Showing results by narrator "Matthew J. Chandler-Smith" in All Categories

“I am not a racist. I am against every form of racism and segregation, every form of discrimination. I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.” How could Malcolm X, whose favorite mantra was “the white man is the devil,” have been the author of those words? In this book, you will join Malcolm X on his sincere search for truth. You will discover the painful, tortuous journey of Malcolm X’s life, which holds the key to the influences and experiences that shaped this man’s mind.

While these are ancient events, they do have direct relevance to the world in which we live today. Scientists have spent a great deal of time looking at the Great Ice Age, principally because understanding it could help us understand the complex web of linked factors that lead to climate change. That, in turn, may help us to understand the changes in climate we seem to be facing today. This is the fascinating story of the Great Ice Age.

Audie Murphy was a movie star, writer, and one of the most decorated soldiers who ever lived. He was barely 18 years old when he was shipped off to fight Fascists in Italy during World War II. As he himself would later liken it, he went “to hell and back” and lived to tell the tale. In this book, we will dive deeper to bring you the man behind the medals. Here is a telling of the life and legend of Audie Murphy in full.

The Irish War of Independence, which ended in July 1921, led directly to the agreement of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, an agreement that provided Ireland with a measure of independence. The Irish Free State was created, and Ireland was granted a level of autonomy it had not enjoyed for more than 100 years. However, the treaty contained a clause that was to divide Ireland, literally and politically.

There are moments in history when two different people who have two completely different visions of the future rise to prominence at the same time and in the same exact place. The Chinese Civil War, which saw Chiang Kai-shek and his rival Mao Zedong fighting for the future of China, is a great case in point. Chiang believed that China should modernize and embrace capitalism. Mao, however, believed that communist doctrine would be the true salvation for the Chinese masses.

London was a tinderbox waiting to ignite. An unusually hot and dry summer had drained the city’s water supplies, and without an organized firefighting force, its citizens were left to fend for themselves. The stage was set for catastrophe, and in the early hours of Sunday, September 2, 1666, the spark was struck. A seemingly inconsequential fire ignited in a baker’s shop on Pudding Lane. Unchecked and underestimated, it would grow to become one of the most devastating disasters London had ever faced.

Much of the history of Ireland is defined by the basic facts of its location as an island perched on the very western edge of Europe. Events that had a profound impact on other parts of Europe—the rise of the Roman Empire, the diaspora of Celtic people, and the settlement of Anglo-Saxons in Britain—either had relatively little impact in Ireland or happened much later than in other parts of Europe.

Michael Jackson is undoubtedly a legend. His music is known all over the world, and his status as the “King of Pop” is rarely if ever disputed. However, as much as we know about Jackson’s larger-than-life presence on the stage, less is known about the story of his life. MJ dominated the '80s, then fell hard in the '90s, but was poised for a comeback in 2009. He would put everything on the line to make sure that his performance was flawless. Although he would ultimately leave this mortal plane in the undertaking, his legacy would become greater than ever before.

The 1918 outbreak of the H1N1 strain of influenza, popularly known as the Spanish flu, killed more people worldwide than World War I, which ended the same year. It infected nearly one-third of the world's population and killed 10 percent of those it struck. In its wake, schools and businesses closed, hospitals became overwhelmed, and the sick spilled out into makeshift care centers in public spaces. Policemen, public transportation workers, and everyday citizens in face masks were a common - and eerie - sight.

On September 11, 2001, the United States faced the most devastating terrorist attack in world history when members of al-Qaeda, an Islamist fundamentalist movement, hijacked four commercial airliners and crashed them into buildings in New York and Washington, DC. Nearly 3,000 people died in these attacks, and one month later, US President George W. Bush announced the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom, a military operation intended to remove the Taliban in Afghanistan and ensure that terrorists from al-Qaeda had no safe haven in that country.

Discover the remarkable history of the Inca Empire...In the space of less than one hundred years, the Inca people expanded from being a small kingdom in the highlands of Peru to becoming one of the largest and most powerful empires in the Americas. At the height of its power, the Inca Empire stretched for more than one thousand miles down the Andes Mountains and the west coast of South America. It incorporated more than two hundred distinct ethnic groups and somewhere around fourteen million people were ruled by a much smaller number of Incas.

Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures first and then revised them for print. His first two collections of essays, Essays: First Series (1841) and Essays: Second Series (1844), represent the core of his thinking. They include the well-known essays "Self-Reliance" and "The Over-Soul". Together with "Nature", these essays made the decade from the mid-1830s to the mid-1840s Emerson's most fertile period.

Wyatt Earp was one of the most famous lawmen that the Wild West ever produced. He was also one of the longest-lived. Considering the fact that he lived all the way up until his 80s while many of his contemporaries never made it out of their 30s, this in itself was quite a feat. Wyatt Earp’s good friend and sidekick Doc Holliday, for example, perished at 36. But even though Earp lived a long life, he was no stranger to danger. He was shot at more times than he could count, and there were plenty of people out there who wanted him dead.

Amy Winehouse was one of the most iconic voices of her generation. Born in London in 1983, she rose to fame with her soulful, jazz-inspired music, and became a household name with hits like “Rehab” and “Back to Black.” However, behind her success laid a life of personal struggles and addiction that ultimately led to her tragic death at 27-years-old.

The US-led war in Iraq from 2003 to 2011 was one of the most controversial wars in recent history. The invasion of Iraq was justified by claims that the regime of Saddam Hussein had links with terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda, and possessed weapons of mass destruction that might be used in an attack on another country. Both these claims were later shown to be false.

This book tells the story of the temperance movement in America, of its rise over a period of 100 years to encompass the growing women’s movement, and how it eventually attained its goal in 1920. It tells the story of Prohibition itself, of how people exploited loopholes in the law to continue drinking legally, and of how they simply ignored the law and drank illegally. It tells the story of the bootleggers and corrupt officials who made fortunes during Prohibition and the politicians who supported and attacked it.

Roy Orbison possessed a voice that commanded immediate attention. He may have appeared meek and mild-mannered on the surface, yet beneath this facade lay an inner world brimming with passion and fervor. Orbison’s style was innovative and avant-garde, almost as if he were an embodiment of alternative rock before the term even entered the lexicon. He represented the emotive, tender facet of rock and roll, a stark contrast to his contemporaries, who were often swathed in leather jackets and exuded the confidence of a typical rockstar.

Vera Atkins is one of the many unsung heroes and heroines of World War II. She carried out her life with great care and due diligence, quietly becoming the perfect spy when no one was watching. Beneath her polished exterior was a mind built for strategy, secrecy, and survival. But Vera wasn’t just a spy—she was a Spymistress. That’s what her operatives in Britain’s military intelligence unit, the Special Operations Executive, called her.

Long-time adversaries Germany and the Soviet Union put their hostilities to the test in World War II. Despite a temporary truce in the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-aggression Pact in 1939, the Germans and the Soviets knew that the time was coming when they would face one another on the battlefield. But Operation Barbarossa was the beginning of the downfall of the Third Reich, as the dogged Russian refusal to succumb and the menace of the Russian winter demonstrated that the Soviet Union would not surrender as other European nations had done.

Lyndon B. Johnson was a powerful figure in American politics for many decades. Rising to prominence as a congressman and senator in his home state of Texas, he then became the surprise vice-president pick for the young and dashing John F. Kennedy. LBJ certainly cut a far different figure and utilized a much different approach than JFK, but he was just as charismatic (and not to mention cunning) in his own right. When Kennedy was tragically struck down by an assassin’s bullet in 1963, Johnson was sure to rise to the occasion.