America Legend

Many ancient civilizations have influenced and inspired people in the 21st century. The Greeks and Romans continue to fascinate the West today. But of all the world's civilizations, none have intrigued people more than the Mayans, whose culture, astronomy, language, and mysterious disappearance all continue to captivate people. In 2012 especially, there was a renewed focus on the Mayans, whose advanced calendar led many to speculate the world would end on the same date the Mayan calendar ends.

Often called "Accident Park", "Class Action Park", or "Traction Park", Action Park was an American icon. Entertaining more than a million people a year in the 1980s, the New Jersey-based amusement playland placed no limits on danger or fun, a monument to the anything-goes spirit of the era that left guests in control of their own adventures - sometimes with tragic results. Action Park is the first-ever unvarnished look at the history of this DIY Disneyland, as seen through the eyes of Andy Mulvihill, the son of the park's idiosyncratic founder, Gene Mulvihill.

Bigfoot, the chupacabra, and thunderbirds aren't just figments of our overactive imaginations - according to thousands of eyewitnesses, they exist, in every corner of the United States. Throughout America's history, shocked onlookers have seen unbelievable creatures of every stripe - from sea serpents to apelike beings, giant bats to monkeymen - in every region.

The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Distortions of the past promoted in the conservative media have led large numbers of Americans to believe in fictions over facts, making constructive dialogue impossible and imperiling our democracy. In Myth America, Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer have assembled an all-star team of fellow historians to push back against this misinformation.

Roy Bean was an American saloon-keeper and Justice of the Peace in Texas, who called himself "The Only Law West of the Pecos". He and his three brothers set out from Kentucky in the mid 1840s, heading into the American frontier to find their fortunes. Their lifetimes of triumphs, tragedies, laurels, and scandals will play out on the battlefields of Mexico, in shady dealings in California city halls, inside eccentric saloon courtrooms of Texas, and along the blood-soaked Santa Fe Trail from Missouri to New Mexico. They will kill men, and murder will likewise stalk them.

The feud between the Hatfields and McCoys is the stuff of American legend and has become synonymous with vendettas. In fact it has become its own term for any large-scale disagreement and has made its way into everything from music to television and movies. Though the fighting took place over a century ago, Americans remain so fascinated by it that The History Channel's 2012 miniseries about the feuding families set records for cable television ratings.

Estos ocho relatos hacen parte de las leyendas de distintos países iberoamericanos, pero los trasuntos literarios con que los presenta Gonzalo España los hace novedosos para la mayoría de los lectores: su tono de veracidad provoca la inquietante certidumbre de que más vale estar prevenido contra las almas en pena, que vienen a reclamar desde el más allá justicia para los muertos, como en "Un corte pasado de moda" (Colombia); contra los caprichos de Satán y su corte de violentos diablillos, que venden caro el atrevimiento de presuntuosos artistas en "Nom serviam" (México).

Space may be the final frontier, but no frontier has ever captured the American imagination like the "Wild West," which still evokes images of dusty cowboys, outlaws, gunfights, gamblers, and barroom brawls over 100 years after the West was settled. A constant fixture in American pop culture, the 19th century American West continues to be vividly and colorful portrayed not just as a place but as a state of mind.

Gear up for a frightful jaunt into the darkest reaches of the ancient Appalachians. Folk deep within Appalachian hollers lean close to share stories of the inexplicable with hushed awe. Monsters rumbling in the hills. Strange lights darting through the pitch-black night sky. Horrible occurrences, almost ineffable in their bizarre tragedy. "Tall tales," you might say. But tell that to the Flatwoods monster in Braxton County, West Virginia.

Lifelong baseball fanatic and former college ball player Abe Streep had long since grown disillusioned with the slick spectacle of modern major-league baseball when he discovered the Santa Fe Fuego, a scrappy upstart team struggling through its first season in an independent professional league that few baseball fans had even heard of. The Fuego players were paid barely fifty dollars a week.

Against the backdrop of 18th and 19th-century New Orleans, A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau disentangles the complex threads of the legend surrounding the famous Voudou priestess. According to mysterious, oft-told tales, Laveau was an extraordinary celebrity whose sorcery-fueled influence extended widely from slaves to upper-class whites.

Discover the soul, spirit, and history of the great Native American heritage. The mysterious beginnings of Indigenous communities began in North America over 15,000 years ago. Tragically, and for far too long, the various Indigenous cultures in North America have been systematically mistreated, misrepresented, and misunderstood. This audiobook is a compelling but difficult listen. It tells the story of Native American history, which many have books left out, and the moviemakers wouldn't touch. Listening to this audiobook will be an eye opener.

The mythical legends and historical allure of the old west come galloping onward with The Old West Collection: Amazing Legends and Incredible Tales of the American West. This thundering audio compendium celebrates the epic events of America's frontier, whether rediscovering the California gold rush at Sutter's Mill in '49 or recreating the outsize personalities of John Jacob Astor to Belle Starr and Billy the Kid. From racing on horseback for Oklahoma land in '89 to Dodge and Last Chance Gulch.

New York, 1800. Three brutal murders. One impossible killer. The police have fingered David Stirling for the crimes, but Lord Muc—feared gang leader in the Five Points—doesn't believe a word of it, and sets out to prove the young man's innocence.

With every touchdown, home run, and three-pointer, star athletes represent an American dream that only an elite group blessed with natural talent can achieve. However, Kimball concentrates on what happens once these modern warriors meet their untimely demise. As athletes die, legends rise in their place.

Explore captivating Native American myths.

The Wild West has made legends out of many men, but it also forged a lasting legacy for a few of the West's most legendary towns, and alongside the city of Tombstone, Arizona, perhaps the most famous of them was Deadwood in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Deadwood owes its notoriety to some of the colorful people who called it home, and a recent critically acclaimed television series about the town that brought it to life for millions of modern viewers.

For more than a century, the city of Atlanta has been associated with Black achievement in education, business, politics, media, and music, earning it the nickname "the Black Mecca." Atlanta's long tradition of Black education dates back to Reconstruction, and produced an elite that flourished in spite of Jim Crow, rose to leadership during the civil rights movement, and then took power in the 1970s by building a coalition between White progressives, business interests, and Black Atlantans. But Atlanta's political leadership has consistently mishandled the Black poor.

Las leyendas son relatos que explican algún fenómeno de la naturaleza, pero no lo hacen de manera “científica”. El color de una fl or, el origen de los relámpagos o del trueno, tenían forma de cuento entre los pueblos originarios. Esa historia era relatada amorosamente de padres a hijos, para que los misterios del mundo tuvieran una explicación. Se transmitían en forma oral, de generación en generación.

Los mitos y leyendas aquí reunidos nos proponen un sorprendente recorrido por la explicación primitiva que se dieron los distintos pueblos americanos acerca del origen sagrado de todo cuanto les rodeaba y hacía parte de su experiencia vital. Un reencuentro con las raíces de nuestra identidad como continente y una aventura por mundos fascinantes que sólo sobreviven como referentes de nuestra cultura.