Taking the measure of the tradition in a single indispensable volume, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song sets a new standard for a genuinely deep engagement with Black poetry and its essential expression of American genius.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the award-winning historian and filmmakers of The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, The Roosevelts, and others: a richly illustrated, human-centered history of America's founding struggle--expanding on the landmark, six-part PBS series ...

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . The author of The Soul of America unites centuries of essential American voices to understand our national debates and divisions from 1619 to the present, with his signature commentary on the consequential speeches, letters, and essays that led us...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln, charting how--and why--he confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery to expand the possibilities of America. "Meacham has...

The award-winning co-anchor of PBS NewsHour presents a sweeping and insightful retrospective on the history of Black comedy in America. Black comedians have long played a pivotal role in shaping the American sense of humor. The 1990s showcased a golden era for Black comedy,...

With iconic imagery and engrossing text, Black TV is the first book of its kind to celebrate the groundbreaking, influential, and often under-appreciated shows centered on Black people and their experiences from the last fifty years.   Over the past...

Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize Changes in the Land offers an original and persuasive interpretation of the changing circumstances in New England's plant and animal communities that occurred with the shift from Indian to European dominance. With the tools of both...

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE IN HISTORY "Full of...lively insights and lucid prose" (The Wall Street Journal) an epic, sweeping history of Cuba and its complex ties to the United States--from before the...

The author and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library Publishing Project gives voice to long silent African Americans from the past, allowing them to tell their own stories that shed new light on critical moments in the Black Freedom Struggle, challenging what we think we...

In this posthumous collection of thought-provoking essays--many never published before--Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and bestselling author David McCullough affirms the value of history, how we can be guided by its lessons, and the enduring legacy of American ideals. ...

From the acclaimed historian and author of The Last American Aristocrat--hailed as "marvelous" by The New York Times Book Review--comes an "elegant and immersive" (Publishers Weekly) new biography of Theodore Roosevelt, exploring the life of America's twenty-sixth president...

New York Times Bestseller Now part of the HBO docuseries "Exterminate All the Brutes," written and directed by Raoul Peck Recipient of the American Book Award The first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples ...

Forgotten for more than a century in an old cardboard box, these are the letters of Guy Carlton Taylor, a farmer who served in the Thirty-Sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the American Civil War. From March 23, 1864, to July 14, 1865, Taylor wrote 165 letters home to his wife Sarah...

An exuberant, hilarious, and profound memoir by a mailman in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, who found that working for the post office saved his life, taught him who he was, gave him purpose, and educated him deeply about a country he loves but had lost touch with. ...

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK * Sports Illustrated #1 Book of 2024 * A hugely entertaining history of baseball and New York City, bursting with larger-than-life figures and fascinating stories from the game's beginnings to the end of World War II. "You're going to...

Celebrate 250 years of American history--and witness the nation's decade-by-decade evolution--in this gorgeously illustrated volume featuring more than 600 Smithsonian objects. The 250th anniversary of the United States marks a major milestone, representing two-and-a-half...

Star Bound is a book for anyone who wants to learn about the American space program but isn?t sure where to start. First and foremost, it?s a history?short, sweet, and straightforward. From rocketry pioneer Robert Goddard?s primitive flight tests in 1926 through the creation of NASA, from...

Although the first enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown in 1619, European slavery in America began more than a century before. In a work distinguished not only by its original research but by its "passionate prose" (James F. Brooks), historian Linford Fisher demonstrates how the enslavement of...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A major revisionist history of the Lewis and Clark expedition: For the first time in a generation, This Vast Enterprise offers a fresh and more accurate account of one of the most important episodes in American history, humanizing forgotten figures and...

"I had done nothing that could really be called bad. I had been foolish, yes, but I had not done anything bad. The trouble was, this was Marion, Indiana, where there was very little room for foolish black boys." On a sweltering August night in 1930, two older boys...

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR * Award-winning author and journalist Wil Haygood explores how the Vietnam War became a mirror for the struggle of Black Americans--fighting for freedom abroad while demanding equality at home--and a powerful lens through which to...

An "unsparing, erudite, and incisive" (Jelani Cobb, staff writer, The New Yorker) reframing of the past and present of Black resistance--both nonviolent and violent--to white supremacy Named a Best Book of 2024 by Smithsonian * Kirkus *...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A vivid portrait of the unsung American women from 1776 to today who changed the course of history in their fight for freedom and helped shape a more perfect union "This terrific book reveals the central, though often hidden role that women...

In an extraordinary story unfolding across two hundred years, Kristina Gaddy uncovers the banjo's key role in Black spirituality, ritual, and rebellion. Through meticulous research in diaries, letters, archives, and art, she traces the banjo's beginnings from the seventeenth century, when...

From award-winning historian Megan Kate Nelson, an epic account of the creation of the American West in the 19th century, shattering the traditional frontier myth that has dominated popular American culture. The Westerners tells two richly detailed and interwoven stories....

Tells of the experiences of United States soldiers during World War II, including their preparation for battle, interaction with one another, perceptions of the enemies they faced and reaction to combat. The author's intention is to show the terrible, dehumanizing effects of combat.