From the author of The Class of 1846: "A swift-paced narrative of Lincoln's pre-presidential life." — The Washington Post Book WorldHow did Abraham Lincoln, long held as a paragon of presidential bravery and principled politics, find his way to the White House? How did he become the one man great enough to risk the fate of the nation on the well-worn but cast-off notion that all men are created equal?Here, award-winning historian John C. Waugh takes...

"Culled from the author's three decades of researching and writing about the Civil War, this book provides vibrant accounts of many prominent people of the era. Readers interested in an introduction to a variety of Civil War personalities and American history will enjoy." — Library Journal Personalities. Characters. History. John C. Waugh, author of the award-winning The Class of 1846, presents forty of the most memorable and impactful people he has come across during his decades of writin...

No single group of men at West Point--or possibly any academy--has been so indelibly written into history as the class of 1846. The names are legendary: Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, George B. McClellan, Ambrose Powell Hill, Darius Nash Couch, George Edward Pickett, Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox, and George Stoneman. The class fought in three wars, produced twenty generals, and left the nation a lasting legacy of bravery, brilliance, and bloodshed.This fascinating, remarkably intimate chro...

There was no more remarkable pair in the Civil War than Abraham Lincoln and George McClellan. At only 35 years old, McClellan commanded the Ohio troops early in the war, and won skirmishes for the Union in western Virginia. After the disastrous Union defeat at Bull Run in the summer of 1861, Lincoln sent word for McClellan to come to Washington, and soon elevated him to commander-in-chief of the Union army. But in the late summer and fall of 1861, things took a turn for the worst. Meticulo...

Lincoln is the central axis of this story about America’s seemingly unstoppable march toward war, the shattering of its political landscape, and its grappling with the moral underpinnings of a republic of the people, by the people, and for the people.Here are such key events as the Mexican-American War, the Dred Scott Case, westward expansion, the rise of the industrial north, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and the birth of the Republican Party. And here we meet Andrew Jackson, Henry...

Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science and one of the leading young environmental journalists and bloggers working today, immerses readers in the world of those who study hurricanes. What was once an arcane branch of meteorology (itself an arcane science) has become embroiled in one of the most politicized and hotly contested debates in American science: whether or not the recent hurricane disasters—culminating in Katrina—are connected to global warming.Moon...

Millennials vs. all other generationsEveryone reads the headlines. Millennials aren’t buying diamonds or saving for retirement. Millennials want cushy jobs handed to them by organizations with futuristic nap pods. Millennials are killing the housing market because they eat too many avocados.The truth is, millennials were raised being told they could do anything if they worked hard, and then they worked hard only to be told the world owes them nothing. Here’...

With an introduction by Max Allan Collins: the first collection of stories starring legendary Mike Hammer, the toughest private investigator in historyIt starts with a few near-accidents: A car almost swipes Mike Hammer when he’s crossing the street. A junkie robs the notoriously hardboiled detective at knifepoint. A fight on a subway platform comes close to pushing him in front of a train. While any one of these could be a coincidence, together they make a conspir...

FINALIST FOR THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BOOK PRIZEThe true story of a Founding Father: a new, brash, and unexpected view of the president we thought we knew, from the bestselling author of Astoria.“Lively, well-researched . . . . A discerning history of pre-Revolutionary America and the man who shaped its future.” - Kirkus ReviewsTwo decades before he led America to independence, George Washington was a flailing...

The Profits of Religion: An Essay in Economic Interpretation by Upton Sinclair is a scathing critique of organized religion as an institution entangled with wealth, power, and class oppression. Sinclair argues that religious establishments often serve the interests of the rich, legitimizing social inequality and discouraging reform. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples, he exposes financial corruption, dogma, and the exploitation of faith for profit. From mainstream denomination...

Why has John Quincy Adams been largely written out of American history when he is, in fact, our lost Founding Father? Overshadowed by both his brilliant father and the brash and bold Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams has long been dismissed as hyper-intellectual. Viciously assailed by Jackson and his populist mobs for being both slippery and effete, Adams nevertheless recovered from the malodorous 1828 presidential election to lead the nation as a lonely Massachusetts congressman in the fi...

A powerful and unflinching account of the enduring impact of nuclear war, told through the stories of those who survived On August 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, theUnited States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, a small port city on Japan's southernmost island. An estimated 74,000 people died within the first five months, and another 75,000 were injured. Published on the seventieth anniversary of the bombing, Nagasaki takes readers from the morning of t...