Bøger af Lawrence Goldstone

WHO BELONGS IN AMERICA? The latest installment of the World Citizen Comics Line, Born in the USA, tracks the history of immigration to the United States, highlighting the twists and turns in the nearly three-hundred year old national debate to decide who gets to call themselves a US citizen.The words carved into the Statue of Liberty make a simple promise- America will provide a home for anyone in search of a better life. However, the true story of immigration to America is full of complication and caveats.Born in the USA tracks the history of immigration to the United States, revealing how economic interests and political winds have sculpted Americans' thoughts about who belongs in the USA. From black enslavement to Chinese exclusion and the modern-day debate over birthright citizenship, Lawrence Goldstone and James Otis Smith reveal the dissonance between the American Dream and the American Reality.

On September 17, 1787, at the State House in Philadelphia, thirty-nine men from twelve states, after months of often bitter debate, signed America's Constitution. Yet very few of the delegates, at the start, had had any intention of creating a nation that would last. Most were driven more by pragmatic, regional interests than by idealistic vision. Many were meeting for the first time, others after years of contention, and the inevitable clash of personalities would be as intense as the advocacy of ideas or ideals.No issue was of greater concern to the delegates than that of slavery: it resounded through debates on the definition of treason, the disposition of the rich lands west of the Alleghenies and the admission of new states, representation and taxation, the need for a national census, and the very make-up of the legislative and executive branches of the new government. As is provocatively made clear in Dark Bargain, "to a significant and disquieting degree, America's most sacred document was molded and shaped by the most notorious institution in its history."Dark Bargain chronicles the forging of the Constitution through the prism of the crucial compromises made by men consumed with the needs of the slave economy. As the daily debates and backroom conferences in inns and taverns stretched through July and August of that hot summer--and as the philosophical leadership of James Madison waned--Lawrence Goldstone clearly reveals how tenuous the document was, and how an agreement between unlikely collaborators--John Rutledge of South Carolina, and Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut--got the delegates past their most difficult point. Dark Bargain recounts an event as dramatic and compelling as any in our nation's history.

...A potent and original examination of how the Supreme Court subverted justice and empowered the Jim Crow era.In the years following the Civil War, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery; the 14th conferred citizenship and equal protection under the law to white and black; and the 15th gave black American males the right to vote. In 1875, the most comprehensive civil rights legislation in the nation's history granted all Americans "the full and equal enjoyment" of public accommodations. Just eight years later, the Supreme Court, by an 8-1 vote, overturned the Civil Rights Act as unconstitutional and, in the process, disemboweled the equal protection provisions of the 14th Amendment. Using court records and accounts of the period, Lawrence Goldstone chronicles how "by the dawn of the 20th century the U.S. had become the nation of Jim Crow laws, quasi-slavery, and precisely the same two-tiered system of justice that had existed in the slave era."The very human story of how and why this happened make Inherently Unequal as important as it is provocative. Examining both celebrated decisions like Plessy v. Ferguson and those often overlooked, Goldstone demonstrates how the Supreme Court turned a blind eye to the obvious reality of racism, defending instead the business establishment and status quo--thereby legalizing the brutal prejudice that came to define the Jim Crow era.

In this new and original study of the origins of the United States Constitution, award winning scholar Lawrence Goldstone demonstrates that what was left out of the document by the Framers is of equal importance to what was included. Because of the deep divisions present in the United States at the beginning of the Republic, delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 were unwilling, and often unable, to forge a plan for government that would be both comprehensive and sufficiently acceptable to competing interests to achieve ratification. Rather than risk rejection, they chose to leave many key areas of governance vague or undefined, hoping the flaws could be dealt with after the Constitution had become the "supreme law of the land." Although successful in the short term, that strategy left the Constitution excessively prone to subjective interpretation and, as a result, the United States was rendered vulnerable to anti-democratic initiatives and the perpetuation of minority rule, both of which plague the nation today. Thus, a constitution drafted to ensure "a more perfect union" has instead begotten dysfunction and disunion. The ossification of America's political process is to a significant degree due not to what the Constitution says but rather from what it fails to say. The only way to address the threat these omissions engender is to identify the flaws and then complete the Constitution by fashioning legislative solutions to fill the gaps.

"On December 7, 1941--'a date which will live in infamy'--the Japanese navy launched an attack on the American military bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt declared war on Japan, and the US Army officially entered the Second World War. Three years later, on December 18, 1944, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which enabled the Secretary of War to enforce a mass deportation of more than 100,000 Americans to what government officials themselves called 'concentration camps.' None of these citizens had been accused of a real crime. All of them were torn from their homes, jobs, schools, and communities, and deposited in tawdry, makeshift housing behind barbed wire, solely for the crime of being of Japanese descent. President Roosevelt declared this community 'alien, '--whether they were citizens or not, native-born or not--accusing them of being potential spies and saboteurs for Japan who deserved to have their Constitutional rights stripped away. In doing so, the president set in motion another date which would live in infamy, the day when the US joined the ranks of those Fascist nations that had forcibly deported innocents solely on the basis of the circumstance of their birth. In 1944 the US Supreme Court ruled, in Korematsu v. United States, that the forcible deportation and detention of Japanese Americans on the basis of race was a 'military necessity.' Today it is widely considered one of the worst Supreme Court decisions of all time. But Korematsu was not an isolated event. In fact, the Court's racist ruling was the result of a deep-seated anti-Japanese, anti-Asian sentiment running all the way back to the California Gold Rush of the mid-1800s. Starting from this pivotal moment, Constitutional law scholar Lawrence Goldstone will take young readers through the key events of the 19th and 20th centuries leading up to the fundamental injustice of Japanese American internment. Tracing the history of Japanese immigration to America and the growing fear whites had of losing power, Goldstone will raise deeply resonant questions of what makes an American an American, and what it means for the Supreme Court to stand as the 'people's' branch of government"--

"Books are like puzzles,” write Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. "The author's ideas are hidden, and it is up to all of us to figure them out.” In this indispensable reading companion, the Goldstones-noted parent-child book club experts-encourage grownups and young readers alike to adopt an approach that will unlock the magic and power of reading.With the Goldstones help, parents can inspire kids' lifelong love of reading by teaching them how to unlock a book's hidden meaning. Featuring fun and incisive discussions of numerous children's classics, this dynamic guide highlights key elements-theme, setting, character, point of view, climax, and conflict-and paves the way for meaningful conversations between parents and children. "Best of all,” the Goldstones note, "you don't need an advanced degree in English literature or forty hours a week of free time to effectively discuss a book with your child. This isn't Crime and Punishment, it's Charlotte's Web.”

A fresh look at the history of aviation that takes middle grade nonfiction to new heights!

Set in a world in which aspirin had not been invented, abortion was illegal, and pregnancy could result in agonising death, this novel is an intriguing and richly atmospheric blend of history, early forensic science and knife-edge suspense.