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Speaking to a fractured country for the first time as president, Abraham Lincoln endorsed a constitutional amendment designed to permanently safeguard slavery in every state in which the institution already existed. If that proslavery provision had been ratified, it would have become the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Three years later, Lincoln again threw his support behind a constitutional amendment to address slavery: this time to abolish it. Formally ratified in 1865, this is the Thirteenth Amendment we know today. What happened in those intervening years that led Lincoln to switch from supporting a proslavery amendment to embracing the antislavery provision that ultimately became enshrined in the Constitution? Why did the Thirteenth Amendment of 1864–65 win out over that of 1861? Lincoln himself provided a key to understanding: "I claim not to have controlled events," he said, "but confess plainly that events have controlled me."In Emancipation War award-winning journalist Damon Root chronicles the great legal, political, and military struggle to amend the U.S. Constitution to outlaw slavery once and for all. It is the story of canny political tacticians and unyielding radicals; of famous orators and unsung pamphleteers; of liberty-minded Union officers and enslaved persons who liberated themselves by following the North Star to freedom, and who then, in some cases, donned uniforms and took up arms against their former enslavers. It was this wide-ranging movement against slavery—operating both inside and outside the halls of government power, fighting both on and off the battlefield—that made an antislavery constitutional amendment possible. Telling the story from both the top down and the bottom up, Emancipation War provides a gripping and revealing new history of the Thirteenth Amendment.

Named a 2020 Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year AwardFinalist for the 2021 Eric Hoffer AwardFinalist for the 2021 Feathered Quill AwardLonglisted for the 2020 Clara Johnson AwardJacqueline Saper, named after Jacqueline Kennedy, was born in Tehran to Iranian and British parents. At eighteen she witnessed the civil unrest of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and continued to live in the Islamic Republic during its most volatile times, including the Iran–Iraq War. In a deeply intimate and personal story, Saper recounts her privileged childhood in prerevolutionary Iran and how she gradually became aware of the paradoxes in her life and community, primarily the disparate religions and cultures. In 1979, under the Ayatollah regime, Iran became increasingly unfamiliar and hostile to Saper. Seemingly overnight she went from a carefree life of wearing miniskirts and attending high school to listening to fanatic diatribes, being forced to wear the hijab, and hiding in the basement as Iraqi bombs fell over the city. After witnessing her six-year-old daughter's indoctrination into radical Islamic politics at school, she fled to the United States in 1987 with her husband and children. At the heart of Saper's story, From Miniskirt to Hijab: A Girl in Revolutionary Iran, is a harrowing and instructive tale of how extremist ideologies seized a Westernized, affluent country and transformed it into a fundamentalist Islamic society.

In his final days in office in 1909, Theodore Roosevelt invited dozens of friends to the White House for lunch. They had never met as a group, but they had one thing in common: Each played tennis with the president and advised on policy matters. Roosevelt half-joked that the public would never know how much these tennis partners did to make his administration a success. Journalists dismissively called them the "Tennis Cabinet," making light of their contribution, but Roosevelt knew otherwise. This inner circle led the administration's campaigns against corporate greed, investigated public health violations, and formulated consumer protections. They founded environmental conservation policies, prosecuted civil rights violations, and implemented bureaucratic efficiencies that saved the government billions. Roosevelt's tennis mates shaped the nation's diplomacy, ending wars and promoting American interests abroad. Never had a more eclectic group advised a U.S. president. The Tennis Cabinet included legendary frontier lawman Seth Bullock and the starched-shirt corporate lawyer Henry Stimson, who served in five presidential administrations. Texas wolf wrangler Jack Abernathy played with stuffy bureaucrats like Labor Commissioner Charles Patrick Neill and social activist James Bronson Reynolds. The French ambassador Jean Jules Jusserand spun yarns with football hero George Washington Woodruff and Roosevelt's college friend and banker Robert Bacon. James Garfield, namesake son of a martyred president, sipped mint juleps with Supreme Court Justice William Henry Moody. And J. P. Morgan's silver-spooned son-in-law Herbert Satterlee kept company with rugged soldier Luther "Yellowstone" Kelly. For all their differences, these men shared a desire to help the president transform the nation from a parochial nineteenth-century republic into an imperial and industrial global power. They have escaped the attention of reporters and historians only because of Roosevelt's towering celebrity. Turning away from Roosevelt as the singular force behind his administration, it is possible to see how the contributions of his Tennis Cabinet quietly sowed the seeds of the American Century.

From her childhood in Puli Khumri, Afghanistan, to her courageous advocacy on the global stage today, Judge Marzia Babakarkhail weaves together deeply personal stories that resonate with international audiences. Marzia: A Judge's Fight for Afghan Women's Rights takes readers on a heart-pounding journey through the stark realities of life under Taliban rule following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021—navigating checkpoints, relying on secret networks, and making high-stakes decisions in moments where every second mattered. Through vivid storytelling, Marzia brings to life the fear that gripped so many, as well as the resilience that carried her and countless others forward. As a former judge and advocate, Marzia's commitment to justice never wavered, even in the face of threats, exile, and unimaginable pressure. Her story is not merely one of survival, but also of determination and strength. It reflects the broader struggle faced by women throughout Afghanistan, particularly those in the legal system who risked everything to uphold the rule of law and protect others' rights. Through Marzia's journey, this book stands as a tribute to the International Association of Women Judges, honoring countries, governments, organizations, and individuals who refused to stay silent. It is a call to remember, to act, and to stand in solidarity with Afghanistan—especially with its women of justice, whose bravery and unwavering spirit continue to inspire the world. This is not just Marzia's story—it is the story of a movement, of resistance, and of hope in the darkest of times.

Life Beyond Fear chronicles the harrowing journey of a Ukrainian woman and her family, forced to flee their war-torn homeland in search of safety, hope, and a new beginning. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, life as Natalie Oceanheart's family knew it crumbled overnight. Oceanheart woke up her two small children to explain that their city was under attack, moved her elderly parents to safety, and ultimately moved her family to the United States. Yet the war had been shadowing their lives since 2014, with Russia's first invasion. Through raw and honest storytelling, Oceanheart traces her family's path from the bombed streets of Ukraine to the uncertain crossroads of Europe, and finally to the United States, where they navigated an unfamiliar culture and rebuilt their lives as immigrants while carrying the invisible weight of trauma and loss. Oceanheart captures not only the horrors of war but also the small moments of humanity that shine through in the darkest times—the kindness of strangers, the strength of family, and the enduring hope for peace. Life Beyond Fear is more than a personal story: It is a testament to the resilience of families displaced by war, the complexities of immigration, and the universal human quest for safety, belonging, and freedom.

Charles Manson, arguably the most famous killer in American history, remains a source of fascination more than fifty years after the Tate–LaBianca murders that shocked the nation. In previous books about the 1969 murders, writers focused on trial testimony and scrambled to find anything new that would provide insight into what happened. The information they had was orchestrated by the prosecution, which used cult images and sex orgies to shock. But who was Manson, really? Was he the racist, Helter Skelter, mind-controlling cult master portrayed in the media? Or was there more? Only one journalist-Mary Neiswender-was able to meet Manson in person during the year-long trial in 1970. After Manson’s arrest, Neiswender spent more time with Manson than any other person, except maybe his prison guards. Manson and Neiswender spoke in person at the county jail or on the phone almost daily. However, the conversations between Manson and Neiswender have never been published: most of their talks were off the record, and Neiswender refused to write about them until after Manson’s death in prison in 2017. In Charlie and Me Neiswender finally reveals their conversations and the insights she gained from her time with Manson, a complicated man, a killer, and a figure of intense interest in American crime culture.

An eye-opening look at women’s war reporting, An Unladylike Profession is a portrait of a sisterhood from the guns of August to the corridors of Versailles. When World War I began, war reporting was a thoroughly masculine bastion of journalism. But that did not stop dozens of women reporters from stepping into the breach, defying gender norms and official restrictions to establish roles for themselves-and to write new kinds of narratives about women and war. Chris Dubbs tells the fascinating stories of Edith Wharton, Nellie Bly, and more than thirty other American women who worked as war reporters. As Dubbs shows, stories by these journalists brought in women from the periphery of war and made them active participants-fully engaged and equally heroic, if bearing different burdens and making different sacrifices. Women journalists traveled from belligerent capitals to the front lines to report on the conflict. But their experiences also brought them into contact with social transformations, political unrest, labor conditions, campaigns for women’s rights, and the rise of revolutionary socialism.

Top Gun Performance can help readers learn to achieve happiness, success, and health in school, sports, work, and life. Ted Carter, a Top Gun graduate, and Jack Stark, a performance psychologist and psychotherapist, have observed, commanded, and treated the behaviors of thousands of individuals. Both understand the need to pursue a specific lifestyle to perform at the very top. Both are tuned in to what people want out of life, what is getting in their way, and what they can do to overcome the mental and physical obstacles keeping them from achieving a Top Gun performance in all areas of their lives. Carter and Stark use their personal and professional histories to teach readers the psychological and mental performance tools they can use on a daily basis to meet the challenges they face. The authors share behind-the-scenes stories, techniques, and analysis to provide readers with a blueprint for building their own exceptional performance. Reviewing their careers in helping other people obtain successful outcomes, Carter and Stark offer a program readers can use in their own lives.

Blue Helmet: My Year as a UN Peacekeeper in South Sudan tells the story of a country, a conflict, and the institution of peacekeeping through the eyes of a senior American military officer working on the ground in one of the most dangerous countries on the planet. South Sudan is rich in natural resources, and its fertile soil could make it the breadbasket of East Africa. Yet it remains the poorest and most corrupt country in the region, plagued by disease, famine, and ethnic strife. Abductions, sexual violence, death, and displacement affect tens of thousands of people each year. Edward H. Carpenter pulls readers into his world, allowing them to experience the powerful, poignant realities of being a peacekeeper in South Sudan. In the process, the author reveals how the United Nations really conducts its missions: what it tolerates and how it often falls short of achieving the aims of its charter-equal rights, justice, and economic advancement for all people-with the use of armed forces limited to serving those common interests by keeping the peace and preventing the scourge of war. It is a story that is eye-opening, unsettling, and always compelling. Global leaders may fairly claim that they have done everything they can to help South Sudan help itself: they’ve dispatched thousands of peacekeepers and provided billions of dollars in aid. So why is the UN still struggling to fulfill its mandate to protect civilians and safeguard the delivery of humanitarian assistance? What could be done better? Bringing the reader to the forefront of action, Blue Helmet answers these questions and raises others about how modern peacekeeping missions are organized and overseen, shedding light on some of the contradictions at the heart of peacekeeping.