2015 marks a year of significant Civil War anniversaries (150th).
Starting with …
January 31, 1865 – The U.S. Congress approves the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, to abolish slavery. The amendment is then submitted to the states for ratification.
Section 1.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
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Learn more about this key event in history with our award-winning
NPR American Chronicles Civil War collection and Civil Rights collection.
Book of Numbers opens with the enigmatic billionare founder and CEO of Tetration, the world’s most powerful tech company, being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, upon which he hires a failed novelist, Josh Cohen, to ghostwrite his memoirs. This tech mogul, known only as “Principal”, takes Josh deep into his own mind, and outlines the history of Tetration, which started by revolutionizing the search engine and later ventured into smartphones, computer manufacturing, and the surveillance of American citizens. Accompanying Josh on a mind-bending world tour of local Tetration offices, from Palo Alto to Dubai, Principal soon initiates Josh into the secret pretext of the autobiography project, and the life-or-death stakes that surround its publication.
Joshua Cohen is the book critic for Harper’s and the author of several books, including Four New Messages and Attention! A (Short) History. His nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Times Book Review, Bookforum, The Forward, The Believer, the New York Observer, the London Review of Books, N+1, and elsewhere. In other words, he is connected. He’s a writer’s writer, that guy who other authors want to see do well.
