A Renegade History of the United States

A Renegade History of the United States

Author: Thaddeus Russell

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011-07-05

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 1416576134

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From the Publisher: In this groundbreaking book, noted historian Thaddeus Russell tells a new and surprising story about the origins of American freedom. Rather than crediting the standard textbook icons, Russell demonstrates that it was those on the fringes of society whose subversive lifestyles helped legitimize the taboo and made America the land of the free. In vivid portraits of renegades and their "respectable" adversaries, Russell shows that the nation's history has been driven by clashes between those interested in preserving social order and those more interested in pursuing their own desires - insiders versus outsiders, good citizens versus bad. The more these accidental revolutionaries existed, resisted, and persevered, the more receptive society became to change. Russell brilliantly and vibrantly argues that it was history's iconoclasts who established many of our most cherished liberties. Russell finds these pioneers of personal freedom in the places that usually go unexamined - saloons and speakeasies, brothels and gambling halls, and even behind the Iron Curtain. He introduces a fascinating array of antiheroes: drunken workers who created the weekend; prostitutes who set the precedent for women's liberation, including "Diamond Jessie" Hayman, a madam who owned her own land, used her own guns, provided her employees with clothes on the cutting-edge of fashion, and gave food and shelter to the thousands left homeless by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake; there are also the criminals who pioneered racial integration, unassimilated immigrants who gave us birth control, and brazen homosexuals who broke open America's sexual culture. Among Russell's most controversial points is his argument that the enemies of the renegade freedoms we now hold dear are the very heroes of our history books - he not only takes on traditional idols like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, Franklin Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy, but he also shows that some of the most famous and revered abolitionists, progressive activists, and leaders of the feminist, civil rights, and gay rights movements worked to suppress the vibrant energies of working-class women, immigrants, African Americans, and the drag queens who founded Gay Liberation. This is not history that can be found in textbooks - it is a highly original and provocative portrayal of the American past as it has never been written before.


Book Synopsis A Renegade History of the United States by : Thaddeus Russell

Download or read book A Renegade History of the United States written by Thaddeus Russell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-07-05 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Publisher: In this groundbreaking book, noted historian Thaddeus Russell tells a new and surprising story about the origins of American freedom. Rather than crediting the standard textbook icons, Russell demonstrates that it was those on the fringes of society whose subversive lifestyles helped legitimize the taboo and made America the land of the free. In vivid portraits of renegades and their "respectable" adversaries, Russell shows that the nation's history has been driven by clashes between those interested in preserving social order and those more interested in pursuing their own desires - insiders versus outsiders, good citizens versus bad. The more these accidental revolutionaries existed, resisted, and persevered, the more receptive society became to change. Russell brilliantly and vibrantly argues that it was history's iconoclasts who established many of our most cherished liberties. Russell finds these pioneers of personal freedom in the places that usually go unexamined - saloons and speakeasies, brothels and gambling halls, and even behind the Iron Curtain. He introduces a fascinating array of antiheroes: drunken workers who created the weekend; prostitutes who set the precedent for women's liberation, including "Diamond Jessie" Hayman, a madam who owned her own land, used her own guns, provided her employees with clothes on the cutting-edge of fashion, and gave food and shelter to the thousands left homeless by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake; there are also the criminals who pioneered racial integration, unassimilated immigrants who gave us birth control, and brazen homosexuals who broke open America's sexual culture. Among Russell's most controversial points is his argument that the enemies of the renegade freedoms we now hold dear are the very heroes of our history books - he not only takes on traditional idols like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, Franklin Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy, but he also shows that some of the most famous and revered abolitionists, progressive activists, and leaders of the feminist, civil rights, and gay rights movements worked to suppress the vibrant energies of working-class women, immigrants, African Americans, and the drag queens who founded Gay Liberation. This is not history that can be found in textbooks - it is a highly original and provocative portrayal of the American past as it has never been written before.


A Renegade History of the United States

A Renegade History of the United States

Author: Thaddeus Russell

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: 2010-09

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781847377081

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"This ultrarevisionist work is provocative, often interesting, and often preposterous. It appears to be a case of bottom-up history gone wild. The trend to view history from the standpoint of mass society is well established. Russell, a historian and journalist, has taken this approach much further. He asserts that the driving force behind many historical developments in history was provided by so-called marginalized groups outside the bounds of 'respectable' society. So Russell provides a rapid run through some episodes and social movements in U.S. history, beginning with the meeting of the Second Continental Congress. His champions of liberty are not 'respectable' men like Adams, Jefferson, and their ilk. Instead, he finds the real thirst for freedom among the drunkards, prostitutes, and slaves who mix socially and have 'fun' in Philadelphia taverns. And so on through the abolitionist, feminist, and civil-rights struggles. Russell is hardly the first historian to notice the influence of the bottom of the social strata on culture, but his constant idealization of the lives of these 'free' and 'fun-loving' groups means readers should take everything with a heavy dose of skepticism."--Publisher's description.


Book Synopsis A Renegade History of the United States by : Thaddeus Russell

Download or read book A Renegade History of the United States written by Thaddeus Russell and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2010-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This ultrarevisionist work is provocative, often interesting, and often preposterous. It appears to be a case of bottom-up history gone wild. The trend to view history from the standpoint of mass society is well established. Russell, a historian and journalist, has taken this approach much further. He asserts that the driving force behind many historical developments in history was provided by so-called marginalized groups outside the bounds of 'respectable' society. So Russell provides a rapid run through some episodes and social movements in U.S. history, beginning with the meeting of the Second Continental Congress. His champions of liberty are not 'respectable' men like Adams, Jefferson, and their ilk. Instead, he finds the real thirst for freedom among the drunkards, prostitutes, and slaves who mix socially and have 'fun' in Philadelphia taverns. And so on through the abolitionist, feminist, and civil-rights struggles. Russell is hardly the first historian to notice the influence of the bottom of the social strata on culture, but his constant idealization of the lives of these 'free' and 'fun-loving' groups means readers should take everything with a heavy dose of skepticism."--Publisher's description.


Out of the Jungle

Out of the Jungle

Author: Thaddeus Russell

Publisher: Temple University Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9781592130276

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"[T]he Teamsters, the largest A.F.L. affiliate... has been understudied... Russell's motives in seeking to redress this imbalance are certainly commendable." ?Maurice Isserman, The New York Times Book Review"[A] well-researched study of the longtime Teamsters leader...[that] could put Hoffa back on the historical map for a new generation of students of labor history." ?Publishers Weekly "An unexpectedly enthralling account of Jimmy Hoffa's tactics and aspirations... Russell's history of the Teamsters under Hoffa illustrates the vibrancy of the labor movement?for better or worse?during the middle 50 years of the 20th century." ?Kirkus Reviews "In this gripping biography of Jimmy Hoffa... Thaddeus Russell launches a vigorous attack on the reigning orthodoxy in labor history." ?David L. Chappell, Newsday "Russell bravely challenges the received wisdom of the left, the right, and the morally earnest center. If you want to get serious about the real meaning of class in the last century, read this gracefully yet powerfully argued book." ?Nelson Lichtenstein "Out of the Jungle delivers a much-needed and more nuanced understanding of a tumultuous period in the history of...the nation." ?John Gallagher, Detroit News/Free Press "...strongly recommended reading." ?The Midwest Book Review's Bookwatch


Book Synopsis Out of the Jungle by : Thaddeus Russell

Download or read book Out of the Jungle written by Thaddeus Russell and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[T]he Teamsters, the largest A.F.L. affiliate... has been understudied... Russell's motives in seeking to redress this imbalance are certainly commendable." ?Maurice Isserman, The New York Times Book Review"[A] well-researched study of the longtime Teamsters leader...[that] could put Hoffa back on the historical map for a new generation of students of labor history." ?Publishers Weekly "An unexpectedly enthralling account of Jimmy Hoffa's tactics and aspirations... Russell's history of the Teamsters under Hoffa illustrates the vibrancy of the labor movement?for better or worse?during the middle 50 years of the 20th century." ?Kirkus Reviews "In this gripping biography of Jimmy Hoffa... Thaddeus Russell launches a vigorous attack on the reigning orthodoxy in labor history." ?David L. Chappell, Newsday "Russell bravely challenges the received wisdom of the left, the right, and the morally earnest center. If you want to get serious about the real meaning of class in the last century, read this gracefully yet powerfully argued book." ?Nelson Lichtenstein "Out of the Jungle delivers a much-needed and more nuanced understanding of a tumultuous period in the history of...the nation." ?John Gallagher, Detroit News/Free Press "...strongly recommended reading." ?The Midwest Book Review's Bookwatch


Renegades

Renegades

Author: Barack Obama

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2021-10-26

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0593236319

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Two longtime friends share an intimate and urgent conversation about life, music, and their enduring love of America, with all its challenges and contradictions, in this stunningly produced expansion of their groundbreaking Higher Ground podcast, featuring more than 350 photographs, exclusive bonus content, and never-before-seen archival material. Renegades: Born in the USA is a candid, revealing, and entertaining dialogue between President Barack Obama and legendary musician Bruce Springsteen that explores everything from their origin stories and career-defining moments to our country’s polarized politics and the growing distance between the American Dream and the American reality. Filled with full-color photographs and rare archival material, it is a compelling and beautifully illustrated portrait of two outsiders—one Black and one white—looking for a way to connect their unconventional searches for meaning, identity, and community with the American story itself. It includes: • Original introductions by President Obama and Bruce Springsteen • Exclusive new material from the Renegades podcast recording sessions • Obama’s never-before-seen annotated speeches, including his “Remarks at the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches” • Springsteen’s handwritten lyrics for songs spanning his 50-year-long career • Rare and exclusive photographs from the authors’ personal archives • Historical photographs and documents that provide rich visual context for their conversation In a recording studio stocked with dozens of guitars, and on at least one Corvette ride, Obama and Springsteen discuss marriage and fatherhood, race and masculinity, the lure of the open road and the call back to home. They also compare notes on their favorite protest songs, the most inspiring American heroes of all time, and more. Along the way, they reveal their passion for—and the occasional toll of—telling a bigger, truer story about America throughout their careers, and explore how our fractured country might begin to find its way back toward unity and global leadership.


Book Synopsis Renegades by : Barack Obama

Download or read book Renegades written by Barack Obama and published by Crown. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Two longtime friends share an intimate and urgent conversation about life, music, and their enduring love of America, with all its challenges and contradictions, in this stunningly produced expansion of their groundbreaking Higher Ground podcast, featuring more than 350 photographs, exclusive bonus content, and never-before-seen archival material. Renegades: Born in the USA is a candid, revealing, and entertaining dialogue between President Barack Obama and legendary musician Bruce Springsteen that explores everything from their origin stories and career-defining moments to our country’s polarized politics and the growing distance between the American Dream and the American reality. Filled with full-color photographs and rare archival material, it is a compelling and beautifully illustrated portrait of two outsiders—one Black and one white—looking for a way to connect their unconventional searches for meaning, identity, and community with the American story itself. It includes: • Original introductions by President Obama and Bruce Springsteen • Exclusive new material from the Renegades podcast recording sessions • Obama’s never-before-seen annotated speeches, including his “Remarks at the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches” • Springsteen’s handwritten lyrics for songs spanning his 50-year-long career • Rare and exclusive photographs from the authors’ personal archives • Historical photographs and documents that provide rich visual context for their conversation In a recording studio stocked with dozens of guitars, and on at least one Corvette ride, Obama and Springsteen discuss marriage and fatherhood, race and masculinity, the lure of the open road and the call back to home. They also compare notes on their favorite protest songs, the most inspiring American heroes of all time, and more. Along the way, they reveal their passion for—and the occasional toll of—telling a bigger, truer story about America throughout their careers, and explore how our fractured country might begin to find its way back toward unity and global leadership.


A People's History of the United States

A People's History of the United States

Author: Howard Zinn

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2003-02-04

Total Pages: 764

ISBN-13: 9780060528423

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Since its original landmark publication in 1980, A People's History of the United States has been chronicling American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official version of history taught in schools -- with its emphasis on great men in high places -- to focus on the street, the home, and the, workplace. Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of -- and in the words of -- America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers. As historian Howard Zinn shows, many of our country's greatest battles -- the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women's rights, racial equality -- were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance. Covering Christopher Columbus's arrival through President Clinton's first term, A People's History of the United States, which was nominated for the American Book Award in 1981, features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history. Revised, updated, and featuring a new after, word by the author, this special twentieth anniversary edition continues Zinn's important contribution to a complete and balanced understanding of American history.


Book Synopsis A People's History of the United States by : Howard Zinn

Download or read book A People's History of the United States written by Howard Zinn and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2003-02-04 with total page 764 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its original landmark publication in 1980, A People's History of the United States has been chronicling American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official version of history taught in schools -- with its emphasis on great men in high places -- to focus on the street, the home, and the, workplace. Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of -- and in the words of -- America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers. As historian Howard Zinn shows, many of our country's greatest battles -- the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women's rights, racial equality -- were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance. Covering Christopher Columbus's arrival through President Clinton's first term, A People's History of the United States, which was nominated for the American Book Award in 1981, features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history. Revised, updated, and featuring a new after, word by the author, this special twentieth anniversary edition continues Zinn's important contribution to a complete and balanced understanding of American history.


Gods of the Upper Air

Gods of the Upper Air

Author: Charles King

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2019-08-06

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 0385542208

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2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winner Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award From an award-winning historian comes a dazzling history of the birth of cultural anthropology and the adventurous scientists who pioneered it—a sweeping chronicle of discovery and the fascinating origin story of our multicultural world. A century ago, everyone knew that people were fated by their race, sex, and nationality to be more or less intelligent, nurturing, or warlike. But Columbia University professor Franz Boas looked at the data and decided everyone was wrong. Racial categories, he insisted, were biological fictions. Cultures did not come in neat packages labeled "primitive" or "advanced." What counted as a family, a good meal, or even common sense was a product of history and circumstance, not of nature. In Gods of the Upper Air, a masterful narrative history of radical ideas and passionate lives, Charles King shows how these intuitions led to a fundamental reimagining of human diversity. Boas's students were some of the century's most colorful figures and unsung visionaries: Margaret Mead, the outspoken field researcher whose Coming of Age in Samoa is among the most widely read works of social science of all time; Ruth Benedict, the great love of Mead's life, whose research shaped post-Second World War Japan; Ella Deloria, the Dakota Sioux activist who preserved the traditions of Native Americans on the Great Plains; and Zora Neale Hurston, whose studies under Boas fed directly into her now classic novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Together, they mapped civilizations from the American South to the South Pacific and from Caribbean islands to Manhattan's city streets, and unearthed an essential fact buried by centuries of prejudice: that humanity is an undivided whole. Their revolutionary findings would go on to inspire the fluid conceptions of identity we know today. Rich in drama, conflict, friendship, and love, Gods of the Upper Air is a brilliant and groundbreaking history of American progress and the opening of the modern mind.


Book Synopsis Gods of the Upper Air by : Charles King

Download or read book Gods of the Upper Air written by Charles King and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winner Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award From an award-winning historian comes a dazzling history of the birth of cultural anthropology and the adventurous scientists who pioneered it—a sweeping chronicle of discovery and the fascinating origin story of our multicultural world. A century ago, everyone knew that people were fated by their race, sex, and nationality to be more or less intelligent, nurturing, or warlike. But Columbia University professor Franz Boas looked at the data and decided everyone was wrong. Racial categories, he insisted, were biological fictions. Cultures did not come in neat packages labeled "primitive" or "advanced." What counted as a family, a good meal, or even common sense was a product of history and circumstance, not of nature. In Gods of the Upper Air, a masterful narrative history of radical ideas and passionate lives, Charles King shows how these intuitions led to a fundamental reimagining of human diversity. Boas's students were some of the century's most colorful figures and unsung visionaries: Margaret Mead, the outspoken field researcher whose Coming of Age in Samoa is among the most widely read works of social science of all time; Ruth Benedict, the great love of Mead's life, whose research shaped post-Second World War Japan; Ella Deloria, the Dakota Sioux activist who preserved the traditions of Native Americans on the Great Plains; and Zora Neale Hurston, whose studies under Boas fed directly into her now classic novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Together, they mapped civilizations from the American South to the South Pacific and from Caribbean islands to Manhattan's city streets, and unearthed an essential fact buried by centuries of prejudice: that humanity is an undivided whole. Their revolutionary findings would go on to inspire the fluid conceptions of identity we know today. Rich in drama, conflict, friendship, and love, Gods of the Upper Air is a brilliant and groundbreaking history of American progress and the opening of the modern mind.


The Other America

The Other America

Author: Michael Harrington

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 1997-08

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 068482678X

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Examines the economic underworld of migrant farm workers, the aged, minority groups, and other economically underprivileged groups.


Book Synopsis The Other America by : Michael Harrington

Download or read book The Other America written by Michael Harrington and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1997-08 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the economic underworld of migrant farm workers, the aged, minority groups, and other economically underprivileged groups.


Renegade

Renegade

Author: Frederick Turner

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2012-01-03

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 0300167318

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"How Henry Miller, renegade and failed writer, came to understand what literary dynamite he had in him and, drawing on two centuries of New World history, folklore, and popular culture, sent his "war whoop" out over the roofs of the world"--


Book Synopsis Renegade by : Frederick Turner

Download or read book Renegade written by Frederick Turner and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-03 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "How Henry Miller, renegade and failed writer, came to understand what literary dynamite he had in him and, drawing on two centuries of New World history, folklore, and popular culture, sent his "war whoop" out over the roofs of the world"--


Renegade

Renegade

Author: Amy Carol Reeves

Publisher: North Star Editions, Inc.

Published: 2013-04-08

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 073873330X

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There’s a new malevolence afoot. Fishermen are being killed, their partially devoured bodies washing up on the shores of Scotland. Is the Ripper responsible? To save the man she loves, Abbie Sharp must comply with the Ripper’s dreadful orders—and put her own life in grave danger.


Book Synopsis Renegade by : Amy Carol Reeves

Download or read book Renegade written by Amy Carol Reeves and published by North Star Editions, Inc.. This book was released on 2013-04-08 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There’s a new malevolence afoot. Fishermen are being killed, their partially devoured bodies washing up on the shores of Scotland. Is the Ripper responsible? To save the man she loves, Abbie Sharp must comply with the Ripper’s dreadful orders—and put her own life in grave danger.


America, Empire of Liberty

America, Empire of Liberty

Author: David Reynolds

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2009-01-29

Total Pages: 598

ISBN-13: 0141908564

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It was Thomas Jefferson who envisioned the United States as a great 'empire of liberty.' In the first new one-volume history in two decades, David Reynolds takes Jefferson's phrase as a key to the saga of America - helping unlock both its grandeur and its paradoxes. He examines how the anti-empire of 1776 became the greatest superpower the world has seen, how the country that offered liberty and opportunity on a scale unmatched in Europe nevertheless founded its prosperity on the labour of black slaves and the dispossession of the Native Americans. He explains how these tensions between empire and liberty have often been resolved by faith - both the evangelical Protestantism that has energized U.S. politics since the foundation of the nation and the larger faith in American righteousness that has impelled the country's expansion. Reynolds' account is driven by a compelling argument which illuminates our contemporary world.


Book Synopsis America, Empire of Liberty by : David Reynolds

Download or read book America, Empire of Liberty written by David Reynolds and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2009-01-29 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was Thomas Jefferson who envisioned the United States as a great 'empire of liberty.' In the first new one-volume history in two decades, David Reynolds takes Jefferson's phrase as a key to the saga of America - helping unlock both its grandeur and its paradoxes. He examines how the anti-empire of 1776 became the greatest superpower the world has seen, how the country that offered liberty and opportunity on a scale unmatched in Europe nevertheless founded its prosperity on the labour of black slaves and the dispossession of the Native Americans. He explains how these tensions between empire and liberty have often been resolved by faith - both the evangelical Protestantism that has energized U.S. politics since the foundation of the nation and the larger faith in American righteousness that has impelled the country's expansion. Reynolds' account is driven by a compelling argument which illuminates our contemporary world.