Other books that might interest you

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  On This Day: August 25

  Meg Matthais

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  On This Day: August 25. Daily podcast of historical and noteworthy activity on this calendar day. 1835 hoax in the New York Sun about life on the Moon; liberation of Paris following World War II;  Alger Hiss testifies in front of HUAC

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  Liberator Daniel O'Connell - The...

  Patrick M. Geoghegan

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  In this sequel to his critically acclaimed King Dan, Patrick Geoghegan examines the latter part of O'Connell's life and career.
  Daniel O'Connell, often referred to as The Liberator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century. One of the most remarkable historical figures in Irish history, he campaigned for Catholic Emancipation, including the right for Catholics to sit in the Westminster Parliament, and repeal of the Act of Union which combined Great Britain and Ireland.

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  Josephine Baker's Cinematic Prism

  Terri Simone Francis

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  A history and in-depth analysis of the film career of the iconic Black star, activist, and French military intelligence agent. Josephine Baker, the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture, was both liberated and delightfully undignified, playfully vacillating between allure and colonialist stereotyping. Nicknamed the “Black Venus,” “Black Pearl,” and “Creole Goddess,” Baker blended the sensual and the comedic when taking 1920s Europe by storm. Back home in the United States, Baker’s film career brought hope to the Black press that a new cinema centered on Black glamour would come to fruition. In Josephine Baker’s Cinematic Prism, Terri Simone Francis examines how Baker fashioned her celebrity through cinematic reflexivity, an authorial strategy in which she placed herself, her persona, and her character into visual dialogue. Francis contends that though Baker was an African American actress who lived and worked in France exclusively with a white film company, white costars, white writers, and white directors, she holds monumental significance for African American cinema as the first truly global Black woman film star. Francis also examines the double-talk between Baker and her characters in Le Pompier de Folies Bergère, La Sirène des Tropiques, Zou Zou, Princesse Tam Tam, and The French Way, whose narratives seem to undermine the very stardom they offered. In doing so, Francis illuminates the most resonant links between emergent African American cinephilia, the diverse opinions of Baker in the popular press, and African Americans’ broader aspirations for progress toward racial equality. Examining an unexplored aspect of Baker’s career, Josephine Baker’s Cinematic Prism deepens the ongoing conversation about race, gender, and performance in the African diaspora.

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  The Last Lincoln Republican -...

  Benjamin T. Arrington

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  The story of the presidential election of 1880, fully explored for the first time in The Last Lincoln Republican, is a political drama of lasting consequence and dashed possibilities. A fierce opponent of slavery before the war, Garfield had fought for civil rights for African Americans for years in Congress. Holding true to the original values of the Republican Party, Garfield wanted to promote equal opportunity for all; meanwhile, Democrats, led by Winfield Scott Hancock, sought to return the South to white supremacy and an inferior status for African Americans. With its in-depth account of the personalities and issues at play in 1880, Arrington's book provides a unique perspective on how this critical election continues to resonate through our national politics and culture to this day.A close look at the contest of 1880 reveals that Garfield's victory could have been the start of a period of greater civil rights legislation, a continuation of Lincoln's vision. This was the choice made by the American people—and, as The Last Lincoln Republican makes poignantly clear, the great opportunity forever lost when Garfield was assassinated just a few months into his term.

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  An Arabian Journey - One Man's...

  Levison Wood

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  The acclaimed author of Walking the Americas shares his epic journey through the war-torn Arabian Peninsula in this fascinating travelogue. 
   
  Following in the footsteps of famed explorers such as Lawrence of Arabia and Wilfred Thesiger, British explorer Levison Wood brings us along on his most complex expedition yet: a circumnavigation of the Arabian Peninsula. Starting in September 2017 in a city in Northern Syria, a stone’s throw away from Turkey and amidst a deadly war, Wood set forth on a 5,000-mile trek through the most contested region on the planet. 
   
  Wood moved through the Middle East for six months, from ISIS-occupied Iraq through Kuwait and along the jagged coastlines of the Emirates and Oman; across Yemen—in the midst of civil war—and on to Saudia Arabia, Jordan, and Israel, before ending on the shores of the Mediterranean in Lebanon. Like his predecessors, Wood travelled through some of the harshest and most beautiful environments on earth, seeking to challenge our perceptions of this part of the world. Through the people he meets—and the personal histories and local mythologies they share—Wood examines how the region has changed over thousands of years and what it means to its people today.

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  Happy Birthday or Whatever -...

  Annie Choi

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  “Mining the age-old tensions between mothers and daughters, Choi’s strong debut is an uproariously funny memoir of growing up with her Korean American family in Los Angeles.... [T]hese are indelible, poignant, and often riotously funny scenes of a daughter’s frustrations and indestructible love.” — BooklistA humorous story about the relationship between a first generation Korean-American and her parents, an alternately funny and poignant narrative showing how it feels to have one foot firmly planted on each side of the Pacific Ocean.Annie Choi’s very Korean mother never stopped annoying her thoroughly Americanized daughter. Growing up near Los Angeles, Annie was continually exasperated by both her mother’s typical Korean harangues—you must get all As and attend Harvard—and non-so-typical eccentricities: stuffing the house with tacky Pope paraphernalia.But when Annie’s mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, the uneasy relationship between mother and daughter changes. Choi’s witty and accessible prose will appeal to any daughter of immigrants, and to anyone who’s had a challenging relationship with their mother.

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