In A Wilderness so Immense*,* historian Jon Kukla recounts the fascinating tale of the personal maneuverings, political posturing, and international intrigue that culminated in the greatest land deal in history. Spanning nearly two decades, Kukla’s book brings to life a pageant of characters from Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Jay, to Napoleon and Carlos III of Spain and other colorful figures.Employing letters, memoirs, contemporary documents, and a host...

From the acclaimed author of A Wilderness So Immense comes a pioneering study of Thomas Jefferson's relationships with women, both personal and political.The author of the Declaration of Independence, who wrote the words “all men are created equal,” was surprisingly uncomfortable with woman. In eight chapters, Kukla examines the evidence for the founding father's youthful misogyny, beginning with his awkward courtship of Rebecca Burwell, who declined Jefferson's marriage p...

“A brilliant orator, a firebrand for freedom and individual rights, Henry stands as an American luminary, and Kukla’s magisterial biography shines the glow of achievement on subject and author alike” (Richmond Times Dispatch). Patrick Henry restores its subject, long underappreciated in history as a founding father, to his seminal place in the story of American independence.Patrick Henry is best known for his fiery declaration, “Give me liberty, o...

Virginia Women is the first of two volumes exploring the history of Virginia women through the lives of exemplary and remarkable individuals. This collection of seventeen essays, written by established and emerging scholars, recovers the stories and voices of a diverse group of women, from the seventeenth century through the Civil War era. Placing their subjects in their larger historical contexts, the authors show how the experiences of Virginia women varied by race, class, age, ...

An “arresting” (New York Times Book Review) revisionist history demonstrating how Islam and the Ottoman Empire made our modern world.The history of the Ottoman Empire—once the most powerful state on earth, ruling over more territory and people than any other world power—has for centuries been distorted, misrepresented, and suppressed in the West. With this “original and wide-ranging” (Wall Street Journal) global history, Alan Mikhail vitally recas...

"A brief, sharply focused biography [that] restores Adams to his rightful place as an indispensable provocateur of American liberty" ( Kirkus Reviews).Samuel Adams is perhaps the most unheralded and overshadowed of the founding fathers, yet without him there would have been no American Revolution. A genius at devising civil protests and political maneuvers that became a trademark of American politics, Adams astutely forced Britain into coercive military mea...

New York Times Book Review — Editors’ Choice • Chicago Tribune — "60 Best Reads for Right Now" • St. Louis Post-Dispatch — "50 Fall Books You Should Consider Reading"Challenging conventional wisdom, The Cause offers a “necessary” (John S. Gardner, Guardian) account of the origins and clashing ideologies of America’s revolutionary era.For Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Joseph J. Ellis, The C...

A "thoroughly researched [and] historically enlightening" account of how the Commonwealth of Virginia split in two in the midst of war ( Civil War News)."West Virginia was the child of the storm." —Mountaineer historian and Civil War veteran Maj. Theodore F. LangAs the Civil War raged, the northwestern third of the Commonwealth of Virginia finally broke away in 1863 to form the Union's 35th state. Seceding from Secession chronicles ...

The unmatched guide—and perfect gift—for stymied scribes and working wordsmiths everywhere, now expanded and updated.A singular and indispensable reference tool, The Describer's Dictionary—now expanded and updated—has served for over twenty years as the go-to resource for writers who are determined to capture the world in just the right words.The dictionary uses a unique reverse definition-to-term format that makes it easy to zero in on the term yo...

This acclaimed biography "provides the most comprehensive assessment yet of [the Founding Father's] controversial reputation" (Joseph J. Ellis, The New York Times Book Review).After leaving London for Philadelphia in 1774, Thomas Paine became one of the most influential political writers of the modern world and the greatest radical of a radical age. Through writings like Common Sense, he not only turned America's colonial rebellion into a revolutio...

The acclaimed historian presents a "captivating account of a surprisingly little-known period" at the close of the American Revolution ( Kirkus, starred review).On October 19, 1781, Great Britain's best army surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown. But the future of the thirteen former colonies was far from clear. 13,000 British troops still occupied New York City, and another 13,000 regulars and armed loyalists were scattered from Canada to Ge...

An intellectual history of three Founding Fathers whose unique approaches to the Enlightenment helped shape America.American historian Darren Staloff delves into the political and intellectual lives of Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson to reveal how they embodied the collision of Europe's grand Enlightenment project with the birth of a young nation. These three very different men each governed their public lives by Enlightenment principles. And th...