Mark Wayne Nelson details the efforts of one of America's most underappreciated public servants. In 1934, Franklin D. Roosevelt invited Marriner S. Eccles, a Mormon from Utah, to join his administration.As a Republican businessman, Eccles seemed an unlikely candidate for the role of leading crusader for a fairer and more economically sound distribution of the nation's wealth. From his first position in the Treasury Department, though, he emerged as the central mover in revolutionizing the mortga...
How did the Democratic Party - of JFK, LBJ, and civil rights - fall from glory? How did Texas, home of its most promising players, become Bush territory? What do politicians on either side need to do today to get our country back on track? Ben Barnes has the answers. Barnes had a front-row seat through it all. His political savvy and bravado made him a standout in the rough-and-tumble world of Texas politics. He won a seat in the Texas Legislature in 1960, at the unheard-of age of 22, and four y...
Sunday, 8 January 1978 I have decided to keep a diary during Zelman's term of office as Governor General. I have kept diaries of three recent overseas journeys, and have been pleased that I had, because one forgets so much and the re-reading of a sentence can bring whole occasions, scenes, and otherwise forgotten things, vividly back to mind"". And so begins an extraordinary record of the life of a Governor General's wife. Lady Anna Cowen's edited diaries capture the day-to-day lifeâthe wardr...
From a hardscrabble childhood in the Great Depression on the dusty plains of rural Nebraska, Clayton Yeutter (1930-2017) rose to work for four U.S. presidents, serving in the cabinets of two of them. His challenge, posed by one of President Ronald Reagan's aides, was this: go and change the world. As U.S. trade representative he did just that, opening the global trading arena with bold efforts that led to NAFTA, the creation of the World Trade Organization, and extraordinary growth in cross-bord...
The names of most of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s cabinet members are well known. Anyone familiar with FDR’s administration will remember Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Cordell Hull, Harold Ickes, Frances Perkins, Henry Wallace, and James Farley. One member of that circle, however, has remained a virtual unknown: Harry H. Woodring, the recalcitrant Secretary of War who was forced by Roosevelt to resign from the cabinet. It is doubtful that the story of any of Roosevelt’s cabinet members is more in...
The Cavernous Mind of Thomas Jefferson, an American Savant
by M Andrew Holowchak
While every biographer has something to say concerning Thomas Jefferson's cavernous mind-his varied interests and the depth of his understanding of them-there has never been, strange as it might seem, a non-anthology dedicated to fleshing out key features of his mind, exploring Jefferson's varied interests through his varied personae. This book-studying Jefferson as lawyer, moralist, politician, scientist, epistolist, aesthetician, farmer, educationalist, and philologist-does just that.In tracin...
From Third World to First: The Singapore Story - 1965-2000
by Kuan Yew Lee
"Fanon was consummately incapable of telling the story of himself. He lived in the immediacy of the moment, with an intensity that embodied everything he evoked. Fanon's discourse pertained to a present tense that was unburdened by its narrative past. The little we knew about his personal life had been gleaned from passing allusions, brief glimpses that vanished as quickly as they appeared.... Fanon had a profound talent for life; he was a man who wanted to be the subject and actor of his own li...
`To understand this singular man, the reader can do no better than to turn to Archie Brown's astute and lucid book. There have been several excellent works on Mr Gorbachev ... but none examines the subject as thoroughly as this volume ... a rich study, as impressive in its sweep as in its details.' Abraham Brumberg, New York Times `Archie Brown's book is not only a richly researched, easily readable biography of Gorbachev himself. It should be studied at once in every diplomatic service wor...
First published in English in 1929, this is a reissue of Otto Rühle's comprehensive biography of Karl Marx. Written by a leading Marxist and key figure within the German Labour movement, this is an exceptionally detailed and well-researched study which sets Marx's life and work firmly within its social and historical context before examining in depth the major events of his life and the writings for which he has become such an influential figure in modern political philosophy. The final chapter...
On 21st November 2017 Robert Mugabe resigned as President of Zimbabwe after 37 years in power. A week earlier the military had seized control of the country and forced him to step down as leader of the ruling Zanu-PF party. In this revised and updated edition of his classic biography, Stephen Chan seeks to explain and interpret Mugabe in his role as a key player in the politics of Southern Africa. In this masterly portrait of one of Africa's longest-serving leaders, Mugabe's character unfolds wi...
The life of a major figure in twentieth-century economic history whose impact has long been clouded by dubious allegations "Harry Dexter White has always been the mystery man at the center of America's international economic policy in the 1930s and 1940s. James Boughton helps demystify him in this rich, enlightening, and most interesting volume."-Douglas Irwin, author of Clashing over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy Although Harry Dexter White (1892-1948) was arguably the most im...
Ronald Reagan is more than a revered and popular president--he is a hero to millions, beloved as a persuasive leader who inspired America and shaped the future more than any other modern president. Reagan's everyman insight--stemming from his unique background as actor, sports broadcaster, and labor leader--make him America's most quotable president. In The Wit & Wisdom of Ronald Reagan, author James C. Humes brings together the best observations and opinions of the "Great Communicator." Spannin...