Best of
American-History

1920

The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War, 1861-1865


Leander Stillwell - 1920
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

A Woman's Story of Pioneer Illinois


Christiana Holmes Tillson - 1920
    Upon arriving in Montgomery County near what would soon be Hillsboro, they set up a general store and real estate business and began to raise a family.A half century later, Christiana Tillson wrote about her early days in Illinois in a memoir published by R. R. Donnelley in 1919. In it she describes her husband’s rise to wealth through the speculative land boom during the 1820s and 1830s and his loss of fortune when the land business went bust after the Specie Circular was issued in 1836.The Tillsons lived quite ordinary lives in extraordinary times, notes Kay J. Carr, introducing this edition. Their views and sensibilities, Carr says, might seem strange to us, but they were entirely normal to people in the early nineteenth century. Thus Tillson’s memoir provides vignettes of ordinary nineteenth-century American life.

When Buffalo Ran


George Bird Grinnell - 1920
    He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Yale University with a B. A. in 1870 and a Ph. D. in 1880. Originally specializing in zoology, he became a prominent early conservationist and student of Native American life. He has been recognized for his influence on public opinion and legislation which ultimately led to the preservation of the American buffalo. Grinnell's books and publications reflect his lifelong study of the northern American plains and the Plains tribes. He was a historian of the buffalo and their relationship with Plains tribal culture. His best-known works are on the Cheyenne, including The Fighting Cheyennes, published in 1915, and a two-volume work on The Cheyenne Indians (1923). In 1928, he presented the story of Frank Joshua North and Luther North in Two Great Scouts and their Pawnee Battalion. Other works on the Plains culture area focusing on the Pawnee and Blackfeet people include: Pawnee Hero Stories (1889), and The Story of the Indian (1895).

Eyewitness at Wounded Knee


Richard E. Jensen - 1920
    Army opened fire on an encampment of Sioux Indians. This assault claimed more than 250 lives, including those of many Indian women and children. The tragedy at Wounded Knee has often been written about, but the existing photographs have received little attention until now.Eyewitness at Wounded Knee brings together and assesses for the first time some 150 photographs that were made before and immediately after the massacre. Present at the scene were two itinerant photographers, George Trager and Clarence Grant Morelodge, whose work has never before been published. Accompanying commentaries focus on both the Indian and the military sides of the story. Richard E. Jensen analyzes the political and economic quagmire in which the Sioux found themselves after 1877. R. Eli Paul considers the army’s role at Wounded Knee. John E. Carter discusses the photographers and also the reporters and relic hunters who were looking to profit from the misfortune of others.For this Bison Books edition each image has been digitally enhanced and restored, making the photographs as compelling as the event itself. Heather Cox Richardson tells the story behind the endeavor to present a meaningful account of this significant historical event.

A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete 1619-1918


Arthur Ashe - 1920
    From 1865 through 1896, African Americans succeeded spectacularly in sports. It was this period that gave rise to Jack Johnson, the first Black heavy weight champion; Marshall Taylor, "the world's fastest cyclist"; and Isaac Murphy, the first three-time winner of the Kentucky Derby.