biography & autobiography / historical

"A staunch proponent of breaking down racial and gender barriers, Shirley Chisholm had the esteemed privilege of being a pioneer in many aspects of her life. She was the first African American woman elected to the New York State legislature and, later, the United States House of Representatives. She also made a run for the Democratic Party nomination for president in 1972. Focusing on Chisholm's lifelong advocacy for fair treatment, access to education, and equal pay for all American minority groups, this book explores the life of a remarkable woman in the context of twentieth century urban America and the tremendous social upheaval that occurred after World War II. About the Lives of American Women series: Selected and edited by renowned women's historian Carol Berkin, these brief biographies are designed for use in undergraduate courses. Rather than a comprehensive approach, each biography focuses instead on a particular aspect of a women's life that is emblematic of her time, or which made her a pivotal figure in the era. The emphasis is on a "good read," featuring accessible writing and compelling narratives, without sacrificing sound scholarship and academic integrity. Primary sources at the end of each biography reveal the subject's perspective in her own words. Study questions and an annotated bibliography support the student reader. "--.

In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her family?of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than forty years, and their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

"As a young man, Joseph Goebbels was a budding narcissist with constant need of approval. Through political involvement, he found personal affirmation within the German National Socialist Party. In this comprehensive volume, Peter Longerich documents Goebbels' descent into antisemitism and ideology and ascent through the ranks of the Nazi party, where he became an integral member Hitler's inner circle and where he shaped a brutal campaign of Nazi propaganda. In life and in his grisly family suicide, Goebbels was one of Hitler's most loyal accolytes. Though powerful in the party and in wartime Germany, Longerich's Goebbels is a man dogged by insecurities and consumed by his fierce adherence to the Nazi cause. Longerich engages and challenges the careful self-portrait that Goebbels left behind in his diaries, and, as he delves deep into the mind of Hitler's master propagandist, Longerich discovers first-hand how the Nazi message was conceived. This complete portrait of the man behind the message is sure to become a standard for historians and students of the holocaust for years to come"--.

The Irish-American story, with all its twists and triumphs, is told through the improbable life of one man. A dashing young orator during the Great Famine of the 1840s, in which a million of his Irish countrymen died, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for which he was banished to a Tasmanian prison colony. He escaped and six months later was heralded in the streets of New York -- the revolutionary hero, back from the dead, at the dawn of the great Irish immigration to America. Meagher's rebirth in America included his leading the newly formed Irish Brigade from New York in many of the fiercest battles of the Civil War -- Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg. Twice shot from his horse while leading charges, left for dead in the Virginia mud, Meagher's dream was that Irish-American troops, seasoned by war, would return to Ireland and liberate their homeland from British rule. The hero's last chapter, as territorial governor of Montana, was a romantic quest for a true home in the far frontier. His death has long been a mystery to which Egan brings haunting, colorful new evidence.

All his life journalist Walter Shapiro had heard outlandish stories about his great-uncle Freeman Bernstein. He assumed they were exaggerated family lore---Jewish revenge fantasies dreamt up to entertain the kids. Only when he started to research Freeman's life, did he realize that his family was actually holding back---there were even more stories to tell. From a ragtag childhood in Troy, New York, Freeman made his way through life as a vaudeville manager (where he met his wife, May Ward, who became Mae West), boxing promoter, stock swindler, card shark, and the self-proclaimed "Jade King of China". Then, on February 18, 1937, he was arrested by the LAPD outside of Mae West's apartment in Hollywood. The charge? Grand larcency---for cheating Adolf Hitler and the Nazi government. Freeman had promised to ship thirty-five tons of embargoed Canadian nickel to the Furher. When the cargo arrived, the Germans found only huge, useless quantities of scrap metal and tin. The fake shipment was a huge blow to their economy, war preparations, schedule, and ego. Hitler did not take the bait-and-switch lightly and sent the police after him. But Freeman Bernstein had the last laugh. He swindled Adolf Hitler---and got away with it!.

"The English translation of the letters of Heinrich Himmler and his wife, recently authenticated by the Bundesarchiv and serialized in Die Welt"--.

Born Marie-Josephe-Rose de Tascher de La Pagerie on the Caribbean island of Martinique, the woman Napoleon would later call Josephine was the ultimate survivor. Her first husband was executed during the reign of terror and she was almost executed herself. This experience fueled her ambition and determination to find a man who could finance and sustain her. In 1795 she met Napoleon and together they conquered Europe. But she could not produce the heir Napoleon needed and so they parted. The rest of the story, as they say, is history.

Born Betsy Bowen into grinding poverty, the woman who became Eliza Jumel was raised in a brothel, indentured as a servant, and confined to a workhouse when her mother was in jail. Yet by the end of her life, "Madame Jumel" was one of America's richest women, with servants of her own, a New York mansion, a Saratoga Springs summer home, a major art collection, and several hundred acres of land. During her remarkable rise, she acquired a fortune from her first husband---a French merchant---and almost lost it to her second---notorious vice president Aaron Burr. Divorcing Burr amid charges of adultery, Jumel lived on to the age of 90, astutely managing her property and public persona. After her death, the battle over her estate went all the way to the United States Supreme Court---twice. Family members told of a woman who earned the gratitude of Napoleon I and shone at the courts of Louis XVIII and Charles X. Claimants to her estate painted a different picture of a prostitute, the mother of George Washington's illegitimate son, a wife who defrauded her husband and perhaps even plotted his death. Eliza Jumel's real story---so unique that it surpasses any invention---has yet to be told, until now.

Looks at the life and career of American scientist Robert Oppenheimer.

A comprehensive look at the life of John Wilkes Booth, discussing his uncertain childhood in Maryland where he had a difficult relationship with his alcoholic actor father, his own successful acting career, how he found himself consumed by the Confederate cause, and more.