Famous People

Discusses Thomas Edison\\\\\\\'s scientific career and his successful inventions, including the light bulb, mimeograph machine, and ticker tape machine Read more

Most great figures in American history reveal great contradictions, and Henry Ford is no exception. He championed his workers, offering unprecedented wages, yet crushed their attempts to organize. Virulently anti-Semitic, he never employed fewer than 3,000 Jews. An outspoken pacifist, he made millions producing war materials. He urbanized the modern world, and then tried to drag it back into a romanticized rural past he\\\'d helped to destroy. As the American auto industry struggles to reinvent itself, Vincent Curcio\\\'s timely biography offers a wealth of new insight into the man who started it all. Henry Ford not only founded Ford Motor Company but institutionalized assembly line production and, some would argue, created the American middle class. By constantly improving his product and increasing sales, Ford was able to lower the price of the automobile until it became a universal commodity. He paid his workers so well that, for the first time in history, the people who manufactured a complex industrial product could own one. This was \\\"Fordism\\\"--social engineering on a vast scale. But, as Curcio displays, Ford\\\'s anti-Semitism would forever stain his reputation. Hitler admired him greatly, both for his anti-Semitism and his autocratic leadership, displaying Ford\\\'s picture in his bedroom and keeping a copy of Ford\\\'s My Life and Work by his bedside. Nevertheless, Ford\\\'s economic and social initiatives, as well as his deft handling of his public image, kept his popularity high among Americans. He offered good pay, good benefits, English language classes, and employment for those who struggled to find jobs--handicapped, African-American, and female workers. Such was his popularity that in 1923, the homespun, clean-living, xenophobic Henry Ford nearly won the Republican presidential nomination.This new volume in the Lives and Legacies series explores the full impact of Ford\\\'s indisputable greatness, the deep flaws that complicate his legacy, and what he means for our own time. Read more

Like the Rockefellers and the Kennedys, the Kochs are one of the most influential dynasties of the modern age, but they have never been the subject of a major biography -- until now. Not long after the death of his father, Charles Koch, then in his early 30s, discovered a letter the family patriarch had written to his sons. \\\\\\\"You will receive what now seems to be a large sum of money,\\\\\\\" Fred Koch cautioned. \\\\\\\"It may either be a blessing or a curse.\\\\\\\" Fred\\\\\\\'s legacy would become a blessing and a curse to his four sons-Frederick, Charles, and fraternal twins David and Bill-who in the ensuing decades fought bitterly over their birthright, the oil and cattle-ranching empire their father left behind in 1967. Against a backdrop of scorched-earth legal skirmishes, Charles and David built Koch Industries into one of the largest private corporations in the world-bigger than Boeing and Disney-and they rose to become two of the wealthiest men on the planet. Influenced by the sentiments of their father, who was present at the birth of the John Birch Society, Charles and David have spent decades trying to remake the American political landscape and mainline their libertarian views into the national bloodstream. They now control a machine that is a center of gravity within the Republican Party. To their supporters, they are liberating America from the scourge of Big Government. To their detractors, they are political \\\\\\\"contract killers,\\\\\\\" as David Axelrod, President Barack Obama\\\\\\\'s chief strategist, put it during the 2012 campaign. Bill, meanwhile, built a multi-billion dollar energy empire all his own, and earned notoriety as an America\\\\\\\'s Cup-winning yachtsman, a flamboyant playboy, and as a litigious collector of fine wine and Western memorabilia. Frederick lived an intensely private life as an arts patron, refurbishing a series of historic homes and estates. Sons of Witchita traces the complicated lives and legacies of these four tycoons, as well as their business, social, and political ambitions. No matter where you fall on the ideological spectrum, the Kochs are one of the most influential dynasties of our era, but so little is publicly known about this family, their origins, how they make their money, and how they live their lives. Based on hundreds of interviews with friends, relatives, business associates, and many others, Sons of Witchita is the first major biography about this wealthy and powerful family-warts and all. Read more

• If autographed, includes an individually numbered, tamper-evident hologram
• Category; Autographed NHL Photos

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Legend of Drizzt The Forgotten Realms Series Set 1-13 By R.A. Salvatore - Includes, Book I: Homeland The Dark Elf Trilogy #1 Book II: Exile The Dark Elf Trilogy #2 Book III: Sojourn The Dark Elf Trilogy #3 Book IV: The Crystal Shard The Icewind Dale Trilogy #1 Book V: Streams of Silver The Icewind Dale Trilogy #2 Book VI: The Halfling\\\'s Gem The Icewind Dale Trilogy #3 Book VII: The Legacy Legacy of the Drow #1 Book VIII: Starless Night Legacy of the Drow #2 Book IX: Siege of Darkness Legacy of the Drow #3 Book X: Passage to Dawn Legacy of the Drow #4 Book XI: The Silent Blade Paths of Darkness #1 Book XII: The Spine of the World Paths of Darkness #2 Book XIII: The Sea of Swords Paths of Darkness #3 Read more

Golf instruction with a positive, down-to-earth guide to acquiring the right frame of mind to produce a winning golfer. A happy blend of autobiography, tips on form, mechanics of golf, and winning psychology. Nichols demonstrates how to knock strokes off your score. His Mental Dozen: Get the Picture; Believe in Yourself; Have a Free Mind; Don\\\'t Expect too Much; Control Your Emotions; Play the Shot, Not the Event; Choose Your Partner; Imitate the Right People; Analyze Your Game; Get Warm, but not Hot; Don\\\'t Gamble; Give Your Mind a Chance. 14 Chapters, Appendix and Index: Golf is a Thinking Man\\\'s Game; Grip Triggers Accurate Shot; Get Set and Take Aim; Easy Swing Does It; Woods are Show Windows of Golf; Ling Irons are Stroke Savers; Middle Irons Set Ideal Tempo; Short Irons Set Up Birdies; When Trouble Hits, Just Settle Down; Putting is a State of Mind; Good Practice Grooves the Swing; Winning the Big One was Thrill of a Lifetime; Pro Golf is Full of Surprises; All-American Course with Players to Match. Robert Herman Nichols (born April 14, 1936) won the 1964 PGA Championship by defeating Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus by 3 shots for a four-day total of 271, a record low score for the PGA Championship which stood for 30 years until 1994, and was 2nd in the 1967 Masters. Born in Louisville, KY, he attended St. Xavier High School and played golf at Texas A&M. In high school, Nichols and several other youths were in an automobile accident resulting from a 100 mile-per-hour joy ride. He suffered a broken pelvis, concussion, back and internal injuries, and was hospitalized 96 days. His legs were paralyzed for about two weeks, but he regained full use of them after intensive physical therapy. On the PGA Tour he had 11 victories and was on the 1967 Ryder Cup team. Nichols, Jerry Heard and Lee Trevino were struck by lightning at the 1975 Western Open; all 3 men fully recovered from this traumatic experience. Nichols had 12 holes-in-one in his professional career. Read more