This true story of a concubine and the Gold Rush years "delves deep into the soul of the real old west" (Erik Larson)."Once the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill launched our 'national madness,' the population of California exploded. Tens of thousands of Chinese, lured by tales of a 'golden mountain,' took passage across the Pacific. Among this massive influx were many young concubines who were expected to serve in the brothels sprouting up near the goldfields. On...

“WANTED. YOUNG, SKINNY, WIRY FELLOWS. NOT OVER 18. MUST BE EXPERT RIDERS. WILLING TO RISK DEATH DAILY. ORPHANS PREFERRED.”—California newspaper help-wanted ad, 1860The Pony Express is one of the most celebrated and enduring chapters in the history of the United States, a story of the all-American traits of bravery, bravado, and entrepreneurial risk that are part of the very fabric of the Old West. No image of the American West in the mid-1800s is more familiar, more beloved,...

Who was Merlin? Is the famous wizard of Arthurian legend based on a real person? In this book, Merlin's origins are traced back to the story of Lailoken, a mysterious 'wild man' who is said to have lived in the Scottish Lowlands in the sixth century AD. The book considers the question of whether Lailoken belongs to myth or reality. It looks at the historical background of his story and discusses key characters such as Saint Kentigern of Glasgow and King Rhydderch of Dumbarton, as well as i...

In the midst of World War II, a German-American family finds themselves stranded in Japan in this inspiring tale of an extraordinary family adapting to the hazards of fate, and finding salvation in each other.In the spring of 1941, seven-year-old Hildegarde Ercklentz and her family leave their home in New York City and set off for their native Germany, where her father has been recalled to the headquarters of the Commerz & Privat Bank in Berlin. It...

Discover the twists and turns of one of America's great infrastructure projects with this "engrossing history of the creation of the U.S. interstate system" ( Los Angeles Times).It's become a part of the landscape that we take for granted, the site of rumbling eighteen-wheelers and roadside rest stops, a familiar route for commuters and vacationing families. But during the twentieth century, the interstate highway system dramatically changed the face of ou...

"[A] wide-ranging and nuanced group portrait of the Founding Fathers" by a Pulitzer Prize winner ( The New Yorker).In the early 1770s, the men who invented America were living quiet, provincial lives in the rustic backwaters of the New World, devoted to family and the private pursuit of wealth and happiness. None set out to become "revolutionary." But when events in Boston escalated, they found themselves thrust into a crisis that moved quickly from protest...

A New York Times bestseller: This portrait of the United States at the beginning of World War II is "an unexpected and welcome discovery in a time capsule" ( The Washington Post).In nearly three thousand BBC broadcasts over fifty-eight years, Alistair Cooke reported on America, illuminating our country for a global audience. Shortly before he passed away, a long-forgotten manuscript resurfaced in a closet in his New York apartment. It was a travel...

Winner of the Frank Watson Book PrizeThe legendary Scottish king Máel Coluim III, also known as 'Malcolm Canmore', is often held to epitomise Scotland's 'ancient Gaelic kings'. But Máel Coluim and his dynasty were in fact newcomers, and their legitimacy and status were far from secure at the beginning of his rule. Máel Coluim's long reign from 1058 until 1093 coincided with the Norman Conquest of England, a revolutionary event that presented great opportunities a...

Learn the little-known history of the forgotten American Revolution Battle of Pell's Point and the heroism of John Glover.General William Howe and the mighty British-Hessian Army possessed the golden opportunity to cut-off, trap, and then destroy General George Washington’s Army before he could retreat north and escape from Harlem Heights, New York, when he landed his army at Pell’s Point north of New York City. Howe’s bold amphibious operation nor...

This definitive, single-volume edition of the Pulitzer Prize–winning biography delivers "a Lincoln whom no other man . . . could have given us" ( New York Herald Tribune Book Review).Celebrated for his vivid depictions of the nineteenth-century American Midwest, Carl Sandburg brings unique insight to the life of Abraham Lincoln in this distinguished biography. He captures both the man who grew up on the Indiana prairie and the president who held the countr...

'With painstaking skill, Dismore lays bare the double standards of the Souls - a brilliant group who thought themselves superior, in morals and intellect, to the rest of their class' Artemis Cooper'Harry Cust has long needed to emerge from the shadows. A rich tapestry unfolds' Hugo VickersOutrageously handsome, witty and clever, Harry Cust was reputed to be one of the great womanisers of the late Victorian era. In 1893, wh...

Discover the little-known role Alexander Hamilton played in the decisive battle of the American Revolution: Yorktown.Alexander Hamilton and the Battle of Yorktown, October 1781 is the first book in nearly two and a half centuries that has ever been devoted to the story of Alexander Hamilton’s key contributions in winning the most decisive victory the of the American Revolutionary war at Yorktown. Past biographies of Hamilton, including the most respected o...