Author: Gore Vidal
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300127928
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 166
Book Description
This New York Times bestseller offers “an unblinking view of our national heroes by one who cherishes them, warts and all” (New York Review of Books). In Inventing a Nation, National Book Award winner Gore Vidal transports the reader into the minds, the living rooms (and bedrooms), the convention halls, and the salons of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and others. We come to know these men, through Vidal’s splendid prose, in ways we have not up to now—their opinions of each other, their worries about money, their concerns about creating a viable democracy. Vidal brings them to life at the key moments of decision in the birthing of our nation. He also illuminates the force and weight of the documents they wrote, the speeches they delivered, and the institutions of government by which we still live. More than two centuries later, America is still largely governed by the ideas championed by this triumvirate. The author of Burr and Lincoln, one of the master stylists of American literature and most acute observers of American life, turns his immense literary and historiographic talent to a portrait of these formidable men
Inventing a Nation
Author: Gore Vidal
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300127928
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 166
Book Description
This New York Times bestseller offers “an unblinking view of our national heroes by one who cherishes them, warts and all” (New York Review of Books). In Inventing a Nation, National Book Award winner Gore Vidal transports the reader into the minds, the living rooms (and bedrooms), the convention halls, and the salons of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and others. We come to know these men, through Vidal’s splendid prose, in ways we have not up to now—their opinions of each other, their worries about money, their concerns about creating a viable democracy. Vidal brings them to life at the key moments of decision in the birthing of our nation. He also illuminates the force and weight of the documents they wrote, the speeches they delivered, and the institutions of government by which we still live. More than two centuries later, America is still largely governed by the ideas championed by this triumvirate. The author of Burr and Lincoln, one of the master stylists of American literature and most acute observers of American life, turns his immense literary and historiographic talent to a portrait of these formidable men
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300127928
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 166
Book Description
This New York Times bestseller offers “an unblinking view of our national heroes by one who cherishes them, warts and all” (New York Review of Books). In Inventing a Nation, National Book Award winner Gore Vidal transports the reader into the minds, the living rooms (and bedrooms), the convention halls, and the salons of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and others. We come to know these men, through Vidal’s splendid prose, in ways we have not up to now—their opinions of each other, their worries about money, their concerns about creating a viable democracy. Vidal brings them to life at the key moments of decision in the birthing of our nation. He also illuminates the force and weight of the documents they wrote, the speeches they delivered, and the institutions of government by which we still live. More than two centuries later, America is still largely governed by the ideas championed by this triumvirate. The author of Burr and Lincoln, one of the master stylists of American literature and most acute observers of American life, turns his immense literary and historiographic talent to a portrait of these formidable men
Summary of Gore Vidal's Inventing A Nation
Author: Milkyway Media
Publisher: Milkyway Media
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 23
Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 George Washington was the president of a company that was developing the navigability of the Potomac River. He was offered valuable shares in the company for himself and his heirs, but he only accepted if he could give whatever dividends that came his way to charities. #2 The United States was formed in 1776, but was not fully formed until 1789. Until then, the thirteen former British colonies were held uneasily together by the Articles of Confederation. The question was by whom and to what end the powers of the Confederation would be qualified. #3 In 1786, the rickety Confederation was appalled when Massachusetts was revolutionized by one Captain Daniel Shays, a revolutionary hero whom Lafayette had presented with an expensive sword. But by September of 1786, Shays was obliged to sell the sword. #4 In 1787, Washington was officially notified that Congress had named the second Monday in May for a convention to meet in Philadelphia for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. However, Congress only agreed to the Annapolis Convention’s proposal that there be a meeting of delegates from all the States at Philadelphia in May to take into consideration the Trade and Commerce of the United States.
Publisher: Milkyway Media
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 23
Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 George Washington was the president of a company that was developing the navigability of the Potomac River. He was offered valuable shares in the company for himself and his heirs, but he only accepted if he could give whatever dividends that came his way to charities. #2 The United States was formed in 1776, but was not fully formed until 1789. Until then, the thirteen former British colonies were held uneasily together by the Articles of Confederation. The question was by whom and to what end the powers of the Confederation would be qualified. #3 In 1786, the rickety Confederation was appalled when Massachusetts was revolutionized by one Captain Daniel Shays, a revolutionary hero whom Lafayette had presented with an expensive sword. But by September of 1786, Shays was obliged to sell the sword. #4 In 1787, Washington was officially notified that Congress had named the second Monday in May for a convention to meet in Philadelphia for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. However, Congress only agreed to the Annapolis Convention’s proposal that there be a meeting of delegates from all the States at Philadelphia in May to take into consideration the Trade and Commerce of the United States.
Summary of Gore Vidal's Inventing A Nation
Author: Everest Media,
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
ISBN: 1669353478
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 23
Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 George Washington was the president of a company that was developing the navigability of the Potomac River. He was offered valuable shares in the company for himself and his heirs, but he only accepted if he could give whatever dividends that came his way to charities. #2 The United States was formed in 1776, but was not fully formed until 1789. Until then, the thirteen former British colonies were held uneasily together by the Articles of Confederation. The question was by whom and to what end the powers of the Confederation would be qualified. #3 In 1786, the rickety Confederation was appalled when Massachusetts was revolutionized by one Captain Daniel Shays, a revolutionary hero whom Lafayette had presented with an expensive sword. But by September of 1786, Shays was obliged to sell the sword. #4 In 1787, Washington was officially notified that Congress had named the second Monday in May for a convention to meet in Philadelphia for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. However, Congress only agreed to the Annapolis Convention’s proposal that there be a meeting of delegates from all the States at Philadelphia in May to take into consideration the Trade and Commerce of the United States.
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
ISBN: 1669353478
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 23
Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 George Washington was the president of a company that was developing the navigability of the Potomac River. He was offered valuable shares in the company for himself and his heirs, but he only accepted if he could give whatever dividends that came his way to charities. #2 The United States was formed in 1776, but was not fully formed until 1789. Until then, the thirteen former British colonies were held uneasily together by the Articles of Confederation. The question was by whom and to what end the powers of the Confederation would be qualified. #3 In 1786, the rickety Confederation was appalled when Massachusetts was revolutionized by one Captain Daniel Shays, a revolutionary hero whom Lafayette had presented with an expensive sword. But by September of 1786, Shays was obliged to sell the sword. #4 In 1787, Washington was officially notified that Congress had named the second Monday in May for a convention to meet in Philadelphia for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. However, Congress only agreed to the Annapolis Convention’s proposal that there be a meeting of delegates from all the States at Philadelphia in May to take into consideration the Trade and Commerce of the United States.
Lincoln
Author: Gore Vidal
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307784231
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 673
Book Description
Lincoln is the cornerstone of Gore Vidal's fictional American chronicle, which includes Burr, 1876, Washington, D.C., Empire, and Hollywood. It opens early on a frozen winter morning in 1861, when President-elect Abraham Lincoln slips into Washington, flanked by two bodyguards. The future president is in disguise, for there is talk of a plot to murder him. During the next four years there will be numerous plots to murder this man who has sworn to unite a disintegrating nation. Isolated in a ramshackle White House in the center of a proslavery city, Lincoln presides over a fragmenting government as Lee's armies beat at the gates. In this profoundly moving novel, a work of epic proportions and intense human sympathy, Lincoln is observed by his loved ones and his rivals. The cast of characters is almost Dickensian: politicians, generals, White House aides, newspapermen, Northern and Southern conspirators, amiably evil bankers, and a wife slowly going mad. Vidal's portrait of the president is at once intimate and monumental, stark and complex, drawn with the wit, grace, and authority of one of the great historical novelists. With a new Introduction by the author.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307784231
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 673
Book Description
Lincoln is the cornerstone of Gore Vidal's fictional American chronicle, which includes Burr, 1876, Washington, D.C., Empire, and Hollywood. It opens early on a frozen winter morning in 1861, when President-elect Abraham Lincoln slips into Washington, flanked by two bodyguards. The future president is in disguise, for there is talk of a plot to murder him. During the next four years there will be numerous plots to murder this man who has sworn to unite a disintegrating nation. Isolated in a ramshackle White House in the center of a proslavery city, Lincoln presides over a fragmenting government as Lee's armies beat at the gates. In this profoundly moving novel, a work of epic proportions and intense human sympathy, Lincoln is observed by his loved ones and his rivals. The cast of characters is almost Dickensian: politicians, generals, White House aides, newspapermen, Northern and Southern conspirators, amiably evil bankers, and a wife slowly going mad. Vidal's portrait of the president is at once intimate and monumental, stark and complex, drawn with the wit, grace, and authority of one of the great historical novelists. With a new Introduction by the author.
Empire
Author: Gore Vidal
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030778424X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 497
Book Description
Empire, the fourth novel in Gore Vidal's monumental six-volume chronicle of the American past, is his prodigiously detailed portrait of the United States at the dawn of the twentieth century as it begins to emerge as a world power. ------While America struggles to define its destiny, beautiful and ambitious Caroline Sanford fights to control her own fate. One of Vidal's most in-spired creations, she is an embodiment of the complex, vigorous young nation. From the back offices of her Washington newspaper, Caroline confronts the two men who threaten to thwart her ambition: William Randolph Hearst and his protégé, Blaise Sanford, Caroline's half brother. In their struggles for power the lives of brother and sister become intertwined with those of Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, as well as Astors, Vanderbilts, and Whitneys--all incarnations of America's Gilded Age. ------"Mr. Vidal demonstrates a political imagination and insider's sagacity equaled by no other practicing fiction writer," said The New York Times Book Review. "Like the earlier novels in his historical cycle, Empire is a wonderfully vivid documentary drama." ------With a new Introduction by the author.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030778424X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 497
Book Description
Empire, the fourth novel in Gore Vidal's monumental six-volume chronicle of the American past, is his prodigiously detailed portrait of the United States at the dawn of the twentieth century as it begins to emerge as a world power. ------While America struggles to define its destiny, beautiful and ambitious Caroline Sanford fights to control her own fate. One of Vidal's most in-spired creations, she is an embodiment of the complex, vigorous young nation. From the back offices of her Washington newspaper, Caroline confronts the two men who threaten to thwart her ambition: William Randolph Hearst and his protégé, Blaise Sanford, Caroline's half brother. In their struggles for power the lives of brother and sister become intertwined with those of Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, as well as Astors, Vanderbilts, and Whitneys--all incarnations of America's Gilded Age. ------"Mr. Vidal demonstrates a political imagination and insider's sagacity equaled by no other practicing fiction writer," said The New York Times Book Review. "Like the earlier novels in his historical cycle, Empire is a wonderfully vivid documentary drama." ------With a new Introduction by the author.
United States: Essays 1952-1992
Author: Gore Vidal
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 1984823957
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1535
Book Description
A compilation of 114 classic essays from Gore Vidal. "A marvelous compendium of sharp wit and independent judgment that confirms his status as a man of letters." —Publishers Weekly From the age of Eisenhower to the dawning of the Clinton era, Gore Vidal’s United States offers an incomparably rich tapestry of American intellectual and political life in a tumultuous period. It also provides the best, most sustained exposure possible to the most wide-ranging, acute, and original literary intelligence of the post–World War II years. United States is an essential book in the canon of twentieth-century American literature and an endlessly fascinating work.
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 1984823957
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1535
Book Description
A compilation of 114 classic essays from Gore Vidal. "A marvelous compendium of sharp wit and independent judgment that confirms his status as a man of letters." —Publishers Weekly From the age of Eisenhower to the dawning of the Clinton era, Gore Vidal’s United States offers an incomparably rich tapestry of American intellectual and political life in a tumultuous period. It also provides the best, most sustained exposure possible to the most wide-ranging, acute, and original literary intelligence of the post–World War II years. United States is an essential book in the canon of twentieth-century American literature and an endlessly fascinating work.
The Golden Age
Author: Gore Vidal
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0375724818
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 482
Book Description
The Golden Age is Vidal's crowning achievement, a vibrant tapestry of American political and cultural life from 1939 to 1954, when the epochal events of World War II and the Cold War transformed America, once and for all, for good or ill, from a republic into an empire. The sharp-eyed and sympathetic witnesses to these events are Caroline Sanford, Hollywood actress turned Washington D.C., newspaper publisher, and Peter Sanford, her nephew and publisher of the independent intellectual journal The American Idea. They experience at first hand the masterful maneuvers of Franklin Roosevelt to bring a reluctant nation into the Second World War, and, later, the actions of Harry Truman that commit the nation to a decade-long twilight struggle against Communism—developments they regard with a decided skepticism even though it ends in an American global empire. The locus of these events is Washington D.C., yet the Hollywood film industry and the cultural centers of New York also play significant parts. In addition to presidents, the actual characters who appear so vividly in the pages of The Golden Age include Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Wendell Willkie, William Randolph Hearst, Dean Acheson, Tennessee Williams, Joseph Alsop, Dawn Powell—and Gore Vidal himself. The Golden Age offers up U.S. history as only Gore Vidal can, with unrivaled penetration, wit, and high drama, allied to a classical view of human fate. It is a supreme entertainment that is not only sure to be a major bestseller but that will also change listeners' understanding of American history and power.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0375724818
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 482
Book Description
The Golden Age is Vidal's crowning achievement, a vibrant tapestry of American political and cultural life from 1939 to 1954, when the epochal events of World War II and the Cold War transformed America, once and for all, for good or ill, from a republic into an empire. The sharp-eyed and sympathetic witnesses to these events are Caroline Sanford, Hollywood actress turned Washington D.C., newspaper publisher, and Peter Sanford, her nephew and publisher of the independent intellectual journal The American Idea. They experience at first hand the masterful maneuvers of Franklin Roosevelt to bring a reluctant nation into the Second World War, and, later, the actions of Harry Truman that commit the nation to a decade-long twilight struggle against Communism—developments they regard with a decided skepticism even though it ends in an American global empire. The locus of these events is Washington D.C., yet the Hollywood film industry and the cultural centers of New York also play significant parts. In addition to presidents, the actual characters who appear so vividly in the pages of The Golden Age include Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Wendell Willkie, William Randolph Hearst, Dean Acheson, Tennessee Williams, Joseph Alsop, Dawn Powell—and Gore Vidal himself. The Golden Age offers up U.S. history as only Gore Vidal can, with unrivaled penetration, wit, and high drama, allied to a classical view of human fate. It is a supreme entertainment that is not only sure to be a major bestseller but that will also change listeners' understanding of American history and power.
1876
Author: Gore Vidal
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525565779
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
The third volume of Gore Vidal's magnificent series of historical novels aimed at demythologizing the American past, 1876 chronicles the political scandals and dark intrigues that rocked the United States in its centennial year. ------Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler, Aaron Burr's unacknowledged son, returns to a flamboyant America after his long, self-imposed European exile. The narrator of Burr has come home to recoup a lost fortune by arranging a suitable marriage for his beautiful daughter, the widowed Princess d'Agrigente, and by ingratiating himself with Samuel Tilden, the favored presidential candidate in the centennial year. With these ambitions and with their own abundant charms, Schuyler and his daughter soon find themselves at the centers of American social and political power at a time when the fading ideals of the young republic were being replaced by the excitement of empire. ------"A glorious piece of writing," said Jimmy Breslin in Harper's. "Vidal can take history and make it powerful and astonishing." Time concurred: "Vidal has no peers at breathing movement and laughter into the historical past." ------With a new Introduction by the author.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525565779
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
The third volume of Gore Vidal's magnificent series of historical novels aimed at demythologizing the American past, 1876 chronicles the political scandals and dark intrigues that rocked the United States in its centennial year. ------Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler, Aaron Burr's unacknowledged son, returns to a flamboyant America after his long, self-imposed European exile. The narrator of Burr has come home to recoup a lost fortune by arranging a suitable marriage for his beautiful daughter, the widowed Princess d'Agrigente, and by ingratiating himself with Samuel Tilden, the favored presidential candidate in the centennial year. With these ambitions and with their own abundant charms, Schuyler and his daughter soon find themselves at the centers of American social and political power at a time when the fading ideals of the young republic were being replaced by the excitement of empire. ------"A glorious piece of writing," said Jimmy Breslin in Harper's. "Vidal can take history and make it powerful and astonishing." Time concurred: "Vidal has no peers at breathing movement and laughter into the historical past." ------With a new Introduction by the author.
Political Animal
Author: Heather Neilson
Publisher: Monash University Publishing
ISBN: 192186768X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
The late Gore Vidal occupied a unique position within American letters. Born into a political family, he ran for office several times, but was consistently critical of his nation’s political system and its leaders. A prolific writer in several genres, he was also widely known – particularly in the United States – on the basis of his frequent appearances in the various electronic media. In this groundbreaking work examining the central theme of power throughout Vidal’s writings, Heather Neilson focuses primarily on Vidal’s historical fiction. In his novels depicting American history and those set in ancient times, Vidal evokes a world in which deliberately propagated falsehood – ‘disinformation’ – becomes established as truth. Neilson engages with Vidal’s representations of political and religious leaders, and with his deeply ambivalent fascination with the increasingly inescapable influence of the media. She asserts that Vidal’s oeuvre has a Shakespearean resonance in its persistent obsession with the question of what constitutes legitimate power and authority.
Publisher: Monash University Publishing
ISBN: 192186768X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
The late Gore Vidal occupied a unique position within American letters. Born into a political family, he ran for office several times, but was consistently critical of his nation’s political system and its leaders. A prolific writer in several genres, he was also widely known – particularly in the United States – on the basis of his frequent appearances in the various electronic media. In this groundbreaking work examining the central theme of power throughout Vidal’s writings, Heather Neilson focuses primarily on Vidal’s historical fiction. In his novels depicting American history and those set in ancient times, Vidal evokes a world in which deliberately propagated falsehood – ‘disinformation’ – becomes established as truth. Neilson engages with Vidal’s representations of political and religious leaders, and with his deeply ambivalent fascination with the increasingly inescapable influence of the media. She asserts that Vidal’s oeuvre has a Shakespearean resonance in its persistent obsession with the question of what constitutes legitimate power and authority.
Creation
Author: Gore Vidal
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525565787
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 590
Book Description
Once again the incomparable Gore Vidal interprets and animates history -- this time in a panoramic tour of the 5th century B.C. -- and embellishes it with his own ironic humor, brilliant insights, and piercing observations. We meet a vast array of historical figures in a staggering novel of love, war, philosophy, and adventure . . . "There isn't a page of CREATION that doesn't inform and very few pages that do not delight." -- John Leonard, The New York Times
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525565787
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 590
Book Description
Once again the incomparable Gore Vidal interprets and animates history -- this time in a panoramic tour of the 5th century B.C. -- and embellishes it with his own ironic humor, brilliant insights, and piercing observations. We meet a vast array of historical figures in a staggering novel of love, war, philosophy, and adventure . . . "There isn't a page of CREATION that doesn't inform and very few pages that do not delight." -- John Leonard, The New York Times