Autobiography of a People is an insightfully assembledanthology of eyewitness accounts that traces the history of theAfrican American experience. From the Middle Passage to theMillion Man March, editor Herb Boyd has culled a diverse range ofvoices, both famous and ordinary, to creat a unique and compellinghistorical portrait: Benjamin Banneker on Thomas JeffersonOld Elizabeth on spreadingthe Word Frederick Douglass on life in the North W.E.B. Du Bois on theTalented Tenth Matthew Henson on reaching the North Pole Harriot Jacobs onrunning away James Cameron on escaping a mob lynichingAlvin Ailey on the worldof dance Langston Hughes on the Harlem Renaissance Curtis Morriw on theKorean War Max ROach on "jazz" as a four-letter wordLL Cool J on rap Mary Church Terrell on the Chicago World's FairRev. Bernice Kingon the future of Black America And many others
In this thrilling narrative history of the Civil War’s moststrategically important campaign, Winston Groom describes thebloody two-year grind that started when Ulysses S. Grant begantaking a series of Confederate strongholds in 1861, climaxing withthe siege of Vicksburg two years later. For Grant and the Union itwas a crucial success that captured the Mississippi River, dividedthe South in half, and set the stage for eventual victory. Vicksburg, 1863 brings the battles and the protagonists ofthis struggle to life: we see Grant in all his grim determination,Sherman with his feistiness and talent for war, and Confederateleaders from Jefferson Davis to Joe Johnston to John Pemberton. Itis an epic account by a masterful writer and historian.
The Hellenistic Age chronicles the years 336 to 30 BCE, aperiod that witnessed the overlap of two of antiquity’s greatcivilizations, the Greek and the Roman. Peter Green’s remarkablyfar-ranging study covers the prevalent themes and events of thosecenturies: the Hellenization, by Alexander’s conquests, of animmense swath of the known world; the lengthy and chaotic partitionof this empire by rival Macedonian bands; the decline of thecity-state as the predominant political institution; and, finally,Rome’s moment of transition from republican to imperial rule. It isa story of war and power-politics, and of the developing fortunesof art, science, and statecraft, spun by an accomplished classicistwith an uncanny knack for infusing life into the distant past, andapplying fresh insights that make ancient history seem alarminglyrelevant to our own times. “Spectacular . . . [filled with] Mr. Green’s criticalacumen.” –The Wall Street Journal “Green draws upon a li
From the esteemed New Yorker correspondent comes an incisivevolume of essays and reportage that vividly illuminates LatinAmerica’s recent history. Only Alma Guillermoprieto, the mosthighly regarded writer on the region, could unravel the complexthreads of Colombia’s cocaine wars or assess the combination ofdespotism, charm, and political jiu-jitsu that has kept FidelCastro in power for more than 40 years. And no one else can writewith such acumen and sympathy about statesmen and campesinos,leftist revolutionaries and right-wing militias, and politicalfigures from Evita Peron to Mexico’s irrepressible president,Vicente Fox. Whether she is following the historic papal visit to Havana orstaying awake for a pre-dawn interview with an insomniacSubcomandante Marcos, Guillermoprieto displays both the passion andknowledge of an insider and the perspective of a seasoned analyst.Looking for History is journalism in the finest traditions of JoanDidion, V. S. Naipaul, and Ryszard Kapucinski: observant,