You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
"Don Benito Wilson (née Benjamin Davis Wilson) is remembered as the namesake of Mount Wilson. Few know he was the second mayor of Los Angeles. Twenty-six State Senators divvy up the district that Benjamin Wilson once represented. Southern California will never again see anyone who made such a mark on so many different fields as Don Benito Wilson"--Provided by publisher.
Benjamin Davis Wilson (Don Benito Wilson), the namesake of Mount Wilson, was the second mayor of Los Angeles and state senator of a sparsely-populated district divided today among twenty-six senators. Wilson owned much of early Los Angeles, helped bring railroads to Los Angeles and, with Phineas Banning, built its port. He was a major vintner, citrus growing pioneer, U.S. Army commander and owned gold and silver mines. Though largely forgotten today he played numerous important roles in shaping early Los Angeles in the last of the city?s Mexican era and the beginning of its American years.
The personal and candid account of General Patton's celebrated, relentless crusade across western Europe during World War II First published in 1947, War as I Knew It is an absorbing narrative that draws from Patton's vivid memories of battle and his detailed diaries, covering the moment the Third Army exploded onto the Brittany Peninsula to the final Allied casualty report. The result is not only a grueling, human account of daily combat and heroic feats--including a riveting look at the Battle of the Bulge--but a valuable chronicle by one of the most brilliant military strategists in history. Patton's letters from earlier military campaigns in North Africa and Sicily, complemented by a powerful retrospective of his guiding philosophies, further reveal a man of uncompromising will and uncommon character, which made "Georgie" a household name in mid-century America.
"Since the 1920s, American historians have presented Kirker only in the worst of terms. Smith, however, demonstrates that Kirker's white contemporaries judged him a hero. At a time when evolving politics led to new methods of warfare - when desperate people resorted to desperate measures - his deeds earned him a reputation for bravery and good citizenship."--BOOK JACKET. "Whether Kirker is judged a villain or a hero, or merely a scoundrel, his colorful life reflected the turbulence of his times."--Jacket.
Known for his rousing speeches and military triumphs, General George S. Patton, Jr. is one of the most famous military figures in U.S. history. Yet, he is better known for his profanity than his prayers. Until now. In his new book George S. Patton: Blood, Guts, and Prayer, author Michael Keane takes readers on a journey through Patton’s career in three parts: his military prowess, his inspirational bravery, and his faith. Using Patton’s own diaries, speeches, and personal papers, Keane examines the general’s actions and personality to shed light on his unique and paradoxical persona. From his miraculous near-death experience to his famous prayer for fair weather, Patton: Blood, Guts, and Prayer recounts the seminal events that contributed to Patton’s personal and religious beliefs. Comprehensive and inspiring, Patton: Blood, Guts, and Prayer is an extraordinary look at the public and private life of one of World War II's most storied generals.
Freedom's Frontier: California and the Struggle over Unfree Labor, Emancipation, and Reconstruction
Embracing the crossroads that made the region distinctive this book reveals how American families have always been characterized by greater diversity than idealizations of the traditional family have allowed. The essays show how family life figured prominently in relations to larger struggles for conquest and control.
This second volume in Kevin Starr's passionate and ambitious cultural history of the Golden State focuses on the turn-of-the-century years and the emergence of Southern California as a regional culture in its own right. "How hauntingly beautiful, how replete with lost possibilities, seems that Southern California of two and three generations ago, now that a dramatically diferent society has emerged in its place," writes Starr. As he recreates the "lost California," Starr examines the rich variety of elements that figured in the growth of the Southern California way of life: the Spanish/Mexican roots, the fertile land, the Mediterranean-like climate, the special styles in architecture, the rise of Hollywood. He gives us a broad array of engaging (and often eccentric) characters: from Harrision Gray Otis to Helen Hunt Jackson to Cecil B. DeMille. Whether discussing the growth of winemaking or the burgeoning of reform movements, Starr keeps his central theme in sharp focus: how Californians defined their identity to themselves and to the nation.
From Roucan to Riches" traces the story of the Glassell family from their obscure beginnings as humble Scots tenant farmers, through two brothers who made a fortune from tobacco in Virginia, and on to their descendants who made their mark in varied and interesting ways. As the American Revolution loomed, one brother returned to Scotland and the other remained. John settled as a rural Scottish landowner in Longniddry, East Lothian, and demolished the village in the name of agricultural improvement. His daughter was educated in Edinburgh during its "Golden Age", and knew many of its greatest luminaries. She kept a lively diary of her Italian travels, fell for and married the divorced middle-aged heir to the Dukedom of Argyll, and died tragically young. The descendants of Andrew, the "American" brother, became slave-owning Virginian "aristocracy", Civil War heroes and victims, and fabulously wealthy entrepreneurs, one of whom helped to drive forward the development of California. The notorious Second World War figure General George Patton was a descendant of the Californian Glassells.