Meet the Stuart family: eight children raised in the hills of Arkansas by their godly and determined mother, Marian, who does her best to lead her children to Christ. But as her three oldest, Lylah, Amos, and Owen, each decide to go their own ways, none seem to follow the path Marian has laid out for them. Set at the turn of the twentieth century, this first of the American Century series tells the story of a time of growth and opportunity. Filled with historical figures such as Theodore Roosevelt and James Randolph Hearst, this fascinating book will draw readers into the exciting events of the time and the lives of the family it follows. As the Stuarts mature, so does a young nation racked with uncertainty and growing pains of its own. Previously published as A Time to Be Born
As a new decade begins, the United States enters the war in Korea. From Hollywood to the Ozarks, the sons and daughters of Will and Marian Stuart are living out their dreams and living the good life. The next generation of Stuarts has everything they could possibly want. Will they continue the family's legacy of faith as they launch out to pursue dreams of their own? Book 6 of the American Century series follows several of the younger Stuarts as they cope with war, disappointment, and shattered hopes. Returning to their roots on the family farm in Arkansas, they find love and healing in unexpected ways.
It is the tumultuous 1960s: Kennedy, Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement, and youth culture are on everyone's minds and lips. Prosperity and progress are undergirded with a sense of uneasiness for the Stuart family, along with the rest of the country. With a movie deal on the horizon, Bobby Stuart's star may be rising, but his descent into celebrity drug culture might be his undoing. And young love is blooming between two people who never expected it. Gilbert Morris fans will be delighted with his foray into a colorful and controversial decade. Dawn of a New Day is the final, never-before-published conclusion to the popular American Century series.
The rise of other global powers is most often posed as a sorry tale, full of threats to America's primacy, prosperity, and way of life. The potential loss of our #1 status implies a blow to our safety, economy, and prestige. But this is a rare moment in history: none of the world's big powers is our adversaries. In The Next American Century, Nina Hachigian and Mona Sutphen show that the "pivotal powers" -- China, Europe, India, Japan, and Russia -- seek greater influence, but each has an enormous stake in the world economy and a keen desire to thwart common threats. India is a key ally in the struggle against terrorism. China's help is essential to containing pandemic disease. Russia is leading an effort to keep nuclear devices out of terrorists' hands. Japan and Europe are critical partners in tackling climate change. None of these countries is a direct military or ideological challenger. In fact, their gains largely help, rather than hurt, America's continuing prosperity, growth, and, to some extent, even its values. Will we have conflicts with these powers? Definitely. Some will be serious. But, by and large, they want what we want: a stable world and better lives for their citizens. We live in an era of opportunity, not of loss. To take advantage of this moment, the United States must get its own house in order, making sure that American children can compete, American workers can adjust, America's military remains cutting-edge, and American diplomacy entices rather than alienates. While America must be prepared for the possibility that a hostile superpower may one day emerge, it has to be careful not to turn a distant, uncertain threat into an immediate one. Washington should welcome the pivotal powers into a vigorous international order to share the burden of solving pressing global problems of peace, climate, health, and growth. The avenue to a truly safer and more prosperous world runs through the pivotal powers. With them, we can build a world where Americans will thrive, today and tomorrow.
This treasure of a book from Henry Allen, Pulitzer Prize winner and veteran feature writer and editor at the Washington Post, provides a vivid and captivating evocation of the social, cultural, and spiritual tenor of the twentieth century. Each of these ten chapters is a virtual time capsule written with keen intelligence, feeling, and an uncanny sense of the essential experiences of the era: the unexpected, idiosyncratic sights, sounds, occasions, and events that defined not just the time but the way we remember it. This is a book of myriad pleasures - a reminder of the richness and importance of the past.
Right after World War II, the United States felt secure in its atomic monopoly. With the American "Pax Atomica" in place, the free world held an apparent strategic advantage over the Soviet bloc and saw itself as a bulwark against communist expansion. But America's atomic superiority in the early postwar years was more fiction than fact. From 1945 until 1950, the U.S. atomic arsenal was poorly coordinated, equipped and funded. The newly formed Atomic Energy Commission inherited from the Manhattan Engineer District a program suffering from poor organization, failing infrastructure and internal conflict. The military establishment and the Air Force's Strategic Air Command little knew what to do with this new weapon. The Air Force and the AEC failed to coordinate their efforts for a possible atomic air offensive and war plans were ill-conceived, reflecting unrealistic expectations of Air Force capabilities and possible political outcomes. This lack of preparedness serves as a case study in the tenuous nature of American civilian-military relationships. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
The book aims to develop a clearer understanding of the influence of social dynamics on the educational opportunities of high school students of color in the urban setting of California’s Los Angeles area. Specifically, we examine how students’ backgrounds, high school experiences and own agency shape their college preparation processes and postsecondary aspirations. While some research has been done on high school students’ college-choice process, this book is unique in its broad and comparative approach. It examines the experiences of students across 10 schools, identifying broad themes that are illustrated through specific case studies. This approach allows readers to understand the broader issues that face students from underserved backgrounds as they pursue college, while illuminating how these issues uniquely manifest hemselves in individual school contexts.
Taking American mobilization in WWII as its departure point, this book offers a concise but comprehensive introduction to the history of militarization in the United States since 1940. Exploring the ways in which war and the preparation for war have shaped and affected the United States during 'The American Century', Fitzgerald demonstrates how militarization has moulded relations between the US and the rest of the world. Providing a timely synthesis of key scholarship in a rapidly developing field, this book shows how national security concerns have affected issues as diverse as the development of the welfare state, infrastructure spending, gender relations and notions of citizenship. It also examines the way in which war is treated in the American imagination; how it has been depicted throughout this era, why its consequences have been made largely invisible and how Americans have often considered themselves to be reluctant warriors. In integrating domestic histories with international and transnational topics such as the American 'empire of bases' and the experience of American service personnel overseas, the author outlines the ways in which American militarization had, and still has, global consequences. Of interest to scholars, researchers and students of military history, war studies, US foreign relations and policy, this book addresses a burgeoning and dynamic field from which parallels and comparisons can be drawn for the modern day.
Looks at past predictions of the future, discusses how x-rays, radio, nuclear energy, and plastic were expected to change the future, and considers the impact of skyscrapers, computers, and electricity
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A GLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLER A JIMMY FALLON BOOK CLUB PICK In this exhilarating novel by the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. "Utterly brilliant. In this sweeping, gorgeously written novel, Gabrielle Zevin charts the beauty, tenacity, and fragility of human love and creativity. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is one of the best books I've ever read." —John Green On a bitter cold day, in the December of his Junior Year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. They borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo: a game where players can escape the confines of a body and the betrayals of a heart, and where death means nothing more than a chance to restart and play again. This is the story of the perfect worlds Sam and Sadie build, the imperfect world they live in, and of everything that comes after success: Money. Fame. Duplicity. Tragedy. Spanning over thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, games as artform, technology and the human experience, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.
