Private History

Discover a fascinating and novel look at the U.S. presidents, the first families, and American history—all through the lens of hair. With meticulous detail and engaging storytelling, encyclopedia editor Theodore Pappas combs through American history, teasing out long-forgotten and little-known ways that hair has influenced the presidency and the public and private lives, personal scandals, and tragedies of the men and women who have occupied the White House.

According to the Elliot Ness myth, which has been widely disseminated through books, television shows, and movies, Ness and the Untouchables defeated Al Capone by marshaling superior firepower. In Scarface Al and the Crime Crusaders, Dennis Hoffman presents a fresh new perspective on the downfall of Al Capone.

Long Sunset is an intimate personal view of the sunset years of the former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. Anthony Montague Brown was Winston Churchill's private secretary from 1952 until his death in 1965. As the last member of what Churchill called "my circle" to have written his recollections, these memoirs shed much light on Churchill's activities and attitudes during his final decade.

A United States minister, senator, president, and congressman in turn, John Quincy Adams was one of the most prevalent and dedicated Americans in history. Drawing from Adams' 70-year diary, author Paul Nagel probes deeply into the psyche of this cantankerous, misanthropic, erudite, hardworking son of a former president whose remarkable career spanned so many offices.

An eye-opening book about how societies are designed to support the status of those in power at the destructive expense of those without it. From 1958, China declared war on sparrows, contributing to the deaths of more than 10 million people. In the 19th century, the Shuar people of Ecuador were driven by economic need to wage bloody wars to procure shrunken heads for the Western curio market, which nearly destroyed their society. There have been 55 prime ministers of Great Britain, of whom 48 have been privately educated, creating a society built for and by the privileged.

Steadfast in fighting crime, but operating outside the police force - and sometimes even the law - is the private detective. Driven by his own moral code, he is a shadowy figure in a trench coat standing on a street corner, his face most likely obscured by a tilted fedora, a lit cigarette dangling from his hand. The hard-boiled detective is known by his dark past, private pain, and powers of deduction. He only asks questions - never answers them. In his stories he is both the main character and the narrator.

At daybreak on April 6, 1862, Confederate forces launched a bold suprise attack on the Union army, encamped in southwestern Tennesse. The battle of Shiloh, also known as the battle of Pittsburg Landing, would prove to be the bloodiest battle up until that point in United Staes history. The two day battle would cost a staggering 23,000 casualties. Both sides were stunned at the appalling loss of life. At the time, neither realized that three more years of such bloodshed were still to come.

George Washington: general, statesman...businessman? Most people don't know that Washington was the country's first true entrepreneur, responsible for innovations in several industries. In George Washington, Entrepreneur, John Berlau presents a fresh, surprising take on our forefather's business pursuits. History has depicted Washington as a gifted general and political pragmatist, not an intellectual heavyweight. But he was a serious inventor and inveterate tinkerer and just as intelligent as Jefferson or Franklin.

Robert E. Lee is remembered by history as a tragic figure, stoic and brave but distant and enigmatic. Using dozens of previously unpublished letters as departure points, Pryor produces a stunning personal account of Lee's military ability, his beliefs, and his time, shedding new light on every aspect of the complex and contradictory general's life story.

This book describes Napoleon as an everyman, a friend of the people, and suggests a difference between the "imperial period" and the return of a trustworthy Napoleon who had learned from exile. Because of this transformation, Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo precluded great advances in the timeline of history.

Private foundations have been the dynamo of social change since their invention at the beginning of the last century. Yet just over 10 percent of the public knows they even exist; and for those who are aware of them, as well as even those who seek grants from them, their internal workings remain a complete mystery