New Releases by Paul Johnson

THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Gripping and horrifying... witty and brilliant. Buy it' The Times 'A treasure trove of killer facts' Guardian 'Read it, absorb it, and understand how the country works' Laura Kuenssberg Paul Johnson and the enormously respected Institute for Fiscal Studies aim to hold Government to account - without which politicians will get away with their half-truths, elisions and dubious claims. This is a forensic examination - by the man best placed to do so - of the way the state raises and spends £1 trillion of our money every year. To follow the money. To provide an explanation, of where that money comes from and where it goes to, how that has changed and how it needs to change. 'This book is the antidote to naivety that our political class needs. Anyone, in fact, who has strong views about how society should be run would benefit from reading it, because every political ambition costs money and as Johnson writes, "someone has to pay for all this"... The story he tells may leave you reeling... Johnson's buoyant yet acerbic style will keep you engaged. The sobering realities he lays out are peppered with entertaining asides' Book of the Week, Sunday Times

Roger Murray (1911–1998) was a crucial figure in the history of value investing. A financial professional, economist, adviser to members of Congress, and educator, Murray was the successor to the legendary Benjamin Graham as professor of the securities analysis course at Columbia Business School. There, he mentored generations of students, including Mario Gabelli, Charles Royce, Leon G. Cooperman, and Art Samberg. This book offers a compelling account of Murray’s multifaceted career alongside a series of remarkable lectures he gave late in his life that encapsulated his philosophy of investing. The investing professionals and educators Paul Johnson and Paul D. Sonkin chronicle Murray’s life and accomplishments, capturing his professional triumphs, theoretical insights, and lasting legacy. They highlight Murray’s educational philosophy and mentorship, including personal recollections from his students about his teaching and influence. The Enduring Value of Roger Murray features the transcripts of four lectures Murray gave in 1993, hosted by Gabelli, which became legendary in the investing community. These lectures inspired Bruce Greenwald to ask Murray to co-teach a security analysis course, leading to the resurrection of value investing education at Columbia Business School, which had waned after Murray’s retirement in 1977. Annotated by Johnson and Sonkin, these lectures are now available to a wide audience for the first time. They will be illuminating and instructive for all value investing students and practitioners today.

Start building fast and robust applications with the power of Rust by your side About This Book Get started with the language to build scalable and high performance applications This book will help C#/C++ developers gain better performance and memory management Discover the power of Rust when developing concurrent applications for large and scalable software Who This Book Is For The book is for absolute beginners to Rust, who want to build high performance, concurrent applications for their projects. It is suitable for developers who have a basic knowledge of programming and developers who are using the C#/C++ language to write their applications. No knowledge of Rust is expected. What You Will Learn Set up Rust for Windows, Linux, and OS X Write effective code using Rust Expand your Rust applications using libraries Interface existing non-Rust libraries with your Rust applications Use the standard library within your applications Understand memory management within Rust and speed efficiency when passing variables Create more complex data types Study concurrency in Rust with multi-threaded applications and sync threading techniques to improve the performance of an application problem In Detail Rust is a highly concurrent and high performance language that focuses on safety and speed, memory management, and writing clean code. It also guarantees thread safety, and its aim is to improve the performance of existing applications. Its potential is shown by the fact that it has been backed by Mozilla to solve the critical problem of concurrency. Learning Rust will teach you to build concurrent, fast, and robust applications. From learning the basic syntax to writing complex functions, this book will is your one stop guide to get up to speed with the fundamentals of Rust programming. We will cover the essentials of the language, including variables, procedures, output, compiling, installing, and memory handling. You will learn how to write object-oriented code, work with generics, conduct pattern matching, and build macros. You will get to know how to communicate with users and other services, as well as getting to grips with generics, scoping, and more advanced conditions. You will also discover how to extend the compilation unit in Rust. By the end of this book, you will be able to create a complex application in Rust to move forward with. Style and approach This comprehensive book will focus on the Rust syntax, functions, data types, and conducting pattern matching for programmers. It is divided into three parts and each part of the book has an objective to enable the readers to create their own applications at an appropriate level, ultimately towards creating complex applications.

Learn the overlooked skill that is essential to Wall Street success Pitch the Perfect Investment combines investment analysis with persuasion and sales to teach you the "soft skill" so crucial to success in the financial markets. Written by the leading authorities in investment pitching, this book shows you how to develop and exploit the essential, career-advancing skill of pitching value-creating ideas to win over clients and investors. You'll gain world-class insight into search strategy, data collection and research, securities analysis, and risk assessment and management to help you uncover the perfect opportunity; you'll then strengthen your critical thinking skills and draw on psychology, argumentation, and informal logic to craft the perfect pitch to showcase your perfect idea. The ability to effectively pitch an investment is essential to securing a job on Wall Street, where it immediately becomes a fundamental part of day-to-day business. This book gives you in-depth training along with access to complete online ancillaries and case studies so you can master the little skill that makes a big difference. It doesn't matter how great your investment ideas are if you can't convince anyone to actually invest. Ideas must come to fruition to be truly great, and this book gives you the tools and understanding you need to get it done. Persuade potential investors, clients, executives, and employers Source, analyze, value, and pitch your ideas for stocks and acquisitions Get hired, make money, expand your company, and win business Craft the perfect investment into the perfect pitch Money managers, analysts, bankers, executives, salespeople, students, and individual investors alike stand to gain massively by employing the techniques discussed here. If you're serious about success and ready to start moving up, Pitch the Perfect Investment shows you how to make it happen.

Since its inception, the European Convention on Human Rights has been a beacon of hope to gay men and lesbians in Europe. Going to Strasbourg: An Oral History of Sexual Orientation Discrimination and the European Convention on Human Rights provides a comprehensive account of how individuals in the United Kingdom have utilized the Convention, by way of making applications to its organs in Strasbourg in order to challenge sexual orientation discrimination. Combining an exhaustive analysis of Strasbourg case law with nineteen unique oral histories of applicants, legal professionals, and campaigners, this book is the definitive history of the role that 'going to Strasbourg' has played in eradicating discrimination and establishing legal equality on the grounds of sexual orientation in the UK.

Edgar Cayce, widely acclaimed clairvoyant and forerunner of the holistic health movement, is revealed here as a pivotal figure in the transition from the esoteric and metaphysical movements of the late nineteenth century to the New Age movement.This book describes and evaluates his psychic "readings," more than 14,000 trance discourses that address medical, theological, historical, and psychological concerns raised by thousands of inquirers. The author evaluates evidence for and against Cayce's reliability in the subject areas emphasized by the readings. Cayce's medical and psychological advice is shown to be well ahead of his time in many respects, and his spiritual teachings are appraised as a reconciliation of Protestant mysticism with New Thought and Theosophy. Although the medical readings provide intriguing evidence for Cayce's ESP, his clairvoyant time travel illustrates the fallibility of information derived through hypnotic trance. The author contends that the contents of the readings reflect the knowledge and interests of their recipients as much as Cayce's personal opinions and beliefs. This is the first book to focus solely on appraising the entire body of the Cayce readings from a scholarly perspective.

“Most satisfying . . . A highly accessible initial foray into an astonishing, and inexhaustible, subject.” —The Cleveland Plain Dealer Mozart’s music has enthralled listeners for centuries. In this brilliant biography, acclaimed historian Paul Johnson draws upon his expert knowledge of the era and Mozart’s own private letters to conjure Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s life and times in rich detail. Johnson charts Mozart’s life from age three through to his later years—when he penned The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni. Along the way, Johnson challenges some of the popular myths that cloud Mozart’s image: his allegedly tempestuous personal relationships and supposedly bitter rivalry with Salieri, as well as the notion that he was desperately impoverished when he died. The result—a bold, invigorating portrait of one of the most popular and influential composers of all time—is a welcome addition to Johnson’s extraordinary body of work and makes a perfect gift for classical music lovers and fans of biographies.

Acclaimed historian Paul Johnson’s lively, succinct biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower explores how his legacy endures today In the rousing style he’s famous for, celebrated biographer Paul Johnson offers a fascinating portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower, focusing particularly on his years as a five-star general and his time as the thirty-fourth President of the United States. Johnson chronicles President Eisenhower's modest childhood in Kansas, his college years at West Point, and his rapid ascent through the military ranks, culminating in his appointment as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II. Beginning when Eisenhower assumed the presidency from Harry Truman in 1952, Johnson paints a rich portrait of his two consecutive terms, exploring his volatile relationship with then-Vice President Richard Nixon, his abhorrence of isolationism, and his position on the Cold War, McCarthyism, and the Civil Rights Movement. Johnson notes that when Eisenhower left the White House at age 70, reluctantly passing the torch to President-elect John F. Kennedy, he feared for the country’s future and prophetically warned of the looming military-industrial complex. Many elements of Eisenhower’s presidency speak to American politics today, including his ability to balance the budget and skill in managing an oppositional Congress. This brief yet comprehensive study will appeal to biography lovers as well as to enthusiasts of presidential history and military history alike.

Paul Johnson examines whether intellectuals are morally fit to give advice to humanity. Do the private practices of intellectuals match the standard of their public principles? How great is their respect for truth? What is their attitude to money? How do they treat their spouses and children - legitimate and illegitimate? How loyal are they to their friends? Rousseau, Shelley, Marx, Ibsen, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Bertrand Russell, Brecht, Sartre, Edmund Wilson, Victor Gollancz, Lillian Hellman, Cyril Connolly, Norman Mailer, Kenneth Tynan and many others are put under the spotlight. With wit and brilliance, Paul Johnson exposes these intellectuals, and questions whether ideas should ever be valued more than individuals.

First published in 1976, Paul Johnson’s exceptional study of Christianity has been loved and widely hailed for its intensive research, writing, and magnitude—“a tour de force, one of the most ambitious surveys of the history of Christianity ever attempted and perhaps the most radical” (New York Review of Books). In a highly readable companion to books on faith and history, the scholar and author Johnson has illuminated the Christian world and its fascinating history in a way that no other has. Johnson takes off in the year AD 49 with his namesake the apostle Paul. Thus beginning an ambitious quest to paint the centuries since the founding of a little-known ‘Jesus Sect’, A History of Christianity explores to a great degree the evolution of the Western world. With an unbiased and overall optimistic tone, Johnson traces the fantastic scope of the consequent sects of Christianity and the people who followed them. Information drawn from extensive and varied sources from around the world makes this history as credible as it is reliable. Invaluable understanding of the framework of modern Christianity—and its trials and tribulations throughout history—has never before been contained in such a captivating work.

A leading historian and bestselling author re-creates the growth, decline, and legacy of 3,000 Years of Egyptian civilization with an authoritative text splendidly illustrated with 150 illustrations in full color. Ancient Egypt, with its legacy of pyramids, pharaohs and sphinxes, is a land of power and mystery to the modern world. In The Civilization of Ancient Egypt Paul Johnson explores the growth and decline of a culture that survived for 3,000 years and maintained a purity of style that rivals all others. Johnson's study looks in detail at the state, religion, culture and geographical setting and how they combined in this unusually enduring civilization. From the beginning of Egyptian culture to the rediscovery of the pharaohs, the book covers the totalitarian theocracy, the empire of the Nile, the structure of dynastic Egypt, the dynastic way of death, hieroglyphs, the anatomy of perspective art and, finally, the decline and fall of the pharaohs, Johnson seeks, through an exciting combination of images and analysis, to discover the causes behind the collapse of this, great civilization while celebrating the extra-ordinary legacy it has left behind. Paul Johnson on Ancient Egypt and the Egyptians "Egypt was not only the first state, it was the first country.... The durability of the state which thus evolved was ensured by the overwhelming simplicity and power of its central institution, the theocratic monarchy." "The Egyptians did not share the Babylonian passion for astrology, but they used the stars as one of many guides to behavior. No Egyptian believed in a free exercise of will in important decisions: he always looked for an omen or a prophecy or an oracle." "The development of hieroglyphics mirrors and epitomizes the history of Egyptian civilization. . . . No one outside Egypt understood it and even within Egypt it was the exclusive working tool of the ruling and priestly classes. The great mass of Egyptians were condemned to illiteracy by the complexities (and also the beauties) of the Egyptian written language." "The affection the Egyptians were not. ashamed to display towards their children was related to the high status women enjoyed in Egyptian society." "If we can understand Egyptian art we can go a long way towards grasping the very spirit and outlook on life, of this gifted people, so remote in time. The dynamic of their civilization seems to have been a passionate love of order (maat to them), by which they sought to give to human activities and creations the same regularity as their landscape, their great river, their sun-cycle and their immutable seasons."

A unique cookbook and guide to healthful, eco-friendly seafood Few people know more about fish than Paul Johnson, whose Monterey Fish Market in San Francisco supplies seafood to some of the nation's most celebrated chefs, from Alice Waters, Thomas Keller, and Michael Mina to Todd English, Daniel Boulud, and Alain Ducasse. In Fish Forever, Johnson offers a cookbook for anyone who loves fish, but worries about overfishing, contaminants like mercury, and other serious health and ecological issues. Fish Forever reveals which species of fish you should and shouldn't eat, based on how endangered, contaminated, and tasty they are. Plus, Johnson includes amazing recipes from around the world that take advantage of those most abundant and delicious types of fish. Provides in-depth guidance on 70 fish species along with 96 international recipes that highlight the outstanding culinary qualities of the fish used Includes more than 60 beautiful color photographs, as well as plenty of cooking tips and helpful sidebars Winner of the coveted IACP Cookbook of the Year award Fish Forever is a must-have kitchen resource for seafood lovers—and Earth lovers—everywhere.

A brilliant portrait of the Greek philosopher who personified philosophy. Socrates was undeniably one of the greatest thinkers of all time, yet he wrote nothing. Throughout his life, and indeed until his very last moment alive, Socrates fully embodied his philosophy in thought and deed. It is through the story of his life that we can fully grasp his powerful actions and ideas. In his highly acclaimed style, historian Paul Johnson masterfully disentangles centuries of scarce sources to offer a riveting account of a homely but charismatic middle-class man living in Athens in the fifth century b.c., and how what this man thought still shapes the way we decide how to act, and how we fathom the notion of body and soul. Johnson provides a compelling picture of the city and people Socrates reciprocally delighted in, as well as many enlightening and intimate analyses of specific aspects of his personality. Enchantingly portraying "the sheer power of Socrates's mind, and its unique combination of steel, subtlety, and frivolity," Paul Johnson captures the vast and intriguing life of a man who did nothing less than supply the basic apparatus of the human mind.

Presents portraits of seventy-five fish and shellfish, describes equipment, cleaning and cutting techniques, and cooking methods, and offers one hundred fifty recipes.

In these masterful essays drawn from his New York Times bestsellers A History of the American People and Heroes, one of the world''s most renowned and respected historians explores what is arguably the most important chapter in the annals of America: the Civil War. Enlivened with the author''s trademark scholarship, verve, and intelligence, this vivid, concise history revisits the conflict that tore a nation asunder and provides portraits of the people who played essential roles in the bloody drama. Johnson''s Civil War America examines the factors that led to the devastating rift in the years before the fighting—and recounts the troubled healing a wounded nation underwent in the years after the final shot was fired.

From the “most celebrated and best-loved British historian in America” (Wall Street Journal), an elegant, concise, and revealing portrait of Winston Churchill In Churchill, eminent historian Paul Johnson offers a lively, succinct exploration of one of the most complex and fascinating personalities in history. Winston Churchill's hold on contemporary readers has never slackened, and Johnson’s analysis casts new light on his extraordinary life and times. Johnson illuminates the various phases of Churchill's career—from his adventures as a young cavalry officer in the service of the empire to his role as an elder statesman prophesying the advent of the Cold War—and shows how Churchill's immense adaptability and innate pugnacity made him a formidable leader for the better part of a century. Johnson's narration of Churchill's many triumphs and setbacks, rich with anecdote and quotation, illustrates the man's humor, resilience, courage, and eccentricity as no other biography before, and is sure to appeal to historians and general nonfiction readers alike.

“Johnson emphasizes the rarity of truly visionary artists . . . his approach is unfailingly generous. . . . Genuinely revealing.” —Publishers Weekly From celebrated journalist and historian Paul Johnson, an enlightening look at the imagination and drive of visionaries who have changed our world. Paul Johnson believes that creation is a mysterious business which cannot be satisfactorily analyzed. But it can be illustrated in such a way as to bring out its salient characteristics. In this companion to his New York Times bestseller, Intellectuals, he profiles outstanding and prolific creative spirits from a variety of artistic pursuits. Here are essays on such giants as Chaucer and Shakespeare, Mark Twain and T. S. Eliot, Jane Austen and George Eliot; artists such as Dürer, Turner, and the contemporary Japanese master Hokusai; architects Pugin and Viollet-le-Duc; Johann Sebastian Bach; Louis Comfort Tiffany; clothing designers Balenciaga and Dior; and masters of the 20th century, Picasso and Disney.

Paul Johnson, bestselling author of Intellectuals and Creators, turns his attention to heroic figures throughout Western history. Heroes features biographical essays on such notable individuals as Julius Caesar, Henry V, Joan of Arc, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth Tudor, George Washington, General Custer, Robert E. Lee, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher. Johnson’s aim throughout this entertaining and enlightening work is not to give particular emphasis to gender, class or occupation, but rather to demonstrate that heroic behavior is to be found everywhere. Paul Johnson has written many books, including Intellectuals, George Washington, Modern Times, and Art: A New History. He contributes a weekly essay to the Spectator and a monthly column to Forbes. He lives in London, England, and lectures all over the world. “It is Johnson’s gift that he can make his subjects human and fallible enough that we would, indeed, recognize them instantly, while also illuminating what made them heroes.” — Washington Post Book World

You spoke and Wadsworth, a part of Cengage Learning listened. This Compact Version is part of the Cengage Advantage Books, which offers our Comprehensive texts in a lower-cost format. This black and white version of LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER includes eight 4-page color map inserts to bring the regions to life. While the compact version includes fewer photos than the Comprehensive version, it offers plenty of resources to make the course visual and exciting for students. In addition, students will have access to the Book Companion Website that offers quizzing, interactive maps, interactive timelines, and simulations. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

You spoke and Wadsworth, a part of Cengage Learning listened. This Compact Version is part of the Cengage Advantage Books, which offers our Comprehensive texts in a lower-cost format. This black and white version of LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER includes eight 4-page color map inserts to bring the regions to life. While the compact version includes fewer photos than the Comprehensive version, it offers plenty of resources to make the course visual and exciting for students. In addition, students will have access to the Book Companion Website that offers quizzing, interactive maps, interactive timelines, and simulations. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

Heterosexuality is a largely ‘silent’ set of practices and identities – it is assumed to be everywhere and yet often remains unnamed and unexplored. Despite recent changes in the theoretical understanding and representation of sexuality, heterosexuality continues to be socially normative. Forging a new agenda for the study of heterosexuality, this in-depth volume, the first research monograph to focus on heterosexuality and society, presents an empirical study of the construction, negotiation and enactment of heterosexual sexuality. Using detailed interview data, it investigates how heterosexuality, as both an identity and a set of practices, is accomplished through love relationships. Rather than assuming that romantic love is an outcome or expression of a pre-defined sexuality, Johnson explores how sexuality is brought to life through love. Situated in the ongoing theoretical debates concerning the relationship between gender and sexuality, Paul Johnson’s book shows how ways of loving are interwoven with the construction, practice, regulation and government of heterosexuality. Excellently written, this important book also looks at gender in society, and explores such areas as heterosexual subjectivities and the borders of desire. As such, the research it contains will be valuable for all students of sociology and gender studies.

A highly respected, balanced, and thoroughly modern approach to US History, LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER, uses these three themes in a unique approach to show how the United States was transformed, in a relatively short time, from a land inhabited by hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth. This approach helps students understand not only the impact of the notions of liberty and equality, which are often associated with the American story, but also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. The text integrates the best of recent social and cultural scholarship into a political story, offering students the most comprehensive and complete understanding of American history available. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER is available in the following volume splits: Comprehensive (Chapters 1-32): 0-495-10540-6; Volume I: to 1877 (Chapters 1-17): 0-495-11606-8; Volume II: Since 1863 (Chapters 17-32): 0-495-11607-6. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

A highly respected, balanced, and thoroughly modern approach to US History, LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER, uses these three themes in a unique approach to show how the United States was transformed, in a relatively short time, from a land inhabited by hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native American societies into the most powerful industrial nation on earth. This approach helps students understand not only the impact of the notions of liberty and equality, which are often associated with the American story, but also how dominant and subordinate groups have affected and been affected by the ever-shifting balance of power. The text integrates the best of recent social and cultural scholarship into a political story, offering students the most comprehensive and complete understanding of American history available. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, POWER is available in the following volume splits: Comprehensive (Chapters 1-32): 0-495-10540-6; Volume I: to 1877 (Chapters 1-17): 0-495-11606-8; Volume II: Since 1863 (Chapters 17-32): 0-495-11607-6. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

From New York Times bestselling author Paul Johnson, “a very readable and entertaining biography” (The Washington Post) about one of the most important figures in modern European history: Napoleon Bonaparte In an ideal pairing of author and subject, the magisterial historian Paul Johnson offers a vivid look at the life of the strategist, general, and dictator who conquered much of Europe. Following Napoleon from the barren island of Corsica to his early training in Paris, from his meteoric victories and military dictatorship to his exile and death, Johnson examines the origins of his ferocious ambition. In Napoleon's quest for power, Johnson sees a realist unfettered by patriotism or ideology. And he recognizes Bonaparte’s violent legacy in the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century. Napoleon is a magnificent work that bears witness to one individual's ability to work his will on history.

Writing your own book can be a magical experience, one that takes the sting out of writing challenges. This fun-filled book offers over 100 new ideas for book-making projects that will inspire any student. From writing a fairy tale on pages shaped like a castle to creating a pop-up card for a family member to building a puzzle book filled with games and stories, this book provides something for every student.The book includes step-by-step instructions for planning, drafting, and construction, and book forms and folding guides for each project. Get Writing! provides unique opportunities for developing important writing and numeracy skills that link to all areas of the curriculum and give students a new confidence and pride in their written work.

The classic world history of the events, ideas, and personalities of the twentieth century.

History and economic background - Literature and scholarship - Renaissance sculpture - Architecture - Apostolic successions of Renaissance painting - Spread and decline of the Renaissancenc_____________

Robert Johnson's Thirteen Moons is an engaging and humorous chronicle of a year the author spent living in a tipi in the rugged wilderness of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern California from May 1984 through May 1985. Styled chronologically like a journal, his narrative account, spiced with levity and an easy-going, self-deprecating manner, is filled with high adventure, philosophical musing, encounters with eccentric goldminers, marijuana growers, a dog named Bob, obsessed fishermen, an FBI hippie, and an extremely large rattlesnake, as well as vivid descriptions of the natural history of the region.Like Kerouac's Dharma Bums, Abbey's Desert Solitaire, and Thoreau's Walden, Johnson's odyssey combines a love for nature and solitude with a commitment to understanding his place in the world: I removed the last of my possessions -- my snowshoes, mask, and snorkel, my pancake griddle and vegetable seeds, my gold pan and bow saw and books on Zen and Plato, my manual typewriter and fishing pole...and stuffed them into my bulging backpack...Not only would it be my first attempt at dragging my tipi poles down the three miles of arduous, switch-backing trail, but it would be my official move-in date -- Day One of my proposed year in the wilderness.A poignant and spiritual quest by a young man testing himself in the wilderness, putting his faith in providence, and managing the revelations of self-knowledge and survival with down-to-earth pluck and skill.

"The creation of the United States of America is the greatest of all human adventures," begins Paul Johnson's remarkable new American history. "No other national story holds such tremendous lessons, for the American people themselves and for the rest of mankind." Johnson's history is a reinterpretation of American history from the first settlements to the Clinton administration. It covers every aspect of U.S. history--politics; business and economics; art, literature and science; society and customs; complex traditions and religious beliefs. The story is told in terms of the men and women who shaped and led the nation and the ordinary people who collectively created its unique character. Wherever possible, letters, diaries, and recorded conversations are used to ensure a sense of actuality. "The book has new and often trenchant things to say about every aspect and period of America's past," says Johnson, "and I do not seek, as some historians do, to conceal my opinions." Johnson's history presents John Winthrop, Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, Cotton Mather, Franklin, Tom Paine, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison from a fresh perspective. It emphasizes the role of religion in American history and how early America was linked to England's history and culture and includes incisive portraits of Andrew Jackson, Chief Justice Marshall, Clay, Lincoln, and Jefferson Davis. Johnson shows how Grover Cleveland and Teddy Roosevelt ushered in the age of big business and industry and how Woodrow Wilson revolutionized the government's role. He offers new views of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover and of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and his role as commander in chief during World War II. An examination of the unforeseen greatness of Harry Truman and reassessments of Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and Bush follow. "Compulsively readable," said Foreign Affairs of Johnson's unique narrative skills and sharp profiles of people. This is an in-depth portrait of a great people, from their fragile origins through their struggles for independence and nationhood, their heroic efforts and sacrifices to deal with the `organic sin' of slavery and the preservation of the Union to its explosive economic growth and emergence as a world power and its sole superpower. Johnson discusses such contemporary topics as the politics of racism, education, Vietnam, the power of the press, political correctness, the growth of litigation, and the rising influence of women. He sees Americans as a problem-solving people and the story of America as "essentially one of difficulties being overcome by intelligence and skill, by faith and strength of purpose, by courage and persistence...Looking back on its past, and forward to its future, the auguries are that it will not disappoint humanity." This challenging narrative and interpretation of American history by the author of many distinguished historical works is sometimes controversial and always provocative. Johnson's views of individuals, events, themes, and issues are original, critical, and admiring, for he is, above all, a strong believer in the history and the destiny of the American people.