American & Canadian History

This "important and timely" (Drew Faust, Harvard Magazine) #1 New York Times bestseller examines the legacy of slavery in America—and how both history and memory continue to shape our everyday lives. Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that...

On the eugenic origins of US reproductive laws—and the surprising policy changes needed to remedy it. The US government spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year to promote and facilitate contraception. Whereas other wealthy countries support broader fertility interventions under the banner of “family planning,” the United States remains committed only to helping Americans—and especially poorer Americans—plan not to...

An artist and writer whose charming and inventive works are at once modest and ambitious, Joe Brainard was one of the most distinctive figures on New York City's vibrant cultural scene in the 1960s and 1970s. Widely known for his influential experimental memoir, I Remember, Brainard worked in a variety of forms, from New York School-aligned poetry to Pop Art-adjacent...

On the 50th anniversary of Talking Heads, acclaimed music biographer Jonathan Gould presents the long-overdue, definitive story of this singular band, capturing the gritty energy of 1970s New York City and showing how a group of art students brought fringe culture to rock’s mainstream, forever changing the look and sound of popular music. Psycho Killer. Take Me to the River....

How the iconic publication's unruly first decade rewrote the rules of journalism. Rolling Stone's first decade was truly rock and roll: chaotic, wild, and unpredictable. Brand New Beat charts the origins and evolution of the magazine during its formative early years in San Francisco. Founded in 1967 by a 21-year-old college dropout, Rolling Stone and its editors were steeped in...

"If it is possible to understand the American paradox, the marriage of slavery and freedom, Virginia is surely the place to begin," writes Edmund S. Morgan in American Slavery, American Freedom, a study of the tragic contradiction at the core of America. Morgan finds the key to this central paradox in the people and politics of the state that was...

At the National Museum of African American History and Culture's dedication ceremony in 2016, civil rights activist and venerated congressman John Lewis proclaimed, 'Oh, say! What a dream can do!' This volume, published to celebrate the Museum's tenth anniversary, captures that vision through stories told by those collecting and caring for the objects. From the historically profound, such as the...

A penetrating examination of the consequences of the Second World War which draws uncomfortable parallels with the world in which we live today. A gripping, behind-the-curtain story of the men and women who rebuilt the world after the carnage of World War II—and, in the process, engineered an age of unprecedented peace and prosperity. A must-read for anyone trying to...

The bestselling historian on the nation that rules the world, and how it came to do so. In the two hundred and fifty years since its foundation, the United States of America has grown to become the world's richest and most powerful union. How did this new nation come to dominate global culture, economics, politics and warfare? Informed by years...

For Civil War enthusiasts, the collected writings of a long-neglected figure who was crucial to the pivotal Civil War years in New Mexico. From Jerry Thompson, the preeminent historian of the Civil War in the American Southwest, When All Our Troubles Will Be Forgotten presents the collected writings of an important and long-neglected Civil War–era figure in New Mexico. As...

This collection of six volumes has shaped America, from colonial times to the present day. Since its founding, the United States of America has represented freedom, whether of the state or the individual. This boxed set of six special-edition Word Cloud Classics includes The U.S. Constitution and Other Key American Writings, Selected Works of Alexander Hamilton, The Autobiography of Benjamin...

This lush historical novel is a family saga set against the backdrop of the Spanish colonial world. Beyond the Edge of the Known World is the fictional tale of the four-year journey of Don Pedro Bautista Pino from Santa Fe to Spain and back to represent New Mexico at the 1812 Cortes de Cádiz, as narrated by his Genízaro grandson...

A thought-provoking exploration of Bruce Springsteen's iconic album, Born in the U.S.A. - a record that both chronicled and foreshadowed the changing tides of modern America. On June 4, 1984, Columbia Records issued what would become one of the best-selling and most impactful rock albums of all time. An instant classic, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. would prove itself...

The first-ever history of the Anti-Defamation League and its determined, century-long alliance with Western empire. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is a major US political organisation, yet its politics have gone largely unexamined. While the ADL is often portrayed as a defender against antisemitism and racism, its history shows that it is better understood as a proponent of the racial state...

What did we do before the age of television? For children of the Baby Boomer age, life changed almost overnight with the introduction of TV. Retro Television is a celebration of the formative years of the new medium. In the 25-year period from the start of the 1950s through to the mid-1970s, television evolved from the radio era to the...

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile comes the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the cunning serial killer who used the magic and majesty of the fair to lure his victims to their death. “As absorbing a piece of...

An in-depth look at the battle that saw the American Overmountain Men come together and defeat the British Loyalist army, turning the tide of the war. By 1780, the British strategy of subduing the South by mobilising Loyalist forces appeared to be working following the capture of Charleston and the destruction of General Gates' Grand Army at Camden. Major Patrick...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Winner of the PEN New England Award “Enchanting… A book filled with so much love… Long before Oregon, Rinker Buck has convinced us that the best way to see America is from the seat of a covered wagon.” —The Wall Street Journal “Amazing… A real nonfiction thriller.” —The New York Review of Books “Absorbing…...

How the rise of Wall Street in the 1980s lured a generation of young upstarts to New York, unleashing a political and cultural transformation whose national repercussions are still felt today. Yuppies may have been a classic 1980s stereotype, but they were also a very real demographic: a wave of hundreds of thousands of highly educated young professionals that washed...

Based on extensive inside sources, a revealing account of how the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations transformed both health care and politics in America. For nearly a century, every Democratic president—and many Republicans—entered office promising to restructure America’s health care system. Barack Obama finally broke through but, in the process, opened a tumultuous decade in which battles over health care...

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction Shortlisted for the 2025 Juan E. Méndez Book Award "Detailed and heartrending . . . uses years of research to show the way that a country destabilized by war can invite merciless profiteers to break apart families" - John Washington, Harper's The poignant saga of Guatemala's adoption industry: an international marketplace for children,...

For as long as Judaism has been a religion, "Jewish" has been a culture — one whose unique blend of ritual and realism has kept its people going for some 3,000 years. In The Jewish Way to a Good Life, Rabbi Shira Stutman invites readers of every faith — and none — to do chesed (good work), foster tzedek (justice),...

Thomas Jefferson has been reinvented more than perhaps any American president in history. In the nineteenth century, slavery's defenders invoked Jefferson's defence of states' rights, while abolitionists drew on his antislavery writings to support their cause. After the Civil War, Jefferson's reputation declined because of his association with secession and disunion, but in the twentieth century, his image soared as...

A sharp analysis of the propaganda partnerships between US presidents and private organisations that fuelled the Cold War and paved the way for the War on Terror. How do US presidents motivate public support for their foreign policy agendas, which so often start out running counter to public opinion? The President’s Echo System details how successive administrations have collaborated with...

Winner of the National Book Award The classic political biography that reimagined Revolutionary history—in a new edition to honour America's 250th year. Thomas Hutchinson, governor of Massachusetts Bay during the restive years of 1771-1774, was the most distinguished colonial-born official in pre-Revolutionary America. He was also the most loathed. A loyalist, Hutchinson defended the legitimacy of Parliament's rule and suffered...

An exploration of the multifaceted characters and complex events that have defined the Lone Star State from its inception through today. When Americans turn on their laptops, play video games, go to church, vote, eat TexMex, shop for groceries, listen to music, grill steaks, or watch football, they are, knowingly or not, paying tribute to Texas. Tracing the profound and...

When Danielle Allen unearthed a parchment of the Declaration of Independence buried away in Sussex, England, little did she know that she had discovered a story of historical magnitude that would alter our understanding of British and American history. Revealing that the Age of Revolution began earlier than we thought—not with the Boston patriots nor with the Parisian Jacobins, but...

The next phase of the war over reproduction in America Personhood is a field guide to the seemingly boundless tactical resourcefulness of the anti-abortion movement.”—Margaret Talbot, New Yorker What’s next for the battle over abortion? Mary Ziegler argues that simply undoing Roe v. Wade has never been the endpoint for the anti-abortion movement. Since the 1960s, the larger goal has...

A decisive reassessment of Thomas Jefferson’s long-debated views on slavery, showing that his chief antislavery strategy was racial exclusion: the removal of emancipated Black people from the United States. Toward the end of his life, Thomas Jefferson made his most famous statement about American slavery: “We have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely...

A Significant Personal Account by a Continental Soldier, in Print for the First Time In the twilight years of his life, James Selkirk (1757-1820), a modest tailor and Revolutionary War veteran residing in Bethlehem, New York, composed a memoir about his wartime experiences in the Continental Army. Selkirk's memoir tells the story of a young Scottish immigrant who served well...

“Vividly reconstructs how Maximilian’s power was forged and maintained by the sharp end of a French bayonet.” —New York Times Book Review The story of how nineteenth-century European rulers conspired with Mexican conservatives in an outlandish plan to contain the rising US colossus by establishing Old World empire on its doorstep. The outbreak of the US Civil War provided an...

Faith in Disguise follows Martín Tirado, a white Puerto Rican digital historian and research assistant to Fe Verdejo, an Afro-Venezuelan scholar curating an exhibition in Chicago on enslaved and freed Black women in Latin America. As Martín becomes increasingly enmeshed in Fe's intellectual and erotic orbit, his role as subordinate and interpreter exposes the entanglement of race, power, and desire...

Ten millennia in the Mono Lake Basin, showing how this complex ecosystem came to be what it is today. Nestled at the base of the Sierra Nevada in eastern California sits a stunning landscape overlooking a saline lake with picturesque tufa towers and flocks of phalarope birds. This is the Mono Lake Basin. In this sweeping history, Robert B. Marks...

From a leading historian, the story of how entrepreneurial Jewish immigrants transformed commercial banking and enabled the economic and social advancement of Jews in America. What are immigrants to do when business opportunities abound in their new home, but banks refuse essential financial support? How could they make the journey in the first place without helping hands? In this lively...

An incisive history of government and corporate failures to infuse capital into Black urban neighbourhoods—as well as the organisers and activists who stood up to predatory financial practices. In the 1960s, conditions in impoverished Black neighbourhoods attracted mainstream attention as civil unrest erupted in hundreds of cities across the United States. Finally recognising the dire effects of racial segregation and...

A Treacherous Secret Agent by Marjorie Garber is a world-renowned critic’s haunting and deeply researched account of the subversive acts of literary revenge performed during the Red Scare hearings of the 1950s. In the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations led by Senator Joseph McCarthy targeted actors, directors, singers, filmmakers,...

The first full account of the relationship between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, countering the legend of their enmity while drawing vital historical lessons from the differences that arose between them. Martha Washington's worst memory was her husband's death. Her second worst was Thomas Jefferson's awkward visit to pay respects to his estranged friend. Yet this estrangement has obscured the...

Upon America’s 250th anniversary comes the story of a new republic forging unity through ambition and action, inspired by George Washington’s youthful dream to build the nation’s first highway west. The National Road is the first narrative history of the federal project—begun decades before the nation itself was born and ranging through the 1830s—that connected the United States across the...

How an ancient Indigenous earthwork travelled from Ohio to Washington state in the mid-1970s. In Transit, Chadwick Allen chronicles the surprising history of how the ancient snake effigy known as Serpent Mound, located in what is now southern Ohio, travelled to Seattle, Washington in the 1970s, at the height of American Indian activism associated with the Red Power movement. Allen...

How evangelical businessmen in the 1930s and 1940s joined their religious and business lives. The evangelical embrace of conservatism is a familiar feature of the contemporary political landscape. What’s less well-known, however, is that the connection predates the Reagan revolution, going all the way back to the Depression and World War II. Evangelical businessmen at the time were quite active...

A relationship takes work, compromise and trust in one another. But in order to make it a special relationship, a little more diplomacy may be required… When it came to Charles and Mary Bagot, the gossips of Regency England had more than their fill. The marriage, initially the toast of high society, was one marked with scandal and adultery. And...

Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for History and a New York Times Bestseller, Battle Cry of Freedom is universally recognized as the definitive account of the Civil War. It was hailed in The New York Times as "historical writing of the highest order." The Washington Post called it "the finest single volume on the war and its background." And...

The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America's greatest achievements in space. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female...

In 1572, the Spanish sacked Vilcabamba, the last Inca stronghold, and the city was rapidly overtaken by the jungle, receding for hundreds of years into legend and myth. This is the story of how Vilcabamba was founded and how the Incas held out against the Spanish for over 30 years in a savage guerrilla war. Hundreds of years later, at...

A New York Times bestseller: A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at life on Pennsylvania Avenue with America's first families, by the man who spent nearly three decades in their midst. J. B. West, chief usher of the White House, directed the operations and maintenance of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue—and coordinated its daily life—at the request of the president and his family. He...

Susan Orlean's bestseller, New York Times Notable Book, and Reese's Book Club Pick is "a sheer delight...as rich in insight and as varied as the treasures contained on the shelves in any local library" (USA TODAY)—a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution and an investigation into one of its greatest mysteries. "Everybody who loves books should check out The...

These papers stand as the most eloquent existing testimonial to democracy. Edited and with an

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War in this “riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult” (Los Angeles Times). “A feast of historical insight and narrative verve . . . This is Erik...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "This is history at its most immediate and moving... A marvelous and memorable book." --Jon Meacham "Remarkable... A priceless civic gift... On page after page, a reader will encounter words that startle, or make him angry, or heartbroken." --The Wall Street Journal "Had me turning each page with my heart in my throat... There's been a...

This "important and timely" (Drew Faust, Harvard Magazine) #1 New York Times bestseller examines the legacy of slavery in America—and how both history and memory continue to shape our everyday lives. Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that...

Fast Food Nation is a NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. The jaw-dropping food industry exposé on how America's fast food industry has shaped the landscape of America. This fascinating study of corporate power reveals how the fast food industry has altered the landscape of America, widened the gap between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and transformed food production...

What really happened on April 20, 1999? The horror of the Columbine school shooting left an indelible stamp on the American psyche. In remembrance of the 25th anniversary comes a new edition of this journalistic masterpiece: the definitive account of the Columbine massacre, its aftermath, and its significance, from the acclaimed journalist who followed the story from the outset. Columbine...

"A touching family portrait that also happens to be very, very funny... its appeal is timeless." --Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post One of the best-loved American memoirs of an oversized family and the parents who held them together - now a Disney+ movie starring Gabrielle Union and Zach Braff. What do you get when you put twelve lively kids together with...

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NOW A NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY A journalist's twenty-year fascination with the Manson murders leads to "gobsmacking" (The Ringer) new revelations about the FBI's involvement in this "kaleidoscopic" (The New York Times) reassessment of an infamous case in American history. Over two grim nights in Los Angeles, the young followers of Charles Manson murdered seven people, including...

The landmark, bestselling account of the crimes against American Indians during the 19th century, now on its 50th Anniversary. First published in 1970, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of American Indians during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a...

50th Anniversary Edition—With a new foreword on what Watergate means today. "The work that brought down a presidency...perhaps the most influential piece of journalism in history" (Time)—from the #1 New York Times bestselling authors of The Final Days. The most devastating political detective story of the century: two Washington Post reporters, whose brilliant, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation smashed the Watergate scandal...

New York Times bestselling author Isaac Fitzgerald sets off into the heart of America, following the path of the legendary Johnny Appleseed on an epic journey that both takes him far from home and brings him closer to it. “Rollicking, heartfelt... Made me feel the kind of wonder and hope I’ve been longing for.” —John Green, author of Everything Is...

This accessible, sweeping survey of Mexican history, from pre-Columbian times to the present, introduces critical political and economic processes that have defined the country. With ample maps and illustrations, along with historiographical inserts, Mexico is a guide from the earliest beginnings of a great nation down to the present day. This 2nd edition includes the following changes: 2 additional chapters,...

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NONFICTION A New Yorker Best Book of 2024 • An Esquire Best Book of Fall 2024 • Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction • Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard First Book Prize 'Reads like a legal thriller' ESQUIRE 'As propulsive and affecting as...

Bringing the study of early modern Christianity into dialogue with Atlantic history, this collection provides a longue durée investigation of women and religion within a transatlantic context. Taking as its starting point the work of Natalie Zemon Davis on the effects of confessional difference among women during the age of religious reformations, the volume expands the focus to broader temporal...

The late nineteenth century was a golden age for European travel in the United States. For prosperous Europeans, a journey to America was a fresh alternative to the more familiar ‘Grand Tour’ of their own continent, promising encounters with a vast, wild landscape, and with people whose culture was similar enough to their own to be intelligible, yet different enough...

Towards Modern Public Finance addresses the financing of the American-Mexican War of 1846-48. This study argues that the successful financing of the American-Mexican War had a long-term beneficial effect on American financial institutions and markets.

Here is an entertaining collection of famed conservationist John Muir's most exciting adventures in nature, representing some of his finest writing. From the famous avalanche ride off the rim of Yosemite Valley to his night spent weathering a windstorm at the top of a tree to death-defying falls on Alaskan glaciers, the renowned outdoorsman's exploits are related in passages that...

Now in its second edition, The Routledge Atlas of African American History traces the epic journey of African Americans’ four hundred years in North America. With more than 75 full-colour maps, charts, and illustrations, this volume illuminates the myriad of contributions from Black Americans to the nation's political, economic, cultural, and social history. Jonathan Earle begins the sweeping story with...

Over the course of her 57-year career, Augusta Jane Evans Wilson published nine best-selling novels, but her significant contributions to American literature have until recently gone largely unrecognized. Brenda Ayres, in her long overdue critical biography of the novelist once referred to as the first Southern woman to enter the field of American letters, credits the importance of Wilson's novels...

From their mythical origins to astonishing feats of engineering, an expertly informed reassessment of one of the great empires of the Americas: the Inca. In their heyday, the Inca ruled over the largest land empire in the Americas, reaching the pinnacle of South American civilisation. Known as the "Romans of the Americas," these fabulous engineers converted the vertiginous, challenging landscapes...

This volume makes available the full range of the American/Canadian musical experience, covering for the first time in print all major regions, ethnic groups and traditional and popular contexts. From musical comedy to word beat, from the songs of the Arctic to rap and house music, from Hispanic Texas to the Chinese communities of Vancouver, the coverage captures the rich...

This volume brings together a collection of leading international experts to revisit and review our understanding of The Cuban Missile Crisis, via a critical reappraisal of some of the key texts. In October 1962, humankind came close to the end of its history. The risk of catastrophe is now recognised by many to have been greater than realised by protagonists...

This book questions the conventional wisdom about one of the most controversial episodes in the Cold War, and tells the story of the CIA's backing of the Congress for Cultural Freedom. For nearly two decades during the early Cold War, the CIA secretly sponsored some of the world’s most feted writers, philosophers, and scientists as part of a campaign to...

In January of 1848, James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. For a year afterward, news of this discovery spread outward from California and started a mass migration to the gold fields. Thousands of people from the East Coast aspiring to start new lives in California financed their journey West on the assumption...

Published annually, this 30th edition of South America, Central America and the Caribbean 2022 brings together a unique combination of the latest data on, and detailed analysis of, a vast region. Scrupulously updated by Europa’s experienced editors, the volume also includes contributions from regional specialists. General Survey Essays written by acknowledged experts on the area provide an impartial overview of...

This exciting collection explores the interplay of religion and politics in the precolumbian Americas. Each thought-provoking contribution positions religion as a primary factor influencing political innovations in this period, reinterpreting major changes through an examination of how religion both facilitated and constrained transformations in political organisation and status relations. Offering unparalleled geographic and temporal coverage of this subject, Religion and...

This exciting collection explores the interplay of religion and politics in the precolumbian Americas. Each thought-provoking contribution positions religion as a primary factor influencing political innovations in this period, reinterpreting major changes through an examination of how religion both facilitated and constrained transformations in political organisation and status relations. Offering unparalleled geographic and temporal coverage of this subject, Religion and...

Red, White and Radical explores how and why America has become so conservative since World War II. In the process, it offers lessons that professional leaders, regardless of their political stance, should heed if they want their organisational change plans to succeed. Over the past 70 years, a motley crew of suburban activists, libertarian businessmen, and political opportunists have radically...

Presidential Leadership and African Americans examines the leadership styles of eight American presidents and shows how the decisions made by each affected the lives and opportunities of the nation’s black citizens. Beginning with George Washington and concluding with the landmark election of Barack Obama, Goethals traces the evolving attitudes and morality that influenced the actions of each president on matters...

This book assesses and evaluates the decision-making behaviour of United States presidents and their chief advisers from Roosevelt to Kennedy pertaining to China. Seeking to dispel the notion that each administration sought policy outcomes based on a rational decision-making model, Bartley highlights the contradictions in adopted presidential decision-making processes and the nature of domestic politics as playing prejudicial and debilitating...

From the acclaimed author of The Fire Is upon Us, the dramatic untold story of Barry Goldwater and Martin Luther King Jr.'s decade-long clash over the meaning of freedom—and how their conflicting visions still divide American politics. In the mid-1950s, Barry Goldwater and Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as the leaders of two diametrically opposed freedom movements that changed the...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER — The Hill Times 100 Best Book of 2024 The incomparable first-hand account of the historic Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada told by one of the commissioners who led it. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established to record the previously hidden history of more than a century of forced residential schooling for Indigenous children. Marie Wilson...

Some myths don't die, and lies are still being told about Christopher Columbus: that he 'discovered' the Americas, that the land was sparsely populated by native people, that those people were primitive and that they submitted to Columbus's 'God-like' authority. Loewen disproves the myths about Columbus still enshrined in American textbooks with quotations from primary source material that sets the...