Martin Van Buren, Andrew Jackson's right-hand man, was a master of political intrigue who let nothing block his one unwavering ambition - the Presidency. But sometimes he was too smart for his own good.

Presents Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), the eighth president of the United States. Notes biographical details provided by the Department of Politics and Government at Ripon College. Includes information about his political career and his life after the presidency.

"This book portrays the life of Martin Van Buren, an active architect of the Democratic Party and eighth president of the American republic, who still remains in the public mind as an obscure, if not forgotten, figure of our history. It depicts his rise to legal then political prominence. Van Buren's long-winding road to the White House was marked by the creation of his "Albany Regency", a well-disciplined political machine that he effectively managed through the so-called spoils system and adroitly used to his own political advantage." "Blessed with sound political acumen but despised for his constant political maneuvering, he was known as "the Little Magician" by his friends and enemies alike, with different motives. As president, Van Buren was beset with the Panic of 1837, a strong economic recession resulting mostly from his predecessor's wrong choices, but for which he paid a strong political price."--BOOK JACKET.

Illustrated children's book, about a young magician and dealing with bullies.

Lev Grossman’s new novel THE BRIGHT SWORD will be on sale July 2024 The stunning #1 New York Times bestselling conclusion to the Magicians trilogy A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS • The San Francisco Chronicle • Salon • The Christian Science Monitor • AV Club • Buzzfeed • Kirkus • NY 1 • Bustle • The Globe and Mail Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him. Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. But all roads lead back to Fillory, and his new life takes him to old haunts, like Antarctica, and to buried secrets and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers the key to a sorcery masterwork, a spell that could create magical utopia, a new Fillory—but casting it will set in motion a chain of events that will bring Earth and Fillory crashing together. To save them he will have to risk sacrificing everything. The Magician’s Land is an intricate thriller, a fantastical epic, and an epic of love and redemption that brings the Magicians trilogy to a magnificent conclusion, confirming it as one of the great achievements in modern fantasy. It’s the story of a boy becoming a man, an apprentice becoming a master, and a broken land finally becoming whole.

Lev Grossman’s new novel THE BRIGHT SWORD will be on sale July 2024 Return to Fillory in the riveting sequel to the New York Times bestseller and literary phenomenon, The Magicians, now an original series on SYFY, from the author of the #1 bestselling The Magician’s Land. Quentin Coldwater should be happy. He escaped a miserable Brooklyn childhood, matriculated at a secret college for magic, and graduated to discover that Fillory—a fictional utopia—was actually real. But even as a Fillorian king, Quentin finds little peace. His old restlessness returns, and he longs for the thrills a heroic quest can bring. Accompanied by his oldest friend, Julia, Quentin sets off—only to somehow wind up back in the real world and not in Fillory, as they’d hoped. As the pair struggle to find their way back to their lost kingdom, Quentin is forced to rely on Julia’s illicitly learned sorcery as they face a sinister threat in a world very far from the beloved fantasy novels of their youth.

The story of Andrew Jackson's improbable ascent to the White House, centered on the handlers and propagandists who made it possible Andrew Jackson was volatile and prone to violence, and well into his forties his sole claim on the public's affections derived from his victory in a thirty-minute battle at New Orleans in early 1815. Yet those in his immediate circle believed he was a great man who should be president of the United States. Jackson's election in 1828 is usually viewed as a result of the expansion of democracy. Historians David and Jeanne Heidler argue that he actually owed his victory to his closest supporters, who wrote hagiographies of him, founded newspapers to savage his enemies, and built a political network that was always on message. In transforming a difficult man into a paragon of republican virtue, the Jacksonites exploded the old order and created a mode of electioneering that has been mimicked ever since.