America First History

Kateri Tekakwitha lost all reasons to smile when an epidemic of smallpox in her village made her an orphan. But instead of giving up, she persevered to live on. Kateri was a pious girl who defied tradition by choosing to convert to Christianity. She was the first North American aboriginal person to become a saint.

The American colonies had just declared independence from the British. But General George Washington knew things were not going the Americans' way. When Gen. Washington needed someone to spy on the British, only one young man volunteered. That man was Nathan Hale, an early American hero.

The First 60 Years: The History of Afro-American Musical Theater and Entertainment chronicles the contributions made by Black Americans to the entertainment industry in America from 1871 through 1930. This book describes, among other subjects, the types of traveling circuses performers worked on and the types of material performed there. This book also chronicles the history and the beginnings of Black Vaudeville in America, the creation of the blues, and the beginnings of Black theatrical entrepreneurship that took place in America during its most racist times.

More than any other people on earth, Americans are free to say and write what they think. The reason for this extraordinary freedom is not a superior culture of tolerance, but just 14 words in our most fundamental legal document: the free expression clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Anthony Lewis tells us how these rights were created, revealing a story of hard choices, heroic (and some less heroic) judges, and fascinating and eccentric defendants who forced the legal system to come face-to-face with one of America's great founding ideas.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author of Founding Brothers and His Excellency brings America’s preeminent first couple to life in a moving and illuminating narrative that sweeps through the American Revolution and the republic’s tenuous early years. John and Abigail Adams left an indelible and remarkably preserved portrait of their lives together in their personal correspondence: Both Adamses were prolific letter writers (although John conceded that Abigail was clearly the more gifted of the two), and over the years they exchanged more than 12,000 letters.

The Iran hostage crisis was a watershed moment in American history. It was America's first showdown with Islamic fundamentalism, a confrontation at the forefront of American policy to this day. It was also a powerful dramatic story that captivated the American people, launched yellow-ribbon campaigns, made celebrities of the hostage's families, and crippled the reelection campaign of President Jimmy Carter.

In 1968, Bruce Tucker, a Black man, went into Virginia’s top research hospital with a head injury, only to have his heart taken out of his body and put into the chest of a White businessman. Now, in The Organ Thieves, Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Chip Jones exposes the horrifying inequality surrounding Tucker’s death and how he was used as a human guinea pig without his family’s permission or knowledge.

Alanis Obomsawin used the art of documentary film making to bring into public consciousness the plight of the indigenous people of Canada. As a member of the Abenaki Nation herself, Alanis encountered bullying and the promotion of European cultural superiority in her community.

In November 2018, the greatest number of women in American history entered Congress. From Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and "the Squad" to "the Badasses" with national security backgrounds, from the first two Native Americans in Congress to the first two Muslim women, all were swept into office on a wave of grassroots support, diverse in background, age, professional experience, and ideology. In The Firsts, New York Times reporter Jennifer Steinhauer follows these women's first year in the 116th Congress.

How does the First Amendment really work? Is it a principle or a value? What is hate speech and should it always be banned? Are we free to declare our religious beliefs in the public square? What role, if any, should companies like Facebook play in policing the exchange of thoughts, ideas, and opinions? With clarity and power, Stanley Fish explores these complex questions in The First.

In Vitagraph, Andrew A. Erish provides a comprehensive examination and reassessment of the company most responsible for defining and popularizing the American movie. This history challenges long-accepted Hollywood mythology that simply isn't true: that Paramount and Fox invented the feature film, that Universal created the star system, and that these companies, along with MGM and Warner Bros., developed motion pictures into a multimillion-dollar business.

Multiple award-winning author Adam Gopnik has written for the New Yorker since 1986. In this work, Gopnik charts America’s transformation from being simply aware of what they eat to being obsessive about it. This fascinating culinary journey will transport listeners from 18th-century France and the origin of America’s popular modern tastes to the kitchens of the White House and beyond.

What causes people to forsake their country and take arms against it? What prompts their neighbors, hardly distinguishable in station or success, to defend that country against the rebels?  That is the question H. W. Brands answers in his powerful new history of the American Revolution.

While Nantucket has long enjoyed an illustrious position in America's whaling history, Cape Cod's contribution to the industry is relatively unknown, yet it was a Cape Codder who taught the Nantucketers how to hunt whales. In Cape Cod Shore Whaling, authors Duncan Oliver and John Braginton-Smith uncover Cape Cod's integral role in shaping whalefishery, which began along the Cape's sandy shores and evolved into the far-flung whaling expeditions that drove Nantucket's economy into the nineteenth century.

Published in 1920, America First: One Hundred Stories from Our History by Lawton B. Evans (1862-1934) is a collection of stories meant for the young, containing highlights from America's history, and biographical sketches of prominent Americans of the past. It covers the history from the first visit to North America by the Viking, Leif Ericsson the Lucky, through the conquest of the Midwest and the settlement of California and the Pacific Coast, to the end of World War I.

Nenhum outro assunto é tão importante e tão definidor da nossa identidade nacional quanto a escravidão. Conhecê-lo ajuda a explicar o que fomos no passado, o que somos hoje e também o que seremos daqui para a frente. Em um texto impactante e rigorosamente documentado, Laurentino Gomes lança o primeiro volume de sua nova trilogia, resultado de 6 anos de pesquisas, que incluíram viagens por 12 países e 3 continentes.

George Washington was famously unknowable, but Robert Middlekauff penetrates the mystique to reveal the fears, values, and passions that drove him. Rich in psychological details regarding Washington's temperament, idiosyncrasies, and experiences, this audiobook shows us a self-conscious Washington who grew in confidence and experience as a young soldier, businessman, and Virginian gentleman; and was transformed into an American patriot by the revolutionary ferment of the 1760s and 70s.

In the late nineteenth century, as cities like Boston and New York grew larger, the streets became increasingly clogged with horse-drawn carts. When the great blizzard of 1888 brought New York City to a halt, a solution had to be found. Two brothers - Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York City - pursued the dream of his city being the first American metropolis to have a subway and the great race was on.

The companion volume to the 12-hour PBS series from the acclaimed filmmaker behind The Civil War, Baseball, and The War. America's national parks spring from an idea as radical as the Declaration of Independence: that the nation's most magnificent and sacred places should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone

In 1872 Congress established Yellowstone National Park, and its vast wonders mesmerized early sightseers, including school superintendent William Wallace Wylie. From 1896 to 1905 his Wylie Camping Company fed, sheltered, and guided thousands of Victorian vacationers through relaxed week-long tours. Wylie promised travelers comfort and delicious meals. His clients enjoyed heated sleeping tents, informative outings, and fresh-air bonfires.