Exploring the American Presidency through 50 Historic Treasures

Exploring the American Presidency through 50 Historic Treasures PDF

Author: Kimberly A. Kenney

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2023-03-15

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1538156644

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

No person in the world is more recognizable than an American president. These men are larger than life, and as the leader of the free world they have the opportunity to shape history in ways that most of us cannot imagine. Some objects, such as the Resolute desk, Air Force One, or the presidential seal, are symbolic of the position itself, but each president has at least one artifact that largely defines his life and his presidency. For example, George Washington’s ill-fitting dentures plagued him for most of his life, affecting the very image of his face that we have all come to recognize. Millions of Americans were comforted by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “fireside chats” as he spoke into a radio microphone during the Great Depression and World War II. John F. Kennedy memorialized a coconut husk, with a message he wrote after his PT boat was destroyed in the Pacific Ocean, into a paperweight he kept on his desk in the Oval Office. Bill Clinton appeared on late night television playing the saxophone to appeal to younger voters. Exploring the American Presidency through 50 Historic Treasures brings together significant artifacts from the lives of the men who have led our nation through times of great prosperity and terrible tragedy. When we look at our presidents through the lens of the material culture they left behind, it humanizes them and creates relevance to our own lives. This book features full-color images of 50 artifacts that were chosen by the very people who work at presidential sites and historical museums, stewarding the legacies of our presidents.

Exploring the American Civil War through 50 Historic Treasures

Exploring the American Civil War through 50 Historic Treasures PDF

Author: Julie L. Holcomb

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-05-15

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1538118564

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Exploring the American Civil War through 50 Historic Treasures brings together historic objects, documents, artwork, and the natural and built environments to tell the full story of this important event in American history. The American Civil War still matters. It matters because the war—its causes and its consequences— continue to influence America as a nation. At its core, the Civil War was about slavery. Began as a fight to secure the future of slavery, the Civil War resulted instead in the abolition of slavery. The complex racial issues at its core, however, remain with us today. Exploring the American Civil War through 50 Historic Treasures begins with the causes of the war, examining objects that tell the story of slavery and its expansion in the nineteenth century. Cultural treasures representing the war years explore the battlefield and the homefront and the men and women caught up in the war as well the ways in which the scale of the war forced technological innovations. Given the centrality of slavery, race, and emancipation in the story of the Civil War, one section presents objects that detail how free and enslaved blacks transformed the war effort and were in turn transformed by the war. In the final section, the historic treasures trace the ongoing impact of the war, including the dramatic increase in the removal of Confederate monuments in the summer of 2020. Each object's story is detailed with color photos that draw readers into the story of the American Civil War. Many of these objects appear here in print for the first time.

Exploring American Jewish History through 50 Historic Treasures

Exploring American Jewish History through 50 Historic Treasures PDF

Author: Avi Y. Decter

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2024-03-05

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 153811562X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Exploring American Jewish History through 50 Historic Treasures offers students and general readers new perspectives on the rich complexity of Jewish experiences in America. As one of America's most fascinating and enduring minorities, American Jews have played key roles in every era of American history and every region of the country. The 50 treasures are depicted in full color and range from a family cookbook to a college campus and include items that are iconic, ordinary, and whimsical. Each of the treasures is described in historical, material, and visual contexts, offering readers new, unexpected insights into the meanings of Jewish life, history, and culture.

Interrogating the Visual Culture of Trumpism

Interrogating the Visual Culture of Trumpism PDF

Author: Grant Hamming

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-08-26

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1040119182

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Bringing together scholars from art history, visual studies, and related disciplines, this edited volume asks why Trumpism looks the way it does and what that look means for American—and global—society. Grouped into six categories, the essays in this volume tackle some of the most perplexing—and urgent—aspects of the Trumpist visual project. Two of the most striking aspects of that project are its use of novel commodity forms, including the iconic red baseball caps, as well as its embrace of social media. Trump’s outlandish persona and striking physicality have lent themselves to caricature both from his critics and, perhaps more surprisingly, his supporters. That physicality—as well as his movement’s hearkening back to a (mostly imagined) era of mid-twentieth-century prosperity—has also brought gender and the body into sharp focus. Perhaps second only to the aforementioned red hat is Trumpism’s vigorous use of interventions into public space, including traditional campaign signs as well as flags and other ad hoc visual and architectural materials. Finally, there were the events of January 6, 2021, when many of Trumpism’s most outré visual and cultural preoccupations exploded from the shadows onto television screens across the country. Taken as a whole, the essays in this book examine Trumpist visuality from the seemingly trivial to the starkly horrifying, as well as offering a measured sense of the various resistances and responses that have characterized artistic responses to Trump from the beginning of his prominence. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual culture, American studies, and cultural and media studies.

Exploring Women's Suffrage through 50 Historic Treasures

Exploring Women's Suffrage through 50 Historic Treasures PDF

Author: Jessica D. Jenkins

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-04-20

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1538112809

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A full-color exploration of the history of women's suffrage. From hunger strikes to massive parades, the American women’s suffrage movement grabbed the attention of citizens and politicians around the United States. Posters, lapel buttons, and even luncheonette plates carried the iconic phrase, “Votes for Women.” Over time this phrase became not only a slogan, but a rallying cry for the movement. Today, museums, libraries, universities, and historic sites across the country care for the objects and places that tell the story of suffrage. Exploring Women’s Suffrage through 50 Historic Treasures brings together a selection of these cultural gems representing the milestones, people, and legacy of the long campaign for women’s voting rights. Through color photos and short essays detailing each object’s story, readers will not only find themselves in the action of a groundbreaking social and political movement, but they are also transported around the nation to the institutions and sites that are the keepers of the country’s past.

Exploring the Libraries of the U.S. Presidents

Exploring the Libraries of the U.S. Presidents PDF

Author: Leonard V. Kalkwarf

Publisher: WestBow Press

Published: 2015-09-08

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 1512711209

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

What a thrill it was to visit our first presidential library. It was the beginning of an incredible journey that resulted in visiting all of the presidential libraries, which we seek to share with you in this book. As of this date, there are thirteen presidential libraries, which belong to the National Archives and Records Administration. We would like to take you along on this journey, giving you our impressions and underscoring some of the historic events these visits called to remembrance. The libraries are a glimpse into the lives of the men whose decisions and actions have made our nation what it is today. What a fascinating and revealing journey this has been. To visit one or all of the presidential libraries is an extraordinary experience and has heightened not only our understanding of the presidents but also of American history. It did something else. It gave us a destination, making it possible for us to visit some very interesting places across the country. Both of us are now retired after each of us spent fifty years in our chosen professions. Not only do we have the time to travel but the continuation of our life-long pursuit to learn. Shortly after we began our visits, we broadened our goal to visit at least one or more historic sites associated with each of our former presidents, frequently that would be their birthplace or some major event associated with their life. Eight years later we have achieved our goalwe have visited all thirteen libraries and one or more sites related to each of our forty-three former presidents. We hope you enjoy visiting the presidential libraries through the reading of this book.

American Heritage Illustrated History of the Presidents

American Heritage Illustrated History of the Presidents PDF

Author: Michael R. Beschloss

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 536

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Every day our lives are affected by what the American president does. But there are some things we cannot know about presidents until many years after they leave office -- what really went on behind the scenes and how great their leadership was. That is the mission of this book. American Heritage is known and trusted for its standard-bearing single-volume histories. Its various editions on the American Civil War and World War II, edited by such distinguished scholars as James McPherson and Stephen Ambrose, are recognized as classics and have together sold more than a million copies. The American Heritage(R) Illustrated History of the Presidents is newly available in a richly illustrated and completely revised edition, with the preeminent presidential historian Michael Beschloss as general editor. This new book offers fresh and penetrating portraits of all forty-two presidencies, as rendered by some of America's most distinguished scholars. From George Washington's reluctant oath-taking through Bill Clinton's turbulent leadership, we view forty-one ambitious and fallible men through the new lens of the twenty-first century. Where did they succeed? Where did they fail? What do we know now that we could not have known at the time? The American Heritage(R) Illustrated History of the Presidents offers a biographical profile of each man and a full account of the issues and events that shaped each presidency, with pathbreaking new verdicts on the modern presidents -- Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. In the tradition of other American Heritage volumes, the book will serve as an indispensable reference guide for many years to come, for both seasoned observers andstudents just learning about the presidency. American Heritage is a trademark of American Heritage Inc. Its use is pursuant to a license agreement.

The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents

The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents PDF

Author: William A. DeGregorio

Publisher: Gramercy Books

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 771

ISBN-13: 9780517183533

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Chronicles the rich history of the American presidency, including informative and entertaining biographies of each of the men who have held the office and full coverage of the 1996 election.

American Heritage History of the Presidents

American Heritage History of the Presidents PDF

Author: Michael R. Beschloss

Publisher: New Word City, Inc.

Published: 2015-09-19

Total Pages: 604

ISBN-13: 1612309054

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Here, from American Heritage, is the story of our presidents. From George Washington’s reluctant oath-taking through George W. Bush’s leadership challenges after September 11, 2001, we view ambitious and fallible men through the new lens of the twenty-first century. Where did they succeed? Where did they fail? And what do we know now that we could not have known at the time?