The Stranger And The Statesman James Smithson John Quincy Adams And The Making Of America S Greatest Museum

The Stranger And The Statesman James Smithson John Quincy Adams And The Making Of America S Greatest Museum Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of The Stranger And The Statesman James Smithson John Quincy Adams And The Making Of America S Greatest Museum book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.

The Stranger and the Statesman: James Smithson, John Quincy Adams, and the Making of America's Greatest Museum

Nina Burleigh
The Stranger and the Statesman James Smithson John Quincy Adams and the Making of America s Greatest Museum Book PDF

Author : Nina Burleigh
Publisher : New Word City
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2015-03-13
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781612308494

Get Book

The Stranger and the Statesman: James Smithson, John Quincy Adams, and the Making of America's Greatest Museum by Nina Burleigh Pdf

In her illuminating and dramatic biography The Stranger and the Statesman, New York Times bestselling author Nina Burleigh reveals a little-known slice of history in the life and times of the man responsible for the creation of the United States' principal cultural institution, the Smithsonian. It was one of the nineteenth century's greatest philanthropic gifts - and one of its most puzzling mysteries. In 1829, a wealthy English naturalist named James Smithson left his library, mineral collection, and entire fortune to the "United States of America, to found... an establishment for the increase & diffusion of Knowledge among men" - even though he had never visited the United States or known any Americans. In this fascinating book, Burleigh pieces together the reclusive benefactor's life, beginning with his origins as the Paris-born illegitimate son of the first Duke of Northumberland and a wild adventuress who preserved for her son a fortune through gall and determination. The book follows Smithson through his university years and his passionate study of minerals across Europe during the chaos of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Detailed are his imprisonment - simply for being an Englishman in the wrong place - his experiences in the gambling dens of France, and his lonely and painstaking scientific pursuits. After Smithson's death, nineteenth-century American politicians were given the task of securing his half-million dollars - the equivalent today of $50 million - and then trying to determine how to increase and diffuse knowledge from the muddy, brawling new city of Washington. Burleigh discloses how Smithson's bequest was nearly lost due to fierce battles among many clashing Americans - Southern slavers, states' rights advocates, nation-builders, corrupt frontiersmen, and Anglophobes who argued over whether a gift from an Englishman should even be accepted. She also reveals the efforts of the unsung heroes, mainly former president John Quincy Adams, whose tireless efforts finally saw Smithson's curious notion realized in 1846, with a castle housing the United States' first and greatest cultural and scientific establishment.

John Quincy Adams

Paul E. Teed
John Quincy Adams Book PDF

Author : Paul E. Teed
Publisher : Nova Publishers
Page : 222 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1594547971

Get Book

John Quincy Adams by Paul E. Teed Pdf

By the standards that historians usually use to judge presidents, John Quincy Adams was a failure. Although better qualified for the office than any American of his generation, he served for only one term and was unable to accomplish any of the most cherished goals set forth so boldly at the beginning of his presidency. His election to the presidency in 1824 was itself fraught with controversy and charges of political corruption and he was soundly defeated in his bid for re-election by Andrew Jackson. To many contemporaries and even some historians, Adams has appeared completely out of touch with the democratic revolution that was transforming American life at the time. He seemed a relic of a discredited, eighteenth-century political world. Yet John Quincy Adams has not shared the fate of other presidential failures who have faded almost entirely from the national memory.

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius

David J. Kent
Lincoln The Fire of Genius Book PDF

Author : David J. Kent
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 345 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2022-09-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781493063888

Get Book

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius by David J. Kent Pdf

Abraham Lincoln had a lifelong fascination with science and technology, a fascination that would help institutionalize science, win the Civil War, and propel the nation into the modern age. Readers will learn through Lincoln: The Fire of Genius how science and technology gradually infiltrated Lincoln’s remarkable life and influenced his growing desire to improve the condition of all men. The book traces this progression from a simple farm boy to a president who changed the world. Counter to conventional wisdom, subsistence farming provides a considerable education in agronomic science, forest ecology, hydrology, and even a little civil engineering. Continuing through a lifetime of self-study, curiosity, and hard work, Lincoln became the only President with a patent, advocated for technological advancement as a legislator in Illinois and in Washington, and became the “go-to” western lawyer on technology, and patent cases during his legal career. During the Civil War, Lincoln drew upon his commitment to science and personally encouraged inventors while taking dramatic steps to institutionalize science via the Smithsonian Institution, create the National Academy of Sciences, and initiate the Department of Agriculture. Lincoln’s insistence on high-tech weaponry, balloon surveillance, strategic use of telegraphy, and railroad deployment positioned the North to achieve Union victory.

The American Presidents, Washington to Tyler

Robert A. Nowlan
The American Presidents Washington to Tyler Book PDF

Author : Robert A. Nowlan
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 460 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2014-01-10
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781476601182

Get Book

The American Presidents, Washington to Tyler by Robert A. Nowlan Pdf

As of 2012, only 43 men have held the office of the President of the United States. Some have been sanctified and some reviled. This historical work addresses the careers of the first ten presidents, men who made vital contributions not only to the office of the presidency, but to the course of the fledgling nation. From Washington through Tyler, every term is recounted in detail and each presidential profile provides as many as a hundred quotations (with full source notes) by the president, his friends, family, historians, and others. Each profile ends with an extensive bibliography of books about the president, his principles and policies, and also provides suggestion for further reading. Rigorously nonpartisan in approach, this detail-rich text describes the early years of what may well be one of the most demanding jobs in the world.

John Quincy Adams

James Traub
John Quincy Adams Book PDF

Author : James Traub
Publisher : Basic Books
Page : 640 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2016-03-22
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780465098798

Get Book

John Quincy Adams by James Traub Pdf

"Penetrating, detailed, and very readable. . . . A splendid biography." --Wall Street Journal Few figures in American history have held as many roles in public life as John Quincy Adams. The son of John Adams, he was a brilliant ambassador and secretary of state, a frustrated president, and a dedicated congressman who staunchly opposed slavery. In John Quincy Adams, scholar and journalist James Traub draws on Adams's diaries, letters, and writings to evoke his numerous achievements-and failures-in office. A man of unwavering moral convictions, Adams is the father of foreign policy "realism" and one of the first proponents of the "activist government." But John Quincy Adams is first and foremost the story of a brilliant, flinty, and unyielding man whose life exemplified admirable political courage.

The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams

Phyllis Lee Levin
The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams Book PDF

Author : Phyllis Lee Levin
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Page : 544 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2015-01-06
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781137474629

Get Book

The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin Pdf

A patriot by birth, John Quincy Adams's destiny was foreordained. He was not only "The Greatest Traveler of His Age," but his country's most gifted linguist and most experienced diplomat. John Quincy's world encompassed the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the early and late Napoleonic Age. As his diplomat father's adolescent clerk and secretary, he met everyone who was anyone in Europe, including America's own luminaries and founding fathers, Franklin and Jefferson. All this made coming back to America a great challenge. But though he was determined to make his own career he was soon embarked, at Washington's appointment, on his phenomenal work abroad, as well as on a deeply troubled though loving and enduring marriage. But through all the emotional turmoil, he dedicated his life to serving his country. At 50, he returned to America to serve as Secretary of State to President Monroe. He was inaugurated President in 1824, after which he served as a stirring defender of the slaves of the Amistad rebellion and as a member of the House of Representatives from 1831 until his death in 1848. In The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams, Phyllis Lee Levin provides the deeply researched and beautifully written definitive biography of one of the most fascinating and towering early Americans.

John Quincy Adams

Harlow Giles Unger
John Quincy Adams Book PDF

Author : Harlow Giles Unger
Publisher : Da Capo Press
Page : 387 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2012-09-04
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780306821301

Get Book

John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger Pdf

He fought for Washington, served with Lincoln, witnessed Bunker Hill, and sounded the clarion against slavery on the eve of the Civil War. He negotiated an end to the War of 1812, engineered the annexation of Florida, and won the Supreme Court decision that freed the African captives of The Amistad. He served his nation as minister to six countries, secretary of state, senator, congressman, and president. John Quincy Adams was all of these things and more. In this masterful biography, award winning author Harlow Giles Unger reveals Quincy Adams as a towering figure in the nation's formative years and one of the most courageous figures in American history, which is why he ranked first in John F. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning Profiles in Courage. A magisterial biography and a sweeping panorama of American history from the Washington to Lincoln eras, Unger's John Quincy Adams follows one of America's most important yet least-known figures.

The Almanac of American Philanthropy

Karl Zinsmeister
The Almanac of American Philanthropy Book PDF

Author : Karl Zinsmeister
Publisher : The Philanthropy Roundtable
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2017-10-17
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780997852608

Get Book

The Almanac of American Philanthropy by Karl Zinsmeister Pdf

Philanthropy in America is a giant undertaking—every year more than $390 billion is voluntarily given by individuals, foundations, and businesses to a riot of good causes. Donation rates are two to ten times higher in the U.S. than in comparable nations, and privately funded efforts to solve social problems, enrich culture, and strengthen society are among the most significant undertakings in the United States. The Almanac of American Philanthropy was created to serve as the definitive reference on America's distinctive philanthropy. Upon its publication it immediately became the authoritative, yet highly readable, 1,342-page bible of private giving—chronicling the greatest donors in history, the most influential achievements, the essential statistics, and summaries of vital ideas about charitable action. Now there is this new Compact Edition of the Almanac. It offers highlights of the crucial information and fascinating arguments contained in the full-length Almanac, in a condensed format. All updated to 2017!

Alexander Von Humboldt and the United States

Eleanor Jones Harvey
Alexander Von Humboldt and the United States Book PDF

Author : Eleanor Jones Harvey
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 445 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2020-04-14
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780691200804

Get Book

Alexander Von Humboldt and the United States by Eleanor Jones Harvey Pdf

The enduring influence of naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt on American art, culture, and politics Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was one of the most influential scientists and thinkers of his age. A Prussian-born geographer, naturalist, explorer, and illustrator, he was a prolific writer whose books graced the shelves of American artists, scientists, philosophers, and politicians. Humboldt visited the United States for six weeks in 1804, engaging in a lively exchange of ideas with such figures as Thomas Jefferson and the painter Charles Willson Peale. It was perhaps the most consequential visit by a European traveler in the young nation's history, one that helped to shape an emerging American identity grounded in the natural world. In this beautifully illustrated book, Eleanor Jones Harvey examines how Humboldt left a lasting impression on American visual arts, sciences, literature, and politics. She shows how he inspired a network of like-minded individuals who would go on to embrace the spirit of exploration, decry slavery, advocate for the welfare of Native Americans, and extol America's wilderness as a signature component of the nation's sense of self. Harvey traces how Humboldt's ideas influenced the transcendentalists and the landscape painters of the Hudson River School, and laid the foundations for the Smithsonian Institution, the Sierra Club, and the National Park Service. Alexander von Humboldt and the United States looks at paintings, sculptures, maps, and artifacts, and features works by leading American artists such as Albert Bierstadt, George Catlin, Frederic Church, and Samuel F. B. Morse. Published in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC Exhibition Schedule Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC September 18, 2020–January 3, 2021

Mr. Adams's Last Crusade

Joseph Wheelan
Mr Adams s Last Crusade Book PDF

Author : Joseph Wheelan
Publisher : PublicAffairs
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2009-02-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9780786744954

Get Book

Mr. Adams's Last Crusade by Joseph Wheelan Pdf

When John Quincy Adams—the sixty-three-year-old former president, U.S. senator, secretary of state, and diplomat—was elected to the House of Representatives by his Massachusetts neighbors, he embarked on a spectacular late-life career. He became Congress's most acerbic and influential critic of slavery as well as a tireless proponent for human freedoms and First Amendment rights. This remarkable congressional career utterly transformed him, the public's perception of him, and his legacy—in many ways redeeming his failed presidency. Mr. Adams's Last Crusade renders an insightful portrait of a man who placed his country above politics.

Like Grass Before the Scythe

William Remmel
Like Grass Before the Scythe Book PDF

Author : William Remmel
Publisher : University of Alabama Press
Page : 193 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2007-03-22
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780817315528

Get Book

Like Grass Before the Scythe by William Remmel Pdf

During a conflict that saw death visit many households in the land, this is the story of a young recruit's devotion to family and nation. William Remmel's letters cover more than two full years of service in the 121st New York Infantry Regiment during the Civil War, from August 1862 to October of 1864. They provide details on military and social history in the eastern theater of operations and on the experience of the homefront in upstate New York among a largely immigrant, working-class family and community.

The Doomsday Lobby

James T. Bennett
The Doomsday Lobby Book PDF

Author : James T. Bennett
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2010-09-11
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781441966858

Get Book

The Doomsday Lobby by James T. Bennett Pdf

Federal patronage of science was never contemplated by the framers of the Constitution, but they did seek to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Art” by granting inventors patent rights. However, direct subvention to scientists and scientific organizations was not considered appropriate activity of the central government. In the 19th Century, American science was funded almost entirely through private investors. Since WWII, however, the federal government has become the primary patron of American science. From the race-to-space in the 1950s to current furor over global warming, Bennett traces the subtle and not-so-subtle ways in which government has co-opted scientific research and reinforced a culture in which challengers to proscribed wisdom are frozen out. Citing original documents and media reports, Bennett offers a compelling, entertaining, and thought-provoking perspective on political influence on scientific research and its implications for a democratic society. "During the Nineteenth Century, almost entirely on private funding, American science grew from practically nothing to world class. Now, however, over fifty percent of American science is funded by the federal government. Dr. Bennett traces the path, "crisis" after "crisis," by which American science became practically an arm of the federal government. His tale is a cautionary one, warning against future "crisis mongers" who would extend the government's already majority control of American science even further. His warning is a timely one, and it should be heeded." Joseph P. Martino, author of Science Funding: Politics and Porkbarrel "Bennett's latest book offers a challenging interpretation of the rise of the American federal science establishment since World War II. Focusing primarily on the growth of the space program, Bennett argues that crisis, real or imagined, is the source of state power and state funding for science. The Doomsday Lobby offers what no doubt will be viewed as a controversial contribution to the history of American science policy, and more broadly to an understanding of the role of the state in society." James D. Savage, Professor of Politics, University of Virginia, and author of Funding Science in America

Legacies of Ancient Greece in Contemporary Perspectives

Thomas M. F. Gerry
Legacies of Ancient Greece in Contemporary Perspectives Book PDF

Author : Thomas M. F. Gerry
Publisher : Vernon Press
Page : 314 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2022-04-20
Category : History
ISBN : 9781648894459

Get Book

Legacies of Ancient Greece in Contemporary Perspectives by Thomas M. F. Gerry Pdf

'Legacies of Ancient Greece in Contemporary Perspectives' provides readers with opportunities to reconnect with the origins of thought in an astonishingly wide variety of areas: politics, economics, art, spirituality, gender relations, medicine, literature, philosophy, music, and so on. As the chapters in the book show, Classical Greek thought still informs much of contemporary culture. There are countless books and articles that deal with ancient Greece historically, and a similar number that focus on Greece as a contemporary travel destination. There is both a lot of interest in Greece as a place now, and in Greece’s history and culture, which formed the early origins of much of Western civilisation. The distinctive attraction of 'Legacies of Ancient Greece in Contemporary Perspectives' is that it brings together, by means of fascinating examples, the two areas of interest: Greece’s past in relation to its, and our, present. In addition to the general interest factor, the book suggests questions for re-examination: the individual chapters provide abundant original research on their subjects, and in most cases offer critiques on the assumptions about, and the interpretations of, Greece’s ancient and contemporary cultural practices. These challenges themselves stimulate far-reaching thought and discussion, a feature highly attractive to readers (and students) wishing to develop a more in-depth understanding of the legacies of ancient Greece.

Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo

Daniel Vandersommers
Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo Book PDF

Author : Daniel Vandersommers
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
Page : 358 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2023-09-29
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780700635696

Get Book

Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo by Daniel Vandersommers Pdf

Founded amid the urban commotion of Washington, DC, before the dawn of the twentieth century, the National Zoological Park opened to “preserve, teach, and conduct research about the animal world.” Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo is a study of this important cultural landmark from 1887 to 1920. Centered on the animals themselves, each chapter looks from a different angle at the influential science of popular zoology in order to shed new light on the complex, entangled relationships between humans and animals. Daniel Vandersommers’s goal is twofold. First, through narrative, he shows how zoo animals always ran away from the zoo. This is meant literally—animals escaped frequently—but even more so, figuratively. Living, breathing, historical zoo animals ran away from their cultural constructions, and these constructions ran away from the living bodies they were made to represent. The author shows that the resulting gaps produced by runaway animals contain concealed, distorted, and erased histories worthy of uncovering. Second, Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo demonstrates how the popular zoology fostered by the National Zoo shaped every aspect of American science, culture, and conservation during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Between the 1880s and World War I, as intellectuals debated Darwinism and scientists institutionalized the laboratory, zoological parks suddenly appeared at the heart of nearly every major American city, captivating tens of millions of visitors. Vandersommers follows stories previously hidden within the National Zoo in order to help us reconsider the place of zoos and their inhabitants in the twenty-first century.

Apocalyptic Geographies

Jerome Tharaud
Apocalyptic Geographies Book PDF

Author : Jerome Tharaud
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 358 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2020-10-13
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780691203263

Get Book

Apocalyptic Geographies by Jerome Tharaud Pdf

How nineteenth-century Protestant evangelicals used print and visual media to shape American culture In nineteenth-century America, "apocalypse" referred not to the end of the world but to sacred revelation, and "geography" meant both the physical landscape and its representation in printed maps, atlases, and pictures. In Apocalyptic Geographies, Jerome Tharaud explores how white Protestant evangelicals used print and visual media to present the antebellum landscape as a “sacred space” of spiritual pilgrimage, and how devotional literature influenced secular society in important and surprising ways. Reading across genres and media—including religious tracts and landscape paintings, domestic fiction and missionary memoirs, slave narratives and moving panoramas—Apocalyptic Geographies illuminates intersections of popular culture, the physical spaces of an expanding and urbanizing nation, and the spiritual narratives that ordinary Americans used to orient their lives. Placing works of literature and visual art—from Thomas Cole’s The Oxbow to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden—into new contexts, Tharaud traces the rise of evangelical media, the controversy and backlash it engendered, and the role it played in shaping American modernity.