Showing posts with label Presidential Classics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Presidential Classics. Show all posts

Monday, February 15, 2016

Happy President's Day from Cosimo!

Grab one of these great historical reads to celebrate President's Day with Cosimo!


The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson by Thomas Jefferson
Most famously known for writing the Declaration of Independence at age 33, Thomas Jefferson was one of the most influential politicians in American history. A member of the House of Burgess, the Continental Congress, Governor of Virginia, and member of the United States Congress, Jefferson reveals his view from inside the beginning of a country. This autobiography details 47 years of his life, from birth until his appointment as Secretary of State to President George Washington in 1790, giving intimate knowledge and background of the man who would become the third president of the United States of America.



The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses by Theodore Roosevelt
Of all the many sides of Theodore Roosevelt, politician and soldier, naturalist and historian, today he remains a grand symbol of booming American progress in the 20th century. Indeed, he is largely responsible for setting the nation on the course it has followed over those hundred years, as this 1904 volume handily demonstrates. This collection of speeches Roosevelt gave and essays he wrote from 1899 through 1901 illuminates his keen image of America as a nation strong of character, honest of leadership, and rich in material and moral wealth, and represents the splendid challenge he extended to the American people to match him in action and in spirit, and to create a political and social life for the country as robust as his own personal and public life was. This is, in the aggregate, a revealing picture of the character of one of the great American personalities.




Abraham Lincoln by Lord Charnwood
One of the most important works on Abraham Lincoln from the era when he was passing out of living memory and into history, this 1917 classic is a rich, evocative portrait of the man and how actions as a leader were shaped by his character and ideals. From its British perspective, offering a fresh angle on an American legend, to its charming readability, Charnwood's treatise, which was called, in 1947, "the best one-volume life of Lincoln ever written" by historian Benjamin Thomas, today remains one of the most intriguing examinations of the great president, and a keystone for understanding the evolution of Lincoln scholarship.




Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States 
Through times of war and times of peace, periods of prosperity and scarcity, hours dark and bright, the continuation of the American government through legal, Constitutionally guaranteed means has never faltered. There can be no better representation of that marvel, unequaled in world history, than the inaugural addresses of incoming Presidents. A collection of first speeches from each of the nation's new leaders, plus the subsequent inaugural words of re-elected Presidents, Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States gathers in one important volume the thoughts of the first to the forty-fourth leader as he entered office. This updated edition includes speeches from Bill Clinton (42), George W. Bush (43) and Barack Obama (44), also the first African American president ever to take office.




Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Lincoln the Movie Receives Wide Praise from The New York Times

In its debut weekend with wide release across the United States, Lincoln pulled in over $21,000,000, making it the 3rd ranked movie in the US.

Film critic A.O. Scott of The New York Times says, "To say that is is among the fines films ever made about American politics may be to congratulate it for clearing a fairly low bar...

And the genius of Lincoln, finally, lies in its vision of politics as a noble, sometimes clumsy dialectic of the exalted and the mundane. Our habit of argument, someone said recently, is a mark of our liberty, and Mr. Kushner, whose love of passionate, exhaustive disputation is unmatched in the modern theater, fills nearly every scene with wonderful, maddening talk. Mr. Spielberg's best art often emerges in passages of wordlessness, when the images speak for themselves, and the way he composes his pictures and cuts between them endow the speeches and debates with emotional force, and remind us of what is at stake.

Go see this movie. Take your children, even though the may occasionally be confused or fidgety. Boredom and confusion are also part of democracy, after all Lincoln is a rough and noble democratic masterpiece - an omen, perhaps, that movies for the people shall not perish from the earth."

To read more of A.O. Scott's review, visit movies.nytimes.com.

And to help relieve some of the confusion surrounding Lincoln, Cosimo Books has several titles to educate you and your family about one of our nation's most notorious and beloved presidents, perfect gifts for any history buff this holiday season:


Herndon's Lincoln: A True Story of a Great Life by William Herndon


Abraham Lincoln by Lord Charnwood



Abraham Lincoln: A History by Hay and Nicolay, a 10-volume set available in hardcover and paperback


The Lincoln Year Book: Axioms and Aphorisms From the Great Emancipator by Wallace Rice


Lincoln isn't the only president making headlines this holiday season. Journalist and historian, Jon Meacham has just released his new biography of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power with an extensive review by The New York Times Executive Director, Jill Abramson, in the Sunday Book Review: "Grand Bargainer."

Also available, from Cosimo Classics, to offer insight and understanding into the life and mind of our third president are:

The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson, Available in hardcover and paperback December 1st

The Works of Thomas Jefferson, A 12 Volume Set

The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth

A Manual of Parliamentary Practice by Jefferson