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In his poetry Walt Whitman set out to encompass all of America and in so doing heal its deepening divisions. This magisterial biography demonstrates the epic scale of his achievement, as well as the dreams and anxieties that impelled it, for it places the poet securely within the political and cultural context of his age.
Combing through the full range of Whitman's writing, David Reynolds shows how Whitman gathered inspiration from every stratum...
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Gil Troy, a native of Queens, New York, is Professor of History at McGill University. He is the author of Mr. and Mrs. President: From the Trumans to the Clintons (Kansas), an updated, paperback edition of Affairs of State: The Rise and Rejection of the Presidential Couple Since World War II (Free Press); and of See How They Ran: The Changing Role of the Presidential Candidate (Free Press).
Did America's fortieth president lead a conservative counterrevolution...
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Published in 1871, Democratic Vistas is perhaps Walt Whitman's most important prose work. Disenchanted with the pervasive corruption during the period of Reconstruction, he examines democracy and its problems during this era, arguing for a balance between individualism and democracy, and ultimately expressing his belief in the triumph of the democratic ideal.
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When most of us take a backward glance at the 1920s, we may think of prohibition and the jazz age, of movies stars and flappers, of Harold Lloyd and Mary Pickford, of Lindbergh and Hoover-and of Black Friday, October 29, 1929, when the plunging stock market ushered in the great depression.
But, the 1920s were much more. Lynn Dumenil brings a fresh interpretation to a dramatic, important, and misunderstood decade. As her lively work makes clear, changing...
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Neil Baldwin, one of the most exciting intellectual historians, has written extensively about the great thinkers and innovators who have shaped our unique American identity. In THE AMERICAN REVELATION, he turns his energies to the unfolding story of how the American spirit developed over 400 years.
This inspiring examination of the ideals that have grown to inform our national identity and of the figures who set the course for our evolving self image...
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Charles Maland focuses on the cultural sources of the on-and-off, love-hate affair between Chaplin and the American public that was perhaps the stormiest in American stardom. "A fascinating, ambitious and incisive look at American culture and at the cinematic genius."---Robin Lippincott, New York Times Book Review "Maland pioneers a new approach to Chaplin.... Anyone interested in Chaplin must read it. And those engaged in the task of bringing to...
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The rise and fall of ancient Rome has been on American minds from the beginning of our republic. Today we focus less on the Roman Republic than on the empire that took its place. Depending on who's doing the talking, the history of Rome serves as either a triumphal call to action or a dire warning of imminent collapse. In Are We Rome? the esteemed editor and author Cullen Murphy reveals a wide array of similarities between the two empires: the blinkered,...
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A bestselling cultural journalist shows how pop culture prepared Americans to embrace extreme politics.
Almost everything has been invoked to account for Trump's victory and the rise of the alt-right, from job loss to racism to demography-everything, that is, except popular culture. In The Sky Is Falling bestselling cultural journalist Peter Biskind dives headlong into two decades of popular culture-from superhero franchises such as the Dark Knight,...
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A sweeping new look at the unheralded transformation that is eroding the foundations of American exceptionalism.
Americans today find themselves mired in an era of uncertainty and frustration. The nation's safety net is pulling apart under its own weight; political compromise is viewed as a form of defeat; and our faith in the enduring concept of American exceptionalism appears increasingly outdated.
But the American Age may not be ending. In The...
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The American Dream is one of the most familiar and resonant phrases in our national lexicon, so familiar that we seldom pause to ask its origin, its history, or what it actually means. In this fascinating short history, Jim Cullen explores the meaning of the American Dream, or rather the several American Dreams that have both reflected and shaped American identity from the Pilgrims to the present.
Cullen notes that the United States, unlike most...
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For many, the 1970s evoke the Brady Bunch and the birth of disco. In this first, thematic popular history of the decade, David Frum argues that it was the 1970s, not the 1960s, that created modern America and altered the American personality forever. A society that had valued faith, self-reliance, self-sacrifice, and family loyalty evolved in little more than a decade into one characterized by superstition, self-interest, narcissism, and guilt. Frum...
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What is America? It's the special places that remind us of important events. It's the people who have dedicated themselves to improving our country. And most of all, it's the ideals and beliefs that we share. Informative text and bold scratchboard illustrations pay homage to our country's past and present. Features a diverse collection of historical figures from science, entertainment, politics, and education. Ties into social studies, history, geography,...
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For the fortieth anniversary of 1969, Rob Kirkpatrick takes a look back at a year when America witnessed many of the biggest landmark achievements, cataclysmic episodes, and generation-defining events in recent history. 1969 was the year that saw Apollo 11 land on the moon, the Cinderella stories of Joe Namath's Jets and the "Miracle Mets," the Harvard student strike and armed standoff at Cornell, the People's Park riots, the first artificial heart...
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In the scorching summer of 1878, with the Gilded Age in its infancy, three tenacious and brilliant scientists raced to Wyoming and Colorado to observe a rare total solar eclipse. One sought to discover a new planet. Another-an adventuresome female astronomer-fought to prove that science was not anathema to femininity. And a young, megalomaniacal inventor, with the tabloid press fast on his heels, sought to test his scientific bona fides and light...
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Hoover Institution Press publication volume 450
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A collection of essays that discusses such issues as the media, immigration, the minimum wage and multiculturalism.
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A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE
A magisterial new work that rewrites the story of America's founding
The American Revolution is often portrayed as an orderly, restrained rebellion, with brave patriots defending their noble ideals against an oppressive empire. It’s a stirring narrative, and one the founders did their best to encourage after the war. But as historian Holger Hoock shows in this deeply researched...
A magisterial new work that rewrites the story of America's founding
The American Revolution is often portrayed as an orderly, restrained rebellion, with brave patriots defending their noble ideals against an oppressive empire. It’s a stirring narrative, and one the founders did their best to encourage after the war. But as historian Holger Hoock shows in this deeply researched...
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"Runner-Up for the 2005 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish History, Jewish Book Council" "Finalist for the 2004 Weinberg Judaic Studies Institute Book Award, University of Scranton" "One of Publishers Weekly's Best Books for 2004" Andrew R. Heinze is Professor of American History and Director of the Swig Judaic Studies Program at the University of San Francisco. Raised in New Jersey, he graduated from Amherst College and earned a Ph.D....
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Until the 1950s, the struggle to feed, clothe, and employ the nation drove most of American political life. From slavery to the New Deal, political parties organized around economic interests and engaged in fervent debate over the best allocation of agonizingly scarce resources. But with the explosion of the nation's economy in the years after World War II, a new set of needs began to emerge-a search for meaning and self-expression on one side, and...
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"Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham helps us understand the present moment in American politics and life by looking back at critical times in our history when hope overcame division and fear. Our current climate of partisan fury is not new, and in The Soul of America Meacham shows us how what Abraham Lincoln called the "better angels of our nature" have repeatedly won the day. Painting surprising portraits of presidents including, besides Lincoln,...
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