John Brown is a man of many legacies, from hero, freedom fighter, and martyr, to liar, fanatic, and "the father of American terrorism." Some have said that it was his seizure of the arsenal at Harper's Ferry that rendered the Civil War inevitable.
Deeply religious, Brown believed that God had chosen him to right the wrong of slavery. He was willing to kill and die for something modern Americans unanimously agree was a just cause. And yet he was a religious fanatic and a staunch believer in "righteous violence," an unapologetic committer of domestic terrorism. Marrin brings 19th-century issues into the modern arena with ease and grace in a book that is sure to spark discussion.
Ida M Tarbell: The Woman Who Challenged Big Business - And Won! by Emily Arnold McCully.
Born in 1857 and raised in oil country, Ida M. Tarbell was one of the
first investigative journalists and probably the most influential in her
time. Her series of articles on the Standard Oil Trust, a complicated
business empire run by John D. Rockefeller, revealed to readers the
underhanded, even illegal practices that had led to Rockefeller's
success.Rejecting the term "muckraker" to describe her profession, she went on to achieve remarkable prominence for a woman of her generation as a writer and shaper of public opinion. This biography offers an engrossing portrait of a trailblazer in a man's world who left her mark on the American consciousness.
Boundaries: How the Mason-Dixon Line Settled a Family Feud and Divided a Nation, by Sally M. Walker.
The Mason-Dixon Line's history, replete with property disputes,
persecution, and ideological conflicts, traverses our country's history
from its founding to today. We live in a world of boundaries—geographic,
scientific, cultural, and religious. One of America's most enduring
boundaries is the Mason-Dixon Line, most associated with the divide
between the North and the South and the right to freedom for all people.Sibert Medal–winning author Sally M. Walker traces the tale of the Mason-Dixon Line through family feuds, brave exploration, scientific excellence, and the struggle to define a cohesive country. But above all, this remarkable story of surveying, marking, and respecting lines of demarcation will alert young history buffs to their guaranteed right and responsibility to explore, challenge, change, and defend the boundaries that define them.
(All descriptions from OverDrive.)
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