Best of
History-And-Politics

2004

Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution


Laurent Dubois - 2004
    Within a few years, the slave insurgents forced the French administrators of the colony to emancipate them, a decision ratified by revolutionary Paris in 1794. This victory was a stunning challenge to the order of master/slave relations throughout the Americas, including the southern United States, reinforcing the most fervent hopes of slaves and the worst fears of masters.But, peace eluded Saint-Domingue as British and Spanish forces attacked the colony. A charismatic ex-slave named Toussaint Louverture came to France's aid, raising armies of others like himself and defeating the invaders. Ultimately Napoleon, fearing the enormous political power of Toussaint, sent a massive mission to crush him and subjugate the ex-slaves. After many battles, a decisive victory over the French secured the birth of Haiti and the permanent abolition of slavery from the land. The independence of Haiti reshaped the Atlantic world by leading to the French sale of Louisiana to the United States and the expansion of the Cuban sugar economy.Laurent Dubois weaves the stories of slaves, free people of African descent, wealthy whites, and French administrators into an unforgettable tale of insurrection, war, heroism, and victory. He establishes the Haitian Revolution as a foundational moment in the history of democracy and human rights.

Tower Stories: An Oral History of 9/11


Damon DiMarco - 2004
    Damon DiMarco's Tower Stories: An Oral History of 9/11 eternally preserves a monumental tragedy in American history through the voices of the people who were in Lower Manhattan and elsewhere in New York City on that fateful day.The stories DiMarco has collected come from a diverse group of human beings: individuals who managed to escape from the Towers; the bereaved of 9/11; the policemen, firemen, paramedics, reporters, and volunteers who risked their lives to help others; eyewitnesses who stood in shock on the streets below the Towers; WTC structural engineers, political experts, political dissidents, small business owners, and, of course, children whose lives will be forever impacted by the horror and chaos they witnessed.In the tradition of Studs Terkel, DiMarco's moving oral history chronicles the stories of everyone from the small group of people who miraculously made it safely down from the 89th floor of Tower 1 to the New York Times reporter trying desperately to fight her way through the fleeing crowds into Lower Manhattan, to the paramedic who set up a triage area 200 yards from the base of the Towers before they collapsed to the ordinary citizens of New York City who tried to get on with their lives in the days following the tragic event.This expanded second edition of DiMarco's literary time capsule includes follow-up interviews that track contributors' lives in the years since 9/11, as well as dozens of never-before-published photographs.

What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy


Thom Hartmann - 2004
    Yet in numerous countries around the world, democracy has failed or is tottering, and in the United States its principles are increasingly under siege from corporate and other forces.In What Would Jefferson Do? Thom Hartmann shows why democracy is not an aberration in human history but the oldest, most resilient, and most universal form of government, with roots in nature itself. He traces the history of democracy in the United States, identifies the most prevalent myths about it, and offers an inspiring yet realistic plan for transforming the political landscape and reviving Jefferson’s dream before it is too late.

Hunting the Jackal: A Special Forces and CIA Soldier's Fifty Years on the Frontlines of the War Against Terrorism


Billy Waugh - 2004
    Army Special Forces and the CIA fighting enemies of the United States. In Hunting the Jackal, this legendary warrior reveals the extraordinary events of his life and career, offering a point-by-point eyewitness account of the historical events in which he participated.Serving in Korea and Vietnam, Waugh was among the first Green Berets in 1963. He has helped train Libyan commandos in the Sahara Desert, while spying on Russian missile sites in Benghazi, and has worked against Caribbean drug runners. He was the first CIA operative to watch Osama Bin Laden in Khartoum “from a spot close enough to kill him had I been allowed,” and tracked him over the course of two years. In 1994 he found the notorious Carlos the Jackal in Sudan, and tailed him until he was captured—a story that until now has never been told. And, just last year, at age 72, Waugh was on the ground in Afghanistan with a joint SpecForces/CIA unit.This is his remarkable true story.

Beirut


Samir Kassir - 2004
    The last major work completed by Samir Kassir before his tragic death in 2005, Beirut is a tour de force that takes the reader from the ancient to the modern world, offering a dazzling panorama of the city's Seleucid, Roman, Arab, Ottoman, and French incarnations. Kassir vividly describes Beirut's spectacular growth in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, concentrating on its emergence after the Second World War as a cosmopolitan capital until its near destruction during the devastating Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990. Generously illustrated and eloquently written, Beirut illuminates contemporary issues of modernity and democracy while at the same time memorably recreating the atmosphere of one of the world's most picturesque, dynamic, and resilient cities.

Four Centuries of American Education


David Barton - 2004
    This title discusses the effects of both religious and secular philosophies and presents stories of early American heroes in the field of education.

The Ahwahnee: Yosemite's Grand Hotel


Keith S. Walklet - 2004
    Meticulously researched and illustrated with over one hundred photographs, the volume includes images of the majestic hotel, details of its unforgettable design, and juicy tales about its many celebrity guests, including Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, John F. Kennedy, and movie stars like Mel Gibson and Brad Pitt.

James Joyce's Dublin: A Topographical Guide to the Dublin of Ulysses


Ian Gunn - 2004
    The characters, some of them Dubliners appearing under their own names, visit shops and pubs that can be located precisely in the streets of the city in which Joyce grew up. Despite the renovation of Dublin in recent decades, many of these neighborhoods and establishments remain. Published to coincide with the centenary of Bloomsday on June 16, 2004, this unique study uses more than 100 maps and photographs to examine the importance of Ulysses's basis in physical fact, showing how characters move around the city and how the novel works in terms of time and place. The accompanying texts include an analysis of Joyce's use of Thom's Official Directory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, an account of the characters' movements episode by episode, an alphabetical list of the addresses of characters and places, a timetable of corresponding events, a note about unresolved problems, a detailed set of maps based on originals from early in the twentieth century, and a selection of historical illustrations. These tools enable the reader to approach more fully the perspective of the native Dubliner in 1904 and enhance the delightsand the understandingof Joyce's great novel. 113 illustrations, including 79 maps.

Echoes of Slavery: Voices from South Africa's Past


Jackie Loos - 2004
    The book concentrates on the final 30 years of slavery in order to place the least distance between Cape slaves and their modern descendants.

Left Out!: How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush


Joshua Frank - 2004
    But it’s not too late to wean yourselves. Frank’s sober assessment offers progressives a nourishing shot at redemption at the most tremulous hour of the republic.”—Jeffrey St. ClairNoam Chomsky once pointed out that a lot can be learned by examining the left end of the mainstream political debate because it reveals the limits to the principles guiding American power. Joshua Frank reveals that those limits are not only narrow, but are an ominous trend.Born and raised in Montana, Joshua Frank lives in New York City. His work has appeared in many publications, including CounterPunch and Z Magazine.

Against the Beast: A Documentary History of American Opposition to Empire


John Nichols - 2004
    American anti-imperialist tradition dates back to before the Declaration of Independence: Presidents Washington and Jefferson warned against imperialism in their farewell addresses to the country, Abraham Lincoln led the fight in Congress against wars of conquest, Henry David Thoreau spent his celebrated night in jail as part of a protest against an imperialist war, and Frederick Douglass, Jr., and Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois wrote extensively on expansionism. As the Bush administration seeks to spread American influence further than ever before, more Americans are asking whether imperialism threatens to destroy not just distant lands but the United States itself. Against the Beast collects the writings, speeches, comments, and cartoons of American anti-imperialist campaigners from four centuries, making the case that this finest of American traditions must be respected and renewed.

Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism


Noenoe K. Silva - 2004
    Ninety-five percent of the native population signed the petition, causing the annexation treaty to fail in the U.S. Senate. This event was unknown to many contemporary Hawaiians until Noenoe K. Silva rediscovered the petition in the process of researching this book. With few exceptions, histories of Hawai'i have been based exclusively on English-language sources. They have not taken into account the thousands of pages of newspapers, books, and letters written in the mother tongue of native Hawaiians. By rigorously analyzing many of these documents, Silva fills a crucial gap in the historical record. In so doing, she refutes the long-held idea that native Hawaiians passively accepted the erosion of their culture and loss of their nation, showing that they actively resisted political, economic, linguistic, and cultural domination. Drawing on Hawaiian-language texts, primarily newspapers produced in the nineteenth century and early twentieth, Silva demonstrates that print media was central to social communication, political organizing, and the perpetuation of Hawaiian language and culture. A powerful critique of colonial historiography, Aloha Betrayed provides a much-needed history of native Hawaiian resistance to American imperialism.

The Best Minds of My Generation: A Literary History of the Beats


Allen Ginsberg - 2004
    In The Best Minds of My Generation - a compilation of lectures from the course, expertly edited by renowned Beats scholar, Bill Morgan - Ginsberg gives us the convoluted origin story of the 'Beat' idea. Amongst anecdotes of meeting Kerouac, Burroughs and other figures for the first time, Ginsberg elucidates the importance of music, and particularly jazz rhythms, to Beat writing, discusses their many influences - literary, pharmaceutical and spiritual - and paints a portrait of a group who were leading a literary revolution. A unique document that works both as historical record and unconventional memoir, The Best Minds of My Generation is a vivid, personal and eye-opening look at one of the most important literary movements of the twentieth century.