Tag: #History

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The World According to Tom Hanks

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

The Life, the Obsessions, the Good Deeds of America’s Most Decent Guy

An entertaining and insightful homage to America’s favorite movie star, from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Tao of Bill Murray.

Niceness gets a bad rap these days. Our culture rewards those who troll the hardest and who snark the most. At times it seems like there’s no place anymore for optimism, integrity, and good old-fashioned respect. Enter “America’s Dad”: Tom Hanks. Whether he’s buying espresso machines for the White House Press Corps, rewarding a jovial cab driver with a night out on Broadway, or extolling the virtues of using a typewriter, Hanks lives a passionate, joyful life and pays it forward to others. Gavin Edwards takes readers on a tour behind the scenes of Hanks’s life: from his less-than-idyllic childhood, rocky first marriage, and career wipeouts to the pinnacle of his acting career and domestic bliss with the love of his life, Rita Wilson.

As he did for Bill Murray, Edwards distills Hanks’s life story into ten “commandments” that beautifully encapsulate his All-American philosophy. Contemplating the life, the achievements, and the obsessions of Mr. Tom Hanks may or may not give you the road map you need to find your way. But at the very least, it’ll show you how niceness can be a worthy destination.

“If there is a new Mr. Rogers in our culture, it’s got to be Tom Hanks: honest, decent, trustworthy. Gavin Edwards’s book taps into what makes Hanks someone we love and someone we should emulate.” ―Morgan Neville, Oscar-winning director of Won’t You Be My Neighbor?


Editorial Reviews

Review

“If there is a new Mr. Rogers in our culture, it’s got to be Tom Hanks: honest, decent, trustworthy. Gavin Edwards’s book taps into what makes Hanks someone we love and someone we should emulate.”―Morgan Neville, director of Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

“There have been greater, weightier testaments to the art of cinema published in 2016 . . . but for sheer dopamine release, [The Tao of Bill Murray is] hard to beat.”―The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Gavin Edwards is the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including The Tao of Bill Murray, Last Night at the Viper Room, Can I Say (written with Travis Barker), VJ (written with the original MTV VJs), and ‘Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy. As a longtime contributing editor for Rolling Stone, he has written a dozen cover stories for the magazine, traveled the world from Bahrain to New Zealand, and taken a city bus to the Grammys. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife and their two sons.

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Posted in #History

American Indian Wars

Posted on by BookReviews

A Captivating Guide to a Series of Conflicts That Occurred in North America and How They Impacted Native American Tribes, Including … the Sand Creek Massacre (Indigenous People)

If you want to discover the captivating history of the American Indian Wars, then keep reading…

Free History BONUS Inside!

Today, the United States of America is one of the largest countries in the world. Comprised of fifty states, this huge nation is filled with diverse topography, as well as a variety of flora and fauna. Not only that, but the USA is also home to a huge population with diverse ethnic backgrounds, including Hispanic, African American, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Polish, and many more.

A vast number of the white population are the descendants of the European colonists and settlers who ultimately conquered the land, dominating the Native Americans who were the original inhabitants of the land.

This was very similar to the way the British conquered the Indian subcontinent, except for the fact the British conquerors didn’t make the Indian subcontinent their permanent home while the early American colonists shed sweat and blood to make the untamed American wilderness their new homeland.

But, in order to do so, the Americans waged wars against the Native Americans who had roamed the lands for thousands of years, driving them away from their homes in a brutal and horrific manner. Part of the blame lay on the Native Americans as well since their retaliation on the newcomers trespassing their lands were often brutal and horrific.

In American Indian Wars: A Captivating Guide to a Series of Conflicts That Occurred in North America and How They Impacted Native American Tribes, Including Events Such as the Sand Creek Massacre, you will discover topics such as

  • The Foreign Colonization of America
  • The American-Indian Wars During the Colonial Period (1609-1774)
  • Beginning of the American Indian Wars in the East of the Mississippi: The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)
  • American-Indian Wars East of the Mississippi after the American Revolutionary War Part 1: The Northwest Indian War
  • American-Indian Wars East of the Mississippi after the American Revolutionary War Part 2: The Cherokee-American Wars
  • American Indian Wars in the West of the Mississippi Conflicts Part 1: Tecumseh, the Creek War, the War of 1812, and Other Conflicts
  • American Indian Wars in the West of the Mississippi Conflicts Part 2: Wars in the Pacific Northwest, Southwest, California, the Great Basin, and the Great Plains
  • And much, much more!

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I’m a Mom, a Grandmom, and a Veteran. Nothing scares me! That’s the saying on my favorite T Shirt. I’m enjoying life too much to let the little things slow me down. If you can’t tell from my Avatar, I live in Florida where I enjoy the sunshine and endure the hurricanes with good grace. Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good!

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The Cherokees

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A Captivating Guide to the History of a Native American Tribe, the Cherokee Removal, and the Trail of Tears (Indigenous People)

The Cherokee were the first Native American tribe to develop a syllabic written language.

They were also the first Native American tribe to have a written constitution and the first Native American tribe to have a newspaper. And the list goes on and on. The Cherokee is one of the most fascinating Indigenous tribes in the United States of American. The Cherokee managed to assimilate themselves within the US. And yet, they were sent far across the country, exiled from their ancestral homelands.

What happened on their journey during the Trail of Tears? What side did they pick when the Civil War exploded onto the scene? Who led them to victory and brutal, brutal defeat? The truth is inside of these pages.

Their story is one of the harshest in US history. The Cherokee suffered hardships practically from the moment they were born to the moment they died. From the Trail of Tears to the residential school system, their story is fraught with complications.
In this new, exposing, and honest retelling of the Cherokee, you will read about the highs and lows of the Cherokee tribe, including the stories and moments that are often pushed under the rug.

Here’s a taste of what you will discover along the way:

  • The life of the Cherokee before the Europeans ever set foot on the shores of the United States
  • In-depth research on the many treaties drawn between the Europeans and the Cherokee
  • Details about President Jackson’s Trail of Tears and those who died along the way
  • The ways the Cherokee assimilated in the United States
  • The truth about life as a Cherokee on the reservation
  • Revelations about residential schools
  • The Cherokee police force
  • The first female principal chief of the Cherokee
  • And much more!

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I’m a Mom, a Grandmom, and a Veteran. Nothing scares me! That’s the saying on my favorite T Shirt. I’m enjoying life too much to let the little things slow me down. If you can’t tell from my Avatar, I live in Florida where I enjoy the sunshine and endure the hurricanes with good grace. Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good!

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Trail of Tears

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A Captivating Guide to the Forced Removals of Cherokee, Muscogee Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Nations (Indigenous People)

Explore the Cruel History of the Trail of Tears
Free History BONUS Inside! One of the darkest and cruelest chapters in the history of the United States occurred when the nation’s young government decided to remove the native peoples from their lands in the name of profit. Having helped settlers for hundreds of years, five Native American tribes found it increasingly more difficult to relate to and trust the country that had once acted as their allies. The native peoples had fought alongside the Americans to gain freedom from England, the nation that the colonists deemed oppressive and unfair. The native peoples acted as benefactors and teachers, helping the colonists to gain an advantage against an army that was far superior to the small forces that the colonists could muster. The new country owed a lot of its existence to the native peoples, yet the settlers, who were of European descent, did not see it that way.

The following topics will be covered in this book:

  • The Early Relationship
  • The Growth of Manifest Destiny
  • The Discovery of Gold and the Indian Removal Act
  • Peaceful Protests and a Push for Recognition
  • The People Versus the President
  • The Militia Force Removal
  • The Trail of Tears
  • Stories of Pain, Loss, and Love
  • Making a New Home
  • And a Great Deal More You Don’t Want to Miss Out On!

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I’m a Mom, a Grandmom, and a Veteran. Nothing scares me! That’s the saying on my favorite T Shirt. I’m enjoying life too much to let the little things slow me down. If you can’t tell from my Avatar, I live in Florida where I enjoy the sunshine and endure the hurricanes with good grace. Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good!

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Red Sox Rule

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Terry Francona and Boston’s Rise to Dominance 

The story of the changing face of baseball and the inner workings of its finest organization

After a hundred “cursed” years, the Boston Red Sox rose gloriously to baseball domination. Under the leadership of manager Terry Francona, an extraordinary team of wildly disparate personalities—from the inscrutable Manny Ramirez to the affable David “Big Papi” Ortiz—pulled off two improbable post-season comebacks to make it to the World Series twice in three years . . . and ultimately emerged victorious. In Red Sox Rule, Michael Holley, bestselling author of Patriot Reign, provides a fascinating, insightful, and surprising inside look at how it all happened.

With the exclusive cooperation of Terry Francona and stories from the clubhouse and the conference room, Holley reveals the private sessions and the dugout and front-office strategies that have made the Red Sox a budding dynasty, overtaking their archrivals, the powerful New York Yankees, as the American League’s elite team.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Enlightening. . . . An X-and-O guy’s dream . . . the best thing I’ve read on football in recent years. . . . Superb.” – Peter King, Sports Illustrated on Patriot Reign
“… a look inside the Fenway Park bunker…extremely insighful into how being a manager of a major league team has evolved, and how Francona has become the embodiment of that evolution.” – Providence Journal
“Illuminating… enjoyable reading.” – Boston Globe
“An inside look at how Francona manages gfames and his ballclub… Fascinating.” – Kennebec Journal (Maine)
“Engaging…Holley puts Francona s managing style in perspective through accounts of his hard-luck playing career, descriptions of cantankerous managers of the past, and analysis of how the game has evolved over the years. – Providence Journal-Bulletin

From the Back Cover

Michael Holley, bestselling author of Patriot Reign, provides an inside look at how it all happened. With the exclusive cooperation of Terry Francona and stories from the clubhouse and the conference room, Holley reveals the private sessions and the dugout and front-office strategies that have made the Boston Red Sox a budding dynasty.

When Grady Little’s job prospects were dimming during game seven of the Red Sox–Yankees playoffs in 2003, Oakland A’s bench coach Terry Francona was puttering around his house, unaware of his fate. General manager Theo Epstein and owner John Henry sat in their Fenway box, praying that Little would pull Pedro Martinez. And fans throughout New England howled when Martinez remained in the game and the Sox lost the series. They wanted Little’s head, and they got it.

In Epstein and Henry’s search for a manager, they wanted someone from the new school, someone who could manage wealthy and/or sensitive players and rely not only on gut and instinct but also on the cold science of statistics. Francona, the son of a professional baseball player and a major leaguer himself until devastating knee injuries ended his career prematurely, was a dark horse candidate. After all, he’d been a mediocre manager while with the Phillies. But he had a great head for the game, and as the manager for the minor league Birmingham Barons, he had managed none other than Michael Jordan without a glitch.

After Francona’s job interview with Epstein, which included a written test and a game simulation, the Red Sox felt they’d found their man. And now, after two championships in four seasons, they have their proof.

With a team of disparate personalities, from the inscrutable Manny Ramirez to the affable David Ortiz, Francona and the Red Sox have overtaken their hated archnemesis, the New York Yankees, as the American League’s elite team.

Insightful, fascinating, and surprising, Red Sox Rule is the story of the changing face of baseball and the inner workings of its finest organization.

About the Author

MICHAEL HOLLEY is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Patriot Reign, Never Give Up (with Tedy Bruschi), and Red Sox Rule. He was a Boston Globe sportswriter for ten years, and he is the cohost of The Big Show on Boston sports radio station WEEI. Holley lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife and two sons.

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I’m a Mom, a Grandmom, and a Veteran. Nothing scares me! That’s the saying on my favorite T Shirt. I’m enjoying life too much to let the little things slow me down. If you can’t tell from my Avatar, I live in Florida where I enjoy the sunshine and endure the hurricanes with good grace. Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good!

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