Western America

Roy Adkins, with his wife, Lesley, returns to the Napoleonic War in The War for All the Oceans, a gripping account of the naval struggle that lasted from 1798 to 1815, a period marked at the beginning by Napoleon's seizing power and at the end by the War of 1812. In this vivid and visceral account, Adkins draws on eyewitness records to portray not only the battles but also the details of a sailor's life: shipwrecks, press-gangs, prostitutes, spies, and prisoners of war.

In 1791, inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution, the slaves of San Domingo rose in revolt. Despite invasion by a series of British, Spanish and Napoleonic armies, their twelve-year struggle led to the creation of Haiti, the first independent black republic outside Africa. Only three years later, the British and Americans ended the Atlantic slave trade. In this outstanding example of vivid, committed and empathetic historical analysis, C. L. R. James illuminates these epoch-making events.

History called on Harry Truman to unite the Western world against Soviet communism, but first he had to rally Republicans and Democrats behind America’s most dramatic foreign policy shift since George Washington delivered his farewell address. How did one of the least prepared presidents to walk into the Oval Office become one of its most successful?

The Lindsay family has come west hoping to help the father, John, recover from an illness. When they arrive, they are induced to purchase Spanish Peaks Ranch, an abandoned United States military post surrounded by mountains. It seems like a perfect place to settle into their new life as ranchers. As they soon find out, though, this deserted fort is equally suited for both protection and imprisonment.

In 1609, two years after its English founding, colonists struggled to stay alive in a tiny fort at Jamestown. John Smith fought to keep order. When he left, desperate colonists ate lizards, rats, and human flesh. Meanwhile, the Virginia-bound Sea Venture was shipwrecked on Bermuda, the dreaded, uninhabited “Isle of Devils”. Bermuda became England’s second New World colony in 1612. A Tale of Two Colonies examines the existing sources on the colonies, sets them in a transatlantic context, and weighs them against circumstantial evidence.

The Magic Tree House carries Jack and Annie back to the Old West, where they roam the Great Plains with a Lakota boy.

This audiobook tells the story of how Spain managed to conquer the Americas in the span of half a century, from the late 1400s to the mid-1500s. Although exploitation and warfare continued between the colonizers and the colonized after this period, the largest campaigns against the indigenous peoples were undertaken in this short time span, which is the focus of this audiobook.

For five horrific weeks after Christmas in 1831, Jamaica was convulsed by an uprising of its enslaved people. What started as a peaceful labor strike quickly turned into a full-blown revolt, leaving hundreds of plantation houses in smoking ruins. By the time British troops had put down the rebels, more than a thousand Jamaicans lay dead from summary executions and extrajudicial murder. While the rebels lost their military gamble, their sacrifice accelerated the larger struggle for freedom in the British Atlantic.

Tom Zoellner loves trains with a ferocious passion. In his new audiobook he chronicles the innovation and sociological impact of the railway technology that changed the world, and could very well change it again. From the frigid Trans-Siberian Railroad to the antiquated Indian Railways to the futuristic maglev trains, Zoellner offers a stirring story of man's relationship with trains. Zoellner examines both the mechanics of the rails and their engines and how they helped societies evolve. Not only do trains transport people and goods in an efficient manner, but they also reduce pollution and dependency upon oil.

When Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845 Mexico’s foreign minister in Washington, D.C. angrily left the country and returned to Mexico. Mexico had warned the United States that if Texas became a U.S. state it would be cause for war. By April of the next year a shooting skirmish had broken out along the contested border between Mexico and the state of Texas. -- General Zachary Taylor, who was in charge of the U.S. forces along the border alerted President James K. Polk with the message “Hostilities may now be considered as commenced.” President Polk wasted no time, alerting ...

Dear Inga, I’m thinking it is not good for my baby and me to stay much longer in Whistle Creek, Idaho. The sheriff is showing altogether too much interest. I suppose I should feel flattered, for Carson Barclay is not only strikingly handsome, but a man of character and faith who has shown Keary and me considerable kindness. But I’m afraid his affections are ones I cannot return. The secret I bear makes a future with him impossible. Yet Inga, when Sheriff Barclay is near, it’s everything in my Irish heart that wishes otherwise.

The cowboy is an iconic figure in American culture. With his hat, boots, and trusty horse, the cowboy rides in at a moment of crisis to intervene against the forces of evil. In the 20th century, the cowboy of the Wild West took center stage in the realm of popular literature.

Dive into the untold story of the Taíno people, the original inhabitants of Puerto Rico. "Echoes of the Taíno" transports listeners to an era before colonization, where rich traditions, spirituality, and resilient culture thrived in the heart of the Caribbean. Through vivid storytelling, this book unravels the profound connection between the Taíno people and the lush, breathtaking island of Borikén.

Discover Jamaica’s Journey: From Ancient Tribes to the Fight for Freedom.

From one of the most beloved Western authors comes an epic historical tale of adventure and romance in the great wilderness. Against the epic backdrop of the building of the Union Pacific Railroad across plains and deserts and through the mountains to meet up with the Southern Pacific in Utah comes a sprawling, historical tale. Warren Neale is a brilliant civil engineer who is constantly confronted with construction problems. He is sided by Larry Red King, a Texas gunfighter and friend.

An ancient cry takes on new meaning as we watch America and the West spiral down a dark path of degeneracy, selfishness, and toward a future which is truly inhuman. In "Come Out of Babylon: How America Fell So Far From Grace", Tom Kawczynski explores the often asked question where it all went wrong with a surprising conclusion. The America we now enjoy is the logical outcome of decisions being made in Western Civilization for hundreds of years going back to understanding the Renaissance as rebirthing the Pagan worldview as man as god unto himself coupled with the dynamic energy of ...

During the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804, arguably the most radical revolution of the modern world, slaves and former slaves succeeded in ending slavery and establishing an independent state. Yet on the Spanish island of Cuba barely fifty miles distant, the events in Haiti helped usher in the antithesis of revolutionary emancipation. When Cuban planters and authorities saw the devastation of the neighboring colony, they rushed to fill the void left in the world market for sugar, to buttress the institutions of slavery and colonial rule, and to prevent "another Haiti".

In the summer of 1916, Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, close friends from childhood and graduates of Smith College, left home in Auburn, New York, for the wilds of northwestern Colorado. Bored by their soci-ety luncheons, charity work, and the effete young men who courted them, they learned that two teach-ing jobs were available in a remote mountaintop schoolhouse and applied—shocking their families and friends.

Journey into the heart of Puerto Rico's extraordinary history in "Boricua! The History and Future of Puerto Rico," by Donald Elton. From the rich, often overlooked story of the indigenous Taíno civilization, through the brutal conquest by Spain and complex dynamics with the United States, this riveting book paints a nuanced portrait of a people whose identity has been shaped by resilience and resistance.

America is famous around the world for being the land of opportunity, and in many respects it has been for the nearly 400 years since its colonization. However, that opportunity has always come at some sort of price. In the times of wooden sailing vessels, men and women risked life and limb to sail across the Atlantic on small, creaking ships, but later, transportation became safer and easier with the invention of the coal powered steam engine.