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  James Buchanan and the Coming of the Civil War

  John Quist and Michael J. Birkner

  Publication Date: 3-2013

  As James Buchanan took office in 1857, the United States found itself at a crossroads. Dissolution of the Union had been averted and the Democratic Party maintained control of the federal government, but the nation watched to see if Pennsylvania's first president could make good on his promise to calm sectional tensions.
  
  Despite Buchanan's central role in a crucial hour in U.S. history, few presidents have been more ignored by historians. In assembling the essays for this volume, Michael Birkner and John Quist have asked leading scholars to reconsider whether Buchanan’s failures stemmed from his own mistakes or from circumstances that no president could have overcome.
  
  Buchanan's dealings with Utah shed light on his handling of the secession crisis. His approach to Dred Scott reinforces the image of a president whose doughface views were less a matter of hypocrisy than a thorough identification with southern interests. Essays on the secession crisis provide fodder for debate about the strengths and limitations of presidential authority in an existential moment for the young nation.
  
  Although the essays in this collection offer widely differing interpretations of Buchanan's presidency, they all grapple honestly with the complexities of the issues faced by the man who sat in the White House prior to the towering figure of Lincoln, and contribute to a deeper understanding of a turbulent and formative era. [From the publisher]

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  The Birdsong Papers

  Wilhelm Raabe and Michael Ritterson

  Publication Date: 10-2013

  This book, The Birdsong Papers, translated by Michael Ritterson with an introduction by Ritchie Robertson, is volume four in the MHRA New Translation series. It is the first English translation of Raabe’s novel Die Akten des Vogelsangs (1896), a mainstay of his reputation as a major German realist and pre-modernist writer.

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  The Seven Years' War in North America: A Brief History with Documents

  Timothy J. Shannon

  Publication Date: 8-2013

  This volume reveals how the Seven Years’ War reshaped the geopolitical map of North America and the everyday lives of the peoples within it. The introduction surveys the war as both an international struggle for empire and an intercultural conflict involving Native Americans, French and British soldiers, and the ethnically and religiously diverse population of British North America. A rich collection of primary-source selections recaptures the experience of the war from multiple perspectives and is organized by key cultural, military, and diplomatic themes. Document headnotes, a chronology, questions to consider, and a bibliography enrich students’ understanding of this momentous conflict. [From the publisher]

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  American Odysseys: A History of Colonial North America

  Timothy J. Shannon and David N. Gellman

  Publication Date: 7-2013

  Written in an engaging and student-friendly style, American Odysseys examines the entire period between 1492 and 1763, covering important topics that shaped the colonial experience across time and in a variety of places. Authors Timothy J. Shannon and David N. Gellman use a thematic approach, focusing on colonial development and integration within a wider Atlantic world. Each chapter begins with the story of an individual who experienced the wonder and terror of colonization firsthand, so that students can feel a human connection to each of these topics and themes. Taken together, these figures--Indians, servants, slaves, explorers, planters--embody the full array of peoples and cultures that gave the colonial era a trans-Atlantic, multicultural character. Each chapter also features a chronology of events described in that chapter. Maps and images throughout the book help visually orient readers to the stories that comprise this concise yet broad-ranging narrative. [From the publisher]

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  We Say NO! The Plain Man’s Guide to Pacifism

  H.R. L. Sheppard and Kerry S. Walters

  Publication Date: 9-2013

  A classic defense of Christian pacifism, We Say NO! was published in 1935 by Anglican priest H.R.L. “Dick” Sheppard, who also founded the Peace Pledge Union, still going strong in Britain today. This critical edition includes an historical and thematic introduction, bibliography, and copious explanatory footnotes that annotate the text.

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  Shipwrecked in L.A.: Finding Meaning and Purpose When Your Dreams Crash

  Christin N. Taylor

  Publication Date: 4-2013

  Most young adults encounter at least one "shipwreck" during their twenties. Everything you think you know about yourself, your life, your future, and even your faith suddenly breaks apart. You're left scrambling to construct a lifeboat that will take you back to the shore.

  Christin Taylor knew how her life was going to turn out. She was going to be a missionary to the Hollywood film industry. But just eight weeks after moving to L.A., her hopes and dreams were shattered. The next four years found Christin circling around, into, and back out of the film industry, until she finally found her way home.

  As Christin shares a compelling story about her life and work in Burbank, Hollywood, and Beverly Hills, she interacts with the best research on young-adult formation and development, guiding young adults through this tumultuous time as they try to pick up the pieces and find hope for the future. [From the Publisher]

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  Explosion on the Potomac: The 1844 Calamity Aboard the USS Princeton

  Kerry S. Walters

  Publication Date: 8-2013

  In 1844, the USS Princeton was the most technologically sophisticated warship in the world. Its captain, Robert Stockton, and President John Tyler were both zealous expansionists, and they hoped that it would be the forerunner in a formidable steam-powered fleet. On a Potomac cruise intended to impress power brokers, the ship's main gun--the Peacemaker--exploded as the vessel neared Mount Vernon. Eight died horribly, while twenty others were injured. Two of Tyler's most important cabinet members were instantly lost, and the president himself had a near miss--making it the worst physical disaster to befall a presidential administration. The tragedy set off an unpredictable wave of events that cost Tyler a second term, nearly scuttled plans to add Texas to the Union and stirred up sectional rancor that drove the nation closer to civil war. [From the publisher]

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  Giving Up god… to Find God: Breaking Free of Idolatry

  Kerry S. Walters

  Publication Date: 9-2013

  An exploration of the ways in which we genuflect to false gods, and what happens when we let them go and open ourselves to the experience of Love and Wisdom.
  
  Kerry Walters unmasks the golden calves we have been taught to worship and enlightens us living in presence of Spirit. The false gods are:
  
  The Genie god
  The Patriot god
  The By-the-Book god
  My god
  The Designer god
  Whatever god
  Sunday School god
  Egghead god
  
  The more idols we remove from our interior shrines the more space we open up for the real God and spiritual values that make a difference in our lives. The tools are detachment and discrimination, alert attentiveness, patience, and trust. The benefit of reading this book is spiritual clarity and assurance. [From the publisher]

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  John Paul II: A Short Biography

  Kerry S. Walters

  Publication Date: 11-2013

  Poet, philosopher, playwright, peacemaker, political activist, pope: this is a brief look at the rich life of Karol Wotyla, whom we know today as Pope John Paul II. He was the most widely traveled of all popes, and made pastoral visits to 129 countries in all. He was instrumental in bringing about the fall of communism in Poland; it is said that the attempt on his life in 1981 was in direct response to his efforts to bring down communism.
  
  John Paul II was a man of deep Christian love and commitment. He balanced the traditions of the Church with a need to re-establish it as a viable and modern presence in the world. Though many felt that he was too much a conservative, he was guided by his belief in the Church as a redemptive organization, and worked to make it relevant to the lives of Catholics throughout the world.
  
  John Paul II: A Short Biography highlights his early years, his lifelong devotion to Mary, his outreach to young people, and his role as intercessor in seeking reconciliation with institutions and peoples alienated from the Church by past actions. This is a book to be enjoyed and treasured as we witness the recognition given John Paul II as a saint for our times. [From the publisher]

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  John XXIII: A Short Biography

  Kerry S. Walters

  Publication Date: 11-2013

  His adult life was unremarkable; in his role as Papal Nuncio to France, he was considered an “affable amateur.” When he was elected pope in 1958, it was thought he would be a placeholder, someone who was easily controllable until the Curia could decide on a worthy successor. Instead, Giuseppe Roncalli, Pope John XXIII, distinguished himself by establishing a spirit of aggiornamento— “opening wide the windows of the Church”&mdashh;and convened the Second Vatican Council in 1962.
  
  Walters brings you into the life and times of Pope John XXIII, from his simple upbringing as one of fourteen children growing up on a farm in Italy, to his seminary education and formative role models, through his ministry in the Church, leading up to his election as pope in 1958. Walters then focuses on the key ways Roncalli sought to reform the Church, and shepherd it into the twenty-first century.
  
  Walters shows that what was perceived by the hierarchy as mediocrity was indeed a deep humility that enabled the pope to truly be a model of Christian discipleship. Il Buono Papa, the Good Pope, will inspire you with his love for God, for all people, and for the Church itself. This is a book to be enjoyed and treasured as we witness the recognition given John XXIII as a saint for our times. [From the publisher]

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  Lincoln, the Rise of the Republicans, and the Coming of the Civil War: A Reference Guide

  Kerry S. Walters

  Publication Date: 8-2013

  This book vividly depicts and clearly explains the events in the decades leading up to the Civil War that resulted from the controversy over expansion of slavery into the western territories. The chapters describe how this single issue drove a wedge through the country and spawned the creation of several new political parties, including the Republican Party; caused furious congressional debates; sparked violence in Kansas; increased sectional discord between North and South; and allowed Abraham Lincoln to rise from relative obscurity to become the first Republican president of the United States. The work also supplies two-dozen thumbnail sketches of the period's greatest statesmen and less-than-great presidents, including individuals such as James Buchanan, John C. Calhoun, Salmon P. Chase, Henry Clay, Stephen Douglas, and William Henry Seward. [From the publisher]

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  Blessed Peacemakers: 365 Extraordinary People Who Changed the World

  Kerry S. Walters and Robin Jarrell

  Publication Date: 2-2013

  All of us yearn for a peaceable and just world, but some roll up their sleeves and set to work to make the dream real. Blessed Peacemakers celebrates 365 of them, one for each day of the year.
  
  Their stories are richly diverse. They share a commitment to peace and justice, but the various contexts in which they work make each of their stories uniquely instructive. The peacemakers include women, men, and children from across the globe, spanning some twenty-five hundred years. Many are persons of faith, but some are totally secular. Some are well known, while others will be excitingly new. They are human rights and antiwar activists, scientists and artists, educators and scholars, songwriters and poets, film directors and authors, diplomats and economists, environmentalists and mystics, prophets and policymakers. Some are unlettered, but all are wise. A few died in the service of the dream. All sacrificed for it.
  
  The world is a better place for the presence of blessed peacemakers. Their inspiring stories embolden readers to join them in nonviolent resistance to injustice and the creative pursuit of peace. [From the publisher]

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  Learning to Flourish: A Philosophical Exploration of Liberal Education

  Daniel R. DeNicola

  Publication Date: 8-2012

  What is a liberal arts education? How does it differ from other forms of learning? What are we to make of the debates that surround it? What are its place, its value, and its prospects in the contemporary world? These are questions that trouble students and their parents, educators, critics, and policy-makers, and philosophers of education--among others.
  
  Learning to Flourish offers a lucid, penetrating, philosophical exploration of liberal learning: a still-evolving tradition of theory and practice that has dominated and sustained intellectual life and learning in much of the globe for two millennia. This study will be of interest to anyone seeking to understand liberal arts education, as well as to educators and philosophers of education.
  
  Daniel R. DeNicola weighs the views of both advocates and critics of the liberal arts, and interprets liberal education as a vital tradition aimed supremely at understanding and living a flourishing life. He elaborates the tradition as expressed in five competing but complementary paradigms that transcend theories of curriculum and pedagogy and are manifested in particular social contexts. He examines the transformative power of liberal education and its relation to such values as freedom, autonomy, and democracy, reflecting on the importance of intrinsic value and moral understanding. Finally, DeNicola considers age-old obstacles and current threats to liberal education, ultimately asserting its value for and urgent need in a global, pluralistic, technologically advanced society. The result is a bold, yet nuanced theory, alert to both historical and contemporary discussions, and a significant contribution to the discourse on liberal education. [From the publisher]

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  Einstein's Jewish Science: Physics at the Intersection of Politics and Religion

  Steven Gimbel

  Publication Date: 4-2012

  Is relativity Jewish? The Nazis denigrated Albert Einstein's revolutionary theory by calling it "Jewish science" a charge typical of the ideological excesses of Hitler and his followers. Philosopher of science Steven Gimbel explores the many meanings of this provocative phrase and considers whether there is any sense in which Einstein's theory of relativity is Jewish. Arguing that we must take seriously the possibility that the Nazis were in some measure correct, Gimbel examines Einstein and his work to explore how beliefs, background, and environment may-or may not-have influenced the work of the scientist. You cannot understand Einstein's science, Gimbel declares, without knowing the history, religion, and philosophy that influenced it. No one, especially Einstein himself, denies Einstein's Jewish heritage, but many are uncomfortable saying that he was being a Jew while he was at his desk working. To understand what "Jewish" means for Einstein's work, Gimbel first explores the many definitions of "Jewish" and asks whether there are elements of Talmudic thinking apparent in Einstein's theory of relativity. He applies this line of inquiry to other scientists, including Isaac Newton, René Descartes, Sigmund Freud, and Émile Durkheim, to consider whether their specific religious beliefs or backgrounds manifested in their scientific endeavors. Einstein's Jewish Science intertwines science, history, philosophy, theology, and politics in fresh and fascinating ways to solve the multifaceted riddle of what religion means-and what it means to science. There are some senses, Gimbel claims, in which Jews can find a special connection to E = mc², and this claim leads to the engaging, spirited debate at the heart of this book. [From the publisher]

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  Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction

  Allen C. Guelzo

  Publication Date: 5-2012

  The Civil War is the greatest trauma ever experienced by the American nation, a four-year paroxysm of violence that left in its wake more than 600,000 dead, more than 2 million refugees, and the destruction (in modern dollars) of more than $700 billion in property. The war also sparked some of the most heroic moments in American history and enshrined a galaxy of American heroes. Above all, it permanently ended the practice of slavery and proved, in an age of resurgent monarchies, that a liberal democracy could survive the most frightful of challenges.
  
  In Fateful Lightning, two-time Lincoln Prize-winning historian Allen C. Guelzo offers a marvelous portrait of the Civil War and its era, covering not only the major figures and epic battles, but also politics, religion, gender, race, diplomacy, and technology. And unlike other surveys of the Civil War era, it extends the reader's vista to include the postwar Reconstruction period and discusses the modern-day legacy of the Civil War in American literature and popular culture. Guelzo also puts the conflict in a global perspective, underscoring Americans' acute sense of the vulnerability of their republic in a world of monarchies. He examines the strategy, the tactics, and especially the logistics of the Civil War and brings the most recent historical thinking to bear on emancipation, the presidency and the war powers, the blockade and international law, and the role of intellectuals, North and South.

  Written by a leading authority on our nation's most searing crisis, Fateful Lightning offers a vivid and original account of an event whose echoes continue with Americans to this day. [From the Publisher]

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  Lincoln Speeches

  Allen C. Guelzo and Richard Beeman

  Publication Date: 8-2012

  As president, Abraham Lincoln endowed the American language with a vigor and moral energy that have all but disappeared from today’s public rhetoric. His words are testaments of our history, windows into his enigmatic personality, and resonant examples of the writer’s art. Renowned Lincoln and Civil War scholar Allen C. Guelzo brings together this volume of Lincoln Speeches that span the classic and obscure, the lyrical and historical, the inspirational and intellectual. The book contains everything from classic speeches that any citizen would recognize—the first debate with Stephen Douglas, the “House Divided” Speech, the Gettysburg Address, the Second Inaugural Address—to the less known ones that professed Lincoln fans will come to enjoy and intellectuals and critics praise. These orations show the contours of the civic dilemmas Lincoln, and America itself, encountered: the slavery issue, state v. federal power, citizens and their duty, death and destruction, the coming of freedom, the meaning of the Constitution, and what it means to progress. [From the publisher]

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  The Right No

  William K. Hathaway

  Publication Date: 2012

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  Unholy Sabbath: The Battle of South Mountain in History and Memory

  Brian M. Jordan

  Publication Date: 1-2012

  Many readers of Civil War history have been led to believe the battle of South Mountain (September 14, 1862) was but a trifling skirmish, a preliminary engagement of little strategic or tactical consequence overshadowed by Antietam’s horrific carnage just three days later. In fact, the fight was a decisive Federal victory and important turning point in the campaign, as historian Brian Matthew Jordan argues convincingly in his fresh interpretation Unholy Sabbath: The Battle of South Mountain in History and Memory, September 14, 1862.

  Most writers brush past the mid-September battle in a few paragraphs or a single chapter. Jordan, however, presents a vigorous full-length study based upon extensive archival research, newspaper accounts, regimental histories, official records, postwar reunion materials, public addresses, letters, and diaries. Readers will not only come away with a full understanding of the military actions at Fox’s, Turner’s, and Crampton’s gaps, but a deeper and more meaningful appreciation for the ways in which Civil War veterans and the public at large remembered military events—and why some were forgotten.

  The Union victory on the wooded and rocky slopes provided a substantial boost for the downtrodden men of the Union army, who recognized the battle as hard fought and deservedly won—a ferocious hours-long fight with instances of hand-to-hand combat and thousands of casualties. Jordan demonstrates conclusively that South Mountain was the first major victory for the Army of the Potomac, and the first time its men held the field and were tasked with the responsibility of burying the dead.

  Unholy Sabbath proposes a new rubric for evaluating this important combat by examining not only the minute military aspects of the battle, but how soldiers remembered the fighting and why South Mountain faded from public memory. Former Confederates true to the Lost Cause, argues Jordan, downplayed the victory, emphasized how outnumbered they were, and argued that their defense of the passes “protected the concentration of General Lee’s army on the field of Sharpsburg.” Union veterans, however, remembered South Mountain as a full-scale engagement wholly distinct from Antietam, and one where they outfought and completely defeated their Rebel opponents and disrupted the entire Southern invasion. [From the Publisher]

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  The Man Who Saw a Ghost: The Life and Work of Henry Fonda

  Devin McKinney

  Publication Date: 10-2012

  The first major biography of the iconic actor Henry Fonda, a story of stardom, manhood, and the American character

  Henry Fonda's performances—in The Grapes of Wrath, Young Mr. Lincoln, The Lady Eve, 12 Angry Men, On Golden Pond—helped define "American" in the twentieth century. He worked with movie masters from Ford and Sturges to Hitchcock and Leone. He was a Broadway legend. He fought in World War II and was loved the world over.

  Yet much of his life was rage and struggle. Why did Fonda marry five times—tempestuously to actress Margaret Sullavan, tragically to heiress Frances Brokaw, mother of Jane and Peter? Was he a man of integrity, worthy of the heroes he played, or the harsh father his children describe, the iceman who went onstage hours after his wife killed herself? Why did suicide shadow his life and art? What memories troubled him so?

  McKinney’s Fonda is dark, complex, fascinating, and a product of glamour and acclaim, early losses and Midwestern demons—a man haunted by what he'd seen, and by who he was. [From the Publisher]

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  German Moonlight, Höxter and Corvey, At the Sign of the Wild Man

  Wilhelm Raabe, Alison E. Martin, Eric Lehmann, Michael Ritterson, and Florian Krobb

  Publication Date: 4-2012

  Ritterson translated, co-translated, or revised each of the two novellas and one story in this collection, all dating from the years 1873-75. The story, German Moonlight, was first translated by a Gettysburg College student collaborative in 2007 and published in 2009.

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  The Unbinding of Isaac: A Phenomenological Midrash of Genesis 22

  Stephen J. Stern

  Publication Date: 5-2012

  In The Unbinding of Isaac, Stephen J. Stern upends traditional understandings of this controversial narrative through a phenomenological midrash or interpretation of Genesis 22 from the Dialogic and Jewish philosophies of Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, and, most notably, Emmanuel Levinas. With great originality, Dr. Stern intersects Jewish studies, Biblical studies, and philosophy in a literary/midrashic style that challenges traditional Western philosophical epistemology. Through the biblical narrative of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Rebecca, Dr. Stern explains that Rosenzweig, Buber, and Levinas Judaically exercise and offer an alternative epistemic orientation to the study of ethics than that of traditional Western or Hellenic-Christian philosophy. The Unbinding of Isaac makes the works of these three thinkers accessible to those outside philosophy and Jewish studies while also introducing readers to the playfulness of how Jewish tradition midrashically addresses the Bible. [From the publisher]

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  Inventors of Ideas: An Introduction to Western Political Philosophy

  Donald G. Tannenbaum

  Publication Date: 2012

  Inventor of Ideas connects the major philosophers' original political and societal views with current politics and political thought. Significantly revised to give increased coverage to the major thinkers, the Third Edition covers the traditional canon of writers. Inventor of Ideas gives students the practical and historical foundations with which to look at contemporary political issues. [From the publisher]

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  Litany for the City

  Ryan T. Teitman and Jane Hirshfield

  Publication Date: 4-2012

  This book carries both startling imaginative freedoms and the impulsion of a person navigating the terrain of his life by means of the star-chart and sextant of poems. From Foreword

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  The Underground Railroad: A Reference Guide

  Kerry S. Walters

  Publication Date: 3-2012

  The Underground Railroad provides the richest portrayal yet of the first large scale act of interracial collaboration in the United States, mapping out the complex network of routes and safe stations that made escape from slavery in the American South possible. ||Kerry Walters' stirring account ranges from the earliest acts of slave resistance and the rise of the Abolitionist movement, to the establishment of clandestine "liberty lines" through the eastern and then-western regions of the Union and ultimately to Canada. Separating fact from legend, Walters draws extensively on first-person accounts of those who made the Railroad work, those who tried to stop it, and those who made the treacherous journey to freedom ”including Eliza Harris and Josiah Henson, the real-life "Eliza" and "Uncle Tom" from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. [From the publisher]

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  Vegetarianism: A Guide for the Perplexed

  Kerry S. Walters

  Publication Date: 6-2012

  The choice of whether or not to consume animals is more than merely a dietary one. It frequently reflects deep ethical commitments or religious convictions that serve as the bedrock of an entire lifestyle. Proponents of vegetarianism frequently infuriate non-vegetarians, who feel that they're being morally condemned because of what they choose to eat. Vegetarians are frequently infuriated by what they consider to be the non-vegetarians' disregard for the environment and animal-suffering.
  
  Vegetarianism: A Guide for the Perplexed offers a much needed survey of the different arguments offered by ethical vegetarians and their critics. In a rigorous but accessible manner, the author scrutinizes the strengths and weaknesses of arguments in defense of vegetarianism based on compassion, rights, interests, eco-feminism, environmentalism, anthrocentrism, and religion. Authors examined include Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Carol J. Adams, and Kathryn Paxton George.
  
  As the global climate crisis worsens, population increases, and fossil fuels disappear, ethical and public policy questions about the ethics of diet will become ever more urgent. This book is a useful resource for thinking through the questions. [From the publisher]