Ben Wright – författare

Britain's first Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, smuggled wine up the Thames with the help of the Navy. Tony Blair confessed that a stiff drink and half a bottle of wine a night had become a helpful crutch while in office. Joseph Stalin flushed out traitors with vodka. The disintegration of Richard Nixon and Boris Yeltsin was largely down to drink. Winston Churchill was famous for his drinking, often taking a whisky and soda first thing in the morning and champagne ritually with dinner.But why did these politicians drink and what was their tipple of choice? How did drinking shape the decisions they made? Ben Wright, political correspondent for the BBC, explores the history of alcohol within politics, from the debauched drinking practices of eighteenth-century ministers to today, often based on his own experiences supping with politicians in Westminster bars.With exclusive interviews and in-depth research, Order, Order! uses alcohol as a lens through which to meet a remarkable cast of politicians, to understand their times and discover what drove them to drink. A story of boozy bon viveurs - but with many casualties too - and the complexity of the human condition and the pull of the bottle.

One of golf's preeminent commentators with more than fifty years of experience, Ben Wright relates the wealth of experiences he's gained from writing and broadcasting about the world's greatest golfers and courses, and his take on the infamous interview that cost him his twenty-three-year career as a golf announcer with CBS Sports. In Good Bounces and Bad Lies, Wright brings the reader into the world of professional golf—and professional golf broadcasting—depicting in equal measure the game's grace and tradition as well as its often raucous behind-the-scenes character. Wright tells of the ups and downs of his expansive career, relating dozens of funny and outrageous anecdotes along the way. Having known such greats as Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Watson, and many other prominent figures in the world of golf, Wright gives the true insider's perspective. Although controversial, Wright is an entertaining and engaging figure who personifies the elegance and audacity of the game of golf. This Bison Books edition features a new afterword by the author.

Ben Wright's Bonds of Salvation demonstrates how religion structured the possibilities and limitations of American abolitionism during the early years of the republic. From the American Revolution through the eruption of schisms in the three largest Protestant denominations in the 1840s, this comprehensive work lays bare the social and religious divides that culminated in secession and civil war. Historians often emphasize status anxieties, market changes, biracial cooperation, and political maneuvering as primary forces in the evolution of slavery in the United States. Wright instead foregrounds the pivotal role religion played in shaping the ideological contours of the early abolitionist movement. Wright first examines the ideological distinctions between religious conversion and purification in the aftermath of the Revolution, when a small number of white Christians contended that the nation must purify itself from slavery before it could fulfill its religious destiny. Most white Christians disagreed, focusing on visions of spiritual salvation over the practical goal of emancipation. To expand salvation to all, they created new denominations equipped to carry the gospel across the American continent and eventually all over the globe. These denominations established numerous reform organizations, collectively known as the ""benevolent empire,"" to reckon with the problem of slavery. One affiliated group, the American Colonization Society (ACS), worked to end slavery and secure white supremacy by promising salvation for Africa and redemption for the United States.Yet the ACS and its efforts drew strong objections. Proslavery prophets transformed expectations of expanded salvation into a formidable antiabolitionist weapon, framing the ACS's proponents as enemies of national unity. Abolitionist assertions that enslavers could not serve as agents of salvation sapped the most potent force in American nationalism Christianity and led to schisms within the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist churches. These divides exacerbated sectional hostilities and sent the nation farther down the path to secession and war. Wright's provocative analysis reveals that visions of salvation both created and almost destroyed the American nation.

The interdisciplinary essays in American Revolutions in the Digital Age explore what digital tools can tell us about the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century United States and reveal how an understanding of the American past can make sense of our digital present. By employing a host of innovative digital research methods, these authors challenge long-held assumptions about the American past. In addition, this collection uniquely demonstrates how contemporary anxieties about an array of topics, including media disinformation, patriarchy, economic inequality, and public memory, can be better understood through careful considerations of early American history.Open Access edition funded by Iona University

The interdisciplinary essays in American Revolutions in the Digital Age explore what digital tools can tell us about the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century United States and reveal how an understanding of the American past can make sense of our digital present. By employing a host of innovative digital research methods, these authors challenge long-held assumptions about the American past. In addition, this collection uniquely demonstrates how contemporary anxieties about an array of topics, including media disinformation, patriarchy, economic inequality, and public memory, can be better understood through careful considerations of early American history.Open Access edition funded by Iona University

"I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable / I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world."—Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself," Leaves of GrassThe American Yawp is a free, online, collaboratively built American history textbook. Over 300 historians joined together to create the book they wanted for their own students—an accessible, synthetic narrative that reflects the best of recent historical scholarship and provides a jumping-off point for discussions in the U.S. history classroom and beyond.Long before Whitman and long after, Americans have sung something collectively amid the deafening roar of their many individual voices. The Yawp highlights the dynamism and conflict inherent in the history of the United States, while also looking for the common threads that help us make sense of the past. Without losing sight of politics and power, The American Yawp incorporates transnational perspectives, integrates diverse voices, recovers narratives of resistance, and explores the complex process of cultural creation. It looks for America in crowded slave cabins, bustling markets, congested tenements, and marbled halls. It navigates between maternity wards, prisons, streets, bars, and boardrooms. The fully peer-reviewed edition of The American Yawp will be available in two print volumes designed for the U.S. history survey. Volume I begins with the indigenous people who called the Americas home before chronicling the collision of Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans.The American Yawp traces the development of colonial society in the context of the larger Atlantic World and investigates the origins and ruptures of slavery, the American Revolution, and the new nation's development and rebirth through the Civil War and Reconstruction.Rather than asserting a fixed narrative of American progress, The American Yawp gives students a starting point for asking their own questions about how the past informs the problems and opportunities that we confront today.

"I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable / I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world."—Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself," Leaves of GrassThe American Yawp is a free, online, collaboratively built American history textbook. Over 300 historians joined together to create the book they wanted for their own students—an accessible, synthetic narrative that reflects the best of recent historical scholarship and provides a jumping-off point for discussions in the U.S. history classroom and beyond.Long before Whitman and long after, Americans have sung something collectively amid the deafening roar of their many individual voices. The Yawp highlights the dynamism and conflict inherent in the history of the United States, while also looking for the common threads that help us make sense of the past. Without losing sight of politics and power, The American Yawp incorporates transnational perspectives, integrates diverse voices, recovers narratives of resistance, and explores the complex process of cultural creation. It looks for America in crowded slave cabins, bustling markets, congested tenements, and marbled halls. It navigates between maternity wards, prisons, streets, bars, and boardrooms. The fully peer-reviewed edition of The American Yawp will be available in two print volumes designed for the U.S. history survey. Volume II opens in the Gilded Age, before moving through the twentieth century as the country reckoned with economic crises, world wars, and social, cultural, and political upheaval at home. Bringing the narrative up to the present,The American Yawp enables students to ask their own questions about how the past informs the problems and opportunities we confront today.

"I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable / I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world." —Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"The American Yawp is a free, online, collaboratively written American history textbook. Over 500 historians contributed their expertise to create the book they wanted for their own students—an accessible, synthetic narrative that reflects the best of recent historical scholarship and provides a jumping-off point for discussions in the U.S. history classroom and beyond.Long before Whitman and long after, Americans have sung something collectively amid the deafening roar of their many individual voices. The American Yawp highlights the dynamism and conflict inherent in the history of the United States, while also looking for the common threads that help us make sense of the past. Without losing sight of politics and power, this book incorporates transnational perspectives, integrates diverse voices, recovers narratives of resistance, and explores the complex process of cultural creation. It looks for America in crowded slave cabins, bustling markets, congested tenements, and marbled halls.This Second Edition has been revised and enriched with new material throughout, particularly on Indigenous history, Mexican American history, and twenty-first century American history. A revised chapter structure improves the chronological flow of the narrative. The fully peer-reviewed edition of The American Yawp is available in two print volumes designed for the U.S. history survey course. Volume 1 begins with the indigenous people who called the Americas home before chronicling the collision of Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans. This volume traces the development of colonial society in the context of the larger Atlantic World and investigates the origins and ruptures of slavery, the American Revolution, and the new nation's development and rebirth through the Civil War and Reconstruction.Balancing academic rigor with popular readability, this book offers a multi-layered, democratic approach to the American past, and enables students to ask their own questions about how the past informs the problems and opportunities we confront today.

"I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable / I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world." —Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"The American Yawp is a free, online, collaboratively written American history textbook. Over 500 historians contributed their expertise to create the book they wanted for their own students—an accessible, synthetic narrative that reflects the best of recent historical scholarship and provides a jumping-off point for discussions in the U.S. history classroom and beyond.Long before Whitman and long after, Americans have sung something collectively amid the deafening roar of their many individual voices. The American Yawp highlights the dynamism and conflict inherent in the history of the United States, while also looking for the common threads that help us make sense of the past. Without losing sight of politics and power, this book incorporates transnational perspectives, integrates diverse voices, recovers narratives of resistance, and explores the complex process of cultural creation. It looks for America in crowded slave cabins, bustling markets, congested tenements, and marbled halls.This Second Edition has been revised and enriched with new material throughout, particularly on Indigenous history, Mexican American history, and twenty-first century American history. A revised chapter structure improves the chronological flow of the narrative. The fully peer-reviewed edition of The American Yawp is available in two print volumes designed for the U.S. history survey course. Volume 2 opens with Reconstruction, before moving through the twentieth century as the country reckoned with economic crises, world wars, and social, cultural, and political upheaval at home, bringing the narrative up to the present.Balancing academic rigor with popular readability, this book offers a multi-layered, democratic approach to the American past, and enables students to ask their own questions about how the past informs the problems and opportunities we confront today.