Collection: Biography & Memoir

A time-travelling, genealogical adventure, bringing pre-industrial, rural, eighteenth-century England vividly to life on the page.

One day Ian Marchant, acclaimed author of books on music, railways and pubs, decided, as all men of a certain age must, to have a dig around his family history. Surprisingly quickly, a web search informed him that his seven-times-great great-grandfather, Thomas Marchant had left a detailed diary from 1714 to 1728. So far, so jolly ...

Life-loving diarist Thom - who liked a drink and a game of cards - feels recognisably Marchant to Ian. With fascinating detail we learn about Thom's family farm and fishponds; about dung, horses and mud; about beer, the wife's nights out, his own job troubles and their shared worries for their children. But as Ian digs deeper beyond the Sussex diary's bucolic portrait he discovers a subtext - a family descended from immigrants, with anti-establishment politics, who are struggling with illness, political instability and cash crises - just as their country does three centuries on.

'When I was reflecting late one January evening on the differences between Thom and me, I realised the unbridgeable thing that comes between us is industrialisation. He lived right at its beginning, while I am living somewhere towards its end. Old Thom Marchant was one of the last people before industrialisation to understand how his world worked - and how to be largely self-sufficient in it. He knew where his food came from, his fuel, his water, his clothes. He knew how the welfare system worked, and was part of its administration; he knew who looked after the roads, too. He collected taxes. He was not separate from the system, but part of it.'

Rich with immersive detail, One Fine Day draws a living portrait of Marchant family life in the 1720s and how their England (rainy, muddy, politically turbulent, illness-ridden) became the England of the 2020s.

'Elegiac, consistently funny, deeply moving.' - Richard Beard

'Ian Marchant is one of England's most original writers. One Fine Day is a masterwork.' - Monique Roffey

How did the deeply flawed George W. Bush ascend to the highest office in the nation, what forces abetted his rise, and-perhaps most important-have those forces really been vanquished by Obama's election? Award-winning investigative journalist Russ Baker gives us the answers in Family of Secrets, a compelling and startling new take on the Bush dynasty and the shadowy elite that has quietly steered the American republic for the past half century and more. Baker shows how this network of figures in intelligence, the military, oil, and finance enabled-and in turn benefited handsomely from-the Bushes' perch at the highest levels of government. As Baker reveals, this deeply entrenched elite remains in power regardless of who sits in the Oval Office.
Family of Secrets offers countless disclosures that challenge the conventional accounts of such central events as the JFK assassination and Watergate. It includes an inside account of George W.'s cynical religious conversion and the untold real background to the disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina. Baker's narrative is gripping, sobering, and deeply sourced. It will change the way we understand not just the Bush years, but a half century of postwar history-and the present.

This journal catalogs my seven years along the Severn River watching our USNA daughters, ('19) and ('22), become imbued "with the highest ideals of duty, honor, and loyalty."Midshipmen accept their Naval Academy appointments, not with hesitation or coercion, but with purpose, to be better leaders and ready to fight when ill winds wish them harm. This book celebrates not only their achievements, but also highlights their resilience to overcome challenges inherent to life on the Yard. Doing hard things well is the unfettered fabric that weaves these kids together. The Brigade of Midshipmen said, "I DO!" on I-Day, knowing the risk and sacrifice required to become Navy and Marine Corps officers.Although the port from which midshipmen sail will forever welcome them home, they make a personal choice to moor their lives in Annapolis. They are our heroes and ones we will forever cherish. "Chills, tears, and my heart swells with love and pride every time I read your words. Thank you for expressing what the rest of us feel." - Shannon Peitzman"My husband and I are both USNA grads and our son is a 2/C. Your writing genuinely touches our hearts and reminds us how special Annapolis is." - Raquel Gladieux"Steve makes us laugh, cry, and everything in between." - Danelle Abrams"The perfect encapsulation of USNA parenthood." - Julia Lumpkin "Your writing depicts our journey as mid parents. Thank you for sharing your eloquent words." - Rebecca Madeira "From a dad ('23), grad ('87), and uncle of a current NAPSter (USNA '26), this, sir, is a keeper!" - Nick Diorio

Complete African-American Classic Three Book Set, includes The Souls of Black Folk, Up From Slavery, and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The foundational civil rights works on race relations in America, the slave narratives, in their own voices. This is their story in one volume.

From The Souls of Black Folk: "Herein lie buried many things which if read with patience may show the strange meaning of being black here at the dawning of the Twentieth Century.... I have sought here to sketch, in vague, uncertain outline, the spiritual world in which ten thousand thousand Americans live and strive."

From Up From Slavery: "I have begun everything with the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much patience with the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one cannot succeed."

From the 1845 text Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: "My mother was named Harriet Bailey." "My father was a white man." "I have had two masters." "...my escape from slavery."

All students of thought should get this historic set. This edition is provided in a slim volume with full text at an affordable price.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK 3

UP FROM SLAVERY 91

NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 181

From the author of The Agitators, the acclaimed and captivating true story of two restless society girls who left their affluent lives to "rough it" as teachers in the wilds of Colorado in 1916.In the summer of 1916, Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, bored by society luncheons, charity work, and the effete men who courted them, left their families in Auburn, New York, to teach school in the wilds of northwestern Colorado. They lived with a family of homesteaders in the Elkhead Mountains and rode to school on horseback, often in blinding blizzards. Their students walked or skied, in tattered clothes and shoes tied together with string. The young cattle rancher who had lured them west, Ferry Carpenter, had promised them the adventure of a lifetime. He hadn't let on that they would be considered dazzling prospective brides for the locals. Nearly a hundred years later, Dorothy Wickenden, the granddaughter of Dorothy Woodruff, found the teachers' buoyant letters home, which captured the voices of the pioneer women, the children, and other unforgettable people the women got to know. In reconstructing their journey, Wickenden has created an exhilarating saga about two intrepid women and the "settling up" of the West.

"[T]he cause is just, and readers will come away with a firmer understanding that, as the introduction has it, the story of this country's founding is 'everyone's story.'"--Booklist

A Junior Library Guild Gold Selection

"This book will delight visual learners, history lovers, and trivia enthusiasts. It would also validate the diversity of the United States's heroes, encourage critical thinking, and inspire further research. A solid addition to any library or classroom."--School Library Journal

The founding of America was not accomplished by a handful of people; it required the heart, soul, and grit of an entire nation. Today, we rightfully honor the efforts of the Founding Fathers, but what about everyone else who sacrificed for the cause?

Introducing Forgotten Founders, the inspiring book of stories about the heroic women, African Americans, Native Americans, immigrants, and others who played pivotal roles in America's birth. Make no mistake: these were no historical footnotes. These were brave men and women without whom the war simply could never have been won and the new republic never begun.

Readers will meet

• Sybil Ludington, the sixteen-year-old girl who rode all night to warn of a British attack
• Nancy Hart: the indomitable woman who captured six Loyalist soldiers
• Cuffee Wells Saunders, the talented physician who won his freedom and saved lives serving in the Continental Army
• Phyllis Wheatley, the gifted Black poet whose work was praised by Voltaire and George Washington
• Deborah Sampson, the colonial woman who dressed as a man to enlist in the Continental Army
• Peter Salem, the former slave who became the hero of the Battle of Bunker Hill
• and many more!

Read, learn, and discover in beautiful new ways that America's origin story really is everybody's story.

In this intimate, haunting literary memoir and New York Times Notable Book of the year, an American icon tells her own story for the first time -- about a challenging and lonely childhood, the craft that helped her find her voice, and a powerful emotional legacy that shaped her journey as a daughter and a mother.

One of the most celebrated, beloved, and enduring actors of our time, Sally Field has an infectious charm that has captivated the nation for more than five decades, beginning with her first TV role at the age of seventeen. From Gidget's sweet-faced "girl next door" to the dazzling complexity of Sybil to the Academy Award-worthy ferocity and depth of Norma Rae and Mary Todd Lincoln, Field has stunned audiences time and time again with her artistic range and emotional acuity. Yet there is one character who always remained hidden: the shy and anxious little girl within.
With raw honesty and the fresh, pitch-perfect prose of a natural-born writer, and with all the humility and authenticity her fans have come to expect, Field brings readers behind-the-scenes for not only the highs and lows of her star-studded early career in Hollywood, but deep into the truth of her lifelong relationships--including her complicated love for her own mother. Powerful and unforgettable, In Pieces is an inspiring and important account of life as a woman in the second half of the twentieth century.

An empowering young readers edition of We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders, the memoir by Women's March coorganizer and activist Linda Sarsour that's "equal parts inspiring, emotional, and informative" (Kirkus Reviews).

You can count on me, your Palestinian Muslim sister, to keep her voice loud, keep her feet on the streets, and keep my head held high because I am not afraid.

On January 21, 2017, Linda Sarsour stood in the National Mall to deliver a speech that would go down in history. A crowd of over 470,000 people gathered in Washington, DC, to advocate for legislation, policy, and the protection of women's rights--with Linda, a Muslim American activist from Brooklyn, leading the charge, unapologetic and unafraid.

In this middle grade edition of We Are Not Here to be Bystanders, Linda shares the memories that shaped her into the activist she is today, and how these pivotal moments in her life led her to being an organizer in one of the largest single-day protests in US history. From the Brooklyn bodega her father owned to the streets of Washington, DC, Linda's story as a daughter of Palestinian immigrants is a moving portrayal of what it means to find your voice in your youth and use it for the good of others as an adult.

A biography of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who revolutionized global antipoverty efforts by developing the innovative economic concept of micro-lending.

Now in paperback!

Growing up in Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus witnessed extreme poverty all around and was determined to eradicate it. In 1976, as an Economics professor, Muhammad met a young craftswoman in the village of Jobra who needed to borrow five taka (twenty-two cents) to buy materials. No bank would lend such a small amount to an uneducated woman, so she was forced to borrow from corrupt lenders who charged an unfair interest rate, and left her without enough profit to buy food. Muhammad realized that what stood in the way of her financial security was just a few cents.

Inspired, Muhammad founded Grameen Bank where people could borrow small amounts of money to start a job, and then pay back the bank without exorbitant interest charges. Over the next few years, Muhammad's compassion and determination changed the lives of millions of people by loaning the equivalent of more than ten billion US dollars in micro-credit. This has also served to advocate and empower the poor, especially women, who often have limited options.

Twenty-two Cents is an inspiring story of economic innovation and a celebration of how one person-like one small loan-can make a positive difference in the lives of many.

Learn about the greatest works of literature, and the lives of those who wrote them in The Literature Book.

Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Literature in this overview guide to the subject, great for beginners looking to learn and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Literature Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in.

This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Literature, with:

- More than 100 ground-breaking ideas on major literary works
- Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts
- A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout
- Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understanding

The Literature Book is the perfect introduction to masterpieces from the world's greatest authors, aimed at adults with an interest in the subject, and literature students wanting to gain more of an overview. Here you'll discover more than 100 articles exploring landmark novels, short stories, plays, and poetry that reinvented the art of writing in their time.

Your Literature Questions, Simply Explained

From the Iliad to The Great Gatsby, embark on a fascinating, graphic-led journey through the greatest works of poetry and prose. If you thought it was difficult to learn about the fictional masterpieces of our time and the literary geniuses behind them, The Literature Book presents key information in an easy to follow layout. From Modernism to Shakespearean, Realism to Romanticism, discover the literary movements through fantastic mind maps and step-by-step summaries.

The Big Ideas Series

With millions of copies sold worldwide, The Literature Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand.

The "superb" (The Guardian) biography of an American who stood against all the forces of Gilded Age America to fight for civil rights and economic freedom: Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan.

They say that history is written by the victors. But not in the case of the most famous dissenter on the Supreme Court. Almost a century after his death, John Marshall Harlan's words helped end segregation and gave us our civil rights and our modern economic freedom.

But his legacy would not have been possible without the courage of Robert Harlan, a slave who John's father raised like a son in the same household. After the Civil War, Robert emerges as a political leader. With Black people holding power in the Republican Party, it is Robert who helps John land his appointment to the Supreme Court.

At first, John is awed by his fellow justices, but the country is changing. Northern whites are prepared to take away black rights to appease the South. Giant trusts are monopolizing entire industries. Against this onslaught, the Supreme Court seemed all too willing to strip away civil rights and invalidate labor protections. So as case after case comes before the court, challenging his core values, John makes a fateful decision: He breaks with his colleagues in fundamental ways, becoming the nation's prime defender of the rights of Black people, immigrant laborers, and people in distant lands occupied by the US.

Harlan's dissents, particularly in Plessy v. Ferguson, were widely read and a source of hope for decades. Thurgood Marshall called Harlan's Plessy dissent his "Bible"--and his legal roadmap to overturning segregation. In the end, Harlan's words built the foundations for the legal revolutions of the New Deal and Civil Rights eras.

Spanning from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement and beyond, The Great Dissenter is a "magnificent" (Douglas Brinkley) and "thoroughly researched" (The New York Times) rendering of the American legal system's most significant failures and most inspiring successes.

Tells the story of Thomas Edison's involvement in the development of the incandescent light bulb. Written in graphic-novel format.

Hendri Coetzee had been a professional kayaker for 15 years but had spent his life venturing into difficult mental and physical territory. He is still regarded as a white-water kayaker legend in his own time and led various expeditions on some of Africa's wildest rivers.In 2010 he led an expedition of 2 Americans, Ben Stookesberry and Chris Korbulic, what was called the Great Lakes expedition. A tragic accident unfortunately happened on the Lukuga river in the DRC when Hendri was taken from his kayak by a crocodile. This incident got wide public exposure on the American TV and news media when various interviews were held with the 2 very well-known and world-renowned American kayakers who were with him when he was taken. In South Africa, his home country, also various media covered the story.He had also walked 2000km alone and unsupported down the east coast of Africa and completed some of the most demanding and dangerous solo kayaking expeditions ever. He is widely considered as one of the best big water paddlers in the world and the most experienced African river explorer of his generation.He became the first man to lead, navigate and travel the entire length of world's longest river, the White Nile in 2004. This was also recognised in the Guinness Book of Records in 2013. In 2008 he developed an adventure therapy program for the Norwegian Government and lead a team of youth offenders on expedition to South Sudan. In 2009 he completed a 6 month solo Congo expedition. He received a great number of accolades in his lifetime such as Best Expedition of the Year in 2010 and Adventurer of the Year in 2009 and held an Honours degree in Psychology. He was also an experienced and keen meditator. His expeditions have been covered by such media as CNN, National Geographic, Outside Magazine, Canoe and Kayak, BBC and many more. After his death various local and international newspapers and magazines covered his story. The latest was a Podcast on After Dark.There is a documentary "Africa Croc Attack" on Nat Geo Tv, shown in several countries, about two croc hunters from Australia who went to the DRC to catch the so-called man-eater croc who took Hendri. The two Americans, Ben Stookesberry and Chris Korbulic, who were with him on the fatal expedition were also invited to join the expedition.Ben Stookesberry made a video of the expedition when Hendri was killed, called Kadoma. This has won various accolades one of which was at the Banff and New Zealand Mountain and Film Festivals, and the book also was a finalist in the Banff Adventure category in 2014. His Trust self-printed and shipped his book in 2013 to 7 countries where it was sold and distributed by loyal friends of him. At present 99% of the 3000 hard copy books have been sold and the decision was made to make it available on POD.

The companion to Chelsea Clinton & Alexandra Boiger's #1 New York Times bestseller, She Persisted. Perfect for tiny activists, mini feminists and little kids who are ready to take on the world.

Women around the world have long dreamed big, even when they've been told their dreams didn't matter. They've spoken out, risen up and fought for what's right, even when they've been told to be quiet. Whether in science, the arts, sports or activism, women and girls throughout history have been determined to break barriers and change the status quo. They haven't let anyone get in their way and have helped us better understand our world and what's possible. In this companion book to She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World, Chelsea Clinton introduces readers to a group of thirteen incredible women who have shaped history all across the globe.

She Persisted Around the World is a book for everyone who has ever aimed high and been told to step down, for everyone who has ever raised their voice and been told to quiet down, and for everyone who has ever felt small, unimportant or unworthy.

Alexandra Boiger's vibrant artwork accompanies this inspiring text that shows readers of all ages that, no matter what obstacles come their way, they have the power to persist and succeed.

This book features: Marie Curie, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Viola Desmond, Sissi Lima do Amor, Leymah Gbowee, Caroline Herschel, Wangari Maathai, Aisha Rateb, J.K. Rowling, Kate Sheppard, Yuan Yuan Tan, Mary Verghese and Malala Yousafzai.

Praise for She Persisted Around the World

"Clinton again writes in a measured tone that is at once celebratory and defiant. Boiger's watercolor and ink artwork exudes warmth and subtle power." --Publishers Weekly

Praise for She Persisted

* "[A] lovely, moving work of children's literature [and a] polished introduction to a diverse and accomplished group of women." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Exemplary . . . This well-curated list will show children that women's voices have made themselves emphatically heard." --Booklist

"[She Persisted] will remind little girls that they can achieve their goals if they don't let obstacles get in the way." --Family Circle

"We can't wait to grab a copy for some of the awesome kids in our lives . . . and maybe some of the grown-ups, too." --Bustle

"A message we all need to hear." --Scary Mommy

"This will be a great read for kids (especially young girls)." --Romper

"We cannot wait for the launch of Smart Girl Chelsea Clinton's new book to help remind kids everywhere that the fearlessness that characterizes the thirteen women in the book is what has emboldened us to constantly strive for progress and justice." --Amy Poehler's Smart Girls

The story of the last tour of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Richie Valens-and the fatal air crash that took their lives. Drawing on new documentary information, the author recreates the often grueling conditions of an early rock and roll tour, and provides new facts about "the day the music died." With 50 photos.

Aja was the album that made Steely Dan a commercial force on the order of contemporaries like Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles and Chicago. A double-platinum, Grammy-winning bestseller, it lingered on the Billboard charts for more than a year and spawned three hit singles. Odd, then, that its creators saw it as an "ambitious, extended" work, the apotheosis of their anti-rock, anti-band, anti-glamour aesthetic. Populated by thirty-fi ve mostly jazz session players, Aja served up prewar song forms, mixed meters and extended solos to a generation whose idea of pop daring was Paul letting Linda sing lead once in a while. And, impossibly, it sold. Including an in-depth interview with Donald Fagen, this book paints a detailed picture of the making of a masterpiece.