One Nation Underground

One Nation Underground PDF Author: Kenneth D. Rose
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814775233
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Why some Americans built fallout shelters—an exploration America's Cold War experience For the half-century duration of the Cold War, the fallout shelter was a curiously American preoccupation. Triggered in 1961 by a hawkish speech by John F. Kennedy, the fallout shelter controversy—"to dig or not to dig," as Business Week put it at the time—forced many Americans to grapple with deeply disturbing dilemmas that went to the very heart of their self-image about what it meant to be an American, an upstanding citizen, and a moral human being. Given the much-touted nuclear threat throughout the 1960s and the fact that 4 out of 5 Americans expressed a preference for nuclear war over living under communism, what's perhaps most striking is how few American actually built backyard shelters. Tracing the ways in which the fallout shelter became an icon of popular culture, Kenneth D. Rose also investigates the troubling issues the shelters raised: Would a post-war world even be worth living in? Would shelter construction send the Soviets a message of national resolve, or rather encourage political and military leaders to think in terms of a "winnable" war? Investigating the role of schools, television, government bureaucracies, civil defense, and literature, and rich in fascinating detail—including a detailed tour of the vast fallout shelter in Greenbriar, Virginia, built to harbor the entire United States Congress in the event of nuclear armageddon—One Nation, Underground goes to the very heart of America's Cold War experience.

One Nation Underground

One Nation Underground PDF Author: Kenneth D. Rose
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814775233
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Get Book Here

Book Description
Why some Americans built fallout shelters—an exploration America's Cold War experience For the half-century duration of the Cold War, the fallout shelter was a curiously American preoccupation. Triggered in 1961 by a hawkish speech by John F. Kennedy, the fallout shelter controversy—"to dig or not to dig," as Business Week put it at the time—forced many Americans to grapple with deeply disturbing dilemmas that went to the very heart of their self-image about what it meant to be an American, an upstanding citizen, and a moral human being. Given the much-touted nuclear threat throughout the 1960s and the fact that 4 out of 5 Americans expressed a preference for nuclear war over living under communism, what's perhaps most striking is how few American actually built backyard shelters. Tracing the ways in which the fallout shelter became an icon of popular culture, Kenneth D. Rose also investigates the troubling issues the shelters raised: Would a post-war world even be worth living in? Would shelter construction send the Soviets a message of national resolve, or rather encourage political and military leaders to think in terms of a "winnable" war? Investigating the role of schools, television, government bureaucracies, civil defense, and literature, and rich in fascinating detail—including a detailed tour of the vast fallout shelter in Greenbriar, Virginia, built to harbor the entire United States Congress in the event of nuclear armageddon—One Nation, Underground goes to the very heart of America's Cold War experience.

One Nation Under God

One Nation Under God PDF Author: Vincent M. Wales
Publisher: Dgc Press
ISBN: 9780974133706
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
In the year 2021, eleven-year old Mary Christopher is the spunky daughter of the latest President vowing to return America to its righteous roots. Her mother is a well-known ?family values? activist, and her "Uncle" Gene Sisco is head of the largest evangelical Christian organization in the land. Against the backdrop of an America where Christian fundamentalism has brought about tremendous change in Washington, Mary's is a conflicted coming-of-age story, in which she questions everything from her faith to her sexuality, and ultimately becomes one more victim of her father's repressive legislation. Other figures in her life include: Jude, an atheist Mary befriends on the Internet; Vicki, the girl at camp for whom Mary develops confusing feelings; J. E. Cooper, the freelance reporter who labels Gene Sisco the most dangerous man in America; and Jefferson Paine, the mysterious figure behind the infamous Voice of Reason website, dedicated to challenging the Christopher administration at every turn. The novel takes events from present-day and extrapolates them to a possible conclusion two short decades from now. The list of controversial topics in this fable is long, covering everything from radical education techniques to communal living, group marriages to the failings of religion. Yet, through it all, ONE NATION UNDER GOD maintains a positive world-view, a hope that our society might one day get its collective act together, before it's too late.

Underground Airlines

Underground Airlines PDF Author: Ben H. Winters
Publisher: Mulholland Books
ISBN: 0316261238
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
The bestselling book that asks the question: what would present-day America look like if the Civil War never happened? A New York Times bestseller; a Goodreads Choice finalist; named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, Slate, Publishers Weekly, Hudson Bookseller, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kirkus Reviews, AudioFile Magazine, and Amazon A young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshall Service in exchange for his freedom. He's got plenty of work. In this version of America, slavery continues in four states called "the Hard Four." On the trail of a runaway known as Jackdaw, Victor arrives in Indianapolis knowing that something isn't right -- with the case file, with his work, and with the country itself. As he works to infiltrate the local cell of a abolitionist movement called the Underground Airlines, tracking Jackdaw through the back rooms of churches, empty parking garages, hotels, and medical offices, Victor believes he's hot on the trail. But his strange, increasingly uncanny pursuit is complicated by a boss who won't reveal the extraordinary stakes of Jackdaw's case, as well as by a heartbreaking young woman and her child -- who may be Victor's salvation. Victor believes himself to be a good man doing bad work, unwilling to give up the freedom he has worked so hard to earn. But in pursuing Jackdaw, Victor discovers secrets at the core of the country's arrangement with the Hard Four, secrets the government will preserve at any cost. Underground Airlines is a ground-breaking novel, a wickedly imaginative thriller, and a story of an America that is more like our own than we'd like to believe.

The Negro Motorist Green Book

The Negro Motorist Green Book PDF Author: Victor H. Green
Publisher: Colchis Books
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
The Negro Motorist Green Book was a groundbreaking guide that provided African American travelers with crucial information on safe places to stay, eat, and visit during the era of segregation in the United States. This essential resource, originally published from 1936 to 1966, offered a lifeline to black motorists navigating a deeply divided nation, helping them avoid the dangers and indignities of racism on the road. More than just a travel guide, The Negro Motorist Green Book stands as a powerful symbol of resilience and resistance in the face of oppression, offering a poignant glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of the African American experience in the 20th century.

Off the Books

Off the Books PDF Author: Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674044647
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
In this revelatory book, Sudhir Venkatesh takes us into Maquis Park, a poor black neighborhood on Chicago's Southside, to explore the desperate and remarkable ways in which a community survives. The result is a dramatic narrative of individuals at work, and a rich portrait of a community. But while excavating the efforts of men and women to generate a basic livelihood for themselves and their families, Off the Books offers a devastating critique of the entrenched poverty that we so often ignore in America, and reveals how the underground economy is an inevitable response to the ghetto's appalling isolation from the rest of the country.

Dam Nation

Dam Nation PDF Author: Laura Allen
Publisher: Soft Skull
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
"Part radical history of water, part DIY guide to sustainable technologies. DAM NATION brings together an analysis of water's history with the active fight for its future."--Back cover

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad PDF Author: Colson Whitehead
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0345804325
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • "An American masterpiece" (NPR) that chronicles a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. • The basis for the acclaimed original Amazon Prime Video series directed by Barry Jenkins. Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him. In Colson Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman's will to escape the horrors of bondage—and a powerful meditation on the history we all share. Look for Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Crook Manifesto, coming soon!

Many Voices, One Nation

Many Voices, One Nation PDF Author: Margaret Salazar-Porzio
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
ISBN: 1944466118
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
Many Voices, One Nation explores U.S. history through a powerful collection of artifacts and stories from America’s many peoples. Sixteen essays, composed by Smithsonian curators and affiliated scholars, offer distinctive insight into the peopling of the United States from the Europeans’ North American arrival in 1492 to the near present. Each chapter addresses a different historical era and considers what quintessentially American ideals like freedom, equality, and belonging have meant to Americans of all backgrounds, races, and national origins through the centuries. Much more than just an anthology, this book is a vibrant, cohesive presentation of everyday objects and ideas that connect us to our history and to one another. Using these objects and personal stories as a transmitter, the book invites readers to hear the voices of our many voices, and contemplate the complexity of our one nation. The stories and artifacts included in this volume bring our seemingly disparate pasts together to inspire possibilities for a shared future as we constantly reinterpret our e pluribus unum – our nation of many voices.

Hope and Fear in Margaret Chase Smith's America

Hope and Fear in Margaret Chase Smith's America PDF Author: Gregory P. Gallant
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739179861
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
Hope and Fear in Margaret Chase Smith's America: A Continuous Tangle provides a fresh interpretation of the life, career, and legacy of former United States Senator Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman elected to both houses of the U.S. Congress. The book examines the critical connections made by Smith to key policymakers, links that allowed her to overcome opposition and prejudice to gain access, influence, and power in Washington, D.C. Highlighting the tangle of personalities and events in America from 1940 to 1972, the book focuses on Smith’s courageous and often solitary efforts on behalf of women during the 1940s, and her stand during the McCarthy era which earned her a national reputation for civility in public discourse. It also examines her key interactions with the group of U.S. Senators who were elected with her in 1948 and their work to forge public policy in the aftermath of McCarthyism, including domestic and international policy following Sputnik, the creation of the Space Program, civil rights, Vietnam, and Medicare. Against these events and activities, the book demonstrates the impact of the nation’s commitment to anticommunism and nuclear weapons which allowed politicians like Margaret Chase Smith to embrace contradictory stances on political dissent, military policy, and the role of government in American society.

Awaiting Armageddon

Awaiting Armageddon PDF Author: Alice L. George
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 0807861618
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
For thirteen days in October 1962, America stood at the brink of nuclear war. Nikita Khrushchev's decision to place nuclear missiles in Cuba and John F. Kennedy's defiant response introduced the possibility of unprecedented cataclysm. The immediate threat of destruction entered America's classrooms and its living rooms. Awaiting Armageddon provides the first in-depth look at this crisis as it roiled outside of government offices, where ordinary Americans realized their government was unprepared to protect either itself or its citizens from the dangers of nuclear war. During the seven days between Kennedy's announcement of a naval blockade and Khrushchev's decision to withdraw Soviet nuclear missiles from Cuba, U.S. citizens absorbed the nightmare scenario unfolding on their television sets. An estimated ten million Americans fled their homes; millions more prepared shelters at home, clearing the shelves of supermarkets and gun stores. Alice George captures the irrationality of the moment as Americans coped with dread and resignation, humor and pathos, terror and ignorance. In her examination of the public response to the missile crisis, the author reveals cracks in the veneer of American confidence in the early years of the space age and demonstrates how the fears generated by Cold War culture blinded many Americans to the dangers of nuclear war until it was almost too late.