**INDEPENDENCE WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING: A historian and former presidential speechwriter traces the origins and legacy of the words and ideas that made America.Illustrations and close readings of 68 original texts offer new insights on the American Revolution, the Civil War, and other key moments and figures in American history.**We hold these truths to be self-evident . . . all men are created equal . . . with certain inalienable rights . . . life, liberty, and the pursuit ...

WINNER OF THE LINCOLN FORUM BOOK PRIZE“A Lincoln classic...superb.” —The Washington Post“A book for our time.”—Doris Kearns GoodwinLincoln on the Verge tells the dramatic story of America’s greatest president discovering his own strength to save the Republic.As a divided nation plunges into the deepest crisis in its history, Abraham Lincoln...

The first president born after America's independence ushers in a new era of no-holds-barred democracy.The first "professional politician" to become president, the slick and dandyish Martin Van Buren was to all appearances the opposite of his predecessor, the rugged general and Democratic champion Andrew Jackson. Van Buren, a native Dutch speaker, was America's first ethnic president as well as the first New Yorker to hold the office, at a time when Manhattan was b...

From its earliest beginnings, America has been seen as an icon of liberty with a mission to redeem the world. Often, the ideal fits. But sometimes even our most noble aspirations can be as damaging as they are uplifting. With wit, brilliance, and deep affection, the inimitable Ted Widmer traces America’s wondrous history, from the Declaration of Independence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He also looks unblinkingly at our less glorious history, from slavery to the occupation...

Introduced by presidential historian Ted Widmer, this work offers both the original texts and insightful essays by leading historians on each of the presidential inaugural addresses--from George Washington to Joseph Biden. Every four years, the incoming president of the United States delivers an inaugural address in a tradition that dates back to 1789, with the first inauguration of George Washington. The address tells Americans--and peoples around the world--what the cou...

Every four years, the incoming president of the United States delivers an inaugural address in a tradition that dates back to 1789, with the first inauguration of George Washington. The address tells Americans—and peoples around the world—what the country has been and what it has the potential to become.This work brings together all of the inaugural addresses—from George Washington's first in 1789 through Joseph Biden's in 2021. What distinguishes it from other compilations of inau...

Brought to you by Penguin.**A Financial Times Book of the Year**FOREWORD READ BY SIR PAUL McCARTNEYA landmark account of Paul McCartney’s triumphant musical reinvention in the 1970s and the rise of one of the decade’s most iconic bandsThis is the story, in their own words, of a band that came to define a generation. Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run tells the madcap history of P...

**A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The American Story and How to Lead and host of PBS’s History with David Rubenstein—David Rubenstein interviews living American presidents and top historians and journalists who reflect on the US presidency, including Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Maggie Haberman, Ron Chernow, and more.**For years, bestselling author David M. Rubenstein has disti...

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.From the first slaves arriving in Jamestown in 1619, the cotton fields in the Southern States and shipbuilding in New England, to the slaves who laid down their lives in war so that Americans could be free, American Slavery in an Hour covers the breadth of the subject without sacrificing important historical and cultural details.An important and dark time in Black – and American – history, American Slavery in an Hour wil...

THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING CLASSIC OF POLITICAL INTEGRITYWith a foreword by Robert F. Kennedy and introduction by Caroline KennedyJohn F. Kennedy’s enduring classic resounds with timeless lessons on leadership and the most cherished of virtues—courage and patriotism—and remains a moving, powerful, and relevant testament to the indomitable American spirit.During 1954-55, Kennedy, then a junior senator from the state of Massachusetts, profiled eight American patriots,...

He was the Great Compromiser, a canny and colorful legislator whose life mirrors the story of America from its founding until the eve of the Civil War. Speaker of the House, senator, secretary of state, five-time presidential candidate, and idol to the young Abraham Lincoln, Henry Clay is captured in full at last in this rich and sweeping biography.David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler present Clay in his early years as a precocious, witty, and optimistic Virginia farm boy who at ...

A Pulitzer Prize winner looks at the course of American history from the birth of the Constitution to the dawn of the Civil War.The years between 1787 and 1863 witnessed the development of the American Nation—its society, politics, customs, culture, and, most important, the development of liberty. Burns explores the key events in the republic's early decades, as well as the roles of heroes from Washington to Lincoln and of lesser-known figures. Captivating and insi...