Biography & Autobiography : Political

This book explores the war effort of Aboriginal and Islander Australians during the Second World War and the reasons their contribution has gone unrecognised for so long. This is a comprehensive account of the work black Australians during the years when their country faced the threat of invasion by the Japanese. Despite suspicion and prejudice, they earned a place within the digger legend. more...

Price: $22.00

Born of the Sun records the lives of seven young Australians who achieved widespread fame in their fields of endeavour between 1866 and 1933— rowing, rugby, swimming, boxing, cricket, medical research and on the battlefield —and who all died in the plenitude of youth. In doing so, it offers fascinating insights into Australia’s coming of age. This lively account illuminates the lives of Harry Searle, Lonnie Spragg, Barney Kieran, Les Darcy, Archie Jackson, Professor John Hunter and Lieutenant Eric Edgerton. more...

Price: $28.00

Dubbed by the World War II press as "The GI General" because of his close identification with his men, Omar Bradley rose to command the U. S. 12th Army Group in the European Campaign. By the spring of 1945, this group contained 1,300,000 men--the largest exclusively American field command in U.S. history. Mild mannered, General Bradley was a dedicated mentor, the creator of the Officer Candidate School system, and a methodical tactician who served through World War II. Then, as a five-star general, he lifted the Veterans Administration from corruption and inefficiency to a model government agency, served as U.S. Army chief of staff, first chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and head of NATO. Alan Axelrod applies his signature insight and compelling prose to the life, strategy and legacy of the general who remains the model for all commanders today as the man who revolutionized the National Guard, shaped the US army’s focus on the individual soldier, and emphasized cooperation and coordination among the military services--a cornerstone of modern U.S. military doctrine. more...

Price: $21.95

President Lyndon Johnson never understood it. Neither did President Richard Nixon. How could a black man, a Republican no less, be elected to the United States Senate from liberal, Democratic Massachusetts—a state with an African American population of only 2 percent?. The mystery of Senator Edward Brooke’s meteoric rise from Boston lawyer to Massachusetts attorney general to the first popularly elected African American U.S. senator with some of the highest favorable ratings of any Massachusetts politician confounded many of the best political minds of the day. This articulate and charismatic man burst on the national scene in 1966 when he ran for the Senate. His story encompasses the turbulent post–World War II years, from the gains of the civil rights movement, through the riotous 1960s, to the dark days of Watergate, with stories of his relationships with the Kennedys, Martin Luther King Jr., Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, and future senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Brooke also speaks candidly of his personal struggles, including his bitter divorce from his first wife and, most recently, his fight against cancer. more...

Price: $21.00

For decades, books about John or Robert Kennedy have woven either a shimmering tale of Camelot gallantry or a tawdry story of runaway ambition and reckless personal behavior. But the real story of the Kennedys in the 1960s has long been submerged -- until now. In Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, David Talbot sheds a dramatic new light on the tumultuous inner life of the Kennedy presidency and its stunning aftermath. Talbot, the founder of Salon.com, has written a gripping political history that is sure to be one of the most talked-about books of the year. more...

Price: $11.99