History - June 8, 2012
You're viewing an archived version of the History newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter or check out all of our newsletters.
|
Friday, June 8, 2012 You are receiving this newsletter because you were subscribed to Past and Present. While this newsletter represents the "Past" part, a more "Present"-themed newsletter is still to be developed. You can modify your subscription or unsubscribe using the link below. View more History: Blog View | Archived Newsletter View | Insider Questions? Email madtech @ scls.lib.wi.us |
 Alice's Piano: The Life of Alice Herz-Sommer How music provided hope in one of the world's darkest times - the inspirational life story of Alice Herz-Sommer, the oldest living Holocaust survivor Alice Herz-Sommer was born in Prague in 1903. A talented pianist from a very early age, she became famous throughout Europe; but, as the Nazis rose to power, her world crumbled. In 1942, her mother was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp and vanished. In 1943, Alice, her husband and their six-year-old son were sent there, too. In the midst of horror, music, especially Chopin's Etudes, was Alice's salvation. Theresienstadt was a "show camp", a living slice of Nazi propaganda created to convince outsiders that the Jews were being treated humanely. In more than a hundred concerts, Alice gave her fellow prisoners hope in a time of suffering. Written with the cooperation of Alice Herz-Sommer, Alice's Piano is the first time her story has been told. At 107 years old, she continues to play her piano in London and bring hope to many. |
 Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War This narrative history of China's 19th-century Taiping Rebellion (which cost some 20 million lives) brims with unforgettable characters and vivid recreations of massive and sometimes gruesome battles--a riveting, sweeping, and intimate portrait of the largest civil war in history. |
 Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization Historian Kriwaczek (Yiddish Civilization) brings to life the world of ancient Mesopotamia and the city of Babylon, tracing their rise from a loose federation to a monarchy to the rise of ancient Sumerian civilization, with its tales of the Great Flood and the epics of semidivine heroes such as Gilgamesh. |
 Dreaming in French: The Paris Years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis A year in Paris. Countless American students have been lured by that vision--and been transformed by their sojourn in the City of Light. These stories tell of that experience, and how it changed the lives of three extraordinary American women. |
 The Dreyfus Affair: The Scandal That Tore France in Two On the basis of flimsy evidence, Dreyfus was placed under arrest for the crime of high treason. Not long afterward, he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life on the legendary, lethal Devil's Island. The saga of Dreyfus's many trials-he was not exonerated until 1906, twelve years after first being arrested-the fight to free him, and the intrigues on both sides, is a fast-moving mystery story rife with heroes and villains, loose women, loyal wives, bisexual men, tricksters, and charlatans. But this was no mere sideshow. The anti-Semitism and deceit on display in the Dreyfus case was an ominous prelude to the Holocaust and the long, bloody twentieth century to come. In an era when religious conflict, fierce patriotism, and charged debates over national identity pervade the public sphere, the scandal of Captain Dreyfus still has much to teach us. In the hands of prizewinning novelist, biographer, and narrative historian Piers Paul Read, this real-life morality tale comes alive for a new generation. Using his storytelling skills and a nuanced, deep knowledge of French history, Read rediscovers l'affaire Dreyfus as a rich, riveting tale. |
 Eisenhower: in War and Peace A peerless biographer returns with a new life of Dwight D. Eisenhower that is as full, rich, and revealing as anything ever written about America's thirty-fourth president. |
 Heaven Cracks, Earth Shakes: The Tangshan Earthquake and the Death of Mao’s China In Heaven cracks, earth shakes, acclaimed historian James Palmer tells the story of 1976, the most tumultuous year in modern Chinese history. The year began with the death of the popular Premier Zhou Enlai, whose passing was widely mourned by the masses-- but this public grief quickly turned to anger when the Gang of Four stifled attempts to mourn Zhou publically. When a massive earthquake struck Tangshan a few months later, the disaster revealed the profound failures of Mao's China. As Tangshan lay in ruins, the central government cared more about ideological struggles than rescuing its own people. The year climaxed with Mao's death, followed in short order by a palace coup, which wrested the reins of power from the Gang of Four and put an end to the Cultural Revolution. |
 Lost Kingdom: Hawaii's Last Queen, the Sugar Kings and America's First Imperial Adventure Deftly weaving together a memorable cast of characters, "Lost Hawaii" brings to life the ensuing clash between a vulnerable Polynesian people and relentlessly expanding capitalist powers. Portraits of royalty and rogues, sugar barons, and missionaries combine into a sweeping tale of the Hawaiian Kingdom's rise and fall. At the center of the story is Lili'uokalani, the last queen of Hawai'i. |
 New York at War: Four Centuries of Combat, Fear, and Intrigue in Gotham This title presents the complete military history of New York from the colonial era to 9/11, showing how the Empire City and its inhabitants have been fundamentally shaped by war. |
 Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty A revelatory look at how Roger Williams shaped the nature of religion, political power, and individual rights in America. For four hundred years, Americans have wrestled with and fought over two concepts that define the nature of the nation: the proper relation between church and state and between a free individual and the state. These debates began with the extraordinary thought and struggles of Roger Williams, who had an unparalleled understanding of the conflict between a government that justified itself by "reason of state"-i.e. national security-and its perceived "will of God" and the "ancient rights and liberties" of individuals. This is a story of power, set against Puritan America and the English Civil War. Williams's interactions with King James, Francis Bacon, Oliver Cromwell, and his mentor Edward Coke set his course, but his fundamental ideas came to fruition in America, as Williams, though a Puritan, collided with John Winthrop's vision of his "City upon a Hill." Acclaimed historian John M. Barry explores the development of these fundamental ideas through the story of the man who was the first to link religious freedom to individual liberty, and who created in America the first government and society on earth informed by those beliefs. The story is essential to the continuing debate over how we define the role of religion and political power in modern American life. |
 Shiloh, 1862: The First Great and Terrible Battle of the Civil War In the spring of 1862, many Americans still believed that the Civil War, "would be over by Christmas." The previous summer in Virginia, Bull Run, with nearly 5,000 casualties, had been shocking, but suddenly came word from a far away place in the wildernesses of Southwest Tennessee of an appalling battle costing 23,000 casualties, most of them during a single day. It was more than had resulted from the entire American Revolution. As author Winston Groom reveals in this dramatic, heart-rending account, the Battle of Shiloh would singlehandedly change the psyche of the military, politicians, and American people--North and South--about what they had unleashed by creating a Civil War. In this gripping telling of the first "great and terrible" battle of the Civil War, Groom describes the dramatic events of April 6 and 7, 1862, when a bold surprise attack on Ulysses S. Grant's encamped troops and the bloody battle that ensued would alter the timbre of the war. |
 Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain Long neglected by European historians, the unspeakable atrocities of Franco's Spain are finally brought to tragic light in this definitive work by Paul Preston, the world's foremost historian of 20th-century Spain. |
 To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker This volume on the personal history of escaped slave Mary Walker describes the heart wrenching story of a mother who escaped slavery in the South leaving her family behind, and her years-long efforts to save her children. Drawn from letters and diaries from both the slave holding family and the abolitionists who helped Walker, the work combines a discussion of the lives of ordinary escaped slaves in the North with the deep emotional narrative of this particular story of separation and loss. While scholarly in nature, the clear narrative style and compelling primary source material make the book appealing to general readers as well as historians. |
