Eyewitness to America
500 Years of American History in the Words of Those Who Saw It Happen
Edited by David Colbert

Format: Trade Paperback, 720 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: July 28, 1998
Price: $20.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-76724-4 (0-679-76724-X)

Three hundred eyewitnesses--some famous, some anonymous--give their personal accounts of the great moments that make up our past, from Columbus to cyberspace, and infuse them with a freshness and urgency no textbook can duplicate. David Colbert has brought together a multitude of voices to create a singularly rich American narrative.  Here are... Read more >

Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage
The First Peoples of Alaska
Edited by Aron A. Crowell, Rosita Worl, Paul C. Ongtooguk and Dawn D. Biddison

Format: Hardcover, 312 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: May 18, 2010
Price: $50.00
ISBN: 978-1-58834-270-6 (1-58834-270-0)

Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage: The First Peoples of Alaska features more than 200 objects representing the masterful artistry and design traditions of twenty Alaska Native peoples. Based on a collaborative exhibition created by Alaska Native communities, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the... Read more >

Ten Tea Parties
Patriotic Protests That History Forgot
Written by Joseph Cummins

Format: Hardcover, 224 pages
Publisher: Quirk Books
On Sale: January 17, 2012
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-1-59474-560-7 (1-59474-560-9)

Every kid knows the story of 1773’s Boston Tea Party, in which colonists ambushed three British ships and dumped 92,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. But do you know the story of the New Jersey Tea Party (December 1773)? How about the Annapolis Tea Party (October 1774) or the Charleston... Read more >

In Pursuit of Reason
The Life of Thomas Jefferson
Written by Noble E. Cunningham, Jr.

Format: Trade Paperback, 432 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books
On Sale: May 12, 1988
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-345-35380-1 (0-345-35380-3)

In Pursuit of Reason fills a long-standing need of interested students and scholars for an authoritative single-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson. Whereas Jefferson biographies of the past have proven daunting, even impenetrable, because of their size, Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., has produced a first-rate biography that is as concise as it... Read more >

A Country With No Name
Tales from the Constitution
Written by Sebastian De Grazia

Format: Trade Paperback, 432 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 22, 1999
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-74422-1 (0-679-74422-3)

This groundbreaking work intends nothing short of a revolution in how we think about the "American" constitution and government. In A Country with No Name, Claire St. John, a stylish and mysterious Englishwoman who is completing her university studies, spends two weeks tutoring a young American, Oliver Huggins, in American history.

St... Read more >

Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II

Written by Alexis De Tocqueville
Introduction by Joseph Epstein

Format: Paperback, 976 pages
Publisher: Bantam Classics
On Sale: April 4, 2000
Price: $7.99
ISBN: 978-0-553-21464-2 (0-553-21464-0)

From America’s call for a free press to its embrace of the capitalist system, Democracy in America–first published in 1835–enlightens, entertains, and endures as a brilliant study of our national government and character. For today’s readers, de Tocqueville’s concern about the effect of majority rule on the rights of individuals remains... Read more >

Artifacts of the Spanish Colonies of Florida and the Caribbean, 1500-1800
Volume 2: Portable Personal Possessions
Written by Kathleen Deagan

Format: Hardcover, 528 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: June 17, 2002
Price: $60.00
ISBN: 978-1-58834-035-1 (1-58834-035-X)

This long-awaited follow-up to Deagan’s first volume on ceramics, glassware, and beads focuses on the portable personal objects owned and used by the residents of Spanish colonial America. These objects are not only of Spanish origin; the collection includes many English, French, Dutch, German, Italian, and American pieces as well. Deagan... Read more >

In Small Things Forgotten
An Archaeology of Early American Life
Written by James Deetz

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: August 1, 1996
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-48399-5 (0-385-48399-6)

History is recorded in many ways. According to author James Deetz, the past can be seen most fully by studying the small things so often forgotten. Objects such as doorways, gravestones, musical instruments, and even shards of pottery fill in the cracks between large historical events and depict the intricacies of... Read more >

The Times of Their Lives
Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth Colony
Written by James Deetz and Patricia Scott Deetz

Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: October 16, 2001
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-72153-0 (0-385-72153-6)

James Deetz, who until his death was a leading expert on the archaeology of Plymouth Colony, and his wife, cultural historian Patricia Scott Deetz, give a realistic and fascinating picture of life in colonial America as they recount, in colorful detail, the true story of Plymouth Colony.

The Pilgrims were not the... Read more >

The Unredeemed Captive
A Family Story from Early America
Written by John Putnam Demos

Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 28, 1995
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-75961-4 (0-679-75961-1)

Nominated for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award
Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize and the Ray Allen Billington Prize

In 1704 a French and Indian war party descended on the village of Deerfield, Massachusetts, abducting an eminent Puritan minister and his children. Although John Williams and most... Read more >

Inheriting the Trade
A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History
Written by Thomas Norman DeWolf

Format: Trade Paperback, 280 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: January 1, 2009
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-7282-0 (0-8070-7282-6)

In 2001, Thomas DeWolf discovered that he was related to the most successful slave-trading family in U.S. history, responsible for transporting at least ten thousand Africans. This is his memoir of the journey in which ten family members retraced their ancestors’ steps through the notorious triangle trade route–from New England to... Read more >

How Capitalism Saved America
The Untold History of Our Country, from the Pilgrims to the Present
Written by Thomas DiLorenzo

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
On Sale: August 23, 2005
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-8331-2 (1-4000-8331-1)

In How Capitalism Saved America. DiLorenzo, a professor of economics, demonstrates how capitalism has made America the most prosperous nation on earth—and how the sort of government regulation that politicians and pundits endorse has hindered economic growth, caused higher unemployment, raised prices, and created many other problems. He propels the reader... Read more >

A Struggle for Power
The American Revolution
Written by Theodore Draper

Format: Trade Paperback, 560 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 25, 1997
Price: $16.80
ISBN: 978-0-679-77642-0 (0-679-77642-7)

Coming from one of our most creative and gifted historians, A Struggle for Power offers students a boldly argued reinterpretation of the defining event in our nation's history, portraying the American Revolution not as a clash of ideologies, but as a Machiavellian struggle for power.  Drawing on a wealth of contemporary documents... Read more >

Lewis & Clark
The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
Written by Dayton Duncan

Format: Trade Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: August 31, 1999
Price: $29.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-70652-3 (0-375-70652-6)

This companion volume to Ken Burns' PBS documentary provides a richly detailed, factual account of Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery and its trek across the newly acquired Louisiana Territory.

Including over 150 illustrations--most in full color--and numerous excerpts from the journals kept by the two captains and four enlisted men, Lewis... Read more >

That Dark and Bloody River

Written by Allan Eckert

Format: Trade Paperback, 880 pages
Publisher: Bantam
On Sale: September 1, 1996
Price: $20.00
ISBN: 978-0-553-37865-8 (0-553-37865-1)

In That Dark and Bloody River Allan W. Eckert chronicles a turning point in American history, as colonists began the first great expansion westward into the Ohio River Valley. In this day-by-day narrative history, spanning nearly eighty years and peopled with fascinating characters both familiar (such as Daniel Boone) and less... Read more >

Representations of Slavery
Race and Ideology in Southern Plantation Museums
Written by Jennifer L. Eichstedt and Stephen Small

Format: Trade Paperback, 312 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: September 17, 2002
Price: $21.95
ISBN: 978-1-58834-096-2 (1-58834-096-1)

How is slavery presented at the public and private plantation museums in the American South, almost 150 years after the Civil War? Jennifer L. Eichstedt and Stephen Small investigated this question in Virginia, Georgia, and Louisiana by touring more than one hundred plantation museums; twenty locations organized and run by African... Read more >

American Creation
Triumphs and Tragedies in the Founding of the Republic
Written by Joseph J. Ellis

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: October 14, 2008
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-27645-2 (0-307-27645-7)

Acclaimed historian Joseph J. Ellis brings his unparalleled talents to this riveting account of the early years of the Republic.

The last quarter of the eighteenth century remains the most politically creative era in American history, when a dedicated group of men undertook a bold experiment in political ideals. It was a... Read more >

American Sphinx
The Character of Thomas Jefferson
Written by Joseph J. Ellis

Format: Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: April 7, 1998
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-76441-0 (0-679-76441-0)

Winner of the National Book Award

For a man who insisted that life on the public stage was not what he had in mind, Thomas Jefferson certainly spent a great deal of time in the spotlight--and not only during his active political career. After 1809, his longed-for retirement was compromised by a... Read more >

First Family
Abigail and John Adams
Written by Joseph J. Ellis

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: September 6, 2011
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-38999-2 (0-307-38999-5)

In this rich and engrossing account, John and Abigail Adams come to life against the backdrop of the Republic’s tenuous early years.

Drawing on over 1,200 letters exchanged between the couple, Ellis tells a story both personal and panoramic. We learn about the many years Abigail and John spent apart as John’s... Read more >

First Family
Abigail and John Adams
Written by Joseph J. Ellis

Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: October 26, 2010
Price: $27.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-26962-1 (0-307-26962-0)

The Pulitzer Prize–winning, best-selling author of Founding Brothers and His Excellency brings America’s preeminent first couple to life in a moving and illuminating narrative that sweeps through the American Revolution and the republic’s tenuous early years.

John and Abigail Adams left an indelible and remarkably preserved portrait of their lives together in... Read more >

Founding Brothers
The Revolutionary Generation
Written by Joseph J. Ellis

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 5, 2002
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-70524-3 (0-375-70524-4)

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History

In a landmark work of history, the National Book Award—winning author of American Sphinx explores how a group of greatly gifted but deeply flawed men–Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Madison–set the course for our nation.

Joseph Ellis illuminates the profoundly deep bonds and the... Read more >

Founding Brothers
The Revolutionary Generation
Written by Joseph J. Ellis

Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: October 17, 2000
Price: $28.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-40544-0 (0-375-40544-5)

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History

An illuminating study of the intertwined lives of the founders of the American republic—John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.

During the 1790s, which Ellis calls the most decisive decade in our nation's history, the greatest statesmen of... Read more >

His Excellency
George Washington
Written by Joseph J. Ellis

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 8, 2005
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-3253-2 (1-4000-3253-9)

The author of seven highly acclaimed books, Joseph J. Ellis has crafted a landmark biography that brings to life in all his complexity the most important and perhaps least understood figure in American history, George Washington. With his careful attention to detail and his lyrical prose, Ellis has set a new... Read more >

His Excellency
George Washington
Written by Joseph J. Ellis

Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: October 26, 2004
Price: $29.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-4031-5 (1-4000-4031-0)

The author of seven highly acclaimed books, Joseph J. Ellis has crafted a landmark biography that brings to life in all his complexity the most important and perhaps least understood figure in American history, George Washington. With his careful attention to detail and his lyrical prose, Ellis has set a new... Read more >

Israel on the Appomattox
A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War
Written by Melvin Patrick Ely

Format: Trade Paperback, 656 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: August 16, 2005
Price: $22.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-76872-2 (0-679-76872-6)

WINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZE
WINNER OF THE ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE AWARD
WINNER OF THE WESLEY-LOGAN PRIZE
FINALIST FOR THE FREDERICK DOUGLASS and JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN PRIZES

Thomas Jefferson denied that whites and liberated blacks could live together in harmony. His cousin, Richard Randolph, not only disagreed, but made it possible for ninety African... Read more >