Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes
Author: Elizabeth Keckley
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 408
Release: 1988
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780195060843

Part slave narrative, part memoir, and part sentimental fiction Behind the Scenes depicts Elizabeth Keckley's years as a salve and subsequent four years in Abraham Lincoln's White House during the Civil War. Through the eyes of this black woman, we see a wide range of historical figures and events of the antebellum South, the Washington of the Civil War years, and the final stages of the war.

The CIA in Hollywood

The CIA in Hollywood
Author: Tricia Jenkins
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2016-03-08
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0292772467

"Jenkins's book raises serious ethical and legal questions about the relationship between the CIA and Hollywood and the extent to which we consume propaganda from one through the other. . . . Should the CIA be authorized to target American public opinion? If our artists don't confront [the question] more directly, and soon, the Agency will only continue to infiltrate our vulnerable film and television screens—and our minds." —Tom Hayden, Los Angeles Review of Books "The book makes a strong case that the CIA should not be in Hollywood at all, but that if it is, it cannot pick and choose which movies it wishes to support. Well written and researched, this study examines a subject that has not received enough scholarly or critical attention. Highly recommended." —Choice "A fascinating, highly readable, and original new work. . . . Incorporating effective, illustrative case studies, The CIA in Hollywood is definitely recommended to students of film, media relations, the CIA, and U.S. interagency relations." —H-Net Reviews

Firefly Lane

Firefly Lane
Author: Kristin Hannah
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 532
Release: 2008-02-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429927844

From the New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah comes a powerful novel of love, loss, and the magic of friendship. . . . now a #1 Netflix series! In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the "coolest girl in the world" moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all—beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer's end they've become TullyandKate. Inseparable. So begins Kristin Hannah's magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives. From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness. Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn't know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she'll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she'll envy her famous best friend. . . . For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship—jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they've survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test. Firefly Lane is for anyone who ever drank Boone's Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. More than a coming-of-age novel, it's the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It's about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you—and knows what has the power to hurt you . . . and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you'll never forget . . . one you'll want to pass on to your best friend.

Building Washington

Building Washington
Author: Robert J. Kapsch
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2018-05-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1421424886

A richly illustrated behind-the-scenes tour of how the nation’s capital was built. In 1790, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson set out to build a new capital for the United States of America in just ten years. The area they selected on the banks of the Potomac River, a spot halfway between the northern and southern states, had few resources or inhabitants. Almost everything needed to build the federal city would have to be brought in, including materials, skilled workers, architects, and engineers. It was a daunting task, and these American Founding Fathers intended to do it without congressional appropriation. Robert J. Kapsch’s beautifully illustrated book chronicles the early planning and construction of our nation’s capital. It shows how Washington, DC, was meant to be not only a government center but a great commercial hub for the receipt and transshipment of goods arriving through the Potomac Canal, then under construction. Picturesque plans would not be enough; the endeavor would require extensive engineering and the work of skilled builders. By studying an extensive library of original documents—from cost estimates to worker time logs to layout plans—Kapsch has assembled a detailed account of the hurdles that complicated this massive project. While there have been many books on the architecture and planning of this iconic city, Building Washington explains the engineering and construction behind it.

Inventing a Nation

Inventing a Nation
Author: Gore Vidal
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2008-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0300127928

This New York Times bestseller offers “an unblinking view of our national heroes by one who cherishes them, warts and all” (New York Review of Books). In Inventing a Nation, National Book Award winner Gore Vidal transports the reader into the minds, the living rooms (and bedrooms), the convention halls, and the salons of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and others. We come to know these men, through Vidal’s splendid prose, in ways we have not up to now—their opinions of each other, their worries about money, their concerns about creating a viable democracy. Vidal brings them to life at the key moments of decision in the birthing of our nation. He also illuminates the force and weight of the documents they wrote, the speeches they delivered, and the institutions of government by which we still live. More than two centuries later, America is still largely governed by the ideas championed by this triumvirate. The author of Burr and Lincoln, one of the master stylists of American literature and most acute observers of American life, turns his immense literary and historiographic talent to a portrait of these formidable men

Midnight in Washington

Midnight in Washington
Author: Adam Schiff
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 553
Release: 2021-10-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0593231546

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The vital inside account of American democracy in its darkest hour, from the rise of autocracy unleashed by Trump to the January 6 insurrection, and a warning that those forces remain as potent as ever—from the congressman who led the first impeachment of Donald J. Trump “Engaging and informative . . . a manual for how to probe and question power, how to hold leaders accountable in a time of diminishing responsibility.”—The Washington Post With a new afterword by the author In the years leading up to the election of Donald Trump, Congressman Adam Schiff had already been sounding the alarm over the resurgence of autocracy around the world, and the threat this posed to the United States. But as he led the probe into Donald Trump’s Russia and Ukraine-related abuses of presidential power, Schiff came to the terrible conclusion that the principal threat to American democracy now came from within. In Midnight in Washington, Schiff argues that the Trump presidency has so weakened our institutions and compromised the Republican Party that the peril will last for years, requiring unprecedented vigilance against the growing and dangerous appeal of authoritarianism. The congressman chronicles step-by-step just how our democracy was put at such risk, and traces his own path to meeting the crisis—from serious prosecutor, to congressman with an expertise in national security and a reputation for bipartisanship, to liberal lightning rod, scourge of the right, and archenemy of a president. Schiff takes us inside his team of impeachment managers and their desperate defense of the Constitution amid the rise of a distinctly American brand of autocracy. Deepening our understanding of prominent public moments, Schiff reveals the private struggles, the internal conflicts, and the triumphs of courage that came with defending the republic against a lawless president—but also the slow surrender of people that he had worked with and admired to the dangerous immorality of a president engaged in an historic betrayal of his office. Schiff’s fight for democracy is one of the great dramas of our time, told by the man who became the president’s principal antagonist. It is a story that began with Trump but does not end with him, taking us through the disastrous culmination of the presidency and Schiff’s account of January 6, 2021, and how the antidemocratic forces Trump unleashed continue to define his party, making the future of democracy in America more uncertain than ever.

Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes
Author: Michael K. Deaver
Publisher: William Morrow
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1987
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

"As both a historical document and a personal memoir, Behind the Scenes is one of the most intimate and revealing portraits of President Reagan's long pursuit of the presidency... The book analyzes the unique attributes and personal style that were turned to Reagan's advantage. Deaver was a confident of Nancy and Ronald Reagan for more than twenty years and was a member of the Reagan team during its ascendance. As a member of the Deaver/Baker/Meese troika, Deaver's involvement in key historical events was extensive... Finally, Behind the Scenes tells of one man's battle with his personal demons and the tantalizing and overwhelming seduction of power. His decline, like that of many in Washington, was quick, relentless, and public - a fall that was exacerbated - but not caused - by his secret alcoholism. No history of this era would be complete without the information found in this book, while important as a volume of history, also tells a personal and involving story." -- Amazon.com.

Israel's Nuclear Option

Israel's Nuclear Option
Author: Zaki Shalom
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2005-04-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1836241844

The discussions, which pitted Israel's security concerns against the United States' determined goal to stem nuclear proliferation, produced a set of strategic understandings. This book recounts the dialogue and related diplomatic activity, that took place during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and the Ben-Gurion and Eshkol premierships.

Echo House

Echo House
Author: Ward Just
Publisher: HMH
Total Pages: 339
Release: 1997-12-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 054752580X

This family saga from a National Book Award finalist is a “brilliantly orchestrated tale of several generations of Washington, D.C., insiders” (Booklist). In this epic and acutely observed novel, three generations of a family of Washington power brokers vie for influence over the fate of the nation. In the 1930s, Sen. Adolph Behl and his wife, Constance, buy historic mansion Echo House with the vision of transforming it into Washington’s greatest salon—an auspicious base camp from which the senator can launch his “final ascent,” and son Axel can prepare his first. Across decades of secrets, betrayals, victories, and humiliations, the Behl family will fight to remain near the center, and behind the scenes, of American political power—from the New Deal to Watergate and beyond. “A fascinating if ultimately painful fairy tale, complete with . . . a family curse . . . The decline of the Behls represents the decline of Washington from the bright dawn of the American century into the gathering shadows of an alien new millennium.” —The Washington Post “Puts the standard run-of-the-mill Washington novel to shame . . . It is Mr. Just’s intimate portrait of the city that makes his book so convincing.” —TheNew York Times “Will be read in a century’s time by anyone seeking to understand how we lived.” —Detroit Free Press “[Ward’s] stories put him in the category reserved for writers who work far beyond the fashions of the times. . . . Masterpieces of balance, focus, and hidden order.” —Chicago Tribune “He has earned a place on the shelf just below Edith Wharton and Henry James.” —Newsweek

George Washington's Final Battle

George Washington's Final Battle
Author: Robert P. Watson
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2021-02-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1626167842

George Washington is remembered for leading the Continental Army to victory, presiding over the Constitution, and forging a new nation, but few know the story of his involvement in the establishment of a capital city and how it nearly tore the United States apart. In George Washington’s Final Battle, Robert P. Watson brings this tale to life, telling how the country's first president tirelessly advocated for a capital on the shores of the Potomac. Washington envisioned and had a direct role in planning many aspects of the city that would house the young republic. In doing so, he created a landmark that gave the fledgling democracy credibility, united a fractious country, and created a sense of American identity. Although Washington died just months before the federal government's official relocation, his vision and influence live on in the city that bears his name. This little-known story of founding intrigue throws George Washington’s political acumen into sharp relief and provides a historical lesson in leadership and consensus-building that remains relevant today. This book will fascinate anyone interested in the founding period, the American presidency, and the history of Washington, DC.