History / History by country / United States / Historical period

Five Years to Freedom: The True Story of a Vietnam POW

by James N. Rowe

When Green Beret Lieutenant James N. Rowe was captured in 1963 in Vietnam, his life became more than a matter of staying alive.

In a Vietcong POW camp, Rowe endured beri-beri, dysentery, and tropical fungus diseases....

Lincoln on the Civil War: Selected Speeches

by Abraham Lincoln

Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War.

This well-rounded selection of Abraham Lincoln's finest speeches combines the classic and obscure, the lyrical and historical,...

The Shawnees and the War for America

by Colin G. Calloway

With the courage and resilience embodied by their legendary leader Tecumseh, the Shawnees waged a war of territorial and cultural resistance for half a century. Noted historian Colin G. Calloway details the...

15 Months in SOG: A Warrior's Tour

by T. P. Nichols & Thom Nicholson

"When we cross the border: no ID, and it's kiss yourself good-bye if Charlie gets ahold of you."

In Vietnam, the Military Assistance Command's Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) fielded small recon teams...

The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek: A Tragic Clash Between White and Native America

by Richard Kluger

The riveting story of a dramatic confrontation between Native Americans and white settlers, a compelling conflict that unfolded in the newly created Washington Territory from 1853 to 1857.

When appointed Washington’s...

George Washington's First War: His Early Military Adventures

by David A. Clary

I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there is something charming in the sound. So said the young George Washington, something no veteran soldier would say. He had not been the target of enemy fire....

Angel in the Whirlwind

by Benson Bobrick

Angel in the Whirlwind is the epic tale of the American Revolution, from its roots among tax-weary colonists to the triumphant Declaration of Independence and eventual victory and liberty, recounted by Benson...

Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788

by Pauline Maier

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title

Winner of the George Washington Book Prize

When the delegates left the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in September 1787, the new Constitution they had written was...

Driven West: Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears to the Civil War

by A.J. Langguth

By the acclaimed author of the classic Patriots and Union 1812, this major work of narrative history portrays four of the most turbulent decades in the growth of the American nation.

After the War of 1812, President...

My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy

by Nora Titone

The scene of John Wilkes Booth shooting Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre is among the most vivid and indelible images in American history. The literal story of what happened on April 14, 1865, is familiar:...

Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain

by Roy Jr. Morris

In the very last paragraph of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the title character gloomily reckons that it’s time “to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest.” Tom Sawyer’s Aunt...

Our Vietnam: The War 1954-1975

by A.J. Langguth

"Laos was never really ours after 1954. South Vietnam is and wants to be."

-- McGeorge Bundy, Washington, D.C., 1961

"The Americans thought that Vietnam was a war. We knew that Vietnam was our country."

--...

Abigail Adams

by Woody Holton

Winner of the Bancroft Prize

The New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice

American Heritage, Best of 2009

In this vivid new biography of Abigail Adams, the most illustrious woman of the founding era, Bancroft...

Saving Monticello: The Levy Family's Epic Quest to Rescue the House that Jefferson Built

by Marc Leepson

When Thomas Jefferson died on the Fourth of July 1826 -- the nation's fiftieth birthday -- he was more than $100,000 in debt. Forced to sell thousands of acres of his lands and nearly all of his furniture and...

Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed

by Judy Pasternak

WINNER OF THE J. ANTHONY LUKAS WORK-IN-PROGRESS AWARD

Atop a craggy mesa in the northern reaches of the Navajo reservation lies what was once a world-class uranium mine called Monument No. 2. Discovered in...

Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President's War Powers

by James F. Simon

The clashes between President Abraham Lincoln and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney over slavery, secession, and the president's constitutional war powers went to the heart of Lincoln's presidency. James Simon, author...

Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command

by Douglas Southall Freeman & Stephen W. Sears

A towering landmark in Civil War literature, long considered one of the great masterpieces of military history -- now available in a one-volume abridgment.

Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command is the most colorful...

Patriotic Treason: John Brown and the Soul of America

by Evan Carton

John Brown is a lightning rod of history. Yet he is poorly understood and most commonly described in stereotypes -- as a madman, martyr, or enigma. Not until Patriotic Treason has a biography or history brought...

Hill 488

by Ray Hildreth & Charles W. Sasser

For some, Hill 488 was just another landmark in the jungles of Vietnam. For the eighteen men of Charlie Company, it was a last stand. This is the stirring combat memoir written by Ray Hildreth, one of the unit's...

Fast Movers: Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience

by John Sherwood

The war in the skies above Vietnam still stands as the longest our nation has ever fought. For fourteen years American pilots dropped bombs on the Southeast Asian countryside -- eventually more than eight million...