“Emma Griffin gives a new and powerful voice to the men and women whose blood and sweat greased the wheels of the Industrial Revolution” (Tim Hitchcock, author of Down and Out in Eighteenth-Century London). This “provocative study” looks at hundreds of autobiographies penned between 1760 and 1900 to offer an intimate firsthand account of how the Industrial Revolution was experienced by the working class (The New Yorker). The era didn’t just bring about misery and poverty. On the contrary, Emma Griffin shows how it raised incomes, improved literacy, and offered exciting opportunities for political action. For many, this was a period of new, and much valued, sexual and cultural freedom. This rich personal account focuses on the social impact of the Industrial Revolution, rather than its economic and political histories. In the tradition of bestselling books by Liza Picard, Judith Flanders, and Jerry White, Griffin gets under the skin of the period and creates a cast of colorful characters, including factory workers, miners, shoemakers, carpenters, servants, and farm laborers. “Through the ‘messy tales’ of more than 350 working-class lives, Emma Griffin arrives at an upbeat interpretation of the Industrial Revolution most of us would hardly recognize. It is quite enthralling.” —The Oldie magazine “A triumph, achieved in fewer than 250 gracefully written pages. They persuasively purvey Griffin’s historical conviction. She is intimate with her audience, wooing it and teasing it along the way.” —The Times Literary Supplement “An admirably intimate and expansive revisionist history.” —Publishers Weekly

Published on the anniversary of when President Abraham Lincoln’s order went into effect, this book offers readers a unique look at the events that led to the Emancipation Proclamation. Filled with little-known facts and fascinating details, it includes excerpts from historical sources, archival images, and new research that debunks myths about the Emancipation Proclamation and its causes. Complete with a timeline, glossary, and bibliography, Emancipation Proclamation is an engrossing new historical resource from award-winning children’s book author Tonya Bolden. Praise for Emancipation Proclamation: FOUR STARRED REVIEWS "A convincing, handsomely produced argument..." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Bolden makes excellent use of primary sources; the pages are filled with archival photos, engravings, letters, posters, maps, newspaper articles, and other period documents. Detailed captions and a glossary interpret them for today’s readers." —School Library Journal, starred review "The language soars, powerfully communicating not just the facts about the Emancipation Proclamation but its meaning for those who cared most passionately." —Booklist, starred review "Bolden tackles these questions in a richly illustrated overview of the lead-up to the Proclamation, organizing and reiterating information already familiar to many middle-schoolers, while introducing material that will probably be eye-opening to students who have taken their textbook’s version of history at face value." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, starred review Award School Library Journal Best Book of 2013 Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbons List 2013 Notable Children's Books from ALSC 2014 2014 Carter G.Woodson Middle Level Book Award

Political unrest shakes the foundations of a war-torn country—and of the McCallum family as they fight for their faith in the Secret of the Rose series. Many years after their daring escape from a divided Germany, Sabina and Matthew McCallum return with their son, Tad, to attend a conference on preaching the gospel of Christ in a country still scarred by the Cold War. What they discover is troubling. Western Christianity, while well intentioned, is not filling the unique needs of Christians in the East. And even though the Cold War is over, political strife is bubbling just below the surface, and Sabina and Matthew become entangled in a Communist plot to seize control of Eastern Europe. Once again, the couple must call upon their instinctive talent for survival—and their deep faith in God’s protection—to save their family.

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER This groundbreaking book offers the first global history of the loyalist exodus to Canada, the Caribbean, Sierra Leone, India, and beyond. At the end of the American Revolution, sixty thousand Americans loyal to the British cause fled the United States and became refugees throughout the British Empire. Liberty’s Exiles tells their story. This surprising new account of the founding of the United States and the shaping of the post-revolutionary world traces extraordinary journeys like the one of Elizabeth Johnston, a young mother from Georgia, who led her growing family to Britain, Jamaica, and Canada, questing for a home; black loyalists such as David George, who escaped from slavery in Virginia and went on to found Baptist congregations in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone; and Mohawk Indian leader Joseph Brant, who tried to find autonomy for his people in Ontario. Ambitious, original, and personality-filled, this book is at once an intimate narrative history and a provocative analysis that changes how we see the revolution’s “losers” and their legacies.

The Liberty Trilogy contemplates the fragility of freedom and liberty by taking its readers on a fictional adventure through American history. Political and economic circumstance, patriotism, and faith guide the main characters through their unnatural journey. The first book, Liberty's Dawn, occurs during the 1780-1781 years of the revolutionary conflict in North America's southern colonies. In Liberty's Dawn, three friends embark on a winter camping trip in the mountains of South Carolina, to escape the stark realities and absurdities of modern society. They have planned a weekend of camp fires, good eating, and target shooting at an outdoor rifle and pistol range. Abruptly, on the first day's hike, an unseen force thrusts them back in time to witness the fall of Charleston to British forces loyal to King George in late spring of the year 1780. How did the friends get here? Why are they here? What should they do now? Nik, Sid, and John must wrestle with these questions and ultimately find their way as history unfolds before them. American history is Nik's passion and seeing the Revolutionary war is like watching a living history of the events he has studied most of his life. John is an avid outdoorsman and Sid is a computer professional with previous contacts throughout the US military. The friends soon discover an evil from America's past is in the wrong place and at the wrong time. Will liberty and freedom expire before it takes root? Will evil triumph?

DIVThis remarkable book looks at hundreds of autobiographies penned between 1760 and 1900 to offer an intimate firsthand account of how the Industrial Revolution was experienced by the working class. The Industrial Revolution brought not simply misery and poverty. On the contrary, Griffin shows how it raised incomes, improved literacy, and offered exciting opportunities for political action. For many, this was a period of new, and much valued, sexual and cultural freedom./divDIV /divDIVThis rich personal account focuses on the social impact of the Industrial Revolution, rather than its economic and political histories. In the tradition of best-selling books by Liza Picard, Judith Flanders, and Jerry White, Griffin gets under the skin of the period and creates a cast of colorful characters, including factory workers, miners, shoemakers, carpenters, servants, and farm laborers./div

By 2050, an underground network and economy is thriving. Built on crypto-currencies—an open global mesh network—the freewheeling markets and innovative services are challenging rigid State powers and their corporate cronies. The State, resorting to secret laws, black-sites, and mob-style tactics, intend to take down this free network and anyone using crypto-currencies. But this is proving a difficult task—more hazardous and complicated than anticipated. The mesh is resilient, crypto-currencies strong...high-tech software and hardware built in basements around the world stays one step ahead. Crypto groups, aligned in their goals, collaborating with the united alliance to build and maintain the global mesh, nonetheless are troubled with infighting and power struggles between crypto-currencies, crypto-currency forks, and ultra-wealthy large crypto-holders.The Black Edge Octalogy follows the adventures of cypherpunks pursuing a life of privacy and independence through their mesh networks, crypto-systems and crypto-currencies. They write code, hack hardware, and expose authoritarian deceit and brutality.