Howard Fast

"Howard Fast makes superb use of his material. ... Aside from its social and historical implications, Freedom Road is a high-geared story, told with that peculiar dramatic intensity of which Fast is a master". -- Chicago Daily News

This extraordinary collection of short stories reminds us how great a talent Dreiser was. A giant among American writers, he fought throughout his career to capture life in realistic terms. In his stories as well as his celebrated novels, he sought to uncover the problems of common Americans at the turn of the century—their struggles with society and their dreams of power and wealth against a backdrop of threatening poverty. "Dreiser has no peer in the American short story.…As fine as his novels are, they do not attain the artistic wholeness of his short tales. Among the moderns, there is almost no one capable of writing tales like these. The best of today is pallid and non-human when compared with Dreiser’s compassionate searchings."—from the Introduction by Howard Fast.

An imaginative, strange, and boldly inventive collection of stories from a singular mind, with a new introduction by Mark HarrisIn The General Zapped an Angel, featuring nine supremely entertaining fantasy and science fiction tales, a Vietnam general shoots down what appears to be an angel; a man sells his soul to the devil for a copy of the next day's Wall Street Journal; and a group of alien beings bestow a mouse with human thought and emotionFast, one of the bestselling authors of the twentieth century whose career spanned decades and genres, skewers war hawks, oil speculators, and profit-at-all-costs capitalism with wit and empathy, making these stories as relevant today as when they were first published in 1970.

The best-selling novel about a slave revolt in ancient Rome and the basis for the popular motion picture.

Silas Timberman is a novel written by Howard Fast, an American author known for his historical fiction works. The book is set in the early 20th century and tells the story of Silas Timberman, a Jewish immigrant who moves to New York City to start a new life. Silas is a hardworking and ambitious man who dreams of making it big in America. He starts as a lowly worker in a garment factory but soon rises through the ranks to become a successful businessman.The novel explores themes of immigration, social mobility, and the American dream. It also touches on the struggles of the Jewish community in America during that time period. Silas faces discrimination and prejudice from both his fellow workers and the wider society, but he perseveres and ultimately achieves his goals.Fast's writing style is engaging and vivid, painting a detailed picture of life in early 20th century New York City. The characters are well-developed and complex, with their own unique motivations and struggles. Overall, Silas Timberman is a compelling and thought-provoking novel that offers a glimpse into the immigrant experience and the pursuit of the American dream.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

"A novel of satisfying depth and breadth, written in good, clean, forceful prose."--Chicago TribuneA new edition of the New York Times bestselling second book in Howard Fast's powerful historical family saga, Second Generation follows the Lavette immigrants through the challenges of the Great Depression and World War II.Desperate for independence and scornful of the hypocrisy of the upper class, Barbara Lavette is determined to make her own way in the world. After abandoning her privileged life in San Francisco to disguise herself as a poor volunteer down on the wharf, Barbara journeys to France to report on the onset of Nazi terror and the coming of World War II.But when tragedy strikes deep at the heart of the life Barbara has built for herself in Europe, she is forced to return to San Francisco heartbroken and alone and face the family she ran away from.Continuing the epic Lavette family saga, Howard Fast's fascinating historical fiction vividly depicts the struggles to persevere in Immigrant America.

"A most wonderful book...there hasn't been a novel in years that can do a job on readers' emotions that the last fifty pages of The Immigrants does."--Los Angeles TimesThe first book in bestselling author Howard Fast's beloved family saga, The Immigrants is a transcendent work of historical fiction.In this sweeping journey of love and fortune, master storyteller Howard Fast recounts the family saga of roughneck immigrants determined to make their way in America at the turn of the century.Quick to ascend from the tragic depths of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Dan Lavette becomes the head of a powerful shipping empire and establishes himself among the city's cultural elite. But when he finds himself caught in a loveless marriage to the daughter of San Francisco's richest family, a scandalous love affair threatens to destroy the empire Dan has built for himself.The first novel of a compelling family saga, The Immigrants is fast-paced, emotional historical fiction that captures the wide range of relationships across Immigrant America during the tumultuous defining events of the early twentieth century.NOW A MOTION PICTURE

Originally published in 1942, The Unvanquished is the story of the Continental Army and George Washington in the desperate early months when the American Revolution faced defeat and disintegration. The book begins with the retreat across Manhattan's East River that saved the Continental Army after the Battle of Long Island. It ends with Washington's recrossing of the Delaware in the daring 1776 Christmas Eve raid on the Hessian camp at Trenton.

Offers a fictional portrayal of the darkest period of the American Revolution, when Washington's army was close to total collapse in the summer and fall of 1776

Originally published in 1941, The Last Frontier is the story of the Cheyenne Indians in the 1870s, and their bitter struggle to flee from the Indian Territory in Oklahoma back to their home in Wyoming and Montana. Some 300 Indians, led by Little Wolf, fought against General Crook and 10,000 troops, with only 60 finally making it through to freedom. Fast extensively researched this book in the late 1930s, visiting and speaking with Cheyenne experts in Norman, Oklahoma. This was the first of Fast's many books to gain a wide popular audience; it was eventually made by John Ford into the classic film Cheyenne Autumn (1964).

The best-selling novel about a slave revolt in ancient Rome and the basis for the popular motion picture.

"Fast is always a wonderful storyteller, and the story is a good one. ... Entertaining and memorable". -- Library Journal

Comparativists evaluate democratization by looking at regimes in the transition and consolidation phases of democracy without considering the essence of democracy. This book argues the need to consider democracy as a combination of rights and virtues, and that problems of democraticization are those of balance.

"Howard Fast makes superb use of his material. ... Aside from its social and historical implications, Freedom Road is a high-geared story, told with that peculiar dramatic intensity of which Fast is a master". -- Chicago Daily News

This edition brings the story of 20th-century Southern politics up to the present day and the virtual triumph of Southern Republicanism. It considers the changes in party politics, leadership, civil rights and black participation in Southern politics.

In more than 100 essays, written over a three-year period for the "New York Observer", Howard Fast looks with horror at the official violence inflicted on Nicaragua, El Salvador, Grenada, Panama and Iraq and the unofficial violence that is taking place in the cities of the United States. In "War and Peace", Fast summons us to face the wars and the social disintegration that degraded the Reagan and Bush years, with all the explanations and excuses stripped away. He dwells on the monumental folly of the Cold War and shows us repeatedly what we could have done with the billions spent on planes, bombs and guns if we had spent them on the education and safety of our children, on housing, medical care, rebuilding the cities - and what we can still do in the future. As in Swift, Yahoos populate the essays of this book: the drug dealers; the local political hacks; the anti-Semites; the racists; the women-bashers; the arms traffickers: the whole unsavory cast. As in Mencken, boobs run loose in the White House and in the halls of Congress. From time to time, a Candide-like character named D'emas (Yiddish for the "the truth") appears and asks embarrassing questions about the ways of our civilisation, which his interlocutor is hard-pressed to answer. And yet, after Howard Fast recounts the inanity and brutality of these years, he offers a humane vision of what America and the rest of the world could be. These essays should hold a place in 20th-century letters as a statement of unsurpassed passion on the theme: war and peace.