Resultados Editorial "Charles River Editors" en Políticos

Ironically, one of the generals who often escapes the attention of Civil War fans who compile the lists of best generals is the man who won the war's most famous battle, George G. Meade (1815-1872). In fact, Meade has become a perfect example of how the generals who did not self-promote themselves and write memoirs after the war had their reputations suffer in the ensuing decades.

Among the leaders of the 20th century, arguably none shaped the course of history as much as Vladimir Lenin. If Adolf Hitler had not inflicted the devastation of World War II upon Europe, it's quite likely that the West would consider Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) the 20th century's greatest tyrant. Along with Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky led the October Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and held crucial posts in the early Soviet governments.

The fearsome Kim regime of North Korea, though not lasting for centuries, has become one of history's most controversial bloodlines, not without cause. This is why Kim Jong-Un, the baby-faced 30-something with the bizarre flat-top seated at the throne today, is an object of such fascination. The world watched as the keys to the sinking ship were passed down to the young Kim, hoping for the state's long-awaited metamorphosis, but as it turned out, this young man could be far more erratic and inflexible than those came before him.

Spying and treachery are as much a part of warfare as weapons and death. This has always been the case since the earliest battles and is not likely to change in the future. And yet, even within this irregular system, there are certain rules, especially in past eras such as the American Revolution. First, while spying on behalf of one's country is perfectly respectable, betraying one's nation is treason. Second, honorable men do not involve those too innocent to understand the consequences of their actions in their schemes.

Margeretha Geertruida Zelle, better known to history by the exotic, glamorous name of Mata Hari, was a woman who profited greatly from the power of illusion during much of her brief life. Born to a hatter named Adam Zelle and his wife Antje van der Meulen, Mata Hari moved from a financially rewarding but miserable marriage to circus performances to exotic dancing and celebrity to the role of ostensible international spy in an arc that ended tragically in front of a French firing squad.

Today Albert Sidney Johnston is one of the most overlooked generals of the Civil War, but in April 1862 he was widely considered the Confederacy's best general. After graduating from West Point, Johnston had a distinguished military career that ensured he would play a principal role in the Civil War. Near the beginning of the war Johnston was given command of the Western Department, which basically comprised the entire Western theater at the time.

The most famous debates in American history were held over 150 years ago, and today they are remembered and celebrated, mostly because they included future President Abraham Lincoln, one of the nation's most revered men. But in the Fall of 1858, Lincoln was just a one-term Congressman who had to all but beg his US Senate opponent to debate him. That's because his opponent, incumbent US Senator Stephen Douglas, was one of the most famous national politicians of the era.

Citizens of the United States of America are very proud of their heritage; the country is known as the "land of opportunity" because of some self-made men who made a go of themselves in the country. When comparing the country to other places in the world, the United States is still a young country and was built on immigrants and disadvantaged people rising to the top and shaping the country into what it is today.

Best known as the 37th President of the United States, and the only president in American history to resign his office, Richard Nixon's lengthy political career would put him, during various times, at the center of regional, national and international politics for several decades. It was to be a career filled with unexpected twists and turns, high-profile defeats and unlikely resurrections, in which he made exhaustive efforts to reinvent himself in the public eye....

In 1832, 17-year-old Otto von Bismarck had just entered university and was already rejecting the republican indoctrination of his grade school years. Unlike so many of his day who had championed representative government, Bismarck longed for the glory of a nation he believed would only be found under a single, strong leader. Though his early university days showed him he would be isolated by this thinking, he strongly believed not only in the ideal of a national German state, but in its possibility.

Americans have long been fascinated by the Civil War, marveling at the size of the battles, the leadership of the generals, and the courage of the soldiers. Since the war's start over 150 years ago, the events have been subjected to endless debate among historians and the generals themselves. The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in American history, and had the two sides realized it would take four years and inflict over a million casualties, it might not have been fought.

The legend of Francisco Villa is full of heroism, tragedy and romance. It is the story of a poor farmer boy who became a bandit out of necessity, after avenging an injustice on his family; a military genius who flew from an oppressive government to lead the largest revolutionary army in his country's history, and defeated dictatorship to become Mexico's liberator, only to fall again in disgrace when his troops abandoned him or were massacred by the enemy.

A century ago, if one were to come across a manual laborer from the early 20th century or the Roaring Twenties and relayed to them the possibility of one day sticking it to the man, one would probably be laughed out of the century. However, this was exactly what one man with solid-gold aspirations and audacity set out to achieve. Jimmy Hoffa, once described by Bobby Kennedy as the second most powerful man in America, was a union boss who evoked both respect and fear.

Shortly after World War II, Congress' House Committee on Un-American Activities began investigating Americans across the country for suspected ties to Communism. The most famous victims of these witch hunts were Hollywood actors, such as Charlie Chaplin, whose "Un-American activity" was being neutral at the beginning of World War II. By the late 1950s, the hysteria had waned, recognized in large measure as an overreaction.

The late 19th and early 20th centuries in America had no shortage of political graft and powerful politicians, but few were as influential or conspicuous as the Kingfish, Huey P. Long. A populist Democrat who hoped to elevate the lower classes in Louisiana, Long accrued massive amounts of power during his governorship, in the process revolutionizing political campaigning.

One of the most important, and controversial, Confederate generals during the Civil War was Lieutenant General James Longstreet, the man Robert E. Lee called his "old war horse". Longstreet was Lee's principal subordinate for most of the war, ably managing a corps in the Army of Northern Virginia and being instrumental in Confederate victories at Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Chickamauga. Longstreet was also effective at Antietam and the Battle of the Wilderness, where he was nearly killed by a shot through the neck.

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, listeners can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

Clergymen rarely make good politicians. There is perhaps no better example of this than Father Charles Coughlin, a Depression-era priest-turned-demagogue who was seen as an angel by some and a devil by others. The same man who cruelly castigated the Jews also spoke eloquently on the needs and rights of the most downtrodden in society. The same orator who said, "Roosevelt or ruin", later cried, "Roosevelt and ruin." In the 1930s, his effective use of the radio revolutionized mass communications, and millions of people listened to his every word.

And what of Francis Scott Key, this brilliant lawyer who was born into slave-holding Maryland and himself held slaves even as he wrote of "the land of the free"? He was, to say the least, complex, as he at times fought in court both for and against slaves seeking their freedom. He was a founding member of an organization seeking to return captured slaves to their homelands, yet he also fought abolition tooth and claw. He seems to have been, like many men of his age, torn nearly to pieces by these contradictions.

Chávez is one of the most divisive and controversial political figures in Latin American history. He has been in power since 1999 and is South America's longest serving head of state. The leader of the movement towards 21st century socialism, Chávez has sought to bring socialist reform to Venezuela through what he calls the Bolivarian Revolution. His goal has been to shift power from the nation's traditional oligarchy to the neglected poor.