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Showing 1 - 20 of 460 items
By John Ibbitson. 2023
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLEROne of Canada’s foremost authors and journalists, offers a gripping account of the contest between John Diefenbaker and…
Lester Pearson, two prime ministers who fought each other relentlessly, but who between them created today’s Canada. John Diefenbaker has been unfairly treated by history. Although he wrestled with personal demons, his governments launched major reforms in public health care, law reform and immigration. On his watch, First Nations on reserve obtained the right to vote and the federal government began to open up the North. He established Canada as a leader in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and took the first steps in making Canada a leader in the fight against nuclear proliferation. And Diefenbaker’s Bill of Rights laid the groundwork for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He set in motion many of the achievements credited to his successor, Lester B. Pearson.Pearson, in turn, gave coherence to Diefenbaker’s piecemeal reforms. He also pushed Parliament to adopt a new, and now much-loved, Canadian flag against Diefenbaker’s fierce opposition. Pearson understood that if Canada were to be taken seriously as a nation, it must develop a stronger sense of self. Pearson was superbly prepared for the role of prime minister: decades of experience at External Affairs, respected by leaders from Washington to Delhi to Beijing, the only Canadian to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. Diefenbaker was the better politician, though. If Pearson walked with ease in the halls of power, Diefenbaker connected with the farmers and small-town merchants and others left outside the inner circles. Diefenbaker was one of the great orators of Canadian political life; Pearson spoke with a slight lisp. Diefenbaker was the first to get his name in the papers, as a crusading attorney: Diefenbaker for the Defence, champion of the little man. But he struggled as a politician, losing five elections before making it into the House of Commons, and becoming as estranged from the party elites as he was from the Liberals, until his ascension to the Progressive Conservative leadership in 1956 through a freakish political accident. As a young university professor, Pearson caught the attention of the powerful men who were shaping Canada’s first true department of foreign affairs, rising to prominence as the helpful fixer, the man both sides trusted, the embodiment of a new country that had earned its place through war in the counsels of the great powers: ambassador, undersecretary, minister, peacemaker. Everyone knew he was destined to be prime minister. But in 1957, destiny took a detour.Then they faced each other, Diefenbaker v Pearson, across the House of Commons, leaders of their parties, each determined to wrest and hold power, in a decade-long contest that would shake and shape the country. Here is a tale of two men, children of Victoria, who led Canada into the atomic age: each the product of his past, each more like the other than either would ever admit, fighting each other relentlessly while together forging the Canada we live in today. To understand our times, we must first understand theirs.Veteran National Public Radio correspondent Anne Garrels, embedded with the U.S. military forces in Baghdad, chronicles her observations before and…
during the 2003 second Gulf War. Includes e-mails that her husband, Vint Lawrence, sent while she was gone and describes hardships endured by her Iraqi driver, Amer.Veterans recall experiences of battle from World War I to the war in Iraq. Soldiers' letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral…
histories provide personal accounts of D-Day, the Tet offensive, heroic actions, and sinking ships. Includes an interview with Senator John McCain about his captivity in Vietnam. 2005By Jerrold Packard. 1981
A close look at the royal family, their lives, personalities, associates, and residences. Also explains various titles and ranks and…
what they signify, how to address members of the nobility, and customs surrounding the royal family and the courtBy Robert Goldston. 1982
A dramatic account of the daring covert operations carried out by scientists, private citizens, professors, and assassins who risked their…
lives for an allied victory. This compelling and well-documented report penetrates the veils of secrecy that have shrouded some of the most important activities of World War II. For junior and senior high and adult readersBy Howard Morland. 1981
The author tells the true story of his investigation of the nuclear weapons industry, the inner workings of the H-bomb,…
and the U.S. government's unsuccessful attempt to suppress his discoveries. Morland, a former Air Force pilot, is devoutly anti-nuclear and very forthright about his positionBy Diana Healy. 1988
Brief, colorful biographical sketches of forty-one first ladies. Includes anecdotes and bits of information, such as the fact that Anna…
Symmes Harrison, the wife of William H. Harrison, who died a month after taking office, was the only first lady to be the grandmother of a presidentBy Morris Rossabi. 1987
Portrait of the legendary Mongol drawn from Chinese, Korean, Persian, Russian, Armenian, and Syrian sources. The author focuses on Khan's…
military exploits and political maneuverings and suggests that the leader's mother and his favorite wife played essential roles in his rise to power. Without their guidance, Rossabi states, the Khan descended to drunkenness and debaucheryBy Carl Feldbaum. 1988
The authors emphasize the important roles of individual scientists, politicians, and military officials in the nuclear arms race. They trace…
the history of nuclear weapons as a series of deliberate decisions.... They explain the circumstances of these decisions through extensive quotation and paraphrasing of historical documents and memoirs. For high school and older readersBy Oliver North. 1991
Oliver North offers his detailed view of the Iran-Contra arms controversy in this secretly written autobiography. Presenting himself as a…
patriotic, religious, family man, North describes his childhood, his stint in Vietnam, and his work on the National Security Council staff at the White House. Stating that he never saw himself above the law, North conveys his perception of betrayal by his administrationBy Cornelius Ryan. 1959
A reconstruction of the D-Day invasion of Europe, covering the hours before and after the massive landing in Normandy. The…
author depicts the Nazi enemy the Allied forces fought and the civilians who were caught in the epic battle that would determine the course of fascism. BestsellerBy Donovan Webster. 1996
Depicts the enduring, harmful remains of twentieth-century wars, including unexploded mines and artillery shells, radioactive soil and water, and bomb-ravaged…
landscapes. Assesses inventor Alfred Nobel's dynamite and other efficient explosives for their role in amplifying the devastation of modern warfareBy Cornelius Ryan. 1966
Recounts the last three weeks of the war against Germany in April 1945 from the viewpoint of the Allied and…
German Armies locked in battle and of individual soldiers and civilians who survived the final horrors of the siege and fall of Berlin. Companion to A Bridge Too Far (RC 44181, BR 10974)By Cornelius Ryan. 1974
Recounts the 1944 battle of Arnhem and the daring Allied airborne assault on Nazi-occupied Holland. The attack, which was intended…
to capture a crucial bridge and end the war early, resulted in heavy losses and a defeat for the Allies. Companion to The Longest Day (BR 09765). ViolenceBy Barbara Ehrenreich. 1997
The author theorizes that the origin of human propensity for war is linked to the fear that the earliest people…
had of predators in the wild, rather than an innate aggressivenessFirst-hand accounts by communications intelligence practitioners in the Southwest Pacific theater during World War II. Tells how the breaking of…
enemy codes aided in the timing and planning of Allied campaigns and "shortened the ground war in the Pacific."By Kimberly Holt. 1998
Louisiana, 1950s. Twelve-year-old Tiger Ann Parker begins to feel embarrassed in front of the other kids about the "slowness" of…
her parents. Her grandmother is the one who keeps the family intact. After Granny dies, Tiger has a chance to move to the city with her sophisticated aunt, but she is reluctant to abandon the parents who love her. For grades 6-9By Douglas MacArthur. 1964
Memoirs of the twentieth-century American combat general whose fifty-year career brought him both glory and condemnation. His service spanned the…
administrations of eight presidents and provides a view of military history in this centuryBy John Steinbeck. 1958
Collection of the novelist's realistic, hard-hitting dispatches from the front lines in World War II. Depicts the humor and tragedy…
of war, and the fear and courage of men and women in combat