Political Biographies

William F. Buckley Jr. is widely regarded as the most influential American conservative writer, activist, and organizer in the postwar era. In this nuanced biography, Alvin Felzenberg sheds light on little-known aspects of Buckley's career, including his role as back-channel adviser to policy makers, his intimate friendship with both Ronald and Nancy Reagan, his changing views on civil rights, and his break with George W. Bush over the Iraq War.

From his dazzling conducting debut in 1943 until his death in 1990, Leonard Bernstein's star blazed brilliantly. In this fresh and revealing biography of Bernstein's political life, Barry Seldes examines Bernstein's career against the backdrop of cold war America - blacklisting by the State Department in 1950, voluntary exile from the New York Philharmonic in 1951 for fear that he might be blacklisted, and the factors that by the mid-1950s allowed his triumphant return to the New York Philharmonic.

In America's First Dynasty, Richard Brookhiser tells the story of America's longest and still-greatest dynasty, the Adamses, the only family in our history to play a leading role in American affairs for nearly two centuries.John Adams was only the first of the Adamses to occupy the highest office in the land; his son, John Quincy Adams, ascended to the presidency as an equal champion of liberty.

Jim Webb - the best-selling author and now the celebrated, outspoken U.S. Senator from Virginia - presents a clear-eyed, hard-hitting plan of attack for putting government to work for the people, rather than special interests, and for restoring the country's standing around the world.

Run! tells the story of how LGBTQ+ people in San Jose/Silicon Valley progressed from being political outcasts to becoming a force that gained political power, equality, and acceptance. Having lived and breathed queer activism for almost 40 years, Ken Yeager is uniquely positioned to tell the story of how this happened. The strategies he used and the lessons he learned will serve as a guide for activists organizing to counter the current uptick of anti-gay and anti-trans hostilities in their communities.

In his unmistakable voice and with an insider's eye on history, former Vice President Dick Cheney tells the story of his life and the nearly four decades he has spent at the center of American politics and power. In My Time is truly the last word about an incredible political era, by a man who lived it and helped define it - with courage and without compromise.

This Little Golden Book about Barack Obama—the 44th President of the United States and the country's first Black president—is an inspiring book for young girls and boys.

Johnny Cash was an American icon, known for his level bass-baritone voice and somber demeanor, and for huge hits like “Ring of Fire” and “I Walk the Line”. But he was also the most prominent political artist in the United States, even if he wasn’t recognized for it in his own lifetime, or since his death in 2003. Drawing on untapped archives and new research on social movements and grassroots activism, Citizen Cash offers a major reassessment of a legendary figure.

In First Son, Keith Koeneman chronicles the sometimes Shakespearean, sometimes Machiavellian life of an American political legend. Making deft use of unprecedented access to key players in the Daley administration, as well as Chicago's business and cultural leaders, Koeneman draws on more than one hundred interviews to tell an up-close, insider story of political triumph and personal evolution.

Detrás de los macanazos y las balas, hubo un sistema judicial que convalidó la represión y actuó convencido de su bondad. Nació el 26 de julio de 1968 y murió dos años después. Pero en su corta vida, multiplicó la iniquidad y la injusticia, provocó el encarcelamiento de decenas de jóvenes y evidenció la saña del Estado. Ésta es la historia -nunca antes contada- del proceso judicial contra los implicados en el 68 mexicano.

In 2008, American journalist Jere Van Dyk was kidnapped and held for 45 days. At the time, he had no idea who his kidnappers were. They demanded a ransom and the release of three of their comrades from Guantanamo, yet they hinted at their ties to Pakistan. In The Trade, Jere Van Dyk uses the sinuous path of his own kidnapping to explain the recent rise in the taking of Western hostages across the greater Middle East.

In the most eagerly awaited political memoir of the season, Mary Cheney presents a behind-the-scenes look at the high-intensity world of presidential politics and talks for the first time about her life, her family, her political views, and her role in the campaigns of 2000 and 2004.

"Sweets, I'm okay. I'm okay. Don't worry. It's not my building," said Kristen Breitweiser's husband on the phone from his office in the second tower. The call ended abruptly, and Kristen stared at the television in horror as the second plane hit, and her life, and her country, changed forever.

How does one arrive at a life in politics and policy? What happens to one's ideals when confronted with the reality that, in Washington, the only way to get things done is compromise? Who are the men and women who help shape our national agenda, and what drives their work? Dispatches from the Eastern Front provides fascinating, intensely personal, yet universal answers to these central questions.

Derided by the Right as dangerous and by the Left as spineless, Barack Obama puzzles observers. In Reading Obama, James T. Kloppenberg reveals the sources of Obama's ideas and explains why his principled aversion to absolutes does not fit contemporary partisan categories. Obama's commitments to deliberation and experimentation derive from sustained engagement with American democratic thought.

The madcap true story of how Rachel Johnson - born into one of Britain's most famous political families and known since childhood as "Rake" - tries and fails to get elected in the 2019 hard-fought effort to stop Brexit, running against her older brother, Boris, and what she learns in the process about politics, ambition, family, marriage, and winning and losing.

Turmoil and Transition in Boston tells the personal and political story of Larry DiCara, the youngest person ever elected to the Boston City Council. DiCara's story is intimately woven into the fate of his hometown of Boston. As the federal court order mandating busing to achieve racial integration in the public schools ripped apart his city, he shows how public policy decisions and economic and demographic changes from that time transformed Boston into one of America's most diverse, affluent, and successful cities in the 21st century.

The world changed and I changed forever in 1968. It was like a tidal wave - I was swept up in a torrent of change. I left San Francisco State College to try and end the US war in Vietnam. When I got to Chicago I found the real anti-war forces outside the convention in the streets. I joined them briefly. As it became clear to me the war would continue, I headed for Canada, where I lived for the next six years. As an editor of Amex->Canada, I helped forge and lead the movement for universal, unconditional amnesty for all war resisters.

In All the Powers of Earth, Lincoln's incredible ascent to power in a world of chaos is newly revealed through the great biographer's extraordinary research and literary style. After a period of depression that he would ever find his way to greatness, Lincoln takes on the most powerful demagogue in the country, Stephen Douglas, in the debates for a Senate seat. He sidelines the front-runner William Seward, a former governor and senator for New York, to cinch the new Republican Party's nomination.

As a United States general, he had an unparalleled genius for military strategy, and it was under his leadership that Japan was rebuilt into a democratic ally after World War II. But MacArthur carried out his zero-sum philosophy both on and off the battlefield. During the Korean War, in defiance of President Harry S. Truman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he pushed for an aggressive confrontation with Communist China - a position intended to provoke a wider war, regardless of the cost or consequences.