The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America

Written by Edwin Tappan Adney and Howard Chappelle

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: March 17, 1983
Price: $32.95
ISBN: 978-1-56098-296-8 (1-56098-296-9)

The bark canoes of the North American Indians, particularly those of birchbark, were among the most highly developed manually propelled primitive watercraft. They could be used to carry heavy loads in shallow streams but were light enough to be hauled long distances over land. Built with Stone Age tools from available... Read more >

America's Constitution
A Biography
Written by Akhil Reed Amar

Format: Trade Paperback, 672 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: September 12, 2006
Price: $20.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7272-6 (0-8129-7272-4)

In America’s Constitution, one of this era’s most accomplished constitutional law scholars, Akhil Reed Amar, gives the first comprehensive account of one of the world’s great political texts. Incisive, entertaining, and occasionally controversial, this “biography” of America’s framing document explains not only what the Constitution says but also why the Constitution... Read more >

U.S. Constitution For Beginners

Written by Steve Bachmann
Illustrated by Jorge Diaz

Format: Trade Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: For Beginners
On Sale: April 17, 2012
Price: $16.99
ISBN: 978-1-934389-62-1 (1-934389-62-5)

In a combination of witty text and crisp illustrations, U.S. Constitution For Beginners takes a tongue-in-cheek look at America’s most critical legal document. Author and lawyer Steve Bachmann has written a text that touches on the document’s history beginning all the way in 1215 AD with the Magna Carta. He then... Read more >

Shadow Warriors
A History of the US Army Rangers
Written by Mir Bahmanyar

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
On Sale: September 26, 2006
Price: $21.95
ISBN: 978-1-84603-142-7 (1-84603-142-7)

No American military unit can claim as colorful and volatile a history as the Rangers, who have led the way in America's wars for well over three hundred years. This book traces the Rangers from the time of Robert Rogers during the French-Indian War of the 18th century to the most... Read more >

From the Closet to the Courtroom
Five LGBT Rights Lawsuits That Have Changed Our Nation
Written by Carlos A. Ball and Michael Bronski

Format: Trade Paperback, 296 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: May 10, 2011
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0153-0 (0-8070-0153-8)

Selected as a 2011 University Press Book for Public and Secondary School Libraries
•Rated G — General Audience

Engaging and largely untold, From the Closet to the Courtroom explores how five pivotal lawsuits have altered LGBT history. Beginning each case narrative at the center–with the litigants and their lawyers–law professor Carlos Ball follows... Read more >

Glock
The Rise of America's Gun
Written by Paul M. Barrett

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: January 15, 2013
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-71995-9 (0-307-71995-2)

The Glock, known as “America’s gun,” is used by most U.S. police departments, glamorized in films, and valued by gun enthusiasts and criminals alike for its durability and ability to fire seventeen bullets without reloading. Based on fifteen years of research, including interviews with numerous former Glock executives, police officials, and... Read more >

Higher
A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City
Written by Neal Bascomb

Format: Trade Paperback, 360 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: September 21, 2004
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-7679-1268-6 (0-7679-1268-3)

The Roaring Twenties in New York was a time of exuberant ambition, free-flowing optimism, an explosion of artistic expression in the age of Prohibition. New York was the city that embodied the spirit and strength of a newly powerful America.

In 1924, in the vibrant heart of Manhattan, a fierce rivalry was... Read more >

Legacy
Treasures of Black History
Edited by Thomas C. Battle and Donna Wells
Contribution by Moorland Spingarn Research Center

Format: Hardcover, 224 pages
Publisher: National Geographic
On Sale: October 31, 2006
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0006-9 (1-4262-0006-4)

From its Introduction by the revered and distinguished John Hope Franklin to the bibliography and extensive index that complete it, Legacy represents a major new contribution to African-American history. The Black experience and its impact on our nation's culture and character come alive in twelve chapters that sweep from ancient Africa... Read more >

Mr. Hornaday's War
How a Peculiar Victorian Zookeeper Waged a Lonely Crusade for Wildlife That Changed the World
Written by Stefan Bechtel

Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: May 15, 2012
Price: $26.95
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0635-1 (0-8070-0635-1)

He was complex, quirky, pugnacious, and difficult. He seemed to create enemies wherever he went, even among his friends. A fireplug of a man who stood only five feet eight inches in his stocking feet, he began as a taxidermist and an adventurer who tracked tigers in Borneo with friendly headhunters... 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 >

The Ties That Bind
A Memoir of Race, Memory, and Redemption
Written by Bertice Berry

Format: Hardcover, 224 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: February 3, 2009
Price: $23.95
ISBN: 978-0-7679-2414-6 (0-7679-2414-2)

When novelist Bertice Berry set out to write a history of her family, she initially believed she’d uncover a story of slavery and black pain, but the deeper she dug, the more surprises she found. There was heartache, yes, but also something unexpected: hope. Peeling away the layers, Berry came to... Read more >

White Bread
A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf
Written by Aaron Bobrow-Strain

Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: March 6, 2012
Price: $27.95
ISBN: 978-0-8070-4467-4 (0-8070-4467-9)

What can the history of America’s one-hundred-year love-hate relationship with sliced white bread tell us about contemporary efforts to change the way we eat? Fluffy industrial loaves are about as far from slow, local, and organic as you can get, but the story of social reformers, food experts, and diet gurus... Read more >

Cleopatra's Nose
Essays on the Unexpected
Written by Daniel J. Boorstin

Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: October 31, 1995
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-75518-0 (0-679-75518-7)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Discoverers and The Creators demonstrates the truth behind the aphorism that if Cleopatra's nose had been shorter, the face of the world would have changed. For in this provocative book, Boorstin uncovers the elements of accident, improvisation, and contradiction at the core of American institutions... Read more >

Slacks and Calluses
Our Summer in a Bomber Factory
Written by Constance Bowman
Illustrated by Clara Marie Allen

Format: Trade Paperback, 200 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: October 17, 2004
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-1-56098-368-2 (1-56098-368-X)

In 1943 two spirited young teachers decided to do their part for the war effort by spending their summer vacation working the swing shift on a B-24 production line at a San Diego bomber plant. Entering a male-dominated realm of welding torches and bomb bays, they learned to use tools that... Read more >

Flags of Our Fathers

James Bradley with Ron Powers

Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Publisher: Bantam
On Sale: May 2, 2000
Price: $27.00
ISBN: 978-0-553-11133-0 (0-553-11133-7)

What does society expect from a “hero” after his heroic moment has passed? How does that “hero” continue on to live a “normal” life when that one instant has been forever immortalized? Deconstructing the fall-out from that now infamous image of the six American soldiers raising the flag at Iwo Jima... 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 >

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 >

Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage
The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and Their World
Written by Hugh Brewster

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: March 26, 2013
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-98481-4 (0-307-98481-8)

April 2012 marked the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, yet the haunting story of the doomed liner has lost none of its allure. Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage is a fresh take on this everpopular subject through the prism of the lives of the Titanic's first class passengers -... Read more >

Boom!
Talking About the Sixties: What Happened, How It Shaped Today, Lessons for Tomorrow
Written by Tom Brokaw

Format: Trade Paperback, 688 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: October 14, 2008
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7511-6 (0-8129-7511-1)

In Boom!, Tom Brokaw, one of America’s premier journalists and the acclaimed author of The Greatest Generation, gives us an epic portrait of another defining era in America: the tumultuous Sixties. The voices and stories of both famous people and ordinary citizens come together in this “virtual reunion” as Brokaw takes... Read more >

Boom!
Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today
Written by Tom Brokaw

Format: Hardcover, 688 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: November 6, 2007
Price: $28.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6457-1 (1-4000-6457-0)

In The Greatest Generation, his landmark bestseller, Tom Brokaw eloquently evoked for America what it meant to come of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War. Now, in Boom!, one of America’s premier journalists gives us an epic portrait of another defining era in America as he brings... 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 >

A Queer History of the United States

Written by Michael Bronski

Format: Hardcover, 312 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: May 10, 2011
Price: $27.95
ISBN: 978-0-8070-4439-1 (0-8070-4439-3)

*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 >

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 >

New York
An Illustrated History
Written by Ric Burns, James Sanders and Lisa Ades

Format: Trade Paperback, 640 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: September 2, 2003
Price: $45.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-71032-2 (0-375-71032-9)

The companion volume to the PBS television series, with more than 500 full-color and black-and-white illustrations.

This lavish and handsomely produced book captures all the beauty, complexity, and power of New York—the city that seems the very embodiment of ambition, aspiration, romance, desire; the city that has epitomized the entire parade of... 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 >