Haile Selassie I, the last emperor of Ethiopia, was as brilliant as he was formidable. An early proponent of African unity and independence who claimed to be a descendant of King Solomon, he fought with the Allies against the Axis powers during World War II and was a messianic figure for the Jamaican Rastafarians. But the final years of his empire saw turmoil and revolution, and he was ultimately overthrown and assassinated in a communist coup. Written by Asfa-Wossen Asserate, Haile Selassie’s grandnephew, this is the first major biography of this final “king of kings.” Asserate, who spent his childhood and adolescence in Ethiopia before fleeing the revolution of 1974, knew Selassie personally and gained intimate insights into life at the imperial court. Introducing him as a reformer and an autocrat whose personal history—with all of its upheavals, promises, and horrors—reflects in many ways the history of the twentieth century itself, Asserate uses his own experiences and painstaking research in family and public archives to achieve a colorful and even-handed portrait of the emperor.
St. Paul writes in the New Testament that 'our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but...against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.' To the unhappy King Louis XVI of France, these words were particularly applicable. The play that has given its name to this volume of collected poetry presents the true tale of the only King of France who was tried and put to death by a revolutionary government that, at least in the world of the play, served as the unwitting scourge of God. The Enlightenment of the eighteenth century was animated by a rationalist Skepticism that in France especially militated against the Catholic Church. Because Louis and his two predecessors delayed in consecrating France to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Who to avert a catastrophe had requested the consecration through a devout French nun in 1689, on June 17, 1789, exactly one hundred years later, Louis XVI was challenged by the self-styled National Assembly, initiating the French Revolution. He was later stripped of his powers and guillotined like a criminal; France became engulfed in the horrors of the Revolutionary Terror. InThe Tragedy of King Lewis the Sixteenthwritten entirely in traditional blank verse, the author, David Lane, has revisited the Classic style, making use of the inexhaustible riches of the English language. Whether you want to stage the play or simply read it as a story, pick up David Lane's exquisite book and experienceThe Tragedy of King Lewis the Sixteenthtoday.
ONE OF USA TODAY'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A riveting account of the crucial days, hours, and moments when the Watergate conspiracy consumed, and ultimately toppled, a president—from the best-selling author of One Minute to Midnight. In January 1973, Richard Nixon had just been inaugurated after winning re-election in a historic landslide. He enjoyed an almost 70 percent approval rating. But by April 1973, his presidency had fallen apart as the Watergate scandal metastasized into what White House counsel John Dean called “a full-blown cancer.” King Richard is the intimate, utterly absorbing narrative of the tension-packed hundred days when the Watergate conspiracy unraveled as the burglars and their handlers turned on one another, exposing the crimes of a vengeful president. Drawing on thousands of hours of newly-released taped recordings, Michael Dobbs takes us into the heart of the conspiracy, recreating these traumatic events in cinematic detail. He captures the growing paranoia of the principal players and their desperate attempts to deflect blame as the noose tightens around them. We eavesdrop on Nixon plotting with his aides, raging at his enemies, while also finding time for affectionate moments with his family. The result is an unprecedentedly vivid, close-up portrait of a president facing his greatest crisis. Central to the spellbinding drama is the tortured personality of Nixon himself, a man whose strengths, particularly his determination to win at all costs, become his fatal flaws. Rising from poverty to become the most powerful man in the world, he commits terrible errors of judgment that lead to his public disgrace. He makes himself—and then destroys himself. Structured like a classical tragedy with a uniquely American twist, King Richard is an epic, deeply human story of ambition, power, and betrayal.
The first king of Iraq, Faisal I, was installed by the British in 1921 - he was pro-British, and was thus deemed 'suitable' to lead an independent Iraq. But his successors - his son Ghazi and Faisal II - both met their demise in suspicious and bloody manners. This book is a unique and timely account of Iraqi history.
Recounts the story behind English astronomer Richard Carrington's observations of a mysterious explosion on the surface of the sun and how his understanding that the sun's magnetism directly influences the Earth helped usher in the modern era of astronomy.
...a compelling, thoroughly documented, well-reported story--one that challenges readers to probe deeply into their own feelings about justice, racism, violence, police brutality, and media coverage. --San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Foreword: CHARLES SPENCER CHAPLIN, film comedian extraordinary and the most widely known figure in the history of motion pictures, holds the distinction of enduring for twenty-five years as the out standing, if somewhat enigmatic, personality of the screen. To retain such universal popularity, in its deeper sense, in an industry gradually but surely taking its place as an integral part of the arts, an industry which all too often raises its favorite to stardom overnight only to hurl him back into oblivion with equal celerity, this achieve ment of Charlie Chaplin s becomes worthy of serious consideration. What manner of man is this who sits securely upon his golden throne of millions poured into his coffers by a world-wide audience? What sort of man can defy any challenge to the universal appeal of a single characterization, who can resist for ten years the more modern medium for expression, the transition of silent films into talking pictures? Surely this sustained hold upon the public taste, the public affection, implies a certain artistry genius, if you will. And there are few to deny that Charlie Chaplin has brought into bold relief the ancient art of pantomime as a portrayal of modern, human life. Chaplin has been the subject of more writing and fewer accurate delineations than most of his contemporaries throughout the years. He has en joyed the paradoxical status of being the man ev erybody knows yet nobody knows. Protected by a self-imposed isolation in his private life, he has had, nevertheless, certain dramatic phases in his life, two marriages and their subsequent dissolu tions, emblazoned on the front pages of American newspapers for weeks and months at a time. And when we reflect upon the adverse publicity to which he was subjected at these times, some of it careless of the truth, it is small wonder that Charles Chaplin is wary of revealing himself to the serious biographer or that he bends over back ward in expurgating any story about himself which is submitted to him for his approval. A true biography of him must, of necessity, be an unauthorized one to survive with any value as an accurate chronicle. Because of this consistent discouragement to biographers, few stories of any length, or what is more important, strength, have been uncovered in this writers search for material pertinent to this book. One, a mild little book written by W. Dodgson Bowman in 1931, makes no effort to trace the pattern of the man behind the artist and succeeds in not tracing it. It can be assumed that the manuscript of this book was either censored by its sub ject or prepared with the wish uppermost in the mind of the writer not to off end. Consequently, it has scant value in depicting the living, vital Chaplin. The most colorful and dramatic, the most re vealing and not always creditable, episodes in the life of the King of Comedy are veiled by meager paragraphs or ignored with an airy sycophancy which destroys the value of the book as a true biography. Another, a magazine serial written in a state of pique by Carl Robinson after his dismissal by Charlie in Algiers in 1931, can be considered only as a slap on the wrist. That Robinson received a goodly sum in advance for & quot; telling all& quot; ( he could not tell it) is not surprising, for revelational accounts of Charlie Chaplin are as rare as blue-and white-checked nightingales laying polka-dot eggs. And Carl Robinson, never in the intimate confidence of his employer, knew him only as well as the average acquaintance could. Throughout eighteen years of Chaplin s twenty- five years on the screen, there has been one employee, one person who actually knows Chaplin, the man. That this employee has little understanding of the complex nature of an artist, takes nothing from the facts.
