This book explains that our history is a collective embodiment of our endeavors through the life span. It illustrates that our reason for living was planned before we came into existence. We are not in the world per chance. The book further incorporates what or who can influence our pathway whether for the better or for the worst. As you read through it, you will learn the importance of being in awareness. Family, family curses, friends, and colleagues can negate your success.

The New York Times bestseller A New York Times Notable and Critics’ Top Book of 2016 Longlisted for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction One of NPR's 10 Best Books Of 2016 Faced Tough Topics Head On NPR's Book Concierge Guide To 2016’s Great Reads San Francisco Chronicle's Best of 2016: 100 recommended books A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2016 Globe & Mail 100 Best of 2016 “Formidable and truth-dealing . . . necessary.” —The New York Times “This eye-opening investigation into our country’s entrenched social hierarchy is acutely relevant.” —O Magazine In her groundbreaking bestselling history of the class system in America, Nancy Isenberg upends history as we know it by taking on our comforting myths about equality and uncovering the crucial legacy of the ever-present, always embarrassing—if occasionally entertaining—poor white trash. “When you turn an election into a three-ring circus, there’s always a chance that the dancing bear will win,” says Isenberg of the political climate surrounding Sarah Palin. And we recognize how right she is today. Yet the voters who boosted Trump all the way to the White House have been a permanent part of our American fabric, argues Isenberg. The wretched and landless poor have existed from the time of the earliest British colonial settlement to today's hillbillies. They were alternately known as “waste people,” “offals,” “rubbish,” “lazy lubbers,” and “crackers.” By the 1850s, the downtrodden included so-called “clay eaters” and “sandhillers,” known for prematurely aged children distinguished by their yellowish skin, ragged clothing, and listless minds. Surveying political rhetoric and policy, popular literature and scientific theories over four hundred years, Isenberg upends assumptions about America’s supposedly class-free society––where liberty and hard work were meant to ensure real social mobility. Poor whites were central to the rise of the Republican Party in the early nineteenth century, and the Civil War itself was fought over class issues nearly as much as it was fought over slavery. Reconstruction pitted poor white trash against newly freed slaves, which factored in the rise of eugenics–-a widely popular movement embraced by Theodore Roosevelt that targeted poor whites for sterilization. These poor were at the heart of New Deal reforms and LBJ’s Great Society; they haunt us in reality TV shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty. Marginalized as a class, white trash have always been at or near the center of major political debates over the character of the American identity. We acknowledge racial injustice as an ugly stain on our nation’s history. With Isenberg’s landmark book, we will have to face the truth about the enduring, malevolent nature of class as well.

In this 2nd Edition, John Blundell gives a lively portrait of more than 25 American women who spoke out for liberty, helping to shape the political and social fabric of the United States. His subjects range from frontier novelists to suffragists to the inventor of life insurance for women and a tax collector who challenged the IRS. Arranged chronologically, the stories add up to a history of America. Responses to the first edition were so positive that the author has added five more of the best stories in US Women's History, namely Anne Hutchinson, Clara Barton, Alice Paul, Rosa Parks, and Mildred Loving. 'Ladies for Liberty' combats the myth that women want, and benefit from, big government. In this new, expanded edition of biographies of American women, John Blundell shares further evidence that the spirit of independence has always been a strong impetus for America's leading ladies. He shows that the underlying motivation of the women portrayed in these pages was self-determination as a virtue, and the conviction that individuals should be allowed to pursue their own ends, free from the coercion of others. His selection focuses on women of Conservative/ Libertarian views, whether they were active in politics, business owners, writers or other cultural figures. Black as well as white, these women were revolutionary, some directly influencing the colonial breakaway from great Britain, some fighting for Abolition, others breaking new ground professionally. Each one not only made women's voices heard but made it clear that women have something to say that is both valid and valuable. This book is intended for American and British readers alike, high school and above, and all who are interested in American history, Conservative/ Libertarian politics, or Women's Studies.

Some Stories Just Can’t Be Stopped . . . What Difference Do It Make? continues the hard-to-believe story of hope and reconciliation that began with the New York Times bestseller, Same Kind of Different as Me. Ron Hall and Denver Moore, unlikely friends and even unlikelier coauthors—a wealthy fine-art dealer and an illiterate homeless African American—share the hard-to-stop story of how a remarkable woman’s love brought them together. Now, in What Difference Do It Make? Ron and Denver along with Lynn Vincent offer: more of the story—with untold anecdotes, especially Ron’s struggle with his difficult father and Denver’s dramatic stint in Angola prison the rest of the story—how Same Kind of Different as Me came to be written and changed the lives of its authors the ongoing story—true tales of hope from people whose lives have been changed by Ron and Denver’s story and how they make a difference in their worlds your part in the story—wise, practical, and hard-lived guidance for how you can make a difference to those in need plus intriguing extras—including full-page color samples of Denver’s paintings Deeply moving but never sappy or sentimental, What Difference Do It Make? answers its own question with a simple and emphatic answer. What difference can one person (or two) make in the world? A lot!

This adaptation of "Outlive Your Life" for teens offers practical tips youth can take out into their community to make a difference, plus real-life stories about those who have done just that.

A look at how to teach history in the age of easily accessible—but not always reliable—information. Let’s start with two truths about our era that are so inescapable as to have become clichés: We are surrounded by more readily available information than ever before. And a huge percent of it is inaccurate. Some of the bad info is well-meaning but ignorant. Some of it is deliberately deceptive. All of it is pernicious. With the Internet at our fingertips, what’s a teacher of history to do? In Why Learn History (When It’s Already on Your Phone), professor Sam Wineburg has the answers, beginning with this: We can’t stick to the same old read-the-chapter-answer-the-question snoozefest. If we want to educate citizens who can separate fact from fake, we have to equip them with new tools. Historical thinking, Wineburg shows, has nothing to do with the ability to memorize facts. Instead, it’s an orientation to the world that cultivates reasoned skepticism and counters our tendency to confirm our biases. Wineburg lays out a mine-filled landscape, but one that with care, attention, and awareness, we can learn to navigate. The future of the past may rest on our screens. But its fate rests in our hands. Praise for Why Learn History (When It’s Already on Your Phone) “If every K-12 teacher of history and social studies read just three chapters of this book—”Crazy for History,” “Changing History . . . One Classroom at a Time,” and “Why Google Can’t Save Us” —the ensuing transformation of our populace would save our democracy.” —James W. Lowen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me and Teaching What Really Happened “A sobering and urgent report from the leading expert on how American history is taught in the nation’s schools. . . . A bracing, edifying, and vital book.” —Jill Lepore, New Yorker staff writer and author of These Truths “Wineburg is a true innovator who has thought more deeply about the relevance of history to the Internet—and vice versa—than any other scholar I know. Anyone interested in the uses and abuses of history today has a duty to read this book.” —Niall Ferguson, senior fellow, Hoover Institution, and author of The Ascent of Money and Civilization