Upon his release from prison, a widower accepts a job as a bodyguard and joins the battle between the gods of yore and the neoteric gods of present-day America.

"In a collection of essays, the venerated television journalist celebrates our shared values, reminds us of what matters most in our great country, and shows us what patriotism looks like."--

Notable conservative historian Larry Schweikart takes an in-depth look at seven transformative moments in our nation's history and provides an analysis of how each of them spurred a trend that either confirmed or departed from the vision our Founding Fathers had for America.

With America ever under global scrutiny, Russell Banks contemplates the questions of our origins, values, heroes, conflicts, and contradictions. He writes with conversational ease and emotional insight, drawing on contemporary politics, literature, film, and his knowledge of American history.

Perhaps the most vitriolic attack ever launched on the American way of living - from politicians to professors to businessmen to Mom to sexual mores to religion - Generation of Vipers - ranks with the works of De Tocqueville and Emerson in defining the American character and malaise.

How did the Vietnam War change the way we think of ourselves as a people and a nation? Christian G. Appy, author of the widely praised oral history of the Vietnam War Patriots, now examines the relationship between the war's realities and myths and its impact on our national identity, conscience, pride, shame, popular culture, and postwar foreign policy.

With a foreword by Robert Coles and a preface by Calvin Trillin. The Studs Terkel Reader: My American Century collects the best interviews from eight of Terkel's classic oral histories together with his wonderful original introductions to each book. Featuring selections from American Dreams, Coming of Age, Division Street, "The Good War, The Great Divide, Hard Times, Race, and Working, this "greatest hits" volume is a treasury of Terkel's most memorable...

A new, incisive history of the transcontinental railroads and how they transformed America in the decades after the Civil War.

National Book Award Finalist: A study of national myths, lore, and identity that "will interest all those concerned with American cultural history" (American Political Science Review). Winner of the American Historical Association's Albert J. Beveridge Award for Best Book in American History In Regeneration Through Violence, the first of his trilogy on the mythology of the American West, historian and cultural critic Richard Slotkin demonstrates...

The official companion, filled with original and archival photographs, to the National Baseball Hall of Fame's groundbreaking four-year travelling exhibition, pays tribute to America's favorite national pasttime by featuring over thirty essays by writers, players, scholars, and fans, revealing how baseball has had a profound impact on the evolution of American culture.