"In the Bosnian town of Sarajevo on the morning of June 28, 1914, a chauffeur misunderstood his instructions, made the wrong turn, tried too late to correct his blunder, and in so doing, delivered his passengers to a point where a waiting assassin did not have to take aim to gun them down. Two rounds from one pistol and the world rocked. The crime was the small stone that loosened brings the avalanche." So begins Brigadier General S.L.A. Marshall's compelling narrative of the American Heri...

". . . the greatest war of all time told as it is best told - by the people who lived it." - The Washington Post. All first-person accounts of great events have their own fascination, but the editors of American Heritage have discovered that people writing about World War II seem to tell their own story with particular passion and eloquence. That is one reason American Heritage has published so many of them - and why noted military historian Stephen W. Sears has selected the most compellin...

On June 6, 1944, 7,000 ships carrying 160,000 Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy. Here is the dramatic story of that climatic battle and the men who planned and fought in it. The Normandy invasion altered the course of World War II and led to the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the Third Reich. It is a story of courage and fear, tragedy and determination.

The American Heritage History of World War II was first published in 1966. At the time, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist C.L. Sulzberger received widespread praise for his authoritative account of the six-year war that involved more than fifty-six nations, resulted in the death of some 22 million people, and shaped the course of history. His work became a standard reference on the war. Stephen E. Ambrose, one of the most highly regarded historians of our time, oversaw a major r...

Here, from American Heritage, is the human, vital story of America's beginnings - from the journeys of early explorers and the founding of the Plymouth and Jamestown colonies to the French and Indian Wars and victory in the War of Independence.

In 1815, the British controlled the seas. Before the end of the nineteenth century, they ruled Australia, India, New Zealand, half of Africa, half of North America, and islands all around the globe. Theirs was the most powerful empire the world has ever known. Here is the story of how the English acquired their vast domain; how they ruled, maintained, and exploited it; and how, within decades, they presided over its dissolution. Here are Britain's triumphs and also her stinging defeats, he...

It was about 13,000 years ago that the First Americans, people who came from Asia, worked their way past the melting glaciers of the last Ice Age and began spreading across North, Central, and South America - lands previously unscarred by humans and teeming with mammoths, giant bison, saber-toothed tigers, and beavers the size of a cow. But it's only recently that scientists have pieced together the elusive, compelling saga of that epic migration. And the more we learn about them, the more...

In this swift, insightful book, New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming brings vividly to life the remarkable youth of Thomas Jefferson, one of America's greatest presidents. Here are all of Jefferson's early triumphs and tragedies - from his inspired design and construction of Monticello and election as Virginia's second governor to his achievement as the author of the Declaration of Independence and the devastating loss of his wife.

When the explorer René Caillié returned to France from Africa in 1828, he published a sketch of the legendary city he had discovered - Timbuctoo. But neither that simple drawing nor his matter-of-fact description gave Caillié's countrymen a sufficiently colorful picture to match their preconceptions of how Africa should look. They turned their backs on the young explorer, ignored his accomplishments, and let him die neglected. Here are the epic adventures of the European explorers who open...

More than 3,000 years ago, a young man of seventeen named Tutankhamen became pharaoh of Egypt. His reign came toward the end of a vital period in Egypt's history when Thebes was the wealthiest and most splendid city in the world. Great temples soared into the sky, and in the temple workshops, hundreds of craftsmen labored to turn the riches of Egypt into magnificent garments, furniture and houses, ornaments, and weapons for all their heavenly gods and for their earthly god, the pharaoh. In...

Here, from New York Times bestselling historian Vincent Cronin, is the extraordinary story of Italy - from the birth of the Roman Empire to the rise of the city-states through the Renaissance and the making of modern Italy.

"Written with skill and suspense, it is an inspiring story that Americans can read with pride." - Chicago Tribune. Here, from New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming, is the story of that June day in 1775 that made the American Revolution inevitable. Bunker Hill brings alive the stories of the men on both sides who fought on these steep slopes in the blazing heat of June and dispels the myths and distortions which have long clouded the battle. It shows how closely and tragically i...