Blacks fought with whites in the American War for Independence against England. In fact, without the aid of these black soldiers, one wonders if the Americans would have won the war. These blacks were never considered equal to whites but a great number died for a country that looked upon them as being inferior and unworthy of total freedom. After the American War for Independence, many whites in the North felt guilty about holding slaves. A vast number of blacks were freed as a humane gest...

This is the first book to link the mod 2 Steenrod algebra, a classical object of study in algebraic topology, with modular representations of matrix groups over the field F of two elements. The link is provided through a detailed study of Peterson's 'hit problem' concerning the action of the Steenrod algebra on polynomials, which remains unsolved except in special cases. The topics range from decompositions of integers as sums of 'powers of 2 minus 1', to Hopf algebras and the Steinberg re...

This is the first book to link the mod 2 Steenrod algebra, a classical object of study in algebraic topology, with modular representations of matrix groups over the field F of two elements. The link is provided through a detailed study of Peterson's `hit problem' concerning the action of the Steenrod algebra on polynomials, which remains unsolved except in special cases. The topics range from decompositions of integers as sums of 'powers of 2 minus 1', to Hopf algebras and the Steinberg re...

“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...

Charles Dew’s Apostles of Disunion has established itself as a modern classic and an indispensable account of the Southern states’ secession from the Union. Addressing topics still hotly debated among historians and the public at large more than a century and a half after the Civil War, the book offers a compelling and clearly substantiated argument that slavery and race were at the heart of our great national crisis. The fifteen years since the original publication of Apostle...

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 rich narrative portrait of post-revolutionary America and the men who shaped its political future."Just as the Constitution was a brilliant solution to the problems of the 1780s, Carol Berkin's book is a brilliant account of the making of that constitution. Written with great verve and clarity, it nicely captures all the contingency and unpredictability in the framing of the Constitution." —Pulitzer Prize–winning author Gordon S. WoodThou...

Fifty-five men met in Philadelphia in 1787 to write a document that would create a country and change a world: the Constitution. Here is a remarkable rendering of that fateful time, told with humanity and humor. Decision in Philadelphia is the best popular history of the Constitutional Convention; in it, the life and times of eighteenth century America not only come alive, but the very human qualities of the men who framed the document are brought provocatively into focus—casting ...

This text is an introduction to some of the mathematical wonders of Maxwell's equations. These equations led to the prediction of radio waves, the realization that light is a type of electromagnetic wave, and the discovery of the special theory of relativity. In fact, almost all current descriptions of the fundamental laws of the universe can be viewed as deep generalizations of Maxwell's equations. Even more surprising is that these equations and their generalizations have led to some of ...

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 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...