[Read by Robert Fass]A soul-stirring biography of John Marshall, the young Republic's great chief justice who led the Supreme Court to power and brought law and order to the nation.In the political turmoil that convulsed America after George Washington's death, the surviving Founding Fathers went mad - literally pummeling each other in Congress and challenging one another to deadly duels in their quest for power. Out of the political intrigue, one man emerged to restore calm and dignity to the government: John Marshall. The longest-serving chief justice in American history, Marshall transformed the Supreme Court from an irrelevant appeals court into the powerful and controversial branch of government that Americans today either revere or despise.Drawing on rare documents, Harlow Giles Unger shows how, with nine key decisions, Marshall rewrote the Constitution, reshaped government, and prevented Thomas Jefferson from turning tyrant. John Adams called his appointment of Marshall to chief justice his greatest gift to the nation and ''the pride of my life.''

Product Description: [Read by John Lescault] A compelling new biography of America's most powerful Speaker of the House, who held the divided nation together for three decades and who was Lincoln's guiding light. In a little known chapter of early American history, a fearless Kentucky lawyer rids Congress of corruption and violence in an era when congressmen debated with bullets as well as ballots...read more

As the first great English dictionary, and the only dictionary created by a great writer, Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language is recognised as a landmark in English language and letters. The heroic effort of the work's creation over nine years has long been enshrined in English literary mythology. However, details pertaining to Johnson's long years of work on his Dictionary are very scarce. With the recent discovery and deciphering of manuscript materials, including hundreds of unpublished revisions, Reddick describes the conception, composition, writing and subsequent revision of the Dictionary. Reddick argues that the Dictionary does not reflect Johnson's final thoughts on a fixed language, but rather constitutes a text in flux, changed repeatedly throughout Johnson's lifetime. He also contributes more generally to the biographical information about Johnson during these 'middle' years, and analyses the political and theological aspects of the work, attempting to determine how we 'read' Johnson's Dictionary.

Product Description: A soul-stirring biography of John Marshall, the young Republic's great chief justice who led the Supreme Court to power and brought law and order to the nationIn the political turmoil that convulsed America after George Washington's death, the surviving Founding Fathers went mad--literally pummeling each other in Congress and challenging one another to deadly duels in their quest for power...read more

Product Description: [MP3-CD audiobook format in Vinyl case. NOTE: The MP3-CD format requires a compatible audio CD player.] [Read by Robertson Dean] Although the framers gave the president little authority, Washington knew whatever he did would set precedents for generations of his successors...read more

Product Description: In this startling look at the birth of American government, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger shows how George Washington transformed the presidency from a ceremonial post into the most powerful office on earth. Washington combined political cunning, daring, and sheer genius to seize ever-widening powers and impose law and order on the young nation while ensuring individual freedom for its citizens...read more

Product Description: [MP3CD audiobook format in vinyl case.] From a leading historian and Founding Fathers biographer comes a masterful treatment of a towering figure of America's formative years. He fought for Washington, served with Lincoln, lived with Franklin, studied with Jefferson, dined with Lafayette and Wellington, walked with Russia's czar, and talked with Britain's king; he shook hands with Dickens, taught at Harvard, and was American minister to six countries; he ended the War of 1812, freed the prisoners on the Amistad, served sixteen years in the House of Representatives, restored free speech in Congress, and led the antislavery movement -- and he was the sixth president of the United States...read more

Product Description: Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was an eighteenth-century French inventor, famed playwright, and upstart near-aristocrat in the court of King Louis XVI. In 1776, he conceived an audacious plan to send aid to the American rebels...read more