Biography & Autobiography : Political

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. more...

Price: $14.95

Originally titled The Story of My Experiments with Truth , this is the autobiography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, covering his life from early childhood through to 1920. It was initiated at the insistence of Swami Anand and other close co-workers of Gandhi, for him to explain the background of his public campaigns. In 1999, the book was designated as one of the "100 Most Important Spiritual Books of the 20th Century" by HarperCollins publishers. For Gandhi, truth was the sovereign principle; inclusive of many other spiritual principles and schools of thought. "[I]t is not my purpose to attempt a real autobiography. I simply want to tell the story of my numerous experiments with truth, and as my life consists of nothing but those experiments, it is true that the story will take the shape of an autobiography...", he adds in the introduction. And hence the title My Experiments with Truth. However, he further notes that "... [the experiments] will of course include experiments with non-violence, celibacy and other principles of conduct believed to be distinct from truth." In this autobiography, Gandhi has recounted the period from his birth (1869) up to the year 1921. In the last chapter, he notes, "My life from this point onward has been so public that there is hardly anything about it that people do not know..."... more...

Price: $6.99

A fresh new look at the Enlightenment intellectual who became the most controversial of America’s founding fathers. Despite his being a founder of both the United States and the French Republic, the creator of the phrase “United States of America,” and the author of Common Sense, Thomas Paine is the least well known of America’s founding fathers. This edifying biography by Craig Nelson traces Paine’s path from his years as a London mechanic, through his emergence as the voice of revolutionary fervor on two continents, to his final days in the throes of dementia. By acquainting us as never before with this complex and combative genius, Nelson rescues a giant from obscurity—and gives us a fascinating work of history. more...

Price: $16.00

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Price: $24.95

One of the world's leading historians of Renaissance Italy brings to life here the vibrant--and violent--society of fifteenth-century Florence. His disturbing narrative opens up an entire culture, revealing the dark side of Renaissance man and politician Lorenzo de' Medici. On a Sunday in April 1478, assassins attacked Lorenzo and his brother as they attended Mass in the cathedral of Florence. Lorenzo scrambled to safety as Giuliano bled to death on the cathedral floor. April Blood moves outward in time and space from that murderous event, unfolding a story of tangled passions, ambition, treachery, and revenge. The conspiracy was led by one of the city's most noble clans, the Pazzi, financiers who feared and resented the Medici's swaggering new role as political bosses--but the web of intrigue spread through all of Italy. Bankers, mercenaries, the Duke of Urbino, the King of Naples, and Pope Sixtus IV entered secretly into the plot. Florence was plunged into a peninsular war, and Lorenzo was soon fighting for his own and his family's survival. The failed assassination doomed the Pazzi. Medici revenge was swift and brutal--plotters were hanged or beheaded, innocents were hacked to pieces, and bodies were put out to dangle from the windows of the government palace. All remaining members of the larger Pazzi clan were forced to change their surname, and every public sign or symbol of the family was expunged or destroyed. April Blood offers us a fresh portrait of Renaissance Florence, where dazzling artistic achievements went side by side with violence, craft, and bare-knuckle politics. At the center of the canvas is the figure of Lorenzo the Magnificent--poet, statesman, connoisseur, patron of the arts, and ruthless "boss of bosses." This extraordinarily vivid account of a turning point in the Italian Renaissance is bound to become a lasting work of history. more...

Price: $15.25