Best of
American-History

1956

Proud Shoes


Pauli Murray - 1956
    Written by Pauli Murray the legendary civil rights activist and one of the founders of NOW, Proud Shoes chronicles the lives of Murray's maternal grandparents. From the birth of her grandmother, Cornelia Smith, daughter of a slave whose beauty incited the master's sons to near murder to the story of her grandfather Robert Fitzgerald, whose free black father married a white woman in 1840, Proud Shoes offers a revealing glimpse of our nation's history.

Men to Match My Mountains: The Opening of the Far West 1840-1900


Irving Stone - 1956
    Stone has created a pageant of stories of the great westward drive.

The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South


Kenneth M. Stampp - 1956
    . . . Mr. Stampp wants to show specifically what slavery was like, why it existed, and what it did to the American people."--Bruce Catton

Gray Fox: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War


Burke Davis - 1956
    Lee forged his reputation as perhaps the most daring soldier in American history, renowned for his shrewdness, courage and audacity.Gray Fox is the vivid chronicle of Lee's command, a book that humanizes this gentleman-soldier of tradition and makes him all the more awe-inspiring.

The Fourth of July Story


Alice Dalgliesh - 1956
    Simple text captures the excitement of the era, telling how word of Independence traveled up and down the thirteen colonies, touching the lives of everyday people throughout the land. Like all of Alice Dalgliesh’s work, The Fourth of July Story remains an American classic.

The Fighting Cheyennes


George Bird Grinnell - 1956
     Through they course of the nineteenth century they became involved in some of the bloodiest conflicts to occur in the heart of the American continent. They were swift in the adoption of horse culture and quickly became skilled and powerful mounted warriors. Men would gain rank within their society by performing and accumulating various acts of bravery in battle, known as coups. George Bird Grinnell charts the development of the Cheyenne people through the course of the nineteenth century and how they were forced to become increasingly militaristic, both with other tribes and the ever-encroaching United States government, in order to protect themselves and their culture. Although Grinnell states that “This book deals with the wars of the Cheyennes”, he spends a great deal of time explaining their culture more deeply to provide a more complete picture of this fascinating tribe. Rather than simply relying on the words of various United States troops who had fought the Cheyennes at various encounters such as Washita River and Little Bighorn, Grinnell interviews many aging Native Americans to allow them to tell their own stories in their own ways. “Mr. Grinnell has always shown a deep personal feeling for the Indian of the Plains, in contrast to the mere professional attitude of many anthropologists. This is particularly true in the present work.” Clark Wissler, American Anthropologist “The principal events in Cheyenne history … are sketched in interesting fashion, chiefly from Indian reminiscence, with occasional reference to other sources of information. … we get the Indian viewpoint and incidentally much valuable light upon Indian belief and custom.” James Mooney, The American Historical Review “In his books… Mr. George Bird Grinnell has portrayed [the Native Americans] with a master hand; it is hard to see how his work can be bettered.” Theodore Roosevelt This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Native American history and one of the most famous tribes to have lived on the Great Plains. George Bird Grinnell was an American anthropologist, historian, naturalist, and writer. Grinnell wrote many of the first articles dealing with conservation, the protection of the buffalo, and the American West. His book The Fighting Cheyennes was first published in 1915 and he passed away in 1938.

The Story of Annie Oakley


Edmund Collier - 1956
    Biography written for children.

We Were There With the Mayflower Pilgrims


Robert N. Webb - 1956
    

The Roads of Home: Lanes and Legends of New Jersey


Henry Charlton Beck - 1956
    This is the way people talk, sought out and recorded by one who loves both the people and the talk."--The New York Times Long regarded as folklife classics, Henry Charlton Beck's books are vivid recreations of the back roads, small towns, and legends that give New Jersey its special character. Father Henry Charlton Beck, who lived in New Jersey nearly all his life, was the author of numerous books on New Jersey folklife, state editor of the Camden Courier-Post, and writer for the Newark Star-Ledger. He is considered New Jersey's first folklorist and his painstaking work has left us with a rich collection of tales.

Soviet-American Relations, Vol. 1: Russia Leaves the War, 1917-1920


George F. Kennan - 1956
    The troubled days in Russia during World War I, from the Bolshevik seizure of power in November 1917 to Russia’s final departure from the war after the Treaty of Brest Litovsk in March 1918, are the setting of this absorbing historical narrative by one of the most distinguished diplomats and historians of our time.

The American Revolution


Richard B. Morris - 1956
    Presents the causes and events of the Revolution.

We Were there with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys


Robert N. Webb - 1956
    

The Kidnapped and the Ransomed: The Narrative of Peter and Vina Still after Forty Years of Slavery


Kate E.R. Pickard - 1956
    He was stolen as a child from his home in New Jersey, yoked to servitude for more than forty years in Kentucky and Alabama, and finally freed with the help of a pair of Jewish brothers. It is the only nineteenth-century slave narrative to show the participation of the Jews in the antislavery movement before the Civil War. The reader follows Still through a succession of brutal masters, a clandestine courtship, marriage involving separation, births and deaths, the formation of a daring plan for freedom, and harrowing action. No stage drama could be as wrenching as this true rendering of a slave’s experience in America. Kate E. R. Pickard was in contact with Still while she taught at the Female Seminary in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Maxwell Whiteman was the archival and historical consultant for the Union League of Philadelphia and coauthor, with Edwin Wolf II, of The History of the Jews of Philadelphia from Colonial Times to the Age of Jackson. The original introduction by Rev. Samuel J. May, an abolitionist, has been retained.