In 1934, the Pacific Coast was shaken by a massive strike of waterfront workers- on the docks and the ships. In this mighty struggle, the Sailor's Union of the Pacific, quiescent since it's defeat in the period after the first World War was reborn. Fighting on San Francisco's Embarcadero led to the stationing of National Guard troops on the 'front'. This book looks at the Union from 1885 to 1985.

It's the midsummer ball at Oxford, and a group of men and women - friends since university days - have gathered under the stars. Included in this group is David Crimond, a genius and fervent Marxist. Years earlier the friends had persuaded David to write a philosophical and political book on their behalf. But opinions and loyalties have changed, and on this summer evening the long-resting ghosts of the past come careering back into the present.

In the spring of 1943, during a stint in the Merchant Marine, twenty-one-year old Jack Kerouac set out to write his first novel. Working diligently day and night to complete it by hand, he titled it The Sea Is My Brother. Now, nearly seventy years later, its long-awaited publication provides fascinating details and insight into the early life and development of an American literary icon. Written seven years before The Town and The City officially launched his writing career, The Sea Is My Brother marks a pivotal point in which Kerouac began laying the foundations for his pioneering method and signature style. A clear precursor to such landmark works as On the Road, The Dharma Bums, and Visions of Cody, it is an important formative work that bears all the hallmarks of classic Kerouac: the search for spiritual meaning in a materialistic world, spontaneous travel as the true road to freedom, late nights in bars and apartments engaged in intense conversation, the desperate urge to escape from society, and the strange, terrible beauty of loneliness.

Hailed as heart stopping and almost unbearably suspenseful, Edward L. Beach's third novel is set fifteen years after the end of World War II as the US Navy converts its fleet of conventional submarines to nuclear-powered ships. The book focuses on the USS Cushing, whose sixteen missile silos carry more explosive power than all the munitions used in both world wars. The submarine is on a secret mission to the Arctic Ocean to determine whether her missiles are effective when fired from beneath the ice. When the Cushing is incapacitated with a suspicious Russian sub lurking in the vicinity, the scene is set for a dramatic novel rich in all the technical detail and submarine lore that have entertained millions of readers of Captain Beach's other fictional works.

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters created a sea of change in labour and race relations in the US. For the first time in US history, a black labour union played a central role in shaping labor and civil rights policy. Based on interviews and archival research, this new book tells the story of the union and its charismatic leader C.L. Dellums, starting from the BSCP's origins as the first national union of black workers in 1925. In 1937, the BSCP made history when it compelled one of the largest US corporations - the Pullman Company - to recognize and negotiate a contract with a black workers' union. C. L. Dellums was a leading civil rights activist as well as a labor leader. In 1948, he was chosen to be the first West Coast Regional Director of the NAACP. This book is an inspiring testament to both him and the unions transformative impact on US society.

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