Rebel Born

Why do people raised in the same families often differ more dramatically in personality than those from different families? What made Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin and Voltaire uniquely suited to challenge the conventional wisdom of their times? This pioneering inquiry into the significance of birth order answers both these questions with a conceptional boldness that has made critics compare it with the work of Freud and of Darwin himself. During Frank Sulloway's 20-year-research, he combed through thousands of lives in politics, science and religion, demonstrating that first-born children are more likely to identify with authority whereas their younger siblings are predisposed to rise against it. Family dynamics, Sulloway concludes, is a primary engine of historical change. Elegantly written, masterfully researched, BORN TO REBEL is a grand achievement that has galvanised historians and social scientists and will fascinate anyone who has ever pondered the enigma of human character.

Born the son of a sharecropper in 1894 near Ninety Six, South Carolina, Benjamin E. Mays went on to serve as president of Morehouse College for twenty-seven years and as the first president of the Atlanta School Board. His earliest memory, of a lynching party storming through his county, taunting but not killing his father, became for Mays an enduring image of black-white relations in the South. Born to Rebel is the moving chronicle of his life, a story that interlaces achievement with the rebuke he continually confronted.

Already a young adult, Jesus devoted himself to the task of easing the health problems of his fellow men in Galilee, probably influenced by the Essenes. He was taught about the healing effects of plants and herbs, and thus the easing of the sufferings of people in the villages became his first mission, often accompanied by preaching on right and wrong, on the end of the world, and on how to prepare for the new kingdom. Gradually he earned for himself the name of prophet—one among many. He was born into a country occupied by the Roman Empire, a country whose Jewish population lived in degradation and poverty. In Galilee, where Jesus was born and where he lived most of his life, the occupation and the oppression, also by rich landowners in Jerusalem, caused social unrest and deep anger. More and more farmers lost their land, became homeless, or were forced to work as slaves on their own land. Rebellion smouldered. From time to time, rebellion leaders attacked the Romans, but they always ended up on the cross, a punishment reserved for political criminals. But the spirit of rebellion spread in Galilee. He too became a leader, Jesus, but his weapon was the word rather than the sword—a weapon often far superior to sharp metal. And as the preaching became ever more aggressive, and even political, Rome listened. His life was formed by the circumstances of his birth and by the social and political situation in the land of Galilee. Though basically unknown during his lifetime, by curious circumstances he became the spiritual focus of millions long after his death.

Harriet Boyd was the first woman to lead an archaeological excavation in the Aegean. At a time when few women traveled on their own, she discovered, excavated and published an account of the Minoan town of Gournia in Crete. She was the first woman to lecture to the Archaeological Instituite of America - ten times in fourteen days in January 1902. While prominent as a lecturer and teacher, archaeology was only a part of her life: in 1897 she was nursing with the Red Cross in the Greco-Turkish war, in 1915 she was nursing Serbian typhoid victims on Corfu, and by 1917 she was in Northern France setting up a rehabilitation center within sound of the front. While the past and its arts were her profession, the present and the future were her passionate interest - whether local social problems in her home town of Boston or international affairs which took her to lunch with Mrs Roosevelt at the White House. Mary Allsebrook's lighthearted and extremely readable account of her mother's extraordinary experiences shows Harriet Boyd to be truly one of America's pioneers.

'A wonderful book ... Holmes sublimely illuminates Sylvia's extraordinary life' The Times 'A masterpiece' Vanessa Redgrave _______________ Born into one of Britain's most famous activist families, Sylvia Pankhurst was a natural rebel. A free spirit and radical visionary, history placed her in the shadow of her famous mother, Emmeline, and elder sister, Christabel. Yet artist Sylvia Pankhurst was the most revolutionary of them all. Sylvia found her voice fighting for votes for women, imprisoned and tortured in Holloway prison more than any other suffragette. But the vote was just the beginning of her lifelong defence of human rights. She engaged with political giants, warned of fascism in Europe, championed the liberation struggles in Africa and India and became an Ethiopian patriot. Her intimate life was no less controversial. The rupture between Sylvia, Emmeline and Christabel became worldwide news, while her romantic life drew public speculation and condemnation. Rachel Holmes interweaves the personal and political in an extraordinary celebration of a life in resistance, painting a compelling portrait of one of the greatest unsung political figures of the twentieth century. 'A monument to an astonishing life' Daily Telegraph, Best Biographies of 2020 'A robust and sensitive biography' Sunday Times, History Books of the Year 'A moving, powerful biography' Guardian

The Wall Street Journal bestselling sequel to Secondborn. In the Fates Republic... Firstborns reign supreme. Secondborns kneel in servitude. Thirdborns face death. And Census shadows them all. Secondborn Roselle St. Sismode was pressed into military service to battle the rebel uprising threatening the society that enslaves her. Now, powerful factions conspire to subvert the lines of succession, positioning Roselle to replace her mother as leader of the Republic's armed forces. But the woman who bore her would sooner see Roselle dead than let her usurp her firstborn brother's command. The deadly war of intrigue between her new masters and her ruthless family is but one conflict challenging Roselle. A soldier for the rebellion has drawn her into a rogue army's plot to overthrow the Republic and shatter its brutal caste system. Targeted by assassins and torn between allies, Roselle will have her loyalty, love, and honor tested in the greatest battle of--and for--her life.

Have you ever been left in the desert to fight life by yourself, wondering how someone you love could betray you? Did you grow up in a dysfunctional family with abuse of any kind but knew you were destined to do great things? Do you have low self-esteem, were you critical of yourself, or did you think that God is just out to punish you? In this book, real-life experience and circumstances brought me to a place that shook me to the core, tore down all I believed as true, and forced me to rise like a phoenix from the ashes or burn in all the many mistakes. How did I survive extreme abuse of every kind? How did I go from drug addict to college graduate? Do you want to go from a born rebel to a renewed warrior? Read on . . .