American History

Andrew Jackson - war hero and spokesman for the frontier, the first president from west of the Alleghenies, the first born in a log cabin -
fought his way to the White House. Once there, he stood for the rights of common citizens, founded the Democratic Party, expanded the
powers of the presidency, paid off the national debt, and postponed civil war by prevailing against the advocates of states’ rights.

No people have stirred the interest and imagination of the civilized world as have the North American Indians of the Great Plains. For thousands of years before the first European explorers appeared on the grasslands between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, the Indians of this region hunted the big, shaggy buffalo.

Here, from American Heritage, is the dramatic story of the violent conflicts between Native Americans and white settlers that lasted more than 300 years, the effects of which still resonate today. Acclaimed historians Robert M. Utley and Wilcomb E. Washburn examine both small battles and major wars - from the Native rebellion of 1492 to Crazy Horse and the Sioux War to the massacre at Wounded Knee.
Robert M. Utley is a former chief historian of the National Park Service and the author of many books and articles on western history, including biographies of General Custer and Sitting Bull.

The American people have been and are a constantly changing mixture of cultures from other countries: China, England, France, Germany,
Holland, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Russia, and Spain. The people that found new homes in America have not truly melted into
each other, yet they have created a new culture of their own. Historian Bruce W. Weisberger shares the story of a woman sitting on her
front stoop in New York City boasting about the ethnic variety of her neighborhood: "We're a regular United Nations here."
That accommodating nature, Weisberger points out, has not always been the case. Each wave of immigrants met resistance from the
reigning establishment. Still, America changed them, and they changed America. This book is the compelling story of how "the American,
this new man," as French-American writer Crèvecoeur called the young country's citizens, has remained new for more than three
centuries.

The story of America's westward movement is at heart the story of men and women of all origins and beliefs who helped shape the
character of a nation. They lived a stirring epic, the telling of which grows ever more fascinating it becomes ever more remote. It has
become a romance, a drama of men and women against the forces of a stupendous land and nameless terrors. Pain and violence
tormented whites and Indians alike. Here, from award-winning historian David Lavender, is their enduring story.

The story of America's westward movement is at heart the story of men and women of all origins and beliefs who helped shape the character of a nation. They lived a stirring epic, the telling of which grows ever more fascinating it becomes ever more remote. It has become a romance, a drama of men and women against the forces of a stupendous land and nameless terrors. Pain and violence tormented whites and Indians alike. Here, from award-winning historian David Lavender, is their enduring story.

A lively collection of question-and-answer sessions conducted by veteran journalist Roger Mudd with five renowned hsitorians including
David McCullough and Stephen Ambrose.

One of his ships was rotten, his cold-weather gear was inadequate, and his officers disliked him, but Lieutenant Charles Wilkes had his
orders. In 1838, he sailed into the unknown Antarctic.
Here, in this short-form book from award-winning author Ralph K. Andrist, is the harrowing story of his great expedition.

The event that defined the 1930s in the United States came before it started. On October 29, "Black Tuesday," stock-market investors lost
more than $30 billion in the Great Crash. The ten-year Great Depression that followed was not the product of a single day or week.
Nonetheless, it came as a shock to the American people and to the man they looked to for relief: President Herbert Hoover.
Soon, as banks failed, mortgages were foreclosed, and unemployment soared, bread lines formed throughout the country in grim
testimony to the state of the economy. The policies of Hoover and then Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal started a long road to relief,
recovery, and reform.
Here, from the respected historian Edmund O. Stillman, are the stories of The Great Depression, the 1930s, and an American people
defined by their resilience in the face of debilitating despair

Against great odds, a small group of patriots built a fleet that proved one of the decisive factors in the American Revolution and the War of
1812. These wealthy men had founded the first banks in the United States and built its first railroads, factories, and steamships. Now, they
were to cap their achievements by making their young country equally superior in size, and in the process, producing the greatest,
swiftest, and most beautiful craft the world had ever seen - the clipper ship. This book not only traces the origins and achievements of the
clipper but enlivens the dry bones of historic fact with the flesh and blood of clipper captains and crews. A great era comes to life with
their courageous, tenacious stories.

The discovery of a nugget in California in 1848 set off the first gold rush in history. In 1849 alone, the population increased 500 percent as
80,000 men rushed to claim its riches; three years later, nearly 250,000 people lived there.

"The finest historian of the American Revolution."
– Douglas Brinkley
For all his fame and familiarity, George Washington remains something of an enigma - the stiff portrait on the dollar bill. But his story is
full of drama. Here, acclaimed historian Richard Ketchum brings America's first president’s life to vivid life.

In the colonization of North America, Great Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Sweden each sought a share. By the eighteenth
century, only Great Britain and France remained as rivals for the heart of the continent.
Three times, beginning in 1690, warfare arose between New France and New England. Settlements were destroyed, and armies clashed,
yet nothing was settled. Each country regarded the Ohio Valley as its own. A small skirmish in 1754 touched off a war that spread to
Europe, then to Africa, Asia, and even to islands in the Atlantic and Pacific. The fate of North America hung in the balance. This conflict,
the Great War for the Empire, may well be called the first of the world wars.
Here, award-winning historian Francis Russell brings to life the vast panorama that formed the background for this struggle in which the
English redcoats fought side by side with American colonists against French soldiers and their Indian allies

Here, six eminent biographers explain the pleasures and problems of their craft of reconstructing other people's lives. The result is a book
rich in anecdote and in surprising new information about a variety of famous Americans.
The introductory essay is by William Zinsser (author of On Writing Well), who edited the six talks into freestanding essays in which:
David McCullough takes us along on the exhilarating journey to Missouri to find "The Unexpected Harry Truman."
Richard B. Sewall describes his twenty-year search for the elusive poet, Emily Dickinson.
Paul C. Nagel tells us about "The Adams Women" - four generations of women he came to admire while writing his earlier biography of
the Adams family.
Ronald Steel, author of a much-honored biography of the nation's greatest journalist, recalls in "Living with Walter Lippman," how the life
of the biographer can become entwined with that of his subject.
Jean Strouse, on the trail of J. P. Morgan, discusses the fact that "there are two reasons why a man does anything, a good reason and a
real reason."
Robert A. Caro reveals the frustrations of trying to unearth the true facts about Lyndon Johnson, a man who went to great pains to
conceal them.
Together, these six biographers take us through a gallery of unique American lives - most of them moving, many of them startling, and all
of them extraordinary.

Here, six eminent biographers explain the pleasures and problems of their craft of reconstructing other people's lives. The result is a book
rich in anecdote and in surprising new information about a variety of famous Americans.
The introductory essay is by William Zinsser (author of On Writing Well), who edited the six talks into freestanding essays in which:
David McCullough takes us along on the exhilarating journey to Missouri to find "The Unexpected Harry Truman."
Richard B. Sewall describes his twenty-year search for the elusive poet, Emily Dickinson.
Paul C. Nagel tells us about "The Adams Women" - four generations of women he came to admire while writing his earlier biography of
the Adams family.
Ronald Steel, author of a much-honored biography of the nation's greatest journalist, recalls in "Living with Walter Lippman," how the life
of the biographer can become entwined with that of his subject.
Jean Strouse, on the trail of J. P. Morgan, discusses the fact that "there are two reasons why a man does anything, a good reason and a
real reason."
Robert A. Caro reveals the frustrations of trying to unearth the true facts about Lyndon Johnson, a man who went to great pains to
conceal them.
Together, these six biographers take us through a gallery of unique American lives - most of them moving, many of them startling, and all
of them extraordinary.

The Erie Canal was a preposterous idea -- a man-made waterway, spanning wilderness valleys and rivers, channeling through hills of solid
rock or climbing over them, flowing across marshes and thickly wooded forests, all the way across New York State. Even President Thomas
Jefferson, usually ahead of his time, believed that it could not be built for at least a century, and yet, the Erie Canal came to be just as its
planners had thought it would.
For the first time in the history of the United States, there was now a cheap, fast route that ran through the Appalachians, the mountains
that had so effectively divided the West from the East of early America. With the canal, the country's fertile interior became accessible
and its great inland lakes were linked to all the seas of the world.
Here, from award-winning historian Ralph K. Andrist, is the canal's dramatic and little-told story.

The Erie Canal was a preposterous idea -- a man-made waterway, spanning wilderness valleys and rivers, channeling through hills of solid
rock or climbing over them, flowing across marshes and thickly wooded forests, all the way across New York State. Even President Thomas
Jefferson, usually ahead of his time, believed that it could not be built for at least a century, and yet, the Erie Canal came to be just as its
planners had thought it would.
For the first time in the history of the United States, there was now a cheap, fast route that ran through the Appalachians, the mountains
that had so effectively divided the West from the East of early America. With the canal, the country's fertile interior became accessible
and its great inland lakes were linked to all the seas of the world.
Here, from award-winning historian Ralph K. Andrist, is the canal's dramatic and little-told story.

The dramatic story of America's beginnings - from the early explorers and founding of Plymouth and Jamestown to the French and Indian
Wars and victory in the War of Independence.

As Allied commander during World War II and later as president of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower gave America the strength of a great reputation, a fine character, and an abiding sense of mission. He also provided Americans the chance to live up to their best. Few presidents have ever given more. Here, from the eminent historian Kenneth S. Davis, is Eisenhower's remarkable story.

The book includes recollections of Eisenhower written for American Heritage by some of the men who knew him best: Richard Nixon, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, Gen. Omar Bradley, Gen. Mark Clark, Edgar and Milton Eisenhower, Sergei Khrushchev, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, and others who worked with Eisenhower.

This comprehensive book also contains an assessment of Ike by political historian Steve Neal ("Why We Were Right to Like Ike"), Michael Korda on Ike's D-Day Decision, and Douglas Brinkley on Ike's Farewell Address.

Here, from New York Times bestselling historian Francis Russell is the vivid story of America's confident years - those days of exuberant
growth in population, industry, and world prestige beginning with the end of the Civil War and ending with the outbreak of World War I.
Here are the stories of political power struggles, Reconstruction, Western expansion, Ellis Island, the rise of American tycoons and labor
unions, and the entry into World War I.

Here, from New York Times bestselling historian Richard Russell is the vivid story of America's confident years - those days of exuberant
growth in population, industry, and world prestige beginning with the end of the Civil War and ending with the outbreak of World War I.
Here are the stories of political power struggles, Reconstruction, Western expansion, Ellis Island, the rise of American tycoons and labor
unions, and the entry into World War I.

The leading actors and events in Boston in the 1770s - Samuel Adams, John Hancock, the Boston Tea Party, Lexington, Concord, and
Bunker Hill - have assumed a cherished place in history. Yet, with the passage of time, a layer of legend has obscured the true picture.
Here, from award-winning historian Francis Russell, is the bloody story of the early days of the American Revolution.

On August 6 and 9, 1945, in the last significant blows of World War II, American B-29 bombers dropped atomic warheads on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Within a week, the Japanese surrendered. The war was over, but the Atomic Age was just beginning.

Here, from journalist and historian Michael Blow, is the dramatic story of America's Manhattan Project, which produced the world's first atomic weapons.

As the American frontier moved westward and wildlife declined, John James Audubon drove himself to record its wonders. Here, in this
short-form book, is his story.

The American Heritage History of the American Revolution is the complete chronicle of the Revolutionary War told in full detail. Lancaster
starts his story with an examination of Colonial society and the origins of the quarrel with England. He details the ensuing battles and
military campaigns from Lexington and Concord to the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, as well as the tense political and social
situation of the new nation.

The American Heritage History of the American Revolution is the complete chronicle of the Revolutionary War told in full detail. Lancaster
starts his story with an examination of Colonial society and the origins of the quarrel with England. He details the ensuing battles and
military campaigns from Lexington and Concord to the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, as well as the tense political and social
situation of the new nation.

American business people have built the most creative and productive economy in world history. Here is the story of the men and women who made America - from Pilgrim traders to pioneers of the Industrial Revolution and the great innovators of the early twentieth century.

Here is the dramatic story of the race to invent the telephone and how Bell's patent would become the most valuable ever issued. The authors also write of Bell's other extraordinary inventions: the first transmission of sound over light waves, metal detector, first practical phonograph, and early airplanes, including the first to fly in Canada. And they examine Bell's humanitarian efforts, including support for women's suffrage, civil rights, and speeches about what he warned would be a "greenhouse effect" of pollution causing global warming.

Edwin Grosvenor is American Heritage's editor-in-chief and Bell's great-grandson. Morgan Wesson is a filmmaker and journalist in upstate New York.

Noted historian Francis Russell tells the compelling story of the Adams dynasty in this comprehesive and very readable book.

John and Abigail Adams and their descendants profoundly influenced life in the United States for more than two centuries. From the great political and philosophical contributions of Founding Father and President John Adams, the roster of Adams luminaries is unprecedented: diplomat and sixth president, John Quincy Adams; pre-Civil War "Voice of Honor," Charles Francis Adams; and authors Henry and Brook Adams.