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Author: Joanne B. Freeman
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2002-01-01
Total Pages: 404
ISBN-13: 9780300097559
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Offering a reassessment of the tumultuous culture of politics on the national stage during America's early years, when Jefferson, Burr, and Hamilton were among the national leaders, Freeman shows how the rituals and rhetoric of honor provides ground rules for political combat. Illustrations.
Author: Joanne B. Freeman
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2018-09-11
Total Pages: 480
ISBN-13: 0374717613
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The previously untold story of the violence in Congress that helped spark the Civil War In The Field of Blood, Joanne B. Freeman recovers the long-lost story of physical violence on the floor of the U.S. Congress. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, she shows that the Capitol was rife with conflict in the decades before the Civil War. Legislative sessions were often punctuated by mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slugfests. When debate broke down, congressmen drew pistols and waved Bowie knives. One representative even killed another in a duel. Many were beaten and bullied in an attempt to intimidate them into compliance, particularly on the issue of slavery. These fights didn’t happen in a vacuum. Freeman’s dramatic accounts of brawls and thrashings tell a larger story of how fisticuffs and journalism, and the powerful emotions they elicited, raised tensions between North and South and led toward war. In the process, she brings the antebellum Congress to life, revealing its rough realities—the feel, sense, and sound of it—as well as its nation-shaping import. Funny, tragic, and rivetingly told, The Field of Blood offers a front-row view of congressional mayhem and sheds new light on the careers of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and other luminaries, as well as introducing a host of lesser-known but no less fascinating men. The result is a fresh understanding of the workings of American democracy and the bonds of Union on the eve of their greatest peril.
Author: Condoleezza Rice
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2011-11-01
Total Pages: 782
ISBN-13: 0307952479
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the former national security advisor and secretary of state comes a “sharp and penetrating . . . reminder that foreign-policy choices facing the United States are complex and difficult, with no easy solutions” (The Washington Post). A native of Birmingham, Alabama, who overcame the racism of the civil rights era to become a brilliant academic and expert on foreign affairs, Condoleezza Rice first distinguished herself as an advisor to George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign, and eventually became one of his closest confidantes. Once he was elected, she served first as his chief advisor on national security issues and later as America’s chief diplomat. From the aftermath of September 11, 2001, when she stood at the center of the administration’s efforts to protect the nation, to her efforts as secretary of state to manage the world’s volatile relationships with North Korea, Iran, and Libya, her service to America led her to confront some of the worst crises the country has ever faced. This is her unflinchingly honest story of that remarkable time, from what really went on behind closed doors when the fates of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Lebanon often hung in the balance and how frighteningly close all-out war loomed in clashes involving Pakistan-India and Russia-Georgia, to her candid appraisal of her colleagues and contemporaries. In No Higher Honor, Condoleezza Rice delivers a master class in statecraft—but always in a way that reveals her essential warmth and humility and her deep reverence for the ideals on which America was founded.
Author: David R. Mayhew
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2011
Total Pages: 240
ISBN-13: 0691157987
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →How partisan balance between the U.S. presidency and Congress is essential to successful government With three independent branches, a legislature divided into two houses, and many diverse constituencies, it is remarkable that the federal government does not collapse in permanent deadlock. Yet, this system of government has functioned for well over two centuries, even through such heated partisan conflicts as the national health-care showdown and Supreme Court nominations. In Partisan Balance, noted political scholar David Mayhew examines the unique electoral foundations of the presidency, Senate, and House of Representatives in order to provide a fresh understanding for the government's success and longstanding vitality. Focusing on the period after World War II, and the fate of legislative proposals offered by presidents from Harry Truman to George W. Bush, Mayhew reveals that the presidency, Senate, and House rest on surprisingly similar electoral bases, with little difference in their partisan textures as indexed by the presidential popular vote cast in the various constituencies. Both congressional chambers have tilted a bit Republican, and while White House legislative initiatives have fared accordingly, Mayhew shows that presidents have done relatively well in getting their major proposals enacted. Over the long haul, the Senate has not proven much more of a stumbling block than the House. Arguing that the system has developed a self-correcting impulse that leads each branch to pull back when it deviates too much from other branches, Mayhew contends that majoritarianism largely characterizes the American system. The wishes of the majority tend to nudge institutions back toward the median voter, as in the instances of legislative districting, House procedural reforms, and term limits for presidents and legislators.
Author: James Webb
Publisher: Bluejacket Books
Published: 1995
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781557509178
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Portrays the conflict between two disparate midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968.
Author: LaDoris Hazzard Cordell
Publisher: Celadon Books
Published: 2021-10-26
Total Pages: 196
ISBN-13: 125026958X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →In Her Honor, Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell provides a rare and thought-provoking insider account of our legal system, sharing vivid stories of the cases that came through her courtroom and revealing the strengths, flaws, and much-needed changes within our courts. Judge Cordell, the first African American woman to sit on the Superior Court of Northern California, knows firsthand how prejudice has permeated our legal system. And yet, she believes in the system. From ending school segregation to legalizing same-sex marriage, its progress relies on legal professionals and jurors who strive to make the imperfect system as fair as possible. Her Honor is an entertaining and provocative look into the hearts and minds of judges. Cordell takes you into her chambers where she haggles with prosecutors and defense attorneys and into the courtroom during jury selection and sentencing hearings. She uses real cases to highlight how judges make difficult decisions, all the while facing outside pressures from the media, law enforcement, lobbyists, and the friends and families of the people involved. Cordell’s candid account of her years on the bench shines light on all areas of the legal system, from juvenile delinquency and the shift from rehabilitation to punishment, along with the racial biases therein, to the thousands of plea bargains that allow our overburdened courts to stay afloat—as long as innocent people are willing to plead guilty. There are tales of marriages and divorces, adoptions, and contested wills—some humorous, others heartwarming, still others deeply troubling. Her Honor is for anyone who’s had the good or bad fortune to stand before a judge or sit on a jury. It is for true-crime junkies and people who vote in judicial elections. Most importantly, this is a book for anyone who wants to know what our legal system, for better or worse, means to the everyday lives of all Americans.
Author: Jan Goodwin
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2002-12-31
Total Pages: 369
ISBN-13: 0452283779
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK “Explains powerfully how Muslim women are affected by the rise of fundamentalism.”—Dan Rather In recent years, the expanding movement of militant Islam has changed the way millions think, behave, dress, and live, but nowhere has its impact been more powerfully felt than in its dramatic, often devastating effect on the lives of women. Award-winning journalist Jan Goodwin traveled through ten Islamic countries and interviewed hundreds of Muslim women, from professionals to peasants, from royalty to rebels. The result is an unforgettable journey into a world where women are confined, isolated, even killed for the sake of a “code of honor” created and zealously enforced by men. Price of Honor brings to life a world in which women have become pawns in a bitter power game, and gives readers a provocative look inside Muslim society today—in their own words.
Author: Amy Grace Loyd
Publisher: Picador
Published: 2013-08-27
Total Pages: 305
ISBN-13: 1250041309
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A MESMERIZING DEBUT NOVEL ABOUT A YOUNG WOMAN, HAUNTED BY LOSS, WHO REDISCOVERS PASSION AND POSSIBILITY WHEN SHE'S DRAWN INTO THE TANGLED LIVES OF HER NEIGHBORS Five years after her young husband's death, Celia Cassill has moved from one Brooklyn neighborhood to another, but she has not moved on. The owner of a small apartment building, she has chosen her tenants for their ability to respect one another's privacy. Celia believes in boundaries, solitude, that she has a right to her ghosts. She is determined to live a life at a remove from the chaos and competition of modern life. Everything changes with the arrival of a new tenant, Hope, a dazzling woman of a certain age on the run from her husband's recent betrayal. When Hope begins a torrid and noisy affair, and another tenant mysteriously disappears, the carefully constructed walls of Celia's world are tested and the sanctity of her building is shattered—through violence and sex, in turns tender and dark. Ultimately, Celia and her tenants are forced to abandon their separate spaces for a far more intimate one, leading to a surprising conclusion and the promise of genuine joy. Amy Grace Loyd investigates interior spaces of the body and the New York warrens in which her characters live, offering a startling emotional honesty about the traffic between men and women. The Affairs of Others is a story about the irrepressibility of life and desire, no matter the sorrows or obstacles.
Author: Thrity Umrigar
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2022-01-04
Total Pages: 337
ISBN-13: 161620995X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →"The story of two Indian women, one a victim of a brutal crime and the other an Americanized journalist returning to India to cover the story, and the courage they inspire in each other"--
