Best known as the author of Only Yesterday, Allen originated a model of what is sometimes called instant history, the reconstruction of past eras through vivid commentary on the news, fashions, customs, and artifacts that altered the pace and forms of American life. The Big Change was Allen's last and most ambitious book. In it he attempted to chart and explain the progressive evolution of American life over half a century. Written at a time of unprecedented optimism and prosperity, The Big Change defines a transformative moment in American history and provides an implicit and illuminating perspective on what has taken place in the second half of the twentieth century.Allen's theme is the realization, in large measure, of the promise of democracy. As against the strain of social criticism that saw America as enfeebled by affluence and conformity, Allen wrote in praise of an economic system that had ushered in a new age of well being for the American people. He divides his inquiry into three major sections. The first, 'The Old Order, ' portrays the turn-of-the-century plutocracy in which the federal government was largely subservient to business interests and the gap between rich and poor portended a real possibility of bloody rebellion. 'The Momentum of Change' graphically describes the various forces that gradually transformed the country in the new century: mass production, the automobile, the Great Depression and the coming of big government, World War II and America's emergence as a world power. Against this background, Allen shows how the economic system was reformed without being ruined, and how social gaps began to steadily close.The concluding section, 'The New America, ' is a hopeful assessment of postwar American culture. Allen's analysis takes critical issue with many common perceptions, both foreign and domestic, of American life and places remaining social problems in careful perspective. As William O'Neill remarks in his introduction to this new edition, The Big Change is both a deep and wonderfully readable work of social commentary, a book that gains rather than loses with the year

     Two more raid shortly followed, further reducing the defensive possibilities for the men who were left to defend this small area of American soil in the center of the Pacific Ocean. Major James P. S. Devereux was the Commanding Officer of the 1st Marine Defense Battalion who faced Japanese onslaught. The first Japanese landing attempt on the morning of 11th December was repelled by a ferocious defense put forward by Devereux and his men. Yet although the Japanese had withdrawn without landing, they continued to bombard the island by air and sea, and there was little hope of resupply for the Americans. For fifteen days the American troops suffered endless bombardments until the second major Japanese offensive was launched on 23rd December. Against overwhelming forces the Marines and other troops that were stationed on the island fought valiantly, but after forty-nine men had lost their lives in the fight, the remaining American men and civilians were captured by the Japanese. James P. S. Deveraux’s remarkable book The Story of Wake Island takes the reader to the heart of the action from the point of view of the commanding officer. It is a brilliant account of this tragic event that demonstrated the fighting spirit of the American soldier even in the face of unbeatable odds. “His special vantage point enriches his commentary not only on the ill-fated military operation but also on the state (and spirit) of the prewar preparations to defend the island.” John J. Sbrega, The War Against Japan, 1941-1945 James P. S. Devereaux was a United States Marine Corps general, Navy Cross recipient, and Republican congressman. After the ferocious fifteen-day battle of Wake Island Devereux was interned for nearly four years in Japanese prison camps. His book The Story of Wake Island was first published in 1947 and he passed away in 1988.

    Jesse dies for a living, literally. Because of a neurological disorder, she is one of the rare people who can serve as a death surrogate, dying so others don't have to.Although each death replacement is different, the result is the same: a life is saved, and Jesse resurrects days later with sore muscles, new scars, and another hole in her memory. But when Jesse is murdered and becomes the sole suspect in a federal investigation, more than her freedom and sanity are at stake. She must catch the killer herself—or die trying. Dying by the Hour — Book 2Jesse Sullivan and Ally Gallagher are famous thanks to their recent kidnapping and brush with death. They have scars, but they’re breathing, and that’s more than the other victims can say. Yet while they try to settle back into their routine, saving lives through Jesse’s rare ability, neither can quite shake the feeling that the danger hasn’t truly passed. Then another death replacement agent goes missing, and Jesse may be the only one who can find her. Dying for Her — Book 3James T. Brinkley was honorably discharged from the military after a fatal mistake changed his life—and took another.As an agent, Brinkley has devoted his life to protecting the vulnerable while trying to atone for his own sins. At the center of his quest for redemption lies Jesse Sullivan, a young woman whose past, present, and future depend on the decisions he makes now. One wrong move and he’ll deliver her right into the hands of the sadist killer who hunts her. Dying Light — Book 4Jesse Sullivan’s father is a sadistic murder with plans to rule the world. Given his ability to control minds and teleport at will, it seems his dark vision is coming to fruition. All that stands in his way is Jesse.Yet no matter how badly he has hurt her and the ones she loves, Jesse can’t seem to forget he is her father. She must somehow forget the man she remembers from her childhood and see him for the monster he truly is.And she almost can…until he offers her the one thing she can’t refuse. Worth Dying For — Book 5Jesse Sullivan's father commands a dark and terrible army under the guise of beloved church leader. Jesse and her friends must hide deep undercover for fear of arrest or murder by his faithful followers. Their every move brings risk of discovery.And when your enemy can control minds and teleport at will, there isn't a single place in the world where you can hide... Dying Breath — Book 6Maisie Caldwell knows she won’t live to see her seventeenth birthday. Her mother and sister are locked in a war over the world, and Maisie is stuck between them. She must decide if she will join her sister Jesse’s cause and save the world, even if that means betraying her mother.Jesse needs to find her father’s body and finish him before he can resurrect. If she succeeds she will save millions, if not billions, of lives. But first, Jesse must defeat the woman protecting him. Maisie’s decision will make or break all they’ve worked so hard to protect. Dying Day — Book 7Jesse Sullivan has defeated her father and saved the world from his dark machinations. But as the beloved face of The Unified Church, his death has made him a martyr and now his murderer is public enemy number one. But it isn’t the countless government agencies and freelance assassins who want Jesse’s head that she should fear. It is the powerful entity who’s come to reclaim the world she has stolen from him.

    

    I see no possible way in which you can escape with us; and now, brother, you are on a steamboat where there is some chance for you to escape to a land of liberty. I beseech you not to let us hinder you. If we cannot get our liberty, we do not wish to be the means of keeping you from a land of freedom.

    New are Franklin’s references to important, later texts that enrich the original narrative. In addition, the extensive bibliography has been thoroughly revised.What has not changed, however, is the foundation Franklin has laid. Still compelling are his arguments concerning the brevity of the North’s military occupation of the South, the limited amount of power wielded by former slaves, the influence of moderate southerners, the flaws of the constitutions drawn up by the Radical state governments, and the reasons for the downfall of Reconstruction.

    Constitution. Famously, the Constitution never mentions slavery. And yet, of its eighty-four clauses, six were directly concerned with slaves and the interests of their owners. Five other clauses had implications for slavery that were considered and debated by the delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention and the citizens of the states during ratification. This “peculiar institution” was not a moral blind spot for America’s otherwise enlightened framers, nor was it the expression of a mere economic interest. Slavery was as important to the making of the Constitution as the Constitution was to the survival of slavery. By tracing slavery from before the revolution, through the Constitution’s framing, and into the public debate that followed, Waldstreicher rigorously shows that slavery was not only actively discussed behind the closed and locked doors of the Constitutional Convention, but that it was also deftly woven into the Constitution itself. For one thing, slavery was central to the American economy, and since the document set the stage for a national economy, the Constitution could not avoid having implications for slavery. Even more, since the government defined sovereignty over individuals, as well as property in them, discussion of sovereignty led directly to debate over slavery’s place in the new republic. Finding meaning in silences that have long been ignored, Slavery’s Constitution is a vital and sorely needed contribution to the conversation about the origins, impact, and meaning of our nation’s founding document.

    A peasant girl born in Eastern France, Joan led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, claiming divine guidance, and was indirectly responsible for the coronation of King Charles VII. She was captured by the English and tried by an ecclesiastical court led by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, an English partisan; the court convicted her of heresy and she was burned at the stake by the English when she was nineteen years old. Twenty-four years later, the Holy See reviewed the decision of the ecclesiastical court, found her innocent, and declared her a martyr. She was beatified in 1909 and later canonized in 1920.

    Forget school. Forget familial obligations. Everything about me ceases to matter anymore. Because I have exactly one hour to save her life.And I’m already ten minutes in.The Vampire Queen is a short paranormal romance story fans of Kiera Cass will enjoy.Scroll up and one click to start this short romantic fantasy adventure today!

    In Berlin to help mount an exhibit of priceless paintings, once thought lost, museum curator and Renaissance art expert Chris Norgren must turn detective when his boss is murdered soon after voicing concern over the paintings' authenticity.

    Thomas Berger has previously written "Little Big Man", "Killing Time" and "Changing the Past".

    A rustic, coastal town where paranormals live among humans, undetected — at least, so far. Scarlet Sanderson isn’t a paranormal being per se, but she’s no stranger to things that go bump in the night. She’s had the ability to see and speak with ghosts since she was eight years old. Whether it’s a gift or a curse is still up for debate. She moved to the picturesque town of Beechwood Harbor to open a flower shop and start a new life after years of being a nomad. What she didn’t expect to find was a town filled with witches, vampires, shape-shifters and ghosts. So, so many ghosts. With her sarcastic ghost cat and a stately 20th-century gentleman by her side, she can take on the world. She just wishes that world would stop landing her in the middle of murder investigations. Cold case murders, reckless poltergeists, and depressed specters are becoming Scarlet’s new normal. But how in the Otherworld is she supposed to have any kind of real life when she’s stuck halfway between the world of the living and the dead? This boxed set includes the first three books in the series, The Ghost Hunter Next Door, Ghosts Gone Wild, and When Good Ghosts Get the Blues>.

     No man has aroused more heated opposition, or been more bitterly hated in his time, whilst also becoming a patriotic symbol of Britain’s wartime steadfastness. A descendant of the first Duke of Marlborough, Winston Churchill was not only an icon of British political history but a man of great contradictions: One of the great orators of the era, he actually lost more elections than any other politician … Having spent most of his life fighting its leaders, he went on to lead the Conservative party himself. And even having gone through periods of distrust with each party in turn, they still entrusted him with all their hopes in 1940. Yet behind this exterior lay another man that the public never knew existed. Churchill, ever knowledgeable of the moment, nevertheless liked to escape: he enjoyed painting, and delighted in animals and his children. Despite Churchill’s confidence that there was nothing left to plough in this field, Virginia Cowles cast an unwavering eye over the most colourful of lives. Through his many incarnations as a soldier, correspondent, author, politician and Prime Minister, Cowles illustrates just what impact the man and the era had on one another. Praise for Virginia Cowles ’The history of the Rothschilds is every bit as rich and remarkable as their wealth.’ — The Times ’Splendidly readable.’ — Sunday Times ‘One of the most delightful books I have read. Miss Cowles has given us a tour-de-force, well researched, comprehensive, frank … [it] abounds in amazing stories of extraordinary personalities.’ — Books & Bookmen ‘Recounted at great speed, and with splendid life, vigour and readability’ – Evening Standard Virginia Cowles (1910-1983) was an author and journalist. Born in Vermont, USA she became a well-known journalist in the 1930s with her columns appearing on both sides of the Atlantic. During the Second World War she covered the Italian campaign, the liberation of Paris, and the Allied invasion of Germany. In 1945 she married the politician and writer Aidan Crawley. She wrote many biographies including The Rothchilds.

    Traditionally considered victims of a ruthless uncle, there are other suspects too often and too easily discounted. There may be no definitive answer, but by delving into the context of their disappearance and the characters of the suspects, Matthew Lewis will examine the motives and opportunities afresh as well as ask a crucial but often overlooked question: what if there was no murder? What if Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of York, survived their uncle’s reign and even that of their brother-in-law Henry VII? There are glimpses of their possible survival and compelling evidence to give weight to those theories which is considered alongside the possibility of their deaths to provide a rounded and complete assessment of the most fascinating mystery in history.

    The Eastern Roman Empire was brought to the very brink of extinction by the Sassanid Persians before Heraclius managed to inflict a crushing defeat on the Sassanids with a desperate, final gambit. His conquests were short-lived, however, for the newly converted adherents of Islam burst upon the region, administering the coup de grace to Sassanid power and laying siege to Constantinople itself, ushering in a new era.Peter Crawford skillfully narrates the three-way struggle between the Christian Roman, Zoroastrian Persian, and Islamic Arab empires, a period of conflict peopled with fascinating characters, including Heraclius, Khusro II, and the Prophet Muhammad himself. Many of the epic battles of the period—Nineveh, Yarmuk, Qadisiyyah and Nahavand—and sieges such as those of Jerusalem and Constantinople are described in as rich detail. The strategies and tactics of these very different armies are discussed and analyzed, while plentiful maps allow the reader to follow the events and varying fortunes of the contending empires. This is an exciting and important study of a conflict that reshaped the map of the world.