America's Mavericks

During the last presidential election, the term "maverick" was bandied about a bit loosely by several of the candidates. But in the course of American history, there have been many people who marched to the beat of a different drummer who, for better or worse, changed the nation and its people.

The following is a list of the titles chosen for the fall, 2010--spring, 2011 American History Book Discussion group. Join other history enthusiasts to discuss the lives of 10 men and women who truly left America profoundly different.

MONDAY, 27 SEPTEMBER, 2010 3:00--4:30

Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind, by Robert D. Richardson. University Press, 1986.
A look inside the life & mind of Thoreau and the Transcendentalist Movement.

MONDAY, 25 OCTOBER, 2010 3:00--4:30

Frederick Douglass, by William S. McFeely. Norton, 1991.
Born a slave in Maryland, Douglass accomplished the difficult task of self education in an era when slaves were not taught under penalty of law. McFeely presents a compelling portrait of this remarkable lecturer and abolitionist.

MONDAY, 22 NOVEMBER, 2010 3:00--4:30

Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Mother & an Daughter in the Gilded Age, by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart. HC, 2005.
A dual biography of two women--the granddaughter and daughter-in-law of the richest man in America--who eventually broke free from the deeply materialistic world into which they were born, taking up the fight for Women's Suffrage.

MONDAY, 27 DECEMBER, 2010 3:00--4:30

W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality & the American Century, 1919--1963, by David Levering Lewis. Holt, 2000.
The second part of a biography of the charismatic & and controversial African American author & scholar of the Harlem Renaissance, who fought for civil rights and justice for African Americans.

MONDAY, 24 JANUARY, 2011 3:00--4:30

Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger & the Birth Control Movement in America, by Ellen Chesler. S&S, 1992
In 1917, Margaret Sanger went to jail for distributing contraceptives to immigrant women in a makeshift clinic in Brooklyn. This biography presents Sanger as a visionary rebel during a time of the radical movements of pre-World War I to the family planning initiatives of the Great Society.

MONDAY, 28 FEBRUARY, 2011 3:00--4:30

Mencken: The American Iconoclast, by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers. OUP, 2005.
Author & newspaperman H.L. Mencken stands out as a fearless iconoclast who who greatly influenced 20th-century thought and culture. The author's extensive research and fresh interpretation reveal new aspects of this complex man and prolific writer.

MONDAY, 28 MARCH, 2011 3:00--4:30

American Dreamer: The Life & Times of Henry A. Wallace, by John C. Culver & John Hyde. Norton, 2000.
Vice president during Franklin Roosevelt's third term in the White House, Henry Wallace was a leader in American politics in the 1930s & 1940s, and the personification of New Deal liberalism. This biography places him in the social and political milieu of turn-of-the-century Iowa and of Washington politics between the wars.

MONDAY, 25 APRIL, 2011 3:00--4:30

Justice for All: Earl Warren & the Nation He Made, by Jim Newton. Riverhead, 2006.
Explores the political & personal life of Earl Warren, who played a key role in nearly every defining political moment in American history in the latter half of the 20th century.

MONDAY, 23 MAY, 2011 3:00--4:30

Little Man: Meyer Lansky & the Gangster Life, by Robert Lacey. LB, 1991.
This biography of Meyer "The Brain" Lansky is based on historical documents and interviews conducted with his acquaintances and relatives. A Jewish immigrant, played a large role in the consolidation of the national crime sydicate--the parent organization of what became the Mafia--although the full extent of this role has been the subject of some debate.

MONDAY, 27 JUNE, 2011 3:00--4:30

The Gentle Subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement, by Mark Hamilton Lytle. OUP, 2007.
Examines the early life, education & professional career as a biologist of Rachel Carson, as well as her development as a writer & ecological vision, culminating with her most famous and controversial work, Silent Spring

Titles chosen by Brad Silverman
Annotated by Lynne Kennedy

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