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).

    But even before his ship sails from New York, the atmosphere becomes charged with sinister omens.In the course of the voyage one mysterious event follows another. After his arrival in Europe, a series of baffling encounters and the abrupt disappearance of a friend and colleague combine to intensify his mounting sense of danger.Before long Strang joins the struggle against a monstrous and terrifying conspiracy which may affect all mankind, and long before it reaches its climax, Strang himself and Cecilia Hillard, the lovely American girl with whom he has fallen in love, are in deadly peril.

    Here is the saga of loyalty and treachery, tragedy and triumph.

    “It is the art of pioneering rather than the acts of individuals in the westward movement that gives backbone to this book,” wrote historian Thomas D. Clark in the New York Times Book Review. “The author takes her reader along the early trails, onto the land, into the cabins, and even into the private lives of the people.” Seedtime on the Cumberland won the 1961 Award of Merit from the American Association of State and Local History.

    Explore the origins of life on earth, from the first algae to the first humans; why life began in the sea, not on land; why dinosaurs ruled the earth for millions of years and then disappeared; and how mammals--and then humans--took over.