Crucible of War
The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766
Written by Fred Anderson

Format: Trade Paperback, 912 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 23, 2001
Price: $23.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-70636-3 (0-375-70636-4)

Winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize

In this vivid and compelling narrative, the Seven Years' War—long seen as a mere backdrop to the American Revolution—takes on a whole new significance. Relating the history of the war as it developed, Anderson shows how the complex array of forces brought into conflict... Read more >

The Audubon Reader

Written by John James Audubon
Edited by Richard Rhodes

Format: Hardcover, 656 pages
Publisher: Everyman's Library
On Sale: April 11, 2006
Price: $27.50
ISBN: 978-1-4000-4369-9 (1-4000-4369-7)

This unprecedented anthology of John James Audubon’s lively and colorful writings about the American wilderness reintroduces the great artist and ornithologist as an exceptional American writer, a predecessor to Thoreau, Emerson, and Melville.

Audubon’s award-winning biographer, Richard Rhodes, has gathered excerpts from his journals, letters, and published works, and has organized them... Read more >

The Barbarous Years
The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675
Written by Bernard Bailyn

Format: Hardcover, 640 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: November 6, 2012
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-0-394-51570-0 (0-394-51570-6)

Pulitzer Prize Finalist 2013

Bernard Bailyn gives us a compelling account of the first great transit of people from Britain, Europe, and Africa to British North America, their involvements with each other, and their struggles with the indigenous peoples of the eastern seaboard.

They were a mixed multitude—from England, the Netherlands, the... Read more >

Faces of Revolution
Personalities & Themes in the Struggle for American Independence
Written by Bernard Bailyn

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: September 1, 1992
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-73623-3 (0-679-73623-9)

In a collection of twelve essays Bailyn reexamines the background, origins, character, and legacy of the American Revolution through the lives of eight representative figures: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, the Tory Thomas Hutchinson, three clergymen--Andrew Eliot, Jonathan Mayhew, and Stephen Johnson--and an obscure Boston shopkeeper, Harbottle Dorr.  Bailyn then presents... Read more >

The Origins of American Politics

Written by Bernard Bailyn

Format: Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: October 12, 1970
Price: $7.96
ISBN: 978-0-394-70865-2 (0-394-70865-2)

"These well-argued essays represent the first sustained and systematic attempt to provide a comprehensive and integrated analysis of all elements of American political life during the late colonial period."--The New York Historical Society Quarterly Read more >

The Peopling of British North America
An Introduction
Written by Bernard Bailyn

Format: Trade Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: April 12, 1988
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-394-75779-7 (0-394-75779-3)

In this introduction to his large-scale work The Peopling of British North America, Bailyn identifies central themes in a formative passage of our history: the transatlantic transfer of people from the Old World to the North American continent that formed the basis of American society. Read more >

To Begin the World Anew
The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders
Written by Bernard Bailyn

Format: Trade Paperback, 204 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 10, 2004
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-71308-8 (0-375-71308-5)

Two time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Bernard Bailyn has distilled a lifetime of study into this brilliant illumination of the ideas and world of the Founding Fathers. In five succinct essays he reveals the origins, depth, and global impact of their extraordinary creativity.

The opening essay illuminates the central importance of America’s provincialism... Read more >

Plain, Honest Men
The Making of the American Constitution
Written by Richard Beeman

Format: Trade Paperback, 544 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: February 9, 2010
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7684-7 (0-8129-7684-3)

Winner, George Washington Book Prize
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

“While some have boasted it as a work from Heaven, others have given it a less righteous origin. I have many reasons to believe that it is the work of plain, honest men.”
–Robert Morris, delegate from Pennsylvania to the Constitutional... Read more >

Grand Avenues
The Story of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the French Visionary Who Designed Washington, D.C.
Written by Scott W. Berg

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 12, 2008
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7622-2 (1-4000-7622-6)

In 1791, shortly after the United States won its independence, George Washington personally asked Pierre Charles L’Enfant—a young French artisan turned American revolutionary soldier who gained many friends among the Founding Fathers—to design the new nation's capital. L’Enfant approached this task with unparalleled vigor and passion; however, his imperious and unyielding... Read more >

Revolutionary Mothers
Women in the Struggle for America's Independence
Written by Carol Berkin

Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 14, 2006
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7532-4 (1-4000-7532-7)

The American Revolution was a home-front war that brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into the life of every American, and Carol Berkin shows us that women played a vital role throughout the struggle.

Berkin takes us into the ordinary moments of extraordinary lives. We see women boycotting British goods in the years... Read more >

Polk
The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America
Written by Walter R. Borneman

Format: Trade Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: April 14, 2009
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7674-8 (0-8129-7674-6)

In Polk, Walter R. Borneman gives us the first complete and authoritative biography of a president often overshadowed in image but seldom outdone in accomplishment. James K. Polk occupied the White House for only four years, from 1845 to 1849, but he plotted and attained a formidable agenda: He fought for... Read more >

Andrew Jackson
His Life and Times
Written by H.W. Brands

Format: Trade Paperback, 656 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: October 10, 2006
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-3072-9 (1-4000-3072-2)

In this, the first major single-volume biography of Andrew Jackson in decades, H.W. Brands reshapes our understanding of this fascinating man, and of the Age of Democracy that he ushered in.

An orphan at a young age and without formal education or the family lineage of the Founding Fathers, Jackson showed... Read more >

Andrew Jackson
His Life and Times
Written by H.W. Brands

Format: Hardcover, 640 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
On Sale: October 4, 2005
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-50738-7 (0-385-50738-0)

The extraordinary story of Andrew Jackson—the colorful, dynamic, and forceful president who ushered in the Age of Democracy and set a still young America on its path to greatness—told by the bestselling author of The First American.

The most famous American of his time, Andrew Jackson is a seminal figure in American... Read more >

The First American
The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
Written by H.W. Brands

Format: Trade Paperback, 784 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: March 12, 2002
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-49540-0 (0-385-49540-4)

Pulitzer Prize Finalist

A groundbreaking scientist, leading businessman, philosopher, bestselling author, inventor, diplomat, politician, and wit, Benjamin Franklin was perhaps the most beloved and celebrated American of his age, or indeed of any age. Now, in a beautifully written and meticulously researched account of Franklin's life and times, his clever repartee, generous... Read more >

The Heartbreak of Aaron Burr

Written by Henry W. Brands

Format: Trade Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: May 1, 2012
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-74326-8 (0-307-74326-8)

Though he was a hero of the Revolutionary War, a prominent New York politician, and vice president of the United States, Aaron Burr is today best remembered as the villain who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.
But as H. W. Brands demonstrates in this fascinating portrait of one of the... Read more >

Thomas Jefferson Travels
Selected Writings, 1784-1789
Edited by Anthony Brandt

Format: Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: National Geographic
On Sale: April 17, 2007
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0058-8 (1-4262-0058-7)

Thomas Jefferson has inspired countless books that explore his brilliant career, his political philosophy, and his extraordinary accomplishments as a gifted leader. Endlessly inquisitive, he was both a tireless writer and one of the most cosmopolitan men of his age. Yet this collection of Jefferson's reflections on his wide-ranging travels reveals... Read more >

A Queer History of the United States

Written by Michael Bronski

Format: Trade Paperback, 312 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: May 15, 2012
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-4465-0 (0-8070-4465-2)

*2011 ALA Stonewall Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award

The first book to cover the entirety of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history, from pre-1492 to the present.

In the 1620s, Thomas Morton broke from Plymouth Colony and founded Merrymount, which celebrated same-sex desire, atheism, and interracial marriage. Transgender evangelist Jemima Wilkinson, in the early... Read more >

Perilous Fight
America's Intrepid War with Britain on the High Seas, 1812-1815
Written by Stephen Budiansky

Format: Trade Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 17, 2012
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-45495-9 (0-307-45495-9)

In Perilous Fight, Stephen Budiansky tells the rousing story of the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812, when an upstart American fleet fought off the legendary Royal Navy and established America as a world power for the first time.

Through vivid re-creations of riveting and dramatic encounters at sea, Budiansky shows... Read more >

Making Haste from Babylon
The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World: A New History
Written by Nick Bunker

Format: Trade Paperback, 512 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: April 19, 2011
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-38626-7 (0-307-38626-0)

At the end of 1618, a blazing green star soared across the night sky over the northern hemisphere. From the Philippines to the Arctic, the comet became a sensation and a symbol, a warning of doom or a promise of salvation. Two years later, as the Pilgrims prepared to sail across... Read more >

Madison and Jefferson

Written by Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg

Format: Trade Paperback, 848 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: January 29, 2013
Price: $20.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7900-8 (0-8129-7900-1)

The third and fourth presidents have long been considered proper gentlemen, with Thomas Jefferson’s genius overshadowing James Madison’s judgment and common sense. But in this revelatory book about their crucial partnership, both are seen as men of their times, hardboiled operatives in a gritty world of primal politics where they struggled... Read more >

Madison and Jefferson

Written by Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg

Format: Hardcover, 848 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: September 28, 2010
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6728-2 (1-4000-6728-6)

In Madison and Jefferson, esteemed historians Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg join forces to reveal the crucial partnership of two extraordinary founders, creating a superb dual biography that is a thrilling and unprecedented account of early America.

The third and fourth presidents have long been considered proper and noble gentlemen, with Thomas... Read more >

Joseph Smith
Rough Stone Rolling
Written by Richard Lyman Bushman

Format: Hardcover, 768 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: September 27, 2005
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-4270-8 (1-4000-4270-4)

In Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, Richard Lyman Bushman, an esteemed American cultural historian and a practicing Mormon, tells how Smith formed a new religion from the ground up. Moving beyond the popular stereotype of Smith as a colorful fraud, the book explores the inner workings of his personality—his personal piety... Read more >

Joseph Smith
Rough Stone Rolling
Written by Richard Lyman Bushman

Format: Trade Paperback, 784 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 13, 2007
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7753-3 (1-4000-7753-2)

Founder of the largest indigenous Christian church in American history, Joseph Smith published the 584-page Book of Mormon when he was twenty-three and went on to organize a church, found cities, and attract thousands of followers before his violent death at age thirty-eight. Richard Bushman, an esteemed cultural historian and a... Read more >

The Refinement of America
Persons, Houses, Cities
Written by Richard Lyman Bushman

Format: Trade Paperback, 528 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: August 31, 1993
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-74414-6 (0-679-74414-2)

The Refinement of America is an exciting and original analysis of how the concern for stylishness, taste, beauty, and politeness that began to be felt in America after 1700 changed the nation's future development as a society and culture.  Bushman shows that the visions of a more elegant life both complemented and... Read more >

The Long Walk to Freedom
Runaway Slave Narratives
Edited by Devon W. Carbado and Donald Weise

Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: August 21, 2012
Price: $28.95
ISBN: 978-0-8070-6912-7 (0-8070-6912-4)

In this groundbreaking compilation of first-person accounts of the runaway slave phenomenon, editors Devon W. Carbado and Donald Weise have recovered twelve narratives spanning eight decades–more than half of which have been long out of print. Told in the voices of the runaway slaves themselves, these narratives reveal the extraordinary and... Read more >