{"title":"Jim Rasenberger","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into Jim Rasenberger's gripping narratives, blending historical insight with thrilling suspense. Perfect for readers who enjoy detailed research woven into compelling storytelling. Start your journey here.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"revolver-book-jim-rasenberger-9781501166396","title":"Revolver","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \"gripping,\" (\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e) \"clear-eyed, and honest\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e) biography of Samuel Colt--the inventor of the legendary Colt revolver (a.k.a. six-shooter)--which changed the US forever, triggering the industrial revolution and the settlement of the American West.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Patented in 1836, the Colt pistol with its revolving cylinder was the first practical firearm that could shoot more than one bullet without reloading. For many reasons, Colt's gun had a profound effect on American history. Its most immediate impact was on the expansionism of the American west, where white emigrants and US soldiers came to depend on it, and where Native Americans came to dread it. The six-shooter became the iconic weapon of gun-slingers, outlaws, and cowboys--some willing to pay $500 out west for a gun that sold for $25 back east.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In making the revolver, Colt also changed American manufacturing--his factory revolutionized industry in the United States. Ultimately, Colt and his gun-making brought together the two most significant forces of change before the Civil War--the industrial revolution in the east, Manifest Destiny in the west.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Written with a journalist's sense of color and a historian's eye for the revealing detail\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e), \u003ci\u003eRevolver\u003c\/i\u003e brings the brazenly ambitious and profoundly innovative industrialist and leader Samuel Colt to vivid life. In the space of his forty-seven years, he seemingly lived five lives: he traveled, womanized, drank prodigiously, smuggled guns to Russia, bribed politicians, and supplied the Union Army with the guns they needed to win the Civil War. Colt lived during an age of promise and progress, but also of slavery, corruption, and unbridled greed, and he not only helped to create this America, he completely embodied it. By the time he died in 1862 in Hartford, Connecticut, he was one of the most famous men in nation, and one of the richest.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Offering a panoramic view of American culture during Colt's life\" (\u003ci\u003eLA Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e) \u003ci\u003eRevolver\u003c\/i\u003e is a \"rollicking and informative account [that] will delight American history buffs\" (\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49542472696081,"sku":"GOR011504040","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50378553524497,"sku":"CIN1501166395G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50872094654737,"sku":"CIN1501166395VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51031235494161,"sku":"NIN9781501166396","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51322219823377,"sku":"CIN1501166395A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52110773092625,"sku":"GOR014466793","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1501166395.jpg?v=1751373739"},{"product_id":"brilliant-disaster-book-jim-rasenberger-9781416596530","title":"The Brilliant Disaster","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \"balanced, engrossing account\" (\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review) of the Bay of Pigs crisis drawing on long-hidden CIA documents and delivering the vivid truth of five pivotal days in April 1961.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e At the heart of the Bay of Pigs crisis stood President John F. Kennedy, and journalist Jim Rasenberger traces what Kennedy knew, thought, and said as events unfolded. He examines whether Kennedy was manipulated by the CIA into approving a plan that would ultimately involve the American military. He also draws compelling portraits of the other figures who played key roles in the drama: Fidel Castro, who shortly after achieving power visited New York City and was cheered by thousands (just months before the United States began plotting his demise); Dwight Eisenhower, who originally ordered the secret program, then later disavowed it; Allen Dulles, the CIA director who may have told Kennedy about the plan before he was elected president (or so Richard Nixon suspected); and Richard Bissell, the famously brilliant \"deus ex machina\" who ran the operation for the CIA--and took the blame when it failed. Beyond the short-term fallout, Rasenberger demonstrates, the Bay of Pigs gave rise to further and greater woes, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and even, possibly, the assassination of John Kennedy.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Written with elegant clarity and narrative verve, \u003ci\u003eThe Brilliant Disaster\u003c\/i\u003e is the most complete account of this event to date, providing not only a fast-paced chronicle of the disaster but an analysis of how it occurred--a question as relevant today as then--and how it profoundly altered the course of modern American history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49609480995089,"sku":"GOR009910855","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50038535651601,"sku":"CIN1416596534G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51024850092305,"sku":"NIN9781416596530","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51417009520913,"sku":"CIN1416596534VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":52842925359377,"sku":"CIN1416596534A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1416596534.jpg?v=1751447004"},{"product_id":"brilliant-disaster-the-book-jim-rasenberger-9780709092773","title":"Brilliant Disaster the","description":"The American planned invasion of Cuba in 1961 remains one of the most ill-fated blunders the United States has ever committed - and still reverberates through American politics and policy today. Despite the Kennedy Administration's initial insistence that the United States had nothing to do with the invasion, it soon became clear that the complex military operation had been planned and funded by the best and brightest minds in the highest reaches of the US Government. The invaders had been trained by CIA officers and supplied with American equipment, and the operation had been personally approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President of the United States. In its wake, the nation appeared stunningly inept, fantastically reckless and morally corrupt. Now, journalist Jim Rasenberger, whose father was recruited to join the government's effort to bring home more than 1,000 men taken prisoner by Fidel Castro, takes a closer look at this dark incident in American history, illuminating what historian Theodore Draper called 'a perfect failure'. Written in vivid, elegant prose and drawing upon recently declassified CIA documents - including an Inspector General's report and an internal history - The Brilliant Disaster is the most complete account of this event to date, providing not only a fascinating chronicle of the military action but fascinating portraits of Castro and JFK as they responded to the crisis.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49612807012625,"sku":"GOR004865222","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0709092776.jpg?v=1751421506"},{"product_id":"america-1908-book-jim-rasenberger-9780743280778","title":"America, 1908","description":"An entertaining survey (\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e) through the highs and lows of a spectacular, pivotal year in American history--1908. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA captivating look at a bygone era through the lens of a single, surprisingly momentous American year one century ago. 1908 was the year Henry Ford launched the Model T, the Wright Brothers proved to the world that they had mastered the art of flight, Teddy Roosevelt decided to send American naval warships around the globe, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series (a feat they have never yet repeated), and six automobiles set out on an incredible 20,000 mile race from New York City to Paris via the frozen Bering Strait. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA charming and knowledgeable guide, Rasenberger takes readers back to a time of almost limitless optimism, even in the face of enormous inequality, an era when the majority of Americans believed that the future was bound to be better than the past, that the world's worst problems would eventually be solved, and that nothing at all was impossible. As Thomas Edison succinctly said that year, Anything, everything is possible.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49709513638161,"sku":"CIN0743280776G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50307012919569,"sku":"CIN0743280776VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743280776.jpg?v=1751231768"},{"product_id":"brilliant-disaster-book-jim-rasenberger-9781416596509","title":"The Brilliant Disaster","description":"\u003cb\u003eA balanced, engrossing account (\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review) of the Bay of Pigs crisis drawing on long-hidden CIA documents and delivering the vivid truth of five pivotal days in April 1961.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt the heart of the Bay of Pigs crisis stood President John F. Kennedy, and journalist Jim Rasenberger traces what Kennedy knew, thought, and said as events unfolded. He examines whether Kennedy was manipulated by the CIA into approving a plan that would ultimately involve the American military. He also draws compelling portraits of the other figures who played key roles in the drama: Fidel Castro, who shortly after achieving power visited New York City and was cheered by thousands (just months before the United States began plotting his demise); Dwight Eisenhower, who originally ordered the secret program, then later disavowed it; Allen Dulles, the CIA director who may have told Kennedy about the plan before he was elected president (or so Richard Nixon suspected); and Richard Bissell, the famously brilliant deus ex machina who ran the operation for the CIA--and took the blame when it failed. Beyond the short-term fallout, Rasenberger demonstrates, the Bay of Pigs gave rise to further and greater woes, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and even, possibly, the assassination of John Kennedy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Written with elegant clarity and narrative verve, \u003ci\u003eThe Brilliant Disaster \u003c\/i\u003eis the most complete account of this event to date, providing not only a fast-paced chronicle of the disaster but an analysis of how it occurred--a question as relevant today as then--and how it profoundly altered the course of modern American history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49854477533457,"sku":"CIN141659650XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50423248060689,"sku":"GOR013945415","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50715334869265,"sku":"CIN141659650XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51339465326865,"sku":"GOR008620880","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51721760866577,"sku":"CIN141659650XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52397105840401,"sku":"GOR014516475","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/141659650X.jpg?v=1751403908"},{"product_id":"high-steel-book-jim-rasenberger-9780060004354","title":"High Steel","description":"\u003cp\u003eA powerful first-hand account of the many generations and ethnic groups of men who have built America's skyscrapers.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrom the early days of steel construction in Chicago, through the great boom years of New York city ironwork, and up through the present, High Steel follows the trajectory of careers inextricably linked to both great accomplishment and catastrophic disaster.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe personal stories reveal the lives of ironworkers and the dangers they face as they walk across the windswept, swaying summits of tomorrow's skyscrapers, balanced on steel girders sometimes only six inches wide. Rasenberger explores both the greatest accomplishments of ironwork--the vaulting bridges and towers that define America's skyline--and the deadliest disasters, such as the Quebec Bridge Collapse of 1907, when 75 ironworkers, including 33 Mohawk Indians, fell to their deaths. High Steel is an accessible, thrilling, and vertiginous portrait of the lives of some of our most brave yet unrecognized men.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50102754771217,"sku":"GOR013856218","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51423005540625,"sku":"CIN0060004355VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0060004355.jpg?v=1751068666"},{"product_id":"high-steel-book-jim-rasenberger-9780060004347","title":"High Steel","description":"\u003cp\u003eWith the birth of the steel-frame skyscraper in the late nineteenth century came a new breed of man, as bold and untamed as any this country had ever known. These \"cowboys of the skies,\" as one journalist called them, were the structural ironworkers who walked steel beams -- no wider, often, than the face of a hardcover book -- hundreds of feet above ground, to raise the soaring towers and vaulting bridges that so abruptly transformed America in the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMany early ironworkers were former sailors, new Americans of Irish and Scandinavian descent accustomed to climbing tall ships' masts and schooled in the arts of rigging. Others came from a small Mohawk Indian reservation on the banks of the St. Lawrence River or from a constellation of seaside towns in Newfoundland. What all had in common were fortitude, courage, and a short life expectancy. \"We do not die,\" went an early ironworkers' motto. \"We are killed.\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHigh Steel is the stirring epic of these men and of the icons they built -- and are building still. Shifting between past and present, Jim Rasenberger travels back to the earliest iron bridges and buildings of the nineteenth century; to the triumph of the Brooklyn Bridge and the 1907 tragedy of the Quebec Bridge, where seventy-five ironworkers, including thirty-three Mohawks, lost their lives in an instant; through New York's skyscraper boom of the late 1920s, when ironworkers were hailed as \"industrial age heroes.\" All the while, Rasenberger documents the lives of several contempor-ary ironworkers raising steel on a twenty-first-century skyscraper, the Time Warner building in New York City.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis is a fast-paced, bare-knuckled portrait of vivid personalities, containing episodes of startling violence (as when ironworkers dynamited the Los Angeles Times building in 1910) and exhilarating adventure. In the end, High Steel is also a moving account of brotherhood and family. Many of those working in the trade today descend from multigenerational dynasties of ironworkers. As they walk steel, they follow in the footsteps of their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe've all had the experience of looking at a par-ticularly awe-inspiring bridge or building and wondering, How did they do that? Jim Rasenberger asks -- and answers -- the question behind the question: What sort of person would willingly scale such heights, take such chances, face such danger? The result is a depiction of the American working class as it has seldom appeared in literature: strong, proud, autonomous, enduring, and utterly compelling.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50342598476049,"sku":"CIN0060004347G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51919134490897,"sku":"GOR009782072","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52082898567441,"sku":"GOR006103871","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52699516797201,"sku":"CIN0060004347VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0060004347.jpg?v=1751288903"},{"product_id":"america-1908-book-jim-rasenberger-9780743280785","title":"America, 1908","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"An entertaining survey\" (\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e) through the highs and lows of a spectacular, pivotal year in American history--1908.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A captivating look at a bygone era through the lens of a single, surprisingly momentous American year one century ago. 1908 was the year Henry Ford launched the Model T, the Wright Brothers proved to the world that they had mastered the art of flight, Teddy Roosevelt decided to send American naval warships around the globe, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series (a feat they have never yet repeated), and six automobiles set out on an incredible 20,000 mile race from New York City to Paris via the frozen Bering Strait.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A charming and knowledgeable guide, Rasenberger takes readers back to a time of almost limitless optimism, even in the face of enormous inequality, an era when the majority of Americans believed that the future was bound to be better than the past, that the world's worst problems would eventually be solved, and that nothing at all was impossible. As Thomas Edison succinctly said that year, \"Anything, everything is possible.\"","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50357864759569,"sku":"CIN0743280784VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50363747795217,"sku":"CIN0743280784G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52739910566161,"sku":"NIN9780743280785","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743280784.jpg?v=1751042040"},{"product_id":"revolver-book-jim-rasenberger-9781501166389","title":"Revolver","description":"\u003cb\u003eA sweeping, definitive biography of Samuel Colt--the inventor of the legendary Colt revolver (a.k.a. six-shooter)--which changed the US forever, triggering the industrial revolution and the settlement of the American West.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Patented in 1836, the Colt pistol with its revolving cylinder was the first practical firearm that could shoot more than one bullet without reloading. For many reasons, Colt's gun had a profound effect on American history. Its most immediate impact was on the expansionism of the American west, where white emigrants and US soldiers came to depend on it, and where Native Americans came to dread it. The six-shooter became the iconic weapon of gun-slingers, outlaws, and cowboys--some willing to pay $500 out west for a gun that sold for $25 back east.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In making the revolver, Colt also changed American manufacturing--his factory revolutionized industry in the United States. Ultimately, Colt and his gun-making brought together the two most significant forces of change before the Civil War--the industrial revolution in the east, Manifest Destiny in the west.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Brilliantly told, \u003ci\u003eRevolver\u003c\/i\u003e brings the brazenly ambitious and profoundly innovative industrialist and leader Samuel Colt to vivid life. In the space of his forty-seven years, he seemingly lived five lives: he traveled, womanized, drank prodigiously, smuggled guns to Russia, bribed politicians, and supplied the Union Army with the guns they needed to win the Civil War. Colt lived during an age of promise and progress, but also of slavery, corruption, and unbridled greed, and he not only helped to create this America, he completely embodied it. By the time he died in 1862 in Hartford, Connecticut, he was one of the most famous men in nation, and one of the richest.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e While \u003ci\u003eRevolver\u003c\/i\u003e is a riveting and revealing biography of Colt, a man who made significant contributions to our country during the nineteenth century, it's also a lively and informative historical portrait of America during a time of extraordinary transformation.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50631796621585,"sku":"CIN1501166387VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50809167905041,"sku":"CIN1501166387G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51332883677457,"sku":"CIN1501166387A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53005026459921,"sku":"NIN9781501166389","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1501166387.jpg?v=1750827730"},{"product_id":"perfect-coincidence-book-jim-rasenberger-9781668003428","title":"A Perfect Coincidence","description":"\u003cb\u003eA revelatory new look at the long and complex relationship between Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who died on the same historic day--July 4, 1826, exactly fifty years after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In creating the Declaration of Independence, approved by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, Jefferson and Adams collaborated in what Jefferson later called \"a perfect coincidence\" of thought and action. Exactly fifty years later, in the most perfect coincidence in American history, they died within hours of each other--both former US presidents, both essential architects of the nation.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e This book explores those two remarkable coincidences and the fifty-year relationship in between. Thomas Jefferson, a charismatic Southern aristocrat, and John Adams, a cantankerous Yankee, were once close friends, then bitter political enemies. In the last years of their lives, they reconciled and resumed an extraordinary correspondence, totaling some 380 letters that continued until their final months.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Other than the Declaration of Independence, the greatest symbolic gift either man gave his country may have been dying together on that fateful Independence Day in 1826. For many Americans, this moment was viewed as a \"visible and palpable\" manifestation of \"Divine favor\"--as one contemporary put it--and fueled the conviction that America was a land of miracles.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Published to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the United States--and the 200th anniversary of the men's deaths--this book is essential reading for anyone interested in presidential biographies, the Revolutionary War era, and the enduring power--yet terrible fragility--of American democracy.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53481925378321,"sku":"NIN9781668003428","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781668003428.jpg?v=1777569256"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-au\/collections\/author-books-by-jim-rasenberger.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}