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Showing 1 - 20 of 630 items
The house at Sugar Beach: in search of a lost African childhood
By Helene Cooper. 2008
Memoir by New York Times correspondent describes her privileged childhood in Liberia as a descendant of black American founders. Cooper…
relates her uprooting by a 1980 coup that forced the family to flee to the United States--and her return decades later. Some violence and some strong language. Bestseller. 2008Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass: an American slave
By Frederick Douglass. 2005
African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) chronicles his life from his birth in Maryland as a slave to his 1838…
escape to the North. Describes the physical, mental, and spiritual brutalities of enslavement and his resolution to live free or die. Some violence. For senior high and older readers. 1845Mirage: Napoleon's scientists and the unveiling of Egypt
By Nina Burleigh. 2007
Chronicles Napoleon's conquest of Egypt and the scientific research conducted there on his behalf. Highlights one of the earliest large-scale…
interactions between Western civilians and Islam in the modern era. 2007My dearest friend: letters of Abigail and John Adams
By John Adams. 2007
The editors selected 289 entries from the voluminous correspondence between the man who became the second president and Abigail--his wife,…
advisor, and friend. The couple, who endured many separations until John's presidency ended in 1801, began writing in 1762 and discussed the war, John's political career, and their family. 2007Love and Louis XIV: the women in the life of the Sun King
By Antonia Fraser. 2006
Royal biographer, author of The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England (BR 15910), researches the life of French…
king Louis XIV (1638-1715). Highlights the influence of his pious mother; his wife, first cousin Maria Teresa of Spain; and his mistresses, including the governess of his illegitimate children. 2006Fallen founder: the life of Aaron Burr
By Nancy Isenberg. 2007
Biography of Revolutionary War veteran, lawyer, and vice president Aaron Burr (1756-1836). Portrays the lies, slander, and factionalism of late-eighteenth-…
and early-nineteenth-century American politics. Details rival Alexander Hamilton's subversion of Burr's career before their 1804 duel. Analyzes Burr's involvement with General James Wilkinson and Burr's 1807 trial for treason. 2007Adopted son: Washington, Lafayette, and the friendship that saved the Revolution
By David A Clary. 2007
Historian uses archives to detail the personal relationship between the Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington during the American Revolution.…
Explores the development of both men into military and political leaders and their bond, which extended through Lafayette's doomed democratic experiment and imprisonment in France. 2007The first scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the pursuit of genius
By Joyce E Chaplin. 2006
Harvard professor highlights the scientific discoveries of American founding father Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) that enabled his involvement in political affairs.…
Describes the transatlantic community of Enlightenment scientists and Franklin's international renown due to his pathbreaking research on electricity, asbestos, the Gulf Stream, and other topics. 2006George Mason, forgotten founder
By Jeff Broadwater. 2006
Biography of landowner, lawmaker, and influential member of the Virginia gentry, George Mason (1725-1792). Emphasizes Mason's authorship of Virginia's Declaration…
of Rights and the state's constitution. Explains his opposition to ratifying the U.S. Constitution because of the absence of a Bill of Rights. 2006Samuel Adams: father of the American Revolution
By Mark Puls. 2006
Biography of one of the founding fathers of the United States, Samuel Adams (1722-1803). Focuses on Adams's political career, his…
leadership of protests against the British--including the Boston Tea Party--his advocacy of the colonies' independence from Britain, and his post-revolutionary service as governor of Massachusetts. 2006An ordinary man: an autobiography
By Paul Rusesabagina, Tom Zoellner. 2006
Autobiography of the manager of the hotel Mille Collines in Kigali, Rwanda. Paul Rusesabagina, a man of mixed Hutu and…
Tutsi heritage, describes how in April 1994 he saved twelve hundred Rwandans from the genocide that slaughtered eight hundred thousand. Basis for Hotel Rwanda movie. Violence and strong language. 2006Patriot pirates: the privateer war for freedom and fortune in the American Revolution
By Robert H. Patton. 2008
Details America's maritime conflicts with the British during the Revolutionary War that consisted primarily of commissioned private American vessels attacking…
enemy ships. Describes the huge profits the privateer owners made from their wartime activities and discusses the ways their newfound wealth propelled the nation's entrepreneurialism. 2008Child of the winds: my mission with Raoul Wallenberg
By Agnes Adachi. 1989
Author's memories of work in 1944 Budapest with a courageous Swede who saved 100,000 Hungarian Jews from the Nazis in…
six months. Adachi recalls the Soviet liberation of Hungary and Wallenberg's arrest by the Soviets, after which he was condemned to the gulag for over forty years. 1989Her Majesty's spymaster: Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Walsingham, and the birth of modern espionage
By Stephen Budiansky. 2005
Biography of the Puritan secretary of the Privy Council, who oversaw espionage for British monarch Elizabeth I. Describes ways Walsingham…
perfected techniques to operate secretly against Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Catholic countries of France and Spain. Explains his use of code breaking and secret agents. Violence. 2005Martha Washington: an American life
By Patricia Brady. 2005
Biography of widow Martha "Patsy" Dandridge Custis (1731-1802) who married Virginia planter George Washington in 1759 when both were in…
their late twenties. The author uses primary sources to explore Martha's influence on her husband, her involvement during the Revolutionary War, and her role in developing the presidency. 2005John Jay: founding father
By Walter Stahr. 2005
Biography of American diplomat and coauthor of The Federalist Papers (DB 26691). Chronicles Jay's personal and political life that included…
stints as president of the Continental Congress, chief justice of the Supreme Court, secretary for foreign affairs, governor of New York, and president of the American Bible Society. 2005Thomas Paine and the promise of America
By Harvey J Kaye. 2005
Historian surveys the life, ideas, and influence of philosopher Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense, The Crisis, and The Age…
of Reason. Emphasizing Paine's radicalism, Kaye traces Paine's fervor for the American and French revolutions and his contributions to workers' struggles in Britain. 2005Jimmy Stewart, bomber pilot: Bomber Pilot
By Starr Smith. 2005
Former Eighth Air Force intelligence officer chronicles Academy Award-winning actor Jimmy Stewart's World War II service as squadron commander of…
a combat bombardment group. Recounts Stewart's volunteering for service before the United States entered the war and later leading his men across Nazi Germany. Foreword by Walter Cronkite. 2005Le chant du sabre et du sang
By Fatima Bhutto. 2011
"Le soir du 20 septembre 1996, à Karachi, Fatima Bhutto, âgée de quatorze ans, se terrait chez elle avec son…
petit frère Zulfi, quelle tentait de protéger de son corps pendant que dehors, dans la rue, résonnaient les crépitements dune fusillade qui ne dura pas moins dune heure. Ce fut la nuit de la mort de son père Mir Murtaza Bhutto avec six de ses associés. Le 27 décembre 2007, à Rawalpindi, Benazir Bhutto, la tante de Fatima et celle-là même que Fatima accuse davoir commandité la mort de son père, tomba sous dautres balles. Ce fut le dernier dune longue liste de drames au sein dune des dynasties les plus célèbres du monde au même titre que celles des Kennedy ou des Gandhi. Le chant du sabre et du sang raconte sur quatre générations, la saga dune famille de riches propriétaires descendants dune caste de guerriers du Rajasthan qui devinrent les décideurs politiques du Pakistan, et entrelace amours, glamour et excès dune élite politique cosmopolite..." -- 4e de couvJudging Thomas: the life and times of Clarence Thomas
By Ken Foskett. 2004
Biography of the African American Supreme Court justice. Journalist Foskett describes Thomas's impoverished Georgia childhood, Yale Law School matriculation, legal…
career, conservative views, and 1991 appointment to the court by fellow Republican President George Bush. Also examines controversies that surround the jurist. Strong language. 2004