Orem Library

After Thomas Jefferson visited Mount Vernon in 1801 to pay his respects to George Washington's widow, Martha Washington remembered the encounter as the second-worst experience of her life--after the death of her husband. The two founders had become estranged by the time that Washington died. But for most of the time that they had known one another, from their first meeting in 1769, they enjoyed a productive and positive relationship. Contrary to the...

An extraordinary view into the politics of our times, Tired of Winning explores how Donald Trump remade the Republican Party in his own image--and the wreckage he's left in his wake. Packed with new reporting, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party tracks Trump's improbable journey from disgraced and defeated former president to the dominant force, yet again, in the Republican Party. From his exile in Mar-a-Lago, Donald...

This new look at Founding Fathers such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton goes beyond their common depictions as American saints to expose the sometimes selfish motives behind their actions.

Levin proves that since its establishment, the Democrat Party has set out to rewrite history and destroy the foundation of freedom in America. Here he alerts his fellow Americans to the destruction this country is facing, as the Democrats install Marxist philosophy and plan a new revolution. The Democrat Party must be resoundingly conquered in the next election, and several elections thereafter-- or it will become extremely difficult to under the...

In his hit musical "Hamilton," Lin-Manuel Miranda paints Founding Father Alexander Hamilton as the ultimate outsider, the "bastard, orphan, son of a whore," who by sheer grit and smarts achieves political greatness, leaving a permanent mark on the American landscape as the architect of its financial system. In this book Andrew Porwancher argues that the first Secretary of the Treasury and chief author of "The Federalist Papers" was even more of an...

Historian Matthew Connelly analyzes the millions of state documents both accessible to the public and still under review to unearth not only what the government does not want us to know, but what it says about the very authority we bequeath to our leaders. By culling this research and studying a series of pivotal moments in recent history from Pearl Harbor to drone strikes, Connelly sheds light on the drivers of state secrecy (especially consolidating...

The attack on the Capitol building following the 2020 election was an extraordinarily large and brazen crime. Conspiracies were formed on social media in full public view, the law-breakers paraded on national television with undisguised faces, and with outgoing President Donald Trump openly cheering them on. The basic concept of law enforcement--investigators find criminals and serve justice--quickly breaks down in the face of such an event. The system...

In late February 2020, Dr. Deborah Birx--a lifelong federal health official who had worked at the CDC, the State Department, and the US Army across multiple presidential administrations--was asked to join the Trump White House Coronavirus Task Force and assist the already faltering federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic. For weeks, she'd been raising the alarm behind the scenes about what she saw happening in public--from the apparent lack of urgency...

When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, its message was clear: Iraq, under the control of strongman Saddam Hussein, possessed weapons of mass destruction which posed grave danger to the world. But when no WMDs were found, the US and its allies were forced to consider that their political and intelligence failures had led to one of the most disastrous conflicts of our time. And a more integral question remained unsolved: Why had Saddam seemingly...

It's an open secret that voters in smaller, less populous states have more electoral power than their urban counterparts, so why are these same voters the most eager to leave behind democratic principles? In this book, political scientists Thomas Schaller and Paul Waldman explore why, with all of this extra influence, these same voters fail to see real benefits, for instance suffering worse health and education outcomes than larger states, and why...