Synopses & Reviews
Boys, let us get up a club. With those words, six restless young men raided the linens at a friendand#8217;s mansion, pulled pillowcases over their heads, hopped on horses, and cavorted through the streets of Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866. The six friends named their club the Ku Klux Klan, and, all too quickly, their club grew into the self-proclaimed Invisible Empire with secret dens spread across the South. This is the story of how a secret terrorist group took root in Americaand#8217;s democracy. Filled with chilling and vivid personal accounts unearthed from oral histories, congressional documents, and diaries, this account from Newbery Honor-winning author Susan Campbell Bartoletti is a book to read and remember. A YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist.
Review
* "Balancing the stories of the Klan and the formerand#160;slaves' determination to remake their lives, Bartoletti makes extensive use of congressional testimony, interviews, journals, diaries and slave narratives to allow the players to speak in their own voices as much as possible...An exemplar of history writing and a must for libraries and classrooms."and#8212;
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
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* "Bartoletti follows multi-award-winning titles such as Hitler Youth (2005) with another standout contribution to youth history shelves...It's the numerous first-person quotes, though, that give the book its beating heart, and her searing, expertly selected stories of people on all sides of the violent conflicts will give readers a larger understanding of the conditions that incubated theand#160;Klan's terrorism; how profoundly the freed people and their sympathizers suffered; and how the legacy of that fear, racism, and brutality runs through our own time."and#8212;Booklist, starred review
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* "Copious photos, engravings, and illustrations provide a hard-hitting graphic component to this illuminating book. And while Bartoletti notes that contemporary 'hate groups wield none of the power or prestige that the Ku Klux Klan held in earlier years,' her account of attending a Klan meeting while researching the book is chilling to the core." and#8212;Publishers Weekly,and#160;starred review
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* "As in Hitler Youth, Bartoletti tackles a tough, grim subject with firmness and sensitivity...Period illustrations throughout make seeing believing, and the appended civil rights timeline, bibliography, and source notes are an education in themselves. Exemplary in scholarship, interpretation, and presentation."and#8212;The Horn Book, starred review
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* "Bartoletti effectively targets teens with her engaging and informative account that presents a well-structured inside look at the KKK, societal forces that spawn hate/terrorist groups, and the research process."and#8212;School Library Journal, starred review
Review
The most complete and successful biography of the Fuhrer available for this audience. It takes courage to write fairly about the person who perpetuated almost certainly the most suffering and misery in the 20th century, and Giblin accepts this mantle and bears it nobly.
School Library Journal, Starred
Opening with an overview of dictators throught history, Giblin, always a graceful, unemotional stylist, traces the life and actions of the leader of "the thousand year Reich" in a straightforward and lucid manner. . . .In a time when people, young and old, are unaware or have forgotten that people like Hitler, his nation, his followers, and his high command existed, Giblin's carefully researched account is more important than ever. It is so readable that it should hold younger readers and educate older ones who may need their brains refilled with this history. An essential purchase.
Kirkus Reviews with Pointers
This insightful historical overview describes the social, political and economic conditions that proved ripe for the dictator's ascent.
Publishers Weekly, Starred
Hitlers cold eyes stare out from the cover photograph of this excellent biography. . . .Giblin moves beyond political events and delves into the twisted realms of Hitlers strangely contradictory personality.
Booklist, ALA, Starred Review
"The author succeed[s] admirably in producing a book that explains Hitler to young people. Compact, readable, and well documented." Riverbank Review
Synopsis
Hitler was a man many believe to be the personification of evil. This Sibert Medal-winning biography penetrates this façade and presents a picture of a complex person—at once a brilliant, influential politician and a deeply disturbed man.
Synopsis
* -The most complete and successful biography of the Fuhrer available for this audience.---SLJ, starred review
Many people believe Hitler was the personification of evil. In this Sibert Medal-winning biography, James Cross Giblin penetrates this facade and presents a picture of a complex person--at once a brilliant, influential politician and a deeply disturbed man. Giblin explores the forces that shaped the man as well as the social conditions that furthered his rapid rise to power. Powerful archival images provide a haunting visual accompaniment to this clear and compelling account of a life that left an ineradicable mark on our world.
Synopsis
* “The most complete and successful biography of the Führer available for this audience.”—SLJ, starred review Many people believe Hitler was the personification of evil. In this Sibert Medal–winning biography, James Cross Giblin penetrates this façade and presents a picture of a complex person—at once a brilliant, influential politician and a deeply disturbed man. Giblin explores the forces that shaped the man as well as the social conditions that furthered his rapid rise to power. Powerful archival images provide a haunting visual accompaniment to this clear and compelling account of a life that left an ineradicable mark on our world.
Synopsis
Illustrated with archival photographs and drawings, this account reveals how this crushing evil was allowed to thrive.
Synopsis
Many people believe Hitler was the personification of evil. In this Sibert Medal-winning biography, James Cross Giblin penetrates this façade and presents a picture of a complex person—at once a brilliant, influential politician and a deeply disturbed man. In a straightforward and nonsensational manner, the author explores the forces that shaped the man as well as the social conditions that furthered his rapid rise to power. Against a background of crucial historical events, Giblin traces the arc of Hitlers life from 1889 to 1945: his childhood, his years as a frustrated artist in Vienna, his extraordinary rise as dictator of Germany, his final days in an embattled bunker under Berlin. Powerful archival images provide a haunting visual accompaniment to this clear and compelling account of a life that left an ineradicable mark on our world. Authors note, bibliography, index.
About the Author
James Cross Giblin is the author of more than twenty critically acclaimed books for young people. His book The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler received the Robert F. Sibert Award for Informational Books. Mr. Giblin lives in New York City.