Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Monday, January 21, 2013
The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War
The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War Review
A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War
Most Americans consider Abraham Lincoln to be the greatest president in history. His legend as the Great Emancipator has grown to mythic proportions as hundreds of books, a national holiday, and a monument in Washington, D.C., extol his heroism and martyrdom. But what if most everything you knew about Lincoln were false? What if, instead of an American hero who sought to free the slaves, Lincoln were in fact a calculating politician who waged the bloodiest war in american history in order to build an empire that rivaled Great Britain's? In The Real Lincoln, author Thomas J. DiLorenzo uncovers a side of Lincoln not told in many history books and overshadowed by the immense Lincoln legend.
Through extensive research and meticulous documentation, DiLorenzo portrays the sixteenth president as a man who devoted his political career to revolutionizing the American form of government from one that was very limited in scope and highly decentralized—as the Founding Fathers intended—to a highly centralized, activist state. Standing in his way, however, was the South, with its independent states, its resistance to the national government, and its reliance on unfettered free trade. To accomplish his goals, Lincoln subverted the Constitution, trampled states' rights, and launched a devastating Civil War, whose wounds haunt us still. According to this provacative book, 600,000 American soldiers did not die for the honorable cause of ending slavery but for the dubious agenda of sacrificing the independence of the states to the supremacy of the federal government, which has been tightening its vise grip on our republic to this very day.
You will discover a side of Lincoln that you were probably never taught in school—a side that calls into question the very myths that surround him and helps explain the true origins of a bloody, and perhaps, unnecessary war.
"A devastating critique of America's most famous president."
—Joseph Sobran, commentator and nationally syndicated columnist
"Today's federal government is considerably at odds with that envisioned by the framers of the Constitution. Thomas J. DiLorenzo gives an account of How this come about in The Real Lincoln."
—Walter E. Williams, from the foreword
"A peacefully negotiated secession was the best way to handle all the problems facing Americans in 1860. A war of coercion was Lincoln's creation. It sometimes takes a century or more to bring an important historical event into perspective. This study does just that and leaves the reader asking, 'Why didn't we know this before?'"
—Donald Livingston, professor of philosophy, Emory University
"Professor DiLorenzo has penetrated to the very heart and core of American history with a laser beam of fact and analysis."
—Clyde Wilson, professor of history, University of South Carolina, and editor, The John C. Calhoun Papers
From the Hardcover edition. Read more...
Friday, January 18, 2013
The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967 (The Fear and Loathing Letters, Vol. 1)
The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967 (The Fear and Loathing Letters, Vol. 1) Review
Here, for the first time, is the private and most intimate correspondence of one of America's most influential and incisive journalists--Hunter S. Thompson. In letters to a Who's Who of luminaries from Norman Mailer to Charles Kuralt, Tom Wolfe to Lyndon Johnson, William Styron to Joan Baez--not to mention his mother, the NRA, and a chain of newspaper editors--Thompson vividly catches the tenor of the times in 1960s America and channels it all through his own razor-sharp perspective. Passionate in their admiration, merciless in their scorn, and never anything less than fascinating, the dispatches of The Proud Highway offer an unprecedented and penetrating gaze into the evolution of the most outrageous raconteur/provocateur ever to assault a typewriter. Read more...
The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967 (The Fear and Loathing Letters, Vol. 1) Specifications
This first volume of the correspondence of Hunter S. Thompson begins with a high school essay and runs up through the publication of Thompson's breakout book, Hell's Angels. Thompson apparently never threw a letter away, so the reader has the treat of experiencing the full evolution of his pyrotechnic writing style, rant by rant. The letters--to girlfriends, to bill collectors, to placers of "Help Wanted" ads, to editors and publishers--are usually spiced with political commentary. The style and the political animus always seem to drive each other. For instance, an 11/22/63 letter to novelist and friend William J. Kennedy about the day's cataclysm is apparently the birthplace of the signal phrase "fear and loathing." (Thompson summed up the Kennedy assassination thus: "The savage nuts have shattered the great myth of American decency.") And the willingness to write strangers is stunning: this collection includes Thompson's letter to LBJ seeking appointment to the governorship of American Samoa. You might have thought Garry Trudeau was exaggerating in his Doonesbury characterization of the Thompson-based character Duke. He was not.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Monday, January 7, 2013
The Revised Vault of Walt: Unofficial, Unauthorized, Uncensored Disney Stories Never Told
The Revised Vault of Walt: Unofficial, Unauthorized, Uncensored Disney Stories Never Told Review
In 2010, Jim Korkis wrote his best-selling book The Vault of Walt. Now Jim has returned to the Vault, and in this revised edition of his classic book, you'll find your favorite tales plus five brand-new stories, including:
- The perilous four-month stint of famed Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones at the Disney Studios
- Why two women you've never heard of were among Walt's most important influences
- Walt's admiration for and brief collaboration with legendary artist Salvador Dali
- Walt and Lillian Disney's raucous 30th wedding anniversary celebration in Frontierland
- How Walt's early infatuation with polo led to an injury that plagued him for the rest of his life
- The story of Cinderella's Golden Carrousel and the Disney craftswoman who tended it for decades
- Walt's fondness for chili and cold weenies, with authentic recipes to create his favorite dishes
And over twenty more!
With a foreword by Walt's daughter Diane Disney Miller, The Revised Vault of Walt is your chance to roam the nooks and crannies of Disney culture in the capable hands of Disney historian, master storyteller, and former Cast Member Jim Korkis. As Diane Disney Miller herself writes, Jim's stories are "...authentic, so true to my dad's spirit, so unprejudiced and non-judgmental, that I ... could see the twinkle in dad's eye, hear his laugh".
The Revised Vault of Walt consists of four parts, each with seven memorable tales about Walt, Disney films, Disney theme parks, and the many other worlds of Disney. In addition, there's a bonus section about Disney's controversial film Song of the South to herald Jim's new book, Who's Afraid of the Song of the South? And Other Forbidden Disney Stories, also from Theme Park Press and now available on Amazon.
Note to readers of the old edition: The Revised Vault of Walt omits several of Jim's stories and replaces them with new tales. The book has been professionally copy edited and features a brand-new layout - not to mention a much lower price. But please do remember that most of the content here was also present in the old edition.
Jim Korkis is the best-selling author of Vault of Walt, and has been researching and writing about Disney for over three decades. The Disney Company itself uses his expertise for special projects. Korkis resides in Orlando, Florida.
Read more...