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Very short introductions volume 700
Summary
"Mary Shelley: A Very Short Introduction examines the distinctive voice and radical themes of Mary Shelley's writing, which broke conventions and stretched nineteenth century literary genres. It explores the context, background, and important ideas contained in Shelley's most famous novel. It also demonstrates the significance of her other writings. This VSI recounts how Shelly, who was named Mary Godwin at the time, began writing Frankenstein in...
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It is perhaps the greatest story never told: the truth behind the most-enduring works of literature in the English language, perhaps in any language. Who was the man behind Hamlet? What passion inspired the sonnets, whose words were so powerful that "not marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme?" In Shakespeare's Lost Kingdom, critically acclaimed historian Charles Beauclerk pulls off an astounding feat, humanizing...
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Understanding Trump requires a willingness to study and learn from him. His principles grow out of five decades of business and celebrity success. Trump behaves differently than traditional politicians because his entire life experience has been different than most traditional politicians. This book will explain the Trump phenomenon and help people understand the emerging movement and administration. Newt Gingrich says President Trump should begin...
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Appears on list
Summary
Grammy Award Nominee for Best Spoken Word Album!
In this urgent, timely, and passionate book, Nobel Peace Laureate and former President Jimmy Carter argues that the present moment is a unique time for achieving peace in the Middle East—and he offers a bold and comprehensive plan to do just that.
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From his dazzling conducting debut in 1943 until his death in 1990, Leonard Bernstein's star blazed brilliantly. In this fresh and revealing biography of Bernstein's political life, Barry Seldes examines Bernstein's career against the backdrop of cold war America - blacklisting by the State Department in 1950, voluntary exile from the New York Philharmonic in 1951 for fear that he might be blacklisted, signing a humiliating affidavit to regain his...
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"A rare, insider's look at the life of Donald Trump from the bestselling author of the Killing series, based on exclusive interview material and deep research. Readers around the world have been enthralled by journalist and New York Times bestselling author Bill O'Reilly's Killing series-riveting works of nonfiction that explore the most famous events in history. Now O'Reilly turns his razor-sharp observations to his most compelling subject thus far--President...
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The Principles of Uncertainty is an irresistible invitation to experience life through the psyche of Maira Kalman, one of this country's most beloved artists. The result is a book that is part personal narrative, part documentary, part travelogue, part chapbook, and all Kalman. Her brilliant, whimsical paintings, ideas, and images--which initially appear random--ultimately form an intricately interconnected worldview, an idiosyncratic inner monologue....
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"An official companion to Steven Spielberg's movie Lincoln, this riveting history written for young readers by noted Lincoln historian Harold Holzer, explores Abraham Lincoln's life, his evolving personal and political beliefs about slavery, and his genius that led to ending the Civil War, re-uniting the country, and ensuring passage of the 13th Amendment that ended slavery in America"--Provided by publisher.
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Tough Times Call for Tough Action. In American Grit, nationally syndicated columnist Tony Blankley warns that the administration of Barack Obama is a potential disaster at a dangerous time for America.
Challenging Americans to recapture the spirit of sacrifice that has historically characterized our nation, Blankley demonstrates how Obama's agenda, with its emphasis on environmental sensitivity, military retreat, and the diminution of executive branch...
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"From journalist and historian Steve Inskeep, a compelling and nuanced exploration of the political acumen of Abraham Lincoln via sixteen encounters before and during his presidency, bringing to light not only the strategy of a great politician who inherited a country divided, but lessons for our own disorderly present. In 1855, as the United States found itself at odds over the issue of slavery, then lawyer Abraham Lincoln composed a note on the...
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The landmark exposé of the most powerful and secretive vice president in American history
Barton Gellman shared the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for a keen-edged reckoning with Dick Cheney's domestic agenda in The Washington Post. In Angler, Gellman goes far beyond that series to take on the full scope of Cheney's work and its consequences, including his hidden role in the Bush administration's most fateful choices in war:...
Barton Gellman shared the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for a keen-edged reckoning with Dick Cheney's domestic agenda in The Washington Post. In Angler, Gellman goes far beyond that series to take on the full scope of Cheney's work and its consequences, including his hidden role in the Bush administration's most fateful choices in war:...
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"Ludwig van Beethoven entered university the year that the French Revolution broke out. He went on to live through the Reign of Terror, the rise and fall of Napoleon, the battles of Wagram and Leipzig, and the era of political repression following the Congress of Vienna. Interpretations of Beethoven's music have tended to emphasize the composer's personal suffering and inner struggles over the political resonance of his work. Yet, as William Kinderman's...
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Series
Very short introductions volume 203
Summary
"Abraham Lincoln was a fatalist who promoted freedom; he was a classical liberal who couched liberalism's greatest deed - emancipation of the slaves - in the unliberal language of divine providence; he was a religious doubter who became a national icon bordering on religion; and he was a rights-oriented liberal who appealed to natural law when confronting slavery"--Provided by publisher.
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"Radical Ambivalence: Race in Flannery O'Connor, the first book-length study of O'Connor's complex and sometimes troubling attitude towards race in her fiction and correspondence, contends that O'Connor's race-haunted writing serves as the literary incarnation of her uncertainty about the great question of her era and of her urgent need, despite considerable reluctance, to address the fraught relationship between the races"--
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In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the Constitution: they ignored the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and provoked a violent attack on our Capitol. Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican officials to take a stand against these efforts, witnessed the attack first-hand, and...
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"Johnny Cash was an American icon, known for his level bass-baritone voice and somber demeanor, for huge hits like "Ring of Fire" and "I Walk the Line." He's one of the best-selling musicians of all time, and his crossover appeal earned him inductions into the Country Music, Gospel Music, and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame. But he was also the most prominent political artist in the United States, even if he wasn't recognized for it in his own lifetime,...
38) Orwell on truth
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"Over the course of his career, George Orwell wrote about many things, but no matter what he wrote the goal was to get at the fundamental truths of the world. He had no place for dissemblers, liars, conmen, or frauds, and he made his feelings well-known. In Orwell on Truth, excerpts from across Orwell's career show how his writing and worldview developed over the decades, profoundly shaped by his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, and further by...
39) Gandhi: a life
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The Internationally Acclaimed Biography of One of History's Monumental Figures Gandhi: A Life The first biography of this important figure in over twenty years, Gandhi: A Life rescues the man from the myth, revealing the transformation of an ordinary, timid young man into a leader whose stand against a mighty empire brought millions together.