El Escorial is more than a monument to the zeal of Spain's Catholicism; it is also a symbol of Spain at its imperial apogee. This imposing, granite edifice was built by King Philip II to celebrate Spain's victory over the French at Saint-Quentin on August 10, 1557. Paid for with New-World gold, this sprawling monastery-palace is laid out in a vast grid of corridors and courtyards. At its heart is the austere Doric basilica of San Lorenzo el Real - beneath which are the remains of eleven Sp...

In this rich novel of family conflict and closely guarded secrets, Mary Cable explores dreams and fears that lie hidden deep within the human heart. Alex Smithson, forty-two-years-old and living in Santa Fe, leads an under-demanding life made prickly only by her oppressive, aristocratic in-laws to whom Alex will never be entirely acceptable. The Smithsons have always treated Alex as an outsider, despite the fact that she has been married to the older of their two sons, Oz, for nearly twent...

In August 1839, what appeared to be a listless pirate ship, unidentified by any flag, was spotted off the North Atlantic coast of the United States. On board were thirty barely clad black men, armed with cutlasses, and two white men - Spanish slave owners with an incredible story to tell. A month earlier, the Amistad had set sail from Havana with a valuable cargo of slaves and 40,000 worth of gold doubloons. She was headed for the Cuban coastal town of Puerto Principe - but in a matter of ...

In May 1832, in Newport, Rhode Island, a Methodist minister named Ephraim K. Avery was tried for the murder of a twenty-nine-year-old mill worker, Sarah Marie Cornell. It was the first time a clergyman had ever been tried for murder in the United States and the first time an American murder trial became headline news. From this factual base, Mary Cable weaves a chilling novel of gothic desires and conflicting classes. She creates a rich atmosphere to show New England as it was then - simpl...

The age of high society in the United States was remarkably brief but also glorious. The names of the families of "people-we-know" - from Astor to Vanderbilt, McCormick to Palmer, Cabot to Whitney - and the places they called home - Fifth Avenue, Newport, Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Prairie Avenue in Chicago, Delmonico's ballroom - still evoke glittering images of style, wealth, and often-outrageous show. The era of "The 400," with all its glamour gentility, and pretension, is marvelously ...

New Orleans has been decimated from time to time by disease, fire, and hurricanes. In 1788, 900 buildings burned to the ground because the church bells used to summon firefighters had been stilled in deference to Good Friday. It is the birthplace of jazz and the Mardi Gras, and at one time, was described as having too many banks and ballrooms and too few bathrooms and Protestant churches. Since its founding in 1718, New Orleans has balanced disaster with joy. Frederick Law Olmsted was begu...

"Well-researched, well-written, and highly engaging" - National Review. Here is the dramatic story of the Blizzard of 1888, which caused havoc up and down the East coast of the United States. Award-winning author Mary Cable recreates - in all its human and natural drama - the three-day debacle that began on the night of Sunday, March 11, 1888. We meet the heroes and villains alike as they struggle through the mounting snow and icy winds to keep the wheels of civilization from grinding to a...

One of them was built without wood, and the other lacked doorknobs, but they flaunted all the amenities that Old World skills, Vanderbilt money, and the unbridled taste of Richard M. Hunt could provide. Here, in this essay by journalist and historian Mary Cable, is the story of Newport's Marble Cottages.

Spanning an age that witnessed great achievements in the arts and sciences, this definitive overview of the Italian Renaissance will both captivate ordinary readers and challenge specialists. J. H. Plumb's impressive and provocative narrative is accompanied by contributions from leading historians, including Morris Bishop, Jacob Bronowski, Maria Bellonci, and many more, who have further illuminated the lives of some of the era's most unforgettable personalities, from Petrarch to Pope Pius ...

Here in this remarkable collection from American Heritage, such noted authors as Tom Brokaw, Wallace Stegner, John Lukacs, and others bring to life many of the most famous men and women of the Old West - from Lewis and Clark to Charles Frémont, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Chief Joseph, Frederick Remington, the defenders of the Alamo, the Texas Rangers, and the riders of the Pony Express. It also shines a light on topics such as the origins of scalping, the famous Lincoln County War, the gri...

Historian Olivier Bernier draws an indelible portrait of the man who represented, more than anyone else, the idea of French nobility to all Americans of the early Republic and who represented to the French the idea of freedom and its American expression. Lafayette was, indeed, the hero of two worlds. Bernier's Lafayette - much of it based on previously inaccessible documents - is a man who lived the liberal ideal as few others have. In the war for American independence, this twenty-year-ol...

There is only one New York. It didn't make America, but it made possible the America we've come to know. Here - from American Heritage magazine and such historians as Nathaniel Benchley, David McCullough, and William V. Shannon - is its remarkable story: from Henry Hudson's historic voyage and the sale of Manhattan Island to New York's occupation by British forces during the Revolution and the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, and the Whitney Museum.