did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

We're the #1 textbook rental company. Let us show you why.

9780195154177

Invisible Giants Fifty Americans Who Shaped the Nation but Missed the History Books

by
  • ISBN13:

    9780195154177

  • ISBN10:

    0195154177

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 2002-05-16
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • View Upgraded Edition
  • Purchase Benefits
List Price: $26.00

Summary

History records the accomplishments of individuals. For successive generations of Americans, iconic figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, and Emily Dickinson have been household names and role models, inspiring us all by the lessons their lives teach us. But some great Americans, just as worthy, never attain this recognition. Because history is as fallible as the people who record it, many of those who shaped the nation and its future have receded from public memory. In celebration of these lives-and to demonstrate the lasting power history's giants have over their successors-Oxford University Press recently asked fifty accomplished personalities from a diverse range of industries and interests to each select a person from the 24-volume American National Biography that they felt deserved more attention. The biographies of these forgotten figures appear alongside the often-personal comments of their selectors in Invisible Giants , a varied and lively collection of portraits celebrating history's forgotten and fading heroes. In Invisible Giants we discover the man who inspired Sherwin Nuland to become a doctor, the writer Jacques Barzun considers America's first cultural critic, and the woman who taught Tina Brown to bare her teeth. We learn of the poetry recited to Henry Louis Gates, Jr., as a boy, the magazine Helen Gurley Brown required every one of her editors to subscribe to, and the book Andy Rooney deems "better than the Bible and easier to understand." Whether encountering these figures for the first time or uncovering surprising details in the lives you thought you knew, today's public thinkers guide us on a journey into the deep folds of our rich biographical tapestry. Edited by Mark Carnes and published with the American Council of Learned Societies, Invisible Giants introduces one of the nation's most treasured resources-- The American National Biography --to a broad audience by presenting the architects of our country's past through the eyes of the architects of its future. Invisible Giants includes: James Agee (Sven Birkets) Jessie Daniel Ames (Alan Brinkley) Rodger Nash Baldwin (Richard Avedon) Béla Bartók (John Simon) Sterling Brown (Sharon Olds) John Jay Chapman (Jacques Barzun) John England (Andrew Greeley) Oliver Evans (Harold Evans) Dorothy Fields (David Lehman) Charles Grandison Finney (Edmund Morgan) Arthur Goldberg (Alan Dershowitz) Adolphus Washington Greely (Simon Winchester) Charles Tomlinson Griffes (Wayne Koestenbaum) William Halsted (Sherwin Nuland) Fannie Lou Hamer (Gloria Steinem) Handsome Lake (Wilma Mankiller) Herman Haupt (James McPherson) DuBois Heyward (Stephen Sondheim) Henry Hornbostel (Michael Graves) James Gibbons Huneker (Gary Giddins) Libbie Henrietta Hyman (Steven Jay Gould) Christopher Isherwood (Armistead Maupin) Walter Lippmann (Andy Rooney) Melvin Beaunorus Tolson (Rita Dove) Bronislava Nijinska (Joan Acocella) Albert Jay Nock (William F. Buckley, Jr.) Fairfield Porter (Hilton Kramer) Dawn Powell (Fran Lebowitz) Bayard Rustin (Evan Wolfson) Sequoyah (William Least Heat-Moon) James McCune Smith (Henry Louis Gates, Jr.) Joseph Smith (Harold Bloom) Ida B. Wells-Barnett (Tina Brown) Dewitt Wallace (Helen Gurley Brown)

Author Biography


Mark Carnes is Professor of History at Barnard College. In addition to his scholarly works and serving as co-editor of the American National Biography, he is the editor of numerous innovative books bringing together diverse groups of people to discuss history, including Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies and Novel History: Historians and Novelists Confront America's Past. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii
Mark C. Carnes
Johnny Ace
3(4)
Michael Eric Dyson
James Agee
7(5)
Sven Birkerts
Jessie Daniel Ames
12(4)
Alan Brinkley
Roger Nash Baldwin
16(7)
Richard Avedon
George Bancroft
23(9)
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
Bela Bartok
32(5)
John Simon
Sterling A. Brown
37(5)
Sharon Olds
A. P. Carter and Sara Carter
42(5)
Lee Smith
John Jay Chapman
47(5)
Jacques Barzun
Leon F. Czolgosz
52(5)
Mark C. Carnes
Robert Latou Dickinson
57(5)
David M. Kennedy
Dorothy Draper
62(5)
Katie Brown
Paul Laurence Dunbar
67(7)
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
John England
74(4)
Andrew Greeley
Oliver Evans
78(6)
Harold Evans
Dorothy Fields
84(5)
David Lehman
Charles Grandison Finney
89(7)
Edmund S. Morgan
Arthur J. Goldberg
96(5)
Alan M. Dershowitz
Emma Goldman
101(8)
Martin Duberman
Adolphus Washington Greely
109(5)
Simon Winchester
Nathanael Greene
114(6)
Terry Golway
Charles Tomlinson Griffes
120(4)
Wayne Koestenbaum
John Hoskins Griscom
124(4)
Mike Wallace
William Halsted
128(5)
Sherwin Nuland
Fannie Lou Hamer
133(4)
Gloria Steinem
Handsome Lake
137(5)
Wilma Mankiller
Herman Haupt
142(8)
James M. McPherson
DuBose Heyward
150(4)
Stephen Sondheim
Henry Hornsbostel
154(5)
Michael Graves
James Gibbons Huneker
159(6)
Gray Giddins
Blind Lemon Jefferson
165(5)
Elizabeth Swados
Murray Kempton
170(6)
Walter Shapiro
Walter Lippmann
176(12)
Andy Rooney
Malcolm X
188(7)
Ed Koch
Rocky Marciano
195(7)
Alfonse D'Amato
Adolf Meyer
202(7)
Andrew Solomon
Lindley Murray
209(5)
Bryan A. Garner
Bronislava Nijinska
214(7)
Joan Acocella
Albert Jay Nock
221(3)
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Fairfield Porter
224(6)
Hilton Kramer
Dawn Powell
230(5)
Fran Lebowitz
Gisela Richter
235(5)
Camille Paglia
Bayard Rustin
240(5)
Evan Wolfson
Sequoyah
245(4)
William Least Heat-Moon
Joseph Smith
249(10)
Harold Bloom
Melvin B. Tolson
259(6)
Rita Dove
Felix Francisco Varela y Morales
265(5)
Nicolas Kanellos
DeWitt Wallace
270(5)
Helen Gurley Brown
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
275(5)
Tina Brown
Frank W. Woolworth
280(7)
A. M. Homes
Authors of Articles From the American National Biography 287(2)
Sources and Further Readings 289(22)
The Selectors 311

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Rewards Program