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The wide wide sea : imperial ambition, first contact and the fateful final voyage of Captain James Cook / by Sides, Hampton,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides, an epic account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook's death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day. On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment? Hampton Sides' bravura account of Cook's last journey both wrestles with Cook's legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration in the 1700s. Cook was renowned for his peerless seamanship, his humane leadership, and his dedication to science--the famed naturalist Joseph Banks accompanied him on his first voyage, and Cook has been called one of the most important figures of the Age of Enlightenment. He was also deeply interested in the native people he encountered. In fact, his stated mission was to return a Tahitian man, Mai, who had become the toast of London, to his home islands. On previous expeditions, Cook mapped huge swaths of the Pacific, including the east coast of Australia, and initiated first European contact with numerous peoples. He treated his crew well, and endeavored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and without judgment. Yet something was different on this last voyage. Cook became mercurial, resorting to the lash to enforce discipline, and led his two vessels into danger time and again. Uncharacteristically, he ordered violent retaliation for perceived theft on the part of native peoples. This may have had something to do with his secret orders, which were to chart and claim lands before Britain's imperial rivals could, and to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Whatever Cook's intentions, his scientific efforts were the sharp edge of the colonial sword, and the ultimate effects of first contact were catastrophic for Indigenous people around the world. The tensions between Cook's overt and covert missions came to a head on the shores of Hawaii. His first landing there was harmonious, but when Cook returned after mapping the coast of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians led to the fatal encounter. At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Cook, James, 1728-1779; Cook, James, 1728-1779; Scientific expeditions; Voyages around the world;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Lady Charlotte always gets her man / by Marsh, Violet,author.;
"Fleeing through the streets of London in a gown meant for her betrothal ball is not Lady Charlotte Lovett's finest decision. Seeking shelter at her estranged cousin's coffeeshop, however, turns out to be utterly inspired. Soon Charlotte has brewed up a plan to help create a secret backroom where women can sip coffee and debate on equal terms with men. It's also the perfect way to escape her arranged engagement. Not only will it provide income for her, but she can learn about London's dark side as she sets out to prove that her intended-or rather unintended-has villainous connections. Her first lead is the man's own brother, Dr. Matthew Talbot. The third son of a duke, Matthew was born into the peerage but never welcomed, especially by his malicious older brother. His choice to become a physician and a naturalist has cemented his outsider status. But when the alluring Lady Charlotte shows up at his favorite coffeehouse, the scholarly adventurer finds himself drawn back into her world of rarefied literary salons and upper-class elegance. Even as Charlotte is increasingly beguiled by Matthew, she becomes more and more convinced that he is hiding a secret, but does it involve his murderous older brother? Charlotte must decide whether to put her trust in Matthew so they can fight for their future and freedom in a world that challenges those who dare to defy the social order"--
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Novels.; Aristocracy (Social class); Coffeehouses; Man-woman relationships; Nobility; Physicians; Secrecy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Original sin : President Biden's decline, its cover-up, and his disastrous choice to run again / by Tapper, Jake,author.; Thompson, Alex,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-319) and index."[A]n unflinching and explosive reckoning with one of the most fateful decisions in American political history: Joe Biden's run for reelection despite evidence of his serious decline -- amid desperate efforts to hide the extent of that deterioration. In Greek tragedy, the protagonist's effort to avoid his fate is what seals his fate. In 2024, American politics became a Greek tragedy. Joe Biden launched his successful 2020 bid for the White House with the stated goal of saving the nation from a second Trump presidential term. He, his family, and his senior aides were so convinced that only he could beat Trump again, they lied to themselves, allies, and the public about his condition and limitations. At his debate with Trump on June 27, 2024, the consequences of that deception were exposed to the world. It was shocking and upsetting. Now the full, unsettling truth is being told for the first time. Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson take us behind closed doors and into private conversations between the heaviest of hitters, revealing how big the problem was and how many people knew about it. From White House staffers at the highest to lowest levels, to leaders of Congress and the Cabinet, from governors to donors and Hollywood players, the truth is finally being told. What you will learn makes President Biden's decision to run for reelection seem shockingly narcissistic, self-delusional, and reckless--a desperate bet that went bust -- and part of a larger act of extended public deception that has few precedents. The story the authors tell raises fundamental issues of accountability and responsibility that will continue for decades. The irony is biting: In the name of defeating what they called an existential threat to democracy, Biden and his inner circle ensured it, tossing aside his implicit promise to serve for only one term, denying the existence of health issues the nation had been watching for years, dooming the Democrats to defeat. The decision to run again, the Original Sin of this president, led to a campaign of denial and gaslighting, leading directly to Donald Trump's return to power and all that has happened as a consequence. Rarely does hubris meet nemesis more explosively. Wherever you stand on the political spectrum, Original Sin is essential reading"--
Subjects: Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Political corruption; Presidents;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Halcyon : a novel / by Ackerman, Elliot,author.;
"From the best-selling author and National Book Award finalist, a chilling new novel that reimagines the United States emerging from a different outcome in a pivotal presidential election. Virginia, 2004. Gore is entering his second term as president. Our narrator, recently divorced, is living at Halcyon, the estate of renowned lawyer and World War II hero Robert Ableson. Ableson died a few years earlier. Or did he? When it becomes clear that scientists, funded by the Gore administration, have found a cure for death, more and more of life's certainties get called into question. Is this new science a miraculous good or an insidious evil? Is Ableson a man outside of time, or is he the product of a new era? How does America's fate hang in the balance? Stretching from Civil War battles to the toppling of Confederate monuments, from scholarly debates to intimate family secrets, Halcyon is a profound and probing novel that grapples with what history means, who is affected by it, and how the complexities of our shared future rest on layers of memory and forgetting"--
Subjects: Alternative histories (Fiction); Political fiction.; Novels.; Immortalism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Gambling with armageddon : nuclear roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1945-1962 / by Sherwin, Martin J.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer comes the first effort to set the Cuban Missile Crisis, with its potential for nuclear holocaust, in a wider historical narrative of the Cold War--how such a crisis arose, and why at the very last possible moment it didn't happen. In this groundbreaking look at the Cuban Missile Crisis, Martin Sherwin not only gives us a riveting sometimes hour-by-hour explanation of the crisis itself, but also explores the origins, scope, and consequences of the evolving place of nuclear weapons in the post WWII world. Mining new sources and materials, and going far beyond the scope of earlier works on this critical face-off between the United States and the Soviet Union--triggered when Khruschev began installing missiles in Cuba at Castro's behest--Sherwin shows how this volatile event was an integral part of the wider Cold War and was a consequence of nuclear arms. Gambling with Armageddon looks in particular at the original debate in the Truman Administration about using the Atomic Bomb; the way in which President Eisenhower relied on the threat of massive retaliation to project U.S. power in the early Cold War era; and how President Kennedy, though unprepared to deal with the Bay of Pigs debacle, came of age during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Here too is a clarifying picture of what was going on in Khruschev's Soviet Union. Martin Sherwin has spent his career in the study of nuclear weapons and how they have shaped our world--Gambling with Armegeddon is an outstanding capstone to his work thus far"--
Subjects: Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963.; Arms race; Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962.; Nuclear crisis control; Nuclear warfare; World politics; World politics;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Private power, public purpose : adventures in business, politics, and the arts / by d'Aquino, Thomas,author.;
"In this broad-scoped, inside-Ottawa memoir, Thomas d'Aquino, described by Peter C. Newman as "the most powerful influence on public policy formation in Canadian history," offers personal insights on four decades of bold leadership at the apex of power. A transforming force in redefining the role of business and the shaping of responsible capitalism, Canada's private sector architect of the free trade agreement with the United States, bold defender of national unity, and passionate environmentalist, he has been at the centre of every major policy debate that has influenced contemporary Canada. Referred to by his peers as "Canada's leading business ambassador", his memoir chronicles exploits on five continents and describes how he has championed Canada's place as an economic player on the world stage. His insights on leadership are timeless, honed from relationships with six Canadian prime ministers (including Pierre Trudeau, for whom he worked as special assistant), over 1500 chief executives, and dozens of global leaders. Beyond business and public policy, Thomas d'Aquino's fascinating adventures in the world of voluntarism and the arts reveal a great deal about the soul of this remarkable Canadian"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; d'Aquino, Thomas.; Businesspeople; Directors of corporations; Philanthropists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Off the record / by Mansbridge, Peter,author.;
Peter Mansbridge invites us to walk the beat with him in this entertaining and revealing look into his life and career, from his early broadcasting days in the remote northern Manitoba community of Churchill to the fast-paced news desk of CBCs flagship show, The National, where he reported on stories from around the world. Today, Peter Mansbridge is often recognized for his distinctive deep voice, which calmly delivered the news for over fifty years. But ironically, he never considered becoming a broadcaster. In some ways, though, Peter was prepared for a life as a newscaster from an early age. Every night around the dinner table, his family would debate the news of the day, from Cold War scandals and Vietnam to Elvis Presley and the Beatles. So in 1968, when by chance a CBC radio manager in Churchill, Manitoba, offered him a spot hosting the local late night music program, Peter embraced the opportunity. Without a teacher, he tuned into broadcasts from across Canada, the US, and the UK to learn the basic skills of a journalist and he eventually parlayed his position into his first news job. Less than twenty years later, he became the chief correspondent and anchor of The National. With humour and heart, Peter shares never-before-told stories from his distinguished career, including reporting on the fall of the Berlin Wall and the horror of 9/11, walking the beaches of Normandy with Tom Brokaw, and talking with Canadian prime ministers from John Diefenbaker to Justin Trudeau. But its far from all serious. Peter also writes about finding the cure for baldness in China and landing the role of Peter Moosebridge in Disneys Zootopia. From the first (and only) time he was late to broadcast to his poignant interview with the late Gord Downie, these are the moments that have stuck with him. After years of interviewing others, Peter turns the lens on himself and takes us behind the scenes of his life on the frontlines of journalism as he reflects on the toll of being in the spotlight, the importance of diversity
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Mansbridge, Peter.; Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; Television news anchors; Television news anchors;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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One more thing : stories and other stories / by Novak, B. J.,1979-; Novak, B. J.,1979-Short stories.English.;
"Across a range of subjects, themes, tones, and narrative voices, Novak's assured prose and expansive imagination introduce readers to people, places, and premises that are hilarious, insightful, provocative, and moving-often at the same time. In One More Thing, a boy wins a $100,000 prize in a box of Frosted Flakes - only to discover that claiming the winnings may unravel his family. A woman sets out to seduce motivational speaker Tony Robbins - turning for help to the famed motivator himself. A school principal unveils a bold plan to permanently abolish arithmetic. An acclaimed ambulance driver seeks the courage to follow his heart and throw it all away to be a singer-songwriter. Author John Grisham contemplates a monumental typo. A new arrival in heaven, overwhelmed by infinite options, procrastinates over his long-ago promise to visit his grandmother. We meet a vengeance-minded hare, obsessed with scoring a rematch against the tortoise who ruined his life; and post-college friends who debate how to stage an intervention in the era of Facebook. We learn why wearing a red t-shirt every day is the key to finding love; how February got its name; and why the stock market is sometimes just ... down. Finding inspiration in questions from the nature of perfection to the icing on carrot cake, from the deeply familiar to the intoxicatingly imaginative, One More Thing finds its heart in the most human of phenomena: love, fear, family, ambition, and the inner stirring for the one elusive element that might make a person complete. The stories in this collection are like nothing else, but they have one thing in common: they share the playful humor, deep heart, inquisitive mind, and altogether electrifying spirit of a writer with a fierce devotion to the entertainment of the reader"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Humorous stories.; Short stories.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Lincoln's last trial : the murder case that propelled him to the presidency / by Abrams, Dan,author.; Fisher, David,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.The true story of Abraham Lincoln's last murder trial, a case in which he had a deep personal involvement--and which played out in the nation's newspapers as he began his presidential campaign. At the end of the summer of 1859, twenty-two-year-old Peachy Quinn Harrison went on trial for murder in Springfield, Illinois. Abraham Lincoln, who had been involved in more than three thousand cases--including more than twenty-five murder trials--during his two-decades-long career, was hired to defend him. This was to be his last great case as a lawyer. What normally would have been a local case took on momentous meaning. Lincoln's debates with Senator Stephen Douglas the previous fall had gained him a national following, transforming the little-known, self-taught lawyer into a respected politician. He was being urged to make a dark-horse run for the presidency in 1860. Taking this case involved great risk. His reputation was untarnished, but should he lose this trial, should Harrison be convicted of murder, the spotlight now focused so brightly on him might be dimmed. He had won his most recent murder trial with a daring and dramatic maneuver that had become a local legend, but another had ended with his client dangling from the end of a rope. The case posed painful personal challenges for Lincoln. The murder victim had trained for the law in his office, and Lincoln had been his friend and his mentor. His accused killer, the young man Lincoln would defend, was the son of a close friend and loyal supporter. And to win this trial he would have to form an unholy allegiance with a longtime enemy, a revivalist preacher he had twice run against for political office--and who had bitterly slandered Lincoln as an "infidel ... too lacking in faith" to be elected. Lincoln's Last Trial captures the presidential hopeful's dramatic courtroom confrontations in vivid detail as he fights for his client--but also for his own blossoming political future. It is a moment in history that shines a light on our legal system, as in this case Lincoln fought a legal battle that remains incredibly relevant today. --Amazon.com.
Subjects: Biographies.; Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865; Presidents; Trials (Murder);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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River of the gods : genius, courage, and betrayal in the search for the source of the Nile / by Millard, Candice,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the New York Times bestselling author of RIVER OF DOUBT and DESTINY OF THE REPUBLIC, the stirring story of one of the great feats of exploration of all time, and its complicated legacy The Nile River is the longest in the world. Its fertile floodplain allowed for rise to the great civilization of ancient Egypt, but for millennia the location of its headwaters was shrouded in mystery. Pharaonic and Roman attempts to find it were stymied by a giant labyrinthine swamp, and subsequent expeditions got nofurther. In the 19th century, the discovery and translation of the Rosetta Stone set off a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe - and extendtheir colonial empires. Two British men - Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke - were sent by the Royal Geographical Society to claim the prize for England. Burton was already famous for being the first non-Muslim to travel to Mecca, disguised as an Arab chieftain. He spoke twenty-nine languages, was a decorated soldier, and literally wrote the book on sword-fighting techniques for the British Army. He was also mercurial, subtle, and an iconoclastic atheist. Speke was a young aristocrat and Army officerdetermined to make his mark, passionate about hunting, Burton's opposite in temperament and beliefs. From the start the two men clashed, Speke chafing under Burton's command and Burton disapproving of Speke's ignorance of the people whose lands through which they traveled. They would endure tremendous hardships, illness, and constant setbacks. Two years in, deep in the African interior, Burton became too sick to press on, but Speke did, and claimed he found the source in a great lake that he christened Lake Victoria. When they returned to England, Speke rushed to take credit, disparaging Burton. Burton disputed his claim, and Speke launched another expedition to Africa to prove it. The two became venomous enemies, with the public siding with the more charismatic Burton, to Speke's great envy. The day before they were to publicly debate, Speke shot himself. Yet there was a third man on both expeditions, his name obscured by imperial annals, whose exploits were even more extraordinary. This was Sidi Mubarak Bombay, who was enslaved and shipped from his home village in East Africa to India. When the man who purchased him died, he made his way into the local Sultan's army, and eventually traveled back to Africa, where he used his resourcefulness, linguisticprowess and raw courage to forge a living as a guide. Without his talents, it is likely that neither Englishman would have come close to the headwaters of the Nile, or perhaps even survived. In RIVER OF THE GODS Candice Millard has written another peerless story of courage and adventure, set against the backdrop of the race to exploit Africa by the colonial powers"--
Subjects: Bombay, Sidi Mubarak; Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890; Speke, John Hanning, 1827-1864; Explorers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 101 to 110 of 130 | « previous |