Books by "Kenneth L. Manning"
3 books found
The Short Life and Violent Times of Preston Smith Brooks
by Kenneth A. Deitreich
2019 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Although he was a central figure in one of the seminal events of American history, the May 1856 “Caning” of Senator Charles Sumner, Preston Brooks remains largely a forgotten figure, one in whom even professional historians have shown little interest. However, while Preston Brooks remains, as described by one historian, “an obscure and enigmatic individual”, there is no denying his place in history. The “Caning of Sumner” was one of the most notorious incidents of the nineteenth century, one that not only inflamed the passions of both North and South but rapidly hastened the process of disunion. As a principal actor in that event, Preston Brooks warrants a greater degree of historical scrutiny than he has heretofore received. To date, only a handful of published material exists on Preston Brooks, nearly all of which has dealt with the assault upon Charles Sumner, while ignoring virtually every other aspect of Brooks’ life. This book addresses this oversight through an in-depth examination of Brooks’s life, beginning with his youth in up-country South Carolina and concluding with his premature death, at age thirty-seven, in a Washington, DC hotel room. Certain to appeal to both professional scholars as well as to general readers of history, the book offers a unique perspective on one of history’s most compelling, yet controversial, figures while providing key insights into Brooks’s character and the motives that drove him to attack Charles Sumner.
How can paleontologists know what a living dinosaur was like more than a hundred million years ago, particularly when only partial skeletons remain? Focusing on one large carnivorous dinosaur, Acrocanthosaurus (“high-spined lizard”), paleontologist Kenneth Carpenter explains the process, pairing scholarly findings with more than 75 color illustrations to reconstruct “Acro” before readers’ eyes. In Acrocanthosaurus Inside and Out, he offers the most complete portrait possible of this fascinating dinosaur’s appearance, biology, and behavior. Acrocanthosaurus—similar in size to its later cousin Tyrannosaurus rex, but studded with large spines—roamed what is now the south-central United States 110 to 115 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous. Carpenter worked on the most complete of the Acrocanthosaurus skeletons (nicknamed “Fran”) that has been found. Here he describes the techniques that tell us about Acro’s biological makeup, movements, and habits. Studies of joints reveal the range of possible motion, while bumps, ridges, and scars on the bones show where muscles, ligaments, and tendons attached. CT scans allow us to peer into the braincase, while microscopes afford a cross-sectional view of bones. These findings in turn offer an idea of how Acro stalked and ate its prey. Scientific evidence beyond the fossils provides avenues for further inquiry: What does the sedimentary rock encasing Fran’s bones tell us about Acro’s environment? What does our knowledge of Acro’s distant relatives, such as crocodilians and birds, imply about its heart and other soft tissues? Can our understanding of other animals explain Acro’s huge spines? Carpenter distills all this information into a clear, accessible, engaging account that will appeal to general readers and scholars alike. As the first book-length work on Acrocanthosaurus, this volume introduces a prehistoric giant that once stalked Texas and Oklahoma and offers a rare, firsthand glimpse into the trials and triumphs of paleontology.
Presidential Leadership
by George C. Edwards, Kenneth R. Mayer, Stephen J. Wayne
2022 · Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
"With a focus on presidential leadership, the authors address the capacity of chief executives to fulfill their tasks, exercise their powers, and utilize their organizational structures to affect the output of government. This text examines all aspects of the presidency, up to and including the administration of President Joe Biden"--