JUVENILE · HISTORY
Albert Marrin
Albert Marrin (born July 24, 1936) is an American historian, professor of history, and author of more than forty juvenile nonfiction books. He was born in New York City. He graduated from City College of New York, Yeshiva University, and Columbia University. He taught in the public schools New York City. He is Chairman of the history department at Yeshiva University. He lives with his wife in the Bronx, New York.
THE MORNING is fair and filled with the smells of spring.
— from Black & gold
Most acclaimed
The Spanish-American War
A fresh (and timely) look at what one diplomat dubbed ""a splendid little war,"" a triumph of yellow journalism and US imperialism. Writing in his usual lurid style (""Chunks of steel buzz-sawed through the air, slicing through anything that stood in their way""), Martin ably describes the harsh Spanish regimes in Cuba and the Philippines; the incidents, culminating in the (probably accidental) explosion of the U.S.S. Maine, which caused McKinley to dispatch his strong new navy and a hastily assembled army to war; and the course of both campaigns, The author misses none of war's ironies (in Cuba alone, 345 US soldiers died in combat, 5,462 of disease), but he also describes many instances of heroism, especially in the black units. He concludes with a detailed account of the Philippine Insurrection, ""the least-known of all our wars""--a bitter conflict he sees as having much in common with Vietnam. B&w photos not seen. Excellent notes; lengthy bibliography; index.
Black & gold
At the center of this powerful novel is Leela Wilder, a proud and beautiful African American woman, torn between two very different men, and struggling for survival and success in the torrent of greed, ambition, intrigue and prejudice that turned oil-rich Texas farmlands into wellsprings of fabulous fortune in the tumultuous 1920s. Leela's mother died in childbirth, and her father died when she was a small girl, so she has had only her inner strength and intelligence to make her way in a world where odds are stacked against her. When she weds T.J. Wilder, who farms the land he calls Rioluces with a fierce passion, it seems that at last she has won out over the bad hand fate dealt her. But trouble returns in the handsome form of Carey Logan, T.J.'s half-brother; a gambling man who stirs Leela's ardor as her husband never had, and leaves her shattered by shame, alone with a child to raise and 340 drought-stricken acres to farm. When oil fever sweeps over Texas, bankers and drillers scent a killing to be made at Rioluces, forcing Leela into the fight of her life. Carey Logan is more seductive and treacherous than ever and Leela turns for protection to Victor Beaufort, the only black wildcatter in Texas, and a tough and confident man. He will do and risk anything to win in an oil game ruthlessly rigged in the white man's favor; even if it means breaking his word to Leela, and her heart as well. Thus the stage is set for a drama that plunges Leela into a quickening whirlpool of twisted family ties and shocking secrets, moral betrayal and flaming violence that threaten to destroy everything she possesses. With an unforgettable heroine and a vividly evocative portrayal of strong African American families, Black Gold rivets with passion and power; and marks the emergence of an important voice and vision in American fiction.
Commander in Chief Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War
1997
Brings Lincoln to life by placing him in the context of his own personal background and the larger circumstances of the country's greatest conflict.