Showing results by narrator "Sean Runnette" in All Categories

Herbert Clark Hoover, first an international businessman, a global hero during World War I, and then a cabinet officer under Presidents Harding and Coolidge, was elected president in 1928. The next year, as President Hoover embarked on his progressive agenda for the country, the Roaring Twenties ended, crashingly, in the Great Depression.

President Martin Van Buren, a Jacksonian Democrat, did his best to project a strong executive image, like that of his predecessor. However, the Panic of 1837 crippled Van Buren’s economic plan. His effort to influence the courts in the Amistad case—involving a group of Africans who had staged a revolt from their Spanish captors on the high seas—only fueled his abolitionist opponents.

In 1995, Darell Hammond read an article in the Washington Post about an unthinkable tragedy: Two young children suffocated in a car on a hot summer day in southeast Washington, D.C. The story indicated that the children had nowhere to play; in the absence of a playground, they had climbed into an abandoned car. Reading the article fueled Hammond's sense of injustice, and his life's mission came into focus

Chaplains of the Militia is the extraordinary story of those priests accused of complicity in genocide. Chris McGreal takes us from Rwanda in 1994, where he stood among the bodies at one of the many massacres in churches, to modern day France in pursuit of a priest notorious during the genocide for wearing a gun and selecting victims for the machete-waving militia.

From best-selling author Dennis McFarland comes an extraordinary Civil War novel: the journey of a nineteen-year-old private abandoned by his comrades in the Wilderness, struggling to regain his voice, his identity, and his place in a world - all utterly changed by what he has experienced on the battlefield. In the winter of 1864, young Summerfield Hayes, a pitcher for the famous Eckford Club, enlists in the Union army, leaving his sister, a schoolteacher, devastated and alone in their Brooklyn home.

While examining the history of our planet and actively exploring our present environment, science journalist Michael Tennesen describes what life on Earth could look like after the next mass extinction.

In 1943, Albert Schatz, a young Rutgers College Ph.D. student, worked on a wartime project in microbiology professor Selman Waksman's lab, searching for an antibiotic to fight infections on the front lines and at home. In his 11th experiment on a common bacterium found in farmyard soil, Schatz discovered streptomycin, the first effective cure for tuberculosis, one of the world's deadliest diseases.

In October of 1910, only four years before the outbreak of World War I, nobody knew whether planes, dirigibles, or balloons would prevail. Within a period of 17 days, this question was on prime display, as the dirigible America tried to cross the Atlantic; huge crowds gathered at horse-racing tracks to watch airplanes race around overhead; and ballooning teams from around the world took off from St. Louis in pursuit of the Bennett International Balloon Cup, given to the balloon that traveled the farthest.

Chester A. Arthur, who had profited from a plum patronage position dur­ing the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, found himself thrust into a dif­ficult role when his predecessor, James Garfield, died of a gunshot wound. With Garfield’s death, the controversy over political patronage bubbled to a head.

President Richard M. Nixon, the first president to resign from office in disgrace, sought to exert so much power in office that he eventually became tangled up in the Watergate scandal and its cover-up. These incidents ultimately led to the appointment of a special prosecutor and a burgeoning criminal investigation of his own conduct. Nixon’s secret White House taping system provided the smoking gun that would lead to the unraveling of his administration.

President James Monroe recognized that as the United States matured, it had to convey forcefully what the nation’s place in the world would be. In articulating the Monroe Doctrine, the fifth president declared that the new democratic republic would refrain from seeking to exert control over other nations.

In this vivid new interpretation of Genesis, former Episcopal priest John R. Coats looks at the ancient text and its characters in a new light, as stories about people whose day-to-day concerns, triumphs, and failures are not unlike our own. In fact, understanding the people and stories of Genesis can help you understand your own life, family, and colleagues.

We often feel powerless in our lives. We have many desires but are limited in our ability to transform those wishes into tangible results. We are confused and unsure about what will really make us happy. In Eternal Dharma, Vishnu Swami guides you on a journey to align yourself with the natural flow of existence through the ancient Eastern knowledge of Veda. Eternal Dharma distills 5,000 years of spiritual wisdom so you can learn to live an enlightened, effective, and fulfilled life.

Ulysses S. Grant, a war hero who sought peace after the horrors of Civil War, struggled with a Congress that was divided on the issue of civil rights. He watched his own Supreme Court appointments undermine the new Reconstruction amendments to the Constitution as the Court inter­preted them in a narrow, even harsh, fashion. Grant never lost his sta­tus as an American hero.

Benjy Ballou lives in Smiles, Pennsylvania and is the best little boy in all the world. One might almost call him unbearably good. He's such a very good boy he gets an extra-special wish from a Good Fairy! And oh, what a wish....

In this excerpt from So Many Roads, Rolling Stone contributing editor David Browne chronicles one of the most conflicted years in the Dead's history—1977, when the band’s popularity soars thanks to a massive free concert, but Jerry Garcia begins to dabble in the hard drugs that would ultimately kill him.

President John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic elected as the nation’s chief executive, tried to dodge politically sensitive issues, maintaining a cau­tious, moderate approach. After riots by segregationists and the murder of innocent blacks in the Deep South, President Ken­nedy abandoned his cautious posture and advocated sweeping civil rights reform.

Once upon a time, Hoagy had it all: a hugely successful debut novel, a gorgeous celebrity wife, the glamorous world of New York City at his feet. These days, he scrapes by as a celebrity ghostwriter. A celebrity ghostwriter who finds himself investigating murders more often than he'd like. And once upon a time, Richard Aintree was the most famous writer in America. But after his wife's death, Richard went into mourning...and then into hiding. No one has heard from him in 20 years.

Journey with Adam Hamilton as he travels from Nazareth to Bethlehem in this fascinating look at the birth of Jesus Christ. As he did with Jesus' crucifixion in 24 Hours That Changed the World, Hamilton once again approaches a world-changing event with thoughtfulness. Using historical information, archaeological data, and a personal look at some of the stories surrounding the birth, the most amazing moment in history will become more real and heartfelt as you walk along this road.

On May 17th, 1968, a group of Catholic antiwar activists burst into a draft board in suburban Baltimore, stole hundreds of Selective Service records (which they called "death certificates"), and burned the documents in a fire fueled by homemade napalm. The bold actions of the ''Catonsville Nine'' quickly became international news and captured headlines throughout the summer and fall of 1968 when the activists, defended by radical attorney William Kunstler, were tried in federal court.