by Manucher Farmanfarmaian and Roxanne Farmanfarmaian (2005)
Born into Iran's most powerful aristocratic family - so feared by Khomeini that the entire clan was blacklisted - Prince Manucher was raised in a vast harem with his thirty-five brothers and sisters, one of whom married the head of Iran's communist party, while another, who was once foreign minister, lost his life to the upstart Shah's jealousy. Farmanfarmaian was the primary government negotiator with the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company until its convulsive nationalization by his cousin Mossedeq in 1951. Later, as a director of the National Iranian Oil Company, he pioneered - against the Shah's wishes - the partnership that resulted in OPEC. This is the first account by one of OPEC's original crafters of the politics and intrigue surrounding the international development of the oil industry. With the flair of a modern-day Arabian Nights, Blood and Oil brilliantly renders the tensions between the excesses of the ancien regime and Iran's increasingly reactionary religious establishment. Prince Manucher's close relationships with everyone from the last Shah to the teary-eyed Mossadeq allow him to provide a fresh portrait of the Pahlavi reign and the revolution that brought it down. But the real revelation in these pages is his new perspective on British oil imperialism, and its brutal effect on twentieth-century history.
E. Stanly Godbold, Jr., Robert H. Woody
"Drawing extensively upon Gadsden's writings and letters, Christopher Gadsden and the American Revolution ... recreates the ... life of South Carolina's foremost patriot during the American Revolution and illuminates further that major episode in American history. The book contains all the known details of Gadsden's personal life as well as a thorough analysis of his political and military careers"--Jacket.
James Lincoln Collier
Explores the childhood, character, and influential events that shaped the life of Alexander Hamilton, one of America's founding fathers.
Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni
This biography of Marcus Cato the Younger -- Rome's bravest statesman, an aristocratic soldier, a Stoic philosopher, and staunch defender of sacred Roman tradition -- is rich with resonances for current politics and contemporary notions of freedom.
Richard Gwyn
V.1: "The first volume of Richard Gwyn's definitive biography of John A. Macdonald follows his life from his birth in Scotland in 1815 to his emigration with his family to Kingston, Ontario, to his days as a young, rising lawyer, to his tragedy-ridden first marriage, to the birth of his political ambitions, to his commitment to the all-but-impossible challenge of achieving Confederation, to his presiding, with his second wife Agnes, over the first Canada Day of the new Dominion in 1867. Colourful, intensely human and with a full measure of human frailties, Macdonald was beyond question Canada's most important prime minister. This volume describes how Macdonald developed Canada's first true national political party, encompassing French and English and occupying the centre of the political spectrum. To perpetuate this party, Macdonald made systematic use of patronage to recruit talent and to bond supporters, a system of politics that continues to this day. Gwyn judges that Macdonald, if operating on a small stage, possessed political skills--of manipulation and deception as well as an extraordinary grasp of human nature--of the same calibre as the greats of his time, such as Disraeli and Lincoln. Confederation is the centerpiece here, and Gywn's commentary on Macdonald's pivotal role is original and provocative. But his most striking analysis is that the greatest accomplishment of nineteenth-century Canadians was not Confederation, but rather to decide not to become Americans. Macdonald saw Confederation as a means to an end, its purpose being to serve as a loud and clear demonstration of the existence of a national will to survive. The two threats Macdonald had to contend with were those of annexation by the United States, perhaps by force, perhaps by osmosis, and equally that Britain just might let that annexation happen to avoid a conflict with the continent's new and unbeatable power."--Publisher description. V.2: "John A. Macdonald, Canada's first and most important prime minister, is the man who made Confederation happen, who built this country over the next quarter century, and who shaped what it is today. From Confederation Day in 1867, where this volume picks up, Macdonald finessed a reluctant union of four provinces in central and eastern Canada into a strong nation, despite indifference from Britain and annexationist sentiment in the United States. But it wasn't easy. The wily Macdonald faced constant crises throughout these years, from Louis Riel's two rebellions through to the Pacific Scandal that almost undid his government and his quest to find the spine of the nation: the railroad that would link east to west. Gwyn paints a superb portrait of Canada and its leaders through these formative years and also delves deep to show us Macdonald the man, as he marries for the second time, deals with the birth of a disabled child, and the assassination of his close friend Darcy McGee, and wrestles with whether Riel should hang. Indelibly, Gwyn shows us Macdonald's love of this country and his ability to joust with forces who would have been just as happy to see the end of Canada before it had really begun, creating a must-read for all Canadians."--Publisher description.