This engaging, illustrated history of Fort Davis, one of the U.S. Army's most important western posts, relates the exciting history of Trans-Pecos Texas—the far western reaches off the state. Wooster traces the history of this Davis Mountains region from the days when Indians and later Spaniards and Mexicans inhabited the area, through its days as the site of Texan and American interests. The establishment and construction of Fort Davis in the mid-1850s tells the story of one of the army's...

As the fledgling nation looked west to the land beyond the Appalachian Mountains, it turned to the army to advance and defend its national interests. Clashing with Spain, Britain, France, Mexico, the Confederacy, and Indians in this pursuit of expansion, the army's failures and successes alternately delayed and hastened western migration. Roads, river improvements, and railroads, often constructed or facilitated by the army, further solidified the nation's presence as it reached the Pacifi...

With a career spanning multiple decades—from the Civil War and Reconstruction to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era—John M. Schofield (1831–1906) left a lasting impact on the American military. Despite his accomplishments as a general and statesman, Schofield is arguably one of the most overlooked figures in the history of nineteenth-century United States. This rich biography, masterfully written by historian Robert Wooster, draws on fresh scholarship to place Schofield’s remarkable career...

Winner: Army Historical Foundation Award for Excellence in U.S. Army History WritingThe United States Army and the Making of America: From Confederation to Empire, 1775–1903 is the story of how the American military—and more particularly the regular army—has played a vital role in the late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century United States that extended beyond the battlefield. Repeatedly, Americans used the army not only to secure their expanding empire and ...

A "highly entertaining" culinary and social history of five immigrant families living in a turn-of-the-twentieth-century New York City tenement house ( New York Times )."A unique and aromatic narrative of New York's immigrant culture: with bread in the oven, steam rising from pots, and the family gathering round." —Russell Shorto, author of The Island at the Center of the World

Betty Boyd Caroli's engrossing and informative First Ladies is both a captivating read and an essential resource for anyone interested in the role of America's First Ladies. This expanded and updated fourth edition includes Laura Bush's tenure, Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential bid, and an in-depth look at Michelle Obama, one of the most charismatic and appealing First Ladies in recent history. Covering all forty-one women from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama and including t...

The rocky hills and dark valleys of the Ozark Mountains hold many secrets for those bold enough to go in search of them. From the grieving ghost of the Ozark's Madonna to the dangerous apparition who haunts the Irish Wilderness, ghosts and legends abound in the Ozarks. A long settled land, the Ozarks has seen its fair share of tragedy and turmoil; from accidents to civil war battles the Ozarks holds more than her fair share of ghosts and hauntings, the stories told and retold down through ...

The notorious 1942 “Sleepy Lagoon” murder trial in Los Angeles concluded with the conviction of seventeen young Mexican American men for the alleged gang slaying of fellow youth Jose Diaz. Just five months later, the so-called Zoot Suit Riot erupted, as white soldiers in the city attacked minority youths and burned their distinctive zoot suits. Eduardo Obregón Pagán here provides the first comprehensive social history of both the trial and the riot and argues that they resulted from a vola...

Spur Award Nominee: How Galveston, Texas, reinvented itself after historic disaster: "A riveting narrative . . . Absorbing [and] well-illustrated." — Library JournalThe Galveston storm of 1900 reduced a cosmopolitan and economically vibrant city to a wreckage-strewn wasteland where survivors struggled without shelter, power, potable water, or even the means to summon help. At least 6,000 of the city's 38,000 residents died in the hurricane. Many observers p...

The sequel to the award-winning From Our Side of the Fence—personal stories of life after the WWII internment camps from twelve Japanese Americans.Many books have chronicled the experience of Japanese Americans in the early days of World War II, when over 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were American citizens, were taken from their homes along the West Coast and imprisoned in concentration camps. When they were finally allowed to l...

To most Americans, Hawaii means ukuleles and native dancers, Waikiki and Diamond Head.Hawaii is a romantic image learned from travel posters and the movies, and much of it, surprisingly, is true. But Hawaii is more than that. The people who have come here from Polynesia, Asia, Europe, and the Americas have made it a crossroads culture and a testing ground for fundamental American principals.

Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War tells stories about the ideas and issues that have shaped the United States in the era of Abraham Lincoln’s presidential term and the Civil War. You can think of it not just as a series of history of America and its people, but a series of lessons.Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led t...