American Century

The 19th century saw the rise of one of the largest, most powerful empires of the modern era. The sun never set on the British Empire, whose holdings spanned the globe, in one form or another. Its naval supremacy linked the Commonwealth of Canada with the colonies in South Africa and India, and through them trade flowed east and west. An integral but underutilized part of this vast trade network included China, a reclusive Asian kingdom closed off from the Western world that desired none of its goods.

Political gridlock in Washington…the lingering effects of the financial crisis…structural problems such as unemployment and the skills gap of our work force…the mediocre K-12 educational system. Are our best days behind us? Joel Kurtzman persuasively shows why all the talk about America's decline is not only baseless but dead wrong. Our best days, are, in fact, ahead of us.

In this startling and original work, best-selling author Charles Higham (Howard Hughes: The Secret Life) addresses one of the greatest historical mysteries: Did John Wilkes Booth act alone on the night of Good Friday, 1865, or was he part of a wide conspiracy? Drawing from letters, diaries, previously unstudied records of official hearings, railway timetables, and obscure shipping manifests, Higham weaves a spellbinding account of intrigue.

The role and range of the American presidency has undergone significant changes in the twenty-first century, with George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden transforming the office in distinct ways. Many but not all of these changes stem from the numerous crises of this young century: 9/11 and the resulting war on terror, Hurricane Katrina, the Great Recession, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the social unrest of 2020.

From Cover to Cover and Sea to Shining Sea: The Authors who gave America its Voice Instant American Literature delves into our rich literary heritage. Filled with quirky facts and lively illustrations, this spirited survey visits the war-torn trenches with Stephen Crane, creeps through the nightmarish realm of Edgar Allan Poe, and ponders Walden Pond with henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. If you don’t know who (or what!) Natty Bumppo is or which legendary torne made famous the words “Simplicity! Simplicity! Simplicity! Then this book is for you. In this vastly informative ...

Un-American is Bill Mullen’s revisionist account of renowned author and activist W.E.B. Du Bois’ political thought toward the end of his life, a period largely dismissed and neglected by scholars. He describes Du Bois’ support for what the Communist International called “world revolution” as the primary objective of this aged radical’s activism.

In 1941, the magazine publishing titan Henry R. Luce urged the nation’s leaders to create an American Century. But in the post-World-War-II era, proponents of the American Century faced a daunting task. Even so, Luce had articulated an animating idea that, as William O. Walker III skillfully shows in The Rise and Decline of the American Century, would guide United States foreign policy through the years of hot and cold war.

An earthquake unnerves Tokyo on March 11, 2011, triggering the Fukushima nuclear disaster - and a tectonic stirring of the collective past. Mr. Yoshie Watanabe, an aging executive at an electronics company and a survivor of the atomic bomb, feels as though he is a fugitive of his own memory. As the seams of his country threaten to come undone yet again, he braces himself to make the biggest decision of his life. Meanwhile, four women narrate their own memories of Watanabe to an enigmatic Argentinian reporter investigating his life.

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson insisted that "the policeman is the frontline soldier in our war against crime", and police forces, arms makers, policy makers, and crime experts heeded this call to arms, bringing weapons and practices from the arena of war back home. The Punitive Turn in American Life offers a political and cultural history of the ways in which punishment and surveillance have moved to the center of American life and become imbued with militarized language and policies.

If you want to discover the captivating history of the Underground Railroad, then pay attention...The Underground Railroad wasn’t underground. Nor was it a railroad. It was, however, an awe-inspiring piece of history, and one that speaks of hope even today. Two hundred years ago, slavery had the Southern United States firmly in its evil grip. The only hope that these enslaved people had of escaping their brutal fates was the Underground Railroad. This fabled network delivered tens of thousands of escaped slaves all the way across the northern United States and into Canada.

A exploration of prominent US Supreme Court cases from recent history (2010-2021) concerning elections and voting rights. Cases discussed include the relevant landmark cases namely: Citizens United, Rucho, Brnovich, Shelby County, and others. Full audio of oral arguments and opinions are included together with analysis of the relevant cases. Hear from the United States Supreme Court in their own words on topics that continue to be debated and shape the American political landscape today. Legal scholar Matt Bewig provides insightful commentary to frame the court's positions.

American cities are distinct from almost all others in the degree to which freeways and freeway travel dominate urban landscapes. In The Drive for Dollars, Brian D. Taylor, Eric A. Morris, and Jeffrey R. Brown tell the largely misunderstood story of how freeways became the centerpiece of US urban transportation systems, and the crucial, though usually overlooked, role of fiscal politics in bringing freeways about.

This book does not pretend to be a corporate history and certainly not the author's personal autobiography. Rather its purpose is to convey a close-up, ground-level look at a once very prosperous American railroad's mid-twentieth century struggle for survival - from the prospective of a rookie operating officer. For those of us fortunate enough to serve the "Delay, Linger and Wait" there remains a nostalgic affection for this well-run eastern railroad icon.

In early November 1834, an aristocratic young couple from Savannah and South Carolina sailed from New York and began a seventeen-year odyssey in West Africa. Leighton and Jane Wilson sailed along what was for them an exotic coastline, visited cities and villages, and sometimes ventured up great rivers and followed ancient paths.

Liberty or Justice for All? brings to life four of America's greatest thinkers, whose dialogue across the ages has never been more relevant.

The United States Camel Corps was a military experiment in the 1850s that brought camels from Egypt and Turkey to Texas and California. The cast of characters in this story is larger than life and includes U.S. Army and Navy officers, explorers, writers, politicians, and diplomats...How long the name of “Camel Corps” has been in existence is unknown, but it has been used in literature for close to a century. What the troopers themselves called the unit remains unknown. The United States Camel Corps looks at the unique unit, from its origins to its record.

EDITORIAL REVIEW: **SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN's The Big Idea: 150 Years of the Best and Worst Ideas in Modern Science goes beyond the headlines to present the passions, prejudice, and outrage that, from 1845 on, formed the ideas of modern science -- from the sublime to the ridiculous. This fascinating new book, based on SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN's wildly popular feature, "50, 100, and 150 Years Ago in Science Today", presents the often hilarious human aspect of science as well as a serious timetable of scientific discovery. **

The Chippendale Letter is a two-generation romantic novel set against World War 2, the Vietnam War, and America's space race. Discovering an unmailed letter from 1944 twenty-five years later in an old Chippendale chest, Vietnam War widow Patti Kilbride embarks on a journey to find the intended recipient. Caught up in her efforts to reunite two strangers from the past, Patti is unaware of the changes her search is having in her own life. Following the lives of a WWII naval aviator and a "Rosie the Riveter" aircraft factory worker, we watch their past lives eventually catch up with Patti's ...

New York Times best-selling author Tony Blankley prescribes a three-pronged approach as key to America's success in previous wars that must be "rediscovered" today. The political-correctness crowd will complain, but Blankley argues that this conservative manifesto to reestablish American grit is essential - our nation's very survival depends on it.

Whoever said the streets were paved with gold must have been dreaming. San Francisco in the gold rush era was an intoxicating mixture of the wealthy and the desperate. How would Sarah fit in? Determined to prove that she can make it on her own, Sarah poses as a married woman and boards a schooner bound for San Francisco. Restless and eager to travel, Jamie agrees to set up a branch of his family’s merchant bank in San Francisco. Each has something to prove but will their desire to succeed derail a blossoming romance?