Tag: American

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Divine Collision: An African Boy, an American Lawyer, and Their Remarkable Battle for Freedom

Los Angeles lawyer and law professor, Jim Gash, tells the amazing true story of how, after a series of God-orchestrated events, he finds himself in the heart of Africa defending a courageous Ugandan boy languishing in prison and wrongfully accused of two separate murders. Ultimately, their unlikely friendship and unrelenting persistence reforms Uganda’s criminal justice system, leaving a lasting impact on hundreds of thousands of lives and unearthing a friendship that supersedes circumstance, culture and the walls we often hide behind.

There is no greater love than laying down your life for a friend. This profound love seeps through every page of Jim and Henry’s story, like a healing balm. Over the last several years I have had the great privilege of witnessing Jim’s passion for Ugandan people and his willingness to lay down his own life for others. Divine Collision will remind you once again how one small gesture of love can make a monumental impact on a person for eternity.
Katie Davis, Author of the New York Times Bestseller Kisses from Katie

With great courage and conviction, Jim Gash provides an extraordinary glimpse into the power of obedience, prayer, and hope in transforming not only one life-or even one community-but an entire justice system. Divine Collision speaks to what is at the heart of our Christian calling: Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow (Isaiah 1:17).
Gary A. Haugen, President & CEO of International Justice Mission and author of The Locust Effect

Divine Collision is a captivating book! Jesus calls us to visit the prisoner, proclaim justice for the oppressed, and set the captive free. Too often we’ve forgotten that He really meant it. Jim Gash didn’t forget, and his book reminds us this is Jesus’ call for us too.
Richard Stearns, President of World Vision U.S. and Author of The Hole in Our Gospel and Unfinished

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Why Are Conservatives Always Wrong?: Terrifying Quotes from Conservatives Throughout American History

“Trees cause more pollution than cars.” Ronald Reagan, 1981. Just in time for the 2016 election! With every great social issue America has faced: slavery, women’s suffrage, desegregation, the environment, interracial marriage, one side has always been wrong: the conservatives. Drawing from the Congressional record, the media, and the campaign trail, this book examines American conservatism in its own words. You’ll see how the beliefs and policies of yesterday’s conservatives sound odious and shameful to us now. You’ll also see the dark undercurrent of violence that has always accompanied protecting wealth and power. You get a powerful argument about how ignorant and vile future Americans will see this election year’s conservatives like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

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Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush

In this brilliant biography, Jon Meacham, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author, chronicles the life of George Herbert Walker Bush. Drawing on President Bush’s personal diaries, on the diaries of his wife, Barbara, and on extraordinary access to the forty-first president and his family, Meacham paints an intimate and surprising portrait of an intensely private man who led the nation through tumultuous times. From the Oval Office to Camp David, from his study in the private quarters of the White House to Air Force One, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the first Gulf War to the end of Communism, Destiny and Power charts the thoughts, decisions, and emotions of a modern president who may have been the last of his kind. This is the human story of a man who was, like the nation he led, at once noble and flawed.

His was one of the great American lives. Born into a loving, privileged, and competitive family, Bush joined the navy on his eighteenth birthday and at age twenty was shot down on a combat mission over the Pacific. He married young, started a family, and resisted pressure to go to Wall Street, striking out for the adventurous world of Texas oil. Over the course of three decades, Bush would rise from the chairmanship of his county Republican Party to serve as congressman, ambassador to the United Nations, head of the Republican National Committee, envoy to China, director of Central Intelligence, vice president under Ronald Reagan, and, finally, president of the United States. In retirement he became the first president since John Adams to see his son win the ultimate prize in American politics.

With access not only to the Bush diaries but, through extensive interviews, to the former president himself, Meacham presents Bush’s candid assessments of many of the critical figures of the age, ranging from Richard Nixon to Nancy Reagan; Mao to Mikhail Gorbachev; Dick Cheney to Donald Rumsfeld; Henry Kissinger to Bill Clinton. Here is high politics as it really is but as we rarely see it.

From the Pacific to the presidency, Destiny and Power charts the vicissitudes of the life of this quietly compelling American original. Meacham sheds new light on the rise of the right wing in the Republican Party, a shift that signaled the beginning of the end of the center in American politics. Destiny and Power is an affecting portrait of a man who, driven by destiny and by duty, forever sought, ultimately, to put the country first.

Advance praise for Destiny and Power

“Altogether fair, insightful . . . a portrait made especially compelling by the author’s remarkable access to Bush’s private White House diaries. This is a timely, first-rate book!”—David McCullough

“What a spectacular and moving portrait this is—not only of a remarkably classy man but of the era that shaped him! It is hard to imagine a biographer more fitted than Jon Meacham to write what will surely be the definitive work on George Herbert Walker Bush.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin

“This astonishing book is both timely and timeless. . . . A fascinating and insightful portrayal of the life of an exemplary American citizen.”—Walter Isaacson

“Jon Meacham’s timely and intimate biography of George Bush 41 is a welcome reminder of this modest president’s call to service, from the cockpits of World War II to the Oval Office and the end of the Cold War.”—Tom Brokaw

“This riveting biography by the incomparable Jon Meacham gives George H. W. Bush his well-deserved place in history. Destiny and Power is full of surprises, revealing 41’s important role in scene after crucial historical scene of the past seven decades.”—Michael Beschloss

From the Hardcover edition.

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Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History

“Another blockbuster! Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates reads like an edge-of-your-seat, page-turning thriller. You will love this book and also wonder why so few people know this story. No one captures the danger, intrigue, and drama of the American Revolution and its aftermath like Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger.” —Brad Thor

This is the little-known story of how a newly indepen­dent nation was challenged by four Muslim powers and what happened when America’s third president decided to stand up to intimidation.
 
When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America faced a crisis. The new nation was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly, but its merchant ships were under attack. Pirates from North Africa’s Barbary coast routinely captured American sailors and held them as slaves, demanding ransom and tribute payments far beyond what the new coun­try could afford.
 
Over the previous fifteen years, as a diplomat and then as secretary of state, Jefferson had tried to work with the Barbary states (Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco). Unfortunately, he found it impossible to negotiate with people who believed their religion jus­tified the plunder and enslavement of non-Muslims. These rogue states would show no mercy—at least not while easy money could be made by extorting the Western powers. So President Jefferson decided to move beyond diplomacy. He sent the U.S. Navy’s new warships and a detachment of Marines to blockade Tripoli—launching the Barbary Wars and beginning America’s journey toward future superpower status.
 
As they did in their previous bestseller, George Washington’s Secret Six, Kilmeade and Yaeger have transformed a nearly forgotten slice of history into a dramatic story that will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next. Among the many sus­penseful episodes:
 
·Lieutenant Andrew Sterett’s ferocious cannon battle on the high seas against the treacherous pirate ship Tripoli.
 
·Lieutenant Stephen Decatur’s daring night raid of an enemy harbor, with the aim of destroying an American ship that had fallen into the pirates’ hands.

·General William Eaton’s unprecedented five-hundred-mile land march from Egypt to the port of Derne, where the Marines launched a surprise attack and an American flag was raised in victory on foreign soil for the first time.
 
Few today remember these men and other heroes who inspired the Marine Corps hymn: “From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli, we fight our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea.” Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates recaptures this forgot­ten war that changed American history with a real-life drama of intrigue, bravery, and battle on the high seas.

From the Hardcover edition.

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Who Built That: Awe-Inspiring Stories of American Tinkerpreneurs

Firebrand conservative columnist, commentator, Internet entrepreneur, and #1 New York Times bestselling author Michelle Malkin tells the fascinating, little-known stories of the inventors who have contributed to American exceptionalism and technological progress.

In July 2012, President Obama infamously proclaimed: “If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

Malkin wholeheartedly disagrees. Who Built That is a rousing tribute to the hidden American capitalists who pioneered everyday inventions. They’re the little big things we take for granted: bottle caps and glassware, door hinges and staples, tissue paper, flashlights, railroad signals, rotary printing presses, bridge cables, and more.

Malkin takes listeners on an eclectic journey of American capitalism, from the colonial period to the Industrial Age to the present, spotlighting awe-inspiring and little-known “tinkerpreneurs” who achieved their dreams of doing well by doing good. You’ll learn how Paul Revere became America’s first tech titan; how famous patent holders Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain championed the nation’s unique system of intellectual property rights; how glass manufacturing mavericks Edward Libbey and Mike Owens defied naysayers to revolutionize food, beverage, and pharmaceutical packaging; how penniless Croatian immigrant Anthony Maglica started his $400 million Maglite flashlight business in a rented garage; and many more riveting stories that explain our country’s fertile climate for scientific advancement and entrepreneurship.

To understand who we are as people, we need to first understand what motivates America’s ordinary and extraordinary makers and risk-takers. Driven by her own experience as a second-generation beneficiary of the American Dream, Malkin skillfully and passionately rebuts collectivist orthodoxy to celebrate the engineers, mechanics, designers, artisans, and relentless tinkerers of all backgrounds who embody our nation’s spirit of self-made entrepreneurialism.

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American Presidents in “Quotes”: Inspiration, Wit and Verbal Gaffes from the Leaders of the USA

Humorous and inspirational quotes from America’s 43 Presidents

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.'”  —Ronald Reagan

“Fighting battles is like courting girls: those who make the most pretensions and are boldest usually win.”  —Rutherford B. Hayes

“The pay is good and I can walk to work.”  —John F. Kennedy

The President of the United States of America is the most powerful person in the world, the leader of the world’s foremost economic and military power with global interests and an unparalleled global reach. The nation’s GDP is close to a quarter of the world’s total and its military budget is almost as great as the rest of the world’s military expenditure put together. So when U.S. Presidents speak people listen. Since George Washington became the first President of the United States in 1789, 42 men have occupied that powerful position, some more memorably than others. Many have been great orators, whose words have given hope and inspiration to the American people, and even the world, during difficult times; some have had very little of note to say and some have sought to deceive; while others at times have managed to put their feet firmly in their mouths. Illustrated with photographs throughout, this book is a celebration of the political rhetoric, wisdom, humor, and gaffes that have been spoken and written by those 43 Presidents of the United States.

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Learning American Sign Language in High School: Motivation, Strategies, and Achievement

Reflecting the exponential growth of college courses offering American Sign Language (ASL) as a foreign language, high schools have followed suit with significant increases in ASL classes during the past two decades. Despite this trend, high school ASL teachers and program administrators possess no concrete information on why students take ASL for foreign language credit, how they learn new signs and grammar, and how different learning techniques determines their achievement in ASL. This new book addresses these issues to better prepare high schools in their recruitment and education of new ASL students.

       Author Russell S. Rosen begins with the history of ASL as a foreign language in high schools, including debates about the foreign language status of ASL, the situation of deaf and hard of hearing students in classes, and governmental recognition of ASL as a language. Based on his study of five high school ASL programs, he defines the factors that motivate students, including community and culture, and analyzes strategies for promoting language processing and learning.  Learning American Sign Language in High School provides strategies for teaching ASL as a second language to students with learning disabilities as well. Its thorough approach ensures the best opportunity for high school students to attain high levels of achievement in learning ASL.

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The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789

From Pulitzer Prize–winning American historian Joseph J. Ellis, the unexpected story of why the thirteen colonies, having just fought off the imposition of a distant centralized governing power, would decide to subordinate themselves anew.

We all know the famous opening phrase of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this Continent a new Nation.” The truth is different. In 1776, thirteen American colonies declared themselves independent states that only temporarily joined forces in order to defeat the British. Once victorious, they planned to go their separate ways. The triumph of the American Revolution was neither an ideological nor a political guarantee that the colonies would relinquish their independence and accept the creation of a federal government with power over their autonomy as states.

The Quartet is the story of this second American founding and of the men most responsible—George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. These men, with the help of Robert Morris and Gouverneur Morris, shaped the contours of American history by diagnosing the systemic dysfunctions created by the Articles of Confederation, manipulating the political process to force the calling of the Constitutional Convention, conspiring to set the agenda in Philadelphia, orchestrating the debate in the state ratifying conventions, and, finally, drafting the Bill of Rights to assure state compliance with the constitutional settlement.

Ellis has given us a gripping and dramatic portrait of one of the most crucial and misconstrued periods in American history: the years between the end of the Revolution and the formation of the federal government. The Quartet unmasks a myth, and in its place presents an even more compelling truth—one that lies at the heart of understanding the creation of the United States of America.

From the Hardcover edition.

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The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power

A groundbreaking investigation of how and why, from the 18th century to the present day, American resistance to our ruling elites has vanished.

From the American Revolution through the Civil Rights movement, Americans have long mobilized against political, social, and economic privilege. Hierarchies based on inheritance, wealth, and political preferment were treated as obnoxious and a threat to democracy. Mass movements envisioned a new world supplanting dog-eat-dog capitalism. But over the last half-century that political will and cultural imagination have vanished. Why?

THE AGE OF ACQUIESCENCE seeks to solve that mystery. Steve Fraser’s account of national transformation brilliantly examines the rise of American capitalism, the visionary attempts to protect the democratic commonwealth, and the great surrender to today’s delusional fables of freedom and the politics of fear. Effervescent and razorsharp, THE AGE OF ACQUIESCENCE will be one of the most provocative and talked-about books of the year.