In 1920, Virginia's General Assembly refused to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to grant women the vote. Virginia's suffragists lost. Or did they? When the thirty-sixth state ratified the amendment, women gained voting rights across the nation. Virginia suffragists were a part of that victory, although their role has been nearly forgotten. They marched in parades, rallied at the state capitol, spoke to crowds on street corners, staffed booths at fairs, lob...

"Both a page-turning drama and an inspiration for every reader"--Hillary Rodham ClintonSoon to Be a Major Television EventThe nail-biting climax of one of the greatest political battles in American history: the ratification of the constitutional amendment that granted women the right to vote."With a skill reminiscent of Robert Caro, [Weiss] turns the potentially dry stuff of legislative give-and-take into a ...

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...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the first woman to sit on the United States Supreme Court comes this fascinating book about the history and evolution of the highest court in the land.“[A] succinct, snappy account of how today’s court—so powerful, so controversial and so frequently dissected by the media—evolved from such startlingly humble and uncertain beginnings.”—The New York TimesOut of Order...

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...

The Summer of 1787 takes us into the sweltering room in which the founding fathers struggled for four months to produce the Constitution: the flawed but enduring document that would define the nation—then and now.George Washington presided, James Madison kept the notes, Benjamin Franklin offered wisdom and humor at crucial times. The Summer of 1787 traces the struggles within the Philadelphia Convention as the delegates hammered out the charter fo...

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...

Honoring the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the Constitution, this “indispensable” (Ellen Chesler, Ms. magazine) book explores the full scope of the movement to win the vote for women through portraits of its bold leaders and devoted activists.Distinguished historian Ellen Carol DuBois begins in the pre-Civil War years with foremothers Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojurner Truth as she “meticulously and vibrantly...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • We the People deserve to know—what is the U.S. Constitution? Learn all about our governmental blueprint in this fascinating history for young readers, part of the beloved What Was? series. The perfect way to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary!Signed on September 17, 1787—four years after the Revolutionary War won America’s independence from the British—the Constitution laid out the supreme laws of the United States. While it’...

**Finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in HistoryFinalist for the 2022 Lincoln PrizeWinner of the American Historical Association's Littleton-Griswold Prize • Winner of the John Nau Book Prize in American Civil War Era History • Winner of the American Society for Legal History's John Phillip Reid Book AwardOne of NPR's Best Books of 2021 and a New York Times Critics' Top Book of 2021A groundbreaking history of the movement for equal rights that courage...

“Narrative, celebratory history at its purest” (Publishers Weekly)—the real story of how the Bill of Rights came to be: a vivid account of political strategy, big egos, and the partisan interests that set the terms of the ongoing contest between the federal government and the states.Those who argue that the Bill of Rights reflects the founding fathers’ “original intent” are wrong. The Bill of Rights was actually a brilliant political act executed ...

**“An intimate character portrait and fascinating inquiry into the basis of Lincoln’s energetic, curious mind.”—The Wall Street JournalWINNER OF THE BARONDESS/LINCOLN AWARD • From the New York Times bestselling author of A. Lincoln and American Ulysses, a revelatory glimpse into the intellectual journey of our sixteenth president through his private notes to himself, explored together here for the first time**A deeply private man, shut of...