Author : Wendy Kopp
Publisher : Public Affairs
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 30,55 MB
Release : 2012-02-28
Category : Education
ISBN : 1610391047
The founder of Teach for America details the lessons learned during the organization's twenty-year existence and explains how the achievement gap in U.S. education can be closed.
Author : Erik Durschmied
Publisher : Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
Page : 497 pages
File Size : 27,47 MB
Release : 2011-10-01
Category : History
ISBN : 1628721774
From the wooden horse at Troy to a harrowing photograph snapped in Vietnam, from Robert E. Lee’s lost battle plans to the evacuation of Dunkirk, world history has been shaped as much by chance and error as by courage and heroism. Time and again, invincible armies fall to weaker opponents in the face of impossible odds, when the outcome had seemed a foregone conclusion. How and why does this happen? What is it that decides the fate of battle? Writing with the style and flair that has made him an award-winning war correspondent, Durschmied takes us through the major battles of history, from the battlefields of ancient Greece to the Gulf War. In a series of gripping narratives, he vividly recreates the crucial events in all their mayhem and confusion while pointing out the decisive moments that changed the course of history. We see Agincourt, where rain combined with French arrogance to give Henry V the day; the Crimea, where a badly worded order led to the disastrous charge of the Light Brigade; and colonial Africa, where an attack by African killer bees, described by the London Times as Germany’s secret weapon, repulsed an Allied invasion. And in a chilling epilogue, we are given a disturbing glimpse of the secret attempt by Libya to buy atomic weapons from China for use against Israel. Drawing from a variety of sources, including personal accounts such as soldiers’ diaries and letters home, The Hinge Factor is an instructive, fascinating look at how the unpredictable, the absurd, and the bizarre have shaped the face of history in war.
Author : Jill Lepore
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 733 pages
File Size : 23,81 MB
Release : 2018-09-18
Category : History
ISBN : 0393635252
“Nothing short of a masterpiece.” —NPR Books A New York Times Bestseller and a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year In the most ambitious one-volume American history in decades, award-winning historian Jill Lepore offers a magisterial account of the origins and rise of a divided nation. Widely hailed for its “sweeping, sobering account of the American past” (New York Times Book Review), Jill Lepore’s one-volume history of America places truth itself—a devotion to facts, proof, and evidence—at the center of the nation’s history. The American experiment rests on three ideas—“these truths,” Jefferson called them—political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. But has the nation, and democracy itself, delivered on that promise? These Truths tells this uniquely American story, beginning in 1492, asking whether the course of events over more than five centuries has proven the nation’s truths, or belied them. To answer that question, Lepore wrestles with the state of American politics, the legacy of slavery, the persistence of inequality, and the nature of technological change. “A nation born in contradiction… will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history,” Lepore writes, but engaging in that struggle by studying the past is part of the work of citizenship. With These Truths, Lepore has produced a book that will shape our view of American history for decades to come.
Author : Sean B. Carroll
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 17,38 MB
Release : 2020-10-06
Category : Science
ISBN : 0691209545
"Fascinating and exhilarating—Sean B. Carroll at his very best."—Bill Bryson, author of The Body: A Guide for Occupants From acclaimed writer and biologist Sean B. Carroll, a rollicking, awe-inspiring story of the surprising power of chance in our lives and the world Why is the world the way it is? How did we get here? Does everything happen for a reason or are some things left to chance? Philosophers and theologians have pondered these questions for millennia, but startling scientific discoveries over the past half century are revealing that we live in a world driven by chance. A Series of Fortunate Events tells the story of the awesome power of chance and how it is the surprising source of all the beauty and diversity in the living world. Like every other species, we humans are here by accident. But it is shocking just how many things—any of which might never have occurred—had to happen in certain ways for any of us to exist. From an extremely improbable asteroid impact, to the wild gyrations of the Ice Age, to invisible accidents in our parents' gonads, we are all here through an astonishing series of fortunate events. And chance continues to reign every day over the razor-thin line between our life and death. This is a relatively small book about a really big idea. It is also a spirited tale. Drawing inspiration from Monty Python, Kurt Vonnegut, and other great thinkers, and crafted by one of today's most accomplished science storytellers, A Series of Fortunate Events is an irresistibly entertaining and thought-provoking account of one of the most important but least appreciated facts of life.
Author : James M. Cannon
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
Page : 532 pages
File Size : 49,39 MB
Release : 1998
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780472084821
A biography of President Gerald Ford by one of his closest advisers
Author : Ronald Takaki
Publisher : eBookIt.com
Page : 787 pages
File Size : 25,66 MB
Release : 2012-06-05
Category : History
ISBN : 1456611062
Takaki traces the economic and political history of Indians, African Americans, Mexicans, Japanese, Chinese, Irish, and Jewish people in America, with considerable attention given to instances and consequences of racism. The narrative is laced with short quotations, cameos of personal experiences, and excerpts from folk music and literature. Well-known occurrences, such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the Trail of Tears, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Japanese internment are included. Students may be surprised by some of the revelations, but will recognize a constant thread of rampant racism. The author concludes with a summary of today's changing economic climate and offers Rodney King's challenge to all of us to try to get along. Readers will find this overview to be an accessible, cogent jumping-off place for American history and political science plus a guide to the myriad other sources identified in the notes.
Author : Heidi W. Durrow
Publisher : Algonquin Books
Page : 300 pages
File Size : 44,99 MB
Release : 2011-01-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1616200154
After a family tragedy orphans her, Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I., moves into her grandmother's mostly black community in the 1980s, where she must swallow her grief and confront her identity as a biracial woman in a world that wants to see her as either black or white. A first novel. Reprint.
Author : Phillip Hoose
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 16,99 MB
Release : 2001-08-08
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0374382522
THE STORY OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE PLAYED IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
Author : Kobi Yamada
Publisher :
Page : 36 pages
File Size : 49,17 MB
Release : 2014-02-01
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9781938298073
A young boy comes up with an idea and he keeps it safe until one day he realizes the amazing power it can have.
Author : American Association for State and Local History
Publisher :
Page : pages
File Size : 19,63 MB
Release : 2021-09-21
Category :
ISBN : 9781737486411
Making History at 250: The Field Guide for the Semiquincentennial provides themes, ideas, and inspiration for museum professionals, historians, educators, volunteers, and others in the history community as they prepare for the Semiquincentennial anniversary of the United States' Declaration of Independence. The themes, "Unfinished Revolutions," "Power of Place," "We the People," "American Experiment," and "Doing History," are intended to encourage inclusive, relevant histories and provide cohesiveness to a multi-faceted, grassroots commemoration. Developed with direction from a diverse panel of more than twenty-five historians and museum professionals from across the United States, each of these guiding themes can be used to explore the nation's founding and the legacy of the Revolution, helping the history community and the nation confront hard truths about the shortcomings of our experiment in liberty and equality, while celebrating the vital principles of participatory government and constitutional rights. The themes in this guide encourage a deep engagement with the entirety of our past, one full of moments that both inspire and challenge us.Making History at 250 can help the history community coordinate their efforts in advance of 2026 and work together to fulfill the incredible, transformative potential of the Semiquincentennial.
