A hero in America’s war against British tyranny, John Marshall with his heroics as Chief Justice turned the Supreme Court into a bulwark against presidential and congressional tyranny and saved American democracy.In this startling biography, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger reveals how Virginia-born John Marshall emerged from the Revolutionary War’s bloodiest battlefields to become one of the nation’s …
In The Story of My Life recounts, and reflects on, his more than fifty years as a corporate, labor, and criminal lawyer, including the most celebrated and notorious cases of his day: establishing the legal right of a union to strike in the Woodworkers’ Conspiracy Case; exposing, on behalf of the United Mine Workers, the shocking conditions in …
While the big bad corporation has often been the offender in many of the world’s greatest environmental disasters, in the case of the mass poisoning at Camp Lejeune the culprit is a revered institution: the US Marine Corps. For two decades now, revelations have steadily emerged about pervasive contamination, associated clusters of illness and death among the Marine …
As evidenced in the Terri Schiavo case that made national headlines, having a living will is an essential element in ensuring that the way in which you would like to spend your last days will be respected. It informs both family and doctors of your medical treatment preferences in specific situations. An ethical will is a complementary text …
In August 1945 Great Britain, France, the USSR, and the United States established a tribunal at Nuremberg to try military and civilian leaders of the Nazi regime. G. M. Gilbert, the prison psychologist, had an unrivaled firsthand opportunity to watch and question the Nazi war criminals. With scientific dispassion he encouraged Göering, Speer, Hess, Ribbentrop, Frank, Jodl, Keitel, …
Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials
Six Women of Salem is the first work to use the lives of a select number of representative women as a microcosm to illuminate the larger crisis of the Salem witch trials. By the end of the trials, beyond the twenty who were executed and the five who perished in prison, 207 individuals had been accused, 74 …
The Great Divide: The Conflict between Washington and Jefferson that Defined a Nation
In the months after her husband’s death, Martha Washington told several friends that the two worst days of her life were the day George died—and the day Thomas Jefferson came to Mount Vernon to offer his condolences.What could elicit such a strong reaction from the nation’s original first lady? Though history tends to cast the early years of …
The Return of the Light: Twelve Tales from Around the World for the Winter Solstice
The winter solstice, the day the “sun stands still,” marks the longest night and the shortest day of the year, and it comes either on December 20th or 21st. Celebrations honoring the winter solstice as a moment of transition and renewal date back thousands of years and occur among many peoples on every continent. The Return of the …
Among the explorers made famous for revealing hitherto impenetrable culturesT. E. Lawrence and Wilfred Thesiger in the Middle East, Richard Burton in AfricaKnud Rasmussen stands out not only for his physical bravery but also for the beauty of his writing. Part Danish, part Inuit, Rasmussen made a courageous three-year journey by dog sled from Greenland to Alaska to …
Raising the Barre: Big Dreams, False Starts, and My Midlife Quest to Dance the Nutcracker
When I was six, my father nicknamed me Laurisa Kesslova because, he said, all great dancers were Russians, and since I was going to be a great dancer, I needed a Russian name. I aim to reclaim that name.When Lauren Kessler was twelve, her ballet instructor crushed not just her dreams of being a ballerina but also her …