The Spirit and the Shotgun


Book Description

The Spirit and the Shotgun explores the role of armed self-defense in tandem with nonviolent protests in the African American freedom struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. Confronted with violent attacks by the Ku Klux Klan and other racist terrorists, southern blacks adopted Martin Luther King's philosophy of nonviolent resistance as a tactic, Wendt argues, but at the same time armed themselves out of necessity and pride. Sophisticated self-defense units patrolled black neighborhoods, guarded the homes of movement leaders, rescued activists from harm, and occasionally traded shots with their white attackers. These patrols enhanced and sustained local movements in the face of white aggression. They also provoked vigorous debate within traditionally nonviolent civil rights organizations such as SNCC, CORE, and the NAACP.




Riding Shotgun


Book Description

Desperate for adventure and a last chance to see her sister, eighty-year-old Mary hits the road for the cross-country adventure of a lifetime in her late husband's beloved Lincoln Town Car. While the car's a tank, it can't entirely protect an elderly woman traveling alone. A shot of inspiration leads her to ''Mike''--the perfect plus-one to ride shotgun as she heads west. Once she gets him outfitted in her dead husband's clothes, Mary figures no one will ever know she brought a mannequin along for the ride. He'll never disagree with her choice of music, food, or lodging, doesn't need to pee, and is guaranteed to let Mary do and say whatever she wants. Though her department-store companion fills the passenger seat, he doesn't ward off the worst of what's out there. Who knew a nice little old lady out for a drive could be so dangerous?




, said the shotgun to the head.


Book Description

The greatest Americans Have not been born yet They are waiting quietly For their past to die please give blood Here is the account of a man so ravished by a kiss that it distorts his highest and lowest frequencies of understanding into an Incongruent mean of babble and brilliance...




Shotgun Lovesongs


Book Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Impressively original." —The New York Times "Sparkles in every way. A love letter to the open lonely American heartland...A must-read." —People "The kind of book that restores your faith in humanity." —Toronto Star Welcome to Little Wing. It's a place like hundreds of others, nothing special, really. But for four friends—all born and raised in this small Wisconsin town—it is home. And now they are men, coming into their own or struggling to do so. One of them never left, still working the family farm that has been tilled for generations. But others felt the need to move on, with varying degrees of success. One trades commodities, another took to the rodeo circuit, and one of them even hit it big as a rock star. And then there's Beth, a woman who has meant something special in each of their lives. Now all four are brought together for a wedding. Little Wing seems even smaller than before. While lifelong bonds are still strong, there are stresses—among the friends, between husbands and wives. There will be heartbreak, but there will also be hope, healing, even heroism as these memorable people learn the true meaning of adult friendship and love. Seldom has the American heartland been so richly and accurately portrayed. Though the town may have changed, the one thing that hasn't is the beauty of the Wisconsin farmland, the lure of which, in Nickolas Butler's hands, emerges as a vibrant character in the story. Shotgun Lovesongs is that rare work of fiction that evokes a specific time and place yet movingly describes the universal human condition. It is, in short, a truly remarkable book—a novel that once read will never be forgotten.




The Daughters of the American Revolution and Patriotic Memory in the Twentieth Century


Book Description

In this comprehensive history of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), one of the oldest and most important women’s organizations in United States history, Simon Wendt shows how the DAR’s efforts to keep alive the memory of the nation’s past were entangled with and strengthened the nation’s racial and gender boundaries. Taking a close look at the DAR’s mission of bolstering national loyalty, Wendt reveals paradoxes and ambiguities in its activism. While the Daughters engaged in patriotic actions long believed to be the domain of men and challenged male-centered accounts of US nation-building, their tales about the past reinforced traditional notions of femininity and masculinity, reflecting a belief that any challenge to these conventions would jeopardize the country’s stability. Similarly, they frequently voiced support for inclusive civic nationalism but deliberately shaped historical memory to consolidate white supremacy. Using archival sources from across the country, Wendt focuses on the DAR’s most visible work after its founding in 1890—its commemorations of the American Revolution, western expansion, and Native Americans. He also explores the organization’s post–World War II history, a time that saw major challenges to its conservative vision of America’s “imagined community.” This book sheds new light on the remarkable agency and cultural authority of conservative white women in the twentieth century.




The Duke's Shotgun Wedding


Book Description

Lady Jocelyn Rathbourne was taken in by a pretty face and even prettier lies, leaving her family's reputation at stake. When the man who made promises to her announces his engagement to another woman, she knows the only way to avoid a scandal is to marry the cad's brother, the cold, formidable Duke of Calydon. Sebastian Thornton, the Duke of Calydon, is in need of a wife. Bored with the simpering ladies and overly-forward seductresses populating the ton, Sebastian longs to find a woman with fire and spirit. He never expected the perfect candidate to barge into his home, aim a derringer at his heart, and demand he marry her... Each book in the Scandalous House of Calydon series is a standalone, full-length story that can be enjoyed out of order. Series Order: Book #1 The Duke’s Shotgun Wedding Book #2 The Irresistible Miss Peppiwell Book #3 Sins of a Duke Book #4 The Royal Conquest




Shotgun Seamstress Zine Collection


Book Description

Shotgun Seamstress discusses the difficulties of being a black person within dominantly white punk and queer scenes. The author and contributors give anecdotes about their experiences at punk concerts. Osa interviews local punk artists of color, and provides excerpts of her own writing about racism. The zine incorporates images and sparse typewritten sections for a dynamic effect on each of the pages. Multiple issues have been produced, each focusing on a different aspect of black punk culture (e.g. Toni Young, love, money) and how people of color interact with popular culture.




Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America


Book Description

A provocative history that reveals how guns—not abortion, race, or religion—are at the heart of America's cultural divide. Gunfight is a timely work examining America’s four-centuries-long political battle over gun control and the right to bear arms. In this definitive and provocative history, Adam Winkler reveals how guns—not abortion, race, or religion—are at the heart of America’s cultural divide. Using the landmark 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller—which invalidated a law banning handguns in the nation’s capital—as a springboard, Winkler brilliantly weaves together the dramatic stories of gun-rights advocates and gun-control lobbyists, providing often unexpected insights into the venomous debate that now cleaves our nation.




Riding Shotgun


Book Description

With honesty and extraordinary self-knowledge, 21 accomplished authors illuminate the mother-daughter relationship--intimate, complicated, loving, and flawed--with humor and clarity.




Spirit Gun of the West


Book Description

First published in 1957, this is the complete, fascinated biography of "Doc" William Frank Carver, a legend of the American West. Even the expansive sub-title shows that there is no limit to the talents of Doc Carver—“Plainsman, Trapper, Buffalo Hunter, Medicine Chief Of The Santee Sioux, World's Champion Marksman, And Originator Of The American Wild West Show.” Doc’s life began in the era of American pioneering to the West. As a youth he lived with the Santee Sioux, from the plains of Illinois and the forests of Minnesota he graduated to the beautiful prairies of Nebraska where he became supreme as a horseback-riding buffalo hunter, and came to count among his close friends the mountain men and plainsmen of whom James B. Hickok, John Y. Nelson, Texas Jack, and the boastful “Buffalo Bill,” were but a few. To California, at thirty-five years of age, was Carver’s next move. Here he discovered in his reading of sporting magazines that men were making fortunes by shooting—men who were not good shots! His innate confidence assured him that he was the best shot in the world, and he began the work of proving to the world that he was not only the best marksman, but that he was to become one of the world’s outstanding showmen.