Western America

Uncover the Secrets Behind America's Most Notorious Bank Heists and Their Lasting Impact on Financial Security! Are you a financial history buff intrigued by the audacious tales of bank robberies that have shaped the landscape of American financial institutions? Do you find yourself pondering how these daring heists have influenced modern security measures and regulations? You're not alone. Many enthusiasts like you are eager to delve into the thrilling world of historical crime and uncover the lessons that still resonate today. In "The History of Robberies and Regulations," you'll embark ...

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, Presidents Monroe, Jackson, Van Buren, and Polk led the country to its Manifest Destiny across the continent, but the forces and hostility unleashed by that expansion led inexorably to Civil War.

Appetite for America is the incredible real-life story of Fred Harvey - told in depth for the first time ever. As a young immigrant, Fred Harvey worked his way up from dishwasher to household name. With the verve and passion of Fred Harvey himself, Stephen Fried tells the story of how this visionary built his business from a single lunch counter into a family empire whose marketing and innovations we still encounter in myriad ways. Inspiring, instructive, and hugely entertaining, Appetite for America is historical biography that is as richly rewarding.

The number one New York Times best seller by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important chapter in the American story that's "as resonant today as ever" (The Wall Street Journal) - the settling of the Northwest Territory by courageous pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that would define our country.

Experience some of Nevada's unexplained anomalies, eerie phenomena, creepy tales, and ghost-riddled towns.

Whether sitting down with a militia member seeking to protect his rural Utah town from Antifa or talking with grassroots organizers working across ideological divides, Gaines Quammen brings to life connections and contradictions that shape our politics and our lives far beyond the West.

A Magical Beauty and the Beast Retelling Set on the Oregon Trail... Rose grew up with the magic of her mother's storytelling, but has come to realize that happily ever afters might only belong within the pages of her books. After being sold by her cruel uncle, she's left to decide whether to flee from the frightening man who bought her or take his offer of a journey of a lifetime. Duncan has scars, inside and out. Wanting a fresh start to escape the past that constantly threatens him, he decides to take on the difficult adventure to Oregon. But when he comes across a young girl at an ...

Many of the most well-known lawmen of the American Wild West had multiple criminal charges to their name. Some were murderers, some were thieves, and many were corrupt - in fact, sometimes it was difficult to tell who was on which side of the law. Cowboys and Native Americans, robbers and sheriffs, courageous lawmen, opportunistic prospectors, frustrated Confederate soldiers turned outlaws after the war - the Wild West was filled with all of these. And their stories are breathtaking.

In 1874, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led a US Army expedition into the Black Hills of South Dakota, which was at that time under the control of the Lakota people. To the expedition members, this was unknown territory on the leading edge of the American frontier. The purpose of the expedition was not only to find a possible location for a fort and a route through the Black Hills to the Southwest but also to investigate rumors of gold deposits. Custer’s cavalry and infantry were accompanied by specialist miners and geologists whose role was to search for that gold.

For years, the United States was confident that the newly democratic Russia and increasingly wealthy China could be lured into a Western-led order that promised prosperity and relative peace—so long as they agreed to Washington’s terms. By the time America emerged from the age of terrorism, it was clear that this had been a fantasy.

Award-winning El Paso-native journalist Richard Parker offers a radical work of history that re-centers the American story around El Paso, Texas, gateway between north and south, center of indigenous power and resistance, locus of European colonization of North America, centuries-long hub of immigration, and underappreciated modern blueprint for a changing United States.

Smedley Butler was the most celebrated warfighter of his time. Best-selling books were written about him. Hollywood adored him. Wherever the flag went, “The Fighting Quaker” went - serving in nearly every major overseas conflict from the Spanish War of 1898 until the eve of World War II.

The summer of 1876 was a key time period in the development of the mythology of the Old West. Many individuals who are considered legends by modern listeners were involved in events that began their notoriety or turned out to be the most famous—or infamous—moments of their lives. Those individuals were Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Wild Bill Hickok, and Jesse James. The Summer of 1876 weaves together the timelines of the events that made these men legends.

The lonely and forgotten spirits peer at you through the windows as you enter the door to their private hell. They follow you through the halls and scream out in desperation hoping that you may be the one who will finally release them from their life in prison. The tortured souls whisper in your ear and cry out in anguished pain to the visitors that cannot physically see them, and they beg for freedom to those who can. Welcome to the saddest depth of hell you will ever witness...

The creation myth of the United States begins with the plucky English puritans of the Mayflower, but what about the story of its sister ship, the Seaflower? Few people today know the story of the passengers aboard the Seaflower, who in 1630 founded a rival puritan colony on an isolated Caribbean island called Providence. The Island That Disappeared presents Providence as a fascinating microcosm of colonialism. At first glance it is an island of devout churchgoers, but look a little closer, and you see that it is still dependent on its smugglers.

His name was David Crockett. He never signed his name any other way, but popular culture transformed his memory into "Davy Crockett", and Hollywood gave him a raccoon hat he hardly ever wore. Best-selling historian Michael Wallis casts a fresh look at the frontiersman, storyteller, and politician behind these legendary stories.

They were the perfect family…until the summer that changed everything. Lauren Moorfield has everything - a wonderful husband, two adorable kids, a dazzling career, and a dream house to die for. Then one day, 20 year old Isabella shows up at the family home, claiming Lauren’s husband Jeff is the father she never knew - the father who left her mother before she was born. As Jeff and Lauren attempt to make sense of the situation, they welcome her into the family. Jeff assures Lauren that he has no idea about Isabella’s existence, but as time goes by, and despite her best efforts to make ...

In Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West. He takes us from John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. He shows how the migrants' dreams drove them to feats of courage and perseverance that put their stay-at-home cousins to shame - and how those same dreams also drove them to outrageous acts of violence against indigenous peoples and one another. El Dorado was at least as elusive in the West as it ever was in the East.

Having completed as much of the Western Express cycling route last summer in 2024 as I could before encountering the closed roadway across Colorado, I finished the rest of this summer and continued to the Atlantic Ocean on my own, better version of the Transamerica Bicycling Route. I began in Grand Junction with my Canyon Grizl loaded with panniers and rode solo the remaining approximately 2,100 miles across middle America. From Grand Junction, I conquered the high passes of the Rocky Mountains with a slight detour due to a snowstorm west of Salida. When I reached Pueblo, I altered the ...

Steve Wiegand takes listeners across the post-Civil War Wild West in his 1876: The Year of the Gun. Wiegand introduces—or reintroduces—us to lawmen such as Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp and outlaws such as the Younger and James Brothers, as well as larger-than-life figures such as Buffalo Bill and George Custer. Juxtaposing their real lives with the often-outlandish accounts of their exploits, 1876 swings from lighthearted humor to cliff-hanger suspense. It also portrays how the Wild West’s initial, tantalizing promise of fame and glamour often disintegrated.