David Walker's Appeal is a landmark work of American history and letters, the most radical piece of writing by an African American in the nineteenth century. Startling in its intensity, unrelenting in its attacks on slavery and white racism, it alarmed So
Praised by Robbie Robertson of The Band as "a classic a ticket to ride," The Rose the Briar assembles an astonishing group of writers and artists: Paul Muldoon, Stanley Crouch, R. Crumb, Jon Langford of the Mekons, Sharyn McCrumb, Luc Sante, Joyce Carol O
The towering figure who remade American politics—the champion of the ordinary citizen and the scourge of entrenched privilegeThe Founding Fathers espoused a republican government, but they were distrustful of the common people, having designed a constit
The Republican efficiency expert whose economic boosterism met its match in the Great DepressionCatapulted into national politics by his heroic campaigns to feed Europe during and after World War I, Herbert Hoover—an engineer by training—exemplified t
This narrative history brings to life the spiritual and sexual tensions of mid-19th-century America through the sensational story of the cult of Matthias.
With searing wit and incisive commentary, John Kenneth Galbraith redefined America's perception of itself in The New Industrial State, one of his landmark works. The United States is no longer a free-enterprise society, Galbraith argues, but a structured
In 1960, Barry Goldwater set forth his brief manifesto in The Conscience of a Conservative. Written at the height of the Cold War and in the wake of America's greatest experiment with big government, the New Deal, Goldwater's message was not only remarkab
The judicious statesman who won victories abroad but suffered defeat at home, whose wisdom and demeanor served America well at a critical time.George Bush was a throwback to a different era. A patrician figure not known for eloquence, Bush dismissed ideol
The oddly named president whose shortsightedness and stubbornness fractured the nation and sowed the seeds of civil warIn the summer of 1850, America was at a terrible crossroads. Congress was in an uproar over slavery, and it was not clear if a compromis
