English Heritage

Growing up, Wat Misaka wasn’t the tallest kid on the basketball court, but he was fast and he loved the game! In his Japanese American basketball league, Wat dribbled with speed and shared the ball as much as he scored. Encouraged by his father to always do his best, Wat applied this mindset to every challenge in his life. As Wat spent more time on the court, his passion for the game grew. He played in college at the University of Utah during WWII, a time when many Japanese Americans were stripped of their freedoms and incarcerated by the US government.

In 1968, Michiko Nishiura Weglyn heard the U.S. attorney general declare on national television that there had never been concentration camps in the United States. Michi was the daughter of Japanese immigrants. In 1942, when she was fifteen, she had been sent to such a camp and imprisoned during World War II along with other Americans of Japanese ancestry. Her family lost everything—but Michi asserted herself as a student leader in high school and, against the wishes of her family, went on to college; then to New York, where she forged a career as a costume designer.

Countless Latin American women have made a deep impact on culture, art, science, and politics, and are still doing it. In this book, you’ll learn about 10 of those amazing people. Some of their names may sound familiar already, and some may be new to you, but each of their stories will provide a deep insight into their lives and the struggles they had to overcome.

Long before she was one of the Little Rock Nine, Melba Pattillo Beals was a warrior. Frustrated by the laws that kept African Americans separate but very much unequal to whites, she had questions: Why couldn't she drink from a whites-only fountain? Why couldn't she feel safe beyond home - or even within the walls of church? Adults all told her: Hold your tongue. Be patient. Know your place. But Beals had the heart of a fighter - and the knowledge that her true place was a free one.

At the age of 14, Francisco Jiménez, together with his older brother Roberto and his mother, are caught by la migra. Forced to leave their home, the entire family travels all night for 20 hours by bus, arriving at the U.S. and Mexican border in Nogales, Arizona. In the months and years that follow, Francisco, his mother and father, and his seven brothers and sister not only struggle to keep their family together, but also face crushing poverty, long hours of labor, and blatant prejudice.

New York Times reported a most surprising piece of news. On May 12-13, the last battle of the Civil War had been fought at the southernmost tip of Texas—resulting in a Confederate victory. Although Palmetto Ranch did nothing to change the war's outcome, it added the final irony to a conflict replete with ironies, unexpected successes, and lost opportunities. For these reasons, it has become both one of the most forgotten and most mythologized battles of the Civil War.

On June 25, 2013, the US Supreme Court handed down its decision in Shelby County v. Holder, invalidating a key provision of voting rights law. The decision - the culmination of an eight-year battle over the power of Congress to regulate state conduct of elections - marked the closing of a chapter in American politics. That chapter had opened a century earlier in the case of Guinn v. United States, which ushered in national efforts to knock down racial barriers to the ballot.

Following her critically acclaimed narration of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice with Songs from Regency England, Emma, Persuasion & Poems and Northanger Abbey & The History of England, award-winning narrator Alison Larkin is back, bringing depth and a light comedic touch in this Earphones award-winning recording of Austen's first published novel.

On December 1, 1955, seamstress Rosa Parks took a stand by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Her defiance against an unjust system triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped spark the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Parks demonstrated the effectiveness of unified peaceful protests, and throughout her life she advocated an end to violence, discrimination, and injustice, eventually establishing the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development.

Before the outsider, now Chief Heads Off, brought the Elk Dogs (horses) to the People, their strategy had always been to flee or hide from their mortal enemies, the Head Splitters. Now the People live in peace, but the young warriors long for war.

Step into the wild frontier of the 1860s with "Pony Bob," the gripping tale of a young rider for the legendary Pony Express. It's a journey filled with heart-pounding action, daring escapes, and the true grit of a hero—Robert "Pony Bob" Haslem—who risked everything to deliver the mail. Brimming with historical details and a cast of unforgettable characters, "Pony Bob" is a must-listen for anyone who craves adventure, courage, and a glimpse into the making of an American legend.

Margaret Corbin was an early woman warrior who broke gender barriers to assist the Continental Army. Despite devastating losses and physical wounds, she persevered in defending Fort Washington in one of the first battles of the Revolutionary War. Her courage under fire and willingness to take up arms earned her the nickname "Captain Molly" and a lasting place in history as a revolutionary hero.

In the untamed frontiers of the American South, Jack, a resilient man shaped by loss and duty, finds solace alongside his trusty blue roan horse, Exoh. Their bond, cultivated in the sprawling landscapes of the Big South Fork National Game Reserve in Tennessee, is more than just man and beast—it's a partnership forged in the crucible of personal trials and the vastness of the wilderness.

Kindred Creation is a call and response to dream and design better worlds rooted in African lifeways: a path to Black freedom, a love letter to Black futures, and a blueprint to intergenerational Black joy and dignity—all (and always) on Black terms. Author, organizer, and designer Aida Mariam Davis explores the historical and ongoing impacts of settler colonialism, making explicit the ways that extraction, oppression, and enslavement serve the goals of empire—not least by severing ancestral connections and disrupting profound and ancient relationships to self, nature, and community.

Serena Williams has been ranked number one in the world for tennis singles, won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, and won four Olympic gold medals. She is a powerful player and a fierce competitor. Learn more about the record-breaking athlete in this comprehensive and action-packed biography.

Into a memoir that is gripping, funny, heartbreaking, and unforgettable, Walter Dean Myers richly weaves the details of his Harlem childhood in the 1940s and 1950s: a loving home life with his adopted parents, Bible school, street games, and the vitality of his neighborhood. Although Walter spent much of his time either getting into trouble or on the basketball court, secretly he was a voracious reader and an aspiring writer.

Here are the stories of political power struggles, reconstruction, western expansion, Ellis Island immigrants, the rise of American tycoons and labor unions, and the country's entry into World War I.

All Americans, liberal or conservative, religious or not, can agree that religious freedom, anchored in conscience rights, is foundational to the US democratic experiment. But what freedom of conscience means, what its scope and limits are, according to the Constitution - these are matters for heated debate.

Examining the legacy of racial mixing in Indian Territory through the land and lives of two families, one of Cherokee Freedman descent and one of Muscogee Creek heritage, Darnella Davis' memoir writes a new chapter in the history of racial mixing on the frontier. It is the only book-length account of the intersections between the three races in Indian Territory and Oklahoma written from the perspective of a tribal person and a freedman.

Alexandra Ziolkowska-Boehm's "Open Wounds: A Native American Heritage" was inspired by her great uncle, sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski,who in response to the Lakota Sioux Indian Chief Henry Standing Bear's request "tell my story in stone", decided to sculpt Sioux Chief Crazy Horse from a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Ziolkowska-Boehm explores the real story of Crazy Horse, as well as the real story of the American Indians. She discovers the incredible role Indians played in the World Wars, and she also learns that Indians and their languages and customs are unique to each tribe.