John Jay


Book Description

From the New York Times–bestselling author of Seward and Stanton comes the definitive biography of John Jay: “Wonderful” (Walter Isaacson, New York Times–bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci). John Jay is central to the early history of the American Republic. Drawing on substantial new material, renowned biographer Walter Stahr has written a full and highly readable portrait of both the public and private man—one of the most prominent figures of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. “The greatest founders—such as Washington and Jefferson—have kept even the greatest of the second tier of the nation’s founding generation in the shadows. But now John Jay, arguably the most important of this second group, has found an admiring, skilled student in Stahr . . . Since the last biography of Jay appeared 60 years ago, a mountain of new knowledge about the early nation has piled up, and Stahr uses it all with confidence and critical detachment. Jay had a remarkable career. He was president of the Continental Congress, secretary of foreign affairs, a negotiator of the treaty that won the United States its independence in 1783, one of three authors of The Federalist Papers, first chief justice of the Supreme Court and governor of his native New York . . . [Stahr] places Jay once again in the company of America’s greatest statesmen, where he unquestionably belongs.” —Publishers Weekly “Even-handed . . . Riveting on the matter of negotiating tactics, as practiced by Adams, Jay and Franklin.” —The Economist “Stahr has not only given us a meticulous study of the life of John Jay, but one very much in the spirit of the man . . . Thorough, fair, consistently intelligent, and presented with the most scrupulous accuracy. Let us hope that this book helps to retrieve Jay from the relative obscurity to which he has been unfairly consigned.” —Ron Chernow, author of Alexander Hamilton




The Irish Americans


Book Description

Follows the Irish from their first arrival in the American colonies through the bleak days of the potato famine, the decades of ethnic prejudice and nativist discrimination, the rise of Irish political power, and on to the historic moment when John F. Kennedy was elected to the highest office in the land.




Alternatives to History


Book Description

From its enchanting first poem, Rabbi José the Angel, Jay Ladin's Alternatives to History draws the reader into a world of harsh truths, uncanny beauty, inspired erudition, ironic wit, and cadenced music. In this brainy, mature first book, imagination rules, wedding poetic forms to unflinching meditations on human suffering, terror, love, and unbearable loss. Despite the ubiquity of evil and death in his poems, there is, in Yeats's words, a gaiety transfiguring all that dread. Alternatives to History marks the debut of an impressive new voice on the American poetry scene. --Herb Leibowitz.







The Historical Foundations of World Order


Book Description

In The Historical Foundations of World Order: the Tower and the Arena, Douglas M. Johnston has drawn on a 45 year career as one of the world’s most prolific academics in the development of international law and public policy and 5 years of exhaustive research to produce a comprehensive and highly nuanced examination of the historical precursors, intellectual developments, and philosophical frameworks that have guided the progress of world order through recorded history and across the globe, from pre-classical antiquity to the present day. By illuminating the personalities and identifying the controversies behind the great advancements in international legal thought and weaving this into the context of more conventionally known history, Johnston presents a unique understanding of how peoples and nations have sought regularity, justice and order across the ages. This book will appeal to a wide spectrum of readers, from lawyers interested in the historical background of familiar concepts, to curriculum developers for law schools and history faculties, to general interest readers wanting a wider perspective on the history of civilization. Winner 2009 ASIL Certificate of Merit for a Preeminent Contribution to Creative Scholarship










Bulletin


Book Description




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