Civil War Women

The ancient world and its politics come to life through the eyes of a young Jewish woman, Mary of Nazareth Miriam–also known as Mary–was born into a Palestine oppressed by Herod the Great; she is accustomed to living with uncertainty and unrest. But when her beloved father is wrongly...

Meet Harry S. Truman, Joe McCarthy, Ike, JFK, LBJ, Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall, Elvis Presley, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Full coverage of everything, including President Clinton's impeachment trial.

This is the story of how America's first women soldiers helped win World War I, earned the vote, and fought the US Army. In 1918 the US Army Signal Corps sent 223 women to France. They were masters of the latest technology: the telephone switchboard. General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, demanded female "wire experts" when he discovered that inexperienced doughboys were unable to keep him connected with troops under fire.

Rich in detail, filled with fascinating characters, and panoramic in its sweep, this magnificent, comprehensive work tells for the first time the complete story of the American woman from the Pilgrims to the 21st-century In this sweeping cultural history, Gail Collins explores the...

Before he shot the president of the United States and entered the annals of history as a killer, actor John Wilkes Booth had quite a way with women. There was the actress who cut his throat and almost killed him in a jealous rage. There was the prostitute who tried to kill herself because he abandoned her. There was the actress who would swear she witnessed him murdering Lincoln, even though she was thousands of miles away at the time. John Wilkes Booth was hungry for fame, touchy about politics, and a notorious womanizer. But this book isn't about John Wilkes Booth---not really. This book is about his women: women who were once notorious in their own right; women who were consumed by love, jealousy, strife, and heartbreak; women whose lives took wild turns before and after Lincoln's assassination; women whom have been condemned to the footnotes of history... until now.

Every memoir of the American Civil War provides us with another view of the catastrophe that changed the country forever. The Other Side of the War reveals the war as experienced by the thousands of women volunteered to work in hospitals and for the Sanitary Commission, the organization that advocated better practices and lobbied for increased supplies. Katharine Prescott Wormeley was one of those volunteers, an American nurse in the Civil War, as well as author, editor, and and one of America’s best-known translators of French language literary works.

Throughout World War II, when Saturday nights came around, servicemen and hostesses happily forgot the war for a little while as they danced together in USO clubs, which served as havens of stability in a time of social, moral, and geographic upheaval. Meghan Winchell demonstrates that in addition to boosting soldier morale, the USO acted as an architect of the gender roles and sexual codes that shaped the "greatest generation".

Raised on Charles Baudelaire, A Clockwork Orange, and fine Bordeaux in 1970s Lebanon, Darina Al-Joundi was encouraged by her unconventional father to defy all taboos. As the bombs fell, she lived an adolescence of excess and transgression, defying death in nightclubs. The more oppressive the country became, the more drugs and anonymous sex she had, fueling the resentment by day of the same men who would spend the night with her. As the war dies down, she begins to incur the consequences of her lifestyle. On his deathbed, her father's last wish is for his favorite song, "Sinnerman" by Nina Simone, to be played at his funeral.

“A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly.” —Zadie Smith One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century...

In the tradition of Katherine Boo and Tracy Kidder, this nonfiction drama traces one woman’s journey from the mist-covered mountains of Laos to the sunbaked flatlands of Fresno, California as she struggled to overcome the wounds inflicted by war and family alike​. As combat rages across the...

In this Public Domain autobiography, Clara Barton shares unique glimpses of her personal life throughout her childhood. From stories about her siblings to time in school, Barton delves into what made her formative years in New England during the time of Andrew Jackson unique. In this edition, perfect for Middle-School-aged students, you will find ten lesson plans in the forward to help students connect with the book and relate with Clara Barton beyond her role as a historical figure.

Slavery in the United States has left deep, unhealed wounds in American society. It was a dark period in American history that saw the emergence of a number of heroes. One of these was a small woman, about five feet tall, who was a former slave. Her name was Harriet Tubman, and she changed the world. After escaping from a life of slavery that left her with permanent scars including a lifelong disability, she dedicated herself to freeing other slaves and working tirelessly for equality for oppressed people.

"I believe that it is as much a right and duty for women to do something with their lives as for men and we are not going to be satisfied with such frivolous parts as you give us." - Louisa May Alcott, Rose in Bloom Louisa May Alcott (1832 - 1888) was one of the best authors of her day, but even though she's remembered primarily for being a late 19th century novelist, she was also a progressive Transcendentalist.

'The best and the worst of our shared humanity...breathtaking and heartbreaking.' The Hon. Dame Quentin Bryce AD CVO One woman's astonishing journey from unimaginable trauma to becoming a power for good. In 1999, Sierra Leone was in the midst of a brutal civil war where mindless violence...

Shannon Watts was a stay-at-home mom folding laundry when news broke of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. In one moment, she went from outraged to engaged and decided to do something about it. What started as a simple Facebook group to connect with other frustrated parents grew into...

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, listeners can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

In the majority of cases, a pop or rock fan who is asked about a particular celebrity will answer in unambiguous terms.

Imagine being 15 years old, facing the bloodiest battle ever to take place on US soil: the Battle of Gettysburg. In July 1863, this is exactly what happened to Tillie Pierce, a normal teenager who became an unlikely heroine of the Civil War (1861-1865). Tillie and other women and girls like her found themselves trapped during this critical three-day battle in Southern Pennsylvania.

Before the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth was one of the most famous actors of his time, and President Abraham Lincoln had even watched him perform, but his most significant performance at a theater did not take place on the stage. That night, Booth became one of history’s most infamous assassins when he shot President Lincoln. Perhaps not surprisingly, the actor’s flair for the dramatic came at a cost to the plot. It took almost no time for the shocked public and the federal government to begin unraveling Booth’s conspiracy, which had mostly faltered from the beginning.