"F ocuses on the lives of several prostitutes who worked in Death Valley area boomtowns between the 1870s and the early 1900s . . . Colorful and intriguing" ( Pahrump Valley Times).From the 1870s to the turn of the century, while countless men gambled their fortunes in Death Valley's mines, many bold women capitalized on the boom-and-bust lifestyle and established saloons and brothels. These lively ladies were clever entr...

A thorough analysis of Allied actions after learning about the horrors of Nazi concentration camps—includes survivors' firsthand accounts.Why did they wait so long? Among the myriad questions of what the Allies could have done differently in World War II, understanding why it took them so long to respond to the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps—specifically Auschwitz—remains vital today.In Auschwitz and the Allies, Martin Gilbert presents a c...

"Twenty-nine oral histories and additional excerpts, selected from 2000 interviews with former slaves conducted in the 1930s for a WPA Federal Writers Project, document the conditions of slavery that . . . lie at the root of today's racism." — Publishers WeeklyIn the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration commissioned an oral history of the remaining former slaves. Bullwhip Days is a remarkable compendium of selections from these extraordinary i...

"The most comprehensive and comprehendible history of the West Virginia Coal War I've ever read." —John Sayles, writer and director of MatewanOn September 1, 1912, the largest, most protracted, and deadliest working-class uprising in American history was waged in West Virginia. On one side were powerful corporations whose millions bought armed guards and political influence. On the other side were fifty thousand mine workers, the nation's largest labor uni...

From assassinations to student riots, this is "a splendidly evocative account of a historic year—a year of tumult, of trauma, and of tragedy" (Arthur Schlesinger Jr.).In the United States, the 1960s were a period of unprecedented change and upheaval—but the year 1968 in particular stands out as a dramatic turning point. Americans witnessed the Tet offensive in Vietnam; the shocking assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy; and the chaos at the De...

"How the vulgarization of American popular culture has distorted the image of the United States for millions of people around the world."—Francis Fukuyama, New York Times bestselling authorWhat does the world admire most about America? Science, technology, higher education, consumer goods—but not, it seems, freedom and democracy. Indeed, these ideals are in global retreat, for reasons ranging from ill-conceived foreign policy to the financial crisis and th...

"The best, the liveliest and most illuminating" account of Rockefeller, Morgan, and the other men who seized American economic power after the Civil War ( The New Republic).John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, E. H. Harriman, Jay Gould, Henry Clay Frick . . . their names carry a powerful historical ring, still echoing today in the countless institutions that are part of their legacy, from universities to museums to bank...

"A tremendous work of non-fiction" about the network that hid the "Angel of Death," the Nazi doctor who escaped justice for more than three decades ( Forbes).In 1985, six-year old Betina Anton watched Brazilian authorities apprehend her kindergarten teacher for allegedly using documents to bury in secrecy the remains of Josef Mengele, known worldwide for cruel human experiments and for sending thousands to the Auschwitz gas chambers. Decades later, as an ex...

A fascinating account of a scientific project that tracked 5 generations of children—the longest-ever-running study of human development.The lives of 70,000 people reveal the importance of our beginnings on the greater trajectory of our lives.In March 1946, scientists began to track thousands of children born in one cold week as part of a birth cohort study. No one imagined that this would become the longest-running study of human developme...

An immigrant woman and her son are accused of murder and witchcraft in this powerful true crime story of corruption in 1930s Detroit .In 1931, the tensions of the Great Depression took hold of Detroit at every level—even spilling over into the investigation of a mysterious murder at the Delray boardinghouse. Amid accusations of witchcraft, Hungarian immigrant Rose Veres and her son Bill were convicted of the brutal killing and suspected in a dozen ...

Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge is a powerful and emotionally rich novel set in the early 20th century American Southwest. It tells the story of Laughing Boy, a young Navajo silversmith deeply rooted in the customs and traditions of his people. His world begins to shift when he falls in love with Slim Girl, a Navajo woman raised in white institutions who struggles to reconcile her identity with both Navajo and Western ways of life. Through the romance between Laughing Boy and Slim Girl, La...

A panoramic narrative that places ancient Africa on the stage of world historyThis book brings together archaeological and linguistic evidence to provide a sweeping global history of ancient Africa, tracing how the continent played an important role in the technological, agricultural, and economic transitions of world civilization. Christopher Ehret takes readers from the close of the last Ice Age some ten thousand years ago, when a changing climate allowed for the...