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The 20th Century, 1971-2000
Salem's definitive 20th century historical reference continues with this title.Salem Press' monumental ""Great Events from History"" series spans human history from ancient times to the present, worldwide. ""Great Events from History: The 20th Century, 1971-2000"", a six-volume set, provides extended coverage of 1,083 major events between 1971 and 2000.The period is extraordinarily important: The late twentieth century was a time of significant advances in science and technology. Space probes explored comets. Personal computers were born and quickly grew to change the way people all over the world work, play, and communicate. With the rise of the Internet, information of all kinds became available at the click of a button. In addition, advances in biotechnology were groundbreaking, producing the first genetically engineered vaccine, a map of the human genome, and the first successfully cloned mammal.Plus, the events covered include the curriculum-oriented geopolitical events of the era - from the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in 1973 to the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Essays also address important social and cultural developments in daily life: major literary movements, significant developments in the arts and motion pictures, trends in world population and immigration, and landmark social legislation.The essays range in length from 3 to 5 pages and adhere to a uniform format. The ready-reference top matter of every essay displays the most precise date of the event, the common name, a summary paragraph, locale, category of the event, and the key people involved.The text of each essay is divided into four sections: ""Summary of Event"" gives a chronological description of the facts of the event. ""Significance"" assesses the event's historical impact, ""Further Reading"" provides a fully annotated list of sources for further study, and ""See Also"" offers extensive cross-references to other essays within the Great Events set.A ""Keyword List of Contents"" appears in the front matter to each volume. A section of historical maps also appears in the front matter, displaying world regions in the late twentieth century to assist readers in placing the events' locales. Accompanying the individual essays are an additional 85 maps; 240 quotations from primary source documents, lists, and time lines; and more than 500 photographs and other illustrations. In addition, several research aids appear at the end of Volume 6, including a bibliography, a chronological list of entries, and a listing of electronic resources. Four complete indexes (Geographical, Category, Personages, and Subject) round out this remarkable set.
The 21st Century (2000-2016)
Salem Press' monumental Great Events from History series spans human history from ancient times to the present, worldwide. This new three-volume set continues Salem's award-winning coverage into the twenty-first century, providing thoughtful, detailed essays on major events between 2000 and 2016. The first sixteen years of the twenty-first century have seen tumultuous and life-changing events- terror, wars, natural disasters, as well as social and political events that will render the world forever changed. This text documents it all-the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, natural disasters around the globe, the election of the first African-American President. Plus, important social and cultural developments, including the rise of digital and social media, as well as breakthroughs in science and medicine. In-depth, yet accessible essays provide a summary of the event and discuss the event's significance and historical impact. Entries are supplemented with sources for further reading, cross-references to other material in the series, maps, quotations from primary source documents, timelines, and hundreds of photographs and illustrations. Designed for history students at the high school and undergraduate levels, public libraries will also find this set, and the series as a whole, invaluable as a reference tool for students and general readers at all academic levels.
American Decades Primary Sources 1900-1999
"American Decades Primary Sources is designed as a stand-alone set and also as a companion to Thomson Gale's 10-volume "American Decades Series. Each "Primary Sources volume covers a decade in American history corresponding to an original "American Decades volume, amplifying and illuminating the decade with first-hand accounts and other primary source documentation. Each volume includes approximately 165 full-text or excerpted historical documents from the period representing a diversity of views that provide insight into the seminal issues, themes, movements and events from the decade. These documents include advertisements, commercials, diaries, literary works, newspaper articles, memoirs, periodical articles, speeches and other types of primary source materials.
Defining Documents in American History: Civil Rights (1954–2015)
Defining Documents in American History: Civil Rights offers in-depth analysis of a broad range of historical documents and historic events that shaped civil rights struggles in American history. This text closely studies more than forty primary source documents to deliver a thorough examination of civil rights movements in the U.S. from 1954 to 2015.
Defining Documents in American History: Conservatism
Conservatism has played a major role in U.S. politics since at least the Reagan era, and going back to the Nixon administration and before. Conservatism is a political and social ideology that emphasizes the importance of tradition, established institutions, and gradual change. Central aspects of conservatism include the value of national customs and institutions, a cautious approach toward immigration, the importance of authority and order, and a sense of loyalty to the nation and its founding principles. In recent decades conservatives, generally aligned with the Republican Party, have promoted limited government, military might, financial deregulation, and private enterprise as the way forward for the United States. Successful election results in recent years have seen the rise Christian nationalist politics and the emergence of Donald J. Trump as the new herald of a hardline conservativism, one, even, that challenges existing institutions. Yet conservative politics have continuously been challenged by liberal voices in the American polity, including mass movements against authoritarian conservative tendencies and wars of choice rather than necessity. Anti-egalitarian precepts held by Republican conservatives and harsh restrictions against immigrants have, likewise, been lamented by liberal, mostly Democratic opponents. Covering key moments and ideas from previous eras to today, this work explores this all-important thread in American political culture and how it has impacted the workings of government, the economy, national defense, international relations, law and society, domestic programs, and cultural values throughout U.S. history. The documents contained within these sections provide an overview of the history and significance of conservatism in American society, exploring important moments in the ideology’s development from the founding of the country to current times.
Defining Documents in American History: Court Cases (1803-2017)
This title covers important historical documents from the U.S. Supreme Court as well as other courts in American history. Readers will find in-depth analysis of a broad range of court cases covering critical topics. The set provides detailed, thought-provoking analysis of: Marbury v. Madison Roe v. Wade Plessy v. Ferguson Bush vs. Gore Muller v. Orgeon Each in-depth chapter guides readers with historical insight and comprehension. Written by historians and teachers, several elements explain the document's historical impact and provide thoughtful critical analysis, including a Summary Overview, Defining Moment, Author Biography, Document Analysis, and Essential Themes. Plus, an historical timeline and bibliography of important supplemental readings will support readers in understanding the broader historical events covered. From the earliest decisions of the Supreme Court to the battles over civil rights to divisive events in contemporary America, this set provides thoughtful analysis of court cases allowing readers to gain a better understanding of this crucial topic in American history. An important resource for the history collections of high schools, undergraduate libraries and public libraries.
Defining Documents in American History: Dissent & Protest (1635-2017)
Dissent & Protest studies crucial documents from various protests, dissents, revolts, riots, and revolutions throughout American history, from the American Revolution to the Black Lives Matter Movement of today. This text closely studies more than eighty primary source documents to deliver a thorough examination of issues so important to Americans that they took action, exercised their rights and stood up to protest. Defining Documents in American History: Dissent & Protest provides detailed thought-provoking analysis of speeches and documents surrounding: American Revolution Native American Dissent Women's Rights Worker's Rights Abolitionism Slave Rebellions State Rights Political & War Protests Whiskey Rebellion Racism Poverty Civil Rights . Each in-depth chapter guides readers with historical insight and comprehension. Written by historians and teachers, several elements explain the document's historical impact and provide thoughtful critical analysis, including a Summary Overview, Defining Moment, Author Biography, Document Analysis, and Essential Themes. Plus, an historical timeline and bibliography of important supplemental readings will support readers in understanding the broader historical events covered. The documents include highlight American's commitment to stand up and fight for the issues they believe in. This volume will be a welcome addition to the history collections of high schools, undergraduate libraries, and public libraries.
Defining Documents in American History : Environment & Conservation (1791 - 2015)
Defining Documents in American History: Environment & Conservation offers in-depth analysis of a broad range of historical documents and historic events that shaped environmental and conservation issues throughout the American history. This text closely studies more than forty primary source documents to deliver a thorough examination of environmentally related events in the U.S. from 1872 to 2015. Defining Documents in American History: Enivronment & Conservation provides detailed, thought-provoking analysis of: The Demise of the Bison on the Plains The Founding of the First National Parks The Emergence of the Modern Conservation Movement Ecological Consciousness, Earth Day, and Gaia Contemporary Environmental Battles and many, many more! An historical timeline and bibliography of important supplemental readings will support readers in understanding the broader historical events and subjects in the period. An introduction for each of the major subjects covered in the title considers the significance of document analysis for students and educators. Each in-depth chapter guides readers with historical insight and comprehension. The documents included represent the diversity of ideas and contexts that defined social, political, and cultural subjects throughout this period in American history. Defining Documents consists of a collection of essays on important historical documents by a diverse range of writers on a broad range of subjects in American history. The series offers a broad range of historical documents on important authors and subjects in American history, with primary source documents, in-depth analysis, and comprehensive lesson plans that represent the diversity of ideas and contexts that define social, political and cultural subjects throughout American history. The Defining Documents series is perfect for students, those researching a particular era, or anyone interested in American History since 1492.
Defining Documents in American History: Immigration & Immigrant Communities (1650-2016)
This text explores the full history of immigration issues in America, from those early immigrants making their way through Ellis Island, to immigration issues in modern society. With in-depth analysis of a broad range of documents, researchers come away with fresh understanding and insight to study this hot button topic.
Defining Documents in American History: LGBTQ+ (1923–2017)
This history of LGBTQ+ in the United States begins in the early 1920s with the founding of the Mattachine Society, one of the first homophile organizations in the country. As gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals have continued their fight for basic rights and equal treatment under the law, various court cases and challenges to those cases have continued to refine the debate, starting with Executive order 10450, requiring security clearance for federal employees and barring those guilty of any “criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral, or notoriously disgraceful conduct…or sexual perversion. In the twenty-first century the struggle for equality continues as cases such as Obergefell v. Hodges, which overruled the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and legalized same sex marriage as well as blocking enforcement of President Trump’s memorandum prohibiting transgender individuals from serving in the military.
Defining Documents in American History: Liberalism
Liberalism has long been a central factor in U.S. politics, going back at least to the New Deal and continuing through the Great Society of the 1960s and the social justice and environmental movements of today. As a social and political ideology, liberalism emphasizes the democratic ideals of anti-authoritarianism, the equality of all peoples, the rule of law, and democratic governance through regular elections and civil participation. Liberals generally accept that social progress entails a contest among differing ideas and beliefs, for the betterment of all. Liberal principles have lain behind many Democratic presidencies, from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s to Bill Clinton’s to Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s terms in office. And yet liberalism, long subject to criticism by conservatives, has lately suffered significant setbacks in U.S. politics, even as it continues to enjoy broad support among the American populace. How has liberalism been informed by its past, and what is the best path forward for its supporters in the twenty-first century? Covering key moments and ideas from previous eras to today, this work explores this all-important thread in American political culture and how it has impacted the workings of government, the economy, national defense, international relations, law and society, domestic programs, and cultural values throughout U.S. history. The documents contained within these sections provide an overview of the history and significance of liberalism in American society, exploring key milestones in the movement’s development from the days of the Founding Fathers to the modern era.
Defining Documents in American History: Native Americans (1451-2017)
This title covers important historical documents from influential figures in Native American history. Readers will find in-depth analysis of a broad range of historical documents, including speeches, letters, legislation, court cases, and other sources about Native Americans. The set provides detailed, thought-provoking analysis of: Iroquois Thanksgiving Address Tecumseh: Speech to Governor Willian Henry Harrison Indians of All Tribes Occupation of Alcatraz: Proclamation Andrew Jackson on Indian Removal Zitkala-Sa: Old Indian Legends Each in-depth chapter guides readers with historical insight and comprehension. Written by historians and teachers, several elements explain the document's historical impact and provide thoughtful critical analysis, including a Summary Overview, Defining Moment, Author Biography, Document Analysis, and Essential Themes. Plus, an historical timeline and bibliography of important supplemental readings will support readers in understanding the broader historical events covered. From the first meetings between Native Americans and European settlers to twentieth-century events, this set provides thoughtful analysis of documents and speeches allowing readers to gain a better understanding of this crucial topic in American history. An important resource for the history collections of high schools, undergraduate libraries and public libraries.
Defining Documents in American History: Political Campaigns, Candidates, and Debates (1787-2017)
Documents and commentary that showcase the American political process. The 80 documents are organized into major categories that include: Politics and War; Politics and Social Issues; Politics and the Economy; Politics and Education; and Political Debate.
Defining Documents in American History: The 1970s (1970-1979)
This important resource provides students and researchers new insights into the 1970s in the U.S., through an in-depth analysis of forty important primary source documents and their lasting effect on American history. An historical timeline and bibliography of supplemental readings will support readers in understanding the broader historical events and subjects in the period. An introduction for each of the major subjects covered in this title considers the significant of document analysis for students and educators.
Defining Documents in American History: The 1980s (1980-1989)
The United States witness major socioeconomic change in the 1980s. The final years of the Carter administration, plagued by the Iran hostage crisis and runaway inflation, caused many Americans to embrace a new conservatism socially, economically, and politically, characterized by the policies of President Reagan. Both working-age Americans and affluent retirees flocked to the country's southeast and southwest Sun Belt regions resulting in a change in the political climate that strengthened conservatism in America.
Defining Documents in American History: The Legacy of 9/11
The tension between personal liberties and national security, always ready to erupt in the political fights played out in Washington, D.C., became a daily concern for all U.S. citizens in the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001. Readers will find that each article provides a thorough commentary and analysis of documents. The primary source document, often reproduced in its entirety, includes sections that provide Summary Overview, the Defining Moment, Author Biography, Document Analysis, and Essential Themes.
Defining Documents in American History: Watergate
Defining Moments in American History: The September 11 Terrorist Attacks
Provides a detailed account of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Explores the history of Islamist terrorism, Americas military reaction, and the events lasting influence on society.
Eyewitness History: The 1970s
From the rippling aftereffects of the Vietnam War to the civil unrest between the Arabs and the Israelis in the Middle East, this volume explores a period of great uncertainty for the United States and the world. It includes critical documents, as well as capsule biographies of key figures, a bibliography, an index, and more.
Eyewitness History: The 1980s
Part of the Eyewitness History series, this book chronicles a decade of global transition. This volume covers landmark advancements in civil rights, law, space exploration, science, technology, medicine, literature, and art. It also documents the United States' up-and-down economy and the rise of AIDS.
Eyewitness History: The 1990s
Part of the Eyewitness History series, this volume provides many accounts of the 1990s - including diary entries, letters, speeches, and newspaper accounts. Ranging from the still-evolving new world order to the changing demographic values and practices of the US, it explores the many factors that have helped transform America's identity.
Milestone Documents in American History: Exploring the Primary Sources That Shaped America
Contains thirty-two full-text primary source documents that helped to shape American society from 1763 to 1823 including the Proclamation of 1763, Treaty of Fort Pitt, the Bill of Rights, the Missouri Compromise, and the Monroe Doctrine.
The Reference Shelf: American Political Speeches (20th and 21st Century)
Speeches from the 20th and 21st century.
Reference Shelf: Representative American Speeches 2018-2019
Selected from a diverse field of speakers and venues, this volume offers some of the most engaging American speeches of the year. Distinguished by its diversity, covering areas in politics, education, popular culture, as well as trending topics in the news, these speeches provide an interesting format to explore some of the year's most important stories.
Reference Shelf: Representative American Speeches 2019-2020
The most memorable speeches from a variety of speakers are discussed in this issue, allowing an opportunity to analyze the year's most pressing and controversial topics. Speakers from many walks of life are featured, including education, politics, science and research, and popular culture.
Reference Shelf: Representative American Speeches 2021-2022
In this annual issue of The Reference Shelf, we look at some of the best, most impactful, and most uplifting speeches from 2021-2022. Ranging from politicians to political activists to celebrities, this volume of The Reference Shelf provides a unique record of American culture during the year as seen through the eyes of some of the nation's most important public figures. With an eye toward encompassing a diversity of perspectives, speeches will help provide a glimpse of American thought and attitudes on the year's most important stories.
Reference Shelf: Representative American Speeches 2022-2023
The most memorable speeches from a variety of speakers are discussed in this issue, allowing an opportunity to analyze the year's most pressing and controversial topics. Speakers from many walks of life are featured, including education, politics, science and research, and popular culture.
Reference Shelf: Representative American Speeches 2023-2024
The most memorable speeches from a variety of speakers are discussed in this issue, allowing an opportunity to analyze the year's most pressing and controversial topics. Speakers from many walks of life are featured, including education, politics, science and research, and popular culture.
Women of the Afghan War
This is an account of the Afghan War and its tragic aftermath as told by the women who were caught up in it and became its innocent victims. The voices in this oral history will provide personal snapshots to the news reports of the Taliban activities now coming out of Afghanistan. These accounts provide an historical background to the growth of the Taliban, and reveal circumstances of the daily life of the women who must survive in this very closed society. Through the medium of oral history, this book brings to light the stories of the women who have suffered the consequences of the Afghan War and whose lives and whose daughter's lives have been changed forever. Through the voices of the Soviet women who supported their soldiers on Afghan soil, and the voices of the Afghan women scattered by circumstance around the globe, the last Cold War battle between the superpowers takes on a very personal tone. Policy decisions issued from on high became the rockets that destroyed these women physically, mentally, and emotionally. Children were killed or maimed and homes and families destroyed. Ultimately, these women were forced to flee or become invisible within their homeland. The Taliban militia rose from the dust of this war and by government decree reduced even the most educated and influential of the women to non-person status.
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American Datelines: Major News Stories from Colonial Times to the Present
Capturing the kick and stir of history as it unfolded, American Datelines reveals the courage, hope, and grit of the American experience as chronicled in the headlines of the nation's public press from the earliest issue of The Boston News-Letter to the major newspapers of today. The original articles in this compelling collection are arranged chronologically and appear as they were first published, providing a lively and unique view of the events that have most influenced politics and culture. Readers can experience the thrill and excitement of breaking news from the real story of Jesse James and the capture of Al Capone to a vibrant portrayal of baseball's first professional African American player and a probing look at the shocking New York Armory show where modern art was born. This first paperback edition features an updated introduction by the editors and several newsworthy additions, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the O. J. Simpson trial, the Clinton impeachment trial, the home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, and Bush v. Gore.
The American Nation: Primary Sources
The American Nation: Primary Sources resumes the narrative begun in its companion volume, The American Republic which covered the first eight decades of U.S. history, ending at the onset of the Civil War. The American Nation continues the story through America's entrance into World War II. The American Nation makes available, in one volume, many of the most crucial documents necessary for understanding the variety of policies and viewpoints driving American public life during an important, substantive part of American history. The primary sources in The American Nation are relevant to the Civil War, Reconstruction, the rise of a national capitalist system and culture, the waves of reform-minded thought and policy that moved the nation toward formation of the national administrative and welfare states, and America's emergence as a major power on the world stage. This period was a watershed in the history of the nation--the time of establishing and consolidating national power and laying the foundations of a national government committed to promoting the material well-being of Americans. It was an era that witnessed the development of the nation-state and the establishment of the New Deal regime, which set the stage for the radical social movements of the 1960's and beyond. For decades debates have raged concerning the nature and impact of post-Civil War Reconstruction, as well as the major popular legal and ideological movements shaping the United States during the period up to World War II. This critical era encompassed the rise of mass-market corporatism and America's entry into world politics. Recent social history has uncovered a great deal of information regarding the daily lives of Americans during this era. Of equal importance is an in-depth study of the public documents critical for an understanding of the effects of public acts and pronouncements on Americans. This volume will allow students and readers to readily engage, without interpretation, the original historical documents that have shaped the history of American public life. Some of the primary documents include the Emancipation Proclamation, the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, the Sherman Antitrust Act, and the Monroe Doctrine. Some of the authors featured include Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jefferson Davis, Robert LaFollette, Eugene Debs, Jane Addams, William Graham Sumner, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Booker T. Washington, among many others.
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
In July 2004, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchoered itself in listeners' minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in US history, the people have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Senetor Obama called the audacity of hope.' In this book Obama calls for a different brand of politics - a politics free from the fear of losing, raising money and the media. A politics for the future.'
Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq
In August 2003, the world gained access to a remarkable new voice: a blog written by a 25-year-old Iraqi woman living in Baghdad, whose identity remained concealed for her own protection. Calling herself Riverbend, she offered searing eyewitness accounts of the everyday realities on the ground, punctuated by astute analysis on the politics behind these events. In a voice in turn eloquent, angry, reflective and darkly comic, Riverbend recounts stories of life in an occupied city--of neighbors whose homes are raided by US troops, whose relatives disappear into prisons and whose children are kidnapped by money-hungry militias. At times, the tragic blends into the absurd, as she tells of her family jumping out of bed to wash clothes and send e-mails in the middle of the night when the electricity is briefly restored, or of their quest to bury an elderly aunt when the mosques are all overbooked for wakes and the cemeteries are all full. The only Iraqi blogger writing from a woman's perspective, she also describes a once-secular city where women are now afraid to leave their homes without head covering and a male escort. Interspersed with these vivid snapshots from daily life are Riverbend's analyses of everything from the elusive workings of the Iraqi Governing Council to the torture in Abu Ghraib, from the coverage provided by American media and by Al-Jazeera to Bush's State of the Union speech. Here again, she focuses especially on the fate of women, whose rights and freedoms have fallen victim to rising fundamentalisms in a chaotic postwar society. With thousands of loyal readers worldwide, the Riverbend blog is widely recognized around the world as a crucial source of information not available through the mainstream media. The book version of this blog will have "value-added" features: an introduction and timeline of events by veteran journalist James Ridgeway, excerpts from Riverbend's links and an epilogue by Riverbend herself.
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father--a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man--has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey--first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. Pictured in lefthand photograph on cover: Habiba Akumu Hussein and Barack Obama, Sr. (President Obama's paternal grandmother and his father as a young boy). Pictured in righthand photograph on cover: Stanley Dunham and Ann Dunham (President Obama's maternal grandfather and his mother as a young girl).
Heartbeat: George Bush in his Own Words
A charming collection of excerpts from the former president's speeches and other writings, Heartbeat reveals the basic values and beliefs that have served George H. W. Bush throughout his public and private life. Photos.
In Pursuit of Justice: Collected Writings 2000-2003
Over the last forty years Ralph Nader has established himself as America's most active visionary. In this insightful new collection of his nationally syndicated column, Nader is at his best. Collecting more than one hundred articles spanning three decades, In Pursuit of Justice addresses corporate abuse, the latent dangers of nuclear energy, water and air pollution, consumer safety and more, all with Nader's inimitable sense of both his subjects' gravity and the people's entitlement to a fair lot.
The Land Was Everything: Letters from an American Farmer
"Today the tradition of muscular, self-effacing labor is quietly disappearing, as the last of America's independent farmers slowly fade away. When they have gone, what will we have lost? In The Land Was Everything, Victor Davis Hanson, an embattled fifth-generation California grape farmer and passionate, eloquent writer, answers this question by offering a final snapshot of the yeoman, his work, and his wisdom."--BOOK JACKET.
My Life
President Bill Clinton's My Life is the strikingly candid portrait of a global leader who decided early in life to devote his intellectual and political gifts, and his extraordinary capacity for hard work, to serving the public. It shows us the progress of a remarkable American, who, through his own enormous energies and efforts, made the unlikely journey from Hope, Arkansas, to the White House a journey fueled by an impassioned interest in the political process which manifested itself at every stage of his life: in college, working as an intern for Senator William Fulbright; at Oxford, becoming part of the Vietnam War protest movement; at Yale Law School, campaigning on the grassroots level for Democratic candidates; back in Arkansas, running for Congress, attorney general, and governor. We see his career shaped by his resolute determination to improve the life of his fellow citizens, an unfaltering commitment to civil rights, and an exceptional understanding of the practicalities of political life. We come to understand the emotional pressures of his youth born after his father s death; caught in the dysfunctional relationship between his feisty, nurturing mother and his abusive stepfather, whom he never ceased to love and whose name he took; drawn to the brilliant, compelling Hillary Rodham, whom he was determined to marry; passionately devoted, from her infancy, to their daughter, Chelsea, and to the entire experience of fatherhood; slowly and painfully beginning to comprehend how his early denial of pain led him at times into damaging patterns of behavior. President Clinton's book is also the fullest, most concretely detailed, most nuanced account of a presidency ever written encompassing not only the high points and crises but the way the presidency actually works: the day-to-day bombardment of problems, personalities, conflicts, setbacks, achievements.
Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis
The former president shares his personal views on moral values as they relate to key issues today, evaluating the controversial and increasing intersection between religious and political arenas.
Reagan, in His Own Hand
Until Alzheimer's disease wreaked its gradual destruction, Ronald Reagan was an inveterate writer. He wrote not only letters, short fiction, poetry, and sports stories, but speeches, newspaper articles, and radio commentary on public policy issues, both foreign and domestic.Most of Reagan's original writings are pre-presidential. From 1975 to 1979 he gave more than 1,000 daily radio broadcasts, two-thirds of which he wrote himself. They cover every topic imaginable: from labor policy to the nature of communism, from World War II to the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, from the future of Africa and East Asia to that of the United States and the world. They range from highly specific arguments to grand philosophy to personal stories.Even those who knew him best were largely unaware of Reagan's output. George Shultz, as he explains in the Foreword, was surprised when he first saw the manuscripts, but on reflection he really was not surprised at all. Here is definitive proof that Ronald Reagan was far more than a Great Communicator of other people's ideas. He was very much the author of his own ideas, with a single vision that he pursued relentlessly at home and abroad.Reagan,In His Own Handpresents this vision through Reagan's radio writings as well as other writings selected from throughout his life: short stories written in high school and college, a poem from his high school yearbook, newspaper articles, letters, and speeches both before and during the presidency. It offers many surprises, beginning with the fact that Reagan's writings exist in such size and breadth at all. While he was writing batches and batches of radio addresses, Reagan was also traveling the country, collaborating on a newspaper column, giving hundreds of speeches, and planning his 1980 campaign. Yet the wide reading and deep research self-evident here suggest a mind constantly at work. The selections are reproduced with Reagan's own edits, offering a unique window into his thought processes.These writings show that Reagan had carefully considered nearly every issue he would face as president. When he fired the striking air-traffic controllers, many thought that he was simply seizing an unexpected opportunity to strike a blow at organized labor. In fact, as he wrote in the '70s, he was opposed to public-sector unions using strikes. There has been much debate as to whether he deserves credit for the end of the cold war; here, in a 1980 campaign speech draft, he lays out a detailed vision of the grand strategy that he would pursue in order to encourage the Soviet system to collapse of its own weight, completely consistent with the policies of his presidency. Furthermore, in 1984, Reagan drafted comments he would make to Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko at a critical meeting that would eventually lead to history's greatest reductions in armaments.Ronald Reagan's writings will change his reputation even among some of his closest allies and friends. Here, in his own hand, Reagan the thinker is finally fully revealed.
We Will Be Heard: Voices in the Struggle for Constitutional Rights Past and Present
Freedom of expression, a fundamental right in any democracy, has often been denied to Americans whose beliefs challenge the status quo. 'We Will Be Heard' features over 90 stirring portraits and first-person accounts of Americans targeted for speaking out against government policies and actions.
What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era
A special assistant to the president during the height of the Reagan era, Peggy Noonan worked with him, and with then vice-president Bush, on some of their most famous and memorable speeches. Now, in her thoroughly engaging and unanimously acclaimed memoir, Noonan shows us the world behind the words. Her sharp and vivid portraits of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, George Bush, Donald Regan, and a host of Washington's movers and shakers are rendered in her inimitable, witty prose. And her priceless account of what it was like to be a speechwriter among bureaucrats, and a woman in the last bastion of male power, makes this a Washington memoir that breaks the mold--as spirited, sensitive and thoughtful as Peggy Noonan herself.
What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It
The Iraq war officially began on March 20, 2003, and since then more than one million young Americans have rotated through the country's insurgent-infested hot spots. But although stories of dramatic ambushes and attacks dominate the front pages of newspapers, most of us do not truly know what the war is like for the Americans who fight it. What Was Asked of Us helps us bridge that gap. The in-depth and intensely probing interviews this book brings together document the soldiers' experiences and darkest secrets, offering a multitude of authentic, unfiltered voices - at times raw and emotional, at other times eloquent and lyrical. These voices walk us through the war, from the successful push to Baghdad, through the erroneous "Mission Accomplished" moment, and into the dangerous, murky present.
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