A former librarian and book-loving friend told me this was the best book she had ever read. I won't got that far in my praise but it's pretty darn good. The research required to intelligently write about a series of events that transpired twenty years after the American Civil War is herculean. Moreover, the skill required to blend that all into a compelling narrative is beyond impressive. As authors, we all wish to shed light on events of great importance to our nation and to humanity. Millard has accomplished that. "Destiny of the Republic" (a title I don't much like, my only criticism) educates the reader about James Garfield and his fatefully short time as president of the United States. My enjoyment of Millard's style convinced me to purchase two of her other books, "Hero of the Empire" and "River of the Gods." By the way, I read "Destiny of the Republic" before the Netflix series based on it, "Death by Lightning" dropped on Netflix.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The extraordinary account of James Garfield's rise from poverty to the American presidency, and the dramatic history of his assassination and legacy, from the bestselling author of The River of Doubt.
James Abram Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, a renowned congressman, and a reluctant presidential candidate who took on the nation's corrupt political establishment. But four months after Garfield's inauguration in 1881, he was shot in the back by a deranged office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. Garfield…
The exceptional book about the very wet spring Glen Canyon Dam almost failed and was saved from being over-topped by a hastily constructed wall of (wait for it) plywood! And the men who decided there was no better time to set the speed record for running the Grand Canyon. I know! I know! Reading this amazing account in all its great detail is like—pardon the cliche—running a river. The main events being the rapids and the detailed asides being the eddies. Anyone with any interest in the American West's stunning natural areas and the engineering feats we have undertaken in an attempt to tame them (until we are reminded we really can't) must read, "The Emerald Mile."
From one of Outside magazine’s “Literary All-Stars” comes the thrilling true tale of the fastest boat ride ever, down the entire length of the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon, during the legendary flood of 1983.
In the spring of 1983, massive flooding along the length of the Colorado River confronted a team of engineers at the Glen Canyon Dam with an unprecedented emergency that may have resulted in the most catastrophic dam failure in history. In the midst of this crisis, the decision to launch a small wooden dory named “The Emerald Mile” at the head of the…
I had enjoyed Tony Horwitz's work before ("Blue Latitudes") and chose "Spying on the South" really for that reason and the very sad reason that this was his last book. To be honest, having read several works about the American South including Paul Theroux's, "Deep South" and having taken a swipe at characterizing that part of our beloved homeland myself in, "Travels With Max: In Search of Steinbeck's America Fifty Years Later" I didn't expect to learn much. But I did, actually and you will too. And while doing so you will enjoy Horwitz's self-deprecating, humorous and insightful perspective.
In an exhilarating tale of historic adventure, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Confederates in the Attic retraces the voyages of Captain James Cook, the Yorkshire farm boy who drew the map of the modern world
Captain James Cook's three epic journeys in the 18th century were the last great voyages of discovery. His ships sailed 150,000 miles, from the Artic to the Antarctic, from Tasmania to Oregon, from Easter Island to Siberia. When Cook set off for the Pacific in 1768, a third of the globe remained blank. By the time he died in Hawaii in 1779, the map of…
