the war. Beginning with the European secret societies that laid the groundwork for freemasonry in the United States, Mark A. Lause analyzes how the Old World's traditions influenced various underground groups and movements in America, particularly George Lippard's Brotherhood of the Union, an American attempt to replicate the political secret societies that influenced the European Revolutions of 1848. Lause traces the Brotherhood's various manifestations, including the Knights of the Golden Circle (out of which developed the Ku Klux Klan), and the Confederate secret groups through which John Wilkes Booth and others attempted to undermine the Union. This book shows how, in the years leading up to the Civil War, these clandestine organizations exacerbated existing sectional tensions and may have played a part in key events such as John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Lincoln's election, and the Southern secession process of 1860-1861.
A Secret among the Blacks: Slave Resistance before the Haitian Revolution
by John D. GarrigusA bold rethinking of the Haitian Revolution reveals the roots of the only successful slave uprising in the modern world.Unearthing the progenitors of the Haitian Revolution has been a historical project of two hundred years. In A Secret among the Blacks, John D. Garrigus introduces two dozen Black men and women and their communities whose decades of resistance to deadly environmental and political threats preceded and shaped the 1791 revolt.In the twenty-five miles surrounding the revolt’s first fires, enslaved people of diverse origins lived in a crucible of forces that arose from the French colonial project. When a combination of drought, trade blockade, and deadly anthrax bacteria caused waves of death among the enslaved in the 1750s, poison investigations spiraled across plantations. Planters accused, tortured, and killed enslaved healers, survivors, and community leaders for deaths the French regime had caused. Facing inquisition, exploitation, starvation, and disease, enslaved people devised resistance strategies that they practiced for decades. Enslaved men and women organized labor stoppages and allied with free Blacks to force the French into negotiations. They sought enforcement of freedom promises and legal protection from abuse. Some killed their abusers.Through remarkable archival discoveries and creative interpretations of the worlds endured by the enslaved, A Secret among the Blacks reveals the range of complex, long-term political visions pursued by enslaved people who organized across plantations located in the seedbed of the Haitian Revolution. When the call to rebellion came, these men and women were prepared to answer.