In this highly original study, Gregory Downs argues that the most American of wars, the Civil War, created a seemingly un-American popular politics, rooted not in independence but in voluntary claims of dependence. Through an examination of the pleas and petitions of ordinary North Carolinians, Declarations of Dependence contends that the Civil War redirected, not destroyed, claims of dependence by exposing North Carolinians to the expansive but unsystematic power of Union and Con...

“Original and revelatory.”—David Blight, author of Frederick DouglassAvery O. Craven Award FinalistA Civil War Memory/Civil War Monitor Best Book of the YearIn April 1865, Robert E. Lee wrote to Ulysses S. Grant asking for peace. Peace was beyond his authority to negotiate, Grant replied, but surrender terms he would discuss. The distinction proved prophetic.After Appomattox reveals ...

Much of the confusion about a central event in United States history begins with the name: the Civil War. In reality, the Civil War was not merely civil — meaning national — and not merely a war, but instead an international conflict of ideas as well as armies. Its implications transformed the U.S. Constitution and reshaped a world order, as political and economic systems grounded in slavery and empire clashed with the democratic process of republican forms of government. And it spilled ov...

At the close of the Civil War, it was clear that the military conflict that began in South Carolina and was fought largely east of the Mississippi River had changed the politics, policy, and daily life of the entire nation. In an expansive reimagining of post–Civil War America, the essays in this volume explore these profound changes not only in the South but also in the Southwest, in the Great Plains, and abroad. Resisting the tendency to use Reconstruction as a catchall, the contributors...

"Stellar . . . Spectacular . . . [A] heartfelt, painstaking account." —Nell Irvin Painter, The Washington Post"An extraordinary collaboration . . . A profound achievement . . . Downs is a superb, even lyrical writer." —David W. Blight, Los Angeles TimesA Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year | One of Literary Hub's 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the YearA bold reinterpre...

A bold reinterpretation of the causes and legacy of Nat Turner's rebellion―and the definitive account.In August 1831, a group of enslaved people in Southampton County, Virginia, rose up to fight for their freedom. They attacked the plantations on which their enslavers lived and attempted to march on the county seat of Jerusalem, from which they planned to launch an uprising across the South. After the rebellion was suppressed, well over a hundred people, Black and ...

River Channel Management is the first book to deal comprehensively with recent revolutions in river channel management. It explores the multi-disciplinary nature of river channel management in relation to modern management techniques that bear the background of the entire drainage basin in mind, use channel restoration where appropriate, and are designed to be sustainable.River Channel Management is divided into five sections:·The Introduction outlines the need for river c...

From award-winning author Tim Downs comes this warmhearted story of mistaken identity and unlikely redemption that will have you both laughing and looking at life from a higher perspective.It’s a brilliant plan, if Kemp McAvoy says so himself—and Kemp never hesitates to point out his own brilliance. Kemp is a night nurse for a beautiful but aging movie star in a medically induced coma. And with the help of her agent and a struggling young publisher, he’s concocted ...

The Aesop's Fable Paradigm is a collection of essays that explore the cutting-edge intersection of Folklore and Science. From moralizing fables to fantastic folktales, humans have been telling stories about animals—animals who can talk, feel, think, and make moral judgments just as we do—for a very long time. In contrast, scientific studies of the mental lives of animals have professed to be investigating the nature of animal minds slowly, cautiously, objectively, with no room for...

Over 1 million Discworld audiobooks sold – discover the extraordinary universe of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld like never beforeThe audiobook of Mort is narrated by the BAFTA award-winning actor Sian Clifford (Fleabag; Vanity Fair; Quiz). BAFTA and Golden Globe award-winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually; Pirates of the Caribbean; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) reads the footnotes, and Peter Ser...

They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.There are some situations where the correct response is to display the sort of ignorance which happily and wilfully flies in the face of the facts. In this case, the birth of a baby girl, born a wizard - by mistake. Everybody knows that there's no such thing as a female wizard. But now it's gone and happened, there's nothing much anyone can do about it. Let the battle...

Brought to you by Penguin.'What shall we do?' said Twoflower.'Panic?' said Rincewind hopefully. He always held that panic was the best means of survival.As it moves towards a seemingly inevitable collision with a malevolent red star, the Discworld could do with a hero. What it doesn’t need is a singularly inept and cowardly wizard, still recovering from the trauma of falling off the edge of the world, or a well-meaning tourist and h...