{"product_id":"the-past-not-taken-john-beatty-9781734795288","title":"The Past Not Taken: Three Novellas","description":"\u003cp\u003eWe make history every day. From one moment to the next, our decisions-small and large-shape our future and, as we travel along \u003cem\u003ethat\u003c\/em\u003e path, shape our past. How do we want it to read? Should we care? Or should we just get on with our lives and hope for the best? \u003cem\u003eThe Past Not Taken\u003c\/em\u003e is three novellas that show that not all \"authorities\" are authoritative.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTwo roads diverge in a yellow wood...\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo young people, their lives stretching out ahead of them, expect very different things out of life after college, but their roads don't go that way. Curtis is a budding historian at a small university. Melanie is a friend-who-is-a-girl, and she's in trouble. The kind of trouble that could get her father fired from the small straight-laced university. Melanie asks Curtis for help...sort of. Or did Curtis just offer? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a small archive, documents that could upend American history are found. Did Jefferson suggest that Washington was an ignorant bumpkin and that America bounded by the Constitution would fail?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Past Not Taken\u003c\/em\u003e explores choices, parenthood and responsibility, and how history is written. Fair warning: it isn't \u003cem\u003ealways\u003c\/em\u003e based on facts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTwo roads diverge in a yellow wood...\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA young woman knocks on a stranger's door. Only she isn't entirely a stranger, and she has nowhere else to go. Her story is inextricably linked with the family behind that door. But the institution that is their livelihood won't let her stay.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow \"authoritative\" are the documents that make up the basis of our history? Just because a document appears to be old and is in an archive, does that make it \"proof\" of the past?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDaughter By Choice\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eexplores\u003c\/em\u003e how the past catches up to everyone. It also explores the nature of being a parent and how there's so many different kinds of families. It, too, speaks of how history is written and how the long-forgotten can become so important so fast.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhereof what's past is prologue...\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA man appears, both known and unknown. He asks for little, but that little means so much. He says a girl's future is in peril. And what he asks for can be simply devastating for everyone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHistory likes to teach about \"turning points.\" 1776 is one for American history. But what if someone were to declare that \u003cem\u003e1619\u003c\/em\u003e was a more appropriate turning point and waves an archival document around to \"prove\" it? Is that document authentic? How do we know?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Past and the Prologue\u003c\/em\u003e is a story of recurrence, sources, narratives, what it is to be a parent, and, once again, \u003cem\u003ehow\u003c\/em\u003e history is written. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHistory is part legend, part fact, but mostly interpretation of those who have gone before us. We may \u003cem\u003emake\u003c\/em\u003e history, but it's the \"authorities\" --the scribes and narrators of the future--who \u003cem\u003ewrite\u003c\/em\u003e it based on what we leave behind.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e John Beatty\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 173479528X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781734795288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Jdb Communications, LLC\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/24\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 250\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.82lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.57d","brand":"John Beatty","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43987224232191,"sku":"9781734795288","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_82f37b8b-7364-4062-9752-c7b437b83f54.jpg?v=1683287703","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-past-not-taken-john-beatty-9781734795288","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}