What ties Americans to one another? What unifies a nation ofcitizens with different racial, religious and ethnic backgrounds?These were the dilemmas faced by Americans in the eighteenth andnineteenth centuries as they sought ways to bind the newly UnitedStates together. In A is for American, award-winning historian Jill Leporeportrays seven men who turned to language to help shape a newnation’s character and boundaries. From Noah Webster’s attempts tostandardize American spelling, to Alexander Graham Bell’s use of“Visible Speech” to help teach the deaf to talk, to Sequoyah’sdevelopment of a Cherokee syllabary as a means of preserving hispeople’s independence, these stories form a compelling portrait ofa developing nation’s struggles. Lepore brilliantly explores thepersonalities, work, and influence of these figures, seven mendriven by radically different aims and temperaments. Through thesesuperbly told stories, she chronicles the challenges faced by ayoung country trying to unify

Sherman's March is the vivid narrative of General William T.Sherman's devastating sweep through Georgia and the Carolinas inthe closing days of the Civil War. Weaving together hundreds ofeyewitness stories, Burke Davis graphically brings to life thedramatic experiences of the 65,000 Federal troops who plunderedtheir way through the South and those of the anguished -- and oftendefiant -- Confederate women and men who sought to protectthemselves and their family treasures, usually in vain. Dominatingthese events is the general himself -- "Uncle Billy" to his troops,the devil incarnate to the Southerners he encountered.

Anyone who loves scandal, particularly the juicy dish onroyalty, will inhale this gossipy account by British writer Shaw(The Mammoth Book of Tasteless Lists). In a style reminiscent oflow-end tabloids, the author presents a litany of negative andsometimes disgusting details about the personal lives of the menand women who ruled Britain, Germany, Russia, Belgium, Spain,Portugal, Poland and Austria. Leaving the late 20th century mostlybehind (his only mention of Charles and Diana is in theintroduction), the author concentrates instead on royal misbehaviorback to the 1700s. Entertaining overall, many entries areindisputably not for the faint of heart, such as the truly grossstory of Russia's Peter the Great ("`Great' was generally arecognition of power or brute strength, no matter how they lived,how many people they had killed or how repulsive they were"),described by Shaw as a "paranoid sadist." This tsar was analcoholic who tortured people for fun and once forced an attendantto bite into the flesh of a

In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and SebastianJunger’s The Perfect Storm comes a true tale of riveting adventurein which two weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a greathistorical mystery–and make history themselves. For John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, deep wreck diving was morethan a sport. Testing themselves against treacherous currents,braving depths that induced hallucinatory effects, navigatingthrough wreckage as perilous as a minefield, they pushed themselvesto their limits and beyond, brushing against death more than oncein the rusting hulks of sunken ships. But in the fall of 1991, not even these courageous divers wereprepared for what they found 230 feet below the surface, in thefrigid Atlantic waters sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey: aWorld War II German U-boat, its ruined interior a macabre wastelandof twisted metal, tangled wires, and human bones–all buried underdecades of accumulated sediment. No identifying marks were visible on

On January 5, 1924, a well-dressed young woman, accompanied bya male companion, walked into a Brooklyn grocery, pulled a “babyautomatic” from the pocket of her fur coat, emptied the cashregister, and escaped into the night. Dubbed “the Bobbed HairedBandit” by the press, the petite thief continued her escapades inthe months that followed, pulling off increasingly spectacularrobberies, writing taunting notes to police officials, and eludingthe biggest manhunt in New York City history. When laundress CeliaCooney was finally caught in Florida and brought back to New York,media attention grew to a fever pitch. Crowds gathered at thecourts and jails where she appeared, the public clamored to knowher story, and newspapers and magazines nationwide obliged bypublishing sensational front-page articles.

With the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, once againAmerica's men and women who have seen war close-up are suddenlyexpected to return seamlessly to civilian life. In Flashback, PennyColeman tells the cautionary and timely story of posttraumaticstress disorder in the hope that we can sensitively assist thoseveterans who return from combat in need of help, and the familiesstruggling to support them.

The sinking of the Dorchester in the icy waters offGreenland shortly after midnight on February 3, 1942, was one ofthe worst sea disasters of World War II. It was also the occasionof an astounding feat of heroism—and faith. As water gushed through a hole made by a German torpedo, fourchaplains—members of different faiths but linked by bonds offriendship and devotion—moved quietly among the men onboard.Preaching bravery, the chaplains distributed life jackets,including their own. In the end, these four men went down with theship, their arms linked in spiritual solidarity, their voicesraised in prayer. In this spellbinding narrative, award-winningauthor and journalist Dan Kurzman tells the story of these heroesand the faith—in God and in country—that they shared. They were about as different as four American clergymen could be.George Lansing Fox (Methodist), wounded and decorated in World WarI, loved his family and his Vermont congregation—yet he re-enlistedas soon as he heard about Pearl Harbo

Part of the briefing included familiarizing the men with theenemy uniforms. Private Robert “Lightnin” Hayes had thisrecollection to add: “I remember the day we were assembled in atent for the first time and an officer told us where we were goingto jump. He then paused to watch our reactions. There was a sandtable near by with a facsimile of the terrain on which we weregoing to drop. There were tw...

Nathaniel Tripp grew up fatherless in a house full of women,and he arrived in Vietnam as a just-promoted second lieutenant inthe summer of 1968 with no memory of a man’s example to guide andsustain him. The father missing from Tripp’s life had gone off towar as well, in the navy in World War II, but the terrors were toomuch for him, he disgraced himself, and after the war ended hecould not bring himself to return to his wife and young son. Tripptells of how he learned as a platoon leader to become something ofa father to the men in his care, how he came to understand thestrange trajectory of his mentally unbalanced father’s life, andhow the lessons he learned under fire helped him in the raising ofhis own sons.

Washington Burning transports us in time to the veryfounding of our nation and its capital. We learn that theWashington we know might never have come to be had it not been forthe destruction of the young city by British troops in 1814, or forPierre Charles L'Enfant, the eccentric, passionate, difficultarchitect who fell in love with his adopted country. L’Enfant’ssweeping vision of a grand Federal City inspired President GeorgeWashington but earned the enmity of Secretary of State ThomasJefferson, who hated the idea of an imperial city. So was thecapital born of feuding personalities, and located on the banks ofthe Potomac only after great political struggle. Master storyteller Les Standiford has once again written acompelling, quintessentially American story of hubris andachievement. “Masterful…For the lover of U.S. history or Washingtonianarchitecture or even basic political intrigue, this marvelous newhistory, probably the best to date on L'Enfant and his troubledlife, is essential.” — Mi

September 17, 1944. Thousands of Screaming Eagles–101stAirborne Division paratroopers–descend from the sky over Holland,dropping deep behind German lines in a daring daylight mission toseize and secure the road leading north to Arnhem and the Rhine.Their success would allow the Allied army to advance swiftly intoGermany. The Screaming Eagles accomplish their initial objectiveswithin hours, but keeping their sections of “Hell’s Highway” opentakes another seventy-two days of fierce round-the-clock fightingagainst crack German troops and tank divisions. Drawing on interviews with more than six hundred paratroopers,George E. Koskimaki chronicles, with vivid firsthand accounts, thedramatic, never-before-told story of the Screaming Eagles’ valiantstruggle. Hell’s Highway also tellsof the Dutch citizens andmembers of the underground who were liberated after five years ofNazi oppression and never forgot America’s airborne heroes. Thisrenowned force risked their lives for the freedom of a

In a remarkable feat of historical detective work, DavidRobertson illuminates the shadowy figure who planned a slaverebellion so daring that, if successful, it might have changed theface of the antebellum South. This is the story of a man who, likeNat Turner, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X, is a complex yet seminalhero in the history of African American emancipation. Denmark Vesey was a charasmatic ex-slave--literate, professional,and relatively well-off--who had purchased his own freedom with thewinnings from a lottery. Inspired by the success of therevolutionary black republic in Haiti, he persuaded some ninethousand slaves to join him in a revolt. On a June evening in 1822,having gathered guns, and daggers, they were to converge onCharleston, South Carolina, take the city's arsenal, murder thepopulace, burn the city, and escape by ship to Haiti or Africa.When the uprising was betrayed, Vesey and seventy-seven of hisfollowers were executed, the matter hushed by Charleston's elitefor fear of furth

There were no dry runs for Seawolves in Vietnam. They put their lives on the line—every time. In the Viet Cong-infested Mekong Delta, where smallSEAL teams were always outgunned and outnumbered, discovery broughtswift, deadly consequences— and a radio call for backup from theUnited States Navy’s very best: the Seawolves. The whir ofapproaching rotor blades signaled their arrival as they torethrough the jungle at treetop level, gunners hanging off the skids,shooting M-60s, raining down their lethal mix of high explosivesand incendiary death. Seawolf Dan Kelly describes the origins of this extraordinaryoutfit. Put through a training program unlike any other, these menemerged to perform unparalleled feats of courage. The stories ofthese elite warriors capture America’s real heroes in all theirguts and glory, and demonstrate why the Seawolves are known as themost successful and most decorated unit in the Vietnam War.

A powerful wartime saga in the bestselling tradition of Flags of Our Fathers, Brothers in Arms recounts theextraordinary story of the 761st Tank Battalion, the firstall-black armored unit to see combat in World War II.

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"Brilliant . . . Indispensable." LosAngeles Times Here is the story of the rise and fall of the notorious Bonannocrime family of New York as only best-selling author Gay Talesecould tell it.

They were four exceptional soldiers, a new generation asked tosave an army that had been hollowed out after Vietnam. Theysurvived the military's brutal winnowing to reach its top echelon.They became the Army's most influential generals in the crucible ofIraq. Collectively, their lives tell the story of the Army over thelast four decades and illuminate the path it must travel to protectthe nation over the next century. Theirs is a story of successesand failures, of ambitions achieved and thwarted, of theresponsibilities and perils of command. The careers of this elitequartet show how the most powerful military force in the worldentered a major war unprepared, and how the Army, drawing on areservoir of talent that few thought it possessed, saved itselffrom crushing defeat against a ruthless, low-tech foe. In TheFourth Star, you'll follow: ?Gen. John Abizaid, one of the Army's most brilliant minds.Fluent in Arabic, he forged an unconventional path in the militaryto make himself a