Lincoln scholars from around the country laud Findley's book as an unsurpassed account of Lincoln's short career in the House of Representatives. Findley, who served in Congress for 22 years, represented the same district in Illinois that Lincoln represented. In 2003, Burkhimer selected 100 essential Lincoln books for collectors and students of Lincoln. "A. Lincoln: The Crucible of Congress" is one of the 100 essential books on Lincoln.

This sweeping history of twentieth-century America follows the changing and often conflicting ideas about the fundamental nature of American society: Is the United States a social melting pot, as our civic creed warrants, or is full citizenship somehow reserved for those who are white and of the "right" ancestry? Gary Gerstle traces the forces of civic and racial nationalism, arguing that both profoundly shaped our society. After Theodore Roosevelt led his Rough Riders to victory during the Spanish American War, he boasted of the diversity of his men's origins- from the Kentucky backwoods to the Irish, Italian, and Jewish neighborhoods of northeastern cities. Roosevelt’s vision of a hybrid and superior “American race,” strengthened by war, would inspire the social, diplomatic, and economic policies of American liberals for decades. And yet, for all of its appeal to the civic principles of inclusion, this liberal legacy was grounded in “Anglo-Saxon” culture, making it difficult in particular for Jews and Italians and especially for Asians and African Americans to gain acceptance. Gerstle weaves a compelling story of events, institutions, and ideas that played on perceptions of ethnic/racial difference, from the world wars and the labor movement to the New Deal and Hollywood to the Cold War and the civil rights movement. We witness the remnants of racial thinking among such liberals as FDR and LBJ; we see how Italians and Jews from Frank Capra to the creators of Superman perpetuated the New Deal philosophy while suppressing their own ethnicity; we feel the frustrations of African-American servicemen denied the opportunity to fight for their country and the moral outrage of more recent black activists, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, and Malcolm X. Gerstle argues that the civil rights movement and Vietnam broke the liberal nation apart, and his analysis of this upheaval leads him to assess Reagan’s and Clinton’s attempts to resurrect nationalism. Can the United States ever live up to its civic creed? For anyone who views racism as an aberration from the liberal premises of the republic, this book is must reading. Containing a new chapter that reconstructs and dissects the major struggles over race and nation in an era defined by the War on Terror and by the presidency of Barack Obama, American Crucible is a must-read for anyone who views racism as an aberration from the liberal premises of the republic.

Few relationships have proved more pivotal in changing the course of American politics than those between presidents and social movements. For all their differences, both presidents and social movements are driven by a desire to recast the political system, often pursuing rival agendas that set them on a collision course. Even when their interests converge, these two actors often compete to control the timing and conditions of political change. During rare historical moments, however, presidents and social movements forged partnerships that profoundly recast American politics. Rivalry and Reform explores the relationship between presidents and social movements throughout history and into the present day, revealing the patterns that emerge from the epic battles and uneasy partnerships that have profoundly shaped reform. Through a series of case studies, including Abraham Lincoln and abolitionism, Lyndon Johnson and the civil rights movement, and Ronald Reagan and the religious right, Sidney M. Milkis and Daniel J. Tichenor argue persuasively that major political change usually reflects neither a top-down nor bottom-up strategy but a crucial interplay between the two. Savvy leaders, the authors show, use social movements to support their policy goals. At the same time, the most successful social movements target the president as either a source of powerful support or the center of opposition. The book concludes with a consideration of Barack Obama’s approach to contemporary social movements such as Black Lives Matter, United We Dream, and Marriage Equality.

"The 1953 premiere of The Crucible confirmed Arthur Miller's reputation as one of America's most important and serious playwrights as it underscored the earlier success of Miller's Pulitzer Prize winning drama, Death of a Salesman. While dealing with the 1692 witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, The Crucible reveals Miller's concern with issues of individual conscience and guilt by association - issues that were manifest in the social and political problems of his own time. The drama is both a historical play of 17th-century colonial America and a parable about the communist witch-hunts in the United States of the 1950s. Miller uses the moral absolutism of Puritan Salem to parallel the infamous congressional hearings led by Senator Joseph McCarthy. The events which frame Miller's tragic drama are separated by some two hundred and sixty years, but are joined by circumstances where elements of disparate societies seek only evidence of guilt and ignore or suppress all evidence to suggest otherwise. With universal themes that transcend time and place, including national borders, The Crucible remains one of the most often produced American plays worldwide." "In The Crucible: Politics, Property, and Pretense, James J. Martine extends his analysis beyond the standard critical appraisals that compare the drama's setting only to the time in which it was written - the McCarthy era. Martine examines in detail Miller's historical sources and the ways in which he adapted this material to his contemporary audience. Martine suggests the play should be "read" within a variety of contexts, that is, as a product of and reaction to the McCarthy era, as a milestone in the development of Miller's work, as an exemplar of the genre of tragedy, as part of the tradition of American theatre, and as a basis for later adaptations. in his discussion, Martine considers both the written text and the play as public performance. He examines the play's settings, props, and exits and entrances, and draws attention to the various ways in which Miller built these directions about the play's performance into the written text. Martine argues convincingly that The Crucible should not be approached as a monochromatic written text as it often has been, but as a multifaceted performance text. His study includes photographs of a contemporary staged production, in addition to commentary on Robert Ward's Pulitzer prize-winning opera based on Miller's drama. Martine's multi-leveled exploration enables the reader to understand and thus appreciate The Crucible and Arthur Miller more fully."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved