Best of
American-History

1983

The Real Thomas Jefferson: The True Story of America's Philosopher of Freedom


Andrew M. Allison - 1983
    he may yet prove to be the central figure in modern history. So stated noted historian Henry Steele Commager. And as the English novelist Samuel Butler once wrote, Though God cannot alter the past, historians can. His observation is especially applicable to our changing perceptions of great historical personalities, most of whom are relentlessly reinterpreted by each new generation of biographers. It is doubtful whether many of these renowned characters of yesteryear would even recognize themselves in some of the publications devoted to them today.There is no better example of this kind of metamorphosis than Thomas Jefferson, author of the American Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States. Since his death in 1826 he has been alternately vilified and deified in numerous forms by writers of varying motivations. In The Real Thomas Jefferson, by allowing Jefferson to explain his life and ideas in his own words, we have tried to ensure that his spirit, not ours, will breathe in these pages — so that all who read them will become acquainted with Jefferson himself, not another second-hand interpretation of him. His biography appears in Part I, and Part II brings together the most insightful passages from his writings, arranged by subject.

Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam


Stephen W. Sears - 1983
    Here renowned historian Stephen Sears draws on a remarkable cache of diaries, dispatches, and letters to recreate the vivid drama of Antietam as experienced not only by its leaders but also by its soldiers, both Union and Confederate, to produce what the New York Times Book Review has called "the best account of the Battle of Antietam."

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse: The Story of Leonard Peltier and the FBI's War on the American Indian Movement


Peter Matthiessen - 1983
    Four members of the American Indian Movement were indicted on murder charges, and one, Leonard Peltier, was convicted and is now serving consecutive life sentences in a federal penitentiary. Behind this violent chain of events lie issues of great complexity and profound historical resonance, brilliantly explicated by Peter Matthiessen in this controversial book. Kept off the shelves for eight years because of one of the most protracted and bitterly fought legal cases in publishing history, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse reveals the Lakota tribe's long struggle with the U.S. government, and makes clear why the traditional Indian concept of the earth is so important at a time when increasing populations are destroying the precious resources of our world.

How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America: Problems in Race, Political Economy, and Society


Manning Marable - 1983
    Unfortunately, Marable's blistering insights into racial injustice and economic inequality remain depressingly relevant. But the good news is that Marable's prescient analysis-and his eloquent and self-critical preface to this new edition-will prove critical in helping us to think through and conquer the oppressive forces that remain."-Michael Eric Dyson, author of I May Not Get Therewith You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr."For those of us who came of political age in the 1980s, Manning Marable's How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America was one of our bibles. Published during the cold winter of Reaganism, he introduced a new generation of Black activists/thinkers to class and gender struggles within Black communities, the political economy of incarceration, the limitations of Black capitalism, and the nearly forgotten vision of what a socialist future might look like. Two decades later, Marable's urgent and hopeful voice is as relevant as ever."-Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Yo' Mama's DisFunktional!:

Vietnam: A History


Stanley Karnow - 1983
    Free of ideological bias, profound in its undertsanding, and compassionate in its human portrayals, it is filled with fresh revelations drawn from secret documents and from exclusive interviews with participants-French, American, Vietnamese, Chinese: diplomats, military commanders, high government officials, journalists, nurses, workers, and soldiers. Originally published a companion to the Emmy-winning PBS series, Karnow’s defining book is a precursor to Ken Burns’s ten-part forthcoming documentary series, The Vietnam War. Vietnam: A History puts events and decisions into such sharp focus that we come to understand – and make peace with – a convulsive epoch of our recent history.

Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution


James M. McPherson - 1983
    Battle Cry of Freedom, his Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Civil War, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in The New York Times Book Review, called history writing of the highest order. In that volume, McPherson gathered in the broad sweep of events, the political, social, and cultural forces at work during the Civil War era. Now, in Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, he offers a series of thoughtful and engaging essays on aspects of Lincoln and the war that have rarely beendiscussed in depth.McPherson again displays his keen insight and sterling prose as he examines several critical themes in American history. He looks closely at the President's role as Commander-in-Chief of the Union forces, showing how Lincoln forged a national military strategy for victory. He explores theimportance of Lincoln's great rhetorical skills, uncovering how--through parables and figurative language--he was uniquely able to communicate both the purpose of the war and a new meaning of liberty to the people of the North. In another section, McPherson examines the Civil War as a SecondAmerican Revolution, describing how the Republican Congress elected in 1860 passed an astonishing blitz of new laws (rivaling the first hundred days of the New Deal), and how the war not only destroyed the social structure of the old South, but radically altered the balance of power in America, ending 70 years of Southern power in the national government.The Civil War was the single most transforming and defining experience in American history, and Abraham Lincoln remains the most important figure in the pantheon of our mythology. These graceful essays, written by one of America's leading historians, offer fresh and unusual perspectives on both.

Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England


William Cronon - 1983
    Winner of the Francis Parkman PrizeIn this landmark work of environmental history, William Cronon offers an original and profound explanation of the effects European colonists' sense of property and their pursuit of capitalism had upon the ecosystems of New England. Reissued here with an updated afterword by the author and a new preface by the distinguished colonialist John Demos, Changes in the Land, provides a brilliant inter-disciplinary interpretation of how land and people influence one another. With its chilling closing line, "The people of plenty were a people of waste," Cronon's enduring and thought-provoking book is ethno-ecological history at its best.

Eisenhower, Volume #1: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect, 1890-1952


Stephen E. Ambrose - 1983
    He was one of seven children; his father, a railway worker. But the family was strong and unified, the youngsters energetic and ambitious. Ike made it to West Point, where he excelled in sports. He was a natural leader. But it was at Leavenworth years later, as a student at the war college, that his intellectual talent showed itself. He graduated first in his class. The author draws in a wealth of previously unpublished information to give us this beautiful portrait. As a result Eisenhower emerges as complex, one who as the author states, ". . .was a good and great man."

Democracy / Esther / Mont Saint Michel and Chartres / The Education of Henry Adams


Henry Adams - 1983
    Now brought together for the first time in a single volume, these works show the many forms—fiction, poetry, philosophical and historical speculation, autobiography—in which Adams gave expression to his vision of the meaning of the unsettling changes in American life and values.Each of the two novels, Democracy and Esther, chooses a woman on whom to center the effects of social change. In Democracy, Madeleine Lee, an emancipated and idealistic young widow, moves to Washington to learn the nature of political power and is disillusioned upon discovering the intrigues of rampant corruption. The free-thinking heroine in Esther, caught in the warfare between science and religion, finds that she cannot surrender her moral independence, even to marry a clergyman.Adams, though a man of the modern world, remained in temperament a child of the eighteenth century, his political ideals shaped by his presidential ancestors, great-grandfather John Adams and grandfather John Quincy Adams. The failure of those ideals to withstand the challenges of an industrialized America drove him to seek refuge in the study of the medieval age of faith in France. Out of it came his skeptic’s “Prayer to the Virgin of Chartres.” Her presence dominates the book that followed—Mont Saint Michel and Chartres. In evocative and sensitive prose Adams moves from the architecture, sculpture, and stained glass of Chartres to the religion, literature, politics, social order, and crusades of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. Adams translates the poetry of courtly love and recounts the drama of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s life and the timeless love of Abelard and Heloise. The narrative rises at the end to the brilliantly re-enacted drama of St. Thomas Aquinas’ victory over the rival philosophers.If Mont Saint Michel portrayed a world unified by a common faith, The Education of Henry Adams portrayed a world irresistibly moving toward chaos. The world once unified by the Virgin was now ruled by the impersonal Dynamo and was already confronted by the “metaphysical bomb” of radium and the prospect of infinite energy for man’s use. Adams balances, with extraordinary urbanity and wit, the rival claims he found as much in himself as in modern civilization. Together, these two works still pose an urgent question: can the human mind ultimately control the monstrous aggregates of power which it has wrung from nature?

France and England in North America, Volume 1


Francis Parkman - 1983
    Parkman conceived the project in 1841, when he was a Harvard sophomore, and persisted in it despite chronic disorders that affected his eyes. The last volume of what he called his “history of the American forest” appeared almost thirty years after the first. Deservedly compared as a literary achievement to Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Parkman’s accomplishment is hardly less awesome than the explorations and adventures he so vividly describes. His own indomitable spirit is reflected in two of the history’s most fiercely resolute figures: La Salle, obsessed with colonizing the Mississippi Valley, and Frontenac, determined to bolster France’s tottering position in the New World. He tells a story of great empires maneuvering in an unfamiliar and hostile terrain with all the guile, sophistication, and ingenuity learned from centuries of European rivalry.Pioneers of France in the New World (1865) begins with the early and tragic settlement of the French Huguenots in Florida, then shifts to the northern reaches of the continent and follows the expeditions of Samuel de Champlain up the St. Lawrence River and into the Great Lakes as he mapped the wilderness, organized the fur trade, promoted Christianity among the natives, and waged a savage forest campaign against the Iroquois.The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century (1867) traces the zealous efforts of the Jesuits and other Roman Catholic orders to convert the Native American tribes of North America. Jean de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, Marguerite Bourgeoys, Marie de l’Incarnation, and Joseph Bressani represent only a few of that resolute company, many of whom suffered captivity, torture, and martyrdom in the far corners of the wilderness.La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West (1869) records that explorer’s voyages on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and his treks, often alone, across the vast western prairies and through the labyrinthine swamps of Louisiana. Although he won the respect and admiration of the Native Americans, La Salle often distrusted and alienated his associates. He survived two attempts to poison him before he was finally assassinated by his own men in a lonely Texas outpost.The Old Régime in Canada (1874) recounts the political struggles among the religious sects, colonial officials, feudal chiefs, royal ministers, and military commanders of Canada. Their bitter fights over the monopoly of the fur trade, the sale of brandy to the natives, the importation of wives from the orphanages and poorhouses of France, and the bizarre fanaticism of religious extremists and their “incessant supernaturalism” animate this pioneering social history of early Canada.Parkman’s chronicle of nearly two and a half centuries of conflict will permanently transform our image of the American landscape. Written with verve, suppleness, and wit, this grand narrative history of political and theological conflict, of feats of physical endurance, of courtly manners practiced with comic disproportion against the backdrop of a looming wilderness, is itself one of the still-undiscovered treasures of our national and of world literature.

Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago 1940-1960


Arnold R. Hirsch - 1983
    Hirsch shows that the legal framework for the national urban renewal effort was forged in the heat generated by the racial struggles waged on Chicago's South Side. His chronicle of the strategies used by ethnic, political, and business interests in reaction to the great migration of southern blacks in the 1940s describes how the violent reaction of an emergent "white" population combined with public policy to segregate the city."In this excellent, intricate, and meticulously researched study, Hirsch exposes the social engineering of the post-war ghetto."—Roma Barnes, Journal of American Studies"According to Arnold Hirsch, Chicago's postwar housing projects were a colossal exercise in moral deception. . . . [An] excellent study of public policy gone astray."—Ron Grossman, Chicago Tribune"An informative and provocative account of critical aspects of the process in [Chicago]. . . . A good and useful book."—Zane Miller, Reviews in American History"A valuable and important book."—Allan Spear, Journal of American History

Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America


Walter F. LaFeber - 1983
    This second edition is updated to include new material covering the Reagan and Bush years, and the Iran/Contra affair.

The Barrier and the Javelin


H.P. Willmott - 1983
    P. Willmott's three-volume history of the war in the Pacific, this work tells how Japan arrived at a situation in which war with the United States was the only means of ensuring long-term security and resolving her immediate problems of access to raw materials and of an unwinnable war in China.

The Search for Christian America


Mark A. Noll - 1983
    and calling for its recovery. Through careful historical and contemporary analysis, the authors address such issues as: how much Christian action is required to make a whole society Christian; Puritan New England as case study; Christian principles vs. baptised ideology in the Revolutionary period; the stumbling block of incorrect views of America's history for effective Christian involvement in critical public issues; the relationship of Christian convictions to political or social agendas; learning to think historically as a guard against shortsighted or simplistic approaches. Ample footnotes and a bibliographical essay make this volume a helpful reference tool for further study of the Christian nation debate and related issues. Mark A. Noll is Professor of History at Wheaton College. George M. Marsden is Professor of the History at University of Notre Dame. Nathan O. Hatch is President of Wake Forest University.

Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1840-1849


Kenneth L. Holmes - 1983
    Here are the voices of Tamsen Donner and young Virginia Reed, members of the ill-fated Donner party; Patty Sessions, the Mormon midwife who delivered five babies on the trail between Omaha and Salt Lake City; Rachel Fisher, who buried both her husband and her little girl before reaching Oregon. Still others make themselves heard, starting out from different places and recording details along the way, from the mundane to the soul-shattering and spirit-lifting.

The Negro Cowboys


Philip Durham - 1983
    Lured by the open range, the chance for regular wages, and the opportunity to start new lives, they made vital contributions to the transformation of the West. They, their predecessors, and their successors rode on the long cattle drives, joined the cavalry, set up small businesses, fought on both sides of the law. Some of them became famous: Jim Beckwourth, the mountain man; Bill Pickett, king of the rodeo; Cherokee Bill, the most dangerous man in Indian Territory; and Nat Love, who styled himself "Deadwood Dick." They could hold their own with any creature, man or beast, that got in the way of a cattle drive. They worked hard, thought fast, and met or set the highest standards for cowboys and range riders.

A Country Such as This


James Webb - 1983
    Written by bestselling novelist James Webb, it has been hailed as a major work of our time and a stunning commentary of political and social life in America over nearly three decades. From the wars in Korea and Vietnam to antiwar protests in Washington and POW camps in Hanoi, from young love and parenthood to divorce and reconciliation, Webb's eye for detail, provocative insights, and subtle revelations have earned him the highest literary accolades. His convincing characters and gripping scenes fully engage the reader as the three Naval Academy graduates reevaluate their lives, their country, and the cost of success.

Memoirs, 1950-1963


George F. Kennan - 1983
    Kennan spent in Berlin, in Moscow, in Prague, as a Foreign Service Officer before and during the war, and in Washington, as an architect of foreign policy after it. Awarded both the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, that volume was proclaimed "the single most valuable political book written by an American in the twentieth century" (NEW REPUBLIC).Now George Kennan resumes the remarkable narrative of his career, beginning in 1950 with his temporary retirement from public life and the commencement of his stay at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study as a scholar and public commentator. In the background are the issues of Korea and postwar Japan, the ever-sensitive question of the U.S.-Soviet power balance; and despite his ever-deepening conflicts with administration policy, Kennan, as a Russian expert, remains in the arena -- participating in talks with Secretary of State Acheson, the Pentagon and the Soviet representative to the UN, Jacob Malik. From his own notes and his vivid, comprehensive recollections, George Kennan re-creates his development as a historian: his lecture series at the University of Chicago, out of which came the standard work AMERICAN DIPLOMACY, 1900-1950; his studies at Princeton; his controversial Reith Lectures, delivered over the BBC in 1957, which sparked an extraordinary international debate over the future of Germany and the role of the U. S. in Western Europe.And Kennan speaks eloquently and critically of the last two ambassadorships he was to hold: the Russian post in the final hours of the Truman administration, from which he was abruptly released by the Soviets as persona non grata; and the Yugoslavian post under Kennedy. Throughout, George Kennan confronts the questions of foreign policy which haunted and still haunt the United States: military dominance of foreign affairs; U.S. insistence on complete victory in conflict; the intransigence of the Soviet-American relationship; and the frequently appalling misconceptions held by Congress and the American public about foreign policy.For its portraits of Truman, Eisenhower, Acheson, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Tito, Stalin, John Foster Dulles, McCarthy and others, and for its incisive analysis of the critical issues of the twentieth century, George Kennan's MEMOIRS 1950-1963 stands as an extraordinary political document as well as a distinguished American autobiography.

The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House


Seymour M. Hersh - 1983
    

Trading with the Enemy: An Exposé of the Nazi-American Money Plot, 1933-1949


Charles Higham - 1983
    Now at last Charles Higham, drawing his account from thousands of documents just released under the Freedom of Information Act, has given us a full-scale picture of the American businessmen who dealt with the Nazis right through World War II. Among those who traded on both sides of the war were certain executives of Standard Oil of New Jersey, the Chase Bank, the Texas Company, ITT, Ford, and Sterling Products. And helping them with their dealings were such government officials as a secretary of commerce, an assistant secretary of state, and ambassadors to France and Great Britain...."

A Battlefield Atlas of the Civil War


Craig L. Symonds - 1983
    Ideal for battlefield tours, the 43 two-color, full page maps highlight the critical military positions and communicate the changing nature of the war. The description accompanying each map enables the reader to relive the action of battle and sense the drama it held for the troops that fought in the world's first total war.The author exploreres the personalities of the commanders on each side and explains the rationale behind the battlefield decisions. In addition, each narrative details the strength of each side, the losses suffered, and the strategic consequences of the battles.The maps are divided into four groups, each of which constitute a chapter in the history of the war: the Amatuer War saw civilian volunteer armies slug it out at Bull Run and Shiloh; the Organized War saw the emergence of managers of war like George B. McClellan (who could administer, but who was loath to fight) as well as the rise of Robert E. Lee; the period of Confederate High Tide in 1863 saw Southern hopes crest only to collapse again after Gettysburg and Vicksburg; and ultimately the era of Total War witnessed the complete metamorphosis of the war from its chivalric beginnings to it emergence as the world's first unlimited war under the leadership of Grant and Sherman. A short introductory essay precedes each section, accompanied by contemporary photographs and drawings that portray America's greatest military conflict.

Grant And Lee: The Virginia Campaigns, 1864 1865


William A. Frassanito - 1983
    Like his first two books, it uses photographs taken during the campaign and analyzes them, comparing modern photos of the same sites.

Roughneck: The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood


Peter Carlson - 1983
    1983: by Peter Carlson- Opinions of Big Bill's character vary between considering him a martyr, and a dangerous unprincipled nihilist.

Labor's War at Home: The CIO in World War II (Labor in Crisis)


Nelson Lichtenstein - 1983
    Focusing on the internal dynamics of the labor movement (especially the C.I.O.) and its relationship to the Roosevelt administration, this book gives the history of labor and business politics from 1939 to 1946.

Free Frank: A Black Pioneer on the Antebellum Frontier


Juliet E.K. Walker - 1983
    Born a slave in the South Carolina piedmont in 1777, Frank died a free man in 1854 in a town he had founded in western Illinois. His accomplishments, creditable for any frontiersman, were for a black man extraordinary.We first learn details of Frank's life when in 1795 his owner moved to Pulaski County, Kentucky. We know that he married Lucy, a slave on a neighboring farm, in 1799. Later he was allowed to hire out his time, and when his owner moved to Tennessee, Frank was left in charge of the Kentucky farm. During the War of 1812, he set up his own saltpeter works, an enterprise he maintained until he left Kentucky. In 1817 he purchased his wife's freedom for $800; two years later he bought his own liberty for the same price. Now free, he expanded his activities, purchasing land and dealing in livestock.With his wife and four of his children, Free Frank left Kentucky in 1830 to settle on a new frontier. In Pike County, Illinois, he purchased a farm and later, in 1836, platted and successfully promoted the town of New Philadelphia. The desire for freedom was an obvious spur to his commercial efforts. Through his lifetime of work he purchased the liberty of sixteen members of his family at a cost of nearly $14,000.Goods and services commanded a premium in the life of the frontier. Free Frank's career shows what an exceptional man, through working against great odds, could accomplish through industry, acumen, and aggressiveness. His story suggests a great deal about business activity and legal practices, as well as racial conditions, on the frontier.Juliet Walker has performed a task of historical detection in recreating the life of Free Frank from family traditions, limited personal papers, public documents, and secondary sources. In doing so, she has added a significant chapter to the history of African Americans.

Lafayette


Olivier Bernier - 1983
    Lafayette was, indeed, the hero of two worlds. Bernier's Lafayette - much of it based on previously inaccessible documents - is a man who lived the liberal ideal as few others have. In the war for American independence, this twenty-year-old was a stubborn, tenacious, and ultimately victorious commander, the favorite of George Washington with whom he developed a unique father-son relationship. Returning to Paris with yearnings for a liberalized government, he was soon caught up in the 1789 revolution, first as its champion, then as the guardian of the king, finally as the only man capable of maintaining order in 1790 and 1791. Once the king fled the capital, however, Lafayette's position became untenable, and he was forced to escape to Belgium. But there, the right-wing emigres considered him a traitor, and he was arrested and sent to Austria, where he languished in prison for years. Finally, the diplomatic efforts of George Washington and other Americans led to his release and return to France. Now, Napoleon feared him as a potential rival, a fear heightened when Lafayette went into self-imposed exile to protest Napoleon's abuse of power. During the revolution that followed Napoleon's downfall, Lafayette maintained his liberal principles as few others bothered to, and his position was vindicated by the uprising that installed the July monarchy and France's first middle-class constitution. Enriching this chronicle of a man and his age are the stories of young "Gilbert's" many loves, as well as the steadfast relationship with his adoring wife. And never far from the marquis's heart was his love for his adopted home. He maintained it through a forty-year correspondence with the Founding Fathers and an unrelenting, if often quixotic, defense of liberal ideals. For its part, the young American republic knew no grander celebrations than those thrown in honor of his return in 1824.

Elegant Glassware Of The Depression Era


Gene Florence - 1983
    (Antiques & Collectibles)

How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War


Herman Hattaway - 1983
    Selected as one of Civil War magazine's 100 essential titles on military campaigns and personalities.

The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations


Kent V. Flannery - 1983
    Originally published by Academic Press in 1983, a new introduction by the editors updates the volume in terms of discoveries made during the subsequent two decades.

Fighting for Time: The Image of War, 1861-1865, Vol. 4 (Images of War - 1861-1865 , Vol 4)


National Historical Society - 1983
    Jacket tear, else VG

Dream West


David Nevin - 1983
    Telling the amazing true story of America's famed explorer, John Charles Fremont, and his beloved supporter and muse, Jessie Benton, it quickly found its way onto the New York Times bestsellers list and adapted into a CBS mini-series starring Richard Chamberlain. Now available for the first time ever in trade paperback, Nevin's epic of adventure and discovery will once again give readers a chance to witness the passion of an early explorers dreams of the great unknown, and the love and perserverance that saw his dream come to life.

Brother Against Brother (History of the Civil War)


Time-Life Books - 1983
    The period of the Missouri Compromise, the Bleeding Kansas years, and the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 are also covered. The final two chapters cover the battle for Fort Sumter.

A Time for Choosing: The Speeches of Ronald Reagan, 1961-1982


Ronald Reagan - 1983
    

Coolidge and the Historians


Thomas B. Silver - 1983
    

Pau Hana: Plantation Life and Labor in Hawaii, 1835-1920


Ronald Takaki - 1983
    Life on the plantation from 1835-1920.

Parts of a World: Wallace Stevens Remembered


Peter Brazeau - 1983
    

On Bended Knees: The Night Rider Story


Bill Cunningham - 1983
    Duke's tobacco empire and Dr. David Amoss from Kentucky, who led the secret organiztion known as the "Night Riders."

To Kill an Eagle


Edward Kadlecek - 1983
    All of the informants either knew Crazy Horse themselves or had been told about him by older relatives.

Experiments and Observations on Electricity Made at Philadelphia in America.


Benjamin Franklin - 1983
    Sabin Americana is rich in original accounts of discovery and exploration, pioneering and westward expansion, the U.S. Civil War and other military actions, Native Americans, slavery and abolition, religious history and more.Sabin Americana offers an up-close perspective on life in the western hemisphere, encompassing the arrival of the Europeans on the shores of North America in the late 15th century to the first decades of the 20th century. Covering a span of over 400 years in North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean, this collection highlights the society, politics, religious beliefs, culture, contemporary opinions and momentous events of the time. It provides access to documents from an assortment of genres, sermons, political tracts, newspapers, books, pamphlets, maps, legislation, literature and more.Now for the first time, these high-quality digital scans of original works are available via print-on-demand, making them readily accessible to libraries, students, independent scholars, and readers of all ages.++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++SourceLibrary: Huntington LibraryDocumentID: SABCP04670000CollectionID: CTRG04-B50PublicationDate: 17690101SourceBibCitation: Selected Americana from Sabin's Dictionary of books relating to AmericaNotes: Second and third editions published under title: New experiments and observations on electricity. "Advertisement concerning this fourth edition" p. [vi]. Paging irregular: nos. 111-112, 416-417 and 465-472 repeated. Contents principally communicated to Peter Collinson, F.R.S., London, in a series of letters. Includes remarks by E. Kinnersley, G. Mazeas, W. Watson, D. Colden (on Abbe Nollet's Letters on electricity), J. Canton, W. Maine, and J. Winthrop, among others identified only by initials. Includes index.Collation: 496 [i.e. 508] p., [7] leaves of plates (2 fold.): ill., music; 26 cm

Peron: A Biography


Joseph A. Page - 1983
    Born to modest circumstances in 1895 and trained in the military, he rose to power during a period of political uncertainty in Argentina. A shrewd opportunist who understood the needs and aspirations of the country's workers, Peron rode their votes to the presidency and then increased their share of the nation's wealth. But he also destroyed the independence of their unions and suppressed dissent. Ousted in a coup in 1955, he wandered about Latin America and finally settled in Spain, where he masterminded an astonishing political comeback that climaxed in his reelection as president in 1973. Joseph Page's engrossing biography is based upon interviews on 3 continents, never-before inspected Argentine and U.S. government documents and exhaustive research, Page's book spans Peron's formative years; his arrest and dramatic rescue by the 'descamisados' (workers) in 1945; his relationship with the now-mythic Evita; the violence and mysterious murders that punctuated his career; his tragic legacy, personified by his third wife, Isabel, who assumed the presidency after his death under the influence of a Rasputin-like astrologer; and the continuing appeal of Peronism in Argentina. Page's study of Argentine-American relations is particularly penetrating, esp. in its description of the struggle between Peron and U.S. ambassador Spruille Braden.

History, Tales, and Sketches: The Sketch Book / A History of New York / Salmagundi / Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent.


Washington Irving - 1983
    Irving’s early writings earned the admiration of literary figures like Hawthorne, Poe, Coleridge, Byron, Scott, and Dickens. He was widely traveled, a connoisseur of the theater both at home and abroad, and an intimate of royalty and high society in Europe and America.Irving’s career as a writer began obscurely at age seventeen, when his brother’s newspaper published his series of comic reports on the theater, theater-goers, fashions, balls, courtships, duels, and marriages of his contemporary New York, called Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent. Written in the persona of an elderly gentleman of the old school, these letters captured his fellow townsmen at play in their most incongruous attitudes of simple sophistication. Irving’s next work, Salmagundi, written in collaboration with his brother William and James Kirke Paulding, and published at irregular intervals in 1805–06, continued this roguish style of satire and burlesque. Gossipy and current, filled with the latest news of the theater and other goings-on about town, or stirring up yet another literary squabble or scandal, Salmagundi is written with the innovativeness and energy of an accomplished new voice bursting upon a startled literary scene.A History of New York, publicized by an elaborate hoax in the local newspapers concerning the disappearance of the elderly “Diedrich Knickerbocker,” turned out to be a wild and hilarious spoof that combined real New York history with political satire. Quickly reprinted in England, it was admired by Walter Scott and Charles Dickens (who carried his copy in his pocket). In later years, as Irving revised and re-revised his History, he softened his gibes at Thomas Jefferson, the Dutch, and the Yankees of New England; this Library of America volume presents the work in its original, exuberant, robust, and unexpurgated form, giving modern readers a chance to enjoy the version that brought him immediate international acclaim.The Sketch Book contains Irving’s two best-loved stories, “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” It also includes many sketches of English country and city life, as well as nostalgic portraits of vanishing traditions, like the old celebrations of Christmas. One of Irving’s most captivating books, it reveals both the brilliance of his realistic depictions and his ability to appropriate European fables and themes to native purposes.A writer of great urbanity and poise, acutely sensitive to the nostalgia of a passing age, Washington Irving was a central figure in America’s emergence on the international scene.

The Town That Moved (Carolrhoda on My Own Books)


Mary Jane Finsand - 1983
    Describes how the houses and buildings of a small town in northern Minnesota were moved to another location when iron ore was discovered in the ground beneath the town.

Reflections of a Neoconservative: Looking Back Looking Ahead


Irving Kristol - 1983
    This important work, by the "godfather" of neoconservatism, is more or less a political autobiography which shows the development of the neoconservatist mind.

Indian Days of the Long Ago


Edward S. Curtis - 1983
    We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

American Political Writing During the Founding Era: 1760-1805, Volume 2


Charles S. Hyneman - 1983
    This title includes an annotated bibliography of five hundred additional items for future reference.

American Political Writing During the Founding Era: 1760-1805, Volume 1


Charles S. Hyneman - 1983
    It is suitable for students and teachers of American political thought.

The WPA Guide to Washington, D.C.


Work Projects Administration - 1983
    

American Political Writing During the Founding Era: 1760-1805, Volumes 1-2


Charles S. Hyneman - 1983
    Many are obscure pieces that were previously available only in larger research libraries. But all illuminate the founding of the American republic and are essential reading for students and teachers of American political thought. The second volume includes an annotated bibliography of five hundred additional items for future reference. The subjects covered in this rich assortment of primary material range from constitutionalism, representation, and republicanism to freedom of the press, religious liberty, and slavery. Among the more noteworthy items reprinted, all in their entirety, are Stephen Hopkins, "The Rights of the Colonies Examined" (1764); Richard Bland, "An Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies" (1766); John Adams, "Thoughts on Government" (1776); Theophilus Parsons, "The Essex Result" (1778); James Madison, "Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments" (1785); James Kent, "An Introductory Lecture to a Course of Law Lectures" (1794); Noah Webster, "An Oration on the Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence" (1802); and James Wilson, "On Municipal Law" (1804). Charles S. Hyneman was Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Indiana University before his death in 1984. He was a past president of the American Political Science Association. Donald S. Lutz is Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston.

The Old Christian Right: The Protestant Far Right from the Great Depression to the Cold War


Leo P. Ribuffo - 1983
    

Americans At War: From The Colonial Wars To Vietnam


William J. Koenig - 1983
    

The Automobile and American Culture


David Lanier Lewis - 1983
    Looks at the impact of the automobile on American folkways

Faint Praise: American Tanks and Tank Destroyers During World War II


Charles M. Baily - 1983
    

The Plot To Steal Florida: James Madison's Phony War


Joseph Burkholder Smith - 1983
    It was the War of 1812.....A true-to-life historical thriller.