A Few Words in Defense of Our Country

A Few Words in Defense of Our Country PDF Author: Robert Hilburn
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 0306834715
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
“Randy Newman is our great master of American song and storytelling."--Bruce Springsteen “At last, the biography that Randy Newman has long deserved. The emotional precision, the humor and sweep, the truths and secrets behind his remarkable body of work . . . it’s all here in Robert Hilburn’s heartfelt and indispensable account of America’s finest songwriter. Leave it to Hilburn to pull back the curtain on the incredible life of Newman, a shy genius who clearly trusted him enough to point him in all the right directions. It’s more than a great read, it’s an invitation to re-visit Randy Newman’s work with renewed appreciation for the man who uniquely defined the American Experience just when we needed it most.”--Cameron Crowe The definitive biography of songwriter Randy Newman, told with his full cooperation, by acclaimed biographer and longtime Los Angeles Times music critic, Robert Hilburn Randy Newman is widely hailed as one of America’s all-time greatest songwriters, equally skilled in the sophisticated melodies and lyrics of the Gershwin-Porter era and the cultural commentary of his own generation, with Bob Dylan and Paul Simon among his most ardent admirers. While tens of millions around the world can hum “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” his disarming centerpiece for Toy Story, most of them would be astonished to learn that the heart of Newman’s legacy is in the dozens of brilliant songs that detail the injustices, from racism to class inequality, that have contributed to the division of our nation. Rolling Stone declared that a single Newman song, “Sail Away,” tells us more about America than “The Star-Spangled Banner.” And yet, his legacy remains largely undocumented in book form—until now. In A FEW WORDS IN DEFENSE OF OUR COUNTRY, veteran music journalist Robert Hilburn presents the definitive portrait of an American legend. Hilburn has known Newman since his club debut at the Troubadour in 1970, and the two have maintained a connection in the decades since, conversing over the course of times good and bad. Though Newman has long refused to talk with potential biographers, he now gives Hilburn unprecedented access not only to himself but also to his archives, as well as his family, friends, and collaborators. Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, John Williams, Linda Ronstadt, Don Henley, Bonnie Raitt, Chuck D, James Taylor, and New York Times’ Pulitzer-winning columnists, Thomas Friedman and Wesley Morris, among others, contributed to the book. In addition to exploring Newman’s prolific career and the evolution of his songwriting, A FEW WORDS IN DEFENSE OF OUR COUNTRY also dives into his childhood and early influences, his musical family that ruled Hollywood movie scores for decades, the relationships that have provided inspiration for his songs, and so much more. As thought-provoking and thorough as it is tender, this book is an overdue tribute to the legendary songwriter whose music has long reflected and challenged the America we know today.

Words of Our Country

Words of Our Country PDF Author: Robert M. W. Dixon
Publisher: University of Queensland Press(Australia)
ISBN:
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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A Country of Words

A Country of Words PDF Author: Abdel Bari Atwan
Publisher: Saqi
ISBN: 0863568386
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Few lives reflect their times as much as the life of Abdel Bari Atwan. Born in a refugee camp in Gaza in 1950, he left age seventeen and has since become one of the world's most foremost commentators on the Middle East. In this revealing memoir, Atwan recounts with humour and honesty his extraordinary journey. He depicts both the horror of camp massacres and the unexpected consequences of Britain's involvement in the region - such as when a British paratrooper fell from the sky with his sizeable parachute and everyone in his mother's village got new silk trousers. Atwan shares his many extraordinary encounters, including tea with Margaret Thatcher, a weekend with Osama bin Laden, intimate meetings with Yasser Arafat, and the row between Colonel Gaddafi and the Shah of Iran that earned him his first journalistic break. But his is also a touching, personal story, never more so than when he describes taking his British-born children to meet his family, who still live in a camp surrounded by barbed wire. 'This portrait of the life and times of a distinguished journalist offers a penetrating insight into the world as seen from the point of view of someone born and bred a Palestinian refugee in a Gaza camp. Abdel Bari Atwan's authentic voice and sharp, descriptive writing brings alive a childhood full of life-affirming sparkle amid a lifetime spent deep in the travails of the Middle Eastern tragedy' Polly Toynbee 'Atwan's enthralling memoir charts his meteoric rise form the shoeless urchin in the 1950's to cultured commentator whose opinion is now sought all over the world ... A skilful raconteur.' Tribune Magazine

Country Words

Country Words PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art and science
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description


How the Word Is Passed

How the Word Is Passed PDF Author: Clint Smith
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316492914
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
This “important and timely” (Drew Faust, Harvard Magazine) #1 New York Times bestseller examines the legacy of slavery in America—and how both history and memory continue to shape our everyday lives. Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves. It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola, a former plantation-turned-maximum-security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers. A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country's most essential stories are hidden in plain view—whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women, and children has been deeply imprinted. Informed by scholarship and brought to life by the story of people living today, Smith's debut work of nonfiction is a landmark of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction Winner of the Stowe Prize Winner of 2022 Hillman Prize for Book Journalism A New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021

A Glossary of Words used in the Country of Wiltshire

A Glossary of Words used in the Country of Wiltshire PDF Author: George Edward Dartnell
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Discover the fascinating language and customs of the county of Wiltshire with this comprehensive glossary compiled by George Edward Dartnell and E.H. Goddard. Unravel the mysteries of Wiltshire's folk-speech with over half of the words listed never before appearing in any Wiltshire vocabulary. Learn the history and etymology of each word, and their relation to other English dialects. The glossary also includes examples of actual folk-talk, short stories illustrating the dialect, and appendices on various matters of interest.

There Was a Country

There Was a Country PDF Author: Chinua Achebe
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101595981
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
From the legendary author of Things Fall Apart—a long-awaited memoir of coming of age in a fragile new nation, and its destruction in a tragic civil war For more than forty years, Chinua Achebe maintained a considered silence on the events of the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran War, of 1967–1970, addressing them only obliquely through his poetry. Decades in the making, There Was a Country is a towering account of one of modern Africa’s most disastrous events, from a writer whose words and courage left an enduring stamp on world literature. A marriage of history and memoir, vivid firsthand observation and decades of research and reflection, There Was a Country is a work whose wisdom and compassion remind us of Chinua Achebe’s place as one of the great literary and moral voices of our age.

A Glossary of Words Used in the Country of Wiltshire

A Glossary of Words Used in the Country of Wiltshire PDF Author: George Goddard, Edward Dartnell
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3752340843
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
Reproduction of the original: A Glossary of Words Used in the Country of Wiltshire by George Dartnell, Edward Goddard

The United States and Canada

The United States and Canada PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anonyms and pseudonyms, American
Languages : en
Pages : 126

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Book Description


Lectures from Colombo to Almora

Lectures from Colombo to Almora PDF Author: Vivekananda Swami
Publisher: Advaita Ashrama (A publication branch of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math)
ISBN: 8175059133
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
After his memorable work in the West, Swami Vivekananda landed in Colombo on 15 January 1897. During his passage from Colombo to Kolkata, and from there to Almora, he had delivered electrifying lectures at different places rousing the Indian masses from their age long siesta. These made the Indian masses aware of the greatness of their own culture and glorious heritage, and the distinctive role they ought to play in due course as far as the world peace and amity was concerned by the dissemination of spiritual ideas. In this book the reader can get a glimpse of what India is where lies its true strength. Published by Advaita Ashrama, a publication house of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, India, this collection of thirty highly informative and inspiring lectures is specially meant for all those who are eager to learn about the glory of Indian culture and civilization