Showing results by narrator "Norman" in All Categories

During the Civil War, the eyes of the nation usually stayed fixed to the Eastern theater, but one of the bright spots in the West for the Confederacy was Irish immigrant Patrick Cleburne, whose successes earned him the nickname "Stonewall of the West". Where so many Confederates were failing, Cleburne's strategic tactics and bold defensive fighting earned him fame and recognition throughout the South, even leading Lee to call him "a meteor shining from a clouded sky."

A riveting new account of Theodore Roosevelt's impassioned crusade for military preparedness as America fitfully stumbles into World War I, spectacularly punctuated by his unique tongue-lashings of the vacillating Woodrow Wilson, his rousing advocacy of a masculine, pro-Allied "Americanism", a death-defying compulsion for personal front-line combat, a gingerly rapprochement with GOP power brokers - and, yes, perhaps, even another presidential campaign.

Arianne Capizola is her father’s daughter. Humble. Hardworking. Honest. She’d rather spend her days helping at the local shelter than brushing shoulders with her vain and entitled classmates. Niccolò Marchetti is his father’s son. Dark. Dangerous. Deceitful. He’d rather spend his days getting bloody in the ring than attending class and keeping up pretenses.

The American mountain man, with his myriad of practical skills, could endure isolation in a way most could not. He lived in constant peril from the extremes of nature and from the hostilities of cultures unlike his own. Given the illiteracy rates of the day, few tangible accounts of such journeys have survived, but one glaring exception is that of James Pierson Beckwourth, the only known African American mountain man to leave behind a detailed, if somewhat sensationalistic, account of his travels.

"Apollo's history is a confusing one," said the renowned poet and mythologist Robert Graves. This notion is also illustrated in a quote from the sixth century BCE Homeric Hymn to Apollo, which gives the listener a brief glimpse into the confusion surrounding Apollo's multi-faceted nature.

The dwarven realms of Krynn are slumbering, locked in mountain fastness, removed and aloof from the affairs of the world. But the world has a way of finding someone when it needs them. A wealthy aristocratic dwarf from Kayolin is forced to flee his home. A gully dwarf from Thorbardin is lucky to escape his own city with his life. And a brilliant and impetuous descendant of the once-mighty Hylar wonders what failures have steered her people onto a path of self-destruction.

The American Revolution is replete with seminal moments that every American learns in school, from the "shot heard 'round the world" to the Declaration of Independence, but the events that led up to the fighting at Lexington and Concord were borne out of 10 years of division between the British and their American colonies over everything from colonial representation in governments to taxation, the nature of searches, and the quartering of British regulars in private houses.

Working for America’s hottest rock band should be a dream come true for Phoebe Halstead. And it would be, if it wasn’t for lead singer Levi Hunter. Tortured... Brooding... Broken. He’s everything she should stay away from. Unfortunately for Phoebe, she’s exactly the kind of girl Levi needs. The light to his dark. The calm to his storm. He wants to be worthy of her; she knows he’ll never change. Everyone knows the greatest love stories end one of two ways...with a happily-ever-after or in heartache and ruin.

Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was an anarchist political activist and writer. Here she discusses, inter alia, the split in the revolutionary movement between Bakunin and the Marxists. She recounts her experiences of the Anarchist Congress in Paris in 1900 and in Amsterdam in 1907.

Brother McCurdy briefly explains the origins of Cryptic Masonry, as well as how it relates to the royal arch degrees. He talks about Cryptic Masonry as a modern extension of Ancient Craft Masonry and how it ties in with the blue lodge degrees. Although short, this is a lovely, introspective, and philosophical piece.

Dallas first grabbed the national imagination in 1936 when it hosted the Texas Centennial Exposition. Since then, the fascination with Big D has seldom flagged. If the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 cast a pall over the city, the success of the Dallas Cowboys and the popularity of the television series Dallas revived the image of a glitzy, hustling metropolis at the center of the Sunbelt.

The Louvre. The very name conjures up scenes of art and elegance, and of long halls filled with beauty and people strolling through them whispering quietly among themselves about the glories they are witnessing. Even those who have never been to the Louvre know some of its most prized possessions, from ancient statues to Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. As the world's largest museum, the Louvre is the cultural highpoint of Paris, a city that has long been considered the cultural center of Europe.

Eva and Rafe's story continues in this emotional, angsty, rockstar romance from the best-selling author of The Rixon Raiders series. Eighteen-year-old Eva Walker knew going on tour with Black Hearts Still Beat would be complicated. She didn’t expect to find herself torn between two brothers. One wants her but he walked away before. The other needs her but she doesn’t understand why. It’s only time before the truth comes out, and when it does, nothing will be the same for Country’s newest sweetheart and the black-hearted boys of Rock.

The Fourth Horseman tells the startling story of that mission, led by a brilliant but conflicted surgeon who became one of Germany's most daring spies and saboteurs during World War I - and who not only pioneered bio-warfare in his native land but also lead a last-ditch German effort to goad Mexico into invading the United States. It is a story of mysterious missions, divided loyalties, and a new and terrible kind of warfare.

Although many have heard of the Crusades and some of the more famous orders like the Templars, few know about the Livonian Crusade or the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. This organization was one of many Catholic military orders that sprung up during the Middle Ages in response to the papacy’s call for holy war, and the Livonian Crusade is the term used to group together dozens of military actions undertaken by German knights in Eastern Europe. The order would go on to become one of the most influential of religious knighthoods by incorporating into the Teutonic Knights.

Of all the original 13 colonies in America, only one owes its conception to one man, and indeed, Pennsylvania was and still remains bound up in the life and character of its founder, William Penn. Here was a man born into a military family who saw his father rise through the ranks of the 17th-century English court to become a friend of the king, and he even considered a military career for himself, only to leave it all behind to become a member of the "Society of Friends", known colloquially as the Quakers.

Music was his first love. Hers was the lanky boy from summer camp with a beautiful voice and starlit green eyes. Isabelle and Roman thought they’d be together until the end of time. Then fate proved an orphan from the West Coast couldn’t have a future with a wealthy New Yorker hiding the scars of an abusive home. Five years after their hearts are broken, fate strikes again when they’re reunited as a waitress headlining a bar-band, and a successful rockstar kicking off his first tour.

Brother Mackey outlines a brief history of why we, as Freemasons, consider operative and speculative masonry to be interconnected even though on the surface they don't appear to be. He discusses symbolism being handed down by generations of priests as well as the erection of King Solomon's temple and our role in all of it.

Of all the goals the Bolshevik Revolution aimed to bring about, perhaps nowhere were Russian promises delivered on more than in the success of the Soviet Space program of the 1950s and 1960s. As a result of Russian innovation and technology, but also due to incredible drive to modernize and compete with the United States for world power, Russia was finally and triumphantly modernized in the eyes of her own people and the world.

When you’ve maxed out your level, done every quest, and defeated every enemy, there’s not much left. So after seven centuries of immortality, Sean wants nothing more than to die. But when a woman from a past life informs him of a real, flesh-and-blood descendant that has hacked his way in, Sean finds a new purpose. The AI doesn’t take kindly to interlopers, and parks the intruder in the one realm so buggy that even the oldest, most powerful denizens of Afterall steer clear of it - the Bitrealm.