Showing results by publisher "Books in Motion" in Americas

Our American West, Volume 4 completes the collection of historical stories written by Gary McCarthy. These include tales of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which proved once and for all that the storied and hoped for river across America didn't exist. That long before the Gold Rush of 1849, a diminutive but courageous priest, Fr. Junipero Serra, sacrificed everything to bring Christianity to the coastal Native Americans, while faithfully establishing a string of beautiful California missions.

In Strike Group Reagan, Harold C. Hutchison takes us inside the world of war and sacrifice, loyalty and heroism, in a story that mirrors events taking place around the globe. Lieutenant Renee Patterson is a Navy fighter pilot with one of the squadrons assigned to the carrier USS Ronald Reagan. The Reagan and its battle group, under the command of Rear Admiral Kevin Bradshaw are deployed to the Mediterranean. Renee's sister younger sister Angela is in Tunisia to study archeology, when a civil war breaks out, and American citizens need to be evacuated.

Just as the big trees of the Pacific Northwest inspired the legend of Paul Bunyan, so did the Palouse Hills of southeastern Washington--where fantastic fields of wheat were raised on incredibly steep slopes--spawn tall tales about farmers, steamboat men, and the ingenious methods they used to get their grain to market. Though thirty-three-mule hitches and headers (whose downhill wheels were three times larger than the uphill ones) solved the harvesting problems, transporting the sacked grain two thousand vertical feet down to the steamboat landings took sheer genius.

Our American West, Volume 2 begins with America’s first colonizers, the prairie dogs, and how out on the ranges they were so hated by ranchers that they were almost made extinct. Conestoga Wagons were once called “prairie schooners” crossing America long before the famed Pony Express. The indomitable courage of Sarah Winnemucca, the “Prairie Princess” rivals that of a tall Swede named Showshoe Thompson who skied the snowy river passes of the Sierra Nevadas.

Wallace picked up the name "Big-Foot" while in a Mexican prison, because the prison attendants couldn’t find a boot large enough to fit him. Not only was he large of foot but also of deeds. Big-Foot Wallace was an Indian-fighter, hunter, and Texas Ranger. Few men have witnessed as many stirring incidents, had more hair-breadth escapes, or gone through more of the hardships and perils of a border life than Big-Foot Wallace.

George Washington rose from anonymity as a minor landowner and surveyor to become America's first national hero. With little military training he led the 13 fledgling colonies through six years of grueling war against formidable British forces, steered the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, and served two terms as the first president of the United States.

Pearl Taylor left her conventional home and life in Toledo, Ohio, to take up gambling on the Mississippi. She survived life in a boom camp in the Arizona Territory and ultimately became an outlaw. Once caught, she awaited trial for an armed stagecoach robbery, while reporters dubbed her "The Bandit Queen".

While attempting to join up with her lover Matt Jorgensen as he joins Confederate Calvary, Ginny McBride is hit by a musketball from a Union rifle. She develops amnesia, losing all memory as to who and where she is. Matt spends his military time trying to find her. When she returns to herself, she in turn tries to find Matt. It is a story that also engulfs the Western folklore of Jesse James, Cole Younger and his brothers and Belle (Starr) Shirley as they became legends.

Mary Edwards Walker (1832-1919) defied the conventions of her era. Born and raised on a farm in Oswego, New York, Walker became one of a handful of female physicians in the nation - as well as a passionate believer in the rights of women. She campaigned for women's suffrage and against traditional male-dominated marriage vows, and any issue involving the sublimation of her sex. From the outset of the Civil War, Walker volunteered her services as a physician.

Grasshoppers in Summer examines the conflict between Native American plains tribes and the U.S. westward expansion from 1866 to 1876. It begins with the Fetterman massacre and negotiation of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. That treaty ended Red Cloud's war for control of the Bozeman Trail. President Ulysses S. Grant came to office a year later on a reform platform that included Indian peace policy. Relentless cultural, economic, political and religious pressure frustrated Grant's effort to reform Indian policy.

On June 25, 1876, five troops of the U. S. Seventh Cavalry, under command of General George Armstrong Custer, rode into the valley of the Little Big Horn River expecting to rout the Indian encampment there. Instead they were met by the gathered strength of the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, who did not run, but turned to battle the soldiers.

A genuine and vivid chronicle of frontier days along the Ohio River, when a cocked rifle and a soft step were the surest means of survival.

Buck Duane, the last of the Texas Duanes, was fast on the draw and accurate. But that same prowess with a gun allowed him to kill a man. Now he's on the run.

Perhaps no other figure in American history is more shrouded in myth and legend than David ("Davy") Crockett, the Tennessee frontiersman whose death at the Alamo in 1836 ensured his place in the Valhalla of American heroes. Crockett himself was responsible for much of the folklore about his life. A gregarious, fun-loving man, he was more than capable of spinning tall tales over a "horn" of liquor.

Sergeant Charles Windolph was the last white survivor of the Battle of Little Big Horn when he told his story nearly 70 years later. A six-year veteran in the Seventh Cavalry, Windolph rode in the 1873 Yellowstone Expedition, and the 1874 Black Hills Expedition. He fought in Captain Benteen's troops on the fatal Sunday, and vividly recalls the battle that wiped out Custer's command. Equally vivid is the evidence marshaled by historians Frazier and Robert Hunt.

At age 11, Ralph becomes man of the family and an entrepreneur. He continues his horse riding and cattle driving, and the Moody's start a cooking business.

Ralph has just turned 20, and lands in Western Nebraska with only one dime in his pocket. Three months later, Ralph has formed his own harvesting crew, as he leads six men and eight teams of horses on the "dry divide."

The Moody family moves from New Hampshire to a Colorado ranch. Experience the pleasures and perils of ranching in 20th Century America, through the eyes of a youngster.

There have been many Marines. There have been many marksmen. But there has been only one Sergeant Carlos Hathcock, a legend of Marine lore. He stalked the Viet Cong behind enemy lines. His record has never been matched: 93 confirmed kills. This is his story. Powerful, chilling, and all true.

Ralph "Little Britches" Moody must take on responsibilities as the man of the family after his father's death. During the summer of his twelfth year, he works on a cattle ranch in the shadow of Pike's Peak, earning "man's wages" of a dollar a day.