LITMIR.BIZ

Based primarily on the words of those who lived it, A Confederate Biography is a comprehensive narrative of the cruise of the CSS Shenandoah. More than a thrilling sea story, the journey provides a window of historical perspective on the Civil War. From October 1864 to November 1865, the officers of the Shenandoah carried the Confederacy and the conflict around the globe and to the ends of the earth through every extreme of sea and storm. Their observations looking back from the most remote and alien surroundings imaginable, along with viewpoints of those they encountered, illuminate the hearts and minds of contestants North and South.These Americans stood together in defense of their country as they understood it, pursuing a difficult and dangerous mission in which they succeeded spectacularly after it no longer mattered. Through their eyes, the potentially decisive international arena of the war, governed by complex maritime and trade law, comes alive. The neutrality, or lack thereof, of major European powers was a central concern to both sides. Shenandoah was smack in the middle of this diplomatic maelstrom and contributed to it.And within the navy, a generational clash arose between antebellum orthodoxy and a professional officer corps emerging from the new Naval Academy, rapid technological advances, contemporary social reforms, and the crucible of war. This difference was manifest between the captain of Shenandoah and his young lieutenants. The men they led, however, were a polyglot assemblage of merchant sailors of nearly every nation and color—including several Yankees and African Americans—operating within its own rigidly authoritarian and cramped society.Shenandoah herself was a magnificent vessel, the epitome of rich and ancient maritime heritages, but also a paradigm of dramatic transitions from the small wooden sailing navy to the second largest, most powerful, and technologically advanced fleet in the world. Her commerce raiding mission was a watery form of asymmetric warfare in the spirit of John Mosby, Bedford Forrest, and W.T. Sherman. It was arguably the most successful military effort of the Confederacy in terms of cost versus mission accomplished, but the strategic effectiveness of the strategy remains questionable.Shenandoah fired the last gun of the Civil War, set the land of the midnight sun aglow with flaming Yankee whalers, and, seven months after Appomattox, lowered the last Confederate banner. This is a biography of a ship and a cruise, and a microcosm of the Confederate-American experience.

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Philip Nolan is Chuck Pfarrer’s captivating adaptation of “The Man Without a Country,” the short story originally published in The Atlantic in 1863. Masterfully blending history and fiction, Pfarrer transforms an allegory promoting the Union cause into the story of a young artillery officer, Phillip Nolan, who becomes embroiled in Aaron Burr’s 1807 conspiracy to invade the territories acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. Insinuating that his plot has official approval, Burr convinces Nolan to carry a coded message into the Orleans Territory. Nolan has no idea that the former vice-president intends to set himself up as a dictator—and Burr has no idea that his scheme has been discovered. Soon both Burr and Nolan are in military custody, and Nolan is an accessory to treason.The nation holds its breath as Burr is put on trial for attempting to dismember the union. The charges against Burr seem ironclad, but his lawyers are clever, and Burr is acquitted. An embarrassed prosecution looks for a scapegoat, and they expand the charges against Nolan to include desertion and treason. Learning that his own court martial will proceed, even though Burr has walked free, Nolan denounces his accusers, damns his country, and tells the court he wishes never again to hear the words “United States” as long as he lives. Nolan’s fateful words stun the court. The judges return with an ominous verdict: the prisoner’s wish will be granted. Nolan is exiled, sentenced to life aboard a series of U.S. warships, never to hear news from or be allowed to speak of his country again.After years of being shuttled from ship to America’s first secret prisoner ship realizes he is a stateless person, estranged from his keepers and forgotten by his country. Decades after his trial, Nolan is passed aboard an American frigate in the Mediterranean. There, he comes into the custody of a newly commissioned lieutenant, Frank Curran. When Barbary pirates capture an American whaleship, the pair finds themselves drawn into a complex web of international deceit and mortal danger. As a desperate rescue mission is launched, Nolan teaches the young officer a poignant lesson about duty, loyalty and the meaning of patriotism.Philip Nolan is equal parts adventure, naval history and morality tale. Brilliantly evoking the age of sail, Pfarrer brings alive convincing details of that courageous and sometimes brutal world. More than broadsides and small boat actions, Philip Nolan is a clear-eyed examination of the human condition. Philip Nolan is beautifully crafted, and it deserves a place among the classics of the genre.

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Following <i>tirailleurs sénégalais’</i> deployments in West Africa, Congo, Madagascar, North Africa, Syria-Lebanon, Vietnam, and Algeria from the 1880s to 1962, <em>Militarizing Marriage</em> historicizes how African servicemen advanced conjugal strategies with women at home and abroad. Sarah J. Zimmerman examines the evolution of women’s conjugal relationships with West African colonial soldiers to show how the sexuality, gender, and exploitation of women were fundamental to the violent colonial expansion and the everyday operation of colonial rule in modern French Empire. These conjugal behaviors became military marital traditions that normalized the intimate manifestation of colonial power in social reproduction across the empire. Soldiers’ cross-colonial and interracial households formed at the intersection of race and sexuality outside the colonizer/colonized binary. <em>Militarizing Marriage</em> uses contemporary feminist scholarship on militarism and violence to portray how the subjugation of women was indispensable to military conquest and colonial rule.

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It wasn&#8217;t all poodle skirts and rock &#145;n&#8217; roll&mdash;in Stony River, N.J., the 50s was a perilous time to come of age. Absent mothers, controlling fathers, biblical injunctions, teenage longing and small-town pretense abound, with the threat of violence all around: crazy fathers, dirty boys, strange men in strange cars, one dead girl, one never seen and another gone missing.

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• This is a work of fiction, and is not for Christians only, as shown by the endorsements from Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama.• A search for recent books specifically about Simon of Cyrene brings up only a number of self-published books, both fiction and nonfiction, but no others. There is an audience for this story that the self-publishers are unlikely to reach. • The connection to Thomas Merton will add another audience. The author recently discovered a collection of Merton's possessions, and publicity and interviews will help publicize The Gospel of Simon as well. See for example http://kbia.org/post/thomas-mertons-personal-belongings-resurface-missouri-nearly-fifty-years-after-his-death.

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Will prayer and providence bring a family together after years apart? Can it possibly heal the broken connections? Set in the late 1800's in Colorado, Prayer Trilogy is the story of the Jenkins and Davidson families, one nearly starving on their farm and the other a prosperous business family in the city of Denver. Neither family is perfect but both know the power and comfort of prayer that sustains their relationship with God. These stories provide a wonderful reminder that prayer is the key to our intimate relationship to God. The characters are flawed but that only enhances the power and compassion of God in their individual lives to weave a family tapestry and even a larger community picture. These stories will appeal to young and old alike. They are clean reads, based on Christian principles and experience, designed to be read in your family.

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Iris Elaine Picket lives in a beautiful home, with many servants, and a husband who sees her with the same respect he sees those household slaves. The loss of her child after yet another beating from her husband gives her the impetus to take her maidservant and flee South Carolina, leaving behind her parents, security, even her name and begin a new life in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. Once again, author Kimberly Gordon, draws us into the lives of her fictional characters, connecting us in our contemporary lives with her imperfect people who struggle to make good choices, just like us. This story calls us to consider our own secret prejudices as Iris evolves from her childhood beliefs to the truths that she recognizes as she finds friends in those who were once thought of as slaves. Mrs. Gordon writes unapologetically from her Christian beliefs but avoids the distraction of preaching and, instead, offers her characters who are learning from the witness of others and their own time of prayer with God. You'll want to enjoy this clean read that is gripping while also being touching and romantic.

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The Vietnam War's influence on politics, foreign policy, and subsequent military campaigns is the center of much debate and analysis. But the impact on veterans across the globe, as well as the war's effects on individual lives and communities, is a largely neglected issue. As a consequence of cultural and legal barriers, the oral histories of the Vietnam War currently available in English are predictably one-sided, providing limited insight into the inner workings of the Communist nations that participated in the war. Furthermore, many of these accounts focus on combat experiences rather than the backgrounds, belief systems, and social experiences of interviewees, resulting in an incomplete historiography of the war.Chinese native Xiaobing Li corrects this oversight in Voices from the Vietnam War: Stories from American, Asian, and Russian Veterans. Li spent seven years gathering hundreds of personal accounts from survivors of the war, accounts that span continents, nationalities, and political affiliations. The twenty-two intimate stories in the book feature the experiences of American, Chinese, Russian, Korean, and North and South Vietnamese veterans, representing the views of both anti-Communist and Communist participants, including Chinese officers of the PLA, a Russian missile-training instructor, and a KGB spy. These narratives humanize and contextualize the war's events while shedding light on aspects of the war previously unknown to Western scholars. Providing fresh perspectives on a long-discussed topic, Voices from the Vietnam War offers a thorough and unique understanding of America's longest war.

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This comedic slacker novel tracks a community of stoners, musicians, and regular dudes losing in every sense of the word.

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This coffee table-sized book will be ideal as a gift for Chicago history and music culture buffs.This book will include interviews and firsthand accounts from recognizable Chicago personalities, including Chicago White Sox icons Mike and Bill Veeck, legendary White Sox organist Nancy Faust, 1979 White Sox manager Tony La Russa, Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen, Disco and House DJs, and others.This is the first book about Disco Demolition Night, and it is authored by Steve Dahl, the radio promoter responsible for organizing the event.The book will serve as an oral history of this event, told through the voices of those involved, and will examine the controversy surrounding the event.Notable Chicago photographer Paul Natkin took each photo included throughout the book, which also includes headshots of those interviewed for the book.

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