In 1957, the eyes of the world turned to a single high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, where nine young Black students walked through a gauntlet of hatred, National Guard bayonets, and screaming mobs to claim their constitutional right to an education. At the center of that storm stood Daisy Bates, journalist, activist, and fearless strategist, whose home became a command post, a sanctuary, and a target. In this searing memoir, she tells the full story of what it cost to fight for justice...

At an event honoring Daisy Bates as 1990’s Distinguished Citizen then-governor Bill Clinton called her "the most distinguished Arkansas citizen of all time." Her classic account of the 1957 Little Rock School Crisis, The Long Shadow of Little Rock, couldn't be found on most bookstore shelves in 1962 and was banned throughout the South. In 1988, after the University of Arkansas Press reprinted it, it won an American Book Award. On September 3, 1957, Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National...

DAISY BATES: "As the years passed, I was more and more convinced that it was impossibleto leave these people, to be deaf to their appeal for human kindliness,and of the hopelessness of any movement except one of help and comfort tothe individual, and personal example. So savage and so simple, so muchastray and so utterly helpless were they, that somehow they became myresponsibility. All along the thousand miles of railway, there was noother...

At an event honoring Daisy Bates as 1990’s Distinguished Citizen then-governor Bill Clinton called her “the most distinguished Arkansas citizen of all time.” Her classic account of the 1957 Little Rock School Crisis, The Long Shadow of Little Rock, couldn’t be found on most bookstore shelves in 1962 and was banned throughout the South. In 1988, after the University of Arkansas Press reprinted it, it won an American Book Award. On September 3, 1957, Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National...

Winner of an Abraham Lincoln Institute Book AwardThough not blind to Abraham Lincoln's imperfections, Black Americans long ago laid a heartfelt claim to his legacy. At the same time, they have consciously reshaped the sixteenth president's image for their own social and political ends. Frederick Hord and Matthew D. Norman's anthology explores the complex nature of views on Lincoln through the writings and thought of Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary Mc...

An irreverent look at Presidential foibles, follies, fibs, and moral failuresWere past presidents smarter, more honest, and better behaved that those we elect today? Don’t bet on it! White House Confidential shows that commanders-in-chief have been lying, cheating, stealing, and womanizing from the days of the Founding Fathers. Focusing on the qualities that never made it into White House press releases, the authors look at their sexual misdeeds and strang...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Jon Meacham chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln, charting how—and why—he confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery to expand the possibilities of America.“Meacham has given us the Lincoln for our time.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.Winner of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize • Longlisted for the Biographers International Plutarch Award • O...

The complete rankings of our best -- and worst -- presidents, based on C-SPAN's much-cited Historians Surveys of Presidential Leadership.Over a period of decades, C-SPAN has surveyed leading historians on the best and worst of America's presidents across a variety of categories -- their ability to persuade the public, their leadership skills, their moral authority, and more. The crucible of the presidency has forged some of the very best and very worst leaders in o...

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of We Are Lincoln Men comes a stunning portrait of Abraham Lincoln’s life and presidency.“A book of investigative tenacity, interpretive boldness and almost acrobatic balance” (The Chicago Tribune), Lincoln brilliantly depicts Abraham Lincoln’s gradual ascent from humble beginnings in rural Kentucky to the ever-expanding political circles in Illinois, and finally to the presidency of a country divide...

“A searing and emotionally gripping account of a young black girl growing up to become a strong black woman during the most difficult time of racial segregation.”—Professor Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School“Provides important context for an important moment in America’s history.”—Associated PressWhen fourteen-year-old Carlotta Walls walked up the stairs of Little Rock Central High School on September 25, 1957, she and eight other black s...

A "brilliant" look at America's sixteenth president by the New York Times–bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Lincoln ( American Historical Review).First published in 1956 and revised and updated for the twenty-first century, Lincoln Reconsidered is a masterpiece of Civil War scholarship. In a dozen eloquent, witty, and incisive essays, the author of the definitive biography of Abraham Lincoln offers a fresh perspective ...

With extensive photos and first-person accounts, this companion to the PBS series is "an illuminating, succinct history of racial discrimination in the US" ( Publishers Weekly).Between 1880 and 1954, African Americans dedicated their energies, and sometimes their lives, to defeating segregation. During these difficult decades, they acquired education and land and built businesses, churches, and communities, despite laws designed to isolate and disenfranchis...