Books in Oxford Portraits series

Frances Perkins (1880-1965) was the first woman appointed to a U.S. cabinet post and the longest-serving Secretary of Labor. Perkins had a long and illustrious record as a social activist: she reorganized New York state's factory inspections system, advocated the Workmen's Compensation Act, and promoted the legislative protection of women and child laborers. As U.S. Secretary of Labor under Roosevelt she helped develop major New Deal legislation, including the Social Security Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Always regarded with some hostility by both organized labor and the business community, Perkins survived an attempt to impeach her in 1939. As one of the most distinguished and trailblazing women in the history of American government, Perkins is often studied in American history classes. Moreover, her career touched on issues key to our current debates about government and social policy. This book is richly illustrated with documents and rare photographs. Oxford Portraits is a new series of biographies for young adults. Written by prominent writers and historians, each of these titles is designed to supplement the core texts of the middle and high school curriculum with intriguing, thoroughly informative and insightful accounts of the lives and work of the notable men and women who helped shape history. Each book is illustrated with numerous graphics, photographs, and documents. A unique feature is the inclusion of sidebars containing primary source material, mostly excerpts from the subject's writings. A chronology, further reading list, and index rounds out every volume.

Oxford Portraits are informative and insightful biographies of people whose lives shaped their times and continue to influence ours. Based on the most recent scholarship, they draw heavily on primary sources, including writings by and about their subjects. Each book is illustrated with a wealth of photographs, documents, memorabilia, framing the personality and achievements of its subject against the backdrop of history.

In this new concise biography Thomas Jefferson historian R.B. Bernstein finds the key to this enigmatic Founder not as a great political figure, but as leader of a "revolution of ideas that would make the world over again".Bernstein examines Jefferson's strengths and weaknesses, his achievements and failures, his triumphs, contradictions, and failings. Thomas Jefferson details his luxurious (and debt-burdened) life as a Virginia gentleman to his passionate belief in democracy, from his tortured defense of slavery to his relationship with Sally Hemings. An architect, inventor, writer, diplomat, propagandist, planter, party leader Jefferson was multifaceted, and Bernstein explores these roles even as he illuminates Jefferson's central place in American enlightenment the "revolution of ideas" that did so much to create the nation we are today. Bernstein also examines the less-remembered points in Jefferson's thinking the nature of the Union, his vision of who was entitled to citizenship, his dread of debt (both personal and national). Thomas Jefferson is the latest title in the Oxford Portraits series, which offers informative and insightful biographies of people whose lives shaped their times and continue to influence ours. Each volume in the series is heavily based on primary documents, including writings by and about each subject. Every Oxford Portrait is illustrated with a wealth of photographs, original letters, manuscripts, and memorabilia that frame the personality and achievements of its subject against the backdrop of history. Every volume in the series can be incorporated into the American history curriculum at the middle and high school levels.

Jacob Riis (1849-1914) was born in Denmark and emigrated to America at the age of 21. After several years of poverty, he found work as a police reporter, which took him into the worst of New York's ghettos and tenements. Appalled by the conditions he found there, he began to use the primitive new flash technology to photograph the dark places that had never before been so graphically exposed. The resulting book, How the Other Half Lives, brought to life an entire reform movement. Riis was a staunch ally in the young Theodore Roosevelt's battle to reform the New York police, breaking the brutal system of corruption and graft that had prevented the possibility of any real change in poor neighborhoods. Riis's activism involved him in such vital current controversies as hostility toward immigration, the growing gulf between rich and poor, the relative importance of heredity and environment, the need for adequate public schools, conflicts between social reform and personal freedom, and police brutality. But at the same time, his life raises some thought-provoking moral questions, because his compassion was flawed by an underlying prejudice; his writings are marred by a clear underlying conviction of the superiority of white Protestants, and he speaks with condescension and occasional scorn of other races and religions. He remained an active reformer all his life, founding a settlement house, writing several more books, most notably The Children of the Poor, and maintaining a taxing schedule of lecture tours. This biography includes a picture essay of Riis' photographs as well as, 35 black-and-white illustrations, a chronology, further reading, and an index.Oxford Portraits are informative and insightful biographies of people whose lives shaped their times and continue to influence ours. Based on the most recent scholarship, they draw heavily on primary sources, including writings by and about their subjects. Each book is illustrated with a wealth of photographs, documents, memorabilia, framing the personality and achievements of its subject against the backdrop of history.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was one of the most fascinating figures of the late 18th century. His public antagonist and personal friend John Adams believed that their times would come to be known as the "Age of Paine." He came to America in middle age and became a radical-democratic pamphleteer, effectively turning colonial rebellion into a national liberation movement. He later returned to Europe where he played a prominent role in both the French Revolution and the cause of English radicalism. Paine is best remembered for his books: the controversial The Rights of Man and his book on the American Revolution, Common Sense. Harvey J. Kaye, well-known for his studies on Paine and his period, traces the English revolutionary's life and details his political writings in accessible, highly readable narrative that also covers important events of early American history. Oxford Portraits is a new series of biographies for young adults. Written by prominent writers and historians, each of these titles is designed to supplement the core texts of the middle and high school curriculum with intriguing, thoroughly informative and insightful accounts of the lives and work of the notable men and women who helped shape history. Each book is illustrated with numerous graphics, photographs, and documents. A unique feature is the inclusion of sidebars containing primary source material, mostly excerpts from the subject's writings. A chronology, further reading list, and index rounds out every volume.

By exposing the sickening conditions people with mental illness endured in jails, almshouses, and basement cells, Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) single-handedly transformed the U.S. system of mental health care in the 19th century. Dix traveled from state to state, describing the hideous suffering people who were both poor and mentally ill endured at the hands of their captors. Her tireless research and personal lobbying of legislators led to construction of asylums for the mentally ill in state after state.Oxford Portraits are informative and insightful biographies of people whose lives shaped their times and continue to influence ours. Based on the most recent scholarship, they draw heavily on primary sources, including writings by and about their subjects. Each book is illustrated with a wealth of photographs, documents, memorabilia, framing the personality and achievements of its subject against the backdrop of history.

Roger Williams chronicles the life of one of the most remarkable forefathers in American history. A true revolutionary, this devout Puritan championed Native American rights; wrote treatises on equal rights, flag desecration, and the separation of church and state; established the first American settlement based on total religious toleration--and he lived more than a century before independence, when America was still a vast wilderness! Williams went on to adopt adult baptism and founded the first Baptist church in America. He became president of Rhode Island colony in 1654, served as captain in the defense of Providence during King Philip's War, and continued to write and preach passionately for religious tolerance and Native American rights until his death in 1683.

Lydia Maria Child presents the life of the dynamic nineteenth-century writer who, through her pen and at great personal cost to her literary career, spoke out for those silenced in society -- slaves, Native Americans, women, and the poor. At the dawn of the 1830s, Lydia Maria Child was a celebrated author, known for her popular domestic handbook, The Frugal Housewife, and Hobomok, a novel of American Indian life. In 1833, with the publication of her controversial Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans, Child's life changed dramatically from literary figure to antislavery activist. Her Appeal helped ignite the abolitionist movement, and several antislavery leaders -- including Wendell Phillips and Charles Sumner -- credited it with converting them to the cause. An inspirational look at an extraordinary woman, Lydia Maria Child is the story of how one person fought for the basic human right of freedom -- for all.Oxford Portraits are informative and insightful biographies of people whose lives shaped their times and continue to influence ours. Based on the most recent scholarship, they draw heavily on primary sources, including writings by and about their subjects. Each book is illustrated with a wealth of photographs, documents, memorabilia, framing the personality and achievements of its subject against the backdrop of history.

The story of one of the most important -- and most elusive -- figures of the American Revolution, Samuel Adams traces the life of the "Man of the Revolution," as he was called by Thomas Jefferson, from his childhood as a fifth-generation New Englander to his pivotal role in the Boston Tea Party and war that followed to a life spent in public service. Benjamin Irvin explores the fascinating contradictions of Samuel Adams's life: he was born into a family of high rank, but lived a humble, almost impoverished life; he could barely manage his personal household, but brilliantly managed the Massachusetts House of Representatives; he pushed for the Revolution, but resisted the Constitution; he spearheaded resistance to the English government but staunchly opposed resistance to the U.S. government. A perceptive look at the life of a complex man, Samuel Adams is an evocative portrait of one of our nation's most interesting Founding Fathers.Oxford Portraits are informative and insightful biographies of people whose lives shaped their times and continue to influence ours. Based on the most recent scholarship, they draw heavily on primary sources, including writings by and about their subjects. Each book is illustrated with a wealth of photographs, documents, memorabilia, framing the personality and achievements of its subject against the backdrop of history.

Writer, inventor, diplomat, businessman, musician, scientist, humorist, and civic leader are only a few of the hats Franklin wore. Edwin S. Gaustad presents a balanced account of Franklin's life, emphasizing Franklin's character and personality and quoting extensively from Franklin's own writings.Oxford Portraits are informative and insightful biographies of people whose lives shaped their times and continue to influence ours. Based on the most recent scholarship, they draw heavily on primary sources, including writings by and about their subjects. Each book is illustrated with a wealth of photographs, documents, memorabilia, framing the personality and achievements of its subject against the backdrop of history.

In Earl Warren, Christine Compston examines how a man with little judicial experience became one of the greatest Supreme Court chief justices in the history of the United States. A natural leader, Warren rose from a working-class childhood to become governor of California before he was appointed to the Supreme Court. Warren had the courage to make decisions that were politically unpopular yet constitutionally sound and morally right, such as his first major opinion Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated schools. By examining the life of this extraordinary judge, Earl Warren illuminates, with black-and-white photos and illustrations throughout, the struggles behind some of the most profound events of the 20th century, including World War II and the Japanese internment, the civil rights movement, the criminal protection revolution (i.e. Miranda V. Arizona), and the investigation of President Kennedy's assassination.Oxford Portraits are informative and insightful biographies of people whose lives shaped their times and continue to influence ours. Based on the most recent scholarship, they draw heavily on primary sources, including writings by and about their subjects. Each book is illustrated with a wealth of photographs, documents, memorabilia, framing the personality and achievements of its subject against the backdrop of history.

Marie Curie discovered radium and went on to lead the scientific community in studying the theory behind and the uses of radioactivity. She left a vast legacy to future scientists through her research, her teaching, and her contributions to the welfare of humankind. She was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, yet upon her death in 1934, Albert Einstein was moved to say, "Marie Curie is, of all celebrated beings, the only one whom fame has not corrupted." She was a physicist, a wife and mother, and a groundbreaking professional woman. This biography is an inspirational and exciting story of scientific discovery and personal commitment.