American History, American Studies, Civil War Studies

    McPherson, The Civil War vividly traces one of the most moving chapters in American history, from the early division between the North and the South to the final surrender of Confederate troops. Catton's account of battles is a must-read for anyone interested in the war that divided America, carefully weaving details about the political activities of the Union and Confederate armies and diplomatic efforts overseas.

     Between December 27, 1942, and December 17, 1944, he shot down forty Japanese aircraft. This achievement meant that he was the U.S.A.’s top flying ace through the course of the Second World War. George C. Kenney, commanding officer of the Fourth Air Force, knew Bong well and his biography of the young hero brings Bong’s short career in the air force to life. One of Kenney and Bong’s first encounters had been when Bong had been cited and temporarily grounded for looping the Golden Gate bridge, flying at low level down Market Street in San Francisco, and blowing the clothes off an Oakland woman’s clothesline. Kenney reprimanded him saying ““there is no need for me to tell you again that this is a serious matter. If you didn’t want to loop around that bridge or fly down Market Street I wouldn’t have you in my Air Force, but you are not going to do it any more and I mean what I say.” Yet, Kenney was also aware of Bong’s flying skill and although he might have been a bit of a daredevil he acknowledged that for the U. S. Air Force to pose a serious threat to the Japanese “We needed kids like this lad.” Dick Bong: America's Ace of Aces is a remarkable book that uncovers the short, but fascinating, career of America’s greatest fighter pilot. It is full of brilliant insights provided by Kenney who was able to watch this young man develop before his life was cruelly cut short testing a jet aircraft shortly before the war ended. “Both flight enthusiasts and students of the second world war will read with considerable interest of the events of Dick Bong's life in a book which sticks close to its subject” Kirkus Reviews George C. Kenney was a United States Army Air Forces general during World War II. He is best known as the commander of the Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA), a position he held from August 1942 until 1945. Kenney wrote three books about the SWPA air campaigns he led during World War II. He also wrote The Saga of Pappy Gunn in 1959 and Dick Bong: Ace of Aces in 1960, which described the careers of Paul Gunn and Richard Bong, two of the most prominent airmen under his command. He passed away in 1977.

    This work is in four volumes. Each volume covers phases of a single year of the war, and each is complete in itself.

     Though remarkable in their own right, the first fifteen years of the 1900s had the misfortune of being sandwiched between—and overshadowed by—the Gilded Age and the First World War. In The Good Years, Walter Lord remedies this neglect, bringing to vivid life the events of 1900 to 1914, when industrialization made staggering advances, and the Wright brothers captured the world’s imagination. Lord writes of Newport and Fifth Avenue, where the rich lived gaily and without much worry beyond the occasional economic panic. He also delves into the sweatshops of the second industrial revolution, where impoverished laborers and children suffered under unimaginable conditions. From the assassination of President McKinley to the hot and lazy “last summer” before the outbreak of war, Lord writes with insight and humor about the uniquely American energy and enthusiasm of those years before the Great War would forever change the world. From the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Incredible Victory and Day of Infamy, this is an “informative and entertaining” journey through an often-overlooked period of history at the beginning of the twentieth century (The New York Times).

    Originally published in 1960 selling half a million copies at the time and first reissued as a Nonpareil paperback in 1991, this immensely popular work of fiction has attracted, informed, and been embraced by a whole new generation of readers.

    Account of the Battle of Bunker Hill June 17, 1775.

    A few of the songs were written after the emancipation, but all were inspired by it.

    Vann Woodward's The Burden of Southern History remains one of the essential history texts of our time. In it Woodward brilliantly addresses the interrelated themes of southern identity, southern distinctiveness, and the strains of irony that characterize much of the South's historical experience. First published in 1960, the book quickly became a touchstone for generations of students. This updated third edition contains a chapter, "Look Away, Look Away," in which Woodward finds a plethora of additional ironies in the South's experience. It also includes previously uncollected appreciations of Robert Penn Warren, to whom the book was originally dedicated, and William Faulkner. This edition also features a new foreword by historian William E. Leuchtenburg in which he recounts the events that led up to Woodward's writing The Burden of Southern History, and reflects on the book's--and Woodward's--place in the study of southern history. The Burden of Southern History is quintessential Woodward--wise, witty, ruminative, daring, and as alive in the twenty-first century as when it was written.

    Superb, full-color photographs offer a unique and revealing "eyewitness" view of this rich culture. See a necklace made of bear claws, a model of a Blackfeet teepee, a false face made from cornhusks, how fish were trapped in a basket, and a Cheyenne feathered war bonnet. Learn about the kachina ceremony, why love dolls were important, how turtle shells made music, what's stored inside a parfleche, and how pemmican was made. Discover the meanings of carvings on a Haida totem pole, what's inside an Iroquois longhouse, what medicine men carried in their medical kits, how a bow drill works, and much, much more.

    He was paid a monthly wage of $13.00, with an additional $1.30 combat pay per month. Setting off for what he later termed "the little wars that are the mere trivia of history," he came back to write "a mild chronicle of many little men who were painting on a big canvas, and of their little epic routines of life, with a common death at their elbow. It is only the little, but keen, tribulations that made the epic routine of an old-fashioned war."

    

    Since publication Immigrant Saint has been a Catholic cult classic combining fast-paced, factual journalism with soaring, breathtakingly beautiful and poetic prose.

    The ribs and plates of thousands of vessels - the immigrant ships, brigs, schooners, steel freighters, and even big salt-water tramp ships, built to go anywhere in the world - today lie fathoms deep, victims of fierce storms, collisions, fires, shoals, and the myriad hazards of navigation. Here, too, are the ghosts of the men who sailed them, tramping the decks of lost ships. It is typical of the sailor's lot, too, that while they died as heroically as their brethren on salt water, many of them perished unknown and unheralded.Written by a newspaperman who had spent years collecting and documenting the history of lakeships and the men who sail them, Great Stories of the Great Lakes brings to light the heroism, tragedy, and humor, largely overlooked by history, that was and is part and parcel of the evolution of the great inland oceans. These are true stories of the ships and men who played their parts in eras when the fresh-water ships were growing from tiny brigantines to the huge vessels of today, some of them among the largest in the American and Canadian merchant fleets. These stories make for fascinating, exciting reading.

    Among the battles included here are the Pierre’s Hole fight, the battle of Bandera Pass, the battle of Pyramid Lake, the battle of Wood Lake, the Canyon de Chelly rout, the battles of Adobe Walls, the Fetterman, Hayfield, and Wagon Box fights, the fight at Beecher Island, the battle of the Washita, the battles of Massacre Canyon and Palo Duro Canyon, the battle of the Rosebud, the battle of the Little Bighorn, the Dull Knife massacre, and the final, tragic battle at Wounded Knee.“A fine guide to the conflict that transpired across the wide Missouri.”—San Francisco Sunday Chronicle“An excellent account of most of the major fights between the white man and the Indian in…the western part of the United States.”—Library Journal“Two dozen of the most celebrated and hair-raising Indian fights on record. Good, solid reading, and a whole peck of it.”—New York Times Book Review

    In 1918, even after the end of World War I, fighting began in Northern Russia. The American Expeditionary Force were fighting the Bolsheviks, but after several victories they were forced to withdraw due to superior numbers and a harsh winter.

    

    Battling bitterly cold winds and temperatures that dropped to -25 Fahrenheit, the beleaguered Leathernecks blasted their way through roadblocks, ambushes, and wave after horrifying wave of Chinese Communist army attacks. Robert Leckie brings to life all aspects of the epic struggle and the men who wrote one of the greatest chapters in Marine Corps history with their frozen blood.