United Nations

The ideal of a one-world government to ensure world peace has been a siren song for over two hundred years. Such unity sounds good, until you realize that the cost of such world peace would be the loss of our national sovereignty and personal freedoms, and consignment to living under a perpetual tyranny.

A legendary diplomat, scholar, and civil rights leader, Ralph Bunche was one of the most prominent Black Americans of the twentieth century. The first African American to obtain a political science Ph.D. from Harvard and a celebrated diplomat at the United Nations, he was once so famous he handed out the Best Picture award at the Oscars. Yet today Ralph Bunche is largely forgotten. In The Absolutely Indispensable Man, Kal Raustiala restores Bunche to his rightful place in history.

How George Washington Fleeced the Nation reveals the often hilarious, sometimes shocking, and always highly informative foibles of the great and the good. Einstein, the most brilliant man who lived, regularly forgot his shoes and never learned to drive. Hitler possibly has a Jewish ancestor. Picasso avoided paying restaurant bills by doodling on their napkins instead. Prepared to be shocked, amused, and outraged at what they didn’t teach you in high school.

Ambassador C. Donald Johnson's The Wealth of a Nation is an authoritative history of the politics of trade in America from the Revolution to the Trump era.

Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation’s casino…and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step—an ancient tribal myth come-to-life, one that’s intent on devouring her whole. With strange and sinister happenings occurring around the casino, Anna starts to suspect that not all the horrors on the reservation are old. As girls begin to go missing and the tribe scrambles to find answers, Anna struggles with her place on the rez.

Worshiped by Tea Party politicians but loathed by sane economists, gold has influenced American monetary policy and has exerted an irrational influence on the national psyche for centuries. It is an existential quest that extends to today, as millions of investors remain entranced by the metal and as right-wing presidential candidates present it as the antidote to our economic woes.

An old silversmith's body is dumped along the highway, and Legal Services Investigator Charlie Yazzie isn't content to stand by while the FBI and Tribal look for clues—not when he sees his friends Thomas Begay and Harley Ponyboy sucked into a tightening web of evil.

In 1789, as the French Revolution shook Europe to the core, the new United States was struggling for survival in the face of financial insolvency and bitter political and regional divisions. When the United States Spoke French explores the republic's formative years from the viewpoint of a distinguished circle of five Frenchmen taking refuge in America. When the French Revolution broke out, these men had been among its leaders.

Beginning with George Washington's inauguration and continuing into the nineteenth century, The New Nation tells the story of the remarkable challenges that the new country faced. Thomas Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana Territory (bought from France at a mere four cents an acre!), Lewis and Clark's daring expedition through the wilderness, the War of 1812, and more.

***Newly Updated in 2025*** On the border of Tennessee and North sits the most popular of the national parks, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The park preserves not only the beautiful scenery of the southern Appalachian Mountains but the culture of the areas as well. Join 101 Travel Bits™ in celebrating the wonderful park that is Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 101 Travel Bits are not your typical guidebooks. Each collection of 101 Travel Bits consists of 101 “bits” of information about one of the great places to visit in the world. This could be a “bit” of history, a ...

John Fea offers a thoroughly researched, evenhanded primer on whether America was founded to be a Christian nation, as many evangelicals assert, or a secular state, as others contend. He approaches the title's question from a historical perspective, helping listeners see past the emotional rhetoric of today to the recorded facts of our past. This updated edition reports on the many issues that have arisen in recent years concerning religion's place in American society.

The consensus view of the Civil War - that it was first and foremost a war to restore the Union, and an antislavery war only later when it became necessary for Union victory - dies here. James Oakes’s groundbreaking history shows how deftly Lincoln and congressional Republicans pursued antislavery throughout the war, pragmatic in policy but steadfast on principle. In the disloyal South the federal government quickly began freeing slaves, immediately and without slaveholder compensation, as they fled to Union lines.

Volumes have been written about George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, but no previous work captures the intimate and vital details the way Inventing a Nation does. Vidal's consummate skill takes you into the minds and private rooms of these great men, illuminating their opinions of one another and their concerns about crafting a workable democracy.

The story of the American occult has remained largely untold. Now a leading writer on the subject of alternative spirituality brings it out of the shadows. Here is a rich, fascinating, and colorful history of a religious revolution and an epic of offbeat history.

Whether in political debates or discussions about immigration around the kitchen table, many Americans, regardless of party affiliation, will say proudly that we are a nation of immigrants. In this bold new book, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz asserts this ideology is harmful and dishonest because it serves to mask and diminish the US’s history of settler colonialism, genocide, white supremacy, slavery, and structural inequality, all of which we still grapple with today.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9-11 Commission, was created by congressional legislation and the signature of President George W. Bush in late 2002. This independent, bipartisan commission had the task of producing a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the attack, including preparedness and immediate response, and providing recommendations designed to guard against future attacks.

***Newly Updated in 2025*** Sometimes known as “America’s Most Scenic Drive,” the Blue Ridge Parkway is a two-lane highway traveling through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and North Carolina. Traversing both mountain ridges and dipping into the valleys below, the Blue Ridge Parkway gets visitors close to nature and history as it winds and meanders the mountains. Join 101 Travel Bits to see how the Blue Ridge Parkway came to be known as one of the most famous and beautiful roads in the United States. 101 Travel Bits are not your typical guidebooks. Each collection of 101 Travel ...

Now is not the time for politics or activism as usual. Now is not the time for raging online, or escaping to screens or foreign lands. You are needed here and now. Your gifts are needed and we have much work to do. We are a nation that does big things. We are the nation of the Constitution, NASA, and the Internet. We defeated the Confederacy and the Third Reich. We defeated hate before and we will defeat it again. But first we have to scope the problem. The nature of our problems are not political, technological, or material - we already have every resource, tool, and policy we need to be ...

"We must be prepared to give the same kind of priority to securing the future of our planet as a sustainable home for present and future generations as we have always been willing to accord to military security...only time will tell whether we are on to a pathway to a more secure and sustainable future for the human community, or as a tragic lost, perhaps last, opportunity." -Secretary-General of the UN Earth Summit ONE WORLD: The Health and Survival of the Human Species in the 21st Century is a compelling collection of original essays written by some of the premier scholars and scientists ...

***Newly Updated in 2025*** In southern Florida, the unique ecosystem of the Everglades is preserved in Everglades National Park. Protecting rare wildlife and irreplaceable habitats, Everglades National Park is like no other place in the world. Join 101 Travel Bits™ in celebrating the wonderful park that is Everglades National Park. 101 Travel Bits are not your typical guidebooks. Each collection of 101 Travel Bits consists of 101 “bits” of information about one of the great places to visit in the world. This could be a “bit” of history, a “bit” of information on a tourist ...