Reproduction of the original: The Story of the Atlantic Cable by Charles Bright

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The power of words has rarely been given a more compelling demonstration than in the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln was asked to memorialize the gruesome battle. Instead, he gave the whole nation "a new birth of freedom" in the space of a mere 272 words. His entire life and previous training, and his deep political experience went into this, his revolutionary masterpiece. By examining both the address and Lincoln in their historical moment and cultural frame, Wills breathes new life into words we thought we knew, and reveals much about a president so mythologized but often misunderstood. Wills shows how Lincoln came to change the world and to effect an intellectual revolution, how his words had to and did complete the work of the guns, and how Lincoln wove a spell that has not yet been broken.

Ailish O’Connor supports herself and her father with her fortunetelling skills. Their gypsy caravan travels from one place to another looking for the crowds in which to earn their living. In Ireland in 1865, the place to be is on the west coast, as people gather to launch the largest ship ever built, the Great Eastern. Its mission is to lay the first undersea telegraph cable right across the Atlantic Ocean, to Newfoundland. Ailish’s father thinks he has their future secured with a solid-gold horse that has come into his possession, but when the figure is stolen, 13-year-old Ailish pursues the thief and winds up trapped on the Great Eastern as it sails! She pretends to be a cabin boy to avoid the harsh treatment of a stowaway. On the journey, she gets help from another young boy, Davy, who seems to live below decks. She also makes friends with an Irish sailor and tries to track down the hiding place of their precious horse. The crew must battle the seas and the mishaps of their cable-laying mission, some of which appear to be sabotage. Through many adventures, Davy is her constant companion. But why won’t he ever come topside? Can Ailish use her wits, her determination and her friendships to survive the trip, let alone save the day? With her trademark storytelling skills, Jacqueline Guest has fashioned a nail-biter of an historical seafaring action adventure.

Age of Betrayal is a brilliant reconsideration of America's first Gilded Age, when war-born dreams of freedom and democracy died of their impossibility. Focusing on the alliance between government and railroads forged by bribes and campaign contributions, Jack Beatty details the corruption of American political culture that, in the words of Rutherford B. Hayes, transformed “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people” into “a government by the corporations, of the corporations, and for the corporations.” A passionate, gripping, scandalous and sorrowing history of the triumph of wealth over commonwealth.