Pines and Plains Libraries

Bringing together some of the best profiles from his popular "What Would You Do?" news features, the award-winning ABC journalist introduces ordinary Americans from a diversity of backgrounds, ages, and walks of life whose small acts of courage, kindness, generosity, and decency have made the world a better place.

Throughout history, humans have been driven by the quest for two cherished ideals: community and freedom. The two don’t coexist easily. We value individuality and self-reliance, yet are utterly dependent on community for our most basic needs. In this intricately crafted and thought-provoking book, Sebastian Junger examines the tension that lies at the heart of what it means to be human. For much of a year, Junger and three friends—a conflict...

"Michael Beschloss has brought us a saga about crucial times in America's history when a courageous President dramatically changed the future of the United States." "You will be in the room with the private George Washington, braving threats of impeachment and assassination to make peace with England. John Adams, incurring his party's "unrelenting hatred" by refusing to fight France and warning his enemies, "Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war."...

"A riveting, chilling tale of how a group of ragtag activists infiltrated one of the most secure nuclear weapons sites in the United States, told alongside a broader history of America's nuclear stewardship, from the early stages of the Manhattan Project to our country's never-ending investment in nuclear weaponry. On Saturday, July 28, 2012, three senior citizens broke into one of the most secure nuclear weapons facilities in the world. An eighty-two-year-old...

The television journalist provides a close-up look at presidential leadership and courage in action as he chronicles nearly twenty notable episodes in American history--George Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion, Harry Truman and the Berlin Airlift, and more--discussing why each man took the difficult path.