Once called "the most gifted character actor of our time" by Broadway theater producer Arthur Hopkins, Lionel Barrymore (1878–1954) was part of the illustrious Barrymore acting dynasty. Although he garnered success on stage and screen and was a talented actor, writer, director, visual artist, and composer, he never quite escaped the shadow of his family members—including his brother, John, famous for his leading roles. Barrymore won the Academy Award for Best Actor in A Free Soul (1931) and was nominated for Best Director for Madame X (1930). However, he is best known for his role as Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and as the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge in radio broadcasts of A Christmas Carol from 1934 to 1953. He spent the last two decades of his career playing versions of his signature character—the curmudgeonly but lovable gentleman—in a variety of films from You Can't Take It With You (1938) to Key Largo (1948). Barrymore worked alongside some of Hollywood's most recognizable names, including Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart, Frank Capra, Lauren Bacall, Clark Gable, and Ava Gardner, and his legacy is enshrined at the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where he has two stars—one for radio and one for film. In Lionel Barrymore: Character and Endurance in Hollywood's Golden Age, Kathleen Spaltro examines Barrymore as an individual rather than just a supporting cast member of the famous dynasty. This comprehensive study divides Barrymore's life into three compelling acts. Act One follows Barrymore's early days—his failed endeavor as a visual artist, his performances in the family vaudeville acts, his first silent motion pictures, and his greatest successes and failures on the stage. Act Two details Barrymore's establishment as a fixture at MGM, his foray into directing, his success as the first actor to thrive in the talkies, and his estimable Oscar-winning performance. Finally, Act Three expounds on Barrymore's curation of his trademark character—the endearing grouch—his exploits in radio, and his fateful final years. Spaltro also unearths Barrymore's personal challenges, recounts his difficulties with—and sometimes estrangement from—members of his family, and delves into the devastating losses Barrymore suffered: his divorce, the deaths of his two daughters, and later, the death of his second wife and the accidents that eventually consigned him to a wheelchair. Lionel Barrymore is a detailed, multifaceted portrait of a brilliant character actor.

Children's books play a critical role in building a child's worldview, introducing new vocabulary, and imparting moral lessons with examples from young readers' own contextual world. Yet there is a serious need for a perspective more attuned to the cultural and verbal complexities of Appalachia's young readership. Mommy Goose's Appalachian Melodies fills the gaps in children's literature by carving a space for readers to delight in language and the richness of music and storytelling in the region. Each lyrical poem and nursery rhyme, in tandem with whimsical and vibrant wood carvings, taps into the world of natural wonder and domestic charm. Revealed is a world populated with people, farm animals, wildlife, and nature that is equally familiar and fantastic to Appalachian children. The quaint and heartwarming poems address lessons of kindness, acceptance, and respect, while not shying away from poignant glimpses of life's harsh realities. This colorful collection celebrates the art, language, and culture of Appalachia and creates a unique and magical world—for children of all ages.

An emotive soprano, heartrending melodies about unrequited love, and a draped-over-the-piano persona made Helen Morgan (1902–1941) the original torch singer, but she was so much more. The versatile actress appeared on Broadway, in film, and on radio. In a number of stage revues, she danced, sang, and excelled in sketch comedy. She played Julie in Kern and Hammerstein's Broadway musical Show Boat (1927) and also starred in the duo's Sweet Adeline in 1929. That same year, Morgan appeared in Rouben Mamoulian's classic film Applause. When the Great Depression made theater roles scarce, she headed the CBS radio program Broadway Melodies and worked in the emerging medium of television. Yet Morgan's life was one of extremes. She earned a million dollars throughout her career but remained in constant debt. She was one of the most universally beloved people in her profession, but a stable romantic relationship eluded her until the very end of her life. She was a protofeminist who aided women facing unplanned pregnancies, yet she also sought respite in a man whose financial support would allow her to retire from the stage. Through it all, she battled alcoholism; brandy would eventually extinguish her flame in 1941. Helen Morgan: The Original Torch Singer and Ziegfeld's Last Star is the first biography of the gifted performer since 1974. Author Christopher Connelly utilizes interviews, newspaper articles, and family scrapbooks to present an honest and unflinching look at Morgan's life. Connelly's meticulous research addresses Morgan's troubled childhood, including her mother's six marriages, and the trauma of her stepfather's arrest and conviction for manslaughter in 1913. Also revealed are details regarding her early career in vaudeville and silent film, insights into the speakeasy and supper-club culture that served as a backdrop to Morgan's career, and accounts of her outstanding accomplishments, philanthropic actions, and enduring popularity. This gripping narrative presents the brief but brilliant life of a complex, talented, and iconic entertainer.

During the chaotic evacuation of the United States from Afghanistan in 2021, a group of Congress members who were also military veterans of the War on Terror leapt into action to assist vulnerable people in Afghanistan who had aided the American war effort. This cohort of legislators and their staffs on Capitol Hill created hotlines and worked 24-hour shifts in an intense effort to save lives, often coordinating between government agencies, informal networks of veterans' groups, and contacts on the ground in Kabul. In the process, many veteran lawmakers also became vocal critics of presidential management of the crisis and said they felt a moral obligation to act. In Staying in the Fight: How War on Terror Veterans in Congress Are Shaping U.S. Defense Policy, author Jeffrey S. Lantis shines a spotlight on this cohort of legislators and their unique position in the American government. By using exclusive interview data, archival sources, statistics, process -tracing, and comparative case methodology, Lantis illustrates ways that policy interventions and activism by veterans on both sides of the aisle haves shaped America's involvement in conflicts from Afghanistan to Ukraine. The first study of its kind to focus on this new generation of military veterans and their role in foreign and security policy decision-making, Staying in the Fight speaks directly to debates in civil-military relations, veterans' studies, and research on congressional foreign policy advocacy.

"To understand the Kentucky Derby is to understand the contemporary American spirit." One hundred and fifty years have passed since the Thoroughbreds of the inaugural Kentucky Derby sprang from the starting gate to race beneath the iconic Twin Spires of Churchill Downs. But the story of the greatest two minutes in sports is more than the pageantry of the horses and thrill of the people who love and celebrate the event. Through the decades, the Derby, like the state that founded it, has experienced profound moments of social, economic, and cultural change. As one of Kentucky's flagship cultural and economic institutions, the Thoroughbred racing industry must constantly reconcile with its past and think critically about the stories that have traditionally made it into the winner's circle. In the right hands, artifacts of material culture related to the Derby have the power to inspire nuanced stories of the past and shed light on marginalized voices in the industry's history. In The History of the Kentucky Derby in 75 Objects, Jessica K. Whitehead sets out to recover the accurate history of America's longest continuously held sporting event and establish a balance between well-known narratives and those that are less widely shared. Whitehead, curator of collections at the Kentucky Derby Museum, gives readers a personal tour of 75 objects from the museum. Her selections place Black, Latin American, and female riders, owners, and trainers closer to the center of the Derby story, spotlighting the contributions and achievements of groups that have played an increasingly important role in shaping the legacy of the Run for the Roses.

Although there are currently only a handful of members of the Shaker faith and one active community in the world today, Shakerism at its peak comprised thousands of members living in communal villages across the eastern United States. Kentucky's iconic Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill was one of these communities, and it remains an enduring cultural touchstone. The history of the Shakers is often reduced to the handmade objects they produced and sold, but their lives were so much more than their material culture. Their efforts were suffused with their religious beliefs: each piece's sturdy simplicity memorializes the Believers' devotion to God and how it guided their every action.Shaker Made is photographer Carol Peachee's love letter to the cultural artifacts - the architecture, furniture, and crafts - of one of America's most influential utopian societies. Peachee has photographed Pleasant Hill for more than four decades - from small items such as eyeglasses, embroidered handkerchiefs, elixir bottles, and bonnets, to the distinguished furniture and architecture of the more than 260 buildings that the Shakers built at Pleasant Hill. The curator of collections at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Rebecca Soules, provides an informative foreword to the photos, while Peachee herself offers a lovingly written introduction explaining her personal connection to the subject. The attention to detail in the simple yet beautifully composed photographs evokes the "spirit of the maker" and serves as an elegant and respectful tribute to the history and legacy of the Pleasant Hill Shakers - an often-misunderstood people who sought to honor the divine in all aspects of life.

Located approximately forty miles northwest of Philadelphia, the working-class borough of Pottstown does not immediately come to mind as an influential site of the Black Freedom Struggle. Yet this small town in Pennsylvania served as a significant hub of interracial civil rights activism with regional as well as national impact. In The Jim Crow North: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Matthew George Washington adds another interpretive perspective to historiography by using both the "freedom North" and the "long civil rights movement" theoretical models to frame the borough's unique history. Primary documents, including newspaper accounts, census records, oral histories, and correspondence present a vivid account of a rapidly changing town, from the dawn of its civil rights movement during World War II to the revitalization of its NAACP branch in the early 1950s and its activism throughout the 1960s. Placing special emphasis on the demographic nature of the movement, Washington explores how interracial collaboration among the working class made up the movement's critical base—and how, through it all, Black activists remained front and center.This critical examination of Pottstown illuminates the struggle for African American civil rights in one of the long-ignored urban spaces of the North, providing a rich and in-depth portrait of the Black Freedom Struggle of postwar America.

In Black Officer, White Navy, Lieutenant Commander Reuben Keith Green shares a compelling and enthralling account of how, as a Black man in the post–Vietnam War era, he navigated his unique career path from high school dropout to unrestricted line officer in the US Navy. Weaving history with personal narrative, Green's engaging, raw, and insightful storytelling style provides an insider's analysis of what was happening within the navy, ultimately exposing systemic racism throughout the US military. Using the "power of the pen," he offers uninhibited accounts of sometimes life-threatening confrontations that resulted from personal and institutional racial bias, describing what it was like to "sail second class" in the navy. Green, who retired as a decorated surface-warfare officer in the mid-1990s, presents an eye-opening account of the challenges, discrimination, and resistance he faced while serving in the military. Through it all, Green's characteristic sense of humor and honesty shine as he tells one hell of a sea story.

George Lucas is an innovative and talented director, producer, screenwriter, and filmmaker whose prolific career spans decades. While he is best known as the creative mind behind the Star Wars franchise, Lucas first gained notoriety with his 1973 film American Graffiti, which received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture. When Star Wars (1977) was released, the groundbreaking motion picture won six Academy Awards, became the highest grossing film at the time, and started a cultural revolution that continues to inspire generations of fans. Three decades and countless successes later, Lucas announced semiretirement in 2012 and sold his highly successful production company, Lucasfilm, to Disney. His achievements have earned him the Academy's Irving G. Thalberg Award, the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award, induction into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and the California Hall of Fame, and a National Medal of Arts presented by President Barack Obama. Lucas: His Hollywood Legacy is the first collection to bring a sustained scholarly perspective to the iconic filmmaker and his legacy beyond the Star Wars films. Edited by Richard Ravalli, this volume analyzes Lucas's overall contribution and importance to the film industry, diving deep into his use and development of modern special effects technologies, the history of his Skywalker Ranch production facilities, and more. With clearly written and enlightening critiques by experts consulting rare collections and archival materials, this book is an original and robust project that sets the standard for historical and cultural studies of Lucas.

On May 3, 1943, dozens of airplanes could be seen flying in and out of Royal Air Force Bovingdon Airfield near London, England. Among the aircraft seen that day was a B-24D bomber named Hot Stuff, which carried the Commanding General of US Forces in Europe, Lieutenant General Frank M. Andrews -the officer charged with formulating a plan to invade the European continent. Speculation was that General George C. Marshall had called Andrews back to Washington, DC, leading many to believe that Marshall had another promotion in store for Andrews. Tragically, Andrews would never arrive. While attempting to land in Iceland, the bomber crashed into the side of a mountain, with no survivors other than the tail gunner; Andrews's personal papers were also destroyed. In Marshall's Great Captain: Lieutenant General Frank M. Andrews, author Kathy Wilson details Andrews's extraordinary life and career. The first biography dedicated to the namesake of Joint Base Andrews, this book sheds a light on Andrews's crucial role in orchestrating US involvement in World War II, as well as the professional relationship and rapport that Andrews and Marshall shared. Drawing on extensive research, Wilson raises Andrews's legacy to its legitimate place within the annals of both air power and World War II history and posits that there is a high probability that Andrews, rather than Dwight D. Eisenhower, was Marshall's first choice for the office of Supreme Allied Commander. Marshall recounted that Andrews was the only one he had a chance to prepare for such a command.

Queerness, labels, and allyship are central themes in this moving collection of stories set in Turkey, where Middle Eastern and Euro-American expressions of identity collide and naming one's orientation is a fraught endeavor. An eleven-year-old undergoes hand surgery that will allow him to wear a wedding ring in adulthood. Two college roommates reach an erotic understanding as they indulge in dessert. A sex worker meets an American same-sex marriage activist in the Aegean countryside. A passionate hookup during Istanbul Pride ends in teargas. Two friends' tempers flare over cold red wine on a hot summer night by the Dardanelles. A father, his son, and the son's drag queen boyfriend bond over classic Turkish cinema on the Mediterranean coast. In Sweet Tooth and Other Stories, Serkan Görkemli weaves together interconnected narratives of four Turkish characters—Hasan, Gökhan, Nazlý, and Cenk—who search for clarity, love, and acceptance amid social change. Set in a rich mixture of urban and rural locales, the stories take place from the 1980s through the 2010s against the backdrop of Turkey's transition from military-backed secularism to the rise of the religious right, local and global media representations, and the emergence of LGBTQ+ identities. Görkemli creates a complex and engaging network of plots about his characters' struggles and triumphs in navigating families, communities, and themselves. Braving discrimination, they strive to embrace their identities and find joy, solace, and approval within a society that marginalizes who they are and how they love.

No Thoroughbred race in the state of Kentucky holds a more hallowed place in the national and international consciousness than the Kentucky Derby. Its fame is richly deserved, yet there are other equally important and historic races whose significance deserves a larger share of the spotlight—none more so than the Derby's sister race, the Kentucky Oaks. Inaugurated on May 19, 1875—just two days after the first Kentucky Derby—and run annually at Churchill Downs since then, the Kentucky Oaks is America's most prestigious race for three-year-old fillies and the second-oldest continuously run horse race in North America. Always cherished by horsemen as a test for the future mothers of the Thoroughbred, the Oaks has in recent years become a major charity and fashion gala in addition to its significance as a sporting event. Yet, although multiple books have been published about the Kentucky Derby, popular and academic historians alike have largely overlooked the Oaks.In The Kentucky Oaks: 150 Years of Running for the Lilies, author Avalyn Hunter sets out to recover the history of one of the most watched and highly attended events in Thoroughbred racing. Beginning with Meriweather Lewis Clark Jr.'s creation of a race designed to parallel England's historic Oaks Stakes, Hunter traces the evolution of the Kentucky Oaks through the stories of the men, women, and fillies that have made the Kentucky Oaks a symbol for women's growing participation in the sport at all levels.

Born at the turn of the twentieth century in Cynthiana, Kentucky, Elizabeth Cromwell Kremer was a woman who strove for excellence in all things. Ever resistant to the constraints of social conventions, at a time when roughly 20 percent of the US workforce was female, Kremer worked her way up the ranks of the service industry. From the home economics classrooms of the University of Kentucky to the fine dining restaurants of Louisville and New York City, Kremer's tenacity, unconventionality, and dedication helped her build a legacy that celebrated the simplicity of good, traditional Kentucky country cooking. In 1967, after taking a twenty-seven-year hiatus from work to raise her family, Kremer reentered the business world at the age of sixty-five to open a restaurant for Kentucky's newly restored Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. Under her guidance, what began as a small sandwich shop flourished into the iconic Trustees' Table restaurant at Shaker Village, which continues to attract guests from all over the world. In Simplicity and Excellence: Elizabeth Kremer from Beaten Biscuits to Shaker Lemon Pie, author and editor Deirdre A. Scaggs compiles the first-ever biography of this incredible woman. Each of Kremer's classic recipes is bookended by charming and inspiring stories of her life, drawn from oral history passed down by Kremer's family and friends as well as archival materials. A gastronomic history like no other, Simplicity and Excellence effortlessly paints a portrait of one of the most influential forces behind the preservation of Kentucky's culture through its cuisine.

In 1976 the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the legality of capital punishment in their ruling on Gregg v. Georgia. In the 46 years since the decision was handed down, 1,551 convicted prisoners have been executed. The United States is the only Western nation - and one of four advanced democracies - that regularly applies the death penalty. While the death penalty is legal in 27 states, only 21 have the means to carry out death sentences. Of those states, Texas has executed the most prisoners in recent history, condemning 578 people to death since the 1976 ruling, beginning with the death of Charlie Brooks in 1982. Texas retains the third-largest death row population behind California and Florida. In the summer of 2020, the Trump administration broke a nearly 17-year stay during which the federal government did not sanction any executions when it put 13 inmates to death over six months. Seventeen of the 45 current federal death row inmates, the highest proportion of any state, are currently incarcerated in Texas. Final Words is a project that addresses the death penalty in the United States as a violation of human rights. Consisting of a collection of government documents relating to the 578 executed Texas inmates, each set of pages reveals a portrait of a life bookended by violence in which final moments are often spent expressing words of love for family and friends, sorrow for victims, and gratitude for life lived. The compilation stands as a stark indictment of a system built by institutions rampant with racism, classism, and sexism. Each entry, each story, each utterance will challenge readers to answer the question: is there room for humanity in the American justice complex?

More than fifty years ago, Nathaniel "Nate" Northington changed the face of sports as the first African American to play college football in the Southeastern Conference. When this trailblazing athlete stepped onto the field for the University of Kentucky vs. Ole Miss game on September 30, 1967, he played not only for his team, but for his best friend and roommate Greg Page, whose tragic death pushed Northington further into the spotlight - and into the fight for equality. In Still Running: My Life as the First Black Football Player in the SEC, Northington recounts how he and other African American football players fought on the gridiron throughout the civil rights movement to achieve success both on and off the field. Northington shares the story of his life - growing up in hardworking, self-reliant neighborhoods, first in Louisville's "Little Africa" and later in Newburg; the strong, supportive foundation provided by his parents; and the events of his childhood that forged in him a desire to confront racial injustice and violence. His athletic ability, character, and scholastic achievement took him to the front lines of the fight, compelling Kentucky Governor Ned Breathitt and UK president John Oswald to select him to help lead the way for integration in Kentucky college football. Northington reveals what life was like in the locker room and on campus, and how his brotherly friendship with Greg Page - also a Black member of UK's 1966 freshman team - and subsequently Page's devastating death, propelled him forward in his goal of integrating the SEC.Containing new material and an updated history addressing the ongoing racial justice movement, Northington's story is about more than integration within college football - it is an honest and inspirational testament to a life defined by faith, strength, resilience, and determination.

At the conclusion of WWII, no part of the world experienced a more dramatic transformation than East Asia. The region's political stability throughout the postwar period prompted exponential economic growth that ultimately established South Korea, Japan, and China as East Asia's most important powers. While many citizens of these nations now live in a time of unprecedented prosperity, the arrangement that supported this region's transformation is fragile. With the second largest economy and a burgeoning military sector, China is widely acknowledged as the preeminent rising world power. The onus of maintaining balance in the region now rests primarily with South Korea and Japan in partnership with the United States. However, because of long-standing weaknesses in South Korea–Japan relations and an inconsistent US commitment to the region, the possibility that China could usher in a more uncertain era of revisionism has never been more likely.In Strengthening South Korea-Japan Relations: East Asia's International Order and a Rising China, Dennis Patterson and Jangsup Choi address the historical roots of this weak alliance. Combining decades of research with current public opinion data, the authors warn that the tendency of these nations to rely on the United States to maintain the status quo has become dangerously unstable. A new strategy, one of cooperation and collaboration, is needed to prevent China from upending the region's current liberal international order.