Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the Civil War


Charles Bracelen Flood - 2005
    They began their unique collaboration ten months into the war, at the Battle of Shiloh, each carefully taking the other's measure. They shared the demands of family life and the heartache of personal tragedy. They shared similar philosophies of battle, employed similar strategies and tactics, and remained in close, virtually daily communication throughout the conflict. They were incontestably two of the Civil War's most important figures, and the deep, abiding friendship they shared made the Union's ultimate victory possible.Poignant, riveting, and elegantly written, Grant and Sherman is a remarkable portrait of two extraordinary men and a singular friendship, forged on the battlefield, that would change the course of history.

The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game


Alvin S. Felzenberg - 2008
    presidents on an all-time ranking: Certain presidents were “Great,” others were “Near-Great,” and so on down to “Failures” and “Unmitigated Disasters.” (OK, we made that last category up.) But as Alvin Felzenberg points out, there are many flaws with these rating systems. Despite reams of new historical information, the rankings never seem to change very much. They all favor a certain kind of president-those who tended to increase executive power. That aside, the idea of rating presidential performance on a simple linear scale is absurd. The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn’t) breaks presidential performance into easily understandable categories-character, vision, competence, foreign policy, economic policy, human rights, and legacy-and assesses, for each category, the best and worst. The result is a surprisingly fresh look at how the various presidents stack up against each other, with some of the “greats” coming off far worse than their supposedly mediocre colleagues.

The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It


Brooks D. Simpson - 2011
    It is our greatest national drama, at once heroic, tragic, and epic—our Iliad, but also our Bible, a story of sin and judgment, suffering and despair, death and resurrection in a “new birth of freedom.” Drawn from letters, diaries, speeches, articles, poems, songs, military reports, legal opinions, and memoirs, The Civil War: The First Year brings together over 120 pieces by more than sixty participants to create a unique firsthand narrative of this great historical crisis.Beginning on the eve of Lincoln’s election in 1860 and ending in January 1862 with the appointment of Edwin M. Stanton as secretary of war, signaling a new energy and determination to the Union war effort, this volume collects writing by figures well-known—Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Mary Chesnut, Frederick Douglass, and Lincoln himself among them—and less familiar, like pro-slavery advocate J.D.B. DeBow, Lieutenants Charles B. Haydon of the 2nd Michigan Infantry and Henry Livermore Abbott of the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and plantation mistresses Catherine Edmondston of North Carolina and Kate Stone of Mississippi. Together, the selections provide a powerful sense of the immediacy, uncertainty, and urgency of events as the nation was torn asunder. Secessionist appeals by Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown and Alabama legislator Stephen F. Hale give voice to the intense racial fears that helped drive the South toward disunion; Union corporal Samuel J. English and Confederate surgeon Lunsford P. Yandell evoke the shock, confusion, and horror of battle in Virginia and Missouri; memoirist Sallie Brock candidly records the impact of war on Richmond society; and Sam Mitchell recounts his liberation from slavery when the South Carolina Sea Islands fell to Union soldiers.The Civil War: The First Year includes headnotes, a chronology of events, biographical and explanatory endnotes, endpaper maps, and an index.

Pershing: Commander of the Great War


John Perry - 2011
    Pershing. He led an army of more than a million men in France, defeating the seemingly invincible German war machine with only six months of offensive action. He was an American hero, and yet, today, General Pershing has faded away to the second or third tier of America's historical consciousness. His accomplishments rightly place him in the company of great generals such as MacArthur, Eisenhower, and Patton, all of whom he commanded and inspired, and all of whom he outranked. He shaped world events in Europe as surely as Woodrow Wilson or David Lloyd George, so why has America forgotten him? John Perry chronicles the life of a strong, inflexible leader who was an insufferable nit-picker on the job, but a faithful friend, tender husband, and devoted father. To the small group fortunate enough to know him, Pershing was a great and wonderful man. To the rest, he was stiff, cold, impersonal, and best avoided.

A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War


Amanda Foreman - 2010
    Britain was dependent on the South for cotton, and in turn the Confederacy relied almost exclusively on Britain for guns, bullets, and ships. The Union sought to block any diplomacy between the two and consistently teetered on the brink of war with Britain. For four years the complex web of relationships between the countries led to defeats and victories both minute and history-making. In A World on Fire, Amanda Foreman examines the fraught relations from multiple angles while she introduces characters both humble and grand, bringing them to vivid life over the course of her sweeping and brilliant narrative.Between 1861 and 1865, thousands of British citizens volunteered for service on both sides of the Civil War. From the first cannon blasts on Fort Sumter to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, they served as officers and infantrymen, sailors and nurses, blockade runners and spies. Through personal letters, diaries, and journals, Foreman has woven together their experiences to form a panoramic yet intimate view of the war on the front lines, in the prison camps, and in the great cities of both the Union and the Confederacy. Through the eyes of these brave volunteers we see the details of the struggle for life and the great and powerful forces that threatened to demolish a nation.In the drawing rooms of London and the offices of Washington, on muddy fields and aboard packed ships, Foreman reveals the decisions made, the beliefs held and contested, and the personal triumphs and sacrifices that ultimately led to the reunification of America. A World on Fire is a complex and groundbreaking work that will surely cement Amanda Foreman’s position as one of the most influential historians of our time.

The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox: Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan, and Their Brothers


John C. Waugh - 1994
    The names are legendary: Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, George B. McClellan, Ambrose Powell Hill, Darius Nash Couch, George Edward Pickett, Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox, and George Stoneman. The class fought in three wars, produced twenty generals, and left the nation a lasting legacy of bravery, brilliance, and bloodshed.This fascinating, remarkably intimate chronicle traces the lives of these unforgettable men--their training, their personalities, and the events in which they made their names and met their fates. Drawing on letters, diaries, and personal accounts, John C. Waugh has written a collective biography of masterful proportions, as vivid and engrossing as fiction in its re-creation of these brilliant figures and their pivotal roles in American history.

As if it were yesterday: An old fat man remembers his youth as a Marine in Vietnam


Lee Suydam - 2017
    I try to tell what it was like for me and my brother Marines without fanfare or bravado and give the reader a vivid description of my 13 months.

The Billionaires Box Set #2


Claire Adams - 2018
     Billionaire's Fake Fiancée Time is running out. My mother only has 6 months to live, and I'm desperate. I need to make her dream come true...seeing me get married. I know it's crazy. I'm a billionaire. I'm a player. I don't want a wife. But, I need to make this happen for her. That's where Maddie comes in. She's my childhood friend, a struggling actress and so incredibly hot. Maddie's perfect for the role of my love interest. It doesn't hurt that she wants to help me fulfill my mother's dream. However, she may come at a price that's more than the half a million dollars for her service. Billionaire's Secret Babies Zoe had always dreamed of owning a bakery. It was supposed to be a creative outlet, where she could spend her time doing what she loved and make money doing it, but the reality was much different. When she wasn’t slaving away in the kitchen, she was at home worried that something might happen to the place. Everything was dependent upon the success of her business. There was no room for error. That’s why Archer was so dangerous. He was rich, disciplined and hardworking, everything she wanted in a man. She couldn’t stop thinking about him, and he wanted her, but every time they got close something held him back. He couldn’t tell her about the twins, but he couldn’t push her away. They were both vulnerable and stupid, risking everything for a doomed relationship, but neither of them could stop. Zoe was going to find out. Would their relationship survive? How could she possibly avoid getting hurt? Billionaire's Runway Bride Alfie takes over as CEO from his father’s company and lives a proper life, wowing people with his innovation. He rescues his best friend’s bride as she runs from the alter. He offers her a place to stay and they quickly turn into a taboo relationship that he can’t live without. What will the world think when the story comes out? Billionaire Escort When Mercedes Johnson completed her post-graduate program, she thought her trouble was at an end. She thought she’d just go apply and somebody would give her the decent paying job she worked so hard to get. But that wasn’t what happened. Instead, she spent months applying at every company she could find, and nobody would take her. It was time for her to accept that she wasn’t going to be able to find the kind of work she needed. She had to do something unconventional. She didn’t know that she was signing up for an escort service. She thought she was just delivering packages, and she certainly wasn’t expecting the golden god that answered the door. Billionaire's Cinderella Kiara is experiencing a string of bad luck. And Teddy, her rich neighbor, is about to incur her wrath. Rich, spoiled, and essentially her exact opposite, he makes an easy target. But the truth is that Teddy isn’t quite who she thinks he is. His wealthy father didn’t even know he existed for the first five years of his life, and since he has known a life outside of privilege, he longs for something more. And part of that something more is Kiara. Will this Cinderella story have a fairy tale ending? The Billionaires Box Set is 5 steamy standalone billionaire romance novels. No cheating. No cliffhangers. HEA.

Special Ops Dragons: A Paranormal Romance Collection


Maia Starr - 2020
    Chiseled abs, fake marriages, and hot single dads will keep you awake at night… and have you burning for more!Book 1: Dragon Assassin Protector Saving Annie should’ve been the end of it. Falling in love with her wasn’t part of the plan. I’m an assassin for a Special Ops group. I’ve been using Annie to get the enemy off the throne. The end of this mission will change things. And then, I’ll have an impossible choice to make. Book 2: Dragon Assassin Single Daddy She has to see my real face. She has to see the dragon I have to become to save her. Jana is the love of my life. I could kill her abusive husband for laying a finger on her. She deserves a life with me, and my son. But can I protect her before giving her the world? Book 3: Dragon Assassin Fake Bride He vowed to save my life. But instead, he put me in more danger than I could’ve imagined. John is the Alpha of F.I.R.E. A fact that I didn’t know when I agreed to be his fake wife. He also never told me that I was forbidden to bear children. Well, it’s too late now. I’m already pregnant, and John will lose his family. Unless… Book 4: Dragon Assassin’s Nanny I’m the most powerful dragon assassin in the world. Every woman is fair game. Every woman but her. My daughter’s nanny. The ultimate distraction from my job. Lianne has become my obsession. And I need to keep her close. She has a little secret, and a wolf is after her life. There’s no one in the world I can’t defeat. The enemy will pay if he comes anywhere near her. I’ll make him regret ever being born. Note: Adults Only!

Breathe


Elena Kravchenko - 2021
    December 26, 2004: The Indian Ocean tsunami has flooded great swathes of western Thailand.Carl’s best friend and his wife are missing. He travels from London to Thailand to discover what has happened to them, only to learn there is nothing one man can do in the devastation the wave left behind. What started as an impulsive quest ends up with him examining the very essence of his being.A unique combination of an action-packed quest for truth and a philosophical exploration of life’s deeper meaning, Breathe is a poignant, tense and intelligently written story that will have you contemplating its meaning and message long after you have reached the final page. 'A page-turner with high psychological stakes' - Kirkus Reviews‘A harrowing, profound and intensely emotional tale of loss and hope' - Johanna Gustawsson, author of the international best-seller Roy & Castells books; soon to be a major TV series

Calhoun: American Heretic


Robert Elder - 2021
    Calhoun is among the most notorious and enigmatic figures in American political history. First elected to Congress in 1810, Calhoun went on to serve as secretary of war and vice president. But he is perhaps most known for arguing in favor of slavery as a "positive good" and for his famous doctrine of "state interposition," which laid the groundwork for the South to secede from the Union -- and arguably set the nation on course for civil war.Calhoun has catapulted back into the public eye in recent years, as the strain of radical politics he developed has found expression once again in the tactics and extremism of the modern Far Right. In this revelatory biographical study, historian Robert Elder shows that Calhoun is crucial for understanding the political climate in which we find ourselves today. By excising him from the mainstream of American history, we have been left with a distorted understanding of our past and no way to explain our present.

Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War


Charles B. Dew - 2001
    Dew finds in the commissioners' brutally candid rhetoric a stark white supremacist ideology that proves the contrary. The commissioners included in their speeches a constitutional justification for secession, to be sure, and they pointed to a number of political "outrages" committed by the North in the decades prior to Lincoln's election. But the core of their argument--the reason the right of secession had to be invoked and invoked immediately--did not turn on matters of constitutional interpretation or political principle. Over and over again, the commissioners returned to the same point: that Lincoln's election signaled an unequivocal commitment on the part of the North to destroy slavery and that emancipation would plunge the South into a racial nightmare.Dew's discovery and study of the highly illuminating public letters and speeches of these apostles of disunion--often relatively obscure men sent out to convert the unconverted to the secessionist cause--have led him to suggest that the arguments the commissioners presented provide us with the best evidence we have of the motives behind the secession of the lower South in 1860-61.Addressing topics still hotly debated among historians and the public at large more than a century after the Civil War, Dew challenges many current perceptions of the causes of the conflict. He offers a compelling and clearly substantiated argument that slavery and race were absolutely critical factors in the outbreak of war--indeed, that they were at the heart of our great national crisis.

Baby For The Big Bad Billionaire - An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance (Billionaire Baby Surprises Book 3)


Ana Sparks - 2021
    

Her Alpha Cowboys (Men of Montana Book 3)


Roma James - 2020
    

The Life and Adventures of Nat Foster: Trapper and Hunter of the Adirondacks


Arthur Lester Byron-Curtiss - 2008
    This book is not a novel, but a true history of the noted perrson whose name is given above; and although it is not a work of fiction we can safely say that with scenes of thrilling interest, daring exploits and adventures, it can vie with the most sensational novel. The history begins immedciately prior to the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, when the Foster family were living near Hinsdale, N. H. The first part of the book is taken up with the history of the father of the hero of the story, giving an account of his enlistment in the American army, the part he took in the battle of Bunker Hill, and his numerous and daring exploits throughout the whole of the war. When Mr. Foster went to the war his family consisted of his wife, two sons armd a daughter. Nat was the younger son, being nine years old when his father joined the army; but he early learned the skillful use of the rifle, and as deer, moose and other game abounded in the Adirondacks at that time, he did much toward the support of the family during his father’s absence, who when the war was over returned to his home broken down in health, having expended his strength and health in aiding to achieve the independence of his country. To follow Nat Foster from this time to the close of his life in old age, in his wonderful adventures with Indians and daring exploits with wild beasts, would farr exceed the limits of a book notice. One must read the book itself; and whoever begins to read it will not be apt to lay it aside for lack of interest. This book originally published by The Willard Press, in 1912 has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting.