Waters has just finished his first year of law school at the University of Michigan. With the help of Jamie, Peter's bride-to-be, he lands a great summer job aboard the Great Lakes freighter the Edmund Fitzgerald. Determined to give his future bride the wedding of her dreams, Peter decides to skip the fall semester at law school to work aboard the ship. If all goes well, the bonus he'll earn will pay for their wedding and launch their new life in style. The decision will cost him his life. Based on the actual sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which occurred on November 10, 1975, the last days and hours of the crew members-including the captain, first mate, cook, a father-and-son engine room team, a lawyer-hating deckhand, and Peter-are imagined in this work of contemporary fiction based on a tragic reality in Michigan's history. The Edmund Fitzgerald slipped below the waves that fateful November night in 1975, and her story remains one of great sorrow and mystery.

    It was along the James that British and Native American cultures collided and, in a twisted paradox, the seeds of democracy and slavery were sown side by side. The culture crafted by Virginia's learned aristocrats, merchants, farmers, and frontiersmen gave voice to the cause of the American Revolution and provided a vision for the fledgling independent nation's future. Over the course of the United States' first century, the James River bore witness to the irreconcilable contradiction of a slave-holding nation dedicated to liberty and equality for all. When that intractable conflict ignited civil war, the James River served as a critical backdrop for the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history. As he guides readers through this exciting historical narrative, Deans gives life to a dynamic cast of characters including the familiar Powhatan, John Smith, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Benedict Arnold, and Robert E. Lee, as well as those who have largely escaped historical notoriety. The River Where America Began takes readers on a journey along the James River from the earliest days of civilization nearly 15,000 years ago through the troubled English settlement at Jamestown and finishes with Lincoln's tour of the defeated capital of Richmond in 1865. Deans traces the historical course of a river whose contributions to American life are both immeasurable and unique. This innovative history invites us all to look into these restless waters in a way that connects us to our past and reminds us of who we are as Americans.

     It ran for eight hundred miles, from San Antonio, Texas to Abilene, Kansas, and was instrumental in creating the famous image of the cowboy. But how was this trail created? Who devised its route? And why were the cattle drives across states so important for the economy of the southwest? Sam P. Riding’s fascinating book The Chisholm Trail: A History of the World's Greatest Cattle Trail gives an in-depth overview of the route was created, who rode along it and how it eventually superseded by the emergence of the railways. Through the course of the book Ridings provides details on many of the famous figures who were associated with the trail including the route’s founder Jesse Chisholm, famous ranchers like Joseph G. McCoy and Charles Goodnight, gunslingers such as Billy the Kid, and of course men who attempted to keep the peace like Charles A. Siringo. Sam P. Ridings rode the trail many times throughout his life during the trail’s golden era and so was able to gather information from the cowboys who knew the route better than anyone else. This work is full of fascinating stories of incidents that occurred along the length of the trail, from gunfights to religious revivals, Native American raids to cattle stampedes, during the short but vibrant years that the trail was in full use. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the southwest in the aftermath of the Civil War and how the image of the cowboy came into being. Sam P. Ridings was a frequent traveler on the Chisholm Trail and collected many of his stories from the men and women who had lived and worked on the trail during its golden years. His book The Chisholm Trail: A History of the World's Greatest Cattle Trail was first published in 1936. Ridings passed away in Kansas in 1942.

    Close to a million people—in a nation of 120 million—were forced out of their homes. Some estimates place the death toll in the thousands. The Red Cross fed nearly 700,000 refugees for months. Rising Tide is the story of this forgotten event, the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known. But it is not simply a tale of disaster. The flood transformed part of the nation and had a major cultural and political impact on the rest. Rising Tide is an American epic about science, race, honor, politics, and society. Rising Tide begins in the nineteenth century, when the first serious attempts to control the river began. The story focuses on engineers James Eads and Andrew Humphreys, who hated each other. Out of the collision of their personalities and their theories came a compromise river policy that would lead to the disaster of the 1927 flood yet would also allow the cultivation of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta and create wealth and aristocracy, as well as a whole culture. In the end, the flood had indeed changed the face of America, leading to the most comprehensive legislation the government had ever enacted, touching the entire Mississippi valley from Pennsylvania to Montana. In its aftermath was laid the foundation for the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

    In the seventeenth century, what is now America's most beguiling metropolis was nothing more than a swamp: prone to flooding, infested with snakes, battered by hurricanes. But through the intense imperial rivalries of Spain, France, and England, and the ambitious, entrepreneurial merchants and settlers from four continents who risked their lives to succeed in colonial America, this unpromising site became a crossroads for the whole Atlantic world.Lawrence N. Powell, a decades-long resident and observer of New Orleans, gives us the full sweep of the city's history from its founding through Louisiana statehood in 1812. We see the Crescent City evolve from a French village, to an African market town, to a Spanish fortress, and finally to an Anglo-American center of trade and commerce. We hear and feel the mix of peoples, religions, and languages from four continents that make the place electric-and always on the verge of unraveling. The Accidental City is the story of land-jobbing schemes, stock market crashes, and nonstop squabbles over status, power, and position, with enough rogues, smugglers, and self-fashioners to fill a picaresque novel.Powell's tale underscores the fluidity and contingency of the past, revealing a place where people made their own history. This is a city, and a history, marked by challenges and perpetual shifts in shape and direction, like the sinuous river on which it is perched.

    But then he loses their home and abandons her, leaving Eliza with no choice but to return to her parents’ house.She inadvertently attracts the attention of the ruthless mine owner Jonathan Moore. But can she sacrifice her reputation to protect her son?

    Read the great reviews for these dynamic new titles. Expect more titles to come.

    After spending several months in New York City, the family signed up for a journey to the Republic of Texas where they could homestead and eventually acquire 137 free acres for their efforts. Soon growing discontented with, not only the land, but also the management of the colony in which they had settled, the Horns decided to return to England. But, it was not to be. Attacked and captured by a party of Comanche Indians, Sarah Ann was faced with challenges and realities the like of which she never could have dreamed. Over a period of fifteen months of Comanche captivity, she and her captors rode endlessly across the Texas plains until finally she was purchased out of bondage and befriended by traders in New Mexico. This is the true story of a remarkable woman who endured an unimaginable amount of suffering and pain in her short lifetime.

    Johnson and American Liberalism provides a brief yet comprehensive treatment of the major events of Johnson's career but with a central focus on his role as the emblematic figure in the rise and fall of postwar American liberalism. The author includes 15 documents - Johnson's own speeches as well as assessments of the president and his programs by contemporaries and later scholars - that give readers the opportunity to examine LBJ's career firsthand and to evaluate its impact. The book also contains photographs and cartoons from the period, an LBJ chronology, a bibliography, and an index.

    The result is an affecting portrait that offers a new perspective on one of America's most enduring hero's humanity.

    Rich in detail, and woven with wit and insight, these fascinating portraits reveal the Shooters as they really lived, fought, and died.Shooters --Billy [the Kid]: the enduring legend --Sam Bass: a square shooter --Black Jack Ketchum: a true loser --Tom Smith: he brought them in alive --The James boys --The Daltons: brothers on the prowl --Elfego Baca: last of the old-time shooters --Print Olive: just plain mean a hell --Stoudenmire: El Paso marshal --King Fisher: frontier dandy --Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid --Dave Mather: a deadly shooter --Pat Garrett --Jim Miller: bushwhacker --Chisum: cattle baron --Luke Short and Jim Courtright --Johnson County War --Buffalo Bill: the remarkable showman --Wild Bill Hickok --Clay Allison: wild wolf of the Washita --Texas Rangers --Blood and salt --John Larn: Texas killer --Bass outlaw --James Garrett: Texas Ranger --Pearl Hart, John Ringo, and Jack Slade --John Wesley Hardin --Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp

    The book demonstrates that Chicago's cemeteries are home not only to thousands of individuals who fashioned the city's singular culture and character, but also to impressive displays of art and architecture, landscaping and limestone, egoism and ethnic pride. Mysterious questions such as Where is Al Capone buried? and What really lies beneath home plate at Wrigley Field? are answered in this reminder that although physical life must end, personal notes—and notoriety—last forever. Ever wonder where Al Capone is buried? How about Clarence Darrow? Muddy Waters? Harry Caray? Or maybe Brady Bunch patriarch Robert Reed? And what really lies beneath home plate at Wrigley Field? Graveyards of Chicago answers these and other cryptic questions as it charts the lore and lure of Chicago's ubiquitous burial grounds. Like the livelier neighborhoods that surround them, Chicago's cemeteries are often crowded, sometimes weary, ever-sophisticated, and full of secrets. They are home not only to thousands of individuals who fashioned the city's singular culture and character, but also to impressive displays of art and architecture, landscaping and limestone, egoism and ethnic pride, and the constant reminder that although physical life must end for us all, personal note—and notoriety—last forever. Grab a shovel and tag along as Ursula Bielski and Matt Hucke unearth the legends and legacies that mark Chicago's silent citizens—from larger-than-lifers and local heroes, to clerics and comedians, machine mayors and machine-gunners.

    The evidence would have been destroyed but for a rare act of God -- or, as some believed, of the Indian chief Tecumseh. That same day, the Mississippi River's first steamboat, piloted by Nicholas Roosevelt, powered itself toward New Orleans on its maiden voyage. The sky grew hazy and red, and jolts of electricity flashed in the air. A prophecy by Tecumseh was about to be fulfilled. He had warned reluctant warrior-tribes that he would stamp his feet and bring down their houses. Sure enough, between December 16, 1811, and late April 1812, a catastrophic series of earthquakes shook the Mississippi River Valley. Of the more than 2,000 tremors that rumbled across the land during this time, three would have measured nearly or greater than 8.0 on the not-yet-devised Richter Scale. Centered in what is now the bootheel region of Missouri, the New Madrid earthquakes were felt as far away as Canada; New York; New Orleans; Washington, D.C.; and the western part of the Missouri River. A million and a half square miles were affected as the earth's surface remained in a state of constant motion for nearly four months. Towns were destroyed, an eighteen-mile-long by five-mile-wide lake was created, and even the Mississippi River temporarily ran backwards. The quakes uncovered Jefferson's nephews' cruelty and changed the course of the War of 1812 as well as the future of the new republic. In When the Mississippi Ran Backwards, Jay Feldman expertly weaves together the story of the slave murder, the steamboat, Tecumseh, and the war, and brings a forgotten period back to vivid life. Tecumseh's widely believed prophecy, seemingly fulfilled, hastened an unprecedented alliance among southern and northern tribes, who joined the British in a disastrous fight against the U.S. government. By the end of the war, the continental United States was secure against Britain, France, and Spain; the Indians had lost many lives and much land; and Jefferson's nephews were exposed as murderers. The steamboat, which survived the earthquake, was sunk. When the Mississippi Ran Backwards sheds light on this now-obscure yet pivotal period between the Revolutionary and Civil wars, uncovering the era's dramatic geophysical, political, and military upheavals. Feldman paints a vivid picture of how these powerful earthquakes made an impact on every aspect of frontier life -- and why similar catastrophic quakes are guaranteed to recur. When the Mississippi Ran Backwards is popular history at its best.

    It is written in an easy-to-remember way which links the theory back to your practical driving experience to help you really understand.

    Kennedy's memoir of discovery is personal and historical, cultural, and autobiographical.