Other books that might interest you

• 

  Sparta's Kings

  John Carr

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In ancient Greece, Sparta was unique in having a dual kingship  two kings from different clans, the Agiads and the Eurypontids, reigning simultaneously.  The institution was already well-developed by the 8th century BC, when Theopompos of the Eurypontid clan emerges as the first recorded Spartan king. At least fifty-seven men held office as Spartan king between Theopompos and the Agiad Kleomenes III who died in 222 BC.  For almost all this period the Spartan kingship was primarily a military office, and thus the kings embody much of the military history of Sparta.  Wherever Spartas main battles took place, there the kings were.  Naturally, the character of the particular king would often determine the outcome of a battle or campaign.  Leonidas I at Thermopylai was one example.  At the other end of the scale the young and unwar-like Pleistoanax twice declined an encounter with the Athenians when sent against that city.John Carr offers a chronological account of the kings and their accomplishments (or lack thereof), from the founding Herakleidai clan to Kleomenes III and his successor, the dictator Nabis, and the Roman conquest in the middle of the 2nd century BC.  The book is not intended to be a complete history of Sparta.  It will be a human interest and war story, focusing attention on the kings personal qualities as well as their (or their generals) military accomplishments and, where applicable, their politics as well.

  Show book

• 

  Summary of John Boehner’s On the...

  Falcon Press

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Buy now to get the key takeaways from John Boehner’s On the House: A Washington Memoir. 
    
  Sample Key Takeaways: 
  1) In Washington, people care too much about power and appearing powerful. Power goes to their heads way too often. John Boehner never cared about looking powerful. If you have to go around saying that you’re powerful, it means you probably are not.  
  2) Politicians like Donald Trump believe their titles grant them the power to do whatever they want, but such entitlement makes you vulnerable to attack and criticism. Boehner did not like letting power go to his head, or seeing other members of Congress abuse theirs. 
   

  Show book

• 

  When I Was White - A Memoir

  Sarah Valentine

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The stunning and provocative coming-of-age memoir about Sarah Valentine's childhood as a white girl in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, and her discovery that her father was a black man.At the age of 27, Sarah Valentine discovered that she was not, in fact, the white girl she had always believed herself to be. She learned the truth of her paternity: that her father was a black man. And she learned the truth about her own identity: mixed race.And so Sarah began the difficult and absorbing journey of changing her identity from white to black. In this memoir, Sarah details the story of the discovery of her identity, how she overcame depression to come to terms with this identity, and, perhaps most importantly, asks: why? Her entire family and community had conspired to maintain her white identity. The supreme discomfort her white family and community felt about addressing issues of race — her race — is a microcosm of race relationships in America.A black woman who lived her formative years identifying as white, Sarah's story is a kind of Rachel Dolezal in reverse, though her "passing" was less intentional than conspiracy. This memoir is an examination of the cost of being black in America, and how one woman threw off the racial identity she'd grown up with, in order to embrace a new one.

  Show book

• 

  On This Day: August 14

  Meg Matthais

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  On This Day: August 14. Daily podcast of historical and noteworthy activity on this calendar day. Birth of Earvin "Magic" Johnson; construction of the Cologne Cathedral completed; Michael Jackson takes control of Beatles publishing rights.

  Show book

• 

  The Last Victorians - A Daring...

  W. Sydney Robinson

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Ever since the publication of Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians in 1918 it has been fashionable to ridicule the great figures of the nineteenth century. From the longreigning monarch herself to the celebrated writers, philanthropists and politicians of the day, the Victorians have been dismissed as hypocrites and frauds - or worse. Yet not everyone in the twentieth century agreed with Strachey and his followers. To a handful of eccentrics born during Victoria's reign, the nineteenth century remained the greatest era in human history: a time of high culture for the wealthy, 'improvement' for the poor, and enlightened imperial rule for the 400 million inhabitants of the British Empire. They were, to friend and foe alike, 'the last Victorians' - relics of a bygone civilisation. In this daring group biography, W. Sydney Robinson explores the extraordinary lives of four of these Victorian survivors: the 'Puritan Home Secretary', William Joynson-Hicks (1865-1932); the 'Gloomy Dean' of St Paul's Cathedral, W. R. Inge (1860-1954); the belligerent founder of the BBC, John Reith (1889-1971), and the ultra-patriotic popular historian and journalist Arthur Bryant (1899- 1985). While revealing their manifold foibles and eccentricities, Robinson argues that these figures were truly great - even in error.

  Show book

• 

  Clara Barton: The Life and...

  Charles River Editors

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Civil War is often considered one of the first modern wars, and while technology affected what happened on the battlefield, technology and new methods also improved the way soldiers were cared for away from the front lines. Civil War medicine is understandably (and rightly) considered primitive by 21st century standards, but the ways in which injured and sick soldiers were removed behind the lines and nursed were considered state-of-the-art in the 1860s, and nobody was more responsible for that than Clara Barton, the “Florence Nightingale of America.” 
  Barton had been an educator and clerk before the Civil War broke out in 1861, but almost immediately, she went to work attempting to nurse injured Union soldiers and ensure army hospitals were properly supplied. By 1862, she was shadowing Union armies near Washington to bring supplies, clean field hospitals, and directly nurse wounded soldiers herself. In short order, she was recognized as the “Angel of the Battlefield.” 
  In the wake of the war, she gave speeches about her experiences and even went abroad to serve in a similar capacity during the Franco-Prussian War, and eventually she brought back the tenets of the International Red Cross to found the American Red Cross. Under her leadership, the organization would assist not just during wars, but also during natural disasters and other humanitarian crises, roles that the American Red Cross continues to fulfill today.

  Show book