The British surrender at Yorktown on 19 Oct. was a glorious moment for the allied forces under the command of Gen. George Washington and French lieutenant generals Rochambeau and de Grasse. Yet anxieties accompanied each stage of the allied operations, and subordinates noticed Washington's distress. Following a failure of a British relief force to ......
The Life of Cherokee Community Leader Charlie Soap
You probably know the story of the late Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to serve as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. You might not recognize the name of her husband, Charlie Soap, yet his role as a Native community organizer is no less significant. Combining memoir, history, and current affairs, Last One Walking charts for the first time ......
There have been many books on Theodore Roosevelt, but there are none that solely focus on the last years of his life. Racked by rheumatism, a ticking embolism, pathogens in his blood, a bad leg from an accident, and a bullet in his chest from an assassination attempt, in the last two years of his life from April 1917 to January 6, 1919, he went ......
Elmer Thomas (1876-1965) represented the people of Oklahoma in the state's first legislature and in Congress. This memoir, written shortly after he left the U.S. Senate in 1951 but never before published, chronicles his long career and offers a wealth of information on people and events that helped shape the development of the state and the course ......
The first person of color to serve as vice president, Charles Curtis was once a household name but has become a footnote in American history. As a mixed-race person who became a public figure in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, his story is more relevant today than ever. He was constantly forced to choose whether to be Indian or ......
These essays capture Frank Field's personal reflections on influential figures in public life across his remarkable 40-year political journey which has been spent campaigning against poverty and injustice. Field's candid observations provide a captivating record of his encounters with key public figures, and as such offers a unique and insightful ......
Abraham Lincoln drew upon history in his political career and particularly when crafting the rhetorical masterpieces that still resonate in the present day. Jesse Derber explores how Lincoln's views of the limits of human understanding drove a belief in--and untiring pursuit of--historical truth. Lincoln embraced the traditional ideas that good ......
Inside the Transformative Reign of Chicago's Richard M. Daley
"You have to have passion. You have to have honesty in office. You have to love the people." Those words summed up the outlook, if not always the actions, of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Elected to govern a city roiled by racial and economic crises, Daley adroitly wielded the tools of power in the rough-and-tumble world of Chicago politics. ......
With Brexit complete, the European Union unbalanced, and populist national conservatism on the march across the continent, winds of rebellion continue to blow from Central Europe, where Hungary's dynamic leader Viktor Orban has been building a political alternative to neoliberal statism. Prime Minister of Hungary from 1998 to 2002, Orban's ......