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The girl with seven names: A north korean defector's story
By Hyeonseo Lee. 2015
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An extraordinary insight into life under one of the world's most ruthless and secretive dictatorships –…
and the story of one woman's terrifying struggle to avoid capture/repatriation and guide her family to freedom. As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and to realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told "the best on the planet"? Aged seventeen, she decided to escape North Korea. She could not have imagined that it would be twelve years before she was reunited with her family. She could not return, since rumours of her escape were spreading, and she and her family could incur the punishments of the government authorities – involving imprisonment, torture, and possible public execution. Hyeonseo instead remained in China and rapidly learned Chinese in an effort to adapt and survive. Twelve years and two lifetimes later, she would return to the North Korean border in a daring mission to spirit her mother and brother to South Korea, on one of the most arduous, costly and dangerous journeys imaginable. This is the unique story not only of Hyeonseo's escape from the darkness into the light, but also of her coming of age, education and the resolve she found to rebuild her life – not once, but twice – first in China, then in South Korea. Strong, brave and eloquent, this memoir is a triumph of her remarkable spiritBreath: The new science of a lost art
By James Nestor. 2020
A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020 Named a Best Book of 2020 by…
NPR &“A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe—and how we&’ve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time.&” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat, Pray, Love No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you&’re not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren&’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe. Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is. Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again** THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ** Kompromat n.—Russian for "compromising information" This is a story of dirty secrets,…
and the most powerful people in the world. Craig Unger&’s new book, American Kompromat, tells of the spies and salacious events underpinning men&’s reputations and riches. It tells how a relatively insignificant targeting operation by the KGB&’s New York rezidentura (New York Station) more than forty years ago—an attempt to recruit an influential businessman as a new asset—triggered a sequence of intelligence protocols that morphed into the greatest intelligence bonanza in history. And it tells of a coterie of associates, reaching all the way into the office of the Attorney General, who stood to advance power, and themselves. Based on extensive, exclusive interviews with dozens of high-level sources—Soviets who resigned from the KGB and moved to the United States, former officers in the CIA, FBI counterintelligence agents, lawyers at white-shoe Washington firms—and analysis of thousands of pages of FBI investigations, police investigations, and news articles in English, Russian, and Ukrainian, American Kompromat shows that something much more sinister and important has been taking place than the public could ever imagine: namely, that from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, kompromat operations documented the darkest secrets of the most powerful people in the world and transformed them into potent weapons. Was Donald Trump a Russian asset? Just how compromised was he? And how could such an audacious feat have been accomplished? American Kompromat is situated in the ongoing context of the Trump-Russia scandal and the new era of hybrid warfare, kleptocrats, and authoritarian right-wing populism it helped accelerate. To answer these questions and more, Craig Unger reports, is to understand kompromat —operations that amassed compromising information on the richest and most powerful men on earth, and that leveraged power by appealing to what is for some the most prized possession of all: their vanityFour hundred souls: A community history of african america, 1619-2019
By Ibram X Kendi. 2021
A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history&’s great epics: the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans…
from 1619 to the present—edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire . The story begins in 1619—a year before the Mayflower —when the White Lion disgorges &“some 20-and-odd Negroes&” onto the shores of Virginia, inaugurating the African presence in what would become the United States. It takes us to the present, when African Americans, descendants of those on the White Lion and a thousand other routes to this country, continue a journey defined by inhuman oppression, visionary struggles, stunning achievements, and millions of ordinary lives passing through extraordinary history. Four Hundred Souls is a unique one-volume &“community&” history of African Americans. The editors, Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, have assembled ninety brilliant writers, each of whom takes on a five-year period of that four-hundred-year span. The writers explore their periods through a variety of techniques: historical essays, short stories, personal vignettes, and fiery polemics. They approach history from various perspectives: through the eyes of towering historical icons or the untold stories of ordinary people; through places, laws, and objects. While themes of resistance and struggle, of hope and reinvention, course through the book, this collection of diverse pieces from ninety different minds, reflecting ninety different perspectives, fundamentally deconstructs the idea that Africans in America are a monolith—instead it unlocks the startling range of experiences and ideas that have always existed within the community of Blackness. This is a history that illuminates our past and gives us new ways of thinking about our future, written by the most vital and essential voices of our presentThink again: The power of knowing what you don't know
By Adam Grant. 2021
#1 New York Times Bestseller &“THIS. This is the right book for right now. Yes, learning requires focus. But, unlearning…
and relearning requires much more—it requires choosing courage over comfort. In Think Again , Adam Grant weaves together research and storytelling to help us build the intellectual and emotional muscle we need to stay curious enough about the world to actually change it. I&’ve never felt so hopeful about what I don&’t know.&” —Brené Brown, Ph.D., #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dare to Lead " Think Again is a must-read for anyone who wants to create a culture of learning and exploration, whether at home, at work, or at school... In an increasingly divided world, the lessons in this book are more important than ever." –Bill and Melinda Gates The bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals examines the critical art of rethinking: learning to question your opinions and open other people's minds, which can position you for excellence at work and wisdom in life Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn. In our daily lives, too many of us favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt. We listen to opinions that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard. We see disagreement as a threat to our egos, rather than an opportunity to learn. We surround ourselves with people who agree with our conclusions, when we should be gravitating toward those who challenge our thought process. The result is that our beliefs get brittle long before our bones. We think too much like preachers defending our sacred beliefs, prosecutors proving the other side wrong, and politicians campaigning for approval—and too little like scientists searching for truth. Intelligence is no cure, and it can even be a curse: being good at thinking can make us worse at rethinking. The brighter we are, the blinder to our own limitations we can become. Organizational psychologist Adam Grant is an expert on opening other people's minds—and our own. As Wharton's top-rated professor and the bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take , he makes it one of his guiding principles to argue like he's right but listen like he's wrong. With bold ideas and rigorous evidence, he investigates how we can embrace the joy of being wrong, bring nuance to charged conversations, and build schools, workplaces, and communities of lifelong learners. You'll learn how an international debate champion wins arguments, a Black musician persuades white supremacists to abandon hate, a vaccine whisperer convinces concerned parents to immunize their children, and Adam has coaxed Yankees fans to root for the Red Sox. Think Again reveals that we don't have to believe everything we think or internalize everything we feel. It's an invitation to let go of views that are no longer serving us well and prize mental flexibility over foolish consistency. If knowledge is power, knowing what we don't know is wisdomIn this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical—and accessible —plan for how the world can get…
to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.Can you hear me now?: How i found my voice and learned to live with passion and purpose
By Celina Caesar-Chavannes. 2021
In Can You Hear Me Now? , Celina Caesar-Chavannes digs deep into her childhood and her life as a young…
Black woman entrepreneur and politician, and shows us that effective and humane leaders grow as much from their mistakes and vulnerabilities as from their strengths. Celina Caesar-Chavannes, already a breaker of boundaries as a Black woman in business, got into politics because she wanted to make a bigger difference in the world. But when she became the first Black person elected to represent the federal riding of Whitby, Ontario, she hadn't really thought about the fact that Ottawa wasn't designed for someone like her. Celina soon found herself both making waves and breaking down, confronting at night, alone in her Ottawa apartment, all the painful beauty of her childhood and her troubled early adult life. She paid the price for speaking out about micro-aggressions and speaking up for her community and her riding, but she also felt exhilaration and empowerment. As she writes, "This is not your typical leadership book where the person is placed in a situation and miraculously comes up with the right response for the wicked problem. This is the story of me falling in love, at last, with who I am, and finding my voice in the unlikeliest of places." Both memoir and leadership book, Can You Hear Me Now? is a funny, self-aware, poignant, confessional and fierce look at how failing badly and screwing things up completely are truly more powerful lessons in how to conduct a life than extraordinary success. They build an utter honesty with yourself and others that allows you to say things nobody else dares to say—the necessary things about navigating the places that weren't built for you and holding firm to your principles. And, if you do that, you will help build a world where inclusion is real. Just as Celina is now trying to do, in all her brilliance and boldness, Bestseller.Ladies, Upstairs!: My Life in Politics and After
By Monique Bégin. 2018
More than fifty years after most Canadian women received the right to vote, very few women were elected as members…
of Parliament and none came from Quebec. Canada's 1972 federal election marked a refreshing transition. Twice as many female candidates ran for office than in the previous election, and, of the five women elected to the House of Commons that year, three Liberal Party candidates ? Monique Bégin, Albanie Morin, and Jeanne Sauvé ? shared the honour of being the first Quebec women MPs. In this riveting memoir of a trailblazing female politician, Monique Bégin tells the story of her journey into politics and beyond. Born in Italy, Bégin spent her childhood in France and Portugal before arriving in Montreal as a refugee of the Second World War. In 1967, she was swept into the world of politics when she became executive secretary of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women. Inspired by Pierre Trudeau, she then ran for the House of Commons and served in various cabinet positions, ultimately spearheading the landmark Canada Health Act before retiring to pursue a career in academia. Offering a revealing glimpse into the pervading sexism of Canadian public life, Ladies, Upstairs! details the experiences of a feisty, candid outsider who, through sheer fortitude, intelligence, and hard work, became minister of health and welfare, a university dean, a sought-after member for commissions of inquiry, and an international expert on public health. The voice of a woman in a male world, a francophone among anglophones, and a skeptical politician, Ladies, Upstairs! provides a fascinating account of one of Canada's most impressive federal ministers and her discoveries through the decades.De Mumbai à Madurai: l'énigme de l'arrivée et de l'après-midi : [récit (Romanichels)
By François Hébert. 2013
" François Hébert et sa compagne participaient au début de 2012 à un congrès sur la francophonie à Madurai, en…
Inde. François nous raconte ici des moments de son voyage. On y croise des dignitaires enturbannés, des bambins qui mendient, des femmes aux longs et soyeux cheveux noirs dans des saris multicolores; on est assaillis par toute la gamme des odeurs, allant de la pisse, du cambouis des rickshaws motorisés et du poisson qui pourrit au soleil aux parfums les plus enivrants, comme celui du jasmin et des épices tant convoitées par l'Occident. Mais tout ce que l'auteur nous montre de l'Inde est prétexte à des glissements vers des souvenirs, des lectures, des films, d'autres voyages (l'Europe, le Japon), toutes sortes de réflexions... En partant d'un détail, l'auteur réalise un zoom arrière, élargit son regard et, du coup, touche des sujets universels. " -- 4e de couvEvery day is a gift: A memoir
By Tammy Duckworth. 2021
The incredible story of US senator and Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth In Every Day Is a Gift, Tammy Duckworth…
takes readers through the amazing—and amazingly true—stories from her incomparable life. In November of 2004, an Iraqi rocket-propelled grenade blew through the cockpit of Tammy Duckworth's US Army Black Hawk helicopter. The explosion, which destroyed her legs and mangled her right arm, was a turning point in her life. But as Duckworth shows in Every Day Is a Gift, that moment was just one in a lifetime of extraordinary turns. The biracial daughter of an American father and a Thai-Chinese mother, Duckworth faced discrimination, poverty, and the horrors of war—all before the age of sixteen. As a child, she dodged bullets as her family fled war-torn Phnom Penh. As a teenager, she sold roses by the side of the road to save her family from hunger and homelessness in Hawaii. Through these experiences, she developed a fierce resilience that would prove invaluable in the years to come. Duckworth joined the Army, becoming one of a handful of female helicopter pilots at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She served eight months in Iraq before an insurgent's rocket-propelled grenade shot down her helicopter, an attack that took her legs—and nearly took her life. She then spent thirteen months recovering at Walter Reed, learning to walk again on prosthetic legs and planning her return to the cockpit. But Duckworth found a new mission after meeting her state's senators, Barack Obama and Dick Durbin. After winning two terms as a US representative, she won election to the US Senate in 2016. And she and her husband Bryan fulfilled another dream when she gave birth to two daughters, becoming the first sitting senator to give birth. From childhood to motherhood and beyond, Every Day Is a Gift is the remarkable story of one of America's most dedicated public servantsVoici Thérèse Casgrain (Biographie en images)
By Elizabeth MacLeod. 2021
See below for English description.Thérèse Casgrain était une réformatrice, militante féministe et politicienne de Montréal. Mieux connue pour avoir mené…
la campagne en faveur du droit de vote des femmes au Québec, elle a été la première femme à être élue chef d’un parti politique au Canada. Elle a mené une longue carrière en politique et a lutté vigoureusement contre les injustices sociales, économiques et politiques qui touchaient les femmes et les hommes à cette époque.Ce livre inspirant et informatif rend hommage à la vie de Thérèse Casgrain et à son influence dans l’histoire du Canada.Thérèse Casgrain was a reformer, activist, feminist, and politician from Montreal. Best remembered for leading the campaign for women’s suffrage in Quebec, Thérèse Casgrain was the first woman to be elected the leader of a political party in Canada. She had a long political career and vigorously fought against social, economic, and political injustices affecting both women and men.This inspirational and informative book goes through Casgrain’s life and highlights her influence in Canadian history.Original title: Scholastic Canada Biography: Meet Thérèse CasgrainWho is alexandria ocasio-cortez? (Who HQ Now)
By Kirsten Anderson. 2021
The inspiring story of the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, told in the new Who HQ NOW format for…
trending topics. On June 26, 2018, twenty-eight-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a bartender from New York City, became the youngest woman ever elected to serve on Congress. Her win shocked the political world and she became a celebrity overnight. Soon, everyone knew her by her initials: AOC. As soon as she was sworn into office, AOC became a vocal champion for healthcare for all and the fight against climate change. This exciting story details the defining moments of what led to her victory and all the monumental ones since that have shaped her into a smart politician willing to fight for others, the environment, and the future of AmericaWater, wood, and wild things: Learning craft and cultivation in a japanese mountain town
By Hannah Kirshner. 2021
"With this book, you feel you can stop time and savor the rituals of life." —Maira Kalman An immersive journey…
through the culture and cuisine of one Japanese town, its forest, and its watershed—where ducks are hunted by net, saké is brewed from the purest mountain water, and charcoal is fired in stone kilns—by an American writer and food stylist who spent years working alongside artisans One night, Brooklyn-based artist and food writer Hannah Kirshner received a life-changing invitation to apprentice with a "saké evangelist" in a misty Japanese mountain village called Yamanaka. In a rapidly modernizing Japan, the region—a stronghold of the country's old-fashioned ways—was quickly becoming a destination for chefs and artisans looking to learn about the traditions that have long shaped Japanese culture. Kirshner put on a vest and tie and took her place behind the saké bar. Before long, she met a community of craftspeople, farmers, and foragers—master woodturners, hunters, a paper artist, and a man making charcoal in his nearly abandoned village on the outskirts of town. Kirshner found each craftsperson not only exhibited an extraordinary dedication to their work but their distinct expertise contributed to the fabric of the local culture. Inspired by these masters, she devoted herself to learning how they work and live. Taking readers deep into evergreen forests, terraced rice fields, and smoke-filled workshops, Kirshner captures the centuries-old traditions still alive in Yamanaka. Water, Wood, and Wild Things invites readers to see what goes into making a fine bowl, a cup of tea, or a harvest of rice and introduces the masters who dedicate their lives to this work. Part travelogue, part meditation on the meaning of work, and full of her own beautiful drawings and recipes, Kirshner's refreshing book is an ode to a place and its people, as well as a profound examination of what it means to sustain traditions and find purpose in cultivation and craft. * This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF of illustrations and recipesLady bird johnson: Hiding in plain sight
By Julia Sweig. 2021
A magisterial portrait of Lady Bird Johnson, and a major reevaluation of the profound yet underappreciated impact the First Lady's…
political instincts had on LBJ&’s presidency. &“An inviting, challenging, well-told tale of the thoroughly modern partner and strategist Lady Bird Johnson, whose skill and complexity emerge fully in this rich tale of history and humanity.&”—John Dickerson, author of The Hardest Job in the World &“This riveting portrait gives us an important revision of a long-neglected First Lady.&”—Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt, vol 1-3 In the spring of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson had a decision to make. Just months after moving into the White House under the worst of circumstances—following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy—he had to decide whether to run to win the presidency in his own right. He turned to his most reliable, trusted political strategist: his wife, Lady Bird Johnson. The strategy memo she produced for him, emblematic of her own political acumen and largely overlooked by biographers, is just one revealing example of how their marriage was truly a decades-long political partnership. Perhaps the most underestimated First Lady of the twentieth century, Lady Bird Johnson was also one of the most accomplished and often her husband's secret weapon. Managing the White House in years of national upheaval, through the civil rights movement and the escalation of the Vietnam War, Lady Bird projected a sense of calm and, following the glamorous and modern Jackie Kennedy, an old-fashioned image of a First Lady. In truth, she was anything but. As the first First Lady to run the East Wing like a professional office, she took on her own policy initiatives, including the most ambitious national environmental effort since Teddy Roosevelt. Occupying the White House during the beginning of the women's liberation movement, she hosted professional women from all walks of life in the White House, including urban planning and environmental pioneers like Jane Jacobs and Barbara Ward, encouraging women everywhere to pursue their own careers, even if her own style of leadership and official role was to lead by supporting others. Where no presidential biographer has understood the full impact of Lady Bird Johnson&’s work in the White House, Julia Sweig is the first to draw substantially on Lady Bird&’s own voice in her White House diaries to place Claudia Alta "Lady Bird&” Johnson center stage and to reveal a woman ahead of her time—and an accomplished politician in her own right. This program includes an actual recording of Lady Bird&’s audio diary, dated October 12, 1965Churchill & son
By Josh Ireland. 2021
The intimate, untold story of Winston Churchill's enduring yet volatile bond with his only son, Randolph &“Fascinating… well-researched and well-written.&”—Andrew…
Roberts • &“Beautifully written… A triumph.&”—Damien Lewis • &“Fascinating, acute and touching.&”—Simon Sebag Montefiore We think we know Winston Churchill: the bulldog grimace, the ever-present cigar, the wit and wisdom that led Great Britain through the Second World War. Yet away from the House of Commons and the Cabinet War Rooms, Churchill was a loving family man who doted on his children, none more so than Randolph, his only boy and Winston's anointed heir to the Churchill legacy. Randolph may have been born in his father's shadow, but his father, who had been neglected by his own parents, was determined to see him go far. For decades, throughout Winston's climb to greatness, father and son were inseparable—dining with Britain's elite, gossiping and swilling Champagne at high society parties, holidaying on the French Riviera, touring Prohibition-era America. Captivated by Winston's power, bravery, and charisma, Randolph worshipped his father, and Winston obsessed over his son's future. But their love was complex and combustible, complicated by money, class, and privilege, shaded with ambition, outsize expectations, resentments, and failures. Deeply researched and magnificently written, Churchill & Son is a revealing and surprising portrait of one of history's most celebrated figuresHis truth is marching on: John lewis and the power of hope
By Jon Meacham. 2020
An intimate and revealing portrait of civil rights icon and longtime U.S. congressman John Lewis, linking his life to the…
painful quest for justice in America from the 1950s to the present—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Soul of America John Lewis, who at age twenty-five marched in Selma, Alabama, and was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, was a visionary and a man of faith. Drawing on decades of wide-ranging interviews with Lewis, Jon Meacham writes of how this great-grandson of a slave and son of an Alabama tenant farmer was inspired by the Bible and his teachers in nonviolence, Reverend James Lawson and Martin Luther King, Jr., to put his life on the line in the service of what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature." From an early age, Lewis learned that nonviolence was not only a tactic but a philosophy, a biblical imperative, and a transforming reality. At the age of four, Lewis, ambitious to become a minister, practiced by preaching to his family's chickens. When his mother cooked one of the chickens, the boy refused to eat it—his first act, he wryly recalled, of nonviolent protest. Integral to Lewis's commitment to bettering the nation was his faith in humanity and in God—and an unshakable belief in the power of hope. Meacham calls Lewis "as important to the founding of a modern and multiethnic twentieth- and twenty-first-century America as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and Samuel Adams were to the initial creation of the Republic itself in the eighteenth century." A believer in the injunction that one should love one's neighbor as oneself, Lewis was arguably a saint in our time, risking limb and life to bear witness for the powerless in the face of the powerful. In many ways he brought a still-evolving nation closer to realizing its ideals, and his story offers inspiration and illumination for Americans today who are working for social and political change. This audiobook includes a PDF of the book's AppendixLincoln in private: What his most personal reflections tell us about our greatest president
By Abraham Lincoln, Ronald C. White. 2021
&“A fascinating tour inside the mind—and the heart—of Abraham Lincoln . . . An important and timeless work.&”—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer…
Prize–winning author of His Truth Is Marching On From the New York Times bestselling author of A. Lincoln and American Ulysses, a revelatory glimpse into the intellectual journey of our sixteenth president through his private notes to himself, explored together here for the first time A deeply private man, shut off even to those who worked closely with him, Abraham Lincoln often captured &“his best thoughts,&” as he called them, in short notes to himself. He would work out his personal stances on the biggest issues of the day, never expecting anyone to see these frank, unpolished pieces of writing, which he&’d then keep close at hand, in desk drawers and even in his top hat. The profound importance of these notes has been overlooked, because the originals are scattered across several different archives and have never before been brought together and examined as a coherent whole. Now, renowned Lincoln historian Ronald C. White walks readers through twelve of Lincoln&’s most important private notes, showcasing our greatest president&’s brilliance and empathy, but also his very human anxieties and ambitions. We look over Lincoln&’s shoulder as he grapples with the problem of slavery, attempting to find convincing rebuttals to those who supported the evil institution (&“As I would not be a slave , so I would not be a master . This expresses my idea of democracy.&”); prepares for his historic debates with Stephen Douglas; expresses his private feelings after a defeated bid for a Senate seat (&“With me , the race of ambition has been a failure—a flat failure&”); voices his concerns about the new Republican Party&’s long-term prospects; develops an argument for national unity amidst a secession crisis that would ultimately rend the nation in two; and, for a president many have viewed as not religious, develops a sophisticated theological reflection in the midst of the Civil War (&“it is quite possible that God&’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party&”). Additionally, in a historic first, all 111 Lincoln notes are transcribed in the appendix, a gift to scholars and Lincoln buffs alike. These are notes Lincoln never expected anyone to read, put into context by a writer who has spent his career studying Lincoln&’s life and words. The result is a rare glimpse into the mind and soul of one of our nation&’s most important figuresMadam speaker: Nancy pelosi and the lessons of power
By Susan Page. 2021
The definitive biography of Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful woman in American political history, written by New York Times bestselling…
author and USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page Featuring more than 150 exclusive interviews with those who know her best—and a series of in-depth, news-making interviews with Pelosi herself—Madam Speaker is unprecedented in the scope of its exploration of Nancy Pelosi's remarkable life and of her indelible impact on American politics. Before she was Nancy Pelosi, she was Nancy D'Alesandro. Her father was a big-city mayor and her mother his political organizer; when she encouraged her young daughter to become a nun, Nancy told her mother that being a priest sounded more appealing. She didn't begin running for office until she was forty-six years old, her five children mostly out of the nest. With that, she found her calling. Nancy Pelosi has lived on the cutting edge of the revolution in both women's roles and in the nation's movement to a fiercer and more polarized politics. She has established herself as a crucial friend or formidable foe to US presidents, a master legislator, and an indefatigable political warrior. She took on the Democratic establishment to become the first female Speaker of the House, and then battled rivals on the left and right to consolidate her power. She has soared in the sharp-edged inside game of politics, though she has struggled in the outside game—demonized by conservatives, second-guessed by progressives, and routinely underestimated by nearly everyone. All of this was preparation for the most historic challenge she would ever face, at a time she had been privately planning her retirement. When Donald Trump was elected to the White House, Nancy Pelosi became the Democratic counterpart best able to stand up to the disruptive president and to get under his skin. The battle between Trump and Pelosi, chronicled in this book with behind-the-scenes details and revelations, stands to be the titanic political struggle of our timeCalhoun: American heretic
By Robert Elder. 2021
A new biography of the intellectual father of Southern secession — the man who set the scene for the Civil…
War, and whose political legacy still shapes America today. John C. Calhoun is among the most notorious and enigmatic figures in American political history. First elected to Congress in 1810, Calhoun went on to serve as secretary of war and vice president. But he is perhaps most known for arguing in favor of slavery as a "positive good" and for his famous doctrine of "state interposition," which laid the groundwork for the South to secede from the Union — and arguably set the nation on course for civil war. Calhoun has catapulted back into the public eye in recent years, as the strain of radical politics he developed has found expression once again in the tactics and extremism of the modern Far Right. In this revelatory biographical study, historian Robert Elder shows that Calhoun is crucial for understanding the political climate in which we find ourselves today. By excising him from the mainstream of American history, we have been left with a distorted understanding of our past and no way to explain our presentOn the house: A washington memoir
By John Boehner. 2021
This program is read by the author. * INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "A rollicking, foil-mouthed" [memoir]....Boehner has…
delivered a classic Washington "tell-all," albeit one with his typical jocular style." - - The Washington Post Former Speaker of the House John Boehner shares colorful tales from the halls of power, the smoke-filled rooms around the halls of power, and his fabled tour bus. John Boehner is the last of a breed. At a time when the arbiters of American culture were obsessing over organic kale, cold-pressed juice, and SoulCycle, the man who stood second in line to the presidency was unapologetically smoking Camels, quaffing a glass of red, and hitting the golf course whenever he could. There could hardly have been a more diametrically opposed figure to represent the opposition party in President Barack Obama's Washington. But when Boehner announced his resignation, President Obama called to tell the outgoing Speaker that he'd miss him. "Mr. President," Boehner replied, "yes you will." He thought of himself as a "regular guy with a big job," and he enjoyed it. In addition to his own stories of life in the swamp city and of his comeback after getting knocked off the leadership ladder, Boehner offers his impressions of leaders he's met and what made them successes or failures, from Ford and Reagan to Obama, Trump, and Biden. He shares his views on how the Republican Party has become unrecognizable today; the advice—some harsh, some fatherly—he dished out to members of his own party, the opposition, the media, and others; and his often acid-tongued comments about his former colleagues. And of course he talks about golfing with five presidents. Through Speaker Boehner's honest and self-aware reflections, you'll be reminded of a time when the adults were firmly in charge. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press