This short essay argues that "big government" begins in America's earliest days-- despite our founding myth of small government and limited federal activity. The essay addresses the federal government's indispensable role in land acquisition, its regulation of the fur trade, and its role in managing defense, trade, and social policies. Complementing a wave of new scholarship, "How Big Government Won the West" offers a brief and compelling look at governance in the republic's first century....

Although many associate Franklin D. Roosevelt with the inauguration of the robust, dominant American presidency, the roots of his executive leadership style go much deeper. Examining the presidencies of John Quincy Adams, Ulysses S. Grant, and William Howard Taft, Stephen Rockwell traces emerging connections between presidential action and a robust state over the course of the nineteenth century and the Progressive Era.By analyzing these three undervalued presidents’ savvy deployme...

Washington’s Government shows how George Washington’s administration—the subject of remarkably little previous study—was both more dynamic and more uncertain than previously thought. Rather than simply following a blueprint laid out by the Constitution, Washington and his advisors constructed over time a series of possible mechanisms for doing the nation’s business. The results were successful in some cases, disastrous in others. Yet at the end of Washington’s second term, there w...

Most people associate storms and other big weather with death—with the kind of force that makes each of us wonder about life, and time and the nature of our surroundings. Some people go out looking for bad weather or go to places where they’re likely to encounter it. Others have the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Still, the stories in Storm have more to say than that. They tell us about what happens when people find that treacherous weather—or when it finds them—...

Since 1973, Storey's Country Wisdom Bulletins have offered practical, hands-on instructions designed to help readers master dozens of country living skills quickly and easily. There are now more than 170 titles in this series, and their remarkable popularity reflects the common desire of country and city dwellers alike to cultivate personal independence in everyday life.

Part baseball book and part travelogue, Off to See the Yankees explains the ins and outs of the weekend roadtrip to see the Yankees play in cities like St. Louis, Chicago, Kansas City, and Miami. With notes on the games, the ballparks, the cities, and the sights, Off to See the Yankees is the essential starter guide for fans considering getting away for a few days for a weekend of baseball and fun.

Set against the rugged beauty of nineteenth-century Pennsylvania, Malchus, the second novel in the Upward Way Chronicles by Madeline Brock, is a deeply moving Christian historical novel filled with faith, family, romance, sacrifice, and redemption.As old friendships deepen and new relationships form, Malchus discovers that trust cannot be rebuilt without courage. The people God places in his life challenge long-held fears, forcing him to confront painful m...

Here is the 34th issue of Black Cat Weekly, packed with more than 500 pages of great reading, with contents ranging from mystery to adventure to science fiction and fantasy. The complete contents includes:Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure:"Skin," by Stephen D. Rogers [Michael Bracken Presents short story]"Booked for Murder," by Hal Charles [solve-it-yourself mystery]"Grateful Touring," by Sarah M. Chen [Barb Goffman Presents short story...

A solar-heated pit greenhouse combines the energy-conserving features of the traditional pit greenhouse with newer techniques and materials used in standard heated greenhouses. The result is a simple, inexpensive structure that blends into its environment and needs little or no heat from any source other than the sun. Greg Stone’s simple, illustrated, step-by-step instructions show you exactly how to design, site, and build your own solar-heated pit greenhouse from start to finish.

Today, a fraction of the Cherokee people remains in their traditional homeland in the southern Appalachians. Most Cherokees were forcibly relocated to eastern Oklahoma in the early nineteenth century. In 1830 the U.S. government shifted its policy from one of trying to assimilate American Indians to one of relocating them and proceeded to drive seventeen thousand Cherokee people west of the Mississippi.The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears recounts this moment in Amer...

Every young hockey player dreams of one day playing in the NHL, of skating on a line with his hero and drinking champagne in the dressing room after winning the Stanley Cup. But kids should watch what they wish for. They may make it to the pros, like Sean Pronger, only to end up playing for sixteen teams over eleven seasons. They may end up on a team with a guy like the Great One, but skate on his line only in practice when the bona fide first-line centre has the flu. And they may end up d...

From the two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, bestselling historian, and author of Our First Civil War: a "first-rate" narrative history (The New York Times)that brilliantly portrays the emergence, in a remarkably short time, of a recognizably modern America.American Colossus captures the decades between the Civil War and the turn of the twentieth century, when a few breathtakingly wealthy businessmen transformed the United States from an ag...