A rich and riveting portrait of the man behind Gulliver’s Travels, by a “vivid, ardent, and engaging” (New York Times Book Review) author. One of Europe’s most important literary figures, Jonathan Swift was also an inspired humorist, a beloved companion, and a conscientious Anglican minister—as well as a hoaxer and a teller of tales. His anger against abuses of power would produce the most famous satires of the English language: Gulliver’s Travels as well as the Drapier Papers and the unparalleled Modest Proposal, in which he imagined the poor of Ireland farming their infants for the tables of wealthy colonists. John Stubbs’s biography captures the dirt and beauty of a world that Swift both scorned and sought to amend. It follows Swift through his many battles, for and against authority, and in his many contradictions, as a priest who sought to uphold the dogma of his church; as a man who was quite prepared to defy convention, not least in his unshakable attachment to an unmarried woman, his “Stella”; and as a writer whose vision showed that no single creed holds all the answers. Impeccably researched and beautifully told, in Jonathan Swift Stubbs has found the perfect subject for this masterfully told biography of a reluctant rebel—a voice of withering disenchantment unrivaled in English.

After the feverish mobilization of secession had faded, why did Southern men join the Confederate army? Kenneth Noe examines the motives and subsequent performance of "later enlisters." He offers a nuanced view of men who have often been cast as less patriotic and less committed to the cause, rekindling the debate over who these later enlistees were, why they joined, and why they stayed and fought. Noe refutes the claim that later enlisters were more likely to desert or perform poorly in battle and reassesses the argument that they were less ideologically savvy than their counterparts who enlisted early in the conflict. He argues that kinship and neighborhood, not conscription, compelled these men to fight: they were determined to protect their families and property and were fueled by resentment over emancipation and pillaging and destruction by Union forces. But their age often combined with their duties to wear them down more quickly than younger men, making them less effective soldiers for a Confederate nation that desperately needed every able-bodied man it could muster. Reluctant Rebels places the stories of individual soldiers in the larger context of the Confederate war effort and follows them from the initial optimism of enlistment through the weariness of battle and defeat.

There it is again, hope. The defeat and the despair I can stand, but it's the hope that kills me, as if the Cause wasn't lost, as if Father hadn't died in vain. As if any one of us could possibly come out of this alive... Following the death of his father, 13-year-old Archie MacDonald has lost faith in the Jacobite Cause. Having witnessed their clan's terrible defeat at the Battle of Culloden, Archie and his feisty cousin Meg flee back to Lochaber to lie low. Or so they think. Until the fugitive Prince's life depends on them. When Prince Charles Edward Stuart looks to the people of Borrodale for help, will the young stable boy support the rebellion that has cost him so dearly? With enemies closing in, the Prince's fate now rests in the hands of a stable boy and a maid with a white cockade. Who will survive this deadly game of hide-and-seek?

This fresh interpretation explains how an untutored musician changed music while at the same time playing an inadvertent role in the youth rebellion that has shaped the Baby Boomer generation into the 21st century. Elvis Aaron Presley was born in a two-room house in Tupelo, MS, on January 8, 1935. He died at his Memphis home, Graceland, on August 16, 1977. In those 42 years, Elvis made an indelible impression on pop culture the world over. Elvis Presley, Reluctant Rebel: His Life and Our Times probes both the man and his influence, delving deeply into the personality of its protagonist, his needs and motivations, and the social and musical forces that shaped his career. Elvis's musical talents and liabilities are explored, as are his records, films, and live performances and his relationship with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, whom he allowed to manipulate him as a money-making machine. Readers will learn about Elvis's personal life, his devotion to conventional religious and political beliefs, and his decline into self-destruction and death. Finally, the book explores Elvis's impact on the musical and racial revolutions of the 1950s and 1960s, his legacy, and his importance in shaping a generation of Baby Boomers.

The Castle mentioned in the novel's title is Dublin Castle, which was the central control headquarters for the English authorities in Ireland. Also, the title itself is taken from a statement by Michael Collins to Arthur Griffith, in the Castle grounds, during the ceremony when the British relinquished their control to the Irish. The novel, however, follows the adventures of a very young Irishman, Patrick Kyle, who, at the turn of the 20th century, enlists in the British army, serves through the Boer war, returns home, studies law, and briefly gets caught up in a political incident in Ireland. Later on he again joins the British army, (assuming that Ireland would get its independence if the Irish fought for England) and survives the horrors of World War One. When he returns to Ireland, he becomes inadvertently embroiled in the fight for Ireland's freedom, and is finally accused of treason during the civil war there. He is so disappointed, and disillusioned with the outcome of these events, that he leaves his homeland, and sets sail on a ship bound for America, taking along his beautiful wife, Hannah, and his two children. On the voyage he has, what can only described as, a spiritual experience that convinces him that, in America, he will find a life of peace with his wife and family, that had so eluded him in the past. The story also deals with his love-life, and tells how he had fallen hopelessly in love with Hannah Smyth, a beautiful young lady, whose family were ardent members of The Loyal Orange Order. This Orange Order is a group that had been implanted in Northern Ireland in the 17th century for the purpose of creating and maintaining a Protestant ascendancy there, and was given total political control in that area. This implantation created animosity between the Protestant landowner and the Catholic dispossessed. Consequently, the Orange Order's whole history has been influenced by the idea that Catholics were their mortal enemies, and had to be eliminated, or at least be totally suppressed. As it happened, our hero, Patrick Kyle, was a member of the Catholic Church, and this made for a very turbulent courtship between him and his future wife The novel describes, in sufficient detail, how people thought during the early part of the Twentieth Century, what they're values were, and the politics of that era. The story illustrates how those events of so long ago have grossly influenced current Irish politics, and were basically the root cause of the recent violence in Northern Ireland. This connection is briefly described in the Epilogue. It also dispels many myths and lies put out by the British regarding Ireland's involvement in WW1, and consequently it becomes somewhat controversial in its scope. There is action of some sort on every page, and it never lets up. It could be described as an anti- war book and, with some vivid descriptions of W.W.I battles, an illustration of man's inhumanity to his fellow man. It reflects the confusion of a man whose close friends, that he had fought beside a few months previously, were now his worse enemies, and whose loyalties were so confused by these circumstances that he could no longer discern the difference between right and wrong. There are many stories within this book, all dealing with various periods of this man's life through a very turbulent and violent era. The debacle and insanity of Anglo- Irish politics is simply described, and the reasons for the hero's decisions is explained and justified on his terms. However, in spite of a series of violent and disappointing events, the story's ending has a pleasant and upbeat tone.

Experience the American Civil War through the eyes of Robert Patrick, a Union soldier who served on the front lines throughout the conflict. This gripping diary provides an intimate window into the lives of the men who fought and died in one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. From the blood-soaked battlefields of Gettysburg to the squalid prison camps of the South, this is a story of courage, sacrifice, and endurance. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.