{"title":"Robert W Merry","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into American history and political analysis with Robert W. Merry's insightful works. Explore presidential narratives and the shaping of American identity through his meticulously researched books.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"country-of-vast-designs-book-robert-w-merry-9780743297448","title":"A Country of Vast Designs","description":"\u003cb\u003ePresident James K. Polk, often overlooked yet ever-consequential, comes to life \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ein this compelling, perceptive portrait (\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e) biography of the 11th President of the United States, Andrew Jackson prot g , and champion of manifest destiny.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn a one-term presidency, James K. Polk completed the story of America's Manifest Destiny--extending its territory across the continent by threatening England with war and manufacturing a controversial and unpopular two-year war with Mexico. A crucial architect of modern America, James K. Polk deserves to be elevated out of the mists of history (Jon Meacham, author of \u003ci\u003eAmerican Lion\u003c\/i\u003e).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49539072262417,"sku":"GOR002975989","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49724866986257,"sku":"CIN074329744XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49852919677201,"sku":"CIN074329744XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50361372606737,"sku":"CIN074329744XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51006583046417,"sku":"NIN9780743297448","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52624863494417,"sku":"GOR006409203","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/074329744X.jpg?v=1750848646"},{"product_id":"country-of-vast-designs-book-robert-w-merry-9780743297431","title":"A Country of Vast Designs","description":"\u003cb\u003ePresident James K. Polk, often overlooked yet ever-consequential, comes to life \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ein this compelling, perceptive portrait (\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e) biography of the 11th President of the United States, Andrew Jackson prot g , and champion of manifest destiny.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn a one-term presidency, James K. Polk completed the story of America's Manifest Destiny--extending its territory across the continent by threatening England with war and manufacturing a controversial and unpopular two-year war with Mexico. A crucial architect of modern America, James K. Polk deserves to be elevated out of the mists of history (Jon Meacham, author of \u003ci\u003eAmerican Lion\u003c\/i\u003e).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49587801227537,"sku":"GOR007393366","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49930472325393,"sku":"CIN0743297431G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49990174408977,"sku":"CIN0743297431VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50361368510737,"sku":"CIN0743297431A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53111277322513,"sku":"GOR014747267","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743297431.jpg?v=1751009448"},{"product_id":"president-mckinley-book-robert-w-merry-9781451625455","title":"President McKinley","description":"\u003cb\u003eA deft character study of a president.--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA valuable education on where America has been and, possibly, where it is going.--\u003ci\u003eNational Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eMagisterial.--\u003ci\u003eThe \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eChristian Science Monitor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this great American story, acclaimed historian Robert Merry resurrects the presidential reputation of William McKinley, which loses out to the brilliant and flamboyant Theodore Roosevelt who succeeded him after his assassination. He portrays McKinley as a chief executive of consequence whose low place in the presidential rankings does not reflect his enduring accomplishments and the stamp he put on the country's future role in the world. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRepublican President William McKinley in his two terms as president (1897 - 1901) transformed America. He established the US as an imperial power. Although he does not register large in either public memory or in historians' rankings, in this revealing account, Robert W. Merry unfolds the mystery of how this bland man managed so much powerful change. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMcKinley settled decades of monetary controversy by taking the country to a strict gold standard; in the Spanish-American war he kicked Spain out of the Caribbean and liberated Cuba from Spain; in the Pacific he acquired Hawaii and the Philippines through war and diplomacy; he developed the doctrine of fair trade; forced the Open Door to China; forged our special relationship with Great Britain. In short, he established the non-colonial imperialism that took America into global preeminence. He expanded executive power and managed public opinion through his quiet manipulation of the press. McKinley paved the way for the bold and flamboyant leadership of his famous successor, Teddy Roosevelt, who built on his accomplishments (and got credit for them). \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMerry writes movingly about McKinley's admirable personal life, from his simple Midwestern upbringing to his Civil War heroism to his brave comportment just moments before his death by assassination (it was only six months into his second term when he was shot). Lively, definitive, and eye-opening, \u003ci\u003ePresident McKinley\u003c\/i\u003e resurrects this overlooked president and places him squarely on the list of one of the most important.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49617111679249,"sku":"CIN1451625456G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50127347253521,"sku":"CIN1451625456VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50859939332369,"sku":"GOR014097491","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50936216551697,"sku":"CIN1451625456A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50987806753041,"sku":"NIN9781451625455","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52763442446609,"sku":"GOR012760679","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1451625456.jpg?v=1767094511"},{"product_id":"where-they-stand-book-robert-w-merry-9781451625400","title":"Where They Stand","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49630401364241,"sku":"GOR005777901","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50203240300817,"sku":"CIN1451625405VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50377193357585,"sku":"CIN1451625405A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51423741837585,"sku":"CIN1451625405G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1451625405.jpg?v=1751178469"},{"product_id":"sands-of-empire-book-robert-w-merry-9780743266673","title":"Sands of Empire","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49648172204305,"sku":"GOR012556852","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51098884768017,"sku":"CIN0743266676VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52632276828433,"sku":"CIN0743266676G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743266676.jpg?v=1750848607"},{"product_id":"president-mckinley-book-robert-w-merry-9781451625448","title":"President McKinley","description":"\u003cb\u003eA deft character study of a president.--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA valuable education on where America has been and, possibly, where it is going.--\u003ci\u003eNational Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eMagisterial.--\u003ci\u003eThe \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eChristian Science Monitor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this great American story, acclaimed historian Robert Merry resurrects the presidential reputation of William McKinley, which loses out to the brilliant and flamboyant Theodore Roosevelt who succeeded him after his assassination. He portrays McKinley as a chief executive of consequence whose low place in the presidential rankings does not reflect his enduring accomplishments and the stamp he put on the country's future role in the world. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRepublican President William McKinley in his two terms as president (1897 - 1901) transformed America. He established the US as an imperial power. Although he does not register large in either public memory or in historians' rankings, in this revealing account, Robert W. Merry unfolds the mystery of how this bland man managed so much powerful change. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMcKinley settled decades of monetary controversy by taking the country to a strict gold standard; in the Spanish-American war he kicked Spain out of the Caribbean and liberated Cuba from Spain; in the Pacific he acquired Hawaii and the Philippines through war and diplomacy; he developed the doctrine of fair trade; forced the Open Door to China; forged our special relationship with Great Britain. In short, he established the non-colonial imperialism that took America into global preeminence. He expanded executive power and managed public opinion through his quiet manipulation of the press. McKinley paved the way for the bold and flamboyant leadership of his famous successor, Teddy Roosevelt, who built on his accomplishments (and got credit for them). \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMerry writes movingly about McKinley's admirable personal life, from his simple Midwestern upbringing to his Civil War heroism to his brave comportment just moments before his death by assassination (it was only six months into his second term when he was shot). Lively, definitive, and eye-opening, \u003ci\u003ePresident McKinley\u003c\/i\u003e resurrects this overlooked president and places him squarely on the list of one of the most important.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49768653062417,"sku":"GOR008845932","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50469268979985,"sku":"CIN1451625448A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50469270389009,"sku":"CIN1451625448G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50494343807249,"sku":"CIN1451625448VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1451625448.jpg?v=1751371360"},{"product_id":"taking-on-the-world-book-robert-w-merry-9781467901840","title":"Taking on the World","description":"In 1948 the column-writing Alsop brothers produced an article for the Saturday Evening Post, then the country's preminent weekly magazine. Its title: Must America Save the World?'' Their answer was a resounding yes. Indeed, Joseph and Stewart Alsop were there in those heady postwar years when the country's foreign-policy elite created what became known as the American Century. As men of words, they served as confidants of and cheerleaders for these men of deeds, who came largely from the country's patrician class. The Alsop brothers were themselves sons of this class. Theodore Roosevelt was the brothers' great-uncle. Eleanor Roosevelt was their mother's first cousin. They grew up with members of this Anglo-Saxon elite, whent to school with them, socializedd with them. And they threw the considerable weight of their column behnd the efforts of these statesmen to refashion the world. Writing four times a week, they appeared in nearly two hundred newspapers; their work also graced the pages of the major magazines of the time. Thus, they wielded immense influence throughout the nation from the victory in World War II to the defeat in Vietnam. Stewart was a political analyst of rare acumen, and widely appreciated for his bonhomie, while Joe, his older brother, was a curmudgeon with an aristocratic bearing and a biting wit. He once likened a dinner at Lyndon Johnson's to going to an opera in which one man sings all the parts.'' On another occasion he characterized the august New York Times, whose reporting he didn't like, as a lunatic cathedral.'' He was a friend and confidant of John Kennedy, a teacher of Washington ways to Jackie Kennedy. When he called people in the highest echelons of officaldolm, they responded. The brothers' connection with the high and mighty of Washington makes for dramatic reading. These pages serve as a window on such notables of American wartime and postwar history as Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Jack and Jackie Kennedy, General Claire Chennault of the wartime China theater, secretaries of state Dean Acheson, John Foster Dulles and Henry Kissinger, defense secretaries James Forrestal and Robert McNamara, and various Supreme Court justices and top-level senators. It's a human story as well -- about the brothers' harrowing wartime experiences; about a loving but occasionally tumultuous brotherly relationship; about friendships made and lost; about careers that soared but also, in Joe's case, faltered over the difficult issue of Vietnam. In Taking On the World, Robert W. Merry, himself a Washington insider, has fashioned an intricate and fascinating combination of biography and narrative history. As Merry puts it, Within the lifetime of the Alsop brothers the country was remade. And its remaking illuminates their careers, just as their careers illuminate the American Century.'' Robert Merry casts brilliant light on these two remarkable men, and on one of the most tumultuous periods of the country's history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49889672954129,"sku":"CIN1467901849G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51027971375377,"sku":"NIN9781467901840","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1467901849.jpg?v=1750715918"},{"product_id":"sands-of-empire-book-robert-w-merry-9780743266680","title":"Sands of Empire","description":"In Sands of Empire,  veteran political journalist and award-winning author Robert W. Merry examines the misguided concepts that have fueled American foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. The emergence in the George W. Bush administration of America as Crusader State, bent on remaking the world in its preferred image, is dangerous and self-defeating, he points out. Moreover, these grand-scale flights of interventionism, regime change, and the use of pre-emptive armed force are without precedent in American history. \u003cp\u003e Merry offers a spirited description of a powerful political core whose ideas have replaced conservative reservations about utopian visions -- these neocons who embrace a brave new world in which American exceptionalism holds sway, imagining that others around the globe can be made to abandon their cultures in favor of our ideals. He traces the strains of Wilsonism that have now merged into an adventurous and hazardous foreign policy, particularly as described by William Kristol, Francis Fukuyama, Max Boot, and Paul Wolfowitz, among others. He examines the challenge of Samuel Huntington's supposition that the clash of civilizations defines present and future world conflict. And he rejects the notion of The New York Times's Thomas L. Friedman that America is not only the world's role model for globally integrated free-market capitalism, but that it has a responsibility to foster, support, and sustain globalization worldwide. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e From the first president Bush to Clinton to the second Bush presidency, the United States has compromised its global leadership, endangered its security, and failed to meet the standard of justified intervention, Merry suggests. The country must reset its global strategies to protect its interests and the West's, to maintain stability in strategic areas, and to fight radical threats, with arms if necessary. For anything less than these necessities, American blood should remain in American veins.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49916875211025,"sku":"CIN0743266684G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51153231315217,"sku":"NIN9780743266680","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743266684.jpg?v=1751263053"},{"product_id":"where-they-stand-book-robert-w-merry-9781451625424","title":"Where They Stand","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe author of the acclaimed biography of President James Polk, \u003ci\u003eA Country of Vast Designs,\u003c\/i\u003e offers a fresh, playful, and challenging way of playing \"Rating the Presidents,\" by pitching historians' views and subsequent experts' polls against the judgment and votes of the presidents' own contemporaries.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Merry posits that presidents rise and fall based on performance, as judged by the electorate. Thus, he explores the presidency by comparing the judgments of historians with how the voters saw things. Was the president reelected? If so, did his party hold office in the next election?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eWhere They Stand\u003c\/i\u003e examines the chief executives Merry calls \"Men of Destiny,'' those who set the country toward new directions. There are six of them, including the three nearly always at the top of all academic polls--Lincoln, Washington, and FDR. He describes the \"Split-Decision Presidents'' (including Wilson and Nixon)--successful in their first terms and reelected; less successful in their second terms and succeeded by the opposition party. He describes the \"Near Greats'' (Jefferson, Jackson, Polk, TR, Truman), the \"War Presidents'' (Madison, McKinley, Lyndon Johnson), the flat-out failures (Buchanan, Pierce), and those whose standing has fluctuated (Grant, Cleveland, Eisenhower).\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e This voyage through our history provides a probing and provocative analysis of how presidential politics works and how the country sets its course. \u003ci\u003eWhere They Stand\u003c\/i\u003e invites readers to pitch their opinions against the voters of old, the historians, the pollsters--and against the author himself. In this year of raucous presidential politics, \u003ci\u003eWhere They Stand\u003c\/i\u003e will provide a context for the unfolding campaign drama.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49990005129489,"sku":"CIN1451625421A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51027220070673,"sku":"NIN9781451625424","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1451625421.jpg?v=1767090659"},{"product_id":"taking-on-the-world-book-robert-w-merry-9780140149845","title":"Taking on the World","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50022649659665,"sku":"CIN0140149848A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50607902097681,"sku":"CIN0140149848VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50634001350929,"sku":"CIN0140149848G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/B002AW3O3G.jpg?v=1751226877"},{"product_id":"taking-on-the-world-book-robert-w-merry-9780670838684","title":"Taking on the World","description":"In 1948 the column-writing Alsop brothers produced an article for the Saturday Evening Post, then the country's preminent weekly magazine. Its title: Must America Save the World?'' Their answer was a resounding yes. Indeed, Joseph and Stewart Alsop were there in those heady postwar years when the country's foreign-policy elite created what became known as the American Century. As men of words, they served as confidants of and cheerleaders for these men of deeds, who came largely from the country's patrician class. The Alsop brothers were themselves sons of this class. Theodore Roosevelt was the brothers' great-uncle. Eleanor Roosevelt was their mother's first cousin. They grew up with members of this Anglo-Saxon elite, whent to school with them, socializedd with them. And they threw the considerable weight of their column behnd the efforts of these statesmen to refashion the world. Writing four times a week, they appeared in nearly two hundred newspapers; their work also graced the pages of the major magazines of the time. Thus, they wielded immense influence throughout the nation from the victory in World War II to the defeat in Vietnam. Stewart was a political analyst of rare acumen, and widely appreciated for his bonhomie, while Joe, his older brother, was a curmudgeon with an aristocratic bearing and a biting wit. He once likened a dinner at Lyndon Johnson's to going to an opera in which one man sings all the parts.'' On another occasion he characterized the august New York Times, whose reporting he didn't like, as a lunatic cathedral.'' He was a friend and confidant of John Kennedy, a teacher of Washington ways to Jackie Kennedy. When he called people in the highest echelons of officaldolm, they responded. The brothers' connection with the high and mighty of Washington makes for dramatic reading. These pages serve as a window on such notables of American wartime and postwar history as Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Jack and Jackie Kennedy, General Claire Chennault of the wartime China theater, secretaries of state Dean Acheson, John Foster Dulles and Henry Kissinger, defense secretaries James Forrestal and Robert McNamara, and various Supreme Court justices and top-level senators. It's a human story as well -- about the brothers' harrowing wartime experiences; about a loving but occasionally tumultuous brotherly relationship; about friendships made and lost; about careers that soared but also, in Joe's case, faltered over the difficult issue of Vietnam. In Taking On the World, Robert W. Merry, himself a Washington insider, has fashioned an intricate and fascinating combination of biography and narrative history. As Merry puts it, Within the lifetime of the Alsop brothers the country was remade. And its remaking illuminates their careers, just as their careers illuminate the American Century.'' Robert Merry casts brilliant light on these two remarkable men, and on one of the most tumultuous periods of the country's history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50479834202385,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50479834726673,"sku":"CIN0670838683G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51684628005137,"sku":"CIN0670838683A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52819585007889,"sku":"CIN0670838683VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53004212732177,"sku":"GOR006928693","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0670838683.jpg?v=1750847574"},{"product_id":"decade-of-disunion-book-robert-w-merry-9781982176495","title":"Decade of Disunion","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50823084966161,"sku":"CIN1982176490VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50994292228369,"sku":"NIN9781982176495","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51850275914001,"sku":"CIN1982176490G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ LIKE_NEW \/ SBYB","offer_id":51895377395985,"sku":"CIN1982176490LN","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1982176490.jpg?v=1751220441"},{"product_id":"decade-of-disunion-book-robert-w-merry-9781982176501","title":"Decade of Disunion","description":"\u003cb\u003eWith \"characteristic wisdom and grace\" (Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author) Robert W. Merry explores a critical lesson about our nation that is as timely today as ever demonstrating how the country came apart during the enveloping slavery crisis of the 1850s.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Mexican War brought vast new territories to the United States, which precipitated a growing crisis over slavery. The new territories seemed unsuitable for the type of agriculture that depended on slave labor, but they lay south of the line where slavery was permitted by the 1820 Missouri Compromise. The subject of expanding slavery to the new territories became a flash point between the North and South.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e First came the 1850 compromise legislation, which strengthened the fugitive slave law and outraged the North. Then in 1854, Congress repealed the Missouri Compromise altogether, unleashing a violent conflict in \"Bleeding Kansas\" over whether that territory would become free or enslaved. The 1857 Dred Scott decision--abrogating any rights of African Americans, enslaved or free--further outraged the North. And John Brown's ill-planned 1859 attack at the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry stirred anger and fear throughout the South.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Through a decade, the divide between the North and the South widened until disunion became inevitable. Then, in December 1860, in the wake of the Lincoln election, South Carolina finally seceded, leading the South of the Union. Beginning with the deaths of the great second-generation figures of American history--Calhoun, Webster, and Clay--\u003ci\u003eDecade of Disunion\u003c\/i\u003e tells the story of this great American struggle through the aims, fears, and maneuvers of the subsequent prominent figures at the center of the drama, with particular attention to the key players from Massachusetts and South Carolina.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eDecade of Disunion\u003c\/i\u003e is a \"thoughtful and accomplished\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e) look at one of the most tumultuous times of American history, offering us a sobering reminder that democracy is not self-sustaining--it must be constantly and carefully tended.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51614537941265,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51614538006801,"sku":"NIN9781982176501","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52095433343249,"sku":"CIN1982176504G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1982176504.jpg?v=1751414682"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-robert-w-merry.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}