The American dream

Publishing Date: 2018

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973

The American Dream explores the sturdiness of this idea of The American Dream in 2018. Is the American dream of upward mobility accessible in a society so fragmented and economically unequal? Does the American Dream still exist in a country experiencing an anti-immigration trend? Have economic policies had an impact on American striving? This issue also explores the relationship between education and jobs, technological displacement of workers, downward mobility among certain groups, labor mobility and home ownership as indicators of the health of the idea of the American Dream. - Publisher

The USA and the world 2018-2019

By Keithly, David M.

Publishing Date: [2018]

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973 KEI

"Instant interpretive history is a difficult and demanding task, and certainly more of an art than some would suggest. USA and the World describes not only what happened, but puts events in the context of the past and criticizes policy actions as appropriate. The result goes deeper than most of what appears in current publications. Updated annually and part of the renowned "World Today Series," USA and the World presents an unusually penetrating look into America and its relationship to the rest of the world. The combination of factual accuracy and up-to-date detail along with its informed projections make this an outstanding resource for researchers, practitioners in international development, media professionals, government officials, potential investors and students. Now in its 14th edition, the content is thorough yet perfect for a one-semester introductory course or general library reference.

The American spirit: who we are and what we stand for

By McCullough, David G

Publishing Date: 2017

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973 MCC

"This timely collection of speeches by David McCullough, the most honored historian in the United States--winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among many other honors--reminds us of fundamental American principles. Over the course of his distinguished career, David McCullough has spoken before Congress, the White House, colleges and universities, historical societies, and other esteemed institutions. Now, as many Americans engage in self-reflection following a bitter election campaign that has left the country divided, McCullough has collected some of his most important speeches in a brief volume that articulates important principles and characteristics that are particularly American..."--Jacket.

Zachary Taylor

By Eisenhower, John S. D

Publishing Date: ℗♭2008

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973.6 EIS

A profile of the twelfth president traces his rise in the military and successes in the Mexican war to his election as the first president without a prior political office, in an account that also offers insight into Taylor's views on slavery and his sudden death.

Millard Fillmore

By Finkelman, Paul

Publishing Date: 2011

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973.64 FIN

Overview: The oddly named president whose shortsightedness and stubbornness fractured the nation and sowed the seeds of civil war. In the summer of 1850, America was at a terrible crossroads. Congress was in an uproar over slavery, and it was not clear if a compromise could be found. In the midst of the debate, President Zachary Taylor suddenly took ill and died. The presidency, and the crisis, now fell to the little-known vice president from upstate New York. In this eye-opening biography, the legal scholar and historian Paul Finkelman reveals how Millard Fillmore's response to the crisis he inherited set the country on a dangerous path that led to the Civil War. He shows how Fillmore stubbornly catered to the South, alienating his fellow Northerners and creating a fatal rift in the Whig Party, which would soon disappear from American politics-as would Fillmore himself, after failing to regain the White House under the banner of the anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic "Know Nothing" Party. Though Fillmore did have an eye toward the future, dispatching Commodore Matthew Perry on the famous voyage that opened Japan to the West and on the central issues of the age-immigration, religious toleration, and most of all slavery-his myopic vision led to the destruction of his presidency, his party, and ultimately, the Union itself.

Franklin Pierce

By Holt, Michael F.

Publishing Date: 2010

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973.66 HOL

Creates a solid portrait of both man and President. Pierce, a New Englander known for his charm and good looks, traditionally ranks as one of our nation's worst leaders. Holt does not dispel or challenge any previous assessments but rather tries to explain the pre-Civil War President's actions. Holt's thesis is that Pierce's obsession with the Democratic Party and priority of party over country in the tumultuous 1850s in fact damaged his party and pushed the country more quickly toward war.

James Buchanan

By Baker, Jean H.

Publishing Date: [2004]

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973.68 BAK

A look at the presidency of James Buchanan, whose administration paved the way for the onslaught of the Civil War, details his failures as a president, including his lack of compromise and his weak leadership in a time of national crisis.

Andrew Johnson

By Gordon-Reed, Annette

Publishing Date: 2011

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973.8 GOR

A portrait of America's seventeenth president describes Andrew Johnson's failed efforts to bring about reconciliation following the Civil War, the antagonism of congressional leaders who sought his impeachment, and his legacy for the present.

Ulysses S. Grant

By Bunting, Josiah

Publishing Date: 2004

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973.82 BUN

As a general, Ulysses S. Grant is routinely described in glowing terms-the man who turned the tide of the Civil War, who accepted Lee's surrender at Appomattox, and who had the stomach to see the war through to final victory. But his presidency is another matter-the most common word used to characterize it is "scandal." Grant is routinely portrayed as a man out of his depth, whose trusting nature and hands-off management style opened the federal coffers to unprecedented plunder. But that caricature does not do justice to the realities of Grant's term in office, as Josiah Bunting III shows in this provocative assessment of our eighteenth president. Grant came to Washington in 1869 to lead a capital and a country still bitterly divided by four years of civil war. His predecessor, Andrew Johnson, had been impeached and nearly driven from office, and the radical Republicans in Congress were intent on imposing harsh conditions on the Southern states before allowing them back into the Union. Grant made it his priority to forge the states into a single nation, and Bunting shows that despite the troubles that characterized Grant's terms in office, he was able to accomplish this most important task-very often through the skillful use of his own popularity with the American people. Grant was indeed a military man of the highest order, and he was a better president than he is often given credit for.- (Blackwell North Amer)

Bobby Kennedy: the making of a liberal icon

By Tye, Larry

Publishing Date: 2016

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973.922 TYE

Draws on unpublished memoirs, unreleased government files, private papers, and interviews with Kennedy's close family and colleagues to chronicle his transformation from 1950s cold warrior to a liberal champion of the working class, the poor, and minorities.

Kissinger: the idealist, 1923-1968

By Ferguson, Niall

Publishing Date: [2015]

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973.924 FER

A portrait of the American statesman, based on unprecedented access to his private papers, challenges common misconceptions and covers everything from Kissinger's beliefs to his philosophical idealism.

Peace kills

By O'Rourke, P. J.

Publishing Date: ©2004

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973.931 ORO

The humorist offers a survey of the foibles of American foreign policy, recounting his experiences among consumers in Kuwait, in security-obsessed airports around the globe, and in Kosovo.

John McCain: American maverick

By Povich, Elaine S.

Publishing Date: [2018]

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973.931 POV

Chronicles the life of John McCain, discussing his childhood, military service, years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, marriage, political career, and campaign for president.

Becoming

By Obama, Michelle

Publishing Date: [2018]

Classification: 900

Call Number: 973.932 OBA

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America, she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private. A deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations.

Dixie: a personal odyssey through events that shaped the modern South

By Wilkie, Curtis

Publishing Date: ©2001

Classification: 900

Call Number: 975.043 WIL

"Dixie is a political and social history of the South during the second half of the twentieth century told from Curtis Wilkie's perspective as a white man intimately transformed by enormous racial and political upheavals." "Wilkie's personal take on some of the landmark events of modern American history is as engaging as it is insightful. He attended Ole Miss during the rioting in the fall of 1962, when James Meredith became the first African American to enroll in the school. After graduation, Wilkie worked in Clarksdale, Mississippi, where he met Aaron Henry, a local druggist and later the prominent head of the Mississippi NAACP. He covered the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964 and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenge at the national convention in Atlantic City, and he was a member of the biracial insurgent Democratic delegation from Mississippi seated in place of Governor John Bell Williams's delegation at the 1968 convention in Chicago. Wilkie followed Jimmy Carter's campaign for the presidency, becoming friends with Billy Carter; he covered Bill Clinton's election in 1992 and was witness to the South's startling shift from the Democratic Party to the GOP; and finally, he was there when Byron De La Beckwith was convicted for the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers thirty-one years after the fact."--Jacket.

Shepherdstown in the Civil War: one vast confederate hospital

By Pawlak, Kevin R

Publishing Date: 2015

Classification: 900

Call Number: 975.4 PAW

Because they were situated near the Mason-Dixon line, Shepherdstown residents witnessed the realities of the Civil War firsthand. The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 brought thousands of wounded Confederates into the town's homes, churches and warehouses. The story of Shepherdstown's transformation into "one vast hospital" recounts nightmarish scenes of Confederate soldiers under the caring hands of an army of surgeons and civilians.

Talking stone: rock art of the Cosos

By Goldsmith, Paul

Publishing Date: [2017]

Classification: 900

Call Number: 979.4 GOL

"This book acts as a visual vehicle to see the rock art of the Coso Range. The Coso Range sits on the edge of the Mojave Desert, just east of the Sierra Nevada. It is located within the 1.2 million acres Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake and contains distinctive and spectacular displays of rock art. This rock art fills the lava gorges of Renegade Canyon, Big Petroglyph Canyon, and Sheep Canyon with images of bighorn sheep, anthropomorphs, abstract geometric figures and shield-like figures. These are pecked into the dark basalt and most appear to be between 1000 to 3000 years old, although some may be older and date to the earliest occupation of the region roughly 13,000 years ago. Both the text and photography are by Paul Goldsmith, an acclaimed cinematographer. This project is highly visual in nature and provides a photographic tour of the canyons and rock art for those that will never have a chance to visit them"--Provided by publisher.

The Browns of California: the family dynasty that transformed a state and shaped a nation

By Pawel, Miriam

Publishing Date: 2018

Classification: 900

Call Number: 979.4 PAW

"A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist's panoramic history of California and its impact on the nation, from the Gold Rush to Silicon Valley--told through the lens of Governor Jerry Brown's family dynasty. When Governor Jerry Brown finishes his fourth term at the end of 2018, he will have bookended his career as both the youngest and the oldest governor of California. He and his father Pat Brown will have governed the state for twenty-four years since 1959--almost half of the state's modern history. How did the Brown political dynasty arise, and what is its lasting impact? In The Browns of California, award-winning journalist and scholar Miriam Pawel brings to life four generations of the Brown family as a prism through which we view the history of the Union's thirty-first state. Through the family's colorful and significant principal players, she weaves a narrative that is essential to understanding California and the way it shapes the nation. This book gives new insights to those steeped in California history, offers a corrective for those who confuse stereotypes and legend for history, and opens new vistas for readers familiar with only the sketchiest outlines of a place habitually viewed from afar with a mix of envy and awe, disdain, and fascination"--

Latin America 2018-2019

By Turner, Blair

Publishing Date: 2018

Classification: 900

Call Number: 980 TUR