BiblioVault - Books about Guardian

Atlanta Life Insurance

Guardian of Black Economic Dignity

Alexa Benson Henderson

University of Alabama Press, 1990

An important and richly detailed and researched history of Black entrepreneurship in the American South, Atlanta Life Insurance Company traces the inspiring success story of Black Americans to build and sustain a thriving business and an institution important to the Black population of Georgia and surrounding states.

Efforts to develop an economic base within the Black community began even before the Civil War. These efforts gained new meaning in the post-Reconstruction period as Blacks strove to adapt to radically changing economic circumstances and the emergence of the Jim Crow South. In Atlanta, shortly after the turn of the century, Alonzo Franklin Herndon, a former slave, joined a long line of Black entrepreneurs by creating Atlanta Life Insurance Company. More than three-quarters of a century later, it remains an important enterprise that is the nation’s largest Black-controlled shareholder insurance company. The firm is today a significant example of the efforts of Black Americans to achieve economic independence and dignity in America.

Henderson's fascinating book reveals the historic roots of Atlanta Life, its economic growth and development as a Black-owned institution, and its social and economic involvement with the challenges and progress of Black America.

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Capitalism's Conscience

200 Years of the Guardian

Des Freedman

Pluto Press, 2021

'A lively and well-researched history and critique' - Jonathan Steele, former Chief Foreign Correspondent for the Guardian

Since its inception in Manchester in 1821 as a response to the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, the Guardian has been a key institution in the definition and development of liberalism. The stereotype of the 'Guardianista', an environmentally-conscious, Labour-voting, progressively-minded public sector worker endures in the popular mythology of British press history.

Yet the title has a complex lineage and occupies an equivocal position between capital and its opponents. It has both fiercely defended the need for fearless, independent journalism and handed over documents to the authorities; it has carved out a niche for itself in the UK media as a progressive voice but has also consistently diminished more radical projects on the left.

Published to coincide with its 200th anniversary, Capitalism's Conscience brings together historians, journalists and activists in an appraisal of the Guardian's contribution to British politics, society and culture - and its distinctive brand of centrism. Contextualising some of the main controversies in which the title has been implicated, the book offers timely insights into the publication's history, loyalties and political values.

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Guardian of a Dying Flame

Śāriputra (c. 1335–1426) and the End of Late Indian Buddhism

Arthur McKeown

Harvard University Press

Arthur McKeown presents the first full-length analysis of the continuation of Buddhism in India after the thirteenth century. This study describes later Indian Buddhism through a detailed examination of the life of Śāriputra (c. 1335–1426), the last known abbot of the Bodhgayā Mahāvihāra, whose very presence extends Indian Buddhism by two centuries. This work also provides a view into the legacy of Indian Buddhism in fifteenth-century Nepal, Tibet, and China. McKeown follows Śāriputra’s travels and works throughout pan-Buddhist Asia, from restoring the Swayambhunātha caitya in Nepal and establishing tantric lineages in Tibet to overseeing the rebuilding of the Mahābodhi temple in Ming Dynasty Beijing.

McKeown centers his examination on newly revealed Tibetan and Chinese biographies of Śāriputra, as well as looking at a collection of historical documents in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese. These sources point to a fundamental reconsideration of later Indian Buddhism, its relationship with Brahmanism and Islam, and its enduring importance throughout Central, East, and Southeast Asia.

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Guardian of the Great Lakes

The U.S. Paddle Frigate Michigan

Bradley A. Rodgers

University of Michigan Press, 1996

Guardian of the Great Lakes is the saga of the USS Michigan, an archetype iron-hulled war steamer launched in 1843. Its mission was to patrol the ofttimes volatile Great Lakes region, quelling port town civil disturbances, while at the same time rescuing both Canadian and American ships in distress.

The Michigan found itself unavoidably attracted to calamity, leaving in its wake a collection of eyewitness accounts to these momentous yet largely forgotten occurences. Incidents such as the timber rebellion of the 1850s, which occurred in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan, are documented for the first time. Other episodes such as the assassination of "king" Strang on Beaver Island and the destruction of the community there are studied under the light of newly discovered sources. Still other chapters reveal the chaos created by the Civil War on the lakes, the destructive mining strikes of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and the tragic, bloody, Fenian invasion of Canada.

Between major calamities lay the vagaries of maritime life on the Great Lakes detailed in the records of the Michigan's crew. From their social and community life in Erie, Pennsylvania to storms, shipwrecks, and sickness, the records kept by the men and officers of the USS Michigan have helped to produce in this book an accurate and detailed narrative of naval and maritime life on the Great Lakes during this important period.

Bradley A. Rodgers is Assistant Professor, Program in Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology, East Carolina University.

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Pope Benedict XII (1334-1342)

The Guardian of Orthodoxy

Edited by Irene Bueno

Amsterdam University Press, 2018

This book offers a unique overview on the career and work on Benedict XII, the third pope of Avignon. Benedict XII (ca. 1334-1342) was a key figure of the Avignon papal court, renowned for rooting out heretics and distinguishing himself as a refined theologian. During his reign, he faced the most significant religious and political challenges in the era of the Avignon papacy: theological quarrels, divisions and schisms within the Church, conflicts between European sovereigns, and the growth of Turkish power in the East. In spite of its diminished political influence, the papacy, which had recently moved to France, emerged as an institution committed to the defense and expansion of the Catholic faith in Europe and the East. Benedict made significant contributions to the definition of doctrine, the assessment of pontifical power in Western Europe, and the expansion of Catholicism in the East: in all these different contexts he distinguished himself as a true guardian of orthodoxy.

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