In 1919, the doors of Youngstown's Butler Institute of American Art were opened for the first time. Dubbed "the lighthouse of culture," both the beautiful marble museum and the artwork inside were the gift of 19th-century industrialist Joseph G. Butler, Jr., in what was the crowning achievement of a long life. Butler earned his successes with hard work, a competitive spirit and business savvy. He earned a fortune in the iron and steel industry crowded by such figures as Andrew Carnegie, He...

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A gripping, groundbreaking biography of the combative man whose genius and force of will created modern capitalism.In this groundbreaking biography, T.J. Stiles tells the dramatic story of Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt, the combative man and American icon who, through his genius and force of will, did more than perhaps any other in...

Two founding fathers of American industry. One desire to dominate business at any price.“Masterful . . . Standiford has a way of making the 1890s resonate with a twenty-first-century audience.”—USA Today“The narrative is as absorbing as that of any good novel—and as difficult to put down.”—Miami HeraldThe author of Last Train to Paradise tells the riveting story of Andrew Carnegie, Henry C...

**A New York Times bestseller!“Beautifully crafted and fun to read.” —Louis Galambos, The Wall Street Journal“Nasaw’s research is extraordinary.” —San Francisco Chronicle“Make no mistake: David Nasaw has produced the most thorough, accurate and authoritative biography of Carnegie to date.” —Salon.comThe definitive account of the life of Andrew Carnegie**Celebrated historian David Nasaw, whom The New York Times ...

New York Times Bestseller“Amity Shlaes’s new biography carries a different and highly relevant message. . . . Read Coolidge, and better understand the forces bearing on the President and Congress almost a century later.” — Paul Volcker“America’s 30th president has been much misunderstood. . . . Shlaes’s biography provides a window onto an unfairly tarnished period. It deserves to be widely read.”—The Economist

When John F. Baker Jr. was in the seventh grade, he saw a photograph of four former slaves in his social studies textbook—two of them were his grandmother's grandparents. He began the lifelong research project that would become The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation, the fruit of more than thirty years of archival and field research and DNA testing spanning 250 years.A descendant of Wessyngton slaves, Baker has written the most accessible and exciting wo...

Learn everything you need to know about the Presidents of the United States from George Washington to George W. Bush with The Everything Kids’ Presidents Book.Did George Washington really cut down his father’s cherry tree? Who was the last president to have facial hair? Which US president had a country’s capital city named after him? Which president earned the nickname, “His Accidency?” With The Everything Kids’ Presidents Book, you’ll be at the h...

Why have there been so many books about first ladies and so few about the mothers and fathers of our presidents? Many of us, for better or worse, are shaped by our early life. Heads of state are no exception. In this compact and compelling narrative of truly popular history, Gullan offers insights into the early influences that helped shape our presidents, shedding light into a much neglected corner of history.How many presidential parents were also their son’s best friends? How ma...

Here, for the first time is a brief, balanced, and up-to-date history of Georgia from the early Native Americans to the twenty-first century. Based on the most recent research, GEORGIA: A BRIEF HISTORY surveys the people and events that shaped our state's history in a style that reads easily and flows effortlessly.

In this major work of popular history and scholarship, acclaimed historian and biographer Roy Morris, Jr, tells the extraordinary story of how, in America’s centennial year, the presidency was stolen, the Civil War was almost reignited, and Black Americans were consigned to nearly ninety years of legalized segregation in the South.The bitter 1876 contest between Ohio Republican governor Rutherford B. Hayes and New York Democratic governor Samuel J. Tilden is the mo...

A look at how some of America's founding fathers—who fought for liberty and justice for all—were slave owners."[A] powerful examination of five enslaved individuals and their presidential owners. . . . In a thoroughly researched and reasoned account, Davis exposes the intricacies of this impossibly tangled web." — Publishers Weekly, starred reviewThrough the powerful stories of five enslaved people who were "owned" by four of our gre...

One of the major figures in American history, Andrew Carnegie was a ruthless businessman who made his fortune in the steel industry and ultimately gave most of it away. He used his wealth to ascend the world's political stage, influencing the presidencies of Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt. In retirement, Carnegie became an avid promoter of world peace, only to be crushed emotionally by World War I.In this compelling biography, Peter Krass reconstructs th...