Americas

An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America’s most beloved historians, artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history. She takes you along on the emotional journey she and her husband embarked upon in the last years of his life.

In 1857, a woman escaped enslavement on a North Carolina plantation and fled to a farm in New York. In hiding, she worked on a manuscript that would make her famous long after her death.

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe....

Masters of the Air is the riveting history of the American Eighth Air Force in World War II, the story of the young men who flew the bombers that helped bring Nazi Germany to its knees, brilliantly told by historian and World War II expert Donald Miller....

A provocative, brilliant analysis by recently retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Reading the Constitution deconstructs the textualist philosophy of the current Supreme Court’s supermajority and makes the case for a better way to interpret the Constitution....

Three decades after the end of the Cold War, the United States finds itself in a volatile rivalry with the other two great nuclear powers—Xi Jinping’s China and Vladimir Putin’s Russia—in a world far more complex and dangerous than that of half a century ago.

The number one New York Times best-selling story about American Olympic triumph in Nazi Germany, the inspiration for the PBS documentary The Boys of '36, broadcast to coincide with the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 80th anniversary of the boys' gold medal race....

From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot comes a searingly smart and bitingly hilarious retelling of American history that corrects the record and showcases the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans....

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War—a simmering crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in two....

This exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads....

Over two grim nights in Los Angeles, the young followers of Charles Manson murdered seven people. Twenty years ago, when journalist Tom O'Neill was reporting a magazine piece about the murders, he worried there was nothing new to say. Then he unearthed shocking evidence of a cover-up....

In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world....

The dramatic, pulse-pounding story of Harry Truman's first four months in office, when this unlikely president had to take on Germany, Japan, Stalin, and the atomic bomb....

Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century....

The true tale of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the cunning serial killer who used the magic and majesty of the fair to lure his victims to their death....

Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity, and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations....

From the creator of the "Legends of the Old West" podcast comes an audiobook exploring the overlapping narratives of the biggest legends in frontier mythology....

Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us - an ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings....

For much of his life, historian Howard Zinn chronicled American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official version taught in schools - with its emphasis on great men in high places - to focus on the street, the home, and the workplace....

There’s Always This Year is a poignant, personal reflection on basketball, life, and home—from the author of the National Book Award finalist A Little Devil in America....

Hitler's American Friends, by Bradley W. Hart, is an audiobook examining the strange terrain of Nazi sympathizers, nonintervention campaigners, and other voices in America who advocated on behalf of Nazi Germany in the years before World War II....

New York Times best-selling author and journalist Anderson Cooper teams with New York Times best-selling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty - his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts....

From the creators of the New York Times bestselling series Campfire Stories: Close Calls comes a new original audiobook that brings to life the bold, hair-raising, and often tragic adventures of a generation of eighteenth-century frontiersmen: the Long Hunters....

Easy Company, 506th Airborne Division, U.S. Army, was as good a rifle company as any in the world....

Ty Seidule grew up revering Robert E. Lee. From his southern childhood to his service in the US Army, every part of his life reinforced the Lost Cause myth: that Lee was the greatest man who ever lived, and that the Confederates were underdogs who lost the Civil War with honor....

In the summer of 1863, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, fresh off a victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville, decided to invade Union territory. Taking his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania, Lee was drawn to a place where the areas major roads converged at Gettysburg. There, over seventy thousand Southern troops waged a dogged, bloody battle against over ninety thousand Union soldiers in the fields and on the boulder-strewn heights surrounding the town.

Spanning the years of transition, 1944 to 1948, Ascent to Power illuminates Truman’s struggles to emerge as president in his own right. Yet, from a relatively unknown Missouri senator to the most powerful man on Earth, Truman’s legacy transcends. With his come-from-behind campaign in the fall of 1948, his courageous civil rights advocacy, and his role in liberating millions from militarist governments and brutal occupations, Truman’s decisions during these pivotal years changed the course of the world in ways so significant we live with them today.

The Great Abolitionist is the first major biography of Charles Sumner to be published in over fifty years. Acclaimed historian Stephen Puleo relates the story of one of the most influential non-presidents in American history with evocative and accessible prose, transporting listeners back to an era when our leaders exhibited true courage and authenticity in the face of unprecedented challenges.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was perhaps the most dramatic and dangerous period of the Cold War. What's less well known is that the city of Miami, mere miles away, was a pivotal, though less well known, part of Cold War history. With its population of Communist exiles from Cuba, its strategic value for military operations, and its lax business laws, Miami was an ideal environment for espionage. Covert City tells the history of how the entire city of Miami was constructed in the image of the US-Cuba rivalry.

In Our Kindred Creatures, Bill Wasik, editorial director of The New York Times Magazine, and veterinarian Monica Murphy offer a fascinating history of this crusade and the battles it sparked in American life. On the side of reform were such leaders as George Angell, the inspirational head of Massachusetts’s animal-welfare society and the American publisher of the novel Black Beauty; Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; Caroline White of Philadelphia, who fought against medical experiments that used live animals; and many more.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The History of White People and Old in Art School, a finalist for the NBCC Award, comes a comprehensive new collection of essays spanning art, politics, and the legacy of racism that shapes American history as we know it. These essays resist easy answers in favor of complexity, the inescapable sense of our country’s potential thwarted by its failures. This collection will surely solidify Painter’s place among the finest critics and writers of the last half century.

Long before the days of jet planes, Nick Mamer and co-pilot Art Walker set an awe-inspiring record. They flew from Spokane, Washington to San Francisco, to New York, and from New York back to Spokane—without landing. This is the true story of the 1929 flight—during which their airplane was again and again refueled in the air with ropes and hose—by other daring airmen flying wood-and-fabric airplanes.

After a Sioux attack on her wagon train, and being the only survivor, Dori is faced with having to deal with Wild Wind, a Sioux Warrior she had wounded, but refused to kill. He, in turn, insists he owes her because she did not kill him. Having once been an Army scout, he speaks English and he offers to escort her to Oregon, and make sure she gets there safely, even though she refuses his help. Now, she can’t get the warrior out of her life or out of her mind.

If you’ve ever found American history boring or hard to understand, this book is for you. Inside, a bright, curious student poses questions about the War of 1812 and a kind, knowledgeable teacher answers them. Nothing escapes the student’s inquisitive mind, and the teacher is endlessly patient. Originally published as a section of the author’s larger “Conversations in Early American History: 1492–1837” (later retitled “American History from Christopher Columbus to Andrew Jackson in Easy Question and Answer Format”) this Kindle edition clearly explains the causes of the War ...

Originally published as a section of the author’s larger “Conversations in Early American History: 1492-1837,” and equivalent in length to a physical book of approximately 100 pages, this Kindle edition, in easy-to-follow question-and-answer format, clearly explains the causes of the war, describes the key battles, outlines the peace settlement, and profiles the heroes of the Revolution. CONTENTS 1. Lead-Up to the War 2. The War Begins—Lexington and Concord 3. The Declaration of Independence 4. Early Battles 5. The Tide Turns 6. Surrender and Peace 7. Heroes of the Revolution Sample...

In 1803, the United States made a deal to purchase a big area of land called the Louisiana Territory. Soon after, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were asked to lead an expedition into the American Northwest to explore the new land. After the journey, many stories were told about it—but not all of them are true.

If you’ve ever found American history boring or hard to understand, this book is for you. Inside, a bright, curious student poses questions about American history, and a kind, knowledgeable teacher answers them. Nothing escapes the student’s inquisitive mind, and the teacher is endlessly patient. Review (from Midwest Book Review): Five stars. There are better ways to present info than ten pound textbooks. [This book] is an exciting read on the history of America through an engrossing question and answer format that asks countless questions about America, its early days, colonial times, ...

Spurred by a deep religious conviction, a lust for gold and the riches of the Orient, the Genoise explorer Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain to find a trade route to China. In his first voyage starting in 1492 he found little gold and did not reach China. What he did find was lush islands filled with friendly natives and vast new lands to explore and conquer. The next three voyages would transform this world-class navigator and explorer into a failure as a colonial governor and administrator. The Spanish colonists that were planted into the New World proved to be brutal masters of ...

J. E. B. Stuart: The Soldier and the Man is the first thoroughly scrutinized study of the life and service of the Civil War's most famous cavalryman. James Ewell Brown Stuart led the Army of Northern Virginia's cavalry to the all-but-complete satisfaction of his superiors. Being human, Stuart occasionally underperformed.

Contrary to competing popular beliefs, police violence against African Americans has neither remained unchanged since the era of slavery nor is it a recent phenomenon disconnected from the past. In Bluecoated Terror, Jeffrey S. Adler draws on rich archival accounts to show how racialized police brutality is part of a larger system of state oppression with roots in the early twentieth-century South, particularly New Orleans.