In this brilliant biography T. J. Stiles offers a newunderstanding of the legendary outlaw Jesse James. Although he hasoften been portrayed as a Robin Hood of the old west, in thisground-breaking work Stiles places James within the context of thebloody conflicts of the Civil War to reveal a much more complicatedand significant figure. Raised in a fiercely pro-slavery household in bitterly dividedMisssouri, at age sixteen James became a bushwhacker, one of thesavage Confederate guerrillas that terrorized the border states.After the end of the war, James continued his campaign of robberyand murder into the brutal era of reconstruction, when his recklessdaring, his partisan pronouncements, and his alliance with thesympathetic editor John Newman Edwards placed him squarely at theforefront of the former Confederates’ bid to recapture politicalpower. With meticulous research and vivid accounts of the dramaticadventures of the famous gunman, T. J. Stiles shows how heresembles not the apolitical hero o
“Lots of people have dreams, but C. Vivian Stringer is thedream—a coalminer’s daughter who believed when her Poppa told herthere was no obstacle she could not surmount. And she lives thatdream, teaching others to rise up to meet challenges, turningunderdogs into champions again and again—on and off the court. Thisis the quintessential American story, of a woman and of a familypulling together against the odds. Standing Tall offers animportant message of hope to so many.” —John Chaney, Hall of Fame college basketball coach At a time when heroes are too rare, C. Vivian Stringer sets ashining example. She has time and again shown character, fortitude,and heart, both on and off the hardwood, and in the face ofunbearable loss. In Standing Tall, she shares her remarkable lifestory, inspiring us to find this fortitude within ourselves. “Work hard, and don’t look for excuses,” Stringer’s parents toldher, “and you can achieve anything.” But her faith and perseverancewould be
THE AGE OF NAPOLEON is the biography of an enigmatic andlegendary personality as well as the portrait of an entire age. J.Christopher Herold tells the fascinating story of the Napoleonicworld in all its aspects political, cultural, military, commercial,and social. Napoleon's rise from common origins to enormouspolitical and military power, as well as his ultimate defeat,influenced our modern age in thousands of ways, from the map ofEurope to the metric system, from styles of dress and dictators tonew conventions of personal behavior.
Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is a gifted animal scientist who hasdesigned one third of all the livestock-handling facilities in theUnited States. She also lectures widely on autism—because TempleGrandin is autistic, a woman who thinks, feels, and experiences theworld in ways that are incomprehensible to the rest of us. In this unprecedented book, Grandin delivers a report from thecountry of autism. Writing from the dual perspectives of ascientist and an autistic person, she tells us how that country isexperienced by its inhabitants and how she managed to breach itsboundaries to function in the outside world. What emerges in Thinking in Pictures is the document of an extraordinaryhuman being, one who, in gracefully and lucidly bridging the gulfbetween her condition and our own, sheds light on the riddle of ourcommon identity.
Poet, warrior, and king, David has loomed large in myth andlegend through the centuries, and he continues to haunt ourcollective imagination, his flaws and inconsistencies making himthe most approachable of biblical heroes. Robert Pinsky, formerpoet laureate of the United States, plumbs the depths of David’slife: his triumphs and his failures, his charm and his cruelty, hisdivine destiny and his human humiliations. Drawing on the biblicalchronicle of David’s life as well as on the later commentaries andthe Psalms——traditionally considered to be David’s ownwords——Pinsky teases apart the many strands of David’s story andreweaves them into a glorious narrative. Under the clarifying and captivating light of Pinsky’serudition and imagination, and his mastery of image and expression,King David——both the man and the idea of the man——is broughtbrilliantly to life.
For decades Americans have turned to LIFE to see, understand, and remember the most important events and people of our time. Just as LIFE once opened up the glittering Kennedy White House, LIFE now focuses its lens on Barack Obama. The American Journey of Barack Obama covers the candidate from his childhood and adolescence to his time as editor of The Harvard Law Review and his Chicago activist years, culminating with the excitement and fervor of the historic 2008 Democratic National Convention. The unfolding drama of Obama's life and political career is cinematic in scope, and never has it been presented so compellingly. In addition to a powerful array of photographs that were taken by many of the country's greatest photographers (and some that were snapped, in the quiet moments, by Obama family members themselves), this book also includes a Foreword by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, an incisive narrative biography and original essays by some of our finest writers, including Gay Talese, Charles Johnson, Melissa