General George Washington
A Military Life
Written by Edward G. Lengel

Format: Trade Paperback, 512 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: January 9, 2007
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-8129-6950-4 (0-8129-6950-2)

“The most comprehensive and authoritative study of Washington’s military career ever written.”
–Joseph J. Ellis, author of His Excellency: George Washington

Based largely on George Washington’s personal papers, this engrossing book paints a vivid, factual portrait of Washington the soldier. An expert in military history, Edward Lengel demonstrates that the “secret” to Washington’s... Read more >

The Name of War
King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity
Written by Jill Lepore

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: April 27, 1999
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-70262-4 (0-375-70262-8)

Winner of the Bancroft Prize

Winner of the the 1998 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award of the Phi Beta Kappa Society

King Philip’s War, the excruciating racial war—colonists against Indians—that erupted in New England in 1675, was, in proportion to population, the bloodiest in American history. Some even argued that the massacres and outrages... Read more >

The First Emancipator
Slavery, Religion, and the Quiet Revolution of Robert Carter
Written by Andrew Levy

Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: January 9, 2007
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-76104-1 (0-375-76104-7)

“[Andrew Levy] brings a literary sensibility to the study of history, and has written a richly complex book, one that transcends Carter’s story to consider larger questions of individual morality and national memory.”
–The New York Times Book Review

In 1791, Robert Carter III, a pillar of Virginia’s Colonial aristocracy, broke with his... Read more >

The Constitutional Convention
A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison
Written by James Madison, Edward J. Larson and Michael P. Winship

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: November 8, 2005
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7517-8 (0-8129-7517-0)

In 1787, the American union was in disarray. The incompatible demands of the separate states threatened its existence; some states were even in danger of turning into the kind of tyranny they had so recently deposed.

A truly national government was needed, one that could raise money, regulate commerce, and defend... Read more >

American Scripture
Making the Declaration of Independence
Written by Pauline Maier

Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: May 26, 1998
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-77908-7 (0-679-77908-6)

National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist

Pauline Maier shows us the Declaration of Independence as both the defining statement of our national identity and the moral standard by which we live as a nation.  It is truly "American Scripture," and Maier tells us how it came to be -- from the Declaration's birth... Read more >

The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States

Introduction by Pauline Maier

Format: Paperback, 112 pages
Publisher: Bantam Classics
On Sale: July 1, 1998
Price: $3.99
ISBN: 978-0-553-21482-6 (0-553-21482-9)

Here in one economical volume are the two fundamental and most important documents of United States history. The introduction is by Pauline Maier, author of American Scripture, which was named one of the ten best books of the year by The New York Times and hailed as "the freshest, best-informed historian's... Read more >

American Lion
Andrew Jackson in the White House
Written by Jon Meacham

Format: Trade Paperback, 512 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: April 30, 2009
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7346-4 (0-8129-7346-1)

Winner, Pulitzer Prize for Biography

Andrew Jackson, his intimate circle of friends, and his tumultuous times are at the heart of this book about the man who rose from nothing to create the modern presidency. Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Andrew Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the... Read more >

American Lion
Andrew Jackson in the White House
Written by Jon Meacham

Format: Hardcover, 512 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: November 11, 2008
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6325-3 (1-4000-6325-6)

Winner, Pulitzer Prize for Biography

Andrew Jackson, his intimate circle of friends, and his tumultuous times are at the heart of this book about the man who rose from nothing to create the modern presidency. Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Andrew Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the... Read more >

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

Written by Jon Meacham

Format: Hardcover, 800 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: November 13, 2012
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6766-4 (1-4000-6766-9)

In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of... Read more >

From The Heart
Voices of the American Indian
Written by Lee Miller

Format: Trade Paperback, 428 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: April 9, 1996
Price: $20.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-76891-3 (0-679-76891-2)

Lee Miller retrieves the voices of Indian people over five centuries and weaves them into an alternate history of the continent, while introducing us to the grandeur and diversity of the 500 nations who held this land before the first European set foot on it. Here, collected in one volume, is... Read more >

Arguing about Slavery
John Quincy Adams and the Great Battle in the United States Congress
Written by William Lee Miller

Format: Trade Paperback, 592 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 12, 1998
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-76844-9 (0-679-76844-0)

In the 1830s slavery was so deeply entrenched that it could not even be discussed in Congress, which had enacted a "gag rule" to ensure that anti-slavery petitions would be summarily rejected. This stirring book chronicles the parliamentary battle to bring "the peculiar institution" into the national debate, a battle that... Read more >

Jefferson and the Gun-Men
How the West Was Almost Lost
Written by M.R. Montgomery

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Broadway Books
On Sale: October 16, 2001
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-609-80710-1 (0-609-80710-2)

Contrary to popular opinion, the opening of the American frontier was not a simple land purchase; it was actually a hardscrabble fight. Even as Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out on their legendary journey to the Pacific Ocean, other forces were taking the measure of the land with far darker... Read more >

Prayer in America
A Spiritual History of Our Nation
Written by James P. Moore, Jr.

Format: Trade Paperback, 542 pages
Publisher: Image
On Sale: September 18, 2007
Price: $27.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-50404-1 (0-385-50404-7)

A stirring chronicle of the spiritual life of a nation, Prayer in America shows how the faith of Americans—from the founding fathers to corporate tycoons, from composers to social reformers, from generals to slaves—was an essential ingredient in the formation of American culture, character, commerce, and creed.

Prayer in America brings... Read more >

Founding Mothers & Fathers
Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society
Written by Mary Beth Norton

Format: Trade Paperback, 512 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: July 29, 1997
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-74977-6 (0-679-74977-2)

Pulitzer Prize Finalist

In this pioneering study of the ways in which the first settlers defined the power, prerogatives, and responsibilities of the sexes, one of our most incisive historians opens a window onto the world of Colonial America.  Drawing on a wealth of contemporary documents, Norton examines the first half-century of English... Read more >

In the Devil's Snare
The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692
Written by Mary Beth Norton

Format: Trade Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: October 14, 2003
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-70690-5 (0-375-70690-9)

Award-winning historian Mary Beth Norton reexamines the Salem witch trials in this startlingly original, meticulously researched, and utterly riveting study.

In 1692 the people of Massachusetts were living in fear, and not solely of satanic afflictions. Horrifyingly violent Indian attacks had all but emptied the northern frontier of settlers, and many... Read more >

Habits of Empire
A History of American Expansionism
Written by Walter Nugent

Format: Trade Paperback, 432 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: June 9, 2009
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-7818-9 (1-4000-7818-0)

Since its founding, the United States' declared principles of liberty and democracy have often clashed with aggressive policies of imperial expansion. In this sweeping narrative history, acclaimed scholar Walter Nugent explores this fundamental American contradiction by recounting the story of American land acquisition since 1782 and shows how this steady addition... Read more >

Teaching with Voices of a People's History of the United States
by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove
Written by Gayle Olson-Raymer

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: April 5, 2011
Price: $21.00
ISBN: 978-1-58322-934-7 (1-58322-934-5)

Voices of a People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove is a symphony of our nation’s original voices, an embodiment of the power of civil disobedience and dissent wherein our nation’s true spirit of defiance and resilience lies.

In this teaching guide, Gayle Olson-Raymer provides insight into... Read more >

Common Sense

Written by Thomas Paine
Introduction by Diana Gabaldon

Format: Paperback, 112 pages
Publisher: Bantam Classics
On Sale: February 3, 2004
Price: $3.95
ISBN: 978-0-553-21465-9 (0-553-21465-9)

In 1776, America was a hotbed of enlightenment and revolution. Thomas Paine not only spurred his fellow Americans to action but soon came to symbolize the spirit of the Revolution. His elegantly persuasive pieces spoke to the hearts and minds of those fighting for freedom. He was later outlawed in Britain... Read more >

Common Sense
and Other Writings
Written by Thomas Paine
Edited by Gordon S. Wood

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: February 11, 2003
Price: $9.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-76011-2 (0-375-76011-3)

Includes the complete texts of Common Sense; Rights of Man, Part the Second; The Age of Reason (part one); Four Letters on Interesting Subjects, published anonymously and just discovered to be Paine’s work; and Letter to the Abbé Raynal, Paine’s first examination of world events; as well as selections from The... Read more >

Patriot Pirates

Written by Robert H. Patton

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: June 30, 2009
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-39055-4 (0-307-39055-1)

In this lively narrative history, Robert H. Patton, grandson of the World War II battlefield legend, tells a sweeping tale of courage, capitalism, naval warfare, and international political intrigue set on the high seas during the American Revolution.

Patriot Pirates highlights the obscure but pivotal role played by colonial privateers in... Read more >

Polk's Folly
An American Family History
Written by William R. Polk

Format: Trade Paperback, 576 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: July 17, 2001
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-49151-8 (0-385-49151-4)

Growing up in Texas in the late 1930s, listening to his grandmother's memories of her childhood amidst the Civil War, Polk became fascinated by tales of his family's engagement in monumental moments of our nation's history. Beginning when Robert Pollok fled Ireland in the 1680s, Polk's saga includes an Indian trader... Read more >

Love and Hate in Jamestown
John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation
Written by David A. Price

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 4, 2005
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-3172-6 (1-4000-3172-9)

A gripping narrative of one of the great survival stories of American history: the opening of the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Drawing on period letters and chronicles, and on the papers of the Virginia Company—which financed the settlement of Jamestown—David Price tells a tale of cowardice and... Read more >

Epic Journeys of Freedom
Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty
Written by Cassandra Pybus

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: February 15, 2007
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-5515-1 (0-8070-5515-8)

During the American Revolution, thousands of slaves fled from their masters to find freedom with the British. Having emancipated themselves--and with rhetoric about the inalienable rights of free men ringing in their ears--these men and women struggled tenaciously to make liberty a reality in their lives.

This alternative narrative includes the stories... Read more >

Original Meanings
Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution
Written by Jack N. Rakove

Format: Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: May 27, 1997
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-78121-9 (0-679-78121-8)

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

What did the U.S. Constitution originally mean, and how can we understand the intentions of its framers?  From abortion to same-sex marriage to gun control, today's most heated legal and political debates hinge on these questions. Rakove traces the complex weave of ideology and interests from which the... Read more >

Mr. President
How and Why the Founders Created a Chief Executive
Written by Ray Raphael

Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 22, 2013
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-74238-4 (0-307-74238-5)

The dramatic and penetrating story of the political maneuverings and personalities behind the creation of the office of the president, with ramifications that continue to this day.

For the first time, by focusing closely on the dynamic give-and-take at the Constitutional Convention, Ray Raphael reveals how politics and personalities cobbled together a... Read more >