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On the night of the presidential election in 1876, a gang of counterfeiters out of Chicago attempted to steal the entombed embalmed body of Abraham Lincoln and hold it for ransom. The custodian of the tomb was so shaken by the incident that he willingly dedicated the rest of his life to protecting the president's corpse. In a lively and dramatic narrative, Thomas J. Craughwell returns to this bizarre, and largely forgotten, event with the first book to place the grave robbery in historical context. He takes us through the planning and execution of the crime and the outcome of the investigation. He describes the reactions of Mary Todd Lincoln and Robert Todd Lincoln to the theft—and the peculiar silence of a nation. He follows the unlikely tale of what happened to Lincoln's remains after the attempted robbery, and details the plan devised by the Lincoln Guard of Honor to prevent a similar abominable recurrence. Along the way, Craughwell offers entertaining sidelights on the rise of counterfeiting in America and the establishment of the Secret Service to combat it; the prevalence of grave robberies; the art of nineteenth-century embalming; and the emergence among Irish immigrants of an ambitious middle class—and a criminal underclass. This rousing story of hapless con men, intrepid federal agents, and ordinary Springfield citizens who honored their native son by keeping a valuable, burdensome secret for decades offers a riveting glimpse into late-nineteenth-century America, and underscores that truth really is sometimes stranger than fiction. (20070215)...
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Veteran author Thomas J. Craughwell reveals the fascinating tales of how the barbarian rampages across Europe, North Africa, and Asia—killing, plundering, and destroying whole kingdoms and empires—actually created the modern nations of England, France, Russia, and China. Moscow, Dublin, and Delhi are international centers of government, commerce, and culture because of the barbarians. The book’s 19 chapters are filled with more than 100 archival illustrations gathered from around the world—maps, old world paintings, and engravings—and each chapter provides readers with timelines of important events. How did the devastating invasions of these merciless rapists, killers, looters, destroyers of great cities, and ravagers of the countryside set off a string of events that resulted in the world we know today? Craughwell explores the reasons behind the attacks and the motivations of the barbarian kings and chieftains. He explains how coarse, violent men could bring down the Roman Empire, but also safeguard the Silk Road, create an Asian superpower we know as China, and in the process, change the world forever. ...
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Fandex celebrates the plays, the plots, the poetry - and obsession, conspiracy, madness, sorcery, murder, yearning, and blood-shed. From Henry VI, Part I, with its detailed staging of warfare, to the sublime allegory of The Tempest, here you'll find the hesitation of Hamlet, the absolute evil of Iago, Macbeth's ambition, Lear's blind pride, Falstaff's mockery, Juliet's passion. Illustrated with a fascinating mix of historic paintings and photos of actors in their definitive roles, Shakespeare puts the Bard, his era, and his glorious words in the palm of your hand....
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