Biography & Autobiography - Political

From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, a figure of great intellectual power who ran the German state, however briefly, during one of its most tumultuous periods, and whose life was "the essence of German Jewish history." This deeply informed biography of Walther Rathenau (1867-1922)...

An insightful biography of Vladimir Jabotinsky, the most controversial and perhaps most fervent of all Zionist political figures "A well-written, passionate survey of Jabotinsky's life and contributions to political Zionism."--Jeffrey Veidlinger, Marginalia Blog, Los Angeles Review of Books "For many, [this book] will open...

Abe Fortas was a New Dealer, a sub-cabinet official, the founder of an eminent Washington law firm, a lose adviser to Lyndon Johnson, and a Supreme Court justice. Nominated by Johnson to be Chief Justice, he was rejected by Congress and resigned from the...

In 1968, at the peak of the Vietnam War, centrist Congressman Melvin Laird (R-WI) agreed to serve as Richard Nixon's secretary of defense. It was not, Laird knew, a move likely to endear him to the American public--but as he later said, "Nixon couldn't...

The central question of the book is whether the ancient Celts of Britain and Ireland actually existed as an ethnic race, or whether they were a more recent invention. The book is aimed at both the interested lay-reader and an academic audience. James discusses...

Dynastic political families have been an American tradition since the birth of the Republic. Indeed, a good part of our entire political history could be written simply by setting out the family stories of the Adamses, Roosevelts, Longs, and Kennedys. To that illustrious list...

Henry M. Jackson ranks as one of the great legislators in American history. With a Congressional career spanning the tenure of nine Presidents, Jackson had an enormous impact on the most crucial foreign policy and defense issues of the Cold War era, as well...

Henry M. Jackson ranks as one of the great legislators in American history. With a Congressional career spanning the tenure of nine Presidents, Jackson had an enormous impact on the most crucial foreign policy and defense issues of the Cold War era, as well...

When Hazel Wolf died, at the age of 101, more than nine hundred of her friends -- from the governor of Washington to union organizers, from birdwatchers to hunters -- crowded Town Hall in Seattle to honor the feisty activist and tell the often...

This audacious and illuminating memoir by Richard Baum, a senior China scholar and sometime policy advisor, reflects on forty years of learning about and interacting with the People's Republic of China, from the height of Maoism during the author's UC Berkeley student days in...

The dominant public figure in Brazil from 1930 until 1954 was a highly contradictory and controversial personality. Get伃io Vargas, from the pampas of the southern frontier state of Rio Grande do Sul, became the dictator who ruled without ever forgetting the lower classes.Vargas was...

This book gives a unique perspective on the interwar history of the Middle East. By telling the life story of one man, it illuminates the political and cultural struggles of an era. Shakib Arslan (1869-1946) was a leading member of the generation of Ottoman...

Samuel Bell Maxey was an important political figure in nineteenth-century Texas, but no previous book-length study of his life and career has been published. Louise Horton has utilized his private papers as well as numerous other sources in preparing this biography, which includes many...

Alexander Terrell's career placed him at the center of some of the most pivotal events in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century history, ranging from the Civil War to Emperor Maximilian's reign over Mexico and an Armenian genocide under the Ottoman Empire. Alexander Watkins Terrell at...

As the principal English interpreter for Mikhail Gorbachev and his foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, in the critical period of 1985-1991, Pavel Palazchenko participated in all U.S.-Soviet summit talks leading to the end of the Cold War. This personal and political memoir sheds new light...

Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) was Polish, Jewish, and a woman in an international socialist movement dominated by Germans, gentiles, and men. For Luxemburg, there was no real socialism without democracy and no real democracy without socialism. In this biography Stephen Eric Bronner establishes Luxemburg's legacy...

Leopold Kerney was one of the most influential diplomats of twentieth-century Irish history. This book presents the first comprehensive biography of Kerney's career in its entirety from his recruitment to the diplomatic service to his time in France, Spain, Argentina, and Chile. Barry Whelan's...

In this fascinating memoir of his early life, Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn F駟n, describes the development of the modern "Troubles'' in the North of Ireland, his experiences during that period, including secret talks with the British government and imprisonment, his leadership role...

We Belong to the Land, the gripping autobiography of Nobel Peace Prize nominee Elias Chacour, capture his life's work toward peace and reconciliation for Israeli Jews, Christians, and Muslims.Nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, world-renowned Palestinian priest, Elias Chacour, narrates the gripping...

Raised in a political family on Chicago's South Side, Harold Washington made history as the city's first African American mayor. His 1983 electoral triumph, fueled by overwhelming black support, represented victory over the Chicago Machine and business as usual. Yet the racially charged campaign...

According to Christopher D. O'Sullivan, there is still much to consider regarding Franklin D. Roosevelt's foreign policy. Exploring the worldview of Sumner Welles, who became one of Roosevelt's chief foreign policy advisors until Welles's tragic and scandalous resignation in the fall of 1943, O'Sullivan...

Despite an abundance of literature on Richard Nixon, the man behind the most spectacular crash-and-burn career of modern political history has remained an enigma. What lay behind his obsessive hunger for power and control, his paranoid attacks against enemies real and perceived, his refusal...

Abu Sharif was one of the world's most notorious and dangerous terrorists in the 60's and 70's, acting as minister of propaganda for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and as a recruiter for terrorists like Carlos the Jackal. In 1972,...

Nada Prouty served her country loyally, with distinction, and, as universally acknowledged by her colleagues, with great personal courage as a CIA covert officer. This tale of rampant trampling of citizen's rights is a vivid reminder of the responsibility of citizens to be vigilant...

Jane Addams was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Now Citizen, Louise W. Knight's masterful biography, reveals Addams's early development as a political activist and social philosopher. In this book we observe a powerful mind grappling with the radical ideas...

From his role as Franklin Roosevelt's "negro advisor" to his appointment under Lyndon Johnson as the first secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Robert Clifton Weaver was one of the most influential domestic policy makers and civil rights advocates of the twentieth century. This...

New York Times bestseller Twenty years after the publication of the bestselling All's Fair, James Carville and Mary Matalin look at how they--and America--have changed in the last two decades. James Carville and Mary Matalin have long held the mantle of the nation's most...

In this eye-opening exploration of the human weaknesses for power, Daniel Levin takes us on a journey through the absurd world of our global elites, drawing unforgettable sketches of some of the puppets who stand guard, and the jugglers and conjurers employed within. Most...

The enormous respect and affection of the British public for Betty Boothroyd has its roots in a strong belief in what she stands for: fair play, an unshakeable sense of honour, and a passionate belief in the sovereignty of Parliament. She tells of her...

"Larson's elegantly written dual biography reveals that the partnership of Franklin and Washington was indispensable to the success of the Revolution." --Gordon S. Wood From the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian comes a masterful, first-of-its-kind dual biography of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, illuminating their partnership's...

Barack Obama is arguably the most dynamic political figure to grace the American stage since John F. Kennedy. His meteoric rise from promise to power has stunned even the cynics and inspired a legion of devout followers. For anyone who wants to know more...

An accomplished former ghostwriter and book researcher who worked with Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Ben Bradlee, and Hillary Clinton goes behind-the-scenes of the national's capital to tell the story of how she survived the exciting, but self-important and self-promoting world of the Beltway.Barbara Feinman...

Gripping narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic story of a remarkable young Texan pianist, Van Cliburn, who played his way through the wall of fear built by the Cold War, won the hearts of the American and Russian people, and eased tensions between two...

Fifty years after John F. Kennedy's assassination, presidential historian Robert Dallek, whom The New York Times calls "Kennedy's leading biographer," delivers a riveting new portrait of this president and his inner circle of advisors--their rivalries, personality clashes, and political battles. In Camelot's Court, Dallek...

Part of the acclaimed Eminent Lives series, Alexis de Tocqueville dissects the legacy of the celebrated cultural observer. Joseph Epstein, distinguished literary historian and author of the bestselling Snobbery: The American Version, provides a fresh account of the celebrated writer's classic travels in America,...

For nearly three decades political observers have sought to understand the complex relationship between Hillary Clinton's faith and her politics. Now, in this first spiritual biography of the former first lady, acclaimed historian Paul Kengor sets out to answer the elusive question: What does...

At the Center of the Storm is a revealing look at the inner workings of the most important intelligence organization in the world during the most challenging times in recent history. Based on his unparalleled access to both the highest echelons of government and...

"Hamilton's turbulent life, the dramatic birth of a nation, all against the richly evoked gritty background of the 18th century--Randall's book is propelled with the page-turning intensity of an epic novel." -- Ronald Blumer, Peabody Award-winning writerA new reissue of this important biography of...

A new investigation, based on previously unseen KGB documents, reveals the startling truth behind Stalin's last great conspiracy.On January 13, 1953, a stunned world learned that a vast conspiracy had been unmasked among Jewish doctors in the USSR to murder Kremlin leaders. Mass arrests...

In fascinating detail, Ivan Solotaroff introduces us to the men who carry out executions. Although the emphasis is on the personal lives of these men and of those they have to put to death, The Last Face You'll Ever See also addresses some of...

When thirty-three-year-old Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief made the decision to risk his life and his family to save Private First Class Jessica Lynch -- an American soldier he did not know -- it was more than the everyday reckoning with death that permeates wartime. It...

Today more than ever, international headlines are dominated by dispatches from the many dictatorships that still dot the globe. Although Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been deposed, North Korea's Kim Jong-il continues to attract attention on the world stage; at the same time, other...

As long as there has been an America, the indomitable spirit of American women has shaped both the country's history and society. Regardless of the time and place these women were born each excelled in her respective field, making it easier for the next...

Diana Mosley was a society beauty who fell from grace when she left her husband, brewery heir Bryan Guinness, for Sir Oswald Mosley, an admirer of Mussolini and a notorious womanizer. This horrified her family and scandalized society.In 1933, Diana met the new German...

One of our most acclaimed historians explores the decorated military service of one of America's most intriguing politicians--the leading Democratic presidential candidate for 2004--and its profound effects on his career and life In Tour of Duty, Brinkley explores Senator John Kerry's career and deftly...

As his father nears death in his retirement home in Mexico, John H. Richardson begins to unravel a life filled with drama and secrecy. John Sr. was a CIA "chief of station" on some of the hottest assignments of the Cold War, from the...

A well-researched biography about the public and private life of J. Edgar Hoover--former FBI director and America's most controversial law enforcer--that draws on previously unknown personal documents, a study of FBI files, and the presidential papers of nine administrations. Secrecy and Power is a...

When Denis and Margaret Thatcher met on a blind date in 1949, he never dreamed that he would become the consort to the first woman prime minister. He fulfilled this role with tact, humour and charm but remained a private man. This biography, written...

Whether facing a near-death experience, adversity, high-or low-expectations, insurmountable odds, or going for it and falling short, this inspiring memoir will encourage you to RISE UP!In Touchdown America, author Robby Wells shares his numerous life experiences in sports, politics, and as a national and...

Named a Best Book of 2023 by Financial Times and Kirkus Reviews The #1 Sunday Times bestseller, published in the UK as Politics on the Edge. "One of the best books on politics our era will see . . . A book of astonishing...