In the Civil War, the United States and the Confederate States of America engaged in combat to defend distinct legal regimes and the social order they embodied and protected. Depending on whose side's arguments one accepted, the Constitution either demanded the Union's continuance or allowed for its dissolution. After the war began, rival legal concepts of insurrection (a civil war within a nation) and belligerency (war between sovereign enemies) vied for adherents in federal and Confedera...

The Great Emu War, which unfolded in Australia in 1932, stands as one of the most peculiar conflicts in history, pitting humans against a flightless bird. Following World War I, many Australian veterans were given land to farm in Western Australia. However, their efforts were thwarted by an unexpected adversary: the emu population. These large, flightless birds descended upon the newly cultivated fields, wreaking havoc on crops and causing significant economic strain for the farmers. As th...

The Great Emu War, which unfolded in Australia in 1932, stands as one of the most peculiar conflicts in history, pitting humans against a flightless bird. Following World War I, many Australian veterans were given land to farm in Western Australia. However, their efforts were thwarted by an unexpected adversary: the emu population. These large, flightless birds descended upon the newly cultivated fields, wreaking havoc on crops and causing significant economic strain for the farmers. As th...

**“If you read one book about Lincoln, make it A. Lincoln.”—**USA Today**NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYThe Washington Post • The Philadelphia Inquirer • The Christian Science Monitor • St. Louis Post-Dispatch.NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE CHRISTOPHER AWARD**Everyone wants to define the man who signed his name “A. Lincoln.” In his lifetime and ever since, friend...

“A masterwork [by] the preeminent historian of the Civil War era.”—Boston GlobeSelected as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review, this landmark work gives us a definitive account of Lincoln's lifelong engagement with the nation's critical issue: American slavery. A master historian, Eric Foner draws Lincoln and the broader history of the period into perfect balance. We see Lincoln, a pragmatic politician grounded in principle, deftly navigat...

America's greatest president, who rose to power in the country's greatest hour of need and whose vision saw the United States through the Civil WarAbraham Lincoln towers above the others who have held the office of president—the icon of greatness, the pillar of strength whose words bound up the nation's wounds. His presidency is the hinge on which American history pivots, the time when the young republic collapsed of its own contradictions and a new birth of freedo...

In May 1787, in an atmosphere of crisis, delegates met in Philadelphia to design a radically new form of government. Distinguished historian Richard Beeman captures as never before the dynamic of the debate and the characters of the men who labored that historic summer. Virtually all of the issues in dispute—the extent of presidential power, the nature of federalism, and, most explosive of all, the role of slavery—have continued to provoke conflict throughout our nation's history. This unp...

A biographical study of the 16th U.S. president, and an essential book for any student of Lincoln and American history.In this multifaceted portrait, Oates, "the most popular historical interpreter of Lincoln" (Gabor S. Boritt, New York Times Book Review), exposes the human side of the great and tragic president—including his depression, his difficulties with love, and his troubled and troubling attitudes about slavery—while also confronting the many legen...

A book all Americans should read, Slave Nation reveals the key role racism played in the American Revolutionary War, so we can see our past more clearly and build a better future.In 1772, the High Court in London freed a slave from Virginia named Somerset, setting a precedent that would end slavery in England. In America, racist fury over this momentous decision united the Northern and Southern colonies and convinced them to fight for independence. Meticulously res...

"Anyone who wants to understand the United States' racial divisions will learn a lot from reading Kaplan's richly researched account of one of the worst periods in American history and its chilling effects today in our cities, legislative bodies, schools, and houses of worship." — St. Louis Post-DispatchThe acclaimed biographer Fred Kaplan returns with a controversial exploration of how Abraham Lincoln's and John Quincy Adams' experiences with slav...

A new book—and companion to the Steven Spielberg film—tracing how Abraham Lincoln came to view slavery . . . and came to end it.Steven Spielberg focused his movie Lincoln on the sixteenth president's tumultuous final months in office, when he pursued a course of action to end the Civil War, reunite the country, and abolish slavery. Invited by the filmmakers to write a special Lincoln book as a companion to the film, Harold Holzer, the distinguished historian and a consultant on the...

"A great American tale told with a deft historical eye, painstaking analysis, and a supple clarity of writing.”—Jean Baker“My husband considered you a dear friend,” Mary Todd Lincoln wrote to Frederick Douglass in the weeks after Lincoln’s assassination. The frontier lawyer and the former slave, the cautious politician and the fiery reformer, the President and the most famous black man in America—their lives traced different paths that finally met in the bloody lan...