Showing titles in United States

Wendell Berry has never been afraid to speak up for the dispossessed. The Need to Be Whole continues the work he began in The Hidden Wound (1970) and The Unsettling of America (1977), demanding a careful exploration of this hard, shared truth: The wealth of the mighty few governing this nation has been built on the unpaid labor of others.

An available audiobook in cooperation with Spoken Realms. The Negro in South Carolina During the Reconstruction (1924) by Alrutheus Ambush Taylor Narrated by Joseph Tabler.

Murder, mystery and mayhem! From an eccentric Clinton County puppetmaster whose marionettes were so lifelike that some believed they were made of flesh and blood, to a haunted lumber camp in McKean County, to an unfortunate Northumberland County veteran who risked death at every turn because of his uncanny resemblance to John Wilkes Booth, Pennsylvania has always been home of some of the world’s most intriguing people and places. Volume 3 of Pennsylvania Oddities features thirty remarkably strange, but true, stories. There’s the unidentified suicide victim who died in Perry County, ...

Historian Thomas D. "Tom" Perry tells the story of Everett M. Bennett of Henry County Virginia from his youth at Spencer-Penn School to his career in World War Two and Korea including being on the cover of Life Magazine. He returned from two wars to work at the Rives Road Grocery in Martinsville.

If a Hall of Fame existed for Pennsylvania criminals, 19th-century outlaw Red Nose Mike would have been inducted with the greatest of ease. After he was hanged in 1889, the blood-thirsty killer with the curious nickname became part of Luzerne County legend. Red Nose Mike is just one of many infamous characters who have left a dark stain on the pages of Pennsylvania history. Residents of Fayette County may recall 'Eatabite' Tibbs, the eccentric bandit-- and alleged cannibal-- who once struck terror into the hearts of men and women throughout western Pennsylvania. Pike County was the home of ...

Set against the breathtaking backdrop of Pennsylvania’s Juniata Valley, this sweeping narrative masterfully blends historical fiction and documented events to illuminate the early American frontier. Juniata: A Chronicle of Land, Legacy, and Witness traces the sacred bond between people and place—beginning with the spiritual worldview of pre-Columbian shamans, through the clash and co-existence of Lenape and Tuscarora tribes, to the arrival of Swiss Anabaptist settlers who sought peace in a land scarred by war. Anchored by the deeply human experiences of the Longacre, Varner, De Lancey, ...

The system is collapsing. The people are exhausted. The nation is on fire, and still, they expect us to stay quiet. The Empire Is Burning! is not a conspiracy. It’s not a feel-good call for unity. It’s a raw, unfiltered dispatch from the edge of American collapse, told by someone who’s seen the system crack, felt the heat, and decided to speak. Through 25 punch-in-the-gut chapters, Steph Wynne delivers bold reflections on the unraveling of a nation: from corrupted institutions and rising hatred to numbness, poverty, and the spiritual death of a tired people. This book is a wake-up ...

Since the 1990s, demographers have been documenting a new Great Migration: millions of Black Americans leaving Northern and Western cities for the South their parents and grandparents fled during Jim Crow. Huge numbers of Black people have been moving to Memphis, Houston, Charlotte, and other booming metropolises in the hopes of recreating the vibrant communities their grandparents once left. Have they found what they were looking for? Is it possible for Black Americans to have community, economic prosperity, and safety all in one place? And if so, where?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Americans died at nearly twice the rate of their white counterparts—a disparity rooted not just in access to care but in a long history of systemic exclusion, exploitation, and racism. How did we get here, and why—despite generations of Black medical excellence—do these inequities persist? In The Price of Exclusion, journalist Nicole Carr uncovers that forgotten history, highlighting the Black medical pioneers who gave their all—and sometimes their lives—so others could thrive.

Three women - Lottie, Esme and Avril left their homes in the East to travel to Oregon as mail order brides to meet intended husbands waiting for them in Oregon City. Lottie sold up her childhood home and thriving business in Huntsville, Missouri; Avril ran away from Mobile, Missouri escaping from her abusive father; and Esme made the life-changing decision on her own, leaving Richmond, Virginia with her parents’ blessing. Looking for a new chapter in their lives full of opportunity and hope, their stories are interwoven with their individual experiences throughout their journeys. It was ...

In the 1970s, entire blocks of the South Bronx burned while the rest of New York City looked the other way. City of Fires is the unflinching, deeply researched true story of how deliberate neglect, institutional betrayal, and a brutal calculus of profit over people turned working-class neighborhoods into charred war zones. This isn’t a story of natural decay or “urban blight.” It’s a history of arson-for-profit schemes, city-sanctioned abandonment, and a government that turned a blind eye—sometimes on purpose. Told through the voice of a lifelong New Yorker who lived through the ...

Why Immigrants Are a Financial Gift to America's Economy is a direct, deeply-researched takedown of the tired myth that immigrants are a burden to the United States. This book exposes how the American economy depends on—and profits enormously from—foreign-born labor. Through thirty no-nonsense chapters, readers are taken through a historical, economic, and political autopsy of how immigration is used not only as a labor force but also as a convenient scapegoat during times of national decline. From the back-breaking work done by immigrants in railroads, agriculture, and healthcare, to ...

For centuries, indigenous tribes across North America have passed down stories of the Wendigo — a creature and spirit born of hunger and desperation, a presence that dwells in the darkest corners of the North American forests. But what exactly is the Wendigo? Is it merely a creature of folklore, a cautionary tale against the depths of human depravity? Or does it lurk, even now, in the remote and frozen expanses of the northern forests, waiting for the right moment to present itself? In Wendigo: The Madness Spirit, I promise to take you on a journey of curiosity and discovery beyond the ...

This life-sized portrait of Stuart surveys his life from childhood through his training at West Point, his years on the Western frontier, and his decision to stand with Virginia when war arrived. His brilliant Civil War career is covered in detail, from the raid on Chambersburg to his final, fatal clash at Yellow Tavern.

Throughout time, from ancient Rome to modern Britain, the great empires built and maintained their domination through force of arms and political power. But not the United States. America has dominated the world in a new, peaceful, and pervasive way - through the continued creation of staggering wealth. In this authoritative, engrossing history, John Steele Gordon captures as never before the true source of our nation's global influence: wealth and the capacity to create more of it.

Killing the Witches revisits one of the most frightening and inexplicable episodes in American history: the events of 1692 and 1693 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. What began as a mysterious affliction of two young girls who suffered violent fits and exhibited strange behavior soon spread to other young women. Rumors of demonic possession and witchcraft consumed Salem. Soon three women were arrested under suspicion of being witches—but as the hysteria spread, more than 200 people were accused. Thirty were found guilty, twenty were executed, and others died in jail or their lives were ruined.

Exciting dramatized stories about: first lady Dolley Madison; Elizabeth Keckley, Mrs. Lincoln's dressmaker; William H. Johnson, Abraham Lincoln's trusted valet; and two true-to-life adventures!

William Howard Taft never wanted to be president and yearned to serve as chief justice of the United States. In this assessment, author Jeffrey Rosen reveals Taft's crucial role in shaping how America balances populism against the rule of law. Taft approached each decision as president by asking whether it comported with the Constitution, seeking to put Roosevelt's activist executive orders on firm legal grounds. But unlike Roosevelt, who thought the president could do anything the Constitution didn't forbid, Taft insisted he could do only what the Constitution explicitly allowed.

From the moment John Roberts, the chief justice of the United States, blundered through the Oath of Office at Barack Obama's inauguration, the relationship between the Supreme Court and the White House has been confrontational. Both men are young, brilliant, charismatic, charming, determined to change the course of the nation - and completely at odds on almost every major constitutional issue. One is radical; one essentially conservative. The surprise is that Obama is the conservative.

An Historical Novel Untamed, and virtually unchanged since its discovery in 1733 by General James Oglethorpe, Jekyll Island’s history unfolds with the excitement and suspense of a fairy tale. Because so many of the world’s greatest minds and bank accounts gathered together in virtual isolation for three months each year, history was made on Jekyll Island. A group of tycoons with surnames such as Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Pulitzer, Baker and others formed their exclusive Millionaires’ Club on this island hideaway—the richest and most inaccessible club of that time. Between ...