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Fins: Harley Earl, the rise of General Motors, and the glory days of Detroit
By William Knoedelseder. 2018
William Knoedelseder reveals the backstory of American icon General Motors in the 1950s, whose phenomenal rise was due to the…
stylings of visionary car designer Harley Earl. Knoedelseder tells the story in ways both large and small, weaving the history of the company with the history of Detroit and the Earl family as he examines the effect of the automobile on America's economy, culture, and national psyche. 2018.Black Elk: the life of an American visionary
By Joe Jackson. 2016
Black Elk, the Native American holy man, is known to millions of readers around the world from his 1932 testimonial,…
"Black Elk Speaks". Cryptic and deeply personal, it has been read as a spiritual guide, a philosophical manifesto, and a text to be deconstructed--while the historical Black Elk has faded from view. Jackson provides the definitive biographical account of a figure whose dramatic life converged with some of the most momentous events in the history of the American West. Born in an era of rising violence, Black Elk killed his first man at Little Big Horn, witnessed the death of his second cousin Crazy Horse, and traveled to Europe with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. Upon his return, he was swept up in the traditionalist Ghost Dance movement and shaken by the massacre at Wounded Knee. But Black Elk was not a warrior and instead chose the path of a healer and holy man, motivated by a powerful prophetic vision that haunted and inspired him, even after he converted to Catholicism in his later years. Winner of the Spur 2017 best western biography award. Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography. 2016.Anthony Fokker: the Flying Dutchman who shaped American aviation
By Marc Dierikx. 2018
Comprehensive biography of Anthony Fokker, the famed Dutch pilot and daredevil aviator. Fokker came from an affluent Dutch family and…
developed a gift for tinkering with mechanics. Despite not receiving a traditional education, he stumbled his way into aviation as a young stunt pilot in Germany in 1910. He survived a series of spectacular airplane crashes and rose to fame within a few years. A combination of industrial espionage, luck, and deception then propelled him to become Germany's leading aircraft manufacturer during World War I, making him a multimillionaire by his midtwenties. When the German Revolution swept the country in 1918 and 1919, Fokker made a spectacular escape to the United States. He set up business in New York and New Jersey in 1921, and shortly thereafter became the world's largest aircraft manufacturer. The U.S. Army and Navy acquired his machines, and his factories equipped legendary carriers such as Pan American and TWA at the dawn of commercial air transport. Yet despite his astounding success, his empire collapsed in the late 1920s after a series of ill-conceived business decisions and deeply upsetting personal dramas. 2018. Uniform title: Anthony Fokker.Tells the story of the WWI soldiers and chemists who worked on measures that America planned to use on Germans.…
The massive science and engineering effort attracted top scientists to usher in a new world in which fearsome weapons could kill or terrorize armies and civilians. 2017.Lowe profiles what some call the prototypical 21st-century company, Internet giant Google. In less than 15 years, creators Sergey Brin…
and Larry Page built what was supposed to be a simple search engine into a megaprofitable operation with over $16 billion in annual revenues. 2009.From Vimy to victory: Canada's fight to the finish in World War I
By Hugh Brewster. 2014
All was not quiet on the Western Front during the last years of WWI. Soldiers faced mud, trench foot, bombardments,…
barbed wire, snipers, and poison gas. Despite dreadful odds, the Canadian Corps moved forward, reaching deep inside enemy-occupied Belgium. The war cost Canada 60,661 of its finest citizens and thousands more who were wounded in body and mind. After their hard-won victory at Vimy Ridge, Canadians earned the admiration of the world — and a reputation as soldiers who could get the job done. From that moment in 1917, Canadian soldiers proved themselves again and again on the bloody battlefields of Europe. Grades 3-6. 2014.Hart Massey (Canadians)
By Paul Collins. 1977
Honor the grandmothers: Dakota and Lakota women tell their stories
By Sarah Penman. 2000
These four oral histories pay homage to elder women who quietly serve as community and political activists within the Lakota-Dakota…
Nation. It tells their stories of service in the grandmother's traditional role of cultural carrier, imbuing children with respect for the language, medicinal lore, history, and spiritual beliefs of the people. 2000.Grandmother's grandchild: my Crow Indian life (American Indian lives)
By Alma Hogan Snell, Becky Matthews. 2000
The story of Alma Hogan Snell, a Crow woman brought up by her grandmother, the famous medicine woman Pretty Shield.…
Snell grew up during the 1920s and 1930s, part of the second generation of Crows to be born into reservation life, experiencing poverty, personal hardships, prejudice, and leaving home to attend federal Indian schools. Some descriptions of violence and some descriptions of sex. c2000.Howard Hughes: the secret life
By Charles Higham. 2004
Howard Hughes had various personas: aviator, film producer, entrepreneur and recluse. Revealing the private scandals, his affairs with Hollywood stars…
and his involvement in Watergate, this book ties in with the release of a film about Hughes' early life - 'The Aviator' starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Includes strong language. 2004.Howard Hughes: the untold story
By Peter H Brown, Pat H Broeske. 1996
Drawing on interviews and recently-revealed documents, this biography of the billionaire, aviator and Hollywood mogul spans seven decades. It provides…
insight on his secretive life, his love affairs, his bizarre behaviour and his eventual descent into madness. 1996.Heart berries: a memoir
By Sherman Alexie, Terese Marie Mailhot, Joan Naviyuk Kane. 2018
Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in…
the Pacific Northwest. Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder; Terese Marie Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma. The triumphant result is Heart Berries, a memorial for Mailhot's mother, a social worker and activist who had a thing for prisoners; a story of reconciliation with her father--an abusive drunk and a brilliant artist--who was murdered under mysterious circumstances; and an elegy on how difficult it is to love someone while dragging the long shadows of shame. Mailhot trusts us to understand that memory isn't exact, but melded to imagination, pain, and what we can bring ourselves to accept. Her unique and at times unsettling voice graphically illustrates her mental state. As she writes, she discovers her own true voice, seizes control of her story, and, in so doing, re-establishes her connection to her family, to her people, and to her place in the world. Bestseller. 2018.Harvests of joy: my passion for excellence
By Robert Mondavi, Paul Chutkow. 1998
Autobiography of a California wine maker who changed the industry in the United States. Recalls how in 1965, at fifty-two,…
Mondavi bitterly broke away from the family firm and established his own vineyard. His innovations helped Napa Valley wines challenge those of France. 1998.Canadian Tire was founded by A.J. and John Billes in 1922 and grew to become a national institution. In 1986,…
one of A.J.'s sons decided to sell his company shares to a group of Canadian Tire dealers, sparking a feud with his sister, Martha. 1990 winner of the National Business Book Award. Strong language.Financier, the biography of André Meyer: a story of money, power, and the reshaping of American business
By Cary Reich, André Meyer. 1983
Portrait of the legendary financial wizard and art connoisseur. Meyer emigrated from France to New York during World War II…
and established himself as one of the most successful capitalists of the post-war era. 1983.Fayed: the unauthorized biography
By Tom Bower. 1998
Mohamed Al Fayed has become Britain's most controversial tycoon. Few men enjoy so much publicity and provoke so many questions…
about themselves as the Egyptian owner of Harrods, bereaved father of Dodi, and instigator of the "cash for questions" row that ocurred during the last Tory government. 1998.Europe's last summer: who started the Great War in 1914?
By David Fromkin. 2005
When war broke out in Europe in 1914, it surprised a European population enjoying the most beautiful summer in memory.…
For nearly a century since, historians have debated the causes of the war. Some have cited the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand; others have concluded it was unavoidable. In this book Fromkin provides a different answer: hostilities were commenced deliberately. In a re-creation of the run-up to war, Fromkin shows how German generals, seeing war as inevitable, manipulated events to precipitate a conflict waged on their own terms. 2005.Dark genius of Wall Street: the misunderstood life of Jay Gould, king of the robber barons
By Edward Renehan. 2006
Edward J. Renehan, Jr. presents a biography of one of the most hated and most admired American entrepreneurs of all…
time. Here, he sheds light on Wall Street magnate Jay Gould and his frequently overshadowed creativity. Gould was the quintessential robber baron and the original modern businessman whose financial examples persist even today. 2006.Distilled: a memoir of family, Seagram, baseball, and philanthropy
By Howard Green, Charles Bronfman. 2016
Born in 1931 to the fabulously wealthy Bronfmans, Charles grew up in a 20-room mansion with many staff. Via their…
control of the distilling giant Seagram, the Bronfman family dominated the liquor business with brands such as Crown Royal, V.O. and Chivas Regal. By the 1980s, Seagram was also the biggest shareholder of DuPont and by the 1990s, the family’s wealth was in the billions, culminating in the $35-billion sale of Seagram to France’s Vivendi, which turned into a financial and family disaster. Charles reflects on his relationship with his parents, his brother Edgar, working in the family business, landing Canada’s first big league baseball franchise (the Montreal Expos), leading a philanthropic life by promoting Canadian identity through Heritage Minutes and supporting Israel through countless innovative initiatives including the globally respected Birthright Israel - and to how the Bronfman family splintered over the sale of Seagram. 2016.Dynasty: the Astors and their times
By David Sinclair. 1984
The bold, unscrupulous ventures of John Jacob Astor into fur trading and Manhattan real estate made him wealthy. The author…
follows the rise of the family's fortune and influence in the 19th century to the decline of the Astors in the 20th century. 1984.