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The Genius of
America: How the Constitution Saved Our
Country and Why it Can
Again
by Eric Lane and Michael
Oreskes
"If this book has one message, it is
that there is nothing about our past
success that guarantees our future
success. Each generation must do that for
itself. Nevertheless, this is a hopeful
message, because we are not alone in our
struggle. We have been given a great gift
and with it a great responsibility. We are
the inheritors of the longest democratic
tradition in the world. We still hold in
great respect the men who began that
tradition and the men and women who
carried it forth and bequeathed it to us.
That respect is a resource for us now. The
struggles we are having, the frustrations
we are feeling, are exactly the struggles
and frustrations the framers anticipated
when they designed our democracy. We can
lean on them and their experience. By
reading backward to them and their ideas,
we can move forward."
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Dr. Dolhenty's Review of this
Book
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Driven Out:
The Forgotten War Against Chinese
Americans
by Jean Pfaelzer
The brutal and systematic "ethnic
cleansing" of Chinese Americans in
California and the Pacific Northwest in
the second half of the nineteenth century
is a shocking -- and virtually
unexplored&endash;chapter of American
history. Driven Out unearths this
forgotten episode in our nation's past.
Drawing on years of groundbreaking
research, Jean Pfaelzer reveals how,
beginning in 1848, lawless citizens and
duplicitous politicians purged dozens of
communities of thousands of Chinese
residents -- and how the victims bravely
fought back.
In Driven Out, Jean Pfaelzer
sheds a harsh light on America's past.
This is a story of hitherto unknown racial
pogroms, purges, roundups, and brutal
terror, but also a record of valiant
resistance and community. This deeply
resonant and eye-opening work documents a
significant and disturbing episode in
American history.
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an Excerpt from this Book
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Adopted
Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the
Friendship that Saved the
Revolution
by David A.
Clary
They were unlikely comrades-in-arms.
One was a self-taught, middle-aged
Virginia planter in charge of a ragtag
army of revolutionaries, the other a rich,
glory-seeking teenage French aristocrat.
But the childless Washington and the
orphaned Lafayette forged a bond between
them as strong as any between father and
son. It was an unbreakable trust that saw
them through betrayals, shifting political
alliances, and the trials of war.
Their friendship continued throughout
their lives. Lafayette inspired widespread
French support for a struggling young
America and personally influenced
Washington's antislavery views.
Washington's enduring example as general
and statesman guided Lafayette during
France's own revolution years later.
Using personal letters and other key
historical documents, Adopted Son offers a
rare glimpse of the American Revolution
through the friendship between Washington
and Lafayette. It offers dramatic accounts
of battles and intimate portraits of such
major figures as Alexander Hamilton,
Benedict Arnold, and Benjamin Franklin.
The result is a remarkable, little-known
epic of friendship, revolution, and the
birth of a nation.
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Excerpt from this Book
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The Faiths
of the Founding Fathers
by David L.
Holmes
It is not uncommon to hear Christians
argue that America was founded as a
Christian nation. But how true is this
claim? In this compact book, David L.
Holmes offers a clear, concise and
illuminating look at the spiritual beliefs
of our founding fathers. He begins with an
informative account of the religious
culture of the late colonial era,
surveying the religious groups in each
colony. In particular, he sheds light on
the various forms of Deism that flourished
in America, highlighting the profound
influence this intellectual movement had
on the founding generation. Holmes then
examines the individual beliefs of a
variety of men and women who loom large in
our national history.
An intriguing look at a neglected
aspect of our history, the book will
appeal to American history buffs as well
as to anyone concerned about the role of
religion in American culture. David L.
Holmes is Walter G. Mason Professor of
Religious Studies at the College of
William and Mary. He is the author of A
Brief History of the Episcopal Church, A
Nation Mourns, other books, and
numerous articles.
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Over Here:
How the G.I. Bill Transformed the
American Dream
by Edward
Humes
Humes examines and celebrates the G.I.
Bill, the benefit program for veterans
signed into law two weeks after D-Day. A
remarkably farsighted piece of
legislation, the G.I. Bill aimed to
reintegrate into American society the 16
million veterans who would return from
WWII. To explain how the bill worked,
Humes tells the stories of 10 veterans,
showing how G.I. benefits changed their
postwar lives and transformed American
society.
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Overthrow:
America's Century of Regime Change from
Hawaii to Iraq
by Stephen
Kinzer
A fast-paced narrative history of the
coups, revolutions, and invasions by which
the United States has toppled fourteen
foreign governments -- not always to its
own benefit. In Overthrow, Stephen
Kinzer tells the stories of the audacious
politicians, spies, military commanders,
and business executives who took it upon
themselves to depose monarchs, presidents,
and prime ministers. He also shows that
the U.S. government has often pursued
these operations without understanding the
countries involved; as a result, many of
them have had disastrous long-term
consequences. In a compelling and
provocative history that takes readers to
fourteen countries, including Cuba, Iran,
South Vietnam, Chile, and Iraq, Kinzer
surveys modern American history from a new
and often surprising perspective.
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Dr. Dolhenty's Review of This
Book
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1776
by David
McCullough
Esteemed historian David McCullough
covers the military side of the momentous
year of 1776 with characteristic insight
and a gripping narrative, adding new
scholarship and a fresh perspective to the
beginning of the American Revolution. It
was a turbulent and confusing time. As
British and American politicians struggled
to reach a compromise, events on the
ground escalated until war was inevitable.
McCullough writes vividly about the dismal
conditions that troops on both sides had
to endure, including an unusually harsh
winter, and the role that luck and the
whims of the weather played in helping the
colonial forces hold off the world's
greatest army. He also effectively
explores the importance of motivation and
troop morale--a tie was as good as a win
to the Americans, while anything short of
overwhelming victory was disheartening to
the British, who expected a swift end to
the war. The redcoat retreat from Boston,
for example, was particularly humiliating
for the British, while the minor American
victory at Trenton was magnified despite
its limited strategic importance.
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Hamilton,
Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of
Enlightenment and the American
Founding
by Darren
Staloff
In this incisively drawn book, Darren
Staloff forcefully reminds us that America
owes its guiding political traditions to
three founding fathers whose lives
embodied the collision of Europe's grand
Enlightenment project with the birth of
the nation.
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A Great
Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the
Birth of America
by Stacy
Schiff
"It is always a pleasure to be able to
give the highest marks for a book that can
bring reading pleasure to all readers.
Stacy Schiff's A Great
Improvisation is just such a book.
American history buffs and those
interested in history in general will
enjoy this book immensely. I can recommend
it without any hesitation. Stacy Schiff, a
Pulitzer Prize winner for one of her
previous books, exhibits an outstanding
writing style combined with a flair for
the interesting details (often unreported)
that make for a great historical
read."
Read Dr. Dolhenty's review of this book
by clicking HERE.
A
Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and
the Birth of America,
by
Stacy Schiff
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An Important
Contribution to American
History
It could be that Susan Jacoby's latest
book may finally put an end to the
ignorance that most Americans exhibit
about the role that secularism has played
in the social, cultural, and political
development of the United States. It is a
fact that Americans are woefully deficient
when it comes to knowledge about American
history, a lack which permits those with
specific socio-political agendas to
perpetuate distortions about the part that
secularism and religion played in the
founding of this nation and continue to
play in its evolution.
Read Dr. Dolhenty's review of this book
by CLICKING
HERE
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Paul Johnson
Does It Again!
Here is the best book on American
history produced thus far. Those of you
familiar with Johnson's A History of
Christianity will know that this will
be a real treat. Johnson knows how to
write for the ordinary person. A
breakthrough in American historical
interpretation. You won't be
disappointed!
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For the Real
History Buff!
"This is a book for all of us who enjoy
reading about secret intelligence,
espionage, spies, and so forth.
Christopher Andrew shows us how the
presidency was changed by the workings of
the U.S. intelligence community. A must
for American history buffs." Jonathan
Dolhenty
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Crime and
Punishment
A good, solid, objective history of
crime and punishment. It will open your
eyes to some things you've never been told
about the history of our criminal justice
system.
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When in the
Course of Human Events
The Civil War, Charles Adams argues,
was not about slavery or the Union; it was
about tariffs! The Southern states had a
right to secede. Slavery would have ended
at some point, but Lincoln did not
particularly threaten it. It was, Adams
maintains, the "dueling tariffs" of the
Union and the Confederacy that caused the
war. Within his states' rights argument,
the author maintains secession's legality
should have been determined by the courts,
and slaveholders should have been
compensated for the property they lost
through emancipation. This bold and
thought provoking book is a must read for
anyone interested in a fresh perspective
on the causes of the American Civil
War.
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