Kirjahaku

The Mother of the Father of our Country. Mary Ball Washington was an unlikely candidate to be the mother of history's most famous revolutionary. In fact, George Washington's first fight for independence was from his controlling, singular mother. Stubborn, aristocratic Mary Ball Washington was entrenched in the Old World ways of her ancestors, dismissing the American experiment even as her son led the successful rebellion against the crown. During his youth, ambitious George dove into the hard-scrabble work of a surveyor and rose through the ranks of the fledgling colonial army, even as his overprotective mother tried to discourage these efforts.Mary's influence on George was twofold. Though she raised her eldest son to become one of the world's greatest leaders, Mary also tried many times to hold him back. While she passed down her strength and individuality to George, she also sought to protect him from the risks he needed to take to become a daring general and president. But it was this resistance itself which fanned the spark of George's independence into a flame. The constant tug of war between the two throughout the early years helped define George's character.In Mary Ball Washington, New York Times bestselling author Craig Shirley uncovers startling details about the inner workings of the Washington family. He vividly brings to life a resilient widow who singlehandedly raised six children and ran a large farm at a time when most women's duties were relegated to household matters. Throughout, Shirley compares and contrasts mother and son, illuminating the qualities they shared and the differences that divided them. A significant contribution to American history, Mary Ball Washington is the definitive take on the relationship between George and Mary Washington, offering fresh insight into this extraordinary figure who would shape our nation--and the woman who shaped him.

The Mother of the Father of our Country. Mary Ball Washington was an unlikely candidate to be the mother of history's most famous revolutionary. In fact, George Washington's first fight for independence was from his controlling, singular mother. Stubborn, aristocratic Mary Ball Washington was entrenched in the Old World ways of her ancestors, dismissing the American experiment even as her son led the successful rebellion against the crown. During his youth, ambitious George dove into the hard-scrabble work of a surveyor and rose through the ranks of the fledgling colonial army, even as his overprotective mother tried to discourage these efforts.Mary's influence on George was twofold. Though she raised her eldest son to become one of the world's greatest leaders, Mary also tried many times to hold him back. While she passed down her strength and individuality to George, she also sought to protect him from the risks he needed to take to become a daring general and president. But it was this resistance itself which fanned the spark of George's independence into a flame. The constant tug of war between the two throughout the early years helped define George's character.In Mary Ball Washington, New York Times bestselling author Craig Shirley uncovers startling details about the inner workings of the Washington family. He vividly brings to life a resilient widow who singlehandedly raised six children and ran a large farm at a time when most women's duties were relegated to household matters. Throughout, Shirley compares and contrasts mother and son, illuminating the qualities they shared and the differences that divided them. A significant contribution to American history, Mary Ball Washington is the definitive take on the relationship between George and Mary Washington, offering fresh insight into this extraordinary figure who would shape our nation--and the woman who shaped him.

With a Foreword by Jon MeachamNew York Times bestselling biographer Craig Shirley charts Ronald Reagan's astonishing rise from the ashes of his lost 1976 presidential bid to overwhelming victory in 1980. American conservatism--and the nation itself--would never be the same.In 1976, when Ronald Reagan lost his second bid for the GOP presidential nomination (the first was in 1968), most observers believed his political career was over. Yet one year later, at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, Reagan sounded like a new man. He introduced conservatives to a "New Republican Party"--one that looked beyond the traditional country club and corporate boardroom base to embrace "the man and woman in the factories . . . the farmer . . . the cop on the beat. Our party," Reagan said, "must be the party of the individual. It must not sell out the individual to cater to the group." Reagan's movement quickly spread, championed by emerging conservative leaders and influential think tanks. Meanwhile, for the first time in modern history, Reagan also began drawing young people to American conservatism. But it was not only the former governor's political philosophy that was changing. A new man was emerging as well: The angry anticommunist was evolving into a more reflective, thoughtful, hopeful, and more spiritual leader. Championing the individual at home, rejecting containment and d tente abroad, and advocating for the defeat of Soviet communism, his appeal crossed party lines.At a time when conservatives are seeking to redefine their identity in light of the Donald Trump phenomenon, Reagan Rising offers insight into the development of Reagan's optimistic and unifying philosophy, and offers lessons for both established Republican leaders as well as emerging hopefuls.

Acclaimed historian and New York Times bestselling author Craig Shirley delivers a compelling account of 1945, particularly the watershed events in the month of April, that details how America emerged from World War II as a leading superpower.In the long-awaited follow-up to the widely praised December 1941,Craig Shirley's April 1945 paints a vivid portrait of America--her people, faith, economy, government, and culture. The year of 1945 bought a series of watershed events that transformed the country into an arsenal of democracy, one that no longer armed the world by necessity but henceforth protected the world by need.At the start of 1945, America and the rest of the world were grieving millions of lives lost in the global conflict. As President Roosevelt was sworn into his fourth term, optimism over an end to the bloody war had grown--then, in April, several events collided that changed the face of the world forever: the sudden death of President Roosevelt followed by Harry S. Truman's rise to office; Adolph Hitler's suicide; and the horrific discoveries of Dachau and Auschwitz. Americans doubled down on their completion of the atomic bomb and their plans to drop them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the destruction ultimately leading the Japanese Empire to surrender on V-J day and ending World War II for good.Combining engaging anecdotes with deft research and details that are both diminutive and grand, April 1945 gives readers a front-row seat to the American stage at the birth of a brand-new world.

Today's political scene looks nothing like it did thirty years ago, and that is due mostly to Reagan's monumental reshaping of the Republican party. What few people realize, however, is that Reagan's revolution did not begin when he took office in 1980, but in his failed presidential challenge to Gerald Ford in 1975-1976. This is the remarkable story of that historic campaign-one that, as Reagan put it, turned a party of "pale pastels" into a national party of "bold colors." Featuring interviews with a myriad of politicos, journalists, insiders, and observers, Craig Shirley relays intriguing, never-before-told anecdotes about Reagan, his staff, the campaign, the media, and the national parties and shows how Reagan, instead of following the lead of the ever-weakening Republican party, brought the party to him and almost single-handedly revived it.

The definitive, authorized biography of the one of the most important, provocative, and visionary political figures of our time. In one way or another Newt Gingrich has been leading a revolution for most of his life. Citizen Newt is the definitive account of that struggle. Writing with the full cooperation of Speaker Gingrich and the players around him, New York Times bestselling author Craig Shirley captures the events, ideas, failures, and successes of Newton Leroy Gingrich—one of the most complex, influential, and durable political figures of our time.Returning to Gingrich’s childhood in Pennsylvania and his formative years as a young history professor, Citizen Newt moves through Gingrich’s first forays into politics and takes readers behind the scenes of the Congressman’s crucial role in the Reagan Revolution, his battles with George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and his masterly orchestration of 1994s “Gingrich Revolution” and the Contract with America, which catapulted him to national prominence and forever changed congressional and national politics.Drawing upon untold stories from Gingrich and those who know him best—political allies and opponents, Washington insiders and political iconoclasts, Capitol Hill staffers and colleagues—Shirley has crafted a fascinating, humorous, humanizing, and insightful account of a true American original.

From noted New York Times bestselling historian and Reagan biographer Craig Shirley:The Inside Account of Donald J. Trump’s Remarkable Journey to Victory and Return to Power to Save AmericaMuch like Shirley’s bestselling Ronald Reagan campaign books, NOVEMBER 2024 is an insiders’ look at the 2024 Donald Trump for President campaign. With unlimited access to campaign staff, polling data, strategy meetings, and the candidate, follow Shirley inside the campaign from January of 2024, day-by-day, month-by-month, to the end, election day and victory in November. According to Shirley, Donald Trump’s past and present history is badly, and in some cases deliberately, misunderstood by the Establishment writers and scribes. Shirley sees Trump as an important transitional figure of history: America is no longer a nation of Republicans versus Democrats or even liberals versus conservatives, although there is some overlap; America is transitioning into a nation of Establishment versus Anti-Establishment, and much of this transition is due to Donald Trump. The campaign of 2024 proved this fact.NOVEMBER 2024 is an exciting, visceral and intellectual exploration of the how’s and whys of Donald Trump and his millions of followers; you will learn of President Donald J. Trump’s evolution of thought into the Anti-Establishment populist leader he is today. And about how a Presidential campaign operates, the inner workings, how decisions are made and why one loses, or in the case of President Trump, wins.