The story follows Charles King, a devoted teacher who develops feelings for a former student, prompting him to confront a past tragedy. This journey of self-discovery and healing is complicated by an unexpected witch hunt that leaves him confused and frustrated. As he navigates these challenges, the narrative explores themes of love, regret, and the quest for redemption.
Set against the backdrop of the Civil War, this novel offers a gripping portrayal of battle and camaraderie through the eyes of a former soldier. The narrative dives into the harsh realities of war, exploring themes of bravery, sacrifice, and the personal struggles faced by those on the front lines. With vivid descriptions and authentic experiences, the story captures the emotional and physical toll of conflict, making it a compelling read for anyone interested in this tumultuous period in American history.
"The Reinvention of Humanity tells the story of a small circle of renegade scientist-explorers who changed something profound: what it means to be normal. In the early twentieth century, these pioneering anthropologists, many of them women, made intrepid journeys that overturned our assumptions about race, sexuality, gender and the nature of human diversity, paving the way for the civil rights movements that followed and sparking a debate that continues to this day. From the Arctic to the South Pacific, from Haiti to Japan, they immersed themselves in distant or isolated communities, where they observed and documented radically different approaches to love and child-rearing, family structure and the relationship between women and men. With this evidence they were able to challenge the eras scientific consensus and deep-rooted Western belief that intelligence, ability and character are determined by a persons race or sex, and show that the roles people play in society are shaped in fact according to the immense variety of human cultures. Theirs were boundary-breaking lives, filled with scandal, romance, rivalry and tragedy. Those of Margaret Mead and her essential partner Ruth Benedict resulted in fame and notoriety. Those of Native American activist Ella Deloria and the African-American writer and ethnographer Zora Neale Hurston ended in poverty and obscurity; here their achievements are brought fully into the light for the first time. All were outsiders, including the controversial founder of their field, the wild-haired professor, German immigrant and revolutionary thinker, Franz Boas. The Reinvention of Humanity takes us on their globe-spanning adventures and shows how, together, these courageous and unconventional people created the moral universe we inhabit today."-- Book jacket
"A ... group portrait of Franz Boas, the founder of cultural anthropology, and his circle of women scientists, who upended American notions of race, gender, and sexuality in the 1920s and 1930s--a ... chronicle of how our society began to question the basic ways we understand other cultures and ourselves"--Publisher's description
The first English-language book to present a complete picture of this intriguing East European borderland, The Romania, Russia, and the Politics of Culture, illuminates the perennial problems of identity politics and cultural change that the country has endured.
*THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* *WINNER OF THE FRANCIS PARKMAN PRIZE 2020* *FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2019* The riveting story of the pioneers who redefined conceptions of 'normality' in the early twentieth century. Under the guiding eye of cultural anthropologist Franz Boas, these scientist-explorers - most of them women - made intrepid journeys into far-flung communities all over the world, where they documented radically different social approaches that overturned Western assumptions about human diversity and challenged the era's scientific consensus. Here, the boundary-breaking lives and achievements of Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Ella Deloria and Zora Neale Hurston are brought fully into light for the first time, showing how their trailblazing discoveries helped shape the moral universe we inhabit today.
The inspiration for the Netflix series premiering March 3rd "Hugely enjoyable, magnificently researched, and deeply absorbing." —Jason Goodwin, New York Times Book Review At midnight, December 31, 1925, citizens of the newly proclaimed Turkish Republic celebrated the New Year. For the first time ever, they had agreed to use a nationally unified calendar and clock. Yet in Istanbul—an ancient crossroads and Turkey's largest city—people were looking toward an uncertain future. Never purely Turkish, Istanbul was home to generations of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, as well as Muslims. It welcomed White Russian nobles ousted by the Russian Revolution, Bolshevik assassins on the trail of the exiled Leon Trotsky, German professors, British diplomats, and American entrepreneurs—a multicultural panoply of performers and poets, do-gooders and ne’er-do-wells. During the Second World War, thousands of Jews fleeing occupied Europe found passage through Istanbul, some with the help of the future Pope John XXIII. At the Pera Palace, Istanbul's most luxurious hotel, so many spies mingled in the lobby that the manager posted a sign asking them to relinquish their seats to paying guests. In beguiling prose and rich character portraits, Charles King brings to life a remarkable era when a storied city stumbled into the modern world and reshaped the meaning of cosmopolitanism.
Named by Moscow Times "the History Book of the Year," The Ghost of Freedom combines riveting storytelling with insightful analysis, in the first general history of the modern Caucasus, stretching from the beginning of Russian imperial expansion up to the rise of new countries after the Soviet Union's collapse. In evocative and accessible prose, Charles King reveals how tsars, highlanders, revolutionaries, and adventurers have contributed to the fascinating history of this borderland, providing an indispensable guide to the complicated histories, politics, and cultures of this intriguing frontier. Based on new research in multiple languages, the book shows how the struggle for freedom in the Caucasus has been a perennial theme over the last two hundred years, shining valuable light on the origins of modern disputes, including the ongoing war in Chechnya, conflicts in Georgia and Azerbaijan, and debates over oil from the Caspian Sea and its impact on world markets. The paperbackedition features new material, including an Afterword on the Russian-Georgian war of 2008.
Rich and riveting, complex and compelling, powerful and poetic.-Peter M. Gianotti, Newsday
A colorful account of the transformation of one of Europe's foremost Jewish cities, told through the stories of its geniuses and villains. Italian merchants, Greek freedom fighters, and Turkish seamen; a Russian empress and her favorite soldier-bureaucrats; Jewish tavern keepers, traders, and journalists―these and many others seeking fortune and adventure rubbed shoulders in Odessa, the greatest port on the Black Sea.Here a dream of cosmopolitan freedom inspired geniuses and innovators, from Alexander Pushkin and Isaac Babel to Zionist activist Vladimir Jabotinsky and immunologist Ilya Mechnikov. Yet here too was death on a staggering scale: not only the insidious plagues common to seaports but also the mass murder of Jews carried out by the Romanian occupation during World War II. Drawing on a wealth of original source material, Odessa is an elegy for the vibrant, multicultural tapestry of which a thriving Jewish population formed an essential part, as well as a celebration of the survival of Odessa's dream in a diaspora reaching all the way to Brighton Beach. 25 black-and-white illustrations