Political leaders and leadership Books

Book SynopsisExamines the factors that contributed to post-uprising leadership durability in the Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and Georgia in 2004-12. Using structured, focused comparison and process tracing, Vasili Rukhadze argues that the key independent variable influencing post-mobilization leadership durability is ruling coalition size and cohesion.Table of Contents List of tables and figuresAknowledgements I. Introduction, Research Design, and Methodology, and Literature Review II. Historical Background III. The Case of Ukraine IV. The Case of Kyrgyzstan V. The Case of Georgia VI. Conclusions References List of Interviewees

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Book SynopsisThis volume represents the first book-length treatment of the reception of Augustus and his age during the reign of Domitian. Its thirteen chapters, authored by an international group of scholars, offer readers a glimpse into the fascinating history and culture of Domitian’s Rome and its multifaceted engagement with the Augustan past.Table of Contents List of Contributors List of Figures Introduction (Raymond Marks and Marcello Mogetta) Part I: Urban Narratives 1. Assemblages and Appropriation of Augustan Art and Topography in Flavian Rome (Diane Atnally Conlin) 2. Domitian and the Augustan Altars (Megan Goldman-Petri) 3. Legacy Revisited: Augustus and Domitian in the Imperial Fora and the Roman Forum (Daira Nocera) Part II: Gods and Models 4. Identifying Demi-Gods: Augustus, Domitian, and Hercules (Eric M. Moormann and Claire Stocks) 5. Arcahne and Lucretia: A Domitianic Perspective? (Emma Buckley) Part III: From Nero to Augustus 6. Looking Back When Foretelling the Future: Panegyric Prophecies in Augustan, Neronian and Domitianic Poetry (Lisa Cordes) 7. Parce Pater: Martial’s “Augustan” Commentary on Domitianic Rome in Epigram 5.7 (Virginia Closs) 8. The Return of Jupiter: Aeneid 1, Punica 1, and Silius’ Post-Lucanian Theology (Ludovico Pontiggia) Part IV: Poetic Journeys 9. Revisiting Ovid’s House of Somnus in Statius’ Thebaid (Emma Scioli) 10. Quid restat profugis? “Victorious Exile” in Silius Italicus’ Punica (Clayton Schroer) 11. Augustan to the End: Poetry, Politics and Memory in Statius’ Silvae Book 4 (Jean-Michel Hulls) Part V: History and Reception 12. An Ambiguous Attitude: Augustus and Domitian’s Policy towards Senators and Freedmen (Egidio Incelli) 13. Domitian’s Aftermath: Nerva’s Rome and the Augustan Legacy in Sculpture and Coinage (Nathan Elkins) Bibliography and Abbreviations

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Book SynopsisNow more than ever we need leaders who can be strong yet humble, bold and assertive when it counts but have the capacity to listen and learn, who can motivate and influence, and who can get the best out of those around them. Twenty-five outstanding Australian leaders from diverse worlds share their insights on the essence of inspiring leadership.

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Book SynopsisWith the summer of 1784, most of the family reunited to spend nearly a year together in Europe. These volumes document John Adams's diplomatic triumphs, his wife and daughter's participation in the cosmopolitan scenes of Paris and London, and his son John Quincy's travels in Europe and America.Trade ReviewSuperbly edited, beautifully printed and magnificently written, in large part by John and Abigail Adams themselves, this saga of private lives in times of great public peril is as moving and dramatic as anything that has been put between covers in recent years. -- Margaret L. Colt * Saturday Review *Here even the Revolution is in the background, subordinate to the immediate business of life. There are letters among John and his relatives; there are also many back and forth between Abigail and her cousins. But the heart of this collection—and heart is the only word for it—is the long interchange between John and Abigail. -- Perry Miller * Christian Science Monitor *Taken together, the four volumes now in print are as full a domestic correspondence as now exists for eighteenth-century America, and the wisdom of bringing them out as a separate series becomes apparent. The value of the correspondence lies accordingly in the opportunity it offers for probing the character of human relations, especially domestic relations during the period… [The editors] supply us with the information for understanding the tone as well as the content of the letters. And the index to the volumes is a work of art in itself. -- Edmund S. Morgan * American Historical Review *Abigail Adams, as these volumes suggest, was the nation’s ‘First Lady,’ not only of her husband’s ill-starred presidency, but of this epoch of American history… She was, in sum, one of the superb letter writers in our history; her smooth-flowing prose sparkles, revealing repeatedly the high spirits, the wit, the high intelligence of this remarkable woman. -- Jacob F. Cooke * Pennsylvania History *It is of course a familiar tribute to this enterprise to say that it disinters John Adams the man and gives him a place in history at least equal to that of any other Founding Father. In fact by publishing the family letters as a distinct series the editors enhance still more the vigorous personalities, human reactions, and often vehement opinions of their subjects. -- Esmond Wright * William and Mary Quarterly *Table of ContentsDescriptive List of Illustrations Family Correspondence, December 1784-December 1785 Appendix: List of Omitted Documents Chronology Index

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Book SynopsisKotlowski offers a surprising study of an administration that redirected the course of civil rights in America. He examines such issues as school desegregation, fair housing, voting rights, and affirmative action, as well as Native American and women's rights, and details Nixon's role, revealing a president who favored deeds over rhetoric.Trade ReviewNixon's Civil Rights is, far and away, the best book written on the topic. It is contemporary history at its absolute finest: exhaustive research, clear prose, trenchant analysis, and shrewd judgments. Anyone interested in the Civil Rights Movement, the 1970s, and the Nixon era will find this book indispensable. A truly landmark study. -- Douglas Brinkley, University of New OrleansThis book surpasses anything previously published on Nixon's civil rights in terms of research, including interviews with participants, and interpretation. The segment dealing with women's civil rights provides more details than any other work to date. Other aspects are equally well researched and controversial, particularly Kotlowski's analysis of Nixon's much publicized 'southern strategy.' He shows how limited in scope and short-lived this strategy actually was. His handling of Nixon's successful desegregation of southern schools, the president's approach to implementing civil rights in general, and his first two unsuccessful Supreme Court appointments is insightful and enlightening. -- Joan Hoff, Ohio UniversityIn this scrupulously researched investigation of his civil rights policies, Kotlowski presents a differing view of Nixon--a complex leader who listened to the advice of his knowledgeable domestic advisers...This excellent book is a worthy successor to Allen Matusow's Nixon's Economy as a skillful appraisal of Nixon's domestic policies. Highly recommended. -- Karl Helicher * Library Journal *Scholars of the Nixon presidency and of the civil rights movement have generally overlooked the Nixon administration's civil rights policies. Kotlowski's book fills this void...The book shows how Nixon moved the civil rights debate from integration to economic opportunity, from rhetoric to action, and expanded the civil rights issue to women and Native Americans, while also helping to establish the Republican Party's "southern strategy". Well-researched and persuasively argued, the book captures the intriguing if frustrating complexity that characterizes Richard Nixon and will appeal equally to Nixon lovers, loathers, and those undecided. Strongly recommended. -- S. C. Matheson * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Contents Prologue: Deeds versus Words 1 Flexible Response: Southern Politics and School Desegregation 2 Open Communities versus Forced Integration: Romney, Nixon, and Fair Housing 3 The Art of Compromise: Extending the Voting Rights Act 4 Jobs Are Nixon's Rights Program: The Philadelphia Plan and Affirmative Action 5 Black Power, Nixon Style: Minority Businesses and Black Colleges 6 A Cold War: Nixon and Civil Rights Leaders 7 Challenges and Opportunities: Native American Policy 8 Stops and Starts: Women's Rights Epilogue: In the Shadow of Nixon Notes Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn their myriad letters to one another the Adamses interspersed observations about their own family life with commentary on the most important social and political events of their day, from the scandals in the British royal family to the deteriorating political situation in Massachusetts that eventually culminated in Shays’ Rebellion.Trade ReviewVolume 7 of the Adam Family Correspondence is a fine example of a published collection of letters. Like the other volumes in the series, this publication will prove immensely valuable to scholars interested in eighteenth-century society and culture generally or in the Adams family specifically. The time and effort put into the volume are apparent in its careful editing and annotation...The latest volume of the Adams Family Correspondence lives up to the Adams Papers project's tradition of high-quality work and fine editing, as the project continues to steadily provide needed sources to historians and biographers. -- Sarah Swedberg * New England Quarterly *

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Book SynopsisThis book revisits the electoral college crisis of 1800, offering a new understanding of the early plebiscitarian presidency and a Supreme Court struggling to put the presidency's claims of a popular mandate into constitutional perspective. Ackerman shows how the early court integrated Federalist and Republican themes into the Constitution.Trade ReviewJust like with his magnificent We the People, Bruce Ackerman has intertwined well researched history with an unparalleled skill as a constitutional theorist. The Failure of the Founding Fathers describes the maneuvering that validated Thomas Jefferson's claim to the presidency that then created a decade-long confrontation between the Jeffersonians in the elected branches of the Federalists in the judiciary. This is constitutional history at its finest. -- Lucas A. Powe, Jr., University of Texas at Austin, and author of The Warren Court and American PoliticsBruce Ackerman has written a provocative account of the impact upon America's political future of the Jeffersonian opposition to the Federalists. Completely levitating himself out of the historiography of party formation, Ackerman in The Failure of the Founding Fathers demonstrates just how powerful the vexed election of 1800 proved to be. -- Joyce Appleby, University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of AmericansMany fine historians have written about the presidential election of 1800. But only Bruce Ackerman has placed all of the events surrounding the election into the context of American constitutional development. With his usual mixture of careful historical exegesis, narrative sweep, and bold interpretive imagination, Ackerman enables us to see a number of aspects of our constitutional history as if for the first time (beginning with the fact that the almost unknown case of Stuart v. Laird, was far more significant that Marbury v. Madison, decided a week earlier). Anyone interested in the development of American constitutionalism--and American political institutions--should be fascinated by this book. -- Sanford Levinson, University of Texas Law School, author of Wrestling With DiversityAckerman innovatively recasts the histories of parties, constitutional interpretation and presidential politics...Rarely has a study of American history been more timely. * Publishers Weekly *[Ackerman] goes against the fashion to produce this major reinterpretation of the immediate post-1787 history of America's charter. -- Robert F. Nardini * Library Journal *Bruce Ackerman, who teaches at Yale Law School, might be expected to advocate for either the Jeffersonians or their opponents, the Federalists. Instead he dishes blame all around to make the point that the mistakes of 1787 have shaped our politics. He sees American constitutionalism as a work in progress over two centuries. This liberal jurisprudence opposes the originalism of Antonin Scalia and other conservative jurists who insist that the true meanings of a law or decision are simply the literal ones right there in the text if you read them the right (Right?) way. The historical approach favored by Ackerman stresses continual reinterpretation of constitutional articles, legislation, presidential orders, and judicial decisions. Like the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that still inspires its practitioners, it needs a lot of detailed history to back up the argument. And that's what we get in The Failure of the Founding Fathers. Fortunately, Ackerman can tell a story as well as score points against originalists...[This is] thought-provoking history. -- David Waldstreicher * Boston Globe *The Failure of the Founding Fathers contains the familiar dynamics of institutional triggers, synthesis of orders, and the nonlegal processes that play an important role in the American constitutional order, but it also offers new surprises, promising to change the way readers think about the date of the founding, MARBURY v. MADISON, and John Marshall...One cannot take leave of this book without noting what a fun read it is, with Ackerman acting as the armchair narrator leading the reader through events. Filled with questions of "who dunnit?" with the machinations of "crafty" and "sensible" politicians, as well as the author's own "detective" work, this book never lets the reader forget the thrills to be found in constitutional history. -- Kathleen S. Sullivan * The Law and Politics Book Review *Highly ambitious and well-researched...[Its] great value [is its] testimony to the essential fragility of constitutional and democratic development...Ackerman tells his story well and persuasively...The book is a tour de force that draws on an impressive amount of archival research. Yet its real value lies less within Ackerman's absorbing story of this dire political crisis and the political dynamics it precipitated than in his skill and imagination in advancing his theory of constitutional change in the U.S. His arguments are solid and remain refreshingly heretical in a milieu that typically lionises the framers without accepting their limitations and the need for subsequent institutional and constitutional adjustments to accommodate changing political realities. -- John Owens * Times Higher Education Supplement *Ackerman has a wonderful ability to draw new insights from conventional understandings of political events by focusing on small, concrete incidents. -- Barbara Oberg * American Journal of Legal History *Table of ContentsPart One: The People's President Introduction: America on the Brink 1. The Original Misunderstanding 2. John Marshall for President 3. Jefferson Counts Himself In 4. On the Brink 5. What Went Right? Part Two: The People and the Court Introduction: Constitutional Brinksmanship 6. Federalist Counterattack 7. Republican Triumph 8. Marbury v. Stuart 9. Presidential Purge 10. Synthesis 11. Reverberations Documents Horatius's Presidential Knot Judge Bassett's Protest Notes Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisA distinguished historian of twentieth-century America, Woods offers a wholesale reappraisal and sweeping, authoritative account of the life of one of the most fascinating and complex U.S. presidents.Trade ReviewIn his masterful new biography, Randall B. Woods convincingly makes the case for Johnson’s greatness—as the last American president whose leadership achieved truly revolutionary breakthroughs in progressive domestic legislation, bringing changes that have improved the lives of most Americans. In this compelling, massive narrative, Woods portrays Johnson fairly and fully in all his complexity, with adequate attention to flaws in his character and his tragic miscalculations in Vietnam… In illuminating detail, Woods describes the enormous political skills with which Johnson, in quiet partnership with civil rights leaders, persuaded Congress to secure the basic freedoms of African Americans. Woods reminds us that dozens of government benefits and protections that Americans take for granted today were won in the 1960s principally because of LBJ’s vision, legislative mastery and determination… Woods follows in the footsteps of LBJ’s most reliable earlier biographers—Ronnie Dugger, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Robert Dallek—but makes his own unique contribution to the Johnson literature with a fresh, probing interpretation of the influences and ideals that shaped Johnson and his presidency… The book’s strengths include a balanced narrative, graceful prose and Woods’s nuanced understanding of Southern politics and culture. -- Nick Kotz * Washington Post Book World *In writing LBJ: Architect of American Ambition, Woods has produced an excellent biography that fully deserves a place alongside the best of the Johnson studies yet to appear. He is more sympathetic and nuanced than Caro, more fluid and (despite the significant length of his book) more concise than Dallek—and equally scrupulous in his use of archives and existing scholarship. Even readers familiar with the many other fine books on Johnson will learn a great deal from Woods. Unlike all but a few Johnson biographers, Woods is himself a Southerner, and has a particularly good understanding of the nexus of race, class, family and religion that shaped Johnson’s life… Among Woods’s many achievements in this fine biography is to allow us to see not only the enormous, tragic flaws in this extraordinary man, but also the greatness. -- Alan Brinkley * New York Times Book Review *This is an absorbing portrait of a man who was as stand-and-deliver as his plain-speaking persona suggested but also a highly complex, driven individual who not only sought power but sought to do something with it. -- Steven Carroll * The Age *Lyndon Baines Johnson was a complex man who helped shape extraordinary times… Woods has created a full and well-balanced biography of an icon that manages to feel fresh… The LBJ of this book has more light than darkness—a contrary but deeply compassionate individual who was often two steps ahead of everyone else in the room, and who was undone by the times in which he lived. -- Carol Iaciofano * Boston Globe *In little more than five years, Lyndon Baines Johnson probably did more to reform and repair American society than anyone else in history. Yet, instead of being memorialized as a hero, LBJ is more often remembered as a slimy manipulator whose good intentions were sunk in the quagmire of a needless war. But as LBJ: Architect of American Ambition, an outstanding new biography by Randall B. Woods, reminds us, the career and legacy of this extraordinarily complex Texan can hardly be summarized in a sentence… LBJ leaves us with a fuller picture of this ‘accidental president’ and a greater appreciation of him as a noble failure or—perhaps more accurately—a great man with some king-size flaws. -- Randy Dotinga * Christian Science Monitor *Randall Woods has produced a magnificent portrait of Johnson that, while candid in showing the president’s flaws, is [also] sympathetic. -- Cary Clack * Cleveland Plain Dealer *Why…do we need another biography of Lyndon B. Johnson? The answer is that Johnson was so complex that every new biographer willing to do the tough spadework of original research discovers fresh layers of Johnsonian reality to explain, new psychological and political corridors to explore. Such is the case with this excellent new work by University of Arkansas historian Woods. Woods finds Johnson’s key motivation to be largely altruistic, emerging from righteous outrage over the poverty and racism he’d witnessed while growing up in Texas. Woods serves up a Johnson who is less cynical, less self-serving and more heroic and tragic than the man portrayed elsewhere. Woods’s Johnson is a man who saw his greatest personal ambitions realized with the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964, and the Great Society programs. Not inappropriately, Woods concludes his eloquent and riveting account by quoting Ralph Ellison, who noted that Johnson, spurned at the end of his life by both liberals and conservatives, would ‘have to settle for being recognized as the greatest American President for the poor and for the Negroes, but that, as I see it, is a very great honor indeed.’ * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Woods’s single volume evenhandedly condenses the complexities and controversies associated with the thirty-sixth president of the U.S. …Raised in the populist tradition, LBJ cut his political teeth as an all-out New Dealer. But he shrewdly knew that the ambitions he harbored for himself and American society would never be realized without placating conservatives of various kinds—economic, segregationist, or anticommunist. In this fact of Johnson’s political life, which induced some to perceive him as a malodorous wheeler-dealer, Woods detects a remarkable consistency, an inwardly liberal LBJ whose outwardly moderate politics were an expression of his mastery of political calculus… Thorough, astute, and readable. -- Gilbert Taylor * Booklist *Table of Contents* Contents * Prologue * Roots * Growing Up * College * The Secretary * Lady Bird and the NYA * Congress * Pappy * War * Truman and the Coming of the Cold War * Coke * A Populist Gentlemen's Club * Leader * Passing the Lord's Prayer * Back from the Edge * Containing the Red-Hots: From Dulles to the Dixie Association * Lost in Space *1960 * Camelot Meets Mr. Cornpone * Hanging On * Interregnum: Death and Resurrection *"Kennedy Was Too Conservative for Me" * Free at Last * Containment at Home and Abroad *"The Countryside of the World" * Bobby * Barry * A New Bill of Rights * The Crux of the Matter * Daunted Courage * Castro's and Kennedy's Shadows * A City on the Hill * Balancing Act * Divisions * Civil War * Battling Dr. Strangelove * The Holy Land * Backlash * Of Hawks and Doves, Vultures and Chickens * Tet * A Midsummer Nightmare * Touching the Void * Notes * Acknowledgments * Index

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Book SynopsisNone of the founding fathers of America equals the candor of John Adams' observations of his eighteenth-century world. This title features Adams' letters that reveal his positions on the personalities and issues of his times.

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Book SynopsisSpanning nearly forty years, the letters collected in this volume form the most significant correspondenceand reveal one of the most intriguing and inspiring partnershipsin American history.Trade ReviewA wonderfully vivid account of the momentous era they lived through, underscoring the chaotic, often improvisatory circumstances that attended the birth of the fledgling nation and the hardships of daily life. -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *Provide[s] valuable insights into the early days of partisan politics…The Adamses’ correspondence gives modern Americans an extraordinarily personal view of our country’s founding. Intermingled with comments on the great events of the day—the Battle of Bunker Hill, the vote for independence, the inauguration of Washington as president—are discussions of daily life, stories of neighbors and relatives, complaints about the high cost of living and laments over such family tragedies as a stillborn daughter and the deaths of parents. Their courtship letters are especially delightful. -- Mary Beth Norton * New York Times Book Review *Extraordinary…There are many books on these two that provide context and background; this one, in which John and Abigail’s voices soar unencumbered over the pages, is a lovely addition to the Adams shelf. You can’t help but feel a little guilty reading these rich exchanges, since they were borne of long separations, with mail delivery that was slow at best, and during wartime, unreliable. Even the act of writing could be difficult: in one letter, Abigail talks about a winter so cold, the ink freezes in her pen…While they are apart, they endure the deaths of parents, friends, and, most heartbreaking, an infant daughter. Their elegiac letters carry an almost unbearable beauty. * Boston Globe *The letters reveal the making of the American nation, in all its chaos and passion, from the inside…Both John and Abigail’s letters are packed with evocative details that throw the reader into the epicenter of American revolutionary life. They recount the developments that led to the Declaration of Independence and the emergence of opposing political parties, the Federalists and Republicans. But, equally fascinating, they open a window on to a private world…My Dearest Friend deserves a special place in the literary canon of the founding fathers, not only for recording the amazing relationship between John and Abigail, but also because of the rarity of the survival of such a correspondence…The Adamses’ letters are so enjoyable because they offer a wonderful breadth of topics, breathlessly jumping between flirtatious teasing, gossip about friends and family, and philosophical and political argument. -- Andrea Wulf * The Guardian *Hogan and Taylor…have given history buffs a treat—the most comprehensive edition of letters between two extremely lively writers, America’s second president and his wife… Here are trenchant political exchanges, such as Abigail’s famous plea to her husband and the Continental Congress to ‘Remember the Ladies,’ and Adams’s less famous, revealing reply: he noted that while it was well known that the Revolution had prompted children, slaves and apprentices to rebel, ‘your Letter was the first Intimation that another Tribe more numerous and powerful than all the rest were grown discontented.’ Many of the letters are personal, from coquettish courtship epistles to Abigail’s moving premonition that the baby she was carrying would be stillborn. The letters shine a light on such aspects of daily life as illness, Sunday sermons and cuisine. Ellis’s…foreword explains the rarity of such intimate correspondence—Martha Washington, for instance, destroyed most of the letters she and George wrote. Readers will agree that this book is a treasure. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Their loving partnership in service to our country is a remarkable story and one that merits retelling over and over again. -- Senator Ted Kennedy, as quoted in the Boston GlobeThis new edition of the John and Abigail Adams letters, including some never before published, refreshes what many observers consider the paradigmatic correspondence in American history. It also showed Abigail Adams as a woman of prodigious talents and shrewd insights on matters small and large. -- Robert Birnbaum * The Morning News *John and Abigail Adams wrote to each other throughout separations caused by war and presidential duties. This comprehensive collection of their letters shows them to be affectionate, playful at times, concerned about both national and personal matters, and literate…The letters provide a unique perspective on people and events and allow us to appreciate the great sacrifice they made in service to the country. -- Susan Olasky * World *An extraordinary series of letters…Most 18th Century letters make for dry reading. Abigail and John’s are entirely different. They pour their hearts onto the page, expressing their raw feelings as flesh-and-blood humans, not the marble statues we associate with the Founders…The letters are priceless historic artifacts, not only for what they say about these two people, and about the world-changing events in which they played a role, but also because of the way they transport us back to the time…The letters are much more than rich veins to be mined with an historian’s pick-axe. They are fun reading, bubbling with the charm, intelligence and passion of these two, who were both compelling and entertaining writers. -- Edward Achorn * Providence Journal *Both Abigail and John Adams decried long separations during their marriage (while acknowledging them as necessary for the greater public good), but the unintended legacy of such trials were the thoughtful, loving, and literate letters exchanged by the couple that open a window on the birth and early years of our republic…This is a treasure, for general readers and scholars alike. -- Michele Leber * Booklist *My Dearest Friend is a refreshing tribute to a remarkable marriage and a reminder of the power of, and intimacy in, good old-fashioned correspondence…As remarkable for its literary eloquence as for its historical significance, My Dearest Friend provides insight into the complexities America faced during its founding years and into a marriage which made sacrifices for, and was sustained by, the commitment to securing a ‘more perfect union.’ -- Ashley Brown * Times Literary Supplement *In helping to found a country where their children (and ours) could grow up free, John and Abigail Adams bestowed an extraordinary blessing on all of us. Yet one of their greatest legacies was an unintended one, a consequence of their long separation and constant need for one another. They left behind marvelously detailed, literate, and loving letters to each other—1,016 survive—that add immeasurably to our understanding of this remarkable couple and their tumultuous times. Some 289 of them have been gathered into this new and fascinating collection, compiled by the editors of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society…The letters reveal a man who, for all his flaws, showed stupendous courage, creativity, stubborn devotion to duty, and keen insight into the nature of power. As great as he is, Abigail is easily his match. It is clear from these letters that, in addition to keeping the family’s farm going in his absence (a difficult task calling for hard-headed business savvy), she often shows shrewder political instincts. Intensely curious about politics, she clamors for details and advises her husband about what steps to take. As he put it himself, she was his ballast, steadying the ship and keeping him moving forward, and he would not have become the great man he did without her…The crude stuff of life is here, illuminated with the lightning flashes of history. The letters remind us that these were two people who were groping in the darkness, unsure what would become of their lives and their new country…Their letters open a window to their age like few other documents. That alone makes them invaluable. But they are also fun reading, bubbling with the charm, intelligence, pungency, and passion of these two, who were compelling and entertaining writers, one as good as the other. -- Edward Achorn * Weekly Standard *In My Dearest Friend, I am on page thirty one, and I have not cried, but something more powerful has happened. I stop with the book open in my hands, and just think. There’s no way to describe. Certain lines make my entire body have goose bumps in awe of the beauty, the awareness of Abigail and John. I just sit on the couch, for maybe ten, twenty minutes, thinking. The world is somewhere else, far away, when I read this. I am transported to a land over two centuries old, but these humans, these revolutionaries, had the ideas that could change the world today. And these ideas were in normal, everyday letters. I’m astounded even now, and I’ve known this for quite some time. This book makes me want to be a historian. There’s no other way to put it. I want to spend the rest of my life learning about history, writing about history. I want to be able to read the real letters, to see the real documents…I would give this book to nearly anyone. It’s a love story, historical fiction, an adventure, almost anything but fantasy. Though their lives were fantastical. Please read this book. It is changing my life. Maybe it will change yours. * Look Books (lookbooks.wordpress.com) *Table of ContentsForeword by Joseph J. Ellis Introduction Note to the Reader and Acknowledgments Courtship and Marriage "Love Sweetens Life": October 1762-July 1774 "The Decisive Day Is Come": August 1774-December 1775 Independence "We Are Determined to Foment a Rebelion": January-October 1776 "Kind Providence Has Preserved to Me a Life": January-November 1777 The Years Abroad "I Cast My Thoughts Across the Atlantick": February 1778-April 1782 "A Signal Tryumph": July 1782-March 1788 A New Government "The Most Insignificant Office": December 1788-January 1794 "This Whirligig of a World": February 1794-December 1795 The First Couple "I Am Heir Apparent": January 1796-January 1797 "The Chief Majestracy of a Nation": February 1797-February 1801 Epilogue: The Death of Abigail Chronology Index

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Book SynopsisIs Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution under Hugo Chávez truly revolutionary? Some see the president as a shining knight of socialism, while others see him as an avenging Stalinist strongman. But the Chávez government does not fall easily into a seamless fable of emancipatory or authoritarian history, as these distinguished essays make clear.Trade ReviewThomas Ponniah and Jonathan Eastwood have produced an engaging and profoundly thought-provoking collection of essays on Venezuela’s process of political and social change under the late President Hugo Chávez. The volume rises above the simplistic, and often sterile, debates over democracy versus authoritarianism, and capitalism versus socialism that Venezuela’s polarized politics all too frequently elicit. Instead, its high quality analytic and theoretically-driven essays explore the consequences of Venezuela’s political experiment for institutions and individuals in all of their complex, multidimensional, and contradictory nature. In carefully selecting essays that reflect the gamut of political positions, the editors invite us to confront our preconceptions, move past them, and draw our own conclusions about the impact, meaning, and legacy of Venezuela’s ‘revolution.’ -- Eduardo Silva * Contemporary Sociology *This excellent book makes an important contribution to the scholarly debate on the meaning of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution since the democratic election of Hugo Chávez to the presidency in 1998. While some scholars depict the Chávez regime as autocratic and undemocratic, others view Chávez’s Venezuela as embodying 21st-century participatory democracy and socialism. Eastwood and Ponniah have assembled a collection of high-quality, well-researched essays in an attempt to overcome the polarized nature of academic debates on Chávez’s Venezuela… This pathbreaking book shows that the Venezuelan experience with 21st century socialism transcends the country’s borders by planting the seeds of an alternative modernity. -- M. E. Carranza * Choice *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWhen Lincoln published a preliminary proclamation on September 22, 1862, warning Confederate states of his intention to issue a final edict on January 1, he did not realize that those two dates stood precisely one hundred days apart. Louis Masur’s Lincoln’s Hundred Days focuses on that crucial period, but it starts more than a year earlier to set the stage for those hundred days, and follows up with the aftermath and consequences of Lincoln’s historic action. Masur…argue[s] persuasively that the progression of events during that critical autumn of the war were full of contingencies and that the final outcome was by no means certain… Provide[s] detailed and careful renderings of these events and of Lincoln’s intellectual journey. -- James M. McPherson * New York Review of Books *Among the strengths of Masur’s book is its account of how the war changed minds—from enlisted and conscripted men to those directing the war—by introducing ‘slavery to soldiers as a reality, not as an abstraction.’ -- Andrew Delbanco * New Republic *[A] splendid book. -- Ed Voves * California Literary Review *A moving, accessible portrayal of Lincoln as a deeply humble, strangely physical presence who spoke in oracular parables. * Kirkus Reviews *A lucid and learned account of the process whereby Lincoln moved toward emancipation, and once so committed, made it the lodestar of the Union… Masur makes much of the importance blacks attributed to the document as their Declaration of Independence and the importance of black soldiers in giving it force… This is now the best work on the proclamation. As its sesquicentennial looms (January 2013), all persons wanting to understand the contingency of freedom should read this book. -- Randall M. Miller * Library Journal (starred review) *Masur delivers an intelligent account of how Lincoln balanced politics with the goal of ending slavery… Readers will enjoy his rich, perceptive history of the passionate maneuvering that produced it. * Publishers Weekly *Masur takes a pivotal moment in time and opens it up like a master watchmaker, revealing the intricate, hidden mechanisms, the tensions and balances, concealed within the most momentous decision that an American president has ever made. A finely wrought and important book. -- Adam Goodheart, author of 1861: The Civil War AwakeningMasur has written a compelling, convincing page-turner about a dramatic period in history that too many Americans take for granted—the fraught hundred days between Lincoln’s preliminary and final proclamations of freedom, when the fate of liberty itself hung in the balance. Here is superb scholarship and high drama combined into a rich and rewarding narrative. -- Harold Holzer, author of Emancipating LincolnA stirring and penetrating account of those tense days between Lincoln’s preliminary edict and the final Emancipation Proclamation. The story will keep the reader on the edge of his seat until the final pages. -- James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of FreedomA vital book about the meaning of the Civil War, and of America, brilliantly conceptualized, deeply researched, and elegantly written by one of the foremost scholars of the Civil War era. With fresh insights throughout, coupled with subtle and judicious syntheses, it should be read by anyone interested in America’s past. -- John Stauffer, author of Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln

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Book SynopsisAmerica's rise from revolutionary colonies to a world power is often treated as inevitable. But Charles N. Edel's provocative biography of John Q. Adams argues that he served as the central architect of a grand strategy whose ideas and policies made him a critical link between the founding generation and the Civil Warera nation of Lincoln.Trade ReviewNation Builder: John Quincy Adams and the Grand Strategy of the Republic is an intellectual biography rather than a full-dress life. Few presidents merit such treatment as much as Adams, who, through essays, speeches, letters and a diary kept meticulously over almost 70 years, left a remarkable record of a great mind at work on the prospects of the young, fragile nation… For Adams, greatness without virtue—like the greatness of Napoleon—was monstrous. Principle was everything. I don’t know that today’s grand strategists would find Adams’s exacting standards congenial. He was, as Edel demonstrates, a farseeing man. But he asked more of America than it is inclined to ask of itself. -- James Traub * Wall Street Journal *2014 has been a surprisingly fruitful year for studies of John Quincy Adams, and Edel’s book is in many ways the most intelligent of the bunch. The Adams who emerges from his pages is a fittingly complex figure, as often at war with his own nature as he was with the petty partisanship or Southern slaveholding of his day. Edel’s readers will take away from his book a new appreciation of how much the United States they know owes to this early President they’ve scarcely heard of. -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Monthly *Charles Edel’s accurate, honest, and sensitive portrait gets both the history and timeless wisdom of John Quincy Adams exactly right. His ambitious grand strategy was designed for nation building—at home, in North America. -- Walter A. McDougall, University of PennsylvaniaIdeas and power are the key ingredients of national achievement, and John Quincy Adams mastered both at a crucial time in American history. Anyone interested in the history of our society and its future possibilities will benefit from this provocative and compelling account of Adams’s life, his thought, and his enduring legacies. -- Jeremi Suri, author of Liberty’s Surest Guardian: American Nation-Building from the Founders to Obama[A] remarkable new work. Edel has written a book I wish I had written: a dual biography, of Adams and of the early American republic…The United States has been most successful when it has pursued the sort of grand strategy that Adams envisioned. Charles Edel has written a book worthy of the author of that grand strategy. -- Mackubin Thomas Owens * National Review *Edel shows convincingly that Adams was the first to advance a comprehensive vision for his country. His ‘grand strategy’ required setting clear priorities and knowing how to tie them together in the proper sequence. Those priorities were neutrality with regard to the European powers, continental expansion westward, and promotion of economic development in the belief that improvement of the lives of ordinary citizens would strengthen republicanism. A last priority, not achieved in his lifetime, was to work for the abolition of slavery, which he regarded as a ‘stain’ on the character of the nation. -- D. J. Maletz * Choice *In this masterful and fluidly written book, Edel tells the story of John Quincy Adams and explores Adams’ pivotal contributions to the American tradition of grand strategy. -- Henry R. Nau * Foreign Affairs *[This book] has surprising resonance with the present. -- James Fallows * The Atlantic *

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Book SynopsisNo U.S. president has faced the problems Lincoln confronted, nor expressed himself with such eloquence on issues of great moment. Harold Holzer and Thomas Horrocks explore his writings on slavery, emancipation, racial equality, the legality of secession, civil liberties in wartime, and the meaning of the terrible suffering caused by the Civil War.Trade ReviewThe selections represent Lincoln’s development, both politically and intellectually, as well as the maturation of his communication skills… It is a beautifully printed and designed book, extensively illustrated. From the collector’s standpoint, we were excited to see many pieces of Lincolniana we were not familiar with. * The Rail Splitter *A tour de force, as one would expect from such meticulous and gifted writers as Harold Holzer and Thomas Horrocks. It will appeal to anyone interested in Lincoln and the Civil War. -- William C. Harris, author of Lincoln and the Border States: Preserving the UnionThe Annotated Lincoln is the kind of book that all Lincoln buffs will treasure, and it’s one of those rare volumes that can help transform a casual reader into a serious student of America’s greatest president. It reveals the often-elusive Lincoln in an unforgettable manner. -- Matthew Pinsker, author of Lincoln’s Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers’ Home

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Book SynopsisLives of the Milanese Tyrants includes biographies of two dukes of Milanthe powerful Filippo Maria Visconti and the mercenary captain Francesco Sforzawritten by the most important Milanese humanist of the early fifteenth century, Pier Candido Decembrio. Both works are translated into English here for the first time from new Latin texts.Trade ReviewIanziti’s extraordinarily accurate and refined translation—based on Massimo Zaggia’s superb edition of the Latin texts—allows the modern reader to thoroughly approach Decembrio’s style and his idea of humanistic biography…There is no doubt that this publication represents one of the best testimonies of the renewed interest in the works of Pier Candido Decembrio, a champion of Italian humanism. -- Natale Vacalebre * Renaissance Quarterly *

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Book SynopsisAs the face of eastern Europe and the world changes before our eyes, Roosevelt's goals, dismissed during the Cold War as impractical, seem less unrealistic. This title explores Roosevelt's vision of the postwar world by laying out the nature and development of FDR's 'war aims' - his long-range political goals.Trade Review"Warren Kimball has produced a remarkable book, detailed, even encyclopaedic in its archival knowledge, ... illuminating."--D. Cameron Watt, The Times Literary Supplement "A finely drawn portrait... Kimball valiantly boxes with Roosevelt's shadow to determine the assumptions which underpinned the President's personal diplomacy with Britain and the Soviet Union, and his vision for postwar Europe."--Patricia M. Clavin, Reviews in American History "The Juggler illustrates Kimball's mastery of Roosevelt's wartime diplomacy and the vast amount of documentary and secondary evidence he brings to the subject... [These are] finely crafted essays on Franklin Roosevelt as wartime statesman."--Patricia M. Clavin, Reviews in American History "The great might-have-been is whether postwar Soviet-American relations would have been different had Roosevelt lived. All through The Juggler, Professor Kimball is unafraid to speculate... [A] lively history."--Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times

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Book SynopsisThe second volume in this series, dealing with 1777-1779.

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Book SynopsisThe description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 3: June 1779 to September 1780, will be forthcoming.

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Book SynopsisThe description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 4: October 1780 to February 1781, will be forthcoming.

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Book SynopsisThe description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 5: February 1781 to May 1781, will be forthcoming.

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Book SynopsisThe description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 6: May 1781 to March 1784, will be forthcoming.

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Book SynopsisThe description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 7: March 1784 to February 1785, will be forthcoming.

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Book SynopsisThe description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 8: February 1785 to October 1785, will be forthcoming.

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Book SynopsisThe description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 9: November 1785 to June 1786, will be forthcoming.

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Book SynopsisThe description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 10: June 1786 to December 1786, will be forthcoming.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"The series will illuminate . . . The whole course of our history from the 1769's to the 1820's."—Henry Steele Commager.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"The series will illuminate . . . The whole course of our history from the 1769's to the 1820's."—Henry Steele Commager.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThis volume brings Jefferson back to the U.S. from France, to become the first American Secretary of State, and marks the beginning of Jefferson's work in the Cabinet with Alexander Hamilton.

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Book SynopsisThe description for this book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 17: July 1790 to November 1790, will be forthcoming.

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Book SynopsisPresents a collection which includes important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. This volume covers materials essential to understanding Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman.Trade Review"An essential purchase for college libraries."--Library Journal "... an unprecedented illumination of Wilson's activities and ideas."--The Journal of American History "... Arthur Link and his associates ... set a high standard indeed both for productivity and editorial excellence."--North Carolina Historical Review "Every college library should plan to acquire the entire series."--Choice

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Book SynopsisShows Jefferson as Secretary of State continuing his collaboration with James Madison in seeking commercial reciprocity with Great Britain by threatening a retaliatory navigation bill. This work reveals his interest in a unified system of weights and measures, his effort to create a mint, and more.

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Book SynopsisReveals Washington and Jefferson in the closest relationship of their official careers. This volume shows Jefferson's concern over the growing discontent in the South and West over fiscal and other policies of the national government, his resistance to interested promotion of consular appointments in business circles, and more.

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Book SynopsisCovering the period July 1885 through August 1888, this book records dramatic turning points in Woodrow Wilson's life, thought, and professional development. It chronicles the beginning of life together for Woodrow and Ellen Wilson. It records their growing mutual love, daily lives, and the birth of their first two daughters.Trade Review"An essential purchase for college libraries."--Library Journal "... an unprecedented illumination of Wilson's activities and ideas."--The Journal of American History "... Arthur Link and his associates ... set a high standard indeed both for productivity and editorial excellence."--North Carolina Historical Review "Every college library should plan to acquire the entire series."--Choice

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Book SynopsisA collection which includes important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. This volume includes materials essential to understanding Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman.Trade Review"An essential purchase for college libraries."--Library Journal "... an unprecedented illumination of Wilson's activities and ideas."--The Journal of American History "... Arthur Link and his associates ... set a high standard indeed both for productivity and editorial excellence."--North Carolina Historical Review "Every college library should plan to acquire the entire series."--Choice

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Book SynopsisA documentary record of the life and thought of the 28th President of the US - Woodrow Wilson. Covering the years 1900-1902, it marks the end of Wilson's early career and the beginning of the next important stage in his life, the presidency of Princeton University.Trade Review"An essential purchase for college libraries."--Library Journal "... an unprecedented illumination of Wilson's activities and ideas."--The Journal of American History "... Arthur Link and his associates ... set a high standard indeed both for productivity and editorial excellence."--North Carolina Historical Review "Every college library should plan to acquire the entire series."--Choice

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisIncludes the important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. This collection contains materials to understand Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman. It also reveals the era in which he lived.Trade Review"An essential purchase for college libraries."--Library Journal "... an unprecedented illumination of Wilson's activities and ideas."--The Journal of American History "... Arthur Link and his associates ... set a high standard indeed both for productivity and editorial excellence."--North Carolina Historical Review "Every college library should plan to acquire the entire series."--Choice

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Book SynopsisIncludes the important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. This collection contains materials to understand Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman. It also reveals the era in which he lived.Trade Review"An essential purchase for college libraries."--Library Journal "... an unprecedented illumination of Wilson's activities and ideas."--The Journal of American History "... Arthur Link and his associates ... set a high standard indeed both for productivity and editorial excellence."--North Carolina Historical Review "Every college library should plan to acquire the entire series."--Choice

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Book SynopsisIncludes the important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. This collection contains materials to understand Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman. It also reveals the era in which he lived.Trade Review"An essential purchase for college libraries."--Library Journal "... an unprecedented illumination of Wilson's activities and ideas."--The Journal of American History "... Arthur Link and his associates ... set a high standard indeed both for productivity and editorial excellence."--North Carolina Historical Review "Every college library should plan to acquire the entire series."--Choice

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Book SynopsisOpening in January 1912 with the official beginning of the Democratic preconvention presidential campaign, this book concludes in August following the Democratic nomination of Wilson for president. It documents Wilson's campaign for the nomination, focusing on the issues of tariff, trusts, and Wall Street control of credit.Trade Review"An essential purchase for college libraries."--Library Journal "... an unprecedented illumination of Wilson's activities and ideas."--The Journal of American History "... Arthur Link and his associates ... set a high standard indeed both for productivity and editorial excellence."--North Carolina Historical Review "Every college library should plan to acquire the entire series."--Choice

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Book SynopsisOpens with President Wilson embroiled in the struggle for tariff reform. This book includes the many letters between the President and his wife, as well as press conferences, private and political letters, and diplomatic reports and correspondence.Trade Review"An essential purchase for college libraries."--Library Journal "... an unprecedented illumination of Wilson's activities and ideas."--The Journal of American History "... Arthur Link and his associates ... set a high standard indeed both for productivity and editorial excellence."--North Carolina Historical Review "Every college library should plan to acquire the entire series."--Choice

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Book SynopsisIncludes the important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. This collection contains materials to understand Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman. It also reveals the era in which he lived.Trade Review"An essential purchase for college libraries."--Library Journal "... an unprecedented illumination of Wilson's activities and ideas."--The Journal of American History "... Arthur Link and his associates ... set a high standard indeed both for productivity and editorial excellence."--North Carolina Historical Review "Every college library should plan to acquire the entire series."--Choice

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Book SynopsisIncludes important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. This book presents materials useful for understanding Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman.Trade Review"An essential purchase for college libraries."--Library Journal "... an unprecedented illumination of Wilson's activities and ideas."--The Journal of American History "... Arthur Link and his associates ... set a high standard indeed both for productivity and editorial excellence."--North Carolina Historical Review "Every college library should plan to acquire the entire series."--Choice

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Book SynopsisBeginning at January 1, 1915, and ending at April 16, 1915, this book covers the busiest and in many respects most crucial months of Wilson's presidency to this point. It includes documents relating to Wilson's first response to the German submarine campaign, and his response to the Allied declaration of total blockade of the Central Powers.Trade Review"An essential purchase for college libraries."--Library Journal "... an unprecedented illumination of Wilson's activities and ideas."--The Journal of American History "... Arthur Link and his associates ... set a high standard indeed both for productivity and editorial excellence."--North Carolina Historical Review "Every college library should plan to acquire the entire series."--Choice

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Book SynopsisIncludes the important letters, speeches, interviews, press conferences, and public papers on Woodrow Wilson. This collection contains materials to understand Wilson's personality, his intellectual, religious, and political development, and his careers as educator, writer, orator, and statesman. It also reveals the era in which he lived.Trade Review"An essential purchase for college libraries."--Library Journal "... an unprecedented illumination of Wilson's activities and ideas."--The Journal of American History "... Arthur Link and his associates ... set a high standard indeed both for productivity and editorial excellence."--North Carolina Historical Review "Every college library should plan to acquire the entire series."--Choice

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