|
|
|
A Rage for Glory: The Life of Commodore Stephen Decatur, USN
Stephen Decatur was one of the most awe-inspiring officers of the entire Age of Fighting Sail. A real-life American naval hero in the early nineteenth century, he led an astonishing life, and his remarkable acts of courage in combat made him one of the most celebrated figures of his era. Decatur's dazzling exploits in the Barbary Wars propelled him to national prominence at the age of twenty-five. His dramatic capture of HMS Macedonian in the War of 1812, and his subsequent naval and diplomatic triumphs in the Mediterranean, secured his permanent place in the hearts of his countrymen. Handsome, dashing, and fearless, his crews worshipped him, presidents lionized him, and an adoring public heaped fresh honors on him with each new achievement. James Tertius de Kay is one of our foremost naval historians. In A Rage for Glory, the first new biography of Decatur in almost seventy years, he recounts Decatur's life in vivid colors. Drawing on material unavailable to previous biographers, he traces the origins of Decatur's fierce patriotism ("My country...right or wrong!"), chronicles Decatur's passionate love affair with Susan Wheeler, and provides new details of Decatur's tragic death in a senseless duel of honor, secretly instigated by the backroom machinations of jealous fellow officers determined to ruin him. His death left official Washington in such shock that his funeral became a state occasion, attended by friends who included former President James Madison, current President James Monroe, Chief Justice John Marshall, and ten thousand more. Decatur's short but crowded life was an astonishing epic of hubris, romance, and high achievement. Only a handful of Americans since his time have ever come close to matching his extraordinary glamour and brilliance..
Price: $12.88
[Notify me when price goes down.]
|
|
The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue: A Child of the Fifties Looks Back
|
|
Growing Up Cuban in Decatur, Georgia
|
|
Wartime Decatur: 1832-1945 (IL) (Images of America)
Decatur has a long history of patriotic service, both on and off the field of battle. Decatur volunteers participated in six major campaigns including the Black Hawk War (1832), the Mexican War (1846–1848), the Civil War (1861–1865), the Spanish-American War (1898), World War I (1917–1918), and World War II (1941–1945). Their record of distinguished service includes the presence of five generals and six Congressional Medal of Honor winners in the Civil War. The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the first national veterans’ organization, was founded in Decatur immediately after the Civil War. In World War II, soldiers from Decatur served in North Africa, Italy, the Philippines, and Germany. Equally impressive, however, is the tradition of the Decatur Canteen, which served food to transient soldiers from the time of the Civil War onward. Local volunteers rolled bandages, collected food, and recycled bales of paper and heaps of scrap metal. Citizens planted victory gardens and bought war bonds and savings stamps. Wartime Decatur: 1832–1945 documents the vigorous wartime culture based on community involvement and a strong sense of patriotism. .
Price: $16.19
[ Notify me when price goes down.]
|
|
Pink Houses and Family Taverns (Illinois)
These creative essays by Illinois native Becky Bradway are both personal and narrative: They are memoir, as the author debates important life decisions and reveals details about her upbringing in a poor rural Illinois community, presenting us with a vivid array of characters - family and friends - who made an impression on her; and they are commentary on place, as contemporary events lead the author to engage the topics of race relations, class consciousness, social status, music/culture/landscape, and creative impulses. The essays are complemented by a selection of black-and-white photographs by Midwestern artists who share the author's vision of place. Pink Houses and Family Taverns is a collection of creative non-fiction essays by Becky Bradway, who grew up in rural Illinois and later came back to her home state to settle. The essays are both personal and narrative: They are memoir, as the author debates important life decisions and reveals details about her upbringing among poor country folk in rural Illinois, presenting us with a vivid array of characters - family and friends - who made an impression on her; and they are commentary on place, as contemporary events lead the author to engage the topics of race relations, class consciousness, social status, music/culture/landscape, and creative impulses. Bradway writes in a style that is as unpretentious as it is ingratiating, oftentimes humorous and occasionally sardonic, and she approaches her subjects with sincerity, open-mindedness, and compassion. The essays are complemented by a selection of black-and-white photographs by Midwestern artists who share the author's vision of place..
Price: $7.46
[ Notify me when price goes down.]
|
|
The Boys From Lake County
Co A, 73rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment. One of the most detailed reviews of America's Civil War in its western field. A painful, shocking expose of the disastrous treatment of America's disabled Civil War veterans... little known in those years...completely unremembered in our day. Hour by hour...heroism and brilliant strategy in the most hard hitting, combative, small scale raid of America's Civil War. Rank and file riflemen...friends and neighbors from one Indiana county...living, fighting, dying in America's bloodiest of all wars. "The Boys From Lake County" is likely one-of-kind in America's Civil War history...at least in the last hundred years. The book names all of the 100 men who originally enlisted in Co A, 73rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment. It details their age at enlistment, their height, complexion, color of hair, color of eyes, where they were born, where they resided in Lake County, civilian occupation, and what happened to them during the War. For a few it reveals some details of their lives after the War. For one, the book lists a great many events during his entire lifetime. As a matter of course, "The Boys From Lake County" is also a relatively complete history of their 73rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment..
Price: $14.99
[ Notify me when price goes down.]
|
|
Our Country, Right or Wrong: The Life of Stephen Decatur, the U.S. Navy's Most Illustrious Commander
Blazing sea fights and undercurrents of intrigue: these are among the compelling ingredients of a biography that brings to life the most illustrious and formidable figure of the United States Navy. His name is carried by more than two dozen towns and cities. Here at last is a full exploration of Stephen Decatur's complex character. Reckless in youth, cool yet audacious in combat, loved by those who sailed under his command yet plotted against by rivals in the race for glory, Decatur is brought to life in this enthralling sea story. Decatur's heroism became widespread news in 1804 when, sent to reclaim a captured U.S. vessel from Tripoli in the Barbary Wars, he ordered his men to set fire to the captured vessel and proceed to attack the sailors of the Tripoli fleet in hand-to-hand combat. His brilliance continued through the War of 1812, after which he was promoted to the highest naval rank of Commodore. Decatur not only proved dauntless on the quarterdeck but amazingly effective in Mediterranean diplomacy. His spectacular dealings with Islamic powers presaged America's twenty-first century involvement in the region. Readers will also learn the identity of the woman he forsook for a sophisticated beauty, pursued by suitors as varied as Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew and Aaron Burr. Through freshly discovered documents, many official, some intensely personal, biographer Leonard Guttridge traces the elements that sped Decatur inexorably into the shadow of murder. Here, at last, is the full story of the man who raised one of the most memorable toasts in the history of American celebrations, when he declared in 1816 "Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong!” .
Price: $5.70
[ Notify me when price goes down.]
|
|
|
|
|
