The Golden Vanity


Book Description

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald told the tale of a high society love affair that became an iconic depiction of life during the Jazz Age of the 1920s. After the 1929 stock market crash, life took an ironic downturn even for the wealthy. Written in light of these events, The Golden Vanity is both a social comedy of errors and a sardonic view of the Jazz Age and the crash, told through the lives of three self-assertive women who could not be more different. Cousins Gina, Geraldine, and Mysie are all inhabitants of New York City, but their lives could not be more different. A secretary starts a new job rife with romantic entanglements, a best-selling novelist is undermined by her husband’s attempts to win big on the stock market, and an actress leads an unconventional, yet surprisingly intellectual, life. Isabel Paterson follows their stories through the economic collapse and demonstrates, with sophisticated wit, that “doing what everyone else is doing” is not the best way to survive such times. Originally published in 1934, The Golden Vanity has been out of print for far too long. A new introduction by Stephen Cox illuminates the novel’s important historical footprint and places it in a modern context.




The Virgin & the Dynamo


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Annotation The first book in almost a century to concentrate exclusively on the beaux-arts mural movement in the United States.




Radicals for Capitalism


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On Wall Street, in the culture of high tech, in American government: Libertarianism -- the simple but radical idea that the only purpose of government is to protect its citizens and their property against direct violence and threat -- has become an extremely influential strain of thought. But while many books talk about libertarian ideas, none until now has explored the history of this uniquely American movement -- where and who it came from, how it evolved, and what impact it has had on our country. In this revelatory book, based on original research and interviews with more than 100 key sources, Brian Doherty traces the evolution of the movement through the unconventional life stories of its most influential leaders -- Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and Milton Friedman -- and through the personal battles, character flaws, love affairs, and historical events that altered its course. And by doing so, he provides a fascinating new perspective on American history -- from the New Deal through the culture wars of the 1960s to today's most divisive political issues. Neither an expos' nor a political polemic, this entertaining historical narrative will enlighten anyone interested in American politics.




The Woman's Journal


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The Dynamo


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The Woman who Toils


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The Woman and the Dynamo


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Novelist, columnist, cultural critic, political theorist-- Isabel Paterson was one of the most extraordinary personalities of the 1930s, renowned for her incisive wit and her unique interpretation of the American experience. The Woman and the Dynamo is the first biography of a woman who has long been a source of rumor and legend. From interviews, private papers, and her millions of published words, Stephen Cox weaves a narrative that brings Paterson vividly to life. A radical individualist in both theory and practice, Paterson spent her early life on the Western frontier, "lavished" two years on formal education, set a record for high-altitude flight, became a journalist by "accident," and made herself a fearless chronicler and conscience of New York literary life. At the same time, she made a permanent contribution to American political thought. Paterson identified the fundamental issues at stake in the crises of the twentieth century and responded with an original theory of history and political economy. In her view, the individual mind is the dynamo of history, working through the "long circuit" of institutions that maintain and enhance individual liberty; and America is the place where the advanced forms of those institutions were invented and are currently undergoing their severest trial. While other intellectuals derided the American ideal of progress and called for the restraint or abolition of the capitalist system, Paterson demanded a scrupulous application of the "engineering principles" on which American civilization had been built. The Woman and the Dynamo provides one of the few broad and detailed accounts of the origins of the American political Right, emphasizing the special role that women and imaginative writers played in its creation, and posing new questions about what it means to be "left" or "right," "liberal" or "conservative" in America. This will be compelling reading for those interested in twentieth century intellectual history, literature, and politics.




The American Catalogue


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