Franklin Pierce was one of the least known, least liked, and least successful presidents in American history. In this new study of his administration, historian Larry Gara makes no attempt to revive Pierce's reputation. Instead he provides a clear analysis of Pierce's shortcomings as well as his few successes. Franklin Pierce's administration (1853-1857) spanned a turbulent period in the life of the nation: North-South polarization reached new extremes due, in part, to Pierce's failure to understand the depth of Free Soil sentiment in the North; the Kansas-Nebraska Act and its aftermath made civil war likely, if not inevitable; and Pierce's apology for southern actions served only to widen the rift. The term "Bleeding Kansas" came to symbolize the failures of Pierce's administration. Pierce's few achievements were in the realm of foreign policy. In fact, Gara points out, the Pierce years were an important chapter in the history of American imperialisma time when Japan was opened to the West, U.S. trade in Central America and Asia was expanded, and additional land was acquired from Mexico. Pierce also initiated discussions on acquiring Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, Nicaragua, Formosa, the Dominican Republic, the guano islands of the Pacific, and Cuba. In this twenty-fourth volume of the American Presidency Series, Gara provides a clear, tough-minded analysis of the Pierce administration and a fair, though generally negative, assessment the man and the president.

The Presidency of Franklin Pierce (American Presidency Series)

Biographies & Memoirs

Gara, Larry

Historical

University Press of Kansas

The Baby Dodds Story

Arts & Photography

Dodds, Baby

Music

Louisiana State Univ Pr

The Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground Railroad

History

Americas

Univ Pr of Kentucky

" The underground railroad―with its mysterious signals, secret depots, abolitionist heroes, and slave-hunting villains―has become part of American mythology. But legend has distorted much of this history. Larry Gara shows how pre-Civil War partisan propanda, postwar remininscences by fame-hungry abolitionists, and oral tradition helped foster the popular belief that a powerful secret organization spirited floods of slaves away from the South. In contrast to much popular belief, however, the slaves themselves had active roles in their own escape. They carried out their runs, receiving aid only after they had reached territory where they still faced return. The Liberty Line puts slaves in their rightful position: the center of their struggle for freedom.

University Press of Kentucky

Little is known about those who openly refused to enter military service in World War II because of their convictions against killing. While many of those men accepted alternative civilian service, more than 6,000 were incarcerated with sentences ranging from a few months to five years. Some were tried, convicted, and reimprisoned for essentially the same offense―resisting induction into the armed forces―after their initial release. In A Few Small Candles, ten men tell why they resisted, what happened to them, and how they feel about that experience today. Their stories detail the resisters’ struggles against racial segregation in prison, as well as how they instigated work and hunger strikes to demonstrate against other prison injustices. Each of the ten has remained active in various causes relating to peace and social justice. This is a unique collection of memoirs that illuminated the American homefront during World War II and provides an important source for those interested in the American peace movement.

A Few Small Candles

Gara, Lenna Mae

The Kent State University Press

The Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad, published by the National Park Service and bestseller for United States Government Printing Office, is a colorful Park Service handbook that provides details of the many ways that blacks took to escape slavery in the Southern United States before the Civil War. The Underground Railroad provided an opportunity for sympathetic white Americans to play a role in resisting slavery, and brought together, men and women of both races to begin to set aside assumptions about the other race and to work together on issues of mutual concern. Other related products:
Discovering the Underground Railroad: Junior Ranger Activity Book can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/024-005-01296-6
Underground Railroad: Official Map and Guide (Folder) can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/024-005-01170-6
Abraham Lincoln\'s Journey to Greatness avaialble here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/024-005-01284-2
The Civil War in America (Package of 25) The Civil War in America (Package of 25) can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/030-000-00300-4
American Civil War product collection can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/us-military-history/wars-conflicts/ame

Underground Railroad

S/N 024-005-01185-4

National Park Service Division of Publications

Born in New Orleans in 1894, Warren “Baby” Dodds became one of the greatest drummers of that city's early jazz tradition. This lively autobiography, first published more than 30 years ago and long unavailable, is the result of a series of interviews Dodds taped with Larry Gara a few years before his death in 1959. With disarming candor, Dodds recalls his remarkable musical career, which spanned more than four decades and took him from New Orleans' famed Storyville district to Mississippi riverboats, to Chicago and New York. Dodds performed and recorded with some of the most famous musicians of his time – King Oliver, Kid Ory, Bunk Johnson, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet, among others – and his recollections of these men and the music they created add much to our knowledge of jazz history. Dodds also discusses his own style and philosophy of music, revealing himself as a dedicated artist who placed a high value on craftsmanship, versatility and originality, and whose love of the jazz world never waned. Features 12 pages of photos and a Dodds discography.

The Baby Dodds Story: As Told to Larry Gara

Humor & Entertainment

Rebeats

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Books by Gara, Larry