Freedom’s Dominion (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize) PDF Download

Author: Jefferson Cowie
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 154167281X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY An "important, deeply affecting—and regrettably relevant" (New York Times) chronicle of a sinister idea of freedom: white Americans’ freedom to oppress others and their fight against the government that got in their way. American freedom is typically associated with the fight of the oppressed for a better world. But for centuries, whenever the federal government intervened on behalf of nonwhite people, many white Americans fought back in the name of freedom—their freedom to dominate others. In Freedom’s Dominion, historian Jefferson Cowie traces this complex saga by focusing on a quintessentially American place: Barbour County, Alabama, the ancestral home of political firebrand George Wallace. In a land shaped by settler colonialism and chattel slavery, white people weaponized freedom to seize Native lands, champion secession, overthrow Reconstruction, question the New Deal, and fight against the civil rights movement. A riveting history of the long-running clash between white people and federal authority, this book radically shifts our understanding of what freedom means in America.

Author: David W. Blight
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 1416590323
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 912

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**Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History** “Extraordinary…a great American biography” (The New Yorker) of the most important African-American of the nineteenth century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists and writers of the era. As a young man Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness to the brutality of slavery. Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass spoke widely, using his own story to condemn slavery. By the Civil War, Douglass had become the most famed and widely travelled orator in the nation. In his unique and eloquent voice, written and spoken, Douglass was a fierce critic of the United States as well as a radical patriot. After the war he sometimes argued politically with younger African Americans, but he never forsook either the Republican party or the cause of black civil and political rights. In this “cinematic and deeply engaging” (The New York Times Book Review) biography, David Blight has drawn on new information held in a private collection that few other historian have consulted, as well as recently discovered issues of Douglass’s newspapers. “Absorbing and even moving…a brilliant book that speaks to our own time as well as Douglass’s” (The Wall Street Journal), Blight’s biography tells the fascinating story of Douglass’s two marriages and his complex extended family. “David Blight has written the definitive biography of Frederick Douglass…a powerful portrait of one of the most important American voices of the nineteenth century” (The Boston Globe). In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Frederick Douglass won the Bancroft, Parkman, Los Angeles Times (biography), Lincoln, Plutarch, and Christopher awards and was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Time.

Author: W. Caleb McDaniel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190847018
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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The unforgettable saga of one enslaved woman's fight for justice--and reparations Born into slavery, Henrietta Wood was taken to Cincinnati and legally freed in 1848. In 1853, a Kentucky deputy sheriff named Zebulon Ward colluded with Wood's employer, abducted her, and sold her back into bondage. She remained enslaved throughout the Civil War, giving birth to a son in Mississippi and never forgetting who had put her in this position. By 1869, Wood had obtained her freedom for a second time and returned to Cincinnati, where she sued Ward for damages in 1870. Astonishingly, after eight years of litigation, Wood won her case: in 1878, a Federal jury awarded her $2,500. The decision stuck on appeal. More important than the amount, though the largest ever awarded by an American court in restitution for slavery, was the fact that any money was awarded at all. By the time the case was decided, Ward had become a wealthy businessman and a pioneer of convict leasing in the South. Wood's son later became a prominent Chicago lawyer, and she went on to live until 1912. McDaniel's book is an epic tale of a black woman who survived slavery twice and who achieved more than merely a moral victory over one of her oppressors. Above all, Sweet Taste of Liberty is a portrait of an extraordinary individual as well as a searing reminder of the lessons of her story, which establish beyond question the connections between slavery and the prison system that rose in its place.

Author: Irwin Unger
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400877660
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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The Greenback Era is not a financial history; rather, it is an attempt to locate the source of political power in the crucial Reconstruction years through a socio-economic study of American financial conflict during the years 1865 to 1879. Originally published in 1964. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Author: Robert Samuels
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593490622
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE; SHORT-LISTED FOR THE J. ANTHONY LUKAS PRIZE; A BCALA 2023 HONOR NONFICTION AWARD WINNER. A landmark biography by two prizewinning Washington Post reporters that reveals how systemic racism shaped George Floyd's life and legacy—from his family’s roots in the tobacco fields of North Carolina, to ongoing inequality in housing, education, health care, criminal justice, and policing—telling the story of how one man’s tragic experience brought about a global movement for change. “It is a testament to the power of His Name Is George Floyd that the book’s most vital moments come not after Floyd’s death, but in its intimate, unvarnished and scrupulous account of his life . . . Impressive.” —New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) “Since we know George Floyd’s death with tragic clarity, we must know Floyd’s America—and life—with tragic clarity. Essential for our times.” —Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist “A much-needed portrait of the life, times, and martyrdom of George Floyd, a chronicle of the racial awakening sparked by his brutal and untimely death, and an essential work of history I hope everyone will read.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., author of The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song The events of that day are now tragically familiar: on May 25, 2020, George Floyd became the latest Black person to die at the hands of the police, murdered outside of a Minneapolis convenience store by white officer Derek Chauvin. The video recording of his death set off a series of protests in the United States and around the world, awakening millions to the dire need for reimagining this country’s broken systems of policing. But behind a face that would be graffitied onto countless murals, and a name that has become synonymous with civil rights, there is the reality of one man’s stolen life: a life beset by suffocating systemic pressures that ultimately proved inescapable. This biography of George Floyd shows the athletic young boy raised in the projects of Houston’s Third Ward who would become a father, a partner, a friend, and a man constantly in search of a better life. In retracing Floyd’s story, Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa bring to light the determination Floyd carried as he faced the relentless struggle to survive as a Black man in America. Placing his narrative within the larger context of America’s deeply troubled history of institutional racism, His Name Is George Floyd examines the Floyd family’s roots in slavery and sharecropping, the segregation of his Houston schools, the overpolicing of his communities, the devastating snares of the prison system, and his attempts to break free from drug dependence—putting today's inequality into uniquely human terms. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews and extensive original reporting, Samuels and Olorunnipa offer a poignant and moving exploration of George Floyd’s America, revealing how a man who simply wanted to breathe ended up touching the world.

Author: Mark E. Neely Jr.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199923485
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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If Abraham Lincoln was known as the Great Emancipator, he was also the only president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. Indeed, Lincoln's record on the Constitution and individual rights has fueled a century of debate, from charges that Democrats were singled out for harrassment to Gore Vidal's depiction of Lincoln as an "absolute dictator." Now, in the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Fate of Liberty, one of America's leading authorities on Lincoln wades straight into this controversy, showing just who was jailed and why, even as he explores the whole range of Lincoln's constitutional policies. Mark Neely depicts Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus as a well-intentioned attempt to deal with a floodtide of unforeseen events: the threat to Washington as Maryland flirted with secession, disintegrating public order in the border states, corruption among military contractors, the occupation of hostile Confederate territory, contraband trade with the South, and the outcry against the first draft in U.S. history. Drawing on letters from prisoners, records of military courts and federal prisons, memoirs, and federal archives, he paints a vivid picture of how Lincoln responded to these problems, how his policies were actually executed, and the virulent political debates that followed. Lincoln emerges from this account with this legendary statesmanship intact--mindful of political realities and prone to temper the sentences of military courts, concerned not with persecuting his opponents but with prosecuting the war efficiently. In addition, Neely explores the abuses of power under the regime of martial law: the routine torture of suspected deserters, widespread antisemitism among Union generals and officials, the common practice of seizing civilian hostages. He finds that though the system of military justice was flawed, it suffered less from merciless zeal, or political partisanship, than from inefficiency and the friction and complexities of modern war. Informed by a deep understanding of a unique period in American history, this incisive book takes a comprehensive look at the issues of civil liberties during Lincoln's administration, placing them firmly in the political context of the time. Written with keen insight and an intimate grasp of the original sources, The Fate of Liberty offers a vivid picture of the crises and chaos of a nation at war with itself, changing our understanding of this president and his most controversial policies.

Author: Bernard DeVoto
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 483

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Author: Herbert Feis
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400876761
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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The author brings to life more clearly than ever before the moment of triumph and the intricate web of negotiations preceding the Potsdam Conference in that period between victory and cold war. His account of the Conference itself- recreating the feelings of tension, the personalities of the leaders, the steady pressures of the Russians-is likely to remain the standard reference. One sees Truman, still uncomfortable in office but determined to get matters settled quickly. There is Churchill, the master of eloquence and maneuver, suddenly replaced by Attlee in the midst of negotiations. And there is Stalin, always suspicious, always pushing for expansion. Between War and Peace shows these leaders trying to evaluate the atomic bomb, Truman hopeful Churchill enthusiastic, Stalin apparently uninterested and noncommittal. Originally published in 1960. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Author: James Phinney Baxter III
Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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Winner of the 1947 Pulitzer prize in History. “Mr. Baxter’s history of the OSRD is a fine book, obviously one of the most important documents written so far about the war. The author has a reticent clear style admirably suited to pin down his refractory material... His preoccupation with technical detail has not diminished his grasp of wartime science as a whole.” — E. B. Garside, The New York Times “[A] readable mixture of history and science... This volume covers the whole span of scientific development, radar and radar countermeasures, loran, proximity fuses, the Dukw and Weasel, incendiaries and flame throwers, military medicine, including discussion of high altitude effects, penicillin and insecticides, and finally the Manhattan project and the atomic bomb... This official history of OSRD should be required reading for admirals, generals, and all officers who ever expect some day to exist in the rarefied atmosphere of high level military and naval planning. This volume is the triumphant battle-cry of American men of science returning with their shields.” — Earl W. Thompson, Proceedings of the US Naval Institute “This is the official history of the remarkable achievements of the Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II, by the President of Williams College.” — Robert Gale Woolbert, Foreign Affairs “[An] admirable book.” — Richard E. Danielson, The Atlantic “Here is one of the most significant books of World War II. It is, as Dr. Vannevar Bush says in a foreword, ‘the brief official history of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. It is the history of a rapid transition, from warfare as it has been waged for thousands of years by the direct clash of hordes of men, to a new type of warfare in which science becomes applied to destruction on a wholesale basis. It marks, therefore, a turning point in the broad history of civilization.’... The reader is constantly impressed by the valuable results obtained by the pooling of the work of British, Canadian, and American scientists... Throughout the entire book, one idea seems to stand out above all others, namely, that free men, working as a team, can outperform all the efforts of those who are driven by bureaucratic decrees.” — John W. Oliver, The American Historical Review “This is a book for which American scientists have been waiting... it presents a clear, detailed, and yet stylistically most attractive account of the victory made possible by the civilian scientific research effort of our Nation during World War II... It will be difficult for anyone to read this book and not become an advocate of a strong, federally supported science organization to continue the research necessary for our future military preparedness and for the solution of basic peacetime problems as well.” — Leonard Carmichael, Science

Author: Annette Gordon-Reed
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393337766
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 800

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Historian and legal scholar Gordon-Reed presents this epic work that tells the story of the Hemingses, an American slave family and their close blood ties to Thomas Jefferson.