Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a Unitarian minister, was a fervent member of New England's abolitionist movement, an active participant in the Underground Railroad, and not only corresponded with John Brown before the ill-fated raid on Harper's Ferry, but was part of a group that supplied material aid to Brown. When the Civil War broke out, his reputation, enhanced by his impassioned articles about Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner in the Atlantic, made him...

As World War I raged across the globe, hundreds of young women toiled away at the radium-dial factories, where they painted clock faces with a mysterious new substance called radium. Assured by their bosses that the luminous material was safe, the women themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered from head to toe with the glowing dust. With such a coveted job, these (3z(Bshining girls(3y(B were considered the luckiest alive--until they began to...

The wretched and landless poor have existed from the time of the earliest British colonial settlement. They were alternately known as "waste people," "offals," "rubbish," "lazy lubbers," and "crackers." By the 1850s, the downtrodden included so-called "clay eaters" and "sandhillers," known for prematurely-aged children distinguished by their yellowish skin, ragged clothing, and listless minds. Surveying political rhetoric and policy, popular literature...

Presents facts about the lack of sanitation, personal hygiene, dental care, antibiotics, and insecticides in eighteenth-century America and the unfortunate results such a lack had on everyday living conditions.

A humorous look at five of our country's founding fathers.

"Songs of America explores the music of important times in our history--the stirring pro- and anti-war music of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, World Wars I and II, and the Vietnam War; the folk songs and popular music of the Great Depression, the fight for women's rights, and the Civil Rights movement; and the music of both beloved and lesser-known poets, musicians, and songwriters from Colonial times to the twenty-first century. Pulitzer Prize-winning...

"Killing the Mob is the tenth book in Bill O'Reilly's #1 New York Times bestselling series of popular narrative histories, with sales of nearly 18 million copies worldwide, and over 320 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. O'Reilly and co-author Martin Dugard trace the brutal history of 20th Century organized crime in the United States, and expertly plumb the history of this nation's most notorious serial robbers, conmen, murderers, and especially,...

Natty Bumppo is a bold young man raised by Native Americans. Nicknamed "Deerslayer" for his courageous attitude that sets him apart from his peers, Natty is adventurous and kind. As a firm believer that all living beings should respect the gifts of nature, Natty despises violence. However, as he comes of age and experiences the antagonistic relationship between Native Americans and white settlers, violence is difficult to avoid. With the help of his...

In Henty's words, "The Great War between, the Northern and Southern States of America possesses a peculiar interest for us, not only because it was a struggle between, two sections of a people akin to us in race and language, but because of the heroic courage with which the weaker party, with ill-fed, ill-clad, ill-equipped regiments, for four-years sustained, the contest with the adversary..."