The acclaimed historian presents a "captivating account of a surprisingly little-known period" at the close of the American Revolution ( Kirkus, starred review).On October 19, 1781, Great Britain's best army surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown. But the future of the thirteen former colonies was far from clear. 13,000 British troops still occupied New York City, and another 13,000 regulars and armed loyalists were scattered from Canada to Ge...

This vivid, deeply moving book begins in London in 1620 as Pilgrim representatives sign a contract to purchase the freighter Mayflower. We accompany them on their harrowing voyage across the Atlantic, through the rigors of the first New England winter and the threat of Indian attack as they desperately search for the home they eventually find at Plymouth. Once there, they must continue the struggle against brutal weather and disease. With masterly skill, New York Times bestselling historia...

With his usual storytelling flair and unparalleled research, Tom Fleming offers a compelling, intimate look at the founders—George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison—and the women who played essential roles in their lives.From hot-tempered Mary Ball Washington to promiscuous Rachel Lavien Hamilton, the founding fathers' mothers powerfully shaped their sons' visions of domestic life. But lovers and wives played more critical...

In 1902, America found itself fighting a war in the Philippines - a dirty, vicious guerrilla affair rife with assassinations and ambushes. To its astonishment, the United States was forced to commit 120,000 men - two-thirds of its armed forces - to calm the country. Here, in this essay by New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming, is the dramatic story of what became known as General John J. Pershing's war.

Liberty! brings to life one of the most important and compelling stories in America's history: the struggle for independence and the birth of the nation. New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming's gripping narrative captures the high drama of the revolutionary war years and the unyielding courage and political genius of the men and women who imagined a new set of political possibilities for humankind - laying the foundation for the identity and character of the American people i...

Even his abolitionist allies thought his attack on Harpers Ferry insane, but, as this short-form book by New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming points out, John Brown sensed that his trial and death would ignite the nation's conscience.

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette - American Revolutionary War hero, toast of liberal Europe, and a founder of modern France - started his illustrious life as a shy, clumsy, if aristocratic, country bumpkin. Here, in this essay from New York Times bestselling historian and novelist Thomas Fleming, is Lafayette's surprising - and inspiring - story.

In March 1918, the Germans tried to break years of deadlocked trench warfare with new, devastating tactics. One after another, the Allied front lines crumbled under their onslaught. But the success of World War I's stormtroopers, New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming writes in this essay, brought new problems.

On April 19, 1775, thirty-eight Americans formed two uneven lines on the wet grass of the two-acre common in Lexington, Massachusetts. They were summoned by the rolling beat of sixteen-year-old William Diamond's brightly painted drum. The order to sound the call to arms had been given by Lexington's militia captain, John Parker. A British column had been reported just fifteen minutes away. This is one of the vivid scenes New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming sets in First Stroke...

New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming brings his extraordinary biographical talents to bear upon Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the least understood of America's revolutionary giants. For this reappraisal, Fleming concentrates on the mature Franklin, the man who lived nearly thirty years beyond the point where he ended his famous Autobiography. The poor boy, the miserly young printer, has become a decidedly more complex and cultured man. In scene after vivid scene, Fleming shows ...

Choosing the most important moments in the long history of the American presidency is difficult. But here, New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming vividly recreates many of those hours of crisis - from George Washington's fight for peace and the night Abraham Lincoln was almost shot to Ronald Reagan's plea to "tear down this wall" and George W. Bush on September 11, 2001, "the day that changed everything."

"A superb retelling of the story of Valley Forge and its aftermath, demonstrating that reality is far more compelling than myth." - Gordon S. Wood. The defining moments of the American Revolution did not occur on the battlefield or at the diplomatic table, writes New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming, but at Valley Forge. Fleming transports us to December 1777. While the British army lives in luxury in conquered Philadelphia, Washington's troops huddle in the barracks of Valley ...