Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  Once Upon a Country Road

  Ruth B Smith

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  In this biography, Ruth Busbee Smith depicts a vivid picture of her upbringing on a family-owned farm in South Carolina in the 1940s and 50s- a lifestyle that is both peaceful and hardworking. From the unique personality traits of her family members, helping on the farm, and more to becoming a "bookworm" at a young age to learning and following God's Word, Smith describes how we can be successful with little resources with lots of love for family, friends, and neighbors. This perspective will enlighten younger generations on how her family conquered challenges many have now forgotten. Ruth Busbee Smith was inspired to write this book from her love of teaching others and sharing her knowledge with younger generations. She has always loved to volunteer in her community and be an active part of her church. She has won many awards for her various crafts throughout the years, and her love of the great outdoors keeps her vibrant. She is a devoted mother and grandmother and continues to call South Carolina home.

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  Robespierre - The Architect of...

  Kelly Mass

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  Imagine you are sick of the government. Bureaucrats and aristocrats are constantly telling you what to do, basically enforcing a totalitarian regime. Maybe this is not so hard to imagine after what has been happening in recent years. And then imagine you protest. But the government has come up with a new method to kill people: The guillotine. Way more efficient than simple beheading, some jerk at the top then decides that anyone who is suspicious of rebellion needs their head chopped off, like the crazy lady in Alice in Wonderland. 
  This is Robespierre’s legacy. The evil French guy knew hardly any boundaries. He was vicious, murderous, and not to be taken lightly. 
  One of the most widely known figures of the Reign of terror was Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre, a French attorney and statesman. He promoted universal manhood suffrage and the removal of both clergy celibacy and oppression as a member of the Constituent Assembly and the Jacobin Club. In 1791, Robespierre ended up being a singing advocate of male residents without a political voice, promoting for their limitless entry to the National Guard, public workplaces, and the right to bear arms in self-defense. Robespierre was a key figure in the agitation that led to the deposition of the French monarchy on August tenth, 1792, and the assembling of a National Convention. His purpose was to establish a single, indivisible France, equality before the law, the abolition of authorities, and the defense of direct democratic ideal visions. 
  Read or listen to the book to learn more!

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  Zebulon Pike: The Life and...

  Editors Charles River

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  Given that Lewis and Clark remain so famous, it was inevitable that the other American explorers would be overlooked, particularly William Eaton, the hero of the Battle of Derna in the Barnaby Wars, and Zebulon Montgomery Pike, the explorer of the Mississippi. In the case of Pike, Orsi suggests that the explorer is overlooked and in some cases slighted due to what the expeditions did and did not accomplish. Eaton and Pike represented “the first wave of Manifest Destiny, expanding the republican principles of liberty and citizenship in the world.”[1] 
  	Contrasted to that patriotic sentiment are caveats and questions. The career of Zebulon Pike was “dominated by ambiguously motivated explorations of the American West.”[2] With the procurement of the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the nation, Pike had the full force of American authority at his disposal, and his travels through the Colorado Rockies into New Mexico pushed the boundaries between America and Spain. Captured by Spanish officials for illegal entry, he was finally released back into American custody after a year’s time with a volume of new information on Spanish territory, its economy, and its military configuration. This sparked a debate about whether the capture was planned by the American government itself. 
  	Pike’s return is still debated, as is his relationship with General James Wilkinson and Aaron Burr. The controversy is relevant to Burr’s alleged conspiracy to establish a competing empire in the American Southwest, or perhaps as a way of conquering Spanish America without involving the White House. Pike’s papers, confiscated by the Spanish, have complicated the search for the truth, and any evidence of his complicity remains confidential, in part because of the unpredictable explorer’s unpredictable demise.

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  America’s Most Notorious Con...

  Editors Charles River

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  The art of the confidence trick is a controversial craft that is as old as time itself. In the early years of civilization, unscrupulous folks bottled and peddled assortments of fake cures and potions. Snake oil salesmen aside, charlatans posed as mystical beings with supernatural powers, promising to end droughts and other misfortunes of the gullible with what were in reality parlor tricks and illusions.  
  	Indeed, throughout history, unabashedly brazen characters managed to make careers out of deception. 17th century Britain, for instance, was terrorized by William Chaloner, the most infamous serial counterfeiter and con artist of his time before he was ultimately bested by Sir Isaac Newton himself. The British trickster posed as a quack doctor and a clairvoyant who dispensed false fortunes (most likely via an early form of cold reading) and bogus healing antidotes, but these were bush-league frauds in comparison to one of his most renowned claims to fame: he once bribed four Jacobite sympathizers to crank out pamphlets regarding King James II's denunciation of His Royal Highness William, and later double-crossed his co-conspirators by tipping off the cops and swiftly decamping with the 1,000 reward.  
  	Confidence women were equally active players in such dirty, fixed games. Doris Payne was a professional pilferer of jewels whose unconventional vocation spanned six decades. Throughout all her hits across the United States, Europe, and Asia, Payne adhered to a simple, yet effective method of operation: she donned stylish, pricey clothes, singled out impressionable male shopkeepers and distracted them with flirtatious small talk, and secretly palmed jewelry with sleight-of-hand tricks. One of the most recent was Frank Abagnale, a career impersonator, former forger of bank checks turned FBI employee, and the subject of the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can.  

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  John P Slough - The Forgotten...

  Richard L. Miller

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  John Potts Slough, the Union commander at the Battle of Glorieta Pass, lived a life of relentless pursuit for success that entangled him in the turbulent events of mid-nineteenth-century America. As a politician, Slough fought abolitionists in the Ohio legislature and during Kansas Territory's fourth and final constitutional convention. He organized the 1st Colorado Volunteer Infantry after the Civil War broke out, eventually leading his men against Confederate forces at the pivotal engagement at Glorieta Pass. After the war, as chief justice of the New Mexico Territorial Supreme Court, he struggled to reform corrupt courts amid the territory's corrosive Reconstruction politics. 
   
   
   
  Slough was known to possess a volcanic temper and an easily wounded pride. These traits not only undermined a promising career but ultimately led to his death at the hands of an aggrieved political enemy who gunned him down in a Santa Fe saloon. Recounting Slough's timeless story of rise and fall during America's most tumultuous decades, historian Richard L. Miller brings to life this extraordinary figure.

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  Marcia Williams - The Life and...

  Linda McDougall

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  Over a decade before Margaret Thatcher swept to power, another woman was running Britain from 10 Downing Street: Marcia Williams was the first ever female political adviser to a Prime Minister and was said to have a powerful grip on her boss.
  A brilliant tactician, Marcia masterminded Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson's multiple election victories. But misogyny, jealousy, a shocking private life and accusations of money-grubbing and bribery all contributed to her reputation as a public nuisance.
  There is no doubt Marcia was outspoken, forthright and, by contemporary standards, deeply unconventional. But her critics failed to understand her unbreakable partnership with Wilson – they were politically wedded to each other and equal contributors to his success.
  In this fascinating biography, updated with new insight regarding Wilson's Downing Street affair with Janet Hewlett-Davies, Linda McDougall seeks to rescue Marcia from previously dismissive verdicts, suggesting a more nuanced perspective and restoring this trailblazing pioneer to her rightful place in British political history.

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