Showing results by narrator "Sean Runnette" in All Categories

Ulysses S. Grant, a war hero who sought peace after the horrors of Civil War, struggled with a Congress that was divided on the issue of civil rights. He watched his own Supreme Court appointments undermine the new Reconstruction amendments to the Constitution as the Court inter­preted them in a narrow, even harsh, fashion. Grant never lost his sta­tus as an American hero.

Chester A. Arthur, who had profited from a plum patronage position dur­ing the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, found himself thrust into a dif­ficult role when his predecessor, James Garfield, died of a gunshot wound. With Garfield’s death, the controversy over political patronage bubbled to a head.

President Andrew Johnson succeeded to the presidency suddenly, when Abraham Lincoln was killed by an assassin. Confronted with the prospect of Reconstruction—bringing the Union back together after a prolonged Civil War—Johnson tolerated harsh treatment of former slaves in South­ern states, believing that it was up to the states to determine their status.

We all have that one older funny family member. You know the one, he tells stories from his experiences and usually has people rolling their eyes. William Stokes is that person! He presents a delightful collection of memories that are truly life lessons even today! Stokes, through his memories and wit, provides opportunities to learn through laughter, sharing of memories and love.

Dwight D. Eisenhower earned public acclaim during World War II as supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe. The first Republican since Herbert Hoover to occupy the White House, “Ike” planned to hold the line against further expansion of federal powers.

Grover Cleveland, the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms, stood up to Congress in asserting his constitutional prerogative to remove certain federal appointees without the Senate’s approval, forcing the repeal of the Tenure of Office Act, which had plagued his predecessors.

Seduced by Slim's stories of the privations of a cross-country trek that ended in the violence of an historic riot and tales of Depression-era work camps, Edie MacDonald has followed him from mine to mine, where he finds work and she cares for their son, Belly, in the thin shelter of canvas tents. Until now. Edie has left Slim behind, passed out in an unheated apartment on the coldest day of the year. Boarding a train with Belly, she travels westward. When the train struggles through a snowstorm and possible calamity, the lens shifts between Belly's perspective and Edie's.

In Breach of Trust, Andrew Bacevich takes stock of the separation between Americans and their military, tracing its origins to the Vietnam era and exploring its pernicious implications: a nation with an abiding appetite for war waged at enormous expense by a standing army demonstrably unable to achieve victory. Among the collateral casualties are values once considered central to democratic practice, including the principle that responsibility for defending the country should rest with its citizens.

John Tyler, despite his adroitness in establishing that he had inherited com­plete presidential power when his predecessor died in office, became a weak and maladroit chief executive during his own time in the White House. Yet, Tyler was not afraid to exercise his authority.

John Quincy Adams, the son of the second president, is generally viewed as a failed chief executive. A respected diplomat who became secretary of state under President James Monroe, JQ Adams won the contested 1824 election with the support of Speaker Henry Clay, whose endorsement led to Adams’s selection by the House of Representatives under the Twelfth Amendment.

The true experiences of President Kennedy in World War II, as he commanded a PT boat in the Solomon Islands and rescued his men after their craft was rammed by a Japanese destroyer.

President Gerald R. Ford, a member of Congress on the verge of retire­ment, was selected by President Nixon to serve as vice president when Spiro T. Agnew abruptly resigned after being charged with accepting bribes. Within months, Ford would become president when Nixon him­self was forced to resign in the wake of the Watergate scandal. An honest, square-jawed, straight-shooting Midwesterner, Ford pardoned Nixon, believing a pardon was the best thing for the country.

President James Buchanan, who believed that the Republican Party and the abolitionists were destroying the nation, personally lobbied the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, hoping it would get him (and the Democratic Party) off the hook on the slavery question. The decision, however, only intensified the conflict over the question. Buchanan was a man of contradictions.

Zachary Taylor, a professional soldier and sugar planter with no previous political experience, held the office of president for barely sixteen months before dying of acute gastroenteritis. A war hero before moving into the White House, he immediately confronted a rogue effort to seize Cuba and had to address issues involving slavery in the new territories acquired from Mexico.

Holding the Line chronicles the carrier war in Korea from the first day of the war to the last, focusing on frontline combat while also describing the technical development of aircraft and shipboard operations and how these all affected the broader strategic situation on the Korean Peninsula.

Grimshaw leads the North Star crew on their most daring mission. When an ancient disease threatens to wipe out one of their few allies, Captain Grimshaw and Lieutenant Evans travel deep into enemy territory in search of a cure. The Kragak still lay dormant. Who knows what'll happen if the slumbering giants are disturbed?  Meanwhile, Taza remains in the Shroud as he investigates a string of murders that could be linked to the deadly virus. Explorer-class vessels have already begun to report sightings of Aphnai war ships on the Fringe.

Robert Altman and the Elaboration of Hollywood Storytelling reveals an Altman barely glimpsed in previous critical accounts of the filmmaker. This re-examination of his seminal work during the "Hollywood Renaissance" or "New Hollywood" period of the early 1970s (including M*A*S*H and Nashville) sheds new light on both the films and the filmmaker, reframing Altman as a complex, pragmatic innovator whose work exceeds, but is also grounded in, the norms of classical Hollywood storytelling rather than someone who rejected those norms in favor of modernist art cinema.

Liberal democracy is the dominant political ideology in the West today. Taken at face value it suggests an equivalency between its two central components-liberalism and democracy - but as Fred Dallmayr argues here, the two operate in very different registers. The two frequently conflict, endangering our public life. This is evident in the rise of self-centered neo-liberalism as well as autocratic movements in our world today.

The locker rooms of winning teams are crowded with coaches, family, and fans. Reporters flock to the athletes, brimming with victory and celebration, to ask, "How does it feel?" In contrast, the locker rooms of the losing teams are quiet and awkward, and reporters tend to leave quickly, reluctant to linger too long around loss. But, as sports journalists Mary Pilon and Louisa Thomas argue, losing is not a phenomenon to be overlooked, and in Losers, they have called upon novelists, reporters, and athletes to consider what it means to lose.

With 50 Foods, noted authority Edward Behr has created the definitive guide to the foods every food lover must know. A culinary Baedeker, 50 Foods will delight and inform the connoisseur as well as the novice.

Like Behr's celebrated magazine, the Art of Eating, 50 Foods presents simple, practical information about buying, using, preparing, and enjoying. Behr focuses on aroma, appearance, flavor, and texture to determine what "the best" means for each food.