Kirjahaku

Rising from a Missouri boyhood and meager prospecting success to owning the most productive copper, silver, and gold mines in the world and being elected a United States senator, George Hearst (1820-91) spent decades veering between the heights of prosperity and the depths of financial ruin. In George Hearst: Silver King of the Gilded Age, Matthew Bernstein captures Hearst’s ascent, casting light on his actions during the Civil War, his tempestuous marriage to his cousin Phoebe, his role as disciplinarian and doting father to future media magnate William Randolph Hearst, and his devious methods of building the greatest mining empire in the West. Whether driving a pack of mules laden with silver from the Comstock Lode to San Francisco, bribing jurors in Pioche and Deadwood, or unearthing bonanzas in Utah and Montana Territories, Hearst’s cunning, energy, and industry were always evident, along with occasional glimmers of the villainy ascribed to him in the television series Deadwood. In this first full-length biography, George Hearst emerges in all his human dimensions and historical significance-an ambitious, complex, flawed, and quintessentially American character.

Rising from a Missouri boyhood and meager prospecting success to owning the most productive copper, silver, and gold mines in the world and being elected a United States senator, George Hearst (1820-91) spent decades veering between the heights of prosperity and the depths of financial ruin. In George Hearst: Silver King of the Gilded Age, Matthew Bernstein captures Hearst’s ascent, casting light on his actions during the Civil War, his tempestuous marriage to his cousin Phoebe, his role as disciplinarian and doting father to future media magnate William Randolph Hearst, and his devious methods of building the greatest mining empire in the West. Whether driving a pack of mules laden with silver from the Comstock Lode to San Francisco, bribing jurors in Pioche and Deadwood, or unearthing bonanzas in Utah and Montana Territories, Hearst’s cunning, energy, and industry were always evident, along with occasional glimmers of the villainy ascribed to him in the television series Deadwood. In this first full-length biography, George Hearst emerges in all his human dimensions and historical significance-an ambitious, complex, flawed, and quintessentially American character.

If not for an unlikely alliance among a bespectacled cowboy, a former Confederate general, and a millionaire newspaper publisher, the Spanish-American War might never have been. How these three outsize characters—Theodore Roosevelt, Joseph “Fighting Joe” Wheeler, and William Randolph Hearst—helped ignite the war that established the United States’ offshore empire is the rousing tale that Matthew Bernstein tells in Team of Giants. From his days as a Dakota deputy sheriff, Theodore Roosevelt had dreamed of leading a cowboy regiment into battle. With a little help from his friends, in 1898 he got his wish. While Roosevelt raised the Rough Riders in San Antonio, Congressman Wheeler delivered bellicose speeches from the US Capitol, and Hearst pulled out all the stops in the San Francisco Examiner and New York Journal. With the destruction of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor and President William McKinley’s call for war, the two greatest star reporters of the era, rivals Richard Harding Davis and Stephen Crane, headed for Cuba to do their part. In Bernstein’s sweeping history, these towering figures come to life as they set in motion events that would put a period on the Civil War era, transform the global media landscape, and alter geopolitics for the twentieth century—with the plight of the Cuban people serving as a backdrop for a world-class contest of wills and wiles. A stirring narrative built on rigorous research, Team of Giants is a fresh account of the role the martial ambitions of these men played in a war that would launch the American Century and set each man on the path to his own place in history.

A portrait of the trailblazing film producer whose career spanned five decades.The long, colorful career of Walter Wanger (1894-1968) is one of Hollywood’s greatest untold stories. An intellectual and a socially conscious movie executive who produced provocative message movies and glittering romantic melodramas, Wanger’s career started at Paramount studios in the 1920s and led him to work at virtually every major studio as either a contract producer or an independent. He produced a series of American film classics, including Queen Christina, Stagecoach, Foreign Correspondent, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as well as a few notable flops, such as Cleopatra. This comprehensive biography brings to life a distinctive film personality and offers a new appreciation of the role of the producer in the history of American cinema.

The Leo Frank case of 1913 was one of the most sensational trials of the early twentieth century, capturing international attention. Frank, a northern Jewish factory supervisor in Atlanta, was convicted for the murder of Mary Phagan, a young laborer native to the South, largely on the perjured testimony of an African American janitor. The trial was both a murder mystery and a courtroom drama marked by lurid sexual speculation and overt racism. The subsequent lynching of Frank in 1915 by an angry mob only made the story more irresistible to historians, playwrights, novelists, musicians, and filmmakers for decades to come.Matthew H. Bernstein is the first scholar to examine the feature films and television programs produced in response to the trial and lynching of Leo Frank. He considers the four major surviving American texts: Oscar Micheaux's film Murder in Harlem (1936), Mervyn LeRoy's film They Won't Forget (1937), the Profiles in Courage television episode "John M. Slaton" (1964), and the two-part NBC miniseries The Murder of Mary Phagan (1988). Bernstein explains that complex issues like racism, anti-Semitism, class resentment, and sectionalism were at once irresistibly compelling and painfully difficult to portray in the mass media. Exploring the cultural and industrial contexts in which the works were produced, Bernstein considers how they succeeded or failed in representing the case's many facets. Film and television shows can provide worthy interpretations of history, Bernstein argues, even when they depart from the historical record.Screening a Lynching is an engrossing meditation on how film and television represented a traumatic and tragic episode in American history-one that continues to fascinate people to this day.

This book is written by 17 year old music whiz Matthew Bernstein. The book features 70 musicians including Gene Simmons from Kiss and Chaka Kahn. All proceeds from book sales are being donated to the Fender Music Foundation to keep music programs healthy and vibrant across the nation. We will be booking media appearances for this Author as well as book signing events in the Author hometown as well as additional cities and states. Music Soothes the Soul features engaging stories from seventy musicians, artists, scientists and entrepreneurs who show how music can positively impact our lives. These personal narratives demonstrate that music truly is a universal language. Music Soothes the Soul reveals the worlds of famous celebrities as well as those who work behind the scenes. Discover how Gene Simmons, Chaka Khan, Dave Wakeling, Riker Lynch, and other artists got their start. Appreciate how nonprofits like Road Recovery and Guitars Not Guns help at-risk youth find emotional strength through making music. Get a peek backstage from musicians who play with Carlos Santana, Beyonce, and Prince. Learn about performing on reality TV. Music inspired each story and this book tells why.