Books about One period from Amazon.com

The titanic three-day battle of Gettysburg left 50,000 casualties in its wake, a battered Southern army far from its base of supplies, and a rich historiographic legacy. Thousands of books and articles cover nearly every aspect of the battle, but not a single volume focuses on the military aspects of the monumentally important movements of the armies to and across the Potomac River. One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14, 1863 is the first detailed military history of Lee's retreat and the Union effort to catch and destroy the wounded Army of Northern Virginia. Against steep odds and encumbered with thousands of casualties, Confederate commander Robert E. Lee's post-battle task was to successfully withdraw his army across the Potomac River. Union commander George G. Meade's equally difficult assignment was to intercept the effort and destroy his enemy. The responsibility for defending the exposed Southern columns belonged to cavalry chieftain James Ewell Brown (Jeb) Stuart. If Stuart fumbled his famous ride north to Gettysburg, his generalship during the retreat more than redeemed his flagging reputation. The ten days of retreat triggered nearly two dozen skirmishes and major engagements, including fighting at Granite Hill, Monterey Pass, Hagerstown, Williamsport, Funkstown, Boonsboro, and Falling Waters. President Abraham Lincoln was thankful for the early July battlefield victory, but disappointed that General Meade was unable to surround and crush the Confederates before they found safety on the far side of the Potomac. Exactly what Meade did to try to intercept the fleeing Confederates, and how the Southerners managed to defend their army and ponderous 17-mile long wagon train of wounded until crossing into western Virginia on the early morning of July 14, is the subject of this study One Continuous Fight draws upon a massive array of documents, letters, diaries, newspaper accounts, and published primary and secondary sources. These long-ignored foundational sources allow the authors, each widely known for their expertise in Civil War cavalry operations, to describe carefully each engagement. The result is a rich and comprehensive study loaded with incisive tactical commentary, new perspectives on the strategic role of the Southern and Northern cavalry, and fresh insights on every engagement, large and small, fought during the retreat. The retreat from Gettysburg was so punctuated with fighting that a soldier felt compelled to describe it as "One Continuous Fight." Until now, few students fully realized the accuracy of that description. Complimented with 18 original maps, dozens of photos, and a complete driving tour with GPS coordinates of the entire retreat, One Continuous Fight is an essential book for every student of the American Civil War in general, and for the student of Gettysburg in particular. About the Authors: Eric J. Wittenberg has written widely on Civil War cavalry operations. His books include Glory Enough for All (2002), The Union Cavalry Comes of Age (2003), and The Battle of Monroe's Crossroads and the Civil War's Final Campaign (2005). He lives in Columbus, Ohio. J. David Petruzzi is the author of several magazine articles on Eastern Theater cavalry operations, conducts tours of cavalry sites of the Gettysburg Campaign, and is the author of the popular "Buford's Boys" website at www.bufordsboys.com. Petruzzi lives in Brockway, Pennsylvania. A long time student of the Gettysburg Campaign, Michael Nugent is a retired US Army Armored Cavalry Officer and the descendant of a Civil War Cavalry soldier. He has previously written for several military publications. Nugent lives in Wells, Maine.

REVIEWS

"...Is there anything left unwritten about the Gettysburg Campaign? Absolutely, and this bookis but one example. It is a must have for any student of the Civil War, and especially for a student of the Gettysburg Campaign."Civil War Notebook, 06/2008

"...most likely the definitive book covering the battles and skirmishes with all the major players associated with the time period... One can't help but enjoy the well done narrative with such fine, thorough detail."Reviewer's Bookwatch, 08/2008

"..popular history at its best- simultaneously engaging and educating."The Midwest Book Review 08/2008

.
Price: $23.07 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"Writing a global history of the second half of this century is, of course, an impossible task."

You've got to give Cambridge fellow David Reynolds credit for such frankness, but it certainly didn't stop him from setting out to accomplish the impossible. Thankfully, Reynolds succeeds brilliantly, as becomes quickly clear from this marvelous, unbelievably readable 860-page survey, roughly bookended by the Berlin blockade and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The project is impossible, "of course," thanks to the subject's staggering size and complexity, but Reynolds takes this in stride, admits his limitations, and digs into a robust, good-spirited, and even-handed analysis, intimidating as a whole but approachable and engaging in its parts.

One World Divisible does tackle it all--the political, social, and cultural changes of an era that witnessed ever-increasing unity, interconnectedness, and globalization. All the usual suspects--the cold war, the decolonization of Africa and Asia, the rebirth of post-war Germany and Japan--get predictably thorough treatment, but Reynolds also takes on the "feminist earthquake" of women's lib and the pill, examines how advances in electronics and genetics far outweighed the impact of exploiting the atom, and even tracks the global spread of "Coca-colonization" and rock & roll. Through it all, Reynolds's readable voice and thoughtful organization keep you reading; discrete, intuitive chapters such as "Israel, Oil, and Islam," "Color, Creed, and Coups," and "Chips and Genes" give you just enough to chew on along the way. A fine beginning to W.W. Norton's ambitious Global Century series. --Paul Hughes.
Price: $13.60 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"My wink is binding," Bernie Brillstein writes in the middle part of his memoir of a career in showbiz At this point the movie-star manager has already admitted that he wanted power and prestige as soon as he started in the William Morris agency mailroom. And that he chased after a Don Corleone-ish kind of respect afterward. But even when he became a clout-carrying manager and near-mogul he kept his people-first credo. You suspect he loves it too for the way it echoes the Borscht Belt, since that's the kind of verbal energy he draws on throughout this anecdote-crammed autobiography. He calls himself "show," but in four decades he had to be "business" too, tough enough to tell clients, as he says he did, when to start their career over from scratch. The book begins with a graphically honest memory of his visit to the proctologist with his family when he was 24--something he guffaws off, but it's probably not far from the sort of reality check he regularly gave clients like Jim Henson, Norm Crosby, Lorne Michaels, John Belushi, and Brad Pitt. He cops to a gambling addiction, a love of "high class call girls," and to the way he stole from Laugh-Into invent Hee Haw. But he also brokered Lorne Michael's big break with SNL, produced Dangerous Liaisons, and eventually got News Radio and The Sopranos on the air. He candidly assesses professional pains too, including Michael Ovitz's pathology, Garry Shandling's riddling neuroses, and the loss of Belushi and Henson. "I care," he writes finally, "because that's who I am." It's easy to smile at that, but by the end of the book it's also easy to believe he means it. --Lyall Bush.
Price: $10.09 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In the summer of 1776, Joseph Plumb Martin was a fifteen-year-old Connecticut farm boy who considered himself "as warm a patriot as the best of them." He enlisted that July and stayed in the revolutionary army until hostilities ended in 1783. Martin fought under Washington, Lafayette, and Steuben. He took part in major battles in New York, Monmouth, and Yorktown. He wintered at Valley Forge and then at Morristown, considered even more severe. He wrote of his war years in a memoir that brings the American Revolution alive with telling details, drama, and a country boy's humor. Jim Murphy lets Joseph Plumb Martin speak for himself throughout the text, weaving in historical backfround details wherever necessary, giving voice to a teenager who was an eyewitness to the fight that set America free from the British Empire..
Price: $2.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Since his landslide reelection in a state dominated by Democrats, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has arguably become the nation's most successful Republican politician. His near-universal name recognition and status as governor of the nation's most populous state have placed Schwarzenegger at the forefront of such key issues as health care, environmental protection, and immigration. Combining liberal stands on social and environmental issues with conservative pro-business policies, Schwarzenegger has found favor with Republicans, Democrats, and independent voters, whose support has been critical to his success. PARTY OF ONE goes beyond a portrait of a political celebrity. Detailing Schwarzenegger's gambits, missteps, and achievements on a range of issues, it suggests that the "governator" represents the future of American politics, in which practical results will mean more to voters than partisan identity..
Price: $12.59 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Brave New World covers the span of early American history, from 30,000 years before Europeans ever landed on North American shores to creation of the new nation. With its exploration of the places and peoples of early America, this comprehensive, lively narrative brings together the most recent scholarship on the colonial and revolutionary eras, Native Americans, slavery, politics, war, and the daily lives of ordinary people. The revised, enlarged edition includes a new chapter carrying the story through the American Revolution, the War for Independence, and the creation of the Confederation. Additional material on the frontier, the Southwest and the Caribbean, the slave trade, religion, science and technology, and ecology broadens the text, and maps drawn especially for this edition will enable readers to follow the story more closely. The bibliographical essay, one of the most admired features of the first edition, has been expanded and brought up to date.

Peter Charles Hoffer combines the Atlantic Rim scholarship with a Continental perspective, illuminating early America from all angles -- from its first settlers to the Spanish Century, from African slavery to the Salem witchcraft cases, from prayer and drinking practices to the development of complex economies, from the colonies' fight for freedom to an infant nation's struggle for political and economic legitimacy. Wide-ranging in scope, inclusive in content, the revised edition of The Brave New World continues to provide professors, students, and historians with an engaging and accessible history of early North America.

.
Price: $15.31 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Originally published in 1964, One-Dimensional Man quickly became one of the most important texts in the ensuing decade of radical political change. This second edition, newly introduced by Marcuse scholar Douglas Kellner, presents Marcuse's best-selling work to another generation of readers in the context of contemporary events.

"Marcuse shows himself to be one of the most radical and forceful thinkers of this time."
—The Nation.
Price: $18.70 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Like its current citizens, the United States was born in debt-a debt so deep that it threatened to destroy the young nation. Thomas Jefferson considered the national debt a monstrous fraud on posterity, while Alexander Hamilton believed debt would help America prosper. Both, as it turns out, were right.

One Nation Under Debt explores the untold history of America's first national debt, which arose from the immense sums needed to conduct the American Revolution. Noted economic historian Robert Wright, Ph.D. tells in riveting narrative how a subjugated but enlightened people cast off a great tyrant-“but their liberty, won with promises as well as with the blood of patriots, came at a high price.” He brings to life the key events that shaped the U.S. financial system and explains how the actions of our forefathers laid the groundwork for the debt we still carry today.

As an economically tenuous nation by Revolution's end, America's people struggled to get on their feet. Wright outlines how the formation of a new government originally reduced the nation's debt-but, as debt was critical to this government's survival, it resurfaced, to be beaten back once more. Wright then reveals how political leaders began accumulating massive new debts to ensure their popularity, setting the financial stage for decades to come.

Wright traces critical evolutionary developments-from Alexander Hamilton's creation of the nation's first modern capital market, to the use of national bonds to further financial goals, to the drafting of state constitutions that created non-predatory governments. He shows how, by the end of Andrew Jackson's administration, America's financial system was contributing to national growth while at the same time new national and state debts were amassing, sealing the fate for future generations.

.
Price: $9.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

What if a secret society, founded during the Civil War, accumulated a fortune in gold coins in the hopes of someday funding a second war between the states? What if they buried their treasure in a vast network of remote locations across the South and the Southwestern United States, and appointed sentinels to guard them -- sentinels who passed the secrets of this treasure from generation to generation? What if the keys to this fantastic treasure were hidden in a series of mysterious coded maps?

In Rebel Gold, investigative journalist Warren Getler and Bob Brewer, a descendant of one of the Confederate sentinels sworn to protect this treasure, uncover the truth behind the legend of this buried gold and the group rumored to have hidden it, the Knights of the Golden Circle. A fast-paced blend of history and modern-day detective story, Rebel Gold reveals a shadowy chapter in American history -- and how its legacy may be continuing to this day..
Price: $5.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]