American Century

In building a railroad, there is only one decisive spot - the end of the track. Nothing like this great work had ever been seen in the world when the last spike, a golden one, was driven in Promontory Peak, Utah, in 1869, as the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific tracks were joined. Ambrose writes with power and eloquence about the brave men - the famous and the unheralded, ordinary men doing the extraordinary - who accomplished the spectacular feat that made the continent into a nation.

Over a few weeks in 1741, 10 fires blazed across Manhattan. With each new fire, panicked whites saw more evidence of a slave uprising. Tried and convicted before the colony's Supreme Court, 13 black men were burned at the stake and 17 were hanged. Four whites, the alleged ringleaders of the plot, were also hanged, and seven more were pardoned on condition that they never set foot in New York again.

When a bloody carriage appears at the front gate, Black’s greatest fear is realized. Mayhem has found its way to his doorstep, forcing him and the people to examine everyday life. In this fifth installment of The Black Series, the legendary Black is tasked with leading the people to a freer existence. He must also solve a deadly game of cat and mouse, while keeping the people from peril. Join Joan Vassar, Black, and the men, as they uncage the people from physical bondage, emancipate the people’s thoughts, and unshackle the people from fear.

Russia and China are increasingly revisionist in their regions. The Middle East appears to be unraveling. And many Americans question why the United States ought to lead. What will great power competition look like in the decades ahead? What impact will geopolitics have on globalization? And what strategy should the United States pursue to succeed in an increasingly competitive world? In this book, Thomas Wright explains how major powers will compete fiercely even as they try to avoid war with each other.

Charismatic, charming, and one of the best orators of his era, Henry Clay seemed to have it all. He offered a comprehensive plan of change for America, and he directed national affairs as Speaker of the House, as Secretary of State to John Quincy Adams - the man he put in office - and as acknowledged leader of the Whig party. As the broker of the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clay fought to keep a young nation united when westward expansion and slavery threatened to tear it apart. Yet, despite his talent and achievements, Henry Clay never became president.

Victor Chin’s life is turned upside down at the tender age of 15. Diagnosed with Hansen’s disease, otherwise known as leprosy, he’s forced to leave the familiar confines of his father’s laundry business in the Bronx–the only home he’s known since emigrating from China with his older brother—to quarantine alongside patients from all over the country at a federal institution in Carville. At first, Victor is scared not only of the disease, but of the confinement, and wants nothing more than to flee.

An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of the Scriptures. Explore this biblical text that serves as a bridge from the Gospels to the Epistles, and introduces the birth of the Christian church and the experiences of its leaders as they spread the good news of salvation by faith from the Jewish to the Gentile communities. The entire text of the Bible are presented with intermediate commentary that includes the background, context, and exposition of each passage. Organized as twenty-seven sequential and individual Bible studies that are each intended for about 30 minutes of personal Bible ...

During the turbulent months following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, 21-year-old Emi Kato, the daughter of a Japanese diplomat, is locked behind barbed wire in a Texas internment camp. She feels hopeless until she meets handsome young Christian Lange, whose German-born parents were wrongfully arrested for un-American activities. Together they live as prisoners with thousands of other German and Japanese families but discover that love can bloom in even the bleakest circumstances.

An intimate account of the American Revolution as seen through the eyes of a Quaker pacifist couple living in Philadelphia. Spanning a half-century before, during, and after the war, this gripping narrative illuminates the Revolution’s darker side as patriots vilified, threatened, and in some cases killed pacifist Quakers as alleged enemies of the revolutionary cause. Amid chaos and danger, the Drinkers tried as best they could to keep their family and faith intact. A master storyteller takes his listeners on a moving journey they will never forget.

Amnesia stole his memory, and now he’s fighting for the wrong side. Orphaned and alone at sixteen, Felicity has found solace in serving others as a volunteer nurse. When she discovers her Confederate soldier beau, Luke Shea, among the wounded in her ward, her worst nightmares come true. Luke's shrapnel wound has stolen his memory, leaving him with no recollection of their love or his past. As Felicity struggles with the loss of the man she once knew, she turns her attention to the service of her broken country. But the more she learns about the brutal war, the more she realizes she can no...

After freeing himself from his former slave masters, Riel becomes a pirate after striking a deal with the infamous Captain Glass. In exchange for learning English, how to sail, and how to be a fearsome pirate, Riel will give Captain Glass seventy percent of his bounty for five years. Five years later, Captain Glass is unwilling to release Riel from his debt. Under threat of being resold as a slave, Riel feels trapped in a life he doesn’t want. Darlene Smith has always been a tomboy. She favors trousers and swords over dresses and knitting. Wanting her to act like the high class lady she ...

Out of Tragedy Blossoms a Journey of Discovery Jackie grew up in the warm glow of her family's legacy. From her grandmother to her great-great grandmother, she embraced everything in her McIntyre and Donegal roots. But when a world disaster turns into a family tragedy, Jackie turns to her family and the land of her ancestors for healing and growth and finds a wonderful new world that captures her heart and takes her on a journey of enlightenment and discovery with a chance at first love, all in the magical landscape of the Emerald Isle. An Emerald Homecoming is the final chapter in A ...

The year was 1922: World War I had just come to a close, the Ottoman Empire was in decline, and Asa Jennings, a YMCA worker from upstate New York, had just arrived in the quiet coastal city of Smyrna to teach sports to boys. Several hundred miles to the east in Turkey's interior, tensions between Greeks and Turks had boiled over into deadly violence. Mustapha Kemal, now known as Ataturk, and his Muslim army soon advanced into Smyrna, a Christian city, where a half a million terrified Greek and Armenian refugees had fled in a desperate attempt to escape his troops.

A Western adventure novel set in the vast wilderness of the American West during the late 1800s. In "Showdown at Snake Creek," embark on a thrilling journey alongside Tom Taylor, a determined young cowhand navigating the treacherous world of cattle drives. As he seeks his fortune under the watchful eye of foreman Buck Peters at the Bar-20 ranch, Tom quickly learns that the frontier is rife with danger, betrayal, and unexpected alliances. With tensions rising from the machinations of murderous ruffians posing as buffalo hunters, Tom must decide what he's willing to risk to protect those he ...

Can childhood sweethearts find their way back together with pirates, intrigue, and an ocean between them? Samuel Vargas has been in love with Georgia Ann Cooper since their youth. But so has his brother, who already has the means and stature in society to support her. While Samuel can’t compete with his brother’s elegance, he can do what he does best—sailing and sword-fighting. He’s determined to make his fortune as a privateer and prove he can provide a secure future for Georgia Ann…if only she’ll wait for him. Georgia Ann Cooper’s heart races when she thinks of Samuel Vargas...

When American heiress Gwen Barton aids an injured gentleman in an opera box in London, she shares a kiss with the stranger that changes her life. More determined than ever to be herself, in spite of the limp she's sustained since childhood, she will marry for love and not a title. She also resolves to learn the identity of the man she helped - and kissed. Surely he can't be the irritating Avery Winfield though. But as circumstances continue to throw Gwen and Avery together, she begins to wonder if there is more to this man than she first thought.

Because Plath drew so heavily on her own life in both her poetry and her fiction, the outlines of her life are familiar to listeners. Like most writers, Plath changed the facts of her life in her writing. In her determination to be both wife and mother, on the one hand, and teacher and writer on the other, Plath tried simultaneously to fulfill and to fight the conventions that bound women in the 1950s. In this biography, the first to draw on unpublished journals and letters recently made available, Wagner-Martin examines the ironies, contradictions, and achievements of Plath's life.

Since the end of the second World War, the United States has sunk hundreds of billions of dollars into foreign economies in the hope that its investments would help remake the world in its own image - or, at the very least, make the world "safe for democracy." So far, the returns have been disappointing, to say the least. Pushing for fair and free elections in undemocratic countries has added to the casualty count, rather than taken away from it, and trying to eliminate corruption entirely has precluded the elimination of some of the worst forms of corruption.

In Let Me Be Frank with You, Ford returns with four deftly linked stories narrated by the iconic Bascombe. Now 68, and again ensconced in the well-defended New Jersey suburb of Haddam, Bascombe has thrived - seemingly if not utterly - in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy's devastation. With a flawless comedic sensibility and unblinking intelligence, these stories range over the full complement of American subjects: aging, race, loss, faith, marriage, redemption, the real-estate crash - the tumult of the world we live in.

The story of how English became American—and how it became Southern, Bostonian, Californian, African American, Chicano, elite, working-class, urban, rural, and everything in between.