Americas

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....

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.

The incredible untold story of WWII's greatest secret fighting force, as told by our great modern master of wartime intrigue....

The incredible true story of the greatest codebreaking duo that ever lived, an American woman and her husband who invented the modern science of cryptology together....

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....

A warm, intimate account of the love between Eleanor Roosevelt and reporter Lorena Hickok - a relationship that, over more than three decades, transformed both women's lives....

In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the Constitution....

Our current climate of partisan fury is not new, and in The Soul of America Meacham shows us how what Abraham Lincoln called the “better angels of our nature” have repeatedly won the day....

A revelatory history of one of Stalin's greatest crimes - the consequences of which still resonate today....

Vicksburg, Mississippi, was the last stronghold of the Confederacy on the Mississippi River. It prevented the Union from using the river for shipping between the Union-controlled Midwest and New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico....

Abraham Lincoln did not come out of nowhere. But if he was shaped by his times, he also managed at his life's fateful hour to shape them to an extent few could have foreseen. Ultimately, this is the great drama that astonishes us still, and that Abe brings to fresh and vivid life....

A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the 400-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present....

Genteel society ladies who compare notes on their husbands' suicides. A hilariously foul-mouthed black drag queen....

Richard Wright's powerful and eloquent memoir of his journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. At once an unashamed confession and a profound indictment, Black Boy is a poignant record of struggle and endurance - a seminal literary work....

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....

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....

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....

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....

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 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....

President of the National Constitution Center Jeffrey Rosen examines what “the pursuit of happiness” meant to our nation’s Founders and how that famous phrase defined their lives and became the foundation of our democracy....

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....

Do you know the WHOLE story of the State of New York, from the first human inhabitants to the years it was a Dutch colony? The state produced four presidents, was the first in many areas, and created its own state of mind. What made New York into the state it has become? Was there something unique about Manhattan Island? Was there something about the people that made them so successful? Why is it called the Empire State? Why was the Erie Canal so important?

[Excerpt] I found this piece about Mary Bradbury in a New York Times article in 1779: “Among the persons thus charged with witchcraft was Mary Bradbury, a woman of 75 years. The wife of one of the most prominent and honorable citizens of the town of Salisbury. She was a woman of exceptionally high standing in Christian life and character. She and her husband had been residents of Salisbury for over 50 years and were the lifelong friends of Robert Pike. Their son, Wymond Bradbury, had married Sarah Pike, eldest daughter of Robert, 30 years before. The families were thus associated by ties ...

Justice Robert Jackson once quipped about his role on the Supreme Court: "We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final." But in the end even the Supreme Court is not the final word on the law. There will always be another case, and another session of the court to consider it -- and maybe to reconsider what the court has ruled before. As long as The United States endures, the Supreme Court will have its work to do.Keep learning about the US Supreme Court with this book.

As the highest court in what has become the world's most powerful nation, The Supreme Court of the United States sits at the faultline between the ideal and the real, between justice and power, between the serene majesty of The Law and the sometimes bombastic, sometimes grubby disputes that define our politics. In the arguments before the court, principles clash with ambition and avarice, and it can be difficult to tell which is which. The decisions that the justices hand back are often wise and reasonable, but there have been moments of folly as well, and on more than one occasion it has ...

This authoritative book on the flag of the United States is the best go-to guide for for those interested in the history behind the symbol, as well as its proper display and handling. It returns to print after several years of being unavailable in paperback. It is a great guide for students, clubs, and anyone who wants to know the basics about the American flag.

Mostly Americans need to take a fresh look at ourselves. To do that we need to apply critical thinking, add some skepticism, and be willing to replace answers with questions. Compiled from a decade of writings and contemplation, and further aided by a forty-year career in the world of business dealing with hundreds of companies, this book represents a synthesis between the theoretical and the empirical. Each chapter stands entirely on its own, but each stands stronger when joined with the others. The author’s goal is simply to have the listener challenge their preconceived notions.

Pink Higgins was a rugged Texan who lived a life of classic Western adventure. He was a cowboy, Indian fighter, trail driver, stock detective, rancher, and deadly shootist who killed more adversaries than did such noted gunfighters as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Bat Masterson. Pink battled Comanches and rustlers, and led a faction in the murderous Horrell-Higgins feud of Lampasas County (Texas). Yet he was a hard-working family man, devoted to his nine children. His son, Cullen Higgins, as a lawyer and judge, would become entangled in a series of bloody events involving a powerful cattle ...

America's Constitutional Republic is like no other. Most Americans recognize the names George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, but few can tell you their stories—much less that of James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, or Andrew Jackson. These seven men from the Founding Ear were America's first presidents. They established our republic on the foundation of the Constitution and its liberties.

"Carl Schurz' "States' Rights and Byron Paine" was an address he delivered at Albany Hall, Milwaukee, March 23, 1859. In it, he defended his position, which no doubt was also the position of the bulk of the anti-slavery men of the time, of states rights and the compact theory of the union.

"Commanders-in-Chief: The Highs and Lows of US Presidents" offers an incisive look into the American presidency, exploring the triumphs and tribulations of the nation's most formidable leaders. With meticulous research and a compelling narrative, this book weaves together the personal challenges, political battles, and pivotal decisions that have shaped the United States.

From the first rude ridgeways to the modern interstate highway, the evolution of the road is a fascinating story. Readers will learn the progression of roads from the first ridgeways, roads in the ancient world, Roman roads and the development of the revolutionary McAdam Road. American Indians developed an extensive system of trails for both trade and war. The pioneers used parts of these trails to blaze the first traces that penetrated the interior of the developing United States. Readers can also follow the progression of the United States highway system from the first named highways to ...

Discover the mysteries of Inca history with 500 fascinating facts! Come along with us as we explore Inca history, from the rise of the Inca civilization in the 1200s to its decline in the 1500s. Discover the inner workings of their political and social structures, their spiritual beliefs, and their unique burial customs. Uncover their clothing and arts that adorned their land and the laws and justice that ruled it. Learn about their medical practices, agriculture and aquaculture, architecture, technology, language, trade, and so much more!

The story of the United States Constitution begins with the Albany Plan of Union in 1754 and stretches into modern times with the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments. A Short History of the United States Constitution relates its history as well as many of the documents leading up to it.

Here are the stories of the great gangs that once terrorized New York City, from the Bowery Boys and the Dead Rabbits to the Gophers and the Eastmans—here are the infamous gangsters, from the days of the murderous Five Points Gangs to the later underworld mobs led by Mose the Bowery Boy, Monk Eastman, Paul Kelly, Kid Dropper, Dopey Benny, Gyp the Blood, and Owney Madden, and such feminine underworld luminaries as Gallus Mag and Sadie the Goat.

Country music had brought Randall and her activist mother together and even gave Randall a singular distinction in American music history: she is the first Black woman to cowrite a number one country hit, Trisha Yearwood’s “XXX’s and OOO’s”. Randall found inspiration and comfort in the sounds and history of the first family of Black country music: DeFord Bailey, Lil Hardin, Ray Charles, Charley Pride, and Herb Jeffries who, together, made up a community of Black Americans rising through hard times to create simple beauty, true joy, and sometimes profound eccentricity.