Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. A study of the last 100 years ofAmerican history.

Kindred spirits despite their profound differences inposition, Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman shared a vision of thedemocratic character. They had read or listened to each other’swords at crucial turning points in their lives, and both wereutterly transformed by the tragedy of the Civil War. In thisradiant book, poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein tracks theparallel lives of these two titans from the day that Lincoln firstread Leaves of Grass to the elegy Whitman composed after Lincoln’sassassination in 1865. Drawing on a rich trove of personal and newspaper accounts anddiary records, Epstein shows how the influence and reverence flowedbetween these two men–and brings to life the many friends andcontacts they shared. Epstein has written a masterful portrait oftwo great American figures and the era they shaped through wordsand deeds.

“White takes us back to when great men believed in the powerof words to change the world. . . . This book . . . is a treasureto read, a spur to thinking, a small volume with fascinatinghistory.”–The Denver Post In The Eloquent President, historian Ronald C. White, Jr.,examines Abraham Lincoln’s astonishing oratory and explores hisgrowth as a leader, a communicator, and a man of deepeningspiritual conviction. Examining a different speech, address, orpublic letter in each chapter, White tracks the evolution ofLincoln’s rhetoric from the measured tones of the First Inauguralto the immortal poetry of the Gettysburg Address. As he weighs thebiblical cadences and vigorous parallel structures that makeLincoln’s rhetoric soar, White identifies a passionate religiousstrain that most historians have overlooked. It is White’scontention that, as president, Lincoln not only grew into aninspiring leader and determined commander in chief, but alsoembarked on a spiritual odyssey that led to a profo

At a time when a lasting peace between the Palestinians andthe Israelis seems virtually unattainable, understanding the rootsof their conflict is an essential step in restoring hope to theregion. In The Iron Cage, Rashid Khalidi, one of the most respectedhistorians and political observers of the Middle East, homes in onPalestinian politics and history. By drawing on a wealth ofexperience and scholarship, Khalidi provides a lucid context forthe realities on the ground today, a context that has been, untilnow, notably lacking in our discourse. The story of the Palestinian search to establish a state beginsin the mandate period immediately following the breakup of theOttoman Empire, the era of British control, when fledgling Arabstates were established by the colonial powers with assurances ofeventual independence. Mandatory Palestine was a place of realpromise, with unusually high literacy rates and a relativelyadvanced economy. But the British had already begun to construct aniron cage to hem in t

For more than a half-century, Israel has been forced to defendits existence against international political disapproval, racistcalumny, and violence visited upon its citizens by terrorists ofmany stripes. While nations have always been made to defend theirmoral, political, economic, or social actions, Israel has theunique plight of having to defend its very right to exist. Covering Israel's struggle for existence from the Britishoccupation and the UN’s partition of Palestine, to the dashed hopesof the Oslo Accords and the second intifada, Yaacov Lozowick trainsan enlightening, forthright eye on Israel’s strengths and failures.A lifelong liberal and peace activist, he explores Israel’snational and regional political, social, and moral obligations aswell as its right to secure its borders and repel attacks bothphilosophical and military. Combining rich historical perspectiveand passionate conviction, Right to Exist sets forth theagenda of a people and a nation, and elegantly articulates Isra

Voices in Our Blood is a literary anthology of the mostimportant and artful interpretations of the civil rights movement,past and present. It showcases what forty of the nation's bestwriters — including Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison,William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Alice Walker, Robert Penn Warren,Eudora Welty, and Richard Wright — had to say about the centraldomestic drama of the American Century. Editor Jon Meacham has chosen pieces by journalists, novelists,historians, and artists, bringing together a wide range of blackand white perspectives and experiences. The result is anunprecedented and powerful portrait of the movement's spirit andstruggle, told through voices that resonate with passion andstrength. Maya Angelou takes us on a poignant journey back to her childhoodin the Arkansas of the 1930s. On the front page of The New YorkTimes , James Reston marks the movement's apex as he describes whatit was like to watch Martin Luther King, Jr., deliver his heralded"I Hav

"Fascinating...adds many interesting details to what we knowof the President’s heritage." --David Remnick, TheNewYorker.com On January 20, 2009, a few hundred men, women, and childrengathered under trees in the twilight at K’obama, a village on theshores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya. Barack Obama’s rise tothe American presidency had captivated people around the world, butmembers of this gathering took a special pride in the swearing inof America’s first black president, for they were all Obamas, allthe president’s direct African family. In the first in-depth history of the Obama family, PeterFirstbrook recounts a journey that starts in a mud hut by the WhiteNile and ends seven centuries later in the White House.Interweaving oral history and tribal lore, interviews with Obamafamily members and other Kenyans, the writings of Kenyanhistorians, and original genealogical research, Firstbrook sets thefascinating story of the president’s family against the backgroundof Kenya

A cultural biography of John Brown, the controversialabolitionist who used violent tactics against slavery andsingle-handedly changed the course of American history. Reynoldsbrings to life the Puritan warrior who gripped slavery by thethroat and triggered the Civil War. Reynolds demonstrates thatBrown’s most violent acts—including his killing of proslaverysettlers in Kansas and his historic raid on Harpers Ferry,Virginia--were inspired by the slave revolts, guerilla warfare, andrevolutionary Christianity of the day. He shows how Brown seizedpublic attention, polarizing the nation and fueling the tensionsthat led to the Civil War. Reynolds recounts how Brown permeatedAmerican culture during the Civil War and beyond, and how heplanted the seeds of the civil rights movement by making apioneering demand for complete social and political equality forAmerica’s ethnic minorities.

Sweet Land of Liberty is Thomas J. Sugrue’s epicaccount of the abiding quest for racial equality in states fromIllinois to New York, and of how the intense northern strugglediffered from and was inspired by the fight down South. Sugrue’spanoramic view sweeps from the 1920s to the present–more thaneighty of the most decisive years in American history. He uncoversthe forgotten stories of battles to open up lunch counters,beaches, and movie theaters in the North; the untold history ofstruggles against Jim Crow schools in northern towns; the dramaticstory of racial conflict in northern cities and suburbs; and thelong and tangled histories of integration and black power. Filledwith unforgettable characters and riveting incidents, and makinguse of information and accounts both public and private, such asthe writings of obscure African American journalists and therecords of civil rights and black power groups, Sweet Land ofLiberty creates an indelible history.

The Politics of Upheaval, 1935-1936, volume three of PulitzerPrize-winning historian and biographer Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr."sAge of Roosevelt series, concentrates on the turbulent concludingyears of Franklin D. Roosevelt's first term. A measure of economicrecovery revived political conflict and emboldened FDR's critics todenounce "that man in the White house." To his left were demagoguesHuey Long, Father Coughlin, and Dr. Townsend. To his right were thechampions of the old order ex-president Herbert Hoover, theAmerican Liberty League, and the august Supreme Court. For a time,the New Deal seemed to lose its momentum. But in 1935 FDR ralliedand produced a legislative record even more impressive than theHundred Days of 1933 a set of statutes that transformed the socialand economic landscape of American life. In 1936 FDR coasted toreelection on a landslide. Schlesinger has his usual touch withcolorful personalities and draws a warmly sympathetic portrait ofAlf M. Landon, the Republican candidate of 1936.

For nearly twenty years, Aaron David Miller has played acentral role in U.S. efforts to broker Arab-Israeli peace as anadvisor to presidents, secretaries of state, and national securityadvisors. Without partisanship or finger-pointing, Miller recordswhat went right, what went wrong, and how we got where we aretoday. Here is a look at the peace process from a place at thenegotiation table, filled with behind-the-scenes strategy, colorfulanecdotes and equally colorful characters, and new interviews withpresidents, secretaries of state, and key Arab and Israelileaders. Honest, critical, and often controversial, Miller’s insider’saccount offers a brilliant new analysis of the problem ofArab-Israeli peace and how it still might be solved.

Robert Baer was known inside the CIA as perhaps the bestoperative working the Middle East. Over several decades he servedeverywhere from Iraq to New Delhi and racked up such an impressivelist of accomplishments that he was eventually awarded the CareerIntelligence Medal. But if his career was everything a spymight aspire to, his personal life was a brutal illustration ofeverything a spy is asked to sacrifice. Bob had few enduringnon-work friendships, only contacts and acquaintances. Hisprolonged absences destroyed his marriage, and he felt intenseguilt at spending so little time with his children. Sworn tosecrecy and constantly driven by ulterior motives, he was a manapart wherever he went. Dayna Williamson thought of herself as just an ordinaryCalifornia girl -- admittedly one born into a comfortablelifestyle. But she was always looking to get closer to theedge. When she joined the CIA, she was initially tasked withAgency background checks, but the attractive Berkeley graduatequickly distingu

Locked in the Cabinet is a close-up view of the way thingswork, and often don't work, at the highest levels ofgovernment--and a uniquely personal account by the man whose ideasinspired and animated much of the Clinton campaign of 1992 and whobecame the cabinet officer in charge of helping ordinary Americansget better jobs. Robert B. Reich, writer, teacher, socialcritic--and a friend of the Clintons since they were all in theirtwenties--came to be known as the "conscience of the Clintonadministration and one of the most successful Labor Secretaries inhistory. Here is his sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignantchronicle of trying to put ideas and ideals into practice. With wit, passion, and dead-aim honesty, Reich writes of those inWashington who possess hard heads and soft hearts, and those withexactly the opposite attributes. He introduces us to the careerbureaucrats who make Washington run and the politicians who, onoccasion, make it stop; to business tycoons and labor leaders whoclash by day an

A blistering journalistic exposé: an account of governmentnegligence, corporate malfeasance, familial struggle, drugs,politics, murder, and a daring rescue operation in the Colombianjungle. On July 2, 2008, when three American private contractors andColombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt were rescuedafter being held for more than five years by the RevolutionaryArmed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the world was captivated by theirpersonal narratives. But between the headlines a major story waslost: Who exactly are the FARC? How had a drug-funded revolutionaryarmy managed to hold so many hostages for so long? Had our costlyWar on Drugs failed completely? Hostage Nation answers thesequestions by exploring the complex and corrupt political andsocioeconomic situations that enabled the FARC to gainunprecedented strength, influence, and impunity. It takes us behindthe news stories to profile a young revolutionary in the making, anelite Colombian banker-turned-guerrilla and the hard-drivenAmeric

The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963,continues to inspire interest ranging from well-meaning speculationto bizarre conspiracy theories and controversial filmmaking. But inthis landmark book, reissued with a new afterword for the 40thanniversary of the assassination, Gerald Posner examines all of theavailable evidence and reaches the only possible conclusion: LeeHarvey Oswald acted alone. There was no second gunman on the grassyknoll. The CIA was not involved. And although more than fourmillion pages of documents have been released since Posner firstmade his case, they have served only to corroborate his findings. Case Closed remains the classic account against which allbooks about JFK’s death must be measured.

Your high-school history teachers never gave you a book likethis one! Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents features outrageousand uncensored profiles of the men in the White House, completewith hundreds of little-known, politically incorrect, and downrightwacko facts. You'll discover that George Washington spent a whopping 7 percent of his salary onbooze John Quincy Adams loved to skinny-dip in the Potomac River Warren G. Harding gambled with White House china when he ran lowon cash Jimmy Carter reported a UFO sighting in Georgia And Richard Nixon sheesh, don't get us started on Nixon! Now with a new chapter on the winner of the 2008 presidentialelection, Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents tackles all the toughquestions that other history books are afraid to answer: Are therereally secret tunnels underneath the White House? Whichpresidential daughter bared everything for Playboy? And what wasNancy Reagan thinking when she appeared on Diff'rent Strokes?American histor