Best of
American-History

1980

A Young People's History of the United States: Columbus to the War on Terror


Howard Zinn - 1980
    A Young People's History of the United States is also a companion volume to The People Speak, the film adapted from A People's History of the United States and Voices of a People's History of the United States.Beginning with a look at Christopher Columbus's arrival through the eyes of the Arawak Indians, then leading the reader through the struggles for workers' rights, women's rights, and civil rights during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and ending with the current protests against continued American imperialism, Zinn in the volumes of A Young People's History of the United States presents a radical new way of understanding America's history. In so doing, he reminds readers that America's true greatness is shaped by our dissident voices, not our military generals.

Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War


William Manchester - 1980
    The nightmares began for William Manchester 23 years after WW II. In his dreams he lived with the recurring image of a battle-weary youth (himself), "angrily demanding to know what had happened to the three decades since he had laid down his arms." To find out, Manchester visited those places in the Pacific where as a young Marine he fought the Japanese, and in this book examines his experiences in the line with his fellow soldiers (his "brothers"). He gives us an honest and unabashedly emotional account of his part in the war in the Pacific. "The most moving memoir of combat on WW II that I have ever read. A testimony to the fortitude of man...a gripping, haunting, book." --William L. Shirer

Creek Mary's Blood


Dee Brown - 1980
    Proud and beautiful Creek Mary dominates a saga that spans the years from the American Revolution to the pre-World War I era and portrays such characters as Tecumseh, Andrew Jackson, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and Teddy Roosevelt

Soldier of the Queen (The Goff Family War Thrillers Book 1)


Max Hennessy - 1980
    Colby Goff had been born to the cavalry – it was in his blood and in his bones. He would live, fight, love and die as a soldier whose first allegiance was to his regiment.He was eighteen the first time he faced death. That was in 1854, at Balaclava – at what would be called the Charge of the Light Brigade. It was on that day that Colby became a man.His love of adventure would take him from the Crimea to the Zulu Wars, from the War between the States to the bloody days of the Paris Commune, proving himself throughout as one of the finest soldiers of his time. An absolutely electrifying thriller of war, combat and loyalty, perfect for fans of Adrian Goldsworthy, Paul Fraser Collard and Allan Mallinson.

Sherman's March


Burke Davis - 1980
    In November 1864, just days after the reelection of President Abraham Lincoln, Gen. William T. Sherman vowed to “make Georgia howl.” The hero of Shiloh and his 65,000 Federal troops destroyed the great city of Atlanta, captured Savannah, and cut a wide swath of destruction through Georgia and the Carolinas on their way to Virginia. A scorched-earth campaign that continues to haunt the Southern imagination, Sherman’s “March to the Sea” and ensuing drive north was a crucial turning point in the War between the States. Weaving together hundreds of eyewitness accounts, bestselling author Burke Davis tells the story of this infamous episode from the perspective of the Union soldiers and the Confederate men and women who stood in their path. Eloquent, heartrending, and vastly informative, Sherman’s March brilliantly examines one of the most polarizing figures in American military history and offers priceless insights into the enduring legacy of the Civil War.

A People's History of the United States


Howard Zinn - 1980
    Zinn portrays a side of American history that can largely be seen as the exploitation and manipulation of the majority by rigged systems that hugely favor a small aggregate of elite rulers from across the orthodox political parties.A People's History has been assigned as reading in many high schools and colleges across the United States. It has also resulted in a change in the focus of historical work, which now includes stories that previously were ignoredLibrary Journal calls Howard Zinn’s book “a brilliant and moving history of the American people from the point of view of those…whose plight has been largely omitted from most histories.”

The Invasion of Canada: 1812-1813


Pierre Berton - 1980
    How could a nation of 8 million fail to subdue a struggling colony of 300,000? Yet, when the campaign of 1812 ended, the only Americans left on Canadian soil were prisoners of war. Three American armies had been forced to surrender, and the British were in control of all of Michigan Territory and much of Indiana and Ohio.In this remarkable account of the war's first year and the events that led up to it, Pierre Berton transforms history into an engrossing narrative that reads like a fast-paced novel. Drawing on personal memoirs and diaries as well as official dispatches, the author has been able to get inside the characters of the men who fought the war — the common soldiers as well as the generals, the bureaucrats and the profiteers, the traitors and the loyalists.Berton believes that if there had been no war, most of Ontario would probably be American today; and if the war had been lost by the British, all of Canada would now be part of the United States. But the War of 1812, or more properly the myth of the war, served to give the new settlers a sense of community and set them on a different course from that of their neighbours.

Fool's Crow: Wisdom and Power


Thomas E. Mails - 1980
    Nephew of Black Elk, and a disciplined, gentle, spiritual, and political leader, Fools Crow died in 1989 at the age of 99. Fools Crow: Wisdom and Power is the only book to reveal, often in his own words, the philosophy and practice of this historic leader.

We Were There, Too!: Young People in U.S. History


Phillip Hoose - 1980
    It is must reading for today's youth-as well as their elders." --Studs TerkelFrom the boys who sailed with Columbus to today's young activists, this unique book brings to life the contributions of young people throughout American history. Based on primary sources and including 160 authentic images, this handsome oversized volume highlights the fascinating stories of more than 70 young people from diverse cultures. Young readers will be hooked into history as they meet individuals their own age who were caught up in our country's most dramatic moments-Olaudah Equiano, kidnapped from his village in western Africa and forced into slavery, Anyokah, who helped her father create a written Cherokee language, Johnny Clem, the nine-year-old drummer boy who became a Civil War hero, and Jessica Govea, a teenager who risked joining Cesar Chavez's fight for a better life for farmworkers. Throughout, Philip Hoose's own lively, knowledgeable voice provides a rich historical context-making this not only a great reference-but a great read. The first U.S. history book of this scope to focus on the role young people have played in the making of our country, its compelling stories combine to tell our larger national story, one that prompts Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, to comment, "This is an extraordinary book-wonderfully readable, inspiring to young and old alike, and unique."We Were There, Too! is a 2001 National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature.

Bat 21


William C. Anderson - 1980
    Col, Iceal E. Hambleton, U.S. Air Force, has been a forgotten hero since 1972. As North Vietnam's hammer was beating out South Vietnam's submission, Hambleton was shot down 12 miles south of the DMZ. He later received the Silver Star and lesser medals. They don't seem enough. For "Bat-21" reveals a military man amidst 12 days of continuous valor, above and beyond other moments of bloody bravery. And it is certainly worth noting that Hambleton, quite out of his element as an airman ducking on the ground, was 53 years old—too ancient for such combat. A navigator aboard an EB-66 radar plane, Hambleton's body was peppered by flak and jolted by ejection after a surface-to-air missile exploded his aircraft. He parachuted, not behind North Vietnamese lines, but into the middle of a major advance. Despite injuries, Hambleton buried himself in a shallow grave while American aircraft ringed his position with gravel, lemon-sized mines to block North Vietnamese searchers. They wanted him. We wanted him. Hambleton's head was stuffed with electronic surveillance secrets. In the literal tug-of-war that followed, with helicopter rescue made impossible by enemy gunfire, Hambleton used his survival radio to call in air strikes against gun emplacements and troop movements in his area. His diet was rainwater and raw corn. He fought pain, infection and eventual dysentery. He survived earth tremors when, for the first time in the history of air search and rescue, a B-52 strike was used to sterilize hostile ground around his hideaway. His movements constantly quarterbacked by a forward air controller orbiting a light plane overhead, Hambleton was eventually ordered to crawl to freedom at night. North Vietnamese were known to be monitoring rescue frequencies, So a code was devised; he was given distances and directions toward freedom that overlaid golf courses he had played. Hazards for Hambleton's deadly 18 holes were a polluted river, leeches, snakes, exhaustion, starvation, dehydration, illness, hallucination and an encounter with a North Vietnamese soldier Hambleton killed in a knife fight. It is a tense, ascending narrative, written capably by Anderson so long after the event. He catches the jargon and humor of airmen. He has no difficulty pegging the depression and euphoria of a man in the middle, the unexpected stamina born of stubbornness and, through it all, the frustration of a 53-year-old man forcing himself to generate the vitality of a 24-year-old."

Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady


Sylvia Jukes Morris - 1980
    But only after TR's first wife died at age twenty-two did the childhood friends forge one of the most successful romantic and political partnerships in American history. Sylvia Jukes Morris's access to previously unpublished letters and diaries brings to full life her portrait of the Roosevelts and their times. During her years as First Lady (1901-09), Edith Kermit Roosevelt dazzled social and political Washington as hostess, confidante, and mother of six, leading her husband to remark, "Mrs. Roosevelt comes a good deal nearer my ideal than I do myself."

American Dreams: Lost and Found


Studs Terkel - 1980
    contest who sees the con behind the dream of success and including an early interview with a highly ambitious Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terkel explores the diverse landscape of the promise of the United States—from farm kids dreaming of the city to city kids determined to get out, from the Boston Brahmin to the KKK member, from newly arrived immigrants to families who have lived in this country for generations, these narratives include figures both famous and infamous. Filtered through the lens of our leading oral historian, the chorus of voices in American Dreams highlights the hopes and struggles of coming to and living in the United States.Originally published in 1980, this is a classic work of oral history that provides an extraordinary and moving picture of everyday American lives.

Indeh: An Apache Odyssey


Eve Ball - 1980
    All the narratives have been carefully chosen to illustrate important facets of the Apache experience. Moreover, they make very interesting reading....This is a major contribution to both Apache history and to the history of the Southwest....The book should appeal to a very wide audience. It also should be well received by the Native American community. Indeh is oral history at its best."---R. David Edmunds, Utah Historical Quarterly

Daddy King: An Autobiography


Martin Luther King Sr. - 1980
    Born in 1899 to a family of sharecroppers in Stockbridge, Georgia, Martin Luther King, Sr., came of age under the looming threat of violence at the hands of white landowners. Growing up, he watched as his family was crushed by the weight of poverty and racism, and he resolved to escape to Atlanta to answer the calling to become a preacher. Before he engaged in acts of political dissent and stepped to the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he would preach for more than forty years, King Sr. strove to earn high school and college diplomas while working double shifts as a truck driver, and fought to win the heart of his future wife, Alberta Bunch Williams. Originally published in 1980, this poignant memoir chronicles the life of Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. Here, King Sr. recalls the joys and struggles of his journey: the pain of leaving his mother, father, and siblings on the farm; the triumph of winning voting rights for blacks in Atlanta; and the feelings of fatherly pride and anxiety as he watched his son put himself in danger at the forefront of the movement."

George Whitefield, the Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth-Century Revival (2 Volumes)


Arnold A. Dallimore - 1980
    

Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves


Charles L. Perdue - 1980
    Taken from the records of the Federal Writers' Project of the 1930s, these interviews with one-time Virginia slaves provide a clear window into what it was like to be enslaved in the antebellum American South.

Walter Lippmann and the American Century


Ronald Steel - 1980
    Drawing on conversations with Lippmann & exclusive access to his private papers, Ronald Steel documents the broad flow of Lippmann's career from his brilliant Harvard days & his role in helping formulate Wilson's Fourteen Points in World War I to his bitter break with Lyndon Johnson over Vietnam. Written with clarity & objectivity, this definitive biography presents a commanding portrait of a complicated man & "guides its reader through the first three-quarters of this American century"--The New Yorker.

Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-Hating and Empire-Building


Richard Drinnon - 1980
    In his reinterpretation of "winning" the West, Drinnon links racism with colonialism and traces this interrelationship from the Pequot War in New England, through American expansion westward to the Pacific, and beyond to the Phillippines and Vietnam. He cites parrallels between the slaughter of bison on the Great Plains and the defoliation of Vietnam and notes similarities in the language of aggression used in the American West, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia.

J. Reuben Clark: The Church Years


D. Michael Quinn - 1980
    

Moments: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs


Sheryle Leekley - 1980
    

The Fates of Nations: A Biological Theory of History


Paul Colinvaux - 1980
    

Darby's Rangers: We Led the Way


William O. Darby - 1980
    Experts at amphibious landings, night attacks, and close combat, the Rangers were the spearhead advancing U.S. forces. And at their helm was William O. Darby, a forceful, charismatic man who inspired, and was inspired by, his troops. Against overwhelming odds in Tunisia, through the concentrated hell at Gela, on to the final kill at Messina and the Italian mainland, Darby and his Rangers led the way. Darby's Rangers is an authentic war story, as vivid as the action itself."Proud reading . . . of value to a new generation of military historians and 'battle buffs.'"--Military Affairs Magazine

Empire As A Way of Life


William Appleman Williams - 1980
    . . a perceptive work by one of our most perceptive historians.”—Studs TerkelA work of remarkable prescience, Empire As A Way of Life is influential historian William Appleman Williams’s groundbreaking work highlighting imperialism—“empire as a way of life”—as the dominant theme in American history. Analyzing U.S. history from its revolutionary origins to the dawn of the Reagan era, Williams shows how America has always been addicted to empire in its foreign and domestic ideology. Detailing the imperial actions and beliefs of revered figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, this book is the most in-depth historical study of the American obsession with empire, and is essential to understanding the origins of our current foreign and domestic undertakings.Back in print for the first time in twenty-five years, this new edition features an introduction by Andrew Bacevich, author of The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War and American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy.

Custer and the Great Controversy: The Origin and Development of a Legend


Robert M. Utley - 1980
    The Battle of the Little Bighorn has always been wrapped in mystery and controversy because none of Custer’s men survived to tell what happened, because press accounts circulated much misinformation and editors politicized the event, because popular writers repeated the errors of journalists, because a court of inquiry issued in bitter debate, and because Indian testimony was hard to gauge. This book, originally published in 1962, helps the reader understand the sources of the confusion and controversy surrounding the Custer fight and the beginning of the legend. Custer and the Great Controversy was Robert M. Utley’s debut, coming after six years of service as a ranger-historian at the Little Bighorn National Monument. His distinguished career as a historian has produced many books, including Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848–1865 and Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866–1891, both available as Bison Books.

Great Expectations


Landon Y. Jones - 1980
    

American Myth, American Reality


James Oliver Robertson - 1980
    Historical commentary focusing on how myths in our culture, like any other, shape how we perceive ourselves and the world around us.

Spur of Fame, The


John A. Schutz - 1980
    American Founding and Constitution

Madoc: The Making of a Myth


Gwyn Alfred Williams - 1980
    Soon thereafter, he returned to Wales, leaving behind some of his people to colonize the newly discovered land. First reported by Dr. John Dee to Queen Elizabeth I and publicized as the official view in 1580 in order to justify the English raids on Spanish-controlled North America, this myth greatly influenced American and Welsh history. Though now largely discredited, it still maintains a presence, as seen by the construction in 1958 of a monumental plaque in Alabama that commemorates Madoc's landing.Gwyn Williams offers the first full-length analysis of the Madoc myth, including a full description of how and why the Elizabethans developed it. He explores, in depth, the "Madoc fever" that gripped both sides of the Atlantic in the 1790s, concentrating particularly on the rapid increase in Welsh immigrations to the United States that resulted from the rush to discover the lost tribe of white, Welsh-speaking Indians left behind by Madoc. This unique work of historical detection not only recovers the factual origins of strange stories and influential beliefs, but also investigates how myth can actually create and shape history.

The Crucible of War: Western Desert 1941


Barrie Pitt - 1980
    

The Kent State Coverup


Joseph Kelner - 1980
    On May 4, 1970, two platoons of Ohio National Guardsmen fired on a crowd of students at Kent State University, killing four and wounding nine. Neither the federal government nor the state of Ohio took any responsibility for the guardsmen's actions. Through the account of the subsequent civil trial, we follow the events of that tragic day, as experienced by the victims and their families, and share their frustration as they try to discover the truth.

Congressional Odyssey: The Saga of a Senate Bill


T.R. Reid - 1980
    

Russian Art and American Money, 1900-1940


Robert C. Williams - 1980
    

North Carolina Research: Genealogy and Local History


Helen F. Leary - 1980
    It is useful for research in nearly every southeastern state that had its legal foundation in common law. The 1996 edition has been reformatted and re-indexed for greater ease of use, and includes updated information on North Carolina State Archives holdings and finding aids, state and federal records now available for research, a new chapter on personal computers, and a completely revised chapter on research strategies that addresses the needs of both novice and advanced genealogists. Second Edition, cloth, 620 pp., indexed.

Sly and Able: A Political Biography of James F. Byrnes


David Robertson - 1980
    This master politician and self-made man served for half a century, as congressman and later as key New Deal senator fom his native South Carolina; as Supreme Court justice; as assistant president during the Second World War; as Truman's secretary of state in the early years of the Cold War; and, finally, as governor of South Carolina. He came tantalisingly close to the American presidency and was a key participant in the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. In later years he was a seminal figure in the so-called Southern Strategy that brought Richard Nixon to the White House. For his shrewdness and mastery of the art of politics Byrnes earned the sobriquet sly and able. He was surely both - and one of the key shapers of American politics in this century.

Red Scare: Memories of the American Inquisition


Griffin Fariello - 1980
    A remarkable document of an era that permanently changed the American political landscape.

Archaeology on the Great Plains


W. Raymond Wood - 1980
    Pan-continental trade between these hunters and horticulturists helped make the lifeways of Plains Indians among the richest and most colorful of Native Americans.This volume is the first attempt to synthesize current knowledge on the cultural history of the Great Plains since Wedel's Prehistoric Man on the Great Plains became the standard reference on the subject almost forty years ago. Fourteen authors have undertaken the task of examining archaeological phenomena through time and by region to present a systematic overview of the region's human history. Focusing on habitat and cultural diversity and on the changing archaeological record, they reconstruct how people responded to the varying environment, climate, and biota of the grasslands to acquire the resources they needed to survive.The contributors have analyzed archaeological artifacts and other evidence to present a systematic overview of human history in each of the five key Plains regions: Southern, Central, Middle Missouri, Northeastern, and Northwestern. They review the Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Woodland, and Plains Village peoples and tell how their cultural traditions have continued from ancient to modern times. Each essay covers technology, diet, settlement, and adaptive patterns to give readers an understanding of the differences and similarities among groups. The story of Plains peoples is brought into historical focus by showing the impacts of Euro-American contact, notably acquisition of the horse and exposure to new diseases.Featuring 85 maps and illustrations, Archaeology on the Great Plains is an exceptional introduction to the field for students and an indispensable reference for specialists. It enhances our understanding of how the Plains shaped the adaptive strategies of peoples through time and fosters a greater appreciation for their cultures.

Boyd's Book of Odd Facts


L.M. Boyd - 1980
    

The Age Of Discovery


Peter Furtado - 1980
    

The Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney


Thomas Cary Johnson - 1980
    This book, "The life and letters of Robert Lewis Dabney," by Thomas Cary Johnson, is a replication of a book originally published before 1903. It has been restored by human beings, page by page, so that you may enjoy it in a form as close to the original as possible.

A Few Great Captains: The Men and Events That Shaped the Development of U.S. Air Power


Dewitt S. Copp - 1980
    Their dedication eventually produced the most powerful striking force in the world.Full of personal detail, this superb account of the evolution of the U.S. air power is also the story of four bold men - H.H. "Hap" Arnold, Frank M. Andrews, Carl Spaatz, and Ira C. Eaker - and the many others who shared their dream.

Managerial Hierarchies: Comparative Perspectives on the Rise of the Modern Industrial Enterprise


Alfred D. Chandler Jr. - 1980
    Harvard Studies in Business History XXXII

Sex, Diet, And Debility In Jacksonian America: Sylvester Graham And Health Reform


Stephen Nissenbaum - 1980
    A valuable addition to academic and public library collections." -- Choice

Sea Disasters and Inland Catastrophes


Edward Rowe Snow - 1980