If the origin of the colonial period was accidental, the ending was not. The representatives of the thirteen colonies who approved the Declaration of Independence in 1776 charted a collision course, aware of the obstacles in their path and the risks they were taking. The events that led to their decision took place over a period of nearly 300 years. Looking back, the wonder is that it culminated so quickly. For a century after its discovery, the New World was little more than a lode to be ...

When William Shakespeare was about twenty, his life changed forever. He left Stratford and walked to London, where he became the world's greatest playwright. Here is his little-told story of Shakespeare, presented against the colorful tapestry of his England, the kingdom under Elizabeth I and James I. In the reigns of those monarchs, the nation was emerging from centuries of medieval turmoil. The small island that had changed so little since the Norman Conquest of 1066 suddenly became a ce...

"Guides to conduct are common to all ages, for writers never cease to believe that the distillation of their wisdom will in some fashion improve the behavior of youth and provide useful instruction to their elders. The sixteenth century was a particularly didactic age and had more than its share of self-appointed instructors with faith in their missions." So writes Louis B. Wright in his Introduction to Advice to a Son.This volume makes available three of the most famous sets of pre...

Louis Wright's masterful telling of South Carolina's story will fascinate residents and non-residents alike.A land whose people knew the joy of great victories and the sadness of bitter defeats, South Carolina gave us the first Americans cowboys, the cotton gin, and a long list of colorful military and political figures, from Swamp-Fox Marion to Pitchfork Ben Tillman and Cotton Ed Smith. Louis Wright's masterful telling of the story will fascinate residents and non...

To celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, the University of Virginia Press reissues its first-ever publication. The volume’s two accounts of the 1609 wreck of a Jamestown-bound ship offer a gripping sea adventure from the earliest days of American colonization, but the dramatic events’ even greater claim to fame is for serving as the inspiration for William Shakespeare’s last major work, The Tempest.William Strachey was one of six hundred passengers sailing to Jamestown as pa...

Authoritative and perceptive, this sweeping survey covers 150 years of cultural evolution in colonial America, from 1607 to 1763. Developments in religion, literature, education, and social thought receive a thorough analysis, enlivened by a blend of wit and panache that captures all the excitement of forming a new civilization.Written by a distinguished scholar and educator who served as director of the Folger Shakespeare Library and specialized in the colonial era, this volume add...

Cast from their home country by religious intolerance, the Pilgrims' harrowing voyage to the New World was filled with hardships. But through it all they persisted, motivated by the promise of a better life in which they could gather and worship God in their own ways. A collection of ragtag ships carried them across the ocean, among them The Mayflower. Crammed into the ship's hull, 102 people made this most famous pilgrimage. Besieged by illness and Indians and, many of them believed, witc...

The American Civil War was one of the most harrowing conflicts in history. What many of us don't know is the key role that spies played on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line during the four-year struggle. This secret war was waged by an intriguing lineup of participants: detective agency chief Allan Pinkerton, who was said to have thwarted a conspiracy to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln; Elizabeth Van Lew, known as "Crazy Bet," the operator of a Union spy ring right in the hear...

Between the Fall of Rome and the Renaissance were the Middle Ages. Once seen as a thousand years of warfare, religious infighting, and cultural stagnation, they are now understood to be the vital connection between the past and the present. Along with the battles that helped shape the modern world are a rich heritage of architecture, arts, and literature, of empire and its dissolution. It was the era of the Crusades and the Norman Conquest, the Black Death and the fall of Constantinople. I...

This vivid, deeply moving book begins in London in 1620 as Pilgrim representatives sign a contract to purchase the freighter Mayflower. We accompany them on their harrowing voyage across the Atlantic, through the rigors of the first New England winter and the threat of Indian attack as they desperately search for the home they eventually find at Plymouth. Once there, they must continue the struggle against brutal weather and disease. With masterly skill, New York Times bestselling historia...

One-third of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence were not of English stock. Eight were first-generation immigrants. It was in recognition of the mixed European background of so many Americans that John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson proposed that the seal of the United States bear the national emblems of France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Scotland, and England, thus "pointing out the countries from which these States have been peopled." Many came, as Thomas P...

Here, from American Heritage, is the human, vital story of America's beginnings - from the journeys of early explorers and the founding of the Plymouth and Jamestown colonies to the French and Indian Wars and victory in the War of Independence.