American Visionary

In this fresh and lively biography rich in literary analysis and new historical detail, Fred Kaplan brings into focus the dramatic life of John Quincy Adams - the little known and much misunderstood sixth president of the United States and the first son of John and Abigail Adams - and persuasively demonstrates how Adams's inspiring, progressive vision guided his life and helped shape the course of America.

Born in an era of rising violence, Black Elk killed his first man at Little Big Horn, witnessed the death of his second cousin Crazy Horse, and traveled to Europe with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. Upon his return, he was swept up in the traditionalist Ghost Dance movement and shaken by the massacre at Wounded Knee. But Black Elk was not a warrior, and instead chose the path of a healer and holy man, motivated by a powerful prophetic vision that haunted and inspired him.

From Pulitzer Prize finalist John Fabian Witt comes the captivating secret history of an epic experiment to remake American democracy. Before the dark money of the Koch Brothers, before the billions of the Ford Foundation, there was the Garland Fund. In 1922, a young idealist named Charles...

In August 1831, a group of enslaved people in Southampton County, Virginia, rose up to fight for their freedom. They attacked the plantations on which their enslavers lived and attempted to march on the county seat of Jerusalem, from which they planned to launch an uprising across the South. After the rebellion was suppressed, well over a hundred people, Black and white, lay dead or were hanged. As news of the revolt spread, it became apparent that it was the idea of a single man: Nat Turner.

Though Moynihan never wrote an autobiography, he was a gifted author and voluminous correspondent, and in this selection from his letters Steven Weisman has compiled a vivid portrait of Moynihan’s life, in the senator’s own words. Before his four terms as Senator from New York, Moynihan served in key positions under Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford. His letters offer an extraordinary window into particular moments in history.

From the real-life Meredith Grey, comes an inspiring collection of essays based on Dr. Erin Nance’s popular TikTok account @littlemissdiagnosed, detailing Dr. Nance’s journey as a young female orthopedic surgeon navigating challenging cases and ethical dilemmas in the high-stakes, cutthroat...

From author Earl Swift comes the surprising history of the U.S. interstate system, a fascinating route through the dreams, discoveries, and protests that shaped these mighty roads.

The Untold Story of Steve Jobs's Wilderness Years—and the Creation of a Legend In 1985, Steve Jobs—the brilliant, volatile founder of Apple Computer—walked out of his company's headquarters, fired from the very corporation he had created. What happened next would transform not only his...

A haunting dream that will not relent pulls author Kent Nerburn back into the hidden world of Native America, where dreams have meaning, animals are teachers, and the "old ones" still have powers beyond our understanding. In this moving narrative, we travel through the lands of the Lakota and the Ojibwe, where we encounter a strange little girl with an unnerving connection to the past, a forgotten asylum that history has tried to hide, and complex, unforgettable characters.

Like all A-Z books, this one illustrates the alphabet - but instead of "A is for apple", A is for Angela - as in Angela Davis, the iconic political activist. B is for Billie Jean King, who shattered the glass ceiling of sports; C is for Carol Burnett, who defied assumptions about women in comedy; D is for Dolores Huerta, who organized farmworkers; and E is for Ella Baker, who mentored Dr. Martin Luther King and helped shape the civil rights movement.

From Alec Nevala-Lee, the author of the Hugo and Locus Award finalist Astounding, comes a revelatory biography of the visionary designer who defined the rules of startup culture and shaped America’s idea of the future. During his lifetime, Buckminster Fuller was hailed as one of the greatest...

America is the ultimate start-up venture – and these are the heroes who made it happen. The history of the United States is, to a remarkable degree, the story of its entrepreneurs, those daring movers and shakers who dreamed big and risked everything to build better lives for themselves, and...

The night of Nan's eighteenth birthday was spent on graveyard duty at the Sequoyah Boarding School for Orphan Indians. You would think that it would have been a quiet night. However, the apparition of her grandmother and her message changed the course of her life in mere seconds. Nan does everything she can to outrun destiny but fate, and her grandmother, have something else in mind: to take her place as the Beloved Woman of the Cherokee. Rather than face the unknown at the Indian Village of Galowhisdi, Nan does the one thing everyone knows you shouldn't—she runs from her destiny. Nan is ...

Twelve American tourists join an art expedition that begins in the Himalayan foothills of China - dubbed the true Shangri-La - and heads south into the jungles of Burma. But after the mysterious death of their tour leader, the carefully laid plans fall apart, and disharmony breaks out among the pleasure-seekers.

Following the acclaimed Secrets of the Talking Jaguar and Long Life, Honey in the Heart, this is an expansive lyrical novel in the tradition of Indigenous oral storytelling. Based on the author's many years of living in a Guatemalan village, Stealing Benefacio's Roses interweaves dramatic recountings of village life and the political horrors of civil war with lyric retellings of sacred Mayan myths.

Before the consecutive two-term administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, there had only been one other trio of its type: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Kevin R. C. Gutzman's The Jeffersonians is a complete chronicle of the men who served as president from 1801 to 1825 and implemented the foreign policy, domestic, and constitutional agenda of the radical wing of the American Revolution, setting guideposts for later American liberals to follow.

Yusef Lateef was never just a jazz musician. He was a composer, philosopher, and spiritual seeker whose sound stretched far beyond the club circuits of Detroit, New York, and Paris. From New Orleans to Timbuktu: Yusef Lateef’s Global Jazz traces the profound journey of a genre-defying artist who reshaped 20th-century music through modal innovation, cross-cultural instrumentation, and an unwavering spiritual compass. This book chronicles Lateef’s evolution—from a Tennessee childhood and Detroit’s hard bop crucible to his radical use of non-Western instruments like the bamboo flute ...

Robert F. Smith’s story is one of vision, resilience, and responsibility. From his roots as the son of two educators in Denver to becoming the founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, he has built a global investment powerhouse while redefining what it means to lead with purpose. This compelling biography traces his academic journey through Cornell and Columbia, his pioneering focus on enterprise software, and his rise as one of the most successful investors of his era. Beyond business, it highlights his transformative philanthropy—from erasing $34 million in student debt at Morehouse ...

Donald Byrd’s trumpet carried the sound of transformation. From his disciplined beginnings in postwar Detroit to his boundary-breaking work on Blue Note Records, Byrd shaped the evolution of modern jazz through intellect, courage, and relentless reinvention. His story charts not only a musician’s rise but also the cultural shift of Black artistry in America—from the bebop stage to the funk groove, from the classroom to the cosmos. Drawing on meticulous research, rare archival material, and firsthand accounts, Donald Byrd: Jazz Funk’s Trumpet Pioneer traces his full arc: his early ...

From the basements of Philadelphia to the stages of the world, Christian McBride: Bass’s Modern Ambassador tells the remarkable story of one of contemporary jazz’s most vital figures. This definitive biography chronicles McBride’s lifelong devotion to the groove—his transformation from a prodigious teenager into the bassist, composer, educator, and cultural advocate who has come to define twenty-first-century jazz. Drawing on decades of performance history, collaborations, and mentorship, the narrative follows McBride’s evolution through every phase of his career: his ...