David Reynolds

Travel with David Reynolds as he sets off to explore route US Route 50, one of the few remaining two-lane highways running right across the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Driving as slowly as safety permits, stopping frequently and often going backwards to have a second look at something glimpsed in passing, Reynolds talks to people on the streets, in bars and cafes, motels and gas stations. They talk about everything from cannabis in Colorado to slavery, from Aaron Burr to Marilyn Monroe via Truman Capote, and everyone has something to say about Donald Trump. Beautifully observed, with candour, insight and humour, this is a vivid and timely portrait of small-town USA as we head towards the US elections.

Throughout his childhood and youth David Reynolds kept an eye on the past, entranced by family stories from Victorian London - the music halls, the romances, the strange disappearance of his grandfather - even as he himself came of age in the vibrant 1960s. In Swan River he describes both worlds with great vitality and sympathy, and shows how a childs puzzled interest in his forebears deepens into an adults understanding of human nature. Swan River was shortlisted for the PEN/Ackerley prize for Autobiography.

From October 2008 to July 2009 David Reynolds will present a 90 part BBC Radio Four series on American history. It will be a personal interpretation, developing a broad argument about the dynamics of American history in three crucial themes: Empire, Liberty and Faith. "America: Empire of Liberty", will be the unique book that emerges from this series, and Reynolds' definitive work on the subject. The story begins in the 18th century, with an extended struggle among the rival empires of France, Britain and Spain for predominance in North America, which Britain eventually wins in the 'first world war' of 1756-63. Coming of age as a military power in its own right in World War Two, the United States establishes a global American empire while waging the Cold War and does not dismantle it thereafter.From its founding, the colonies and the new nation enjoy greater economic and political liberty than Europe, especially through cheap land. But shortage of labour (the flip side of cheap land) makes black slavery economically necessary. Liberty therefore becomes a crucial issue in the history of this nascent nation. 'Whose liberty?' is the big question in the Twentieth Century - causing often violent agitation about the rights of blacks. This debate then extends to women, homosexuals, guns, the unborn and multiculturalism. The driver behind the American way of life is so often its religious faith, derived from Calvinist Protestantism. Reynolds shows how it can be characterised by a providentialist sense of mission, so powerful in its reach it becomes the underlying evangelical ideology of America and its foreign policy, from Wilson to George W. Bush. This persuasive interpretation of the history of the superpower of our times will be required reading for years to come.

A TELEGRAPH BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2023A highly imaginative and thought-provoking way of exploring the personality of a man who, like him or loathe him, left an indelible mark on our age ADAM ZAMOYSKIWinston Churchill followed his own star. He yearned to be great, to gain historical immortality. And he did so through deeds and words: his actions as a soldier and politician, gilded by his writings as a journalist and historian.But Churchills path to greatness was also defined by the leaders he encountered along the way friends and foes, at home and abroad. Men of power such as Hitler and Mussolini, Roosevelt and Stalin, David Lloyd George, Neville Chamberlain and Charles de Gaulle. And the haunting presence of the adored father who had seen nothing of merit in his troublesome son. In these men Churchill discerned greatness, or its absence, in ways that influenced his own career.This book includes some whom Churchill would not have deemed great, but who in our own day offer alternative mirrors of what that word might mean. Mahatma Gandhi, who infuriated Churchill by exploiting the power of powerlessness. Clement Attlee, whose heretical vision of Great Britain was socialist and post-imperial. And his darling Clementine, channelling her pinko sentiments to become Winstons essential helpmate and most devoted critic.Mirrors of Greatness offers vivid new perspectives on Churchills life and work, showing how this unique man with dazzling gifts and jagged flaws learned from his great contemporaries and what they saw in him.

A TELEGRAPH BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2023 A highly imaginative and thought provoking way of exploring the personality of a man who like him or loathe him left an indelible mark on our age ADAM ZAMOYSKIWinston Churchill followed his own star He yearned to be great to gain historical immortality And he did so through deeds and words his actions as a soldier and politician gilded by his writings as a journalist and historian But Churchill s path to greatness was also defined by the leaders he encountered along the way friends and foes at home and abroad Men of power such as Hitler and Mussolini Roosevelt and Stalin David Lloyd George Neville Chamberlain and Charles de Gaulle And the haunting presence of the adored father who had seen nothing of merit in his troublesome son In these men Churchill discerned greatness or its absence in ways that influenced his own career This book includes some whom Churchill would not have deemed great but who in our own day offer alternative mirrors of what that word might mean Mahatma Gandhi who infuriated Churchill by exploiting the power of powerlessness Clement Attlee whose heretical vision of Great Britain was socialist and post imperial And his darling Clementine channelling her pinko sentiments to

When twenty-year-old Sandy Carpenter agrees to baby sit Cassie Johnson, she has no clue that Cassie has a peculiar talent. In fact, Cassies own family is unaware what she can do. Over the following months, Sandy enjoys five-year-old Cassies quirkiness and grows to love the enigmatic prodigy.Reading together in Sandys cozy Ventura living room, an unexpected warm breeze brings forth a feast of scents although no doors or windows are open. Cassie appears to be in some sort of "state" until Sandy snaps her out of it. Cassie exclaims that a handsome winged angel in a toga told her that something big is about to happen.That Friday, Sandy and Cassie are able to have a sleepover and give the Johnsons a night out. Thunder and pouring rain awakens them to a dark house. The power is out and the radio will only emit a hiss of static. Although well into morning, there is not even the faintest gray of sunlight. There is only the occasional punctuation of lightning.Hungry, they decide to venture out in hopes of breakfast and to assure the Johnsons that Cassie is okay. Sandy finds the car will not start. Meanwhile, strange sounds outside the garage door draw Sandy closer. Someone or something begins banging on the roll-up door with enough force to severely dent it. Sandy leaves nothing to chance and pushes the car against the door to prevent its opening. With Cassie embedded as deeply into an overstuffed chair as possible, Sandy paces, heart thudding, realizing they are not safe in her home. Why doesnt whoever is out there just come crashing through the picture window? Is he simply toying with them? She must protect Cassie at all cost.Sandy remembers that her beloved Danny, now lost to her in this life, was Mr. Super Prepper and had prepared an emergency drum in the garage. Flashlight in hand, Sandy makes three trips and now has a backpack and gear. Prepared and resolute, Sandy takes Cassie in hand and sloshes through freezing rain for the local Sheriffs Annex a few short blocks away.An otherworldly, shadowy attacker manages to separate Sandy and Cassie. Lost in the dark and pouring rain, all Sandy can do is pray that Cassie can run fast enough to evade capture, or worse. Frantic and choking back sobs, Sandy is nearly paralyzed with the thought that the choices she must now make could mean Cassies life.Meanwhile, outside their their bubble of alternate reality, the military, physicists and engineers puzzle ways to bring the survivors back, even as politicians work to cover the mess up...for good!

"What you are about to read would be classified Top Secret were it not for the fact Ive changed the names, places, events, technology and characters to protect the innocent and guilty alike."It was shaping up to be just another day at Atomic Weapons Research Establishment(Tadcaster) for 18 year old Bill Shilbert but then came the explosion.A short story of one unlikely heros battle to save the day and get the girl. Also includes green rabbits and a smattering of dark humour.

Every year, AppleWorks arrives in the hands of four million Apple iMac* and iBook* buyers--with no manual. In this book, author Jim Elferdink guides the reader through both the basics and the hidden talents of the new AppleWorks version, placing special emphasis on Version 6's enhanced word processing, Internet, and cross-platform file-exchange features.

Clever, humane, affectionate and realistic crime writing at its best. Maxim Jakubowski. Introducing a unique and unorthodox crime solving duo - ex Met DI Jim Domino, and his inquisitive six-year-old grandson, Danny. When a woman is found unconscious on a ping-pong table in Peckhams Warwick Gardens, it looks like a case of mistaken identity. Why would anyone want to injure this popular local mum of six? But Jim Domino, retired CID detective turned private eye, keeps asking questions. As the crime escalates to murder, Dominos investigations take him to the leafy Thames Valley, and plunge him into a dark world of ruthless people-traffickers and drug dealers. How might these sinister activities be linked to the Peckham murder? Assisted by sharp observations from his six-year-old grandson, Danny, Domino finds that important clues can come from unexpected sources. The Lady in the Park is about the good in most people, and about love, grief and childhood. The first in an exciting new crime fiction series, it weaves a diverse cast of characters into a twisty immersive plot that will leave readers craving for more investigations featuring the inimitable Jim Domino and his young sidekick, Danny.

The Cold War dominated history for nearly half a century, locking two superpowers in a global rivalry that ended only with the collapse of the Soviet Union. For millennia, the outcomes of war had been determined on the battlefield, but the most decisive moments of the Cold War occurred in the carefully worded exchanges of world leaders meeting face to face. In the shadow of the bomb, the summit meeting offered an opportunity for heads of state to rattle sabers and cross swords without triggering nuclear apocalypse. Drawing on extensive archival material, prizewinning historian David Reynolds describes the outsized personalities who negotiated the course of twentieth-century history: Neville Chamberlain, Adolph Hitler, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, Richard Nixon, Leonid Brezhnev, Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Ronald Reagan. While these men addressed epochal issues, the outcome of each meeting was often determined more by individual personality than by international politics. Mishandled summits-Munich in 1938 and Yalta in 1945-brought about World War II and the Cold War, respectively. Kennedys disastrous performance in Vienna in 1961 nearly brought about World War III. But successful summits in Moscow (1972), Camp David (1978), and Geneva (1985) led to dnte, a partial settlement in the Middle East, and a peaceful end to the Cold War. Written with verve and insight, Summits vividly describes the statesmen who stood, if only briefly, on top of the world. By revealing both the promise and the pitfalls of international diplomacy, David Reynolds offers valuable lessons as we find ourselves confronting once again a war without end.

Concise, elegant and lucid A very useful primer on the delusions of an English mentality GuardianWhat do we get wrong about Britains history and its place in the world? In a brilliant, big-picture history, bestselling author David Reynolds moves beyond the Brexit debate to trace and reassess the defining narratives of Britains past. From fluctuating engagement with Europe to the legacies of Empire. From the Acts of Union that forged the United Kingdom to the slave trade, immigration and the special relationship. This is a vital guide to how Britains identity was really formed, and what long-held and often-damaging illusions we should be shaking off.

In Britain we have lost touch with the Great War. Our overriding sense now is of a meaningless, futile bloodbath in the mud of Flanders -- of young men whose lives were cut off in their prime for no evident purpose. But by reducing the conflict to personal tragedies, however moving, we have lost the big picture: the history has been distilled into poetry. In The Long Shadow, critically acclaimed author David Reynolds seeks to redress the balance by exploring the true impact of 1914-18 on the 20th century. Some of the Great Wars legacies were negative and pernicious but others proved transformative in a positive sense. Exploring big themes such as democracy and empire, nationalism and capitalism and re-examining the differing impacts of the War on Britain, Ireland and the United States, The Long Shadow throws light on the whole of the last century and demonstrates that 1914-18 is a conflict that Britain, more than any other nation, is still struggling to comprehend. Stunningly broad in its historical perspective, The Long Shadow is a magisterial and seismic re-presentation of the Great War.

Rowan Calder was raised to kill wolves.Heir to a family of hunters, she knows the laws carved into standing stones and boundary lines: wolves are the enemy. Wolves killed her ancestors. Wolves cannot be trusted.But when she finds a young wolf trapped in one of her fathers iron jaws bleeding out, dying, staring at her with eyes too human to ignore Rowan does something unforgivable.She sets him free.Cai is wolf-born, pack-raised, alphas son. He should hate the human who found him. He should run the moment the trap springs open. Instead, something snaps into place behind his ribs. A thread pulling tight. A bond that doesnt ask permission.Now the moor is waking. An ancient hunger, buried for a thousand years, is stirring beneath the peat and stone. It feeds on death. On grief. On every drop of blood spilled between wolves and humans.And its noticed the bond.To survive, Rowan and Cai must return to the hollow where the first bonded pair died. They must face the thing thats been waiting. They must feed the chains that hold itwith pieces of themselves, with every moment theyve shared, with a love that refuses to let go.The cost will change them forever.But some chains, theyre learning, are worth carrying.

When her car dies on the edge of a town that time forgot, Cassie figures shes having the worst day of her life. Then the screaming starts.The town of North has a secret. Every few decades, something hungry wakes up. The locals call it the Nothing. It doesnt kill youit arranges accidents. A loose stair. A crack in the road. A moment of distraction. The town calls them tragedies. Cassie knows better.Stranded with a dead phone and a compass that wont stop spinning, she meets Leo, a boy carrying guilt from the last time the Nothing fed. Together, they uncover a trail left by other survivorsa network of hand-drawn maps and tarnished compasses that point the way to safety. Or so they hope.Joined by Riley, a girl whos been running her whole life, the three follow the path into the mountains. But the Nothing is watching. It knows theyre together. And the closer they get to the wound in the world where it lives, the harder it will push back against their deepest fears.To seal the Nothing away, one of them will have to make the ultimate choice. Because surviving isnt the same as livingand the only way home might cost everything.North is a story of fear, courage, and the unbreakable bonds forged in the dark.

Elara Voss didnt come to Eclipsed Veil Academy to make friends. She came for answers about the ritual that went wrong, about the shadow that lashed out, about the night she lost the only person who ever really knew her.She didnt come to be bonded either. Especially not to him.Prince Kairos Shadowveil. The boy whose shadows killed her best friend. The boy who knows it. The boy whose heartbeat is now locked inside her chest like a second pulse she cant silence.The Veil doesnt care about guilt. It doesnt care about grief. It only cares about balance and its decided that Elara and Kai are the equation.Now they have to train together, fight together, survive together. And the longer the bond holds, the harder it becomes to remember which feelings are hers and which ones belong to the boy shes supposed to hate.Some bonds are made to heal. Some are made to destroy. Elaras beginning to think hers might be both.

Elara Voss arrives at Eclipsed Veil Academy carrying one thing: the memory of her best friends death and the name of the boy responsible. She isnt here for magic, or bonds, or destiny. Shes here to survive the year and get out.Then the Bonding Trial happens.In front of the entire school, golden threads rip from her chest and slam into Prince Kairos Shadowveil the shadow prince whose lost control killed Freya. The bond locks. Their heartbeats merge. And Elara can feel every scrap of his guilt, his grief, and his desperate, exhausting remorse whether she wants to or not.The Veil is fracturing. Unstable bonds are tearing holes in the barrier between worlds, and shadow creatures are bleeding through. Elara and Kai have to learn to fight together or watch the academy fall apart around them which means touching, training, and carrying each others pain through a connection that refuses to let either of them hide.But the bond has a cost nobody told her about. One that could strip away everything that makes her human.And Kai already knew.Veilbound Hearts is a dark paranormal YA romance set in a Scottish Highland academy where the magic is brutal, the bonds are permanent, and falling for the wrong person might just save the world or destroy whats left of you.