books about: 1900-1960     books:       Africa Since Independence: A Comparative History1 review Paul Nugent Palgrave Macmillan, 2004 Achieving the Impossible: A Successful African History Survey Paul Nugent has written one of the most impressive single-volume texts on African history--with a good chance that it is the best. This book reads smoothly while covering a vast continental terrain, including north Africa; and explores issues, questions, episodes in great depth. Nugent is able to handle complexity without drowning the reader in it. Perhaps, though, the most impressive aspect ...             Willem De Kooning: Paintings 1960-19803 reviews Ralph Ubl, Klaus Kertess, ... Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2005 de Kooning paintings 1960-1980 Book is in English and German.Good photographs with some works I had not seen before.Also a couple pictures of de Koonings studio inside and out.Includes an interview by Harold Rosenberg.Loved it, of course I am De Koonings biggest fan!             Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America42 reviews Rick Perlstein Scribner, 2008 Pre-history of the Present Crisis The other reviews already spell out just what makes this such a brilliant book, so I won't add anything about that. However, I thought it mighth be worth adding that as the world looks on waiting for the election in November that this book provides a pre-history to the present moment in the same eway, though much more compellingly, that Tom Frank's Kansas book did 4 years ago. Time will tell if ...             Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years63 reviews David Talbot Free Press, 2007 Great Book Great Book. Talks about just about anyone who could have assassinated JFK. Not only does it give insight to JFK's presidency but also what kind of man Bobby Kennedy was.             At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 (America in the King Years)32 reviews Taylor Branch Simon & Schuster, 2007 must read for all americans this is one of the best history books i've ever read. in fact, it transcends the history genre. canaan's edge is first and foremost about one of the most courageous men in american history -- martin luther king jr. of course, king didn't lead the 60's civil rights movement by himself -- branch's book shows the courage of many people known and unknown. it also casts other historical figures in a ...             Leroy Grannis: Surf Photography of the 1960s and 1970s9 reviews Taschen, 2007 A cultural architect This is one of the few coffee table books that can give you a rush of adrenalin just by flipping the page. Leroy Grannis may not have been the sole architect of the late twentieth century surfing culture phenomenon, but he certainly was among the dozen or so people that projected the image of surfing beyond the enthusiasts to almost every nook and cranny of our globe. Kids in Omaha bought ...             Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-196540 reviews Mark Moyar Cambridge University Press, 2006 Outstanding and Objective This is the best analysis of history, of any kind, in the last 50 years. It is criminal that we are void of outstanding teaching of historical events in recent time. Your book is a terrific study of Vietnam and the Vietnam War from 1955 to 1965. I was also surprised at your remarkable writing skill. You build a path of logic that leads the user through a sequence of events that let's the user ...             An American Childhood64 reviews Annie Dillard Harper Perennial, 1988 Awakenings Suddenly this book hit me, what a prize it was, out of the blue. Who was expecting it? Like when you hear a song you will love forever. This is it. She has had many of the same fascinations I had--rock collecting, for example. And her words are just right, how it's like entering a cave, and a new world opens up, that was just invisible before, taken for granted. The whole book is about how ...             Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis36 reviews Robert F. Kennedy W. W. Norton & Company, 1999 AS WE APPROACH IN HALF A YEAR THE FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS FBI ASSASSINATION LET US RECALL WHEN WISDOM AND DIPLOMACY RULED Here we have in Robert Kennedy's own account how the world kept out of annihilating nuclear warfare nearly a half century ago, rather than the current highly profitable rushes to war with untold, uncounted millions of innocent victims these past few decades. Here we can read how true, wise, competent and democratically elected national leaders kept us out of war, Averting 'The Final Failure': ...             The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism (Studies in ...1 review Adam Rome Cambridge University Press, 2001 Will we ever see an end to Septic Tank Suburbia? Not many Environmenal Health Specialists like myself will probably ever read this book (or even the chapter 'Septic Tank Suburbia'), but they should. Sanitarians, the old term for health inspectors, have approved a crap-load of septic systems serving sprawl development in this nation, and in reading it, the old timers would quickly recognize their place in the undoing of the American ...             Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago 1940-1960 (Historical Studies of Urban America)3 reviews Arnold R. Hirsch University Of Chicago Press, 1998 the deception of public housing After reading The Hidden War,(which made extensive reference to Hirsch's book)I wanted a more detailed history about the creation of public housing as we know it to be in Chicago. This book gives detail of how the political,educational, civic organizations wanted to contain the burgeoning African American community which was growing during post world war II and the great migration years. The ...             Travels with Charley in Search of America188 reviews John Steinbeck Penguin (Non-Classics), 1980 Steinbeck read right by Gary Sinise Travels with Charley is one of my favorite books and one of the few that I have read over and over again. I want here to especially recommend the Gary Sinise reading of the book for Classics on Cassette. Sinise has played and directed in productions of other Steinbeck works, and he reads the book in an engaging manner that I suspect reflects his own love for the book. I have listened to part of ...             Murder in Dealey Plaza: What We Know Now that We Didn't Know Then66 reviews James H. Fetzer Open Court, 2000 As long as we are ignorant, we are not free James H. Fetzer exposes all the altered or destroyed evidence in the murder of JFK (the replacement of the windshield of the presidential limousine, the autopsy and the photographs of the body, the alteration of the Zapruder film), the silencing and strange death of witnesses and the still exceptional resistance of the government to open their secret files. As G. Orwell said: `Who controls the ...             Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report on the Invasion of Cuba (National Security Archive Documents ...3 reviews Peter Kornbluh New Press, 1998 Bay Of Pigs Declassified 2 this is my second report on the book bay of pigs declassified as I don't think my first was quite fair I found fault in that he didn't say any thing about my unit of 45 people I think we were the only ones know one knew about. every one else had been given away. but that didn't help we were caught and killed any how all but myself that is. to get back to mister Peter Kornbluh's book it was a ...             Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran (Modern Intellectual and Political History of the Middle East)3 reviews Syracuse University Press, 2004 Many new insights! Based on archival research, the book provides many new details. However, I would have liked to have a seen a discussion of Ayatollah Kashani's position with respect to Iranian oil exports to Israel.             The Age of Impeachment: American Constitutional Culture Since 19601 review David E. Kyvig University Press of Kansas, 2008 The U.S. needs more not less impeachments I disagree with the author's unarticulated major premise: the U.S. needs less not more impeachments. The result of impeachment and conviction is dismissal from office. In the private sector, employees are dismissed every day. Why should the public sector be any different? Many incompetent, entrenched and overpaid civil servants staff the bureaucracies of every federal department and agency. Why ...             "One Hell of a Gamble": Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958-196426 reviews Aleksandr Fursenko, Timothy J. Naftali W W Norton & Co Inc, 1997 The Cuban Missile Crisis' Origins, Events, and Decisions In 1958, Fidel Castro and his band of guerillas successfully overthrew the despised Batista regime in Cuba. At the time, Castro was a question mark for US policymakers. He actually was invited to visit the US and gave a speech at Harvard. However, his domestic socialist reforms caused consternation in Washington, while the communist affiliations of his leading supporters (e.g. his brother, ...             Summer For The Gods: The Scopes Trial And America's Continuing Debate Over Science And Religion60 reviews Edward J. Larson Basic Books, 1997 Amazingly descriptive, and entertaining. Wow! Larson's book is one that I had a difficult time putting down. I was familiar with the 'Scopes' trial a bit before hand, but had no idea that the trial wasn't really about Scopes at all. He even describes himself as a spectator at his own trial, in which the bigger argument was being showcased. And we all know what that argument was. I was amazed at the lack of objectivity that some in the ...             The Week the World Stood Still: Inside the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis (Stanford Nuclear Age Series)5 reviews Sheldon Stern Stanford University Press, 2005 A narrative written for students and general readers The Cuban missile crisis was the most dangerous moment of the Cold War and has received numerous analysis in other titles and articles. What makes Sheldon M. Stern's The Week The World Stood Still: Inside The Secret Cuban Missile Crisis different is its focus on a narrative written for students and general readers. The author's own transcriptions of the secretly recorded ExComm meetings serves as ...             Screams from the Balcony5 reviews Charles Bukowski Ecco, 2002 Screamstream. This truly is a great book, a must for Bukowski fans and a book to which I have found myself returning many times over the years. It starts off very sedate in the 60s, with a meek Bukowski writing well-mannered letters to people from small presses, but he gathers in steam and anger as the book goes along until by halfway through he is writing endless drunken stream-of-consciousness ...              search for books 1940-1960, 1954-1965, 1958-1964, 1960-1980, american, bulldozer, childhood, comparative, constitutional, continuing, countryside, declassified, documents, environment, environmentalism, forsaken, fracturing, historical, impeachment, independence, intellectual, invasion, khrushchev, mosaddeq, nixonland, paintings, photography, political, president, thirteen books:    Kindle - Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device This is the future of book reading. I have used it and love it! randomly chosen book: 100 Bullets Vol. 1: First Shot, Last Call leave a comment home  impressum - about us