Author: David Goetz
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1462890822
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390
Book Description
Hell Is Being Republican in Virginia
Author: David Goetz
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1462890822
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390
Book Description
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1462890822
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390
Book Description
Hell is Being a Republican in Virginia
Author: David Goetz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781462890804
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 452
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781462890804
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 452
Book Description
We Once Met by Chance
Author: Charles V. Mauro
Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
ISBN: 1489715738
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 279
Book Description
We Once Met by Chance: Four Life Stories During the American Civil War follows four peoples lives during the American Civil WarJohn S. Mosby, Charles Russell Lowell, Laura Ratcliffe, and James Robinson. Col. John S. Mosby was a Confederate officer from Virginia, assigned to lead guerrilla activities outside the city of Washington. His mission was to keep the Union soldiers stationed there rather than fighting in the field against the army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee. Charles Russell Lowell of Massachusetts was a Harvard graduate from a prominent abolitionist family. He joined the Union army, eventually becoming the colonel of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry. He was sent to Virginia to capture or kill Mosby. Laura Ratcliffe was a young Southern lady living in Northern Virginia. She supported her home state of Virginia during the war in any way she could, including spying for Colonel Mosby. James Robinson was an African-American man living with his family in Manassas, Virginia. The land that he owned and lived on would become the central part of the battleground for two of the major battles during the war. We Once Met by Chance is the story of the Civil War from the perspective of these four individuals. Readers learn about their lives, their families, and their aspirations during these tumultuous four years in American history.
Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
ISBN: 1489715738
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 279
Book Description
We Once Met by Chance: Four Life Stories During the American Civil War follows four peoples lives during the American Civil WarJohn S. Mosby, Charles Russell Lowell, Laura Ratcliffe, and James Robinson. Col. John S. Mosby was a Confederate officer from Virginia, assigned to lead guerrilla activities outside the city of Washington. His mission was to keep the Union soldiers stationed there rather than fighting in the field against the army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee. Charles Russell Lowell of Massachusetts was a Harvard graduate from a prominent abolitionist family. He joined the Union army, eventually becoming the colonel of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry. He was sent to Virginia to capture or kill Mosby. Laura Ratcliffe was a young Southern lady living in Northern Virginia. She supported her home state of Virginia during the war in any way she could, including spying for Colonel Mosby. James Robinson was an African-American man living with his family in Manassas, Virginia. The land that he owned and lived on would become the central part of the battleground for two of the major battles during the war. We Once Met by Chance is the story of the Civil War from the perspective of these four individuals. Readers learn about their lives, their families, and their aspirations during these tumultuous four years in American history.
The Red Rebel of San Giovanni
Author: T. Giles Campbell
Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1639851364
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 422
Book Description
"From a battered old trunk in the basement, to the crumpled scrapbook in the bookcase, to an aging envelope in an unused jewelry box, they marched to the pages of this book to join the chorus to remember. Telegrams, letters, taped interviews and voices from decades ago joined in to provide a chilling description of World War II. "Red" was a Red Cross lady, her brother lost in the confusion of war. Some were courageous soldiers, others became prominent heroes. The author weaves common lives and historic events into an emotional explanation of what war was like for everyday Americans." By Colonel Ronald Losee, US Marines (Ret.) Retired Marine Colonel Ron Losee is a graduate of the University of Illinois, School of Journalism. His 31-year career took him to the Far East, from Korea to South Vietnam and many places in between. Later, as a Marine Reservist, when on vacation found him as a newspaper city editor. "I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! This is a story about typical American families and their neighborhood friends during WWII. It brings a different perspective of not only the war front, but stateside life during the war." By Colonel Tony Baggiano, USAF (Ret.) He served 20 years in the United States Air Force and his last Air Force assignment was the Commander of the San Antonio Data Services. He was awarded numerous medals which included Vietnam Service Medal with four bronze stars. The best way to teach history is to tell a story and that's what this book does. This is not your normal war book as it tells a story about friends and neighbors fighting in WWII and their families at home. It tells a different story about the "War to End all Wars". By Lieutenant Colonel James O'Donnell, USA (Ret.) Infantry combat commander from Company to Battalion and to Army level and a Distinguished member of the 16th Infantry Regiment. This memoir is a collection of WWII narratives about five heroic people whose wartime stories are connected. From Richmond, Virginia are Harriet Vaden, her brother Pfc. Herbert "Herbie" Vaden Jr., 1st Lt. Jimmie Monteith, and 1st Lt. Richard "Dick" Williams; and from Emmons, Minnesota, TSgt. Donald Singlestad. Herbie and Donald end up in the 5th Army fighting in Italy during the invasion of Salerno and many battles afterwards. Donald Singlestad later became the most decorated soldier of the 34th Infantry Division. Harriet joins the Red Cross after her younger brother Herbie enlisted, and she is assigned to the 454th Bomb Group in San Giovanni and Cerignola, Italy. When Herbie becomes MIA and severely wounded, Harriet travels across war-torn Italy to find him. Meanwhile, Richard Williams, a friend of the Vadens, was a bombardier with the 454th Bomb Group and becomes a prisoner of war in Romania. Included are the stories of Jimmy Monteith, a neighbor of the Vadens in Richmond, who is assigned to the 16th Infantry of the 7th Army and earns the Medal of Honor during the Normandy invasion. Family photographs, V-mails, and other memorabilia help tell the story of these incredible heroes as they face the perils of war. The wartime experiences affected each of them in many ways, both good and bad. As they survived each experience, their reasons for serving changed in many ways; and when they returned home, they had to re-build their lives physically and emotionally if they were to achieve happy lives again. Their stories mostly in their own words are long overdue.
Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1639851364
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 422
Book Description
"From a battered old trunk in the basement, to the crumpled scrapbook in the bookcase, to an aging envelope in an unused jewelry box, they marched to the pages of this book to join the chorus to remember. Telegrams, letters, taped interviews and voices from decades ago joined in to provide a chilling description of World War II. "Red" was a Red Cross lady, her brother lost in the confusion of war. Some were courageous soldiers, others became prominent heroes. The author weaves common lives and historic events into an emotional explanation of what war was like for everyday Americans." By Colonel Ronald Losee, US Marines (Ret.) Retired Marine Colonel Ron Losee is a graduate of the University of Illinois, School of Journalism. His 31-year career took him to the Far East, from Korea to South Vietnam and many places in between. Later, as a Marine Reservist, when on vacation found him as a newspaper city editor. "I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! This is a story about typical American families and their neighborhood friends during WWII. It brings a different perspective of not only the war front, but stateside life during the war." By Colonel Tony Baggiano, USAF (Ret.) He served 20 years in the United States Air Force and his last Air Force assignment was the Commander of the San Antonio Data Services. He was awarded numerous medals which included Vietnam Service Medal with four bronze stars. The best way to teach history is to tell a story and that's what this book does. This is not your normal war book as it tells a story about friends and neighbors fighting in WWII and their families at home. It tells a different story about the "War to End all Wars". By Lieutenant Colonel James O'Donnell, USA (Ret.) Infantry combat commander from Company to Battalion and to Army level and a Distinguished member of the 16th Infantry Regiment. This memoir is a collection of WWII narratives about five heroic people whose wartime stories are connected. From Richmond, Virginia are Harriet Vaden, her brother Pfc. Herbert "Herbie" Vaden Jr., 1st Lt. Jimmie Monteith, and 1st Lt. Richard "Dick" Williams; and from Emmons, Minnesota, TSgt. Donald Singlestad. Herbie and Donald end up in the 5th Army fighting in Italy during the invasion of Salerno and many battles afterwards. Donald Singlestad later became the most decorated soldier of the 34th Infantry Division. Harriet joins the Red Cross after her younger brother Herbie enlisted, and she is assigned to the 454th Bomb Group in San Giovanni and Cerignola, Italy. When Herbie becomes MIA and severely wounded, Harriet travels across war-torn Italy to find him. Meanwhile, Richard Williams, a friend of the Vadens, was a bombardier with the 454th Bomb Group and becomes a prisoner of war in Romania. Included are the stories of Jimmy Monteith, a neighbor of the Vadens in Richmond, who is assigned to the 16th Infantry of the 7th Army and earns the Medal of Honor during the Normandy invasion. Family photographs, V-mails, and other memorabilia help tell the story of these incredible heroes as they face the perils of war. The wartime experiences affected each of them in many ways, both good and bad. As they survived each experience, their reasons for serving changed in many ways; and when they returned home, they had to re-build their lives physically and emotionally if they were to achieve happy lives again. Their stories mostly in their own words are long overdue.
Mosby's Raids in Civil War Northern Virginia
Author: William S Connery
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1614238774
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 176
Book Description
The fascinating life of Colonel John Singleton Mosby, the Gray Ghost, before, during, and after the Civil War. The most famous Civil War name in Northern Virginia—other than General Lee—belongs to Colonel John Singleton Mosby, the Gray Ghost. His early life characterized by abuse of childhood bullies, a less-than-outstanding academic career, and even a brief incarceration, Mosby stands out among nearly one thousand generals who served in the war. Even though Mosby was opposed to secession, he joined the Confederate army as a private in Virginia, and quickly rose through the ranks. He became celebrated for his raids that captured Union general Edwin Stoughton in Fairfax and Colonel Daniel French Dulany in Rose Hill. By 1864, he was a feared partisan guerrilla in the North and a nightmare for Union troops protecting Washington City. After the war, his support for presidential candidate Ulysses S. Grant forced Mosby to leave his native Virginia for Hong Kong as U.S. consul. A mentor to young George S. Patton, Mosby’s military legacy extended far beyond the War Between the States and into World War II. William S. Connery brings alive the many dimensions of this American hero.
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1614238774
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 176
Book Description
The fascinating life of Colonel John Singleton Mosby, the Gray Ghost, before, during, and after the Civil War. The most famous Civil War name in Northern Virginia—other than General Lee—belongs to Colonel John Singleton Mosby, the Gray Ghost. His early life characterized by abuse of childhood bullies, a less-than-outstanding academic career, and even a brief incarceration, Mosby stands out among nearly one thousand generals who served in the war. Even though Mosby was opposed to secession, he joined the Confederate army as a private in Virginia, and quickly rose through the ranks. He became celebrated for his raids that captured Union general Edwin Stoughton in Fairfax and Colonel Daniel French Dulany in Rose Hill. By 1864, he was a feared partisan guerrilla in the North and a nightmare for Union troops protecting Washington City. After the war, his support for presidential candidate Ulysses S. Grant forced Mosby to leave his native Virginia for Hong Kong as U.S. consul. A mentor to young George S. Patton, Mosby’s military legacy extended far beyond the War Between the States and into World War II. William S. Connery brings alive the many dimensions of this American hero.
Virginia Politics & Government in a New Century: The Price of Power
Author: Jeff Thomas
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467137405
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 1
Book Description
"The modern political landscape of Virginia bears little resemblance to the past. The commonwealth is a nationally influential swing state alongside stalwarts like Florida or Ohio. But with increased power comes greater scrutiny--and corruption. Governor Bob McDonnell received a jail sentence on federal corruption charges, later vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court. Corporate influence on the state legislature and other leaders resulted in numerous ethics violations. Scandal erupted at the prestigious University of Virginia when the school ousted its president amid political drama and intrigue. Author Jeff Thomas reveals the intersection of money, power and politics and the corrosive effect on government in a new era."--Page [4] of cover.
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467137405
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 1
Book Description
"The modern political landscape of Virginia bears little resemblance to the past. The commonwealth is a nationally influential swing state alongside stalwarts like Florida or Ohio. But with increased power comes greater scrutiny--and corruption. Governor Bob McDonnell received a jail sentence on federal corruption charges, later vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court. Corporate influence on the state legislature and other leaders resulted in numerous ethics violations. Scandal erupted at the prestigious University of Virginia when the school ousted its president amid political drama and intrigue. Author Jeff Thomas reveals the intersection of money, power and politics and the corrosive effect on government in a new era."--Page [4] of cover.
It Was All a Lie
Author: Stuart Stevens
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525658467
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "In his bare-knuckles account, Stevens confesses to the reader that the entire apparatus of his Republican Party is built on a pack of lies... This reckoning inspired Stevens to publish this blistering, tell-all history... Although this book will be a hard read for any committed conservatives, they would do well to ponder it." --Julian E. Zelizer, The New York Times From the most successful Republican political operative of his generation, a searing, unflinching, and deeply personal exposé of how his party became what it is today Stuart Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. He knows the GOP as intimately as anyone in America, and in this new book he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass. This is not a book about how Donald J. Trump hijacked the Republican Party and changed it into something else. Stevens shows how Trump is in fact the natural outcome of five decades of hypocrisy and self-delusion, dating all the way back to the civil rights legislation of the early 1960s. Stevens shows how racism has always lurked in the modern GOP's DNA, from Goldwater's opposition to desegregation to Ronald Reagan's welfare queens and states' rights rhetoric. He gives an insider's account of the rank hypocrisy of the party's claims to embody "family values," and shows how the party's vaunted commitment to fiscal responsibility has been a charade since the 1980s. When a party stands for nothing, he argues, it is only natural that it will be taken over by the loudest and angriest voices in the room. It Was All a Lie is not just an indictment of the Republican Party, but a candid and often lacerating mea culpa. Stevens is not asking for pity or forgiveness; he is simply telling us what he has seen firsthand. He helped to create the modern party that kneels before a morally bankrupt con man and now he wants nothing more than to see what it has become burned to the ground.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525658467
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "In his bare-knuckles account, Stevens confesses to the reader that the entire apparatus of his Republican Party is built on a pack of lies... This reckoning inspired Stevens to publish this blistering, tell-all history... Although this book will be a hard read for any committed conservatives, they would do well to ponder it." --Julian E. Zelizer, The New York Times From the most successful Republican political operative of his generation, a searing, unflinching, and deeply personal exposé of how his party became what it is today Stuart Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. He knows the GOP as intimately as anyone in America, and in this new book he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass. This is not a book about how Donald J. Trump hijacked the Republican Party and changed it into something else. Stevens shows how Trump is in fact the natural outcome of five decades of hypocrisy and self-delusion, dating all the way back to the civil rights legislation of the early 1960s. Stevens shows how racism has always lurked in the modern GOP's DNA, from Goldwater's opposition to desegregation to Ronald Reagan's welfare queens and states' rights rhetoric. He gives an insider's account of the rank hypocrisy of the party's claims to embody "family values," and shows how the party's vaunted commitment to fiscal responsibility has been a charade since the 1980s. When a party stands for nothing, he argues, it is only natural that it will be taken over by the loudest and angriest voices in the room. It Was All a Lie is not just an indictment of the Republican Party, but a candid and often lacerating mea culpa. Stevens is not asking for pity or forgiveness; he is simply telling us what he has seen firsthand. He helped to create the modern party that kneels before a morally bankrupt con man and now he wants nothing more than to see what it has become burned to the ground.
A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time
Author: Paula Tarnapol Whitacre
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1612349609
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 319
Book Description
In the fall of 1862 Julia Wilbur left her family’s farm near Rochester, New York, and boarded a train to Washington, DC. As an ardent abolitionist, the forty-seven-year-old Wilbur left a sad but stable life, headed toward the chaos of the Civil War, and spent the next several years in Alexandria, Virginia, devising ways to aid recently escaped slaves and hospitalized Union soldiers. A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time shapes Wilbur’s diaries and other primary sources into a historical narrative of a woman who was alternately brave, self-pitying, foresighted, and myopic. Paula Tarnapol Whitacre describes Wilbur’s experiences against the backdrop of Alexandria, a southern town held by the Union from 1861 to 1865; of Washington, DC, where Wilbur became active in the women’s suffrage movement; and of Rochester, New York, where she began a lifelong association with Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. Harriet Jacobs, author of Incidents of a Slave Girl, became Wilbur’s friend and ally. Together, the two women, black and white, fought social convention to improve the lives of African Americans escaping slavery by coming across Union lines. In doing so, they faced the challenge to achieve racial and gender equality that continues today. A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time is the captivating story of a woman who remade herself at midlife during a period of massive social upheaval.
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1612349609
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 319
Book Description
In the fall of 1862 Julia Wilbur left her family’s farm near Rochester, New York, and boarded a train to Washington, DC. As an ardent abolitionist, the forty-seven-year-old Wilbur left a sad but stable life, headed toward the chaos of the Civil War, and spent the next several years in Alexandria, Virginia, devising ways to aid recently escaped slaves and hospitalized Union soldiers. A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time shapes Wilbur’s diaries and other primary sources into a historical narrative of a woman who was alternately brave, self-pitying, foresighted, and myopic. Paula Tarnapol Whitacre describes Wilbur’s experiences against the backdrop of Alexandria, a southern town held by the Union from 1861 to 1865; of Washington, DC, where Wilbur became active in the women’s suffrage movement; and of Rochester, New York, where she began a lifelong association with Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. Harriet Jacobs, author of Incidents of a Slave Girl, became Wilbur’s friend and ally. Together, the two women, black and white, fought social convention to improve the lives of African Americans escaping slavery by coming across Union lines. In doing so, they faced the challenge to achieve racial and gender equality that continues today. A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time is the captivating story of a woman who remade herself at midlife during a period of massive social upheaval.
Foxes in the Henhouse
Author: Steve Jarding
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743288939
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
Like a newly discovered treasure map offering a path to buried riches, Foxes in the Henhouse is a hard-hitting political blueprint for how the Democrats can win again in the South and rural America. The authors document the Republicans' rise in the South and Midwest, expose the hypocrisy that marked their ascent, and offer a take-no-prisoners plan to kick them out. The authors know of what they speak. "Rural strategists" Steve Jarding and Dave "Mudcat" Saunders are famous for securing Democratic victories in places they shouldn't have -- most notably in Mark Warner's successful run for governor of Virginia, a campaign that wasn't afraid to use bluegrass concerts and NASCAR to get the message out. When George W. Bush swept the South clean in 2004, it was the final insult to Jarding and Saunders, two self-proclaimed "bubbas" on a mission to convince their fellow southerners and rural Americans that the GOP's claim of representing "values," patriotism, the sportsmen, and fiscal conservatism is a disastrous farce. In addition to exposing the lies behind the gradual Republican invasion of the hinterland that began in the 1960s, they offer some surprisingly simple strategies for Democrats to capture each of these issues. Among other things, Jarding and Saunders urge Democrats to • Quit turning their noses up at the culture of rural America and talk to people where they live • Learn how to count when going after votes • Show some passion and retaliate when Republicans assassinate their characters Packed with meticulous and shocking research findings; blunt, laugh-out-loud language; and merciless assaults on George W. Bush, Tom DeLay, Bill O'Reilly, and plenty of other right-wing charlatans, Foxes in the Henhouse is a must-read and will be one of the most talked-about books of the year and for election cycles to come.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743288939
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
Like a newly discovered treasure map offering a path to buried riches, Foxes in the Henhouse is a hard-hitting political blueprint for how the Democrats can win again in the South and rural America. The authors document the Republicans' rise in the South and Midwest, expose the hypocrisy that marked their ascent, and offer a take-no-prisoners plan to kick them out. The authors know of what they speak. "Rural strategists" Steve Jarding and Dave "Mudcat" Saunders are famous for securing Democratic victories in places they shouldn't have -- most notably in Mark Warner's successful run for governor of Virginia, a campaign that wasn't afraid to use bluegrass concerts and NASCAR to get the message out. When George W. Bush swept the South clean in 2004, it was the final insult to Jarding and Saunders, two self-proclaimed "bubbas" on a mission to convince their fellow southerners and rural Americans that the GOP's claim of representing "values," patriotism, the sportsmen, and fiscal conservatism is a disastrous farce. In addition to exposing the lies behind the gradual Republican invasion of the hinterland that began in the 1960s, they offer some surprisingly simple strategies for Democrats to capture each of these issues. Among other things, Jarding and Saunders urge Democrats to • Quit turning their noses up at the culture of rural America and talk to people where they live • Learn how to count when going after votes • Show some passion and retaliate when Republicans assassinate their characters Packed with meticulous and shocking research findings; blunt, laugh-out-loud language; and merciless assaults on George W. Bush, Tom DeLay, Bill O'Reilly, and plenty of other right-wing charlatans, Foxes in the Henhouse is a must-read and will be one of the most talked-about books of the year and for election cycles to come.
Democracy in Chains
Author: Nancy MacLean
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101980974
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
Winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist for the National Book Award The Nation's "Most Valuable Book" “[A] vibrant intellectual history of the radical right.”—The Atlantic “This sixty-year campaign to make libertarianism mainstream and eventually take the government itself is at the heart of Democracy in Chains. . . . If you're worried about what all this means for America's future, you should be.”—NPR An explosive exposé of the right’s relentless campaign to eliminate unions, suppress voting, privatize public education, stop action on climate change, and alter the Constitution. *Now Updated With A New Preface* Behind today’s headlines of billionaires taking over our government is a secretive political establishment with long, deep, and troubling roots. The capitalist radical right has been working not simply to change who rules, but to fundamentally alter the rules of democratic governance. But billionaires did not launch this movement; a white intellectual in the embattled Jim Crow South did. Democracy in Chains names its true architect—the Nobel Prize-winning political economist James McGill Buchanan—and dissects the operation he and his colleagues designed over six decades to alter every branch of government to disempower the majority. In a brilliant and engrossing narrative, Nancy MacLean shows how Buchanan forged his ideas about government in a last gasp attempt to preserve the white elite’s power in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. In response to the widening of American democracy, he developed a brilliant, if diabolical, plan to undermine the ability of the majority to use its numbers to level the playing field between the rich and powerful and the rest of us. Corporate donors and their right-wing foundations were only too eager to support Buchanan’s work in teaching others how to divide America into “makers” and “takers.” And when a multibillionaire on a messianic mission to rewrite the social contract of the modern world, Charles Koch, discovered Buchanan, he created a vast, relentless, and multi-armed machine to carry out Buchanan’s strategy. Without Buchanan's ideas and Koch's money, the libertarian right would not have succeeded in its stealth takeover of the Republican Party as a delivery mechanism. Now, with Mike Pence as Vice President, the cause has a longtime loyalist in the White House, not to mention a phalanx of Republicans in the House, the Senate, a majority of state governments, and the courts, all carrying out the plan. That plan includes harsher laws to undermine unions, privatizing everything from schools to health care and Social Security, and keeping as many of us as possible from voting. Based on ten years of unique research, Democracy in Chains tells a chilling story of right-wing academics and big money run amok. This revelatory work of scholarship is also a call to arms to protect the achievements of twentieth-century American self-government.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101980974
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
Winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist for the National Book Award The Nation's "Most Valuable Book" “[A] vibrant intellectual history of the radical right.”—The Atlantic “This sixty-year campaign to make libertarianism mainstream and eventually take the government itself is at the heart of Democracy in Chains. . . . If you're worried about what all this means for America's future, you should be.”—NPR An explosive exposé of the right’s relentless campaign to eliminate unions, suppress voting, privatize public education, stop action on climate change, and alter the Constitution. *Now Updated With A New Preface* Behind today’s headlines of billionaires taking over our government is a secretive political establishment with long, deep, and troubling roots. The capitalist radical right has been working not simply to change who rules, but to fundamentally alter the rules of democratic governance. But billionaires did not launch this movement; a white intellectual in the embattled Jim Crow South did. Democracy in Chains names its true architect—the Nobel Prize-winning political economist James McGill Buchanan—and dissects the operation he and his colleagues designed over six decades to alter every branch of government to disempower the majority. In a brilliant and engrossing narrative, Nancy MacLean shows how Buchanan forged his ideas about government in a last gasp attempt to preserve the white elite’s power in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. In response to the widening of American democracy, he developed a brilliant, if diabolical, plan to undermine the ability of the majority to use its numbers to level the playing field between the rich and powerful and the rest of us. Corporate donors and their right-wing foundations were only too eager to support Buchanan’s work in teaching others how to divide America into “makers” and “takers.” And when a multibillionaire on a messianic mission to rewrite the social contract of the modern world, Charles Koch, discovered Buchanan, he created a vast, relentless, and multi-armed machine to carry out Buchanan’s strategy. Without Buchanan's ideas and Koch's money, the libertarian right would not have succeeded in its stealth takeover of the Republican Party as a delivery mechanism. Now, with Mike Pence as Vice President, the cause has a longtime loyalist in the White House, not to mention a phalanx of Republicans in the House, the Senate, a majority of state governments, and the courts, all carrying out the plan. That plan includes harsher laws to undermine unions, privatizing everything from schools to health care and Social Security, and keeping as many of us as possible from voting. Based on ten years of unique research, Democracy in Chains tells a chilling story of right-wing academics and big money run amok. This revelatory work of scholarship is also a call to arms to protect the achievements of twentieth-century American self-government.