History Books - Page 10

Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression

Mildred Armstrong Kalish

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 94 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

I tell of a time, a place, and a way of life long gone. For many years I have had the urge to describe that treasure trove, lest it vanish forever. So, partly in response to the basic human instinct to share feelings and experiences, and partly for the sheer joy and excitement of it all, I report on my early life. It was quite a romp.

So begins Mildred Kalish’s story of growing up on her grandparents’ Iowa farm during the depths of the Great Depression. With her father banished from the household for mysterious transgressions, five-year-old Mildred and her family could easily have been overwhelmed by the challenge of simply trying to survive. This, however, is not a tale of suffering.

Kalish counts herself among the lucky of that era. She had caring grandparents who possessed—and valiantly tried to impose—all the pioneer virtues of their forebears, teachers who inspired and befriended her, and a barnyard full of animals ready to be tamed and loved. She and her siblings and their cousins from the farm across the way played as hard as they worked, running barefoot through the fields, as free and wild as they dared.

Filled with recipes and how-tos for everything from catching and skinning a rabbit to preparing homemade skin and hair beautifiers, apple cream pie, and the world’s best head cheese (start by scrubbing the head of the pig until it is pink and clean), Little Heathens portrays a world of hardship and hard work tempered by simple rewards. There was the unsurpassed flavor of tender new dandelion greens harvested as soon as the snow melted; the taste of crystal clear marble-sized balls of honey robbed from a bumblebee nest; the sweet smell from the body of a lamb sleeping on sun-warmed grass; and the magical quality of oat shocking under the light of a full harvest moon.

Little Heathens offers a loving but realistic portrait of a “hearty-handshake Methodist” family that gave its members a remarkable legacy of kinship, kindness, and remembered pleasures. Recounted in a luminous narrative filled with tenderness and humor, Kalish’s memoir of her childhood shows how the right stuff can make even the bleakest of times seem like “quite a romp.”

The Richest Man in Babylon

George S. Clason

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 410 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Parable on Internal Wealth and Worldy Riches: You CAN Have Both = ) 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Clason's timeless classic is not just about how to acquire money, keep money, and make money earn more money. Rather, it is also about how to achieve personal wealth, happiness, and even meaning in this world. The use of parables and stories make this a great book for children as well.

Although many books contain the same messages, the way Clason delivers these timeless strategies cannot be duplicated by anyone else.

The Best book ever written, well maybe not quite! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I read The Richest Man in Babylonseveral years ago while on vacation but when I got home I couldn't remember the name of the book. I have been searching for the book on & off since then.

I just bought 4 copies on line a few days ago and will be giving them (3 of them) out for Christmas. I can hardly wait for them to arrive.

Every time I speak to someone about finances I bring up this book. Now I will be able to give them the name. It helped me get out of debt except for my house.

I highly recommend this book, especiall for Jr high/High School kids. It will give them a look to finances that schools don't teach. It is not a "Religous" book but gives a parable look at finances. (Do you remember Aesops Fables when you were young? They taught us alot.)

Editorial Review:

This book holds the secrets to acquiring money, keeping money, and making money earn more money.

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

Jon Krakauer

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Total reviews: 729 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Jon Krakauer’s literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. He now shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders, taking readers inside isolated American communities where some 40,000 Mormon Fundamentalists still practice polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God.

At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.

American Rifle: A Biography

Alexander Rose

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

George Washington insisted that his portrait be painted with one. Daniel Boone created a legend with one. Abraham Lincoln shot them on the White House lawn. And Teddy Roosevelt had his specially customized.

Now, in this first-of-its-kind book, historian Alexander Rose delivers a colorful, engrossing biography of an American icon: the rifle. Drawing on the words of soldiers, inventors, and presidents, based on extensive new research, and encompassing the Revolution to the present day, American Rifle is a balanced, wonderfully entertaining history of this most essential firearm and its place in American culture.

In the eighteenth century American soldiers discovered that they no longer had to fight in Europe’s time-honored way. With the evolution of the famed “Kentucky” Rifle—a weapon slow to load but devastatingly accurate in the hands of a master—a new era of warfare dawned, heralding the birth of the American individualist in battle.

In this spirited narrative, Alexander Rose reveals the hidden connections between the rifle’s development and our nation’s history. We witness the high-stakes international competition to produce the most potent gunpowder . . . how the mysterious arts of metallurgy, gunsmithing, and mass production played vital roles in the creation of American economic supremacy . . . and the ways in which bitter infighting between rival arms makers shaped diplomacy and influenced the most momentous decisions in American history. And we learn why advances in rifle technology and ammunition triggered revolutions in military tactics, how ballistics tests—frequently bizarre—were secretly conducted, and which firearms determined the course of entire wars.

From physics to geopolitics, from frontiersmen to the birth of the National Rifle Association, from the battles of the Revolution to the war in Iraq, American Rifle is a must read for history buffs, gun collectors, soldiers—and anyone who seeks to understand the dynamic relationship between the rifle and this nation’s history.

48 Liberal Lies About American History: (That You Probably Learned in School)

Larry Schweikart

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A historian debunks four-dozen PC myths about our nation’s past.

Over the last forty years, history textbooks have become more and more politically correct and distorted about our country’s past, argues professor Larry Schweikart. The result, he says, is that students graduate from high school and even college with twisted beliefs about economics, foreign policy, war, religion, race relations, and many other subjects.

As he did in his popular A Patriot’s History of the United States, Professor Schweikart corrects liberal bias by rediscovering facts that were once widely known. He challenges distorted books by name and debunks forty-eight common myths. A sample:

• The founders wanted to create a “wall of separation” between church and state
• Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation only because he needed black soldiers
• Truman ordered the bombing of Hiroshima to intimidate the Soviets with “atomic diplomacy”
• Mikhail Gorbachev, not Ronald Reagan, was responsible for ending the Cold War
America’s past, though not perfect, is far more admirable than you were probably taught.

The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine

Benjamin Wallace

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Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

It was the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold.

In 1985, at a heated auction by Christie’s of London, a 1787 bottle of Château Lafite Bordeaux—one of a cache of bottles unearthed in a bricked-up Paris cellar and supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson—went for $156,000 to a member of the Forbes family. The discoverer of the bottle was pop-band manager turned wine collector Hardy Rodenstock, who had a knack for finding extremely old and exquisite wines. But rumors about the bottle soon arose. Why wouldn’t Rodenstock reveal the exact location where it had been found? Was it part of a smuggled Nazi hoard? Or did his reticence conceal an even darker secret?

It would take more than two decades for those questions to be answered and involve a gallery of intriguing players—among them Michael Broadbent, the bicycle-riding British auctioneer who speaks of wines as if they are women and staked his reputation on the record-setting sale; Serena Sutcliffe, Broadbent’s elegant archrival, whose palate is covered by a hefty insurance policy; and Bill Koch, the extravagant Florida tycoon bent on exposing the truth about Rodenstock.

Pursuing the story from Monticello to London to Zurich to Munich and beyond, Benjamin Wallace also offers a mesmerizing history of wine, complete with vivid accounts of subterranean European laboratories where old vintages are dated and of Jefferson’s colorful, wine-soaked days in France, where he literally drank up the culture.

Suspenseful, witty, and thrillingly strange, The Billionaire’s Vinegar is the vintage tale of what could be the most elaborate con since the Hitler diaries. It is also the debut of an exceptionally powerful new voice in narrative non-fiction.

Rules for Radicals

Saul Alinsky

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Are you kidding me? 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This is a man who dedicated his book to satan?
a man who was so off base with society.

this book allows for the decline in western civilization, he is or i should say was, the fecies of our species.

If you have a brain in your head you will leave this one alone!

A real eye-opener 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book is a must read for all to understand radicalism and how their goals are achieved. This book was essentially the blueprint for the Obama campaign. Saul Alinsky and his views are admired by both Obama and Hillary Clinton.

History of a significant approach to political matters 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The book is clearly written and summarized by the title. Alinsky, the doyen of Chicago style community organizers, argues that whether the ends justify the means is to be decided by the immediate circumstances. He provides several examples where he answers "Yes" to the question of whether the ends justify the means, showing how means some might consider "bad" served "good" ends. An interesting read whether or not you believe the tactics of recent and current Chicago style community organizers are consistent with Alinsky's guidance.

Editorial Review:

This primers tells the "have-nots" how they can organize to achieve real political power for the practice of true democracy.

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

Vincent Bugliosi

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Total reviews: 224 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Famed Charles Manson prosecutor and three time #1 New York Times bestselling author Vincent Bugliosi has written the most powerful, explosive, and thought-provoking book of his storied career.

In The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, Bugliosi presents a tight, meticulously researched legal case that puts George W. Bush on trial in an American courtroom for the murder of nearly 4,000 American soldiers fighting the war in Iraq. Bugliosi sets forth the legal architecture and incontrovertible evidence that President Bush took this nation to war in Iraq under false pretenses—a war that has not only caused the deaths of American soldiers but also over 100,000 innocent Iraqi men, women, and children; cost the United States over one trillion dollars thus far with no end in sight; and alienated many American allies in the Western world.

As a prosecutor who is dedicated to seeking justice, Bugliosi, in his inimitable style, delivers a non-partisan argument, free from party lines and instead based upon hard facts and pure objectivity.

A searing indictment of the President and his administration, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder also outlines a legally credible pathway to holding our highest government officials accountable for their actions, thereby creating a framework for future occupants of the oval office.

Vincent Bugliosi calls for the United States of America to return to the great nation it once was and can be again. He believes the first step to achieving this goal is to bring those responsible for the war in Iraq to justice.

The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class

David S. Kidder, Noah D. Oppenheim

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 132 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This daily digest of intellectual challenge and learning will arouse curiosity, refresh knowledge, expand horizons, and keep the mind sharp

Millions of Americans keep bedside books of prayer and meditative reflection—collections of daily passages to stimulate spiritual thought and advancement. The Intellectual Devotional is a secular version of the same—a collection of 365 short lessons that will inspire and invigorate the reader every day of the year. Each daily digest of wisdom is drawn from one of seven fields of knowledge: history, literature, philosophy, mathematics and science, religion, fine arts, and music.

Impress your friends by explaining Plato’s Cave Allegory, pepper your cocktail party conversation with opera terms, and unlock the mystery of how batteries work. Daily readings range from important passages in literature to basic principles of physics, from pivotal events in history to images of famous paintings with accompanying analysis. The book’s goal is to refresh knowledge we’ve forgotten, make new discoveries, and exercise modes of thinking that are ordinarily neglected once our school days are behind us. Offering an escape from the daily grind to contemplate higher things, The Intellectual Devotional is a great way to awaken in the morning or to revitalize one’s mind before retiring in the evening.

Too Close to the Sun: Growing Up in the Shadow of my Grandparents, Franklin and Eleanor

Curtis Roosevelt

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Yet, another Roosevelt man's take on the Roosevelt family 2 out of 5 stars.
15 of 25 people found this review helpful.

Right off the bat I'll admit I'm not sure why he states this book is about his grandparents. First, neither the front cover nor the back photographs include Eleanor. I thought she was a grandparent.

Second, this book is a bit of a condemnation of his mother. Much of it seems justified by this source and others. Asbell's book really pulled its punches.

It's best when he sticks to writing a memoir. I had real sympathy to the problems of adjustment to moving to the west coast and getting adjusted to a new 'father' all at the same time. And the frequent moving. It had to be a little unsettling. His feeling like a third wheel is also mentioned in his half brother's memoir "A Love in Shadow." All the kids felt boxed out of their parents' relationship.

When he steers from memoir to analysis, or even history, he gets on thin ice. He attributes his great grandmother's - SDR - bad reputation solely to his grandmother - ER. But the Roosevelts were a high-profile family early on and a great many people saw the same thing. Advisers - Rex Tugwell stands out here - friends, the White House staff, were all appalled at the way SDR talked to and talked about ER. Having seen SDR in action and having learned by the mid-60s more about the Roosevelt marriage, Tugwell noted that ER "should rightly be sainted." Curtis R's own mother noted, by Norman Littell: Many times, when they were little, Mrs. Roosevelt left the dinner table in tears because Granny had observed that Franklin could have married so many pretty girls. Her mother endured it patiently, through the yeras, and Anna said Eleanor, "did not even have support from us kids because we, naturally, looked up to Granny and thought she was right. When we grew old enough to realize the truth and to see how far Granny's malice went and how patient mother had been, we all realized that Granny was just an old bitch." Through it all she felt that her father had failed in that he should have long ago have risen to her mother's defense. [page 74.]

CR also attributes the depiction of SDR in "Sunrise at Campobello" to ER, even though ER said the play had as much in common with the reality as "the man in the moon."

It was the Roosevelt children - not ER - who quoted SDR as saying "I'm your real mother, your mother only bore you." Or manipulating them with gifts promises and threats relating to their individual status in her will.

I also marvel at how few people suspect that Sara Delano's unreserved love and generosity could also be attempts to gain control and favor over her grandchildren and great grandchildren at the cost of undermining both Franklin and Eleanor. Read Francis Perkins' memoir for her relating an FDR rant about this. SDR undermined the rare occasions when FDR actually tried to discipline the kids. Usually, he left it to Eleanor to be the bad guy. Even in the White House, he had her fire WH staff that needed to be fired, even when it was at his instigation. And he had her do it when he was out of town. He only wanted to be the bearer of good news, not bad. That was Eleanor's job.

But, like so many other books, FDR's complete insensitivity goes without comment. FDR NEVER should have placed his daughter in the awkward situations he did. The White House has never had a greater president, but so selfish one either. Indeed, FDR's selfishness, lack of sentiment toward the people around him [LeHand's "he's incapable of a true friendship with anyone" is as stinging an indictment of the man as exists] are exactly what made him a great president.

Curtis Roosevelt is an interesting figure. He drops Dahl to have the last name 'Roosevelt' then complains about the burden of being a Roosevelt? I'm trying to feel sorry for him and just can't reach it.

Editorial Review:

Curtis Roosevelt was three when he and his sister, Eleanor, arrived at the White House soon after their grandfather’s inauguration. The country’s “First Grandchildren,” a pint-sized double act, they were known to the media as “Sistie and Buzzie.”

In this rich memoir, Roosevelt brings us into “the goldfish bowl,” as his family called it—that glare of public scrutiny to which all presidential households must submit. He recounts his misadventures as a hapless kid in an unforgivably formal setting and describes his role as a tiny planet circling the dual suns of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Blending self-abasement, humor, awe and affection, Too Close to the Sun is an intimate portrait of two of the most influential and inspirational figures in modern American history—and a thoughtful exploration of the emotional impact of growing up in their irresistible aura.