Obsessed The Presidency And Illinois Senators Percy Stevenson Iii Simon

From history books, memoirs, news stories and public utterances it is known that untold numbers of serving United States senators dreamed of residing in the Oval Office. Many fewer committed to open pursuit of the office, and even fewer made it. Three Illinois senators from the 1950s to the 1990s- Republican Charles H. Percy, Democrats Adlai E.Stevenson III and Paul Simon-can be counted as actively engaged in the hunt, with widely differing outcomes. Each had internal and external pressures. Percy: Encouraged by Dwight Eisenhower and his brother Milton and dogged by media speculation. Stevenson III:Expected to follow in the footsteps of his greatgrandfather, and his father, Stevenson II. Simon: Ambitious to find ever-higher elective outlets for his policy ideas, and willing to take the risk. Circumstances aside, their common goal was to be president. Their stories include campaign images, and fresh perspectives based on documents.

Death Underground: The Centralia and West Frankfort Mine Disasters examines two of the most devastating coal mine disasters in United States history since 1928. In two southern Illinois towns only forty miles apart, explosions killed 111 men at the Centralia No. 5 mine in 1947 and 119 men at the New Orient No. 2 mine in West Frankfort in 1951. Robert E. Hartley and David Kenney explain the causes of the accidents, identify who was to blame, and detail the emotional impact the disasters had on the survivors, their families, and their communities. Politics at the highest level of Illinois government played a critical role in the conditions that led to the accidents. Hartley and Kenney address how safety was compromised when inspection reports were widely ignored by state mining officials and mine company supervisors. Highlighted is the role of Driscoll Scanlan, a state inspector at Centralia, who warned of an impending disaster but whose political enemies shifted the blame to him, ruining his career. Hartley and Kenney also detail the New Orient No. 2 mine explosion, the attempts at rescue, and the resulting political spin circulated by labor, management, and the state bureaucracy. They outline the investigation, the subsequent hearings, and the efforts in Congress to legislate greater mine safety. Hartley and Kenney include interviews with the survivors, a summary of the investigative records, and an analysis of the causes of both mine accidents. They place responsibility for the disasters on individual mine owners, labor unions, and state officials, providing new interpretations not previously presented in the literature. Augmented by twenty-nine illustrations, the volume also covers the history, culture, and ethnic pluralism of coal mining in Illinois and the United States.

Liberalism and Transformation is the first scholarly work that explores the historical, philosophical, and intellectual development of global liberalism since the nineteenth century in the context of the deployment of violence, force, and intervention. Using an approach that includes interpretive and contextual analysis of texts from writers, philosophers, and policy-makers across nearly two centuries, as well as historiographical and historical analysis of archival documents (some of which have been recently declassified) and other media, Liberalism and Transformation narrates the messy history of emancipatory liberalism and its engagement with issues of war and peace. The book contributes to both a rethinking of liberal democracy and its relationship to world politics, as well as the effects of liberal internationalism on global processes. Furthermore, Liberalism and Transformation invites readers to reflect on global ethics and transformation in world politics. In the first place, it shows how ethical imaginings of the world have direct effects on actions of transformative importance. In the second place, it suggests that discourses are fluid, changing, and complex.

The Second Ku Klux Klan’s success in the 1920s remains one of the order’s most enduring mysteries. Emerging first as a brotherhood dedicated to paying tribute to the original Southern organization of the Reconstruction period, the Second Invisible Empire developed into a mass movement with millions of members that influenced politics and culture throughout the early 1920s. This study explores the nature of fraternities, especially the overlap between the Klan and Freemasonry. Drawing on many previously untouched archival resources, it presents a detailed and nuanced analysis of the development and later decline of the Klan and the complex nature of its relationship with the traditions of American fraternalism.

Traces the history of the Negro leagues, profiling star athletes and highlighting the challenges they and their teams faced until the desegration of professional baseball in the late 1940s.

The summer of 1938 was a pivotal year for baseball and American history. In that same year, John Jordon "Buck" O'Neil, was a rookie first baseman playing his first season in the Negro American League. Born in Carrabelle, Florida, raised in Sarasota and nicknamed Buck, it had taken five years and five different teams before the Kansas City, Monarchs finally signed O'Neil to a contract. Before he could get the starting assignment, though, O'Neil had to dethrone one of the Negro Leagues' hardest hitting first basemen, Eldridge Mayweather. In 1938, a time when African-American hall of fame ballplayers worth millions could be purchased for pennies on the dollar, times were hard and the baseball was tough. Kansas City's Monarchs were a blend of youth and maturity, and one of the best teams in the Negro American League. Oddly, Kansas City, in spite of winning records against every team in the Negro American League, failed to win the first-half or second-half pennant. For the first time ever John "Buck" O'Neil, Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe and James "Gabby" Kemp and many others are united together to speak on this celebrated season. With interviews from Monarchs' players Willard "Sonny" Brown, Newt Allen and Byron "Mex" Johnson and many others readers are taken on a road trip around America. Along the way readers, just as the team did in 1938, come in contact with segregation and racism as the book helps everyone to relive the glory days of the Negro Baseball Leagues. Illustrated with over forty historic photographs, John "Buck" O'Neil, the rookie, the man, the lagacy 1938 is a welcome addition to every baseball fans reading list.