Garry Wills

In "Negro President" the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Garry Wills explores a pivotal moment in American history through the lens of Thomas Jefferson and the now largely forgotten Timothy Pickering, and "prods readers to appreciate essential aspects of our distressed but well-intentioned representative democracy" (Chicago Tribune). In 1800 Jefferson won the presidential election with Electoral College votes derived from the three-fifths representation of slaves -- slaves who could not vote but were still partially counted as citizens. Moving beyond the recent revisionist debate over Jefferson's own slaves and his relationship with Sally Hemings, Wills instead probes the heart of Jefferson's presidency and political life, revealing how the might of the slave states remained a concern behind his most important policies and decisions. In an eye-opening, ingeniously argued expos , Wills restores Timothy Pickering and the Federalists' dramatic struggle to our understanding of Jefferson, the creation of the new nation, and the evolution of our representative democracy. "Garry Wills is a thinker of first rate. He combines the vigor of the social critic with the depth of the historian, and to these he adds the even rarer gifts of the philosopher." -- New Republic "A thorough political analysis of another founding father's involvement in slavery." -- San Francisco Chronicle Garry Wills, a distinguished historian and critic, is the author of numerous books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lincoln at Gettysburg, Saint Augustine, the best-selling Why I Am a Catholic, and Henry Adams and the Making of America.

The definitive book on Venice from medieval times to the Renaissance, seen through the eyes of the Venetians. At the dawn of the second millennium, Venice began to establish control of the upper Adriatic, gaining power and influence. As a great naval power, and an egalitarian society with no inherited aristocracy, it established itself as the capital of trade, wealth and art for the two high centuries of the Renaissance. In LION CITY, Garry Wills, a twice-yearly visitor to Venice, gives us a definitive guide to the cultural and sociological history of this fascinating city. Successfully interweaving armchair travel and definitive history, he begins his tour in the years of the Renaissance when Venice was a new idea, a commercial, non-hereditary state and views the city through the eyes of the Venetians; the ruling classes, bourgeoisie, workers, Jews and clerics. Venice became City of the Lion, both a sea and land empire; a republic and a centre of art and learning, independent of Papal authority and creator of some of the world's masters and masterpieces - Michaelangelo, Bellini and Titian. To understand the true spirit of this formidable city, Wills addresses the 'myth of Venice', that historical romance the city told about itself to prove to the world that it was set apart from ordinary states. This myth is articulated in Venice's art, and through this art, the author explores the heart of the city's identity. A fitting tribute to the unique social design and artistic culture of this fascinating power, Venice:Lion City is an enchanting insight into the Renaissance roots of today's floating city.

From one of America's most distinguished historians comes this classic analysis of Richard Nixon. By considering some of the president's opinions, Wills comes to the controversial conclusion that Nixon was actually a liberal. Both entertaining and essential, Nixon Agonistes captures a troubled leader and a struggling nation mired in a foolish Asian war, forfeiting the loyalty of its youth, puzzled by its own power, and looking to its cautious president for confidence. In the end, Nixon Agonistes reaches far beyond its assessment of the thirty-seventh president to become an incisive and provocative analysis of the American political machine.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lincoln at Gettysburg brings his eloquence, wit, and on-target perceptions of American life and politics to this fascinating, well-drawn protrait of a twentieth-century hero. In this work of great originality—the biography of an idea—Garry Wills shows how John Wayne came to embody Amercian values and influenced our cultoure to a degree unmatched by any other public figure of his time. In Wills's hands, Waynes story is tranformed into a compelling narrative about the intersection of popular entertainment and political realities in mid-twentieth-century America.