FROM HISTORY STORIES

How The U.S. Got So Many Confederate Monuments
August 17, 2017 By Becky Little


How The U.S. Got So Many Confederate Monuments August 17, 2017 By Becky Little Bas-relief sculpture of three of the leaders of the Confederacy on horseback: President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee and General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Their likenesses are carved onto the side of Stone Mountain, the largest granite outcropping on earth. Print Cite Facebook Twitter Google While every statue in every town has a different origin, taken together, the 700 Confederate monuments in the United States tell a national story. Commemorations of those on the losing side of the Civil War, some are a lot newer than one might think. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which compiled a list of these monuments last year, these monuments are spread over 31 states plus the District of Columbia—far exceeding the 11 Confederate states that seceded at the outset of the Civil War. Most of these monuments did not go up immediately after the war’s end in 1865. During that time, commemorative markers of the Civil War tended to be memorials that mourned soldiers who had died, says Mark Elliott, a history professor at University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

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BOOK TRAILER | THE BRIDGE OF DEATHS BY M.C.V. EGAN

Vishwamitra by Dr. Vineet Aggarwal Indian Mythological Fiction ~ Book Blitz ~ 11th August, 2017

When Satyavati, wife of Rishi Ruchik, exchanges with her mother the magic potion for bearing a child, they change not just their children’s destiny, but also the history of mankind. Born of this mix up is Vishwamitra, the son of a Kshatriya, who strives to become a Brahmarishi—the ultimate and most powerful of all Gurus.

Vishwamitra is the powerful story of a brave but stubborn, haughty yet compassionate, visionary king of Aryavarta who not only acquires material wealth through military conquests but also becomes one of the most well-known sages of all times.

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If you like… Then you will enjoy Vishwamitra

1. If you like to read about India's rich, ancient history, in an easy to read manner, you will love Vishwamitra
2. If you have ever wondered if the ancients had any knowledge of space & science, you should check out Vishwamitra, the story of the man who created an entire new star system!
3. If you like reading romance, take time to check out this unlikely love story between a human and an Apsara! Did you know Vishwamitra & Menaka lived together for ten long years?
4. If you like reading stores that inspire -  check out Vishwamitra, the story of an ordinary man who even dared to challenge the gods!
5. If you have liked any retelling of India's original epic Ramayan, you should check out Vishwamitra -  the story of the man who became the guru of Rama, the Scion of Ikshvaku!

About the Author

Dr. Vineet Aggarwal is described by many as a doctor by qualification, manager by profession and artist by temperament. Born in a family of doctors, he successfully completed an initial stint with the family occupation before deciding to venture into pharmaceutical management and currently pursues writing and photography as a passion.

He is the author of popular online blogs ‘Decode Hindu Mythology’ and ‘Fraternity Against Terrorism and Extremism’ and the author of books ‘Vishwamitra – The Man who dared to challenge the Gods’ and ‘The Legend of Parshu-Raam’

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AUGUST 12th, 2017 Frankenmuth, Michigan #OUAB2017

AUGUST 12th, 2017 Frankenmuth, Michigan #OUAB2017

Envoy of Jerusalem by Helena P. Schrader

Historical Fiction

Date Published: August 2016

Publisher: Wheatmark

Winner of the Pinnacle Award 2016 for Biographical Fiction, the Feathered Quill Award 2017 for Spiritual/Religious Fiction, and a Foreword INDIES Award for Military/Wartime Fiction.

Balian has survived the devastating defeat of the Frankish army at the Battle of Hattin, and walked away a free man after the surrender of Jerusalem, but he is baron of nothing in a kingdom that no longer exists. Haunted by the tens of thousands of Christians now enslaved by the Saracens, he is determined to regain what has been lost. The arrival of a vast crusading army under the soon-to-be-legendary Richard the Lionheart offers hope -- but also conflict, as natives and crusaders clash and French and English quarrel.

Other Books in the Balian d'Ibelin Series

Knight of Jerusalem

Published: September 2014

Balian, the landless son of a local baron, goes to Jerusalem to seek his fortune. Instead, he finds himself trapped into serving the young prince suffering from leprosy, an apparent sentence to obscurity and death. But the unexpected death of King Amalric makes the leper boy King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, and Balian’s prospects begin to improve.

The Byzantine princess Maria Comnena is just thirteen years old when she arrives in the Kingdom of Jerusalem at her great uncle’s orders to cement the alliance between the two Christian kingdoms in the East. The child wife of a man almost three times her own age, she is despite her excellent education and intelligence little more than a pretty doll in the eyes of her husband. When she fails to produce a male heir for the desperate king, her marriage becomes a gilded prison. Until suddenly the king is dead and Maria finds herself a wealthy widow at just twenty years of age.

Meanwhile, the charismatic Kurdish leader Saladin has united the forces of Islam and vowed to drive the Christians into the sea. While King Baldwin IV—and Balian—struggle to save the Holy Land for Christendom by whatever means they can, the internal rivalries of Templars and Hospitallers, the advocates of offense and defense, and the bitter rivalries of barons threaten to tear the kingdom apart.

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Defender of Jerusalem

Published: July 2015

The Christian kingdom of Jerusalem is under siege. The charismatic Kurdish leader, Salah ad-Din, has succeeded in uniting Shiite Egypt with Sunnite Syria and has now declared jihad against the Christian kingdom. While King Baldwin IV struggles to defend his kingdom from the external threat despite the increasing ravages of leprosy, the struggle for the succession threatens to tear the kingdom apart from the inside. In the high-stakes game, one man stands out for his loyalty to the dying king, the kingdom, and Christianity itself. That man is Balian d'Ibelin.

This is the second book in a three-part biographical novel about Balian d'Ibelin, who defended Jerusalem against Salah ad-Din in 1187. The first book in the series, Knight of Jerusalem, was a finalist for the 2014 Chaucer Award for Historical Fiction and a B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree.

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About the Author

Helena P. Schrader earned a PhD in History from the University of Hamburg with a ground-breaking biography of a leader of the German Resistance to Hitler. She has published numerous works of fiction and non-fiction since.

Her Jerusalem Trilogy, set in the Holy Land in the late 12th century, has won critical acclaim.

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Guardian Angel by William McCauley

Middle Grade / Young Adult

Date Published: 6/2013

Markus Simmons, a 13-year-old 8th-grader, wants to hang with the cool kids. When his social studies class begins a Holocaust project, some A-listers befriend him to get him to work with them so they can have access to his Oma, who was in Auschwitz, and he discovers that there are Holocaust deniers in the world, one of whom is in his class.  Then someone identifies his Oma as having played a criminal role during the Holocaust, and he has to reconcile his love for his grandmother, his desire to work with the cool kids, and his anger at the deniers and the others who attack his grandmother.

About the Author

William McCauley was born and grew up in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, in a delightful little town called Vienna. His B.A. in German and M.A. in English are from George Mason University, and at the ripe old age of 29, he "ran away from home" to do doctoral work in linguistics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. After two years, his Wanderlust attacked again, and he trekked on down to Miami, FL, where he did more doctoral work at the University of Miami. Then the powers that be at The German School Washington, where he had taught English for six years, tracked him down and asked him to come back. That brought him back to the DC area, where he taught at the German School for another eighteen years. He finished his career in education at the end of school year 14-15, retiring after ten years as a Gifted and Talented Education specialist with Howard County Public Schools in Maryland. Now all he wants to do is write – and read.

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