Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright.
On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe what had happened: the age of flight had begun, with the first heavier-than-air, powered machine carrying a pilot.
Who were these men and how was it that they achieved what they did?
David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, tells the surprising, profoundly American story of Wilbur and Orville Wright.
Far more than a couple of unschooled Dayton bicycle mechanics who happened to hit on success, they were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity, much of which they attributed to their upbringing. The house they lived in had no electricity or indoor plumbing, but there were books aplenty, supplied mainly by their preacher father, and they never stopped reading.
When they worked together, no problem seemed to be insurmountable. Wilbur was unquestionably a genius. Orville had such mechanical ingenuity as few had ever seen. That they had no more than a public high school education, little money and no contacts in high places, never stopped them in their “mission” to take to the air. Nothing did, not even the self-evident reality that every time they took off in one of their contrivances, they risked being killed.
In this thrilling book, master historian David McCullough draws on the immense riches of the Wright Papers, including private diaries, notebooks, scrapbooks, and more than a thousand letters from private family correspondence to tell the human side of the Wright Brothers’ story, including the little-known contributions of their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them.

Winner of the National Book Award for history, The Path Between the Seas tells the story of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing an aquatic passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is a story of astonishing engineering feats, tremendous medical accomplishments, political power plays, heroic successes, and tragic failures. McCullough expertly weaves the many strands of this momentous event into a captivating tale. Like his masterful, Pulitzer Prize-winning biography John Adams, David McCullough's The Path Between the Seas has the sweep and vitality of a great novel. This audiobook is a must-listen for anyone interested in American history, international intrigue, and human drama.

This monumental book is the enthralling story of one of the greatest events in our nation's history, during the Age of Optimism -- a period when Americans were convinced in their hearts that all things were possible. In the years around 1870, when the project was first undertaken, the concept of building an unprecedented bridge to span the East River between the great cities of Manhattan and Brooklyn required a vision and determination comparable to that which went into the building of the great cathedrals. Throughout the fourteen years of its construction, the odds against the successful completion of the bridge seemed staggering. Bodies were crushed and broken, lives lost, political empires fell, and surges of public emotion constantly threatened the project. But this is not merely the saga of an engineering miracle; it is a sweeping narrative of the social climate of the time and of the heroes and rascals who had a hand in either constructing or exploiting the surpassing enterprise.

This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country. The Path to Power reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and ambition that set LBJ apart. It follows him from the Hill Country to New Deal Washington, from his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, at age 31, of the national power for which he hungered. In this book, we are brought as close as we have ever been to a true perception of political genius and the American political process. Means of Ascent, Book Two of The Years of Lyndon Johnson, was a number one national best seller and, like The Path to Power, received the National Book Critics Circle Award. "Powerful and stirring. A monumental political saga...It's an overwhelming experience to read The Path to Power." -- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times "Stands at the pinnacle of the biographical art." -- Donald Morris, Houston Post "By every measure -- depth of research, brilliance of conception, the seamless flow of the prose -- The Path to Power is a masterpiece of biography." -- Dan Cryer, Newsday "A superb and unique biography...Meticulous in research, grand in scale, this is a major work that will remain a tower of its kind." -- Barbara Tuchman "An awesome achievement! Not only a historical but a literary event...An epic biography...What brings Caro's story -- and it is a story -- to life is his astonishing concern for the humanity of his characters: the plight of a Hill Country family; the reserve of Lady Bird Johnson; the lonely integrity of Sam Rayburn." -- Peter Prescott, Newsweek

DEALS OF THE CENTURY Throughout history, mergers and acquisitions have been the major game played on Wall Street. These deals have had far–reaching effects, on the worlds of finance and industry – more than most commentators or financiers are publicly willing to admit. Deals of the Century captures this dynamic moment in history by taking an in–depth look at the most notable merger and acquisition deals of the twentieth of Carnegie Steel in 1901 to the creation of the former AOL Time Warner, renowned business historian and bestselling author Charles Geisst traces the deals that have had the most dramatic impact on the worlds of both finance and industry over the past century. Decade by decade, you′ll be introduced to the personalities behind each event, as industries are built, dismantled, and reorganized by "professionals" driven mainly by the profits extracted from the deals themselves. Engaging and informative, Deals of the Century paints an exciting portrait of the incredible M&A journey and illustrates how many of these deals changed the face of business, creating a modern capitalist society that continues to grow.

A revised edition of the clasic study of American politics from the Founding Fathers to FDR.

This book is a landmark in American political thought. It examines the passion for progress and reform that colored the entire period from 1890 to 1940 -- with startling and stimulating results. it searches out the moral and emotional motives of the reformers the myths and dreams in which they believed, and the realities with which they had to compromise.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

The third volume in Great Issues In American History, From Reconstruction to the Present Day is now updated and revised to include another decade of American history. Beatrice K. Hofstadter, wife of the late Richard Hofstadter and herself an historian who worked with him closely on the original edition, has added a new section covering 1970 to 1981 and rearranged other sections in the light of what has since proved to be of lasting importance. This collection of significant documents in American history now goes from Lincoln s Proclamation on the Wade-Davis Bill on July 8, 1864, to Reagan s Address on Arms Control Negotiations on November 18, 1981.Volume IFrom Settlement to Revolution. 1584-1776 Edited by Clarence L. Ver Steeg and Richard HofstadterVolume IlFrom the Revolution to the Civil War. 1765-1865Edited by Richard Hofstadter

This first volume of Great Issues in American History -- three volumes of documents that cover the history of America from its settlement to the present -- gives us a generous sampling from the major political controversies in the Colonial period. Included are such documents as Richard Hakluyt's "Discourse of Western Planting" (1584), "Letter from Christopher Columbus to the King and Queen of Spain" (undated, probably 1694), "The Third Virginia Charter" (1612), Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" (1776) and "The Declaration of independence" (July 4, 1776). Each has an explanatory headnote, and there are brief general introductions that set the selections in their historical context. In order to fit both Colonial and Early National courses, documents covering 1765-1776 appear at the end of this volume and again at the beginning of Volume II. Volume II From the Revolution to the Civil War, 1765-1865 Edited by Richard Hofstadter Volume III From Reconstruction to the Present Day, 1864-1981 Edited by Richard Hofstadter and Beatrice K. Hofstadter

Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems—to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market. The problem with this version of history? There’s not a shred of evidence to support it.
Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that 5,000 years ago, during the beginning of the agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems. It is in this era, Graeber shows, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.
With the passage of time, however, virtual credit money was replaced by gold and silver coins—and the system as a whole began to decline. Interest rates spiked and the indebted became slaves. And the system perpetuated itself with tremendously violent consequences, with only the rare intervention of kings and churches keeping the system from spiraling out of control. Debt: The First 5,000 Years is a fascinating chronicle of this little known history—as well as how it has defined human history, and what it means for the credit crisis of the present day and the future of our economy.

The leading United States History survey text is now available in a value edition. Give Me Liberty! is the leading textbook in the market because it works in the classroom. A single-author book, Give Me Liberty! offers students a consistent approach, a single narrative voice, and a coherent perspective throughout the text. Threaded through the chronological narrative is the theme of freedom in American history and the significant conflicts over its changing meanings, its limits, and its accessibility to various social and economic groups throughout American history. With the Seagull Edition, students get the full text in a value-edition format: two-color, a selection of the illustrations and maps in the regular edition, and a basic version of the pedagogy. The price is half that of the regular edition, and less than the Brief Edition.

Regime change did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing through the Spanish-American War and the Cold War and into our own time, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 is the latest, though perhaps not the last, example of the dangers inherent in these operations. In Overthrow, Stephen Kinzer tells the stories of the audacious politicians, spies, military commanders, and business executives who took it upon themselves to depose monarchs, presidents, and prime ministers. He also shows that the U.S. government has often pursued these operations without understanding the countries involved; as a result, many of them have had disastrous long-term consequences. In a compelling and provocative history that takes readers to fourteen countries, including Cuba, Iran, South Vietnam, Chile, and Iraq, Kinzer surveys modern American history from a new and often surprising perspective.

THE AMERICAN PARADOX emphasizes political participation and popular culture in recent American history. This reader's main theme is the relationship of Americans to their government, for example, how Americans as a people remain skeptical of big government even as they expect it to facilitate large programs such as Social Security. In addition to the author's vivid, accessible writing style, the Third Edition maintains its focus on the tension between popular culture and social realities, the dynamics of minority groups and their place in American society, and the ambivalent feelings of many Americans concerning the U.S.'s role in the world during the postwar period.