Showing titles in Colonial Period

The Widow Washington is the first life of Mary Ball Washington, George Washington's mother, based on archival sources. Her son's biographers have, for the most part, painted her as self-centered and crude, a trial and an obstacle to her oldest child. But the records tell a very different story. The Widow Washington is a necessary and deeply insightful corrective, telling the story of Mary's long, arduous life on its own terms, and not treating her as her son's satellite.

You might think you had a front-row seat to the shocking scandals of Benghazi, the IRS targeting of conservatives, Fast & Furious, illegal email servers, mishandling America's secrets and cover-ups at the EPA. The rest of the story, told here for the first time, is even more troubling. In...

He fought and beheaded three Turkish adversaries in duels. He was sold into slavery, then murdered his master to escape. He was captured by pirates – twice – and marched to the gallows to be hanged, only to be reprieved seconds before the noose dropped over his head. And all this happened...

More than a year and many hundreds of miles into their expedition, Lewis and Clark face their biggest hurdle yet: unless they acquire horses to carry them over the mountains, they will fail in their mission to reach the Pacific Ocean. With hope all but gone, Sacagawea, their young Shoshone interpreter, guides them to her tribal village. Though she knows it will forever change her people's way of life, Sacagawea helps obtain the horses, and thus ensures the completion of the historic journey.

In this harrowing narrative first published in 1682, the author tells the story of her capture and being held for ransom after an attack by Native Americans during an attack on Lancaster in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

American History, Volume 1 surveys the broad sweep of American history from the first Native American societies to the end of the Reconstruction period, following the Civil War. Drawing on a deep range of research and years of classroom teaching experience, Thomas S. Kidd offers students an...

"A fast-paced, often riveting account of the military and political events leading up to the Declaration of Independence and those that followed during the war ... Brands does his readers a service by reminding them that division, as much as unity, is central to the founding of our nation...

A fascinating and illuminating account of how George Washington became the dominant force in the creation of the United States of America, from award-winning author David O. Stewart “An outstanding biography . . . [George Washington] has a narrative drive such a life deserves.”—The Wall...

Wright's long imperial career delicately balanced dual loyalties to Crown and colony and offers a new perspective on loyalism and the American Revolution. Through this lens, Greg Brooking connects several important contexts in recent early American and British scholarship, including imperial and Atlantic history, Indigenous borderlands, race and slavery, and popular politics.

American Indians remain familiar as icons, yet poorly understood as historical agents. In this ambitious book that ranges across Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and eastern California (a region known as the Great Basin), Ned Blackhawk places Native peoples squarely at the center of a dynamic and complex story as he chronicles two centuries of Indian and imperial history that profoundly shaped the American West.

Behind every heartfelt review is a citizen who listened to this book carrying a quiet fear — that the America they love is slipping away — that the freedoms they fought for are being slowly surrendered. Then they heard those fears answered in the actual words of the Founding Fathers of our nation. Imagine sitting in a church pew, grappling with a mixture of frustration, sadness, and even anger over what has happened to your country.

“An engrossing look at the human side of Benjamin Franklin . . . Using a post-feminist lens that’s critical of gender essentialism, Stuart rescues these women from obscurity . . . This is a terrific read: poignant, provocative, and probing.” —Library Journal, Starred Review A vivid...

A relationship takes work, compromise and trust in one another. But in order to make it a special relationship, a little more diplomacy may be required… When it came to Charles and Mary Bagot, the gossips of Regency England had more than their fill. The marriage, initially the toast of high...

An acclaimed historian presents a sweeping new look at the Declaration of Independence, focusing not on the lofty principles of the preamble but on the list of grievances leveled against King George III. For the 250 years since it was written and proclaimed to the world, the Declaration of...

The exceptional tale of an unorthodox, seventeenth–century married couple whose rags-to-riches story fundamentally rewrites our knowledge of American history at its very beginnings. A man thought to be Muslim from Morocco and a German barmaid are hardly the image we have of America's founders...

From historian and Pulitzer Prize–finalist H. W. Brands comes a vivid portrait of George Washington, an iconic leader who steered the American army to victory and set our nation on its path to democracy and freedom. “With this masterly volume, Brands has further solidified his standing as...

The Way to Wealth, an essay by Benjamin Franklin, is a collection of wisdom sayings and advice published in Poor Richard's Almanac from 1733-1758. These proverbs and sayings are woven into an ethical code advocating industry and frugality as a “way to wealth”, thereby securing personal virtue. It is presented as a speech given by Father Abraham to a group of people. Many of the phrases Father Abraham uses continue to be familiar today, such as "There are no gains, without pains", "One today is worth two tomorrows" and "Get what you can, and what you get, hold".

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) served his country in many capacities - architect, naturalist, and linguist, author of the Declaration of Independence, and President of the United States. Not a conventional autobiography, this memoir is more of a summary of his life's work. Begun in 1821 at the age of 77, Jefferson provides a detailed account of his young life and the period in which he wrote the Declaration. The work includes his comments on the Articles of Confederation, his experiences as governor of Virginia, ambassador to France, and observations of the French Revolution.

Left unfinished at the time of his death, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin has endured as one of the most well-known and influential autobiographies ever written. From his early years in Boston and Philadelphia to the publication of his Poor Richard's Almanac to the American Revolution and beyond, Franklin's autobiography is a fascinating, personal exploration into the life of America's most interesting founding father.

Tracing the moments after its creation, this groundbreaking story follows how news of the Declaration of Independence spread to people throughout the thirteen colonies and the Atlantic world. In 1776, people could hear the Declaration of Independence proclaimed in public squares and could read...