Isaac's Storm by
September 8, 1900, began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston, Texas. Even Isaac Cline, resident meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning. Mere hours later, Galveston found itself submerged in a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over six thousand people - and Isaac Cline found himself the victim of a devastating personal tragedy.
Worse Than Slavery by
An epic history of race and punishment in the deepest South from emancipation to the civil rights era--and beyond. Mississippi's infamous Parchman State Penitentiary was, in the pre-civil rights south, synonymous with cruelty. The true story of the notorious prison, drawing on police records, prison documents, folklore, blues songs, and oral history, from the days of cotton-field chain gangs to the 1960s, also used to break the wills of civil rights workers on Freedom Rides.
Triangle by
Triangle is a poignantly detailed account of the 1911 disaster that horrified the country and changed the course of twentieth-century politics and labor relations. On March 25, 1911, as workers were getting ready to leave for the day, a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York's Greenwich Village. Within minutes it spread to consume the building's upper three stories. It was the worst disaster in New York City history until 9/11.
Bootleg by
Filled with period art and photographs, anecdotes, and portraits of characters from the era, looks at the rise and fall of the disastrous social experiment known as Prohibition. It began with the best of intentions. Worried about the effects of alcohol on American families, mothers and civic leaders started a movement to outlaw drinking in public places. Protests, petitions, and activism paid off--when a Constitutional Amendment banning the sale and consumption of alcohol was ratified.
The Ghosts of Eden Park by
Epic true crime story of the most successful bootlegger in American history and the murder that shocked the nation. In the early days of Prohibition, a German immigrant named George Remus quits practicing law and starts trafficking whiskey. Within two years he's a multi-millionaire. Combining deep historical research with novelistic flair, this is the unforgettable, stranger-than-fiction story of a rags-to-riches entrepreneur and a long-forgotten heroine, of excesses and of the Jazz Age.
Killers of the Flower Moon by 
The Stowaway by
The spectacular, true story of a scrappy teenager from New York's Lower East Side who stowed away on the Roaring Twenties' most remarkable feat of science and daring: an expedition to Antarctica. It was 1928: a time of illicit booze, of Gatsby and Babe Ruth, of freewheeling fun. The Great War was over and American optimism was higher than the stock market. What better moment to launch an expedition to Antarctica, the planet's final frontier? There wouldn't be another encounter with an unknown this magnificent until Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. Everyone wanted in on the adventure. Rockefellers and Vanderbilts begged to be taken along as mess boys, and newspapers across the globe covered the planning's every stage. And then, the night before the expedition's flagship set off, Billy Gawronski--a mischievous, first-generation New York City high schooler desperate to escape a dreary future in the family upholstery business--jumped into the Hudson River and snuck aboard. Could he get away with it? From the soda shops of New York's Lower East Side to the dance halls of sultry Francophone Tahiti, all the way to Antarctica's blinding white and deadly freeze, Laurie Gwen Shapiro's The Stowaway takes you on the unforgettable voyage of a plucky young stowaway who became a Jazz Age celebrity, a mascot for an up-by-your bootstraps era.
The Boys in the Boat by
New York Times bestselling story about American Olympic triumph in Nazi Germany. The improbable, account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant. It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington's eight-oar crew team goes on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler.
The Worst Hard Time by
An epic story of blind hope and endurance almost beyond belief; it is also a riveting tale of bumptious charlatans, conmen, and tricksters, environmental arrogance and hubris, political chicanery, and a ruinous ignorance of nature's ways. The dust storms that terrorized America's High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since, and the stories of the people that held on have never been fully told.
FDR and the American Crisis by
Brought up in a privileged family, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had every opportunity in front of him. As a young man, he found a path in politics and quickly began to move into the public eye. That ascent seemed impossible when he contracted polio and lost the use of his legs. But with a will of steel he fought the disease--and public perception of his disability--to become president of the United States of America.
March Forward, Girl by
Long before she was one of the Little Rock Nine, Melba Pattillo Beals was a warrior. Frustrated by the laws that kept African-Americans separate but very much unequal to whites, she had questions. Why couldn't she drink from a "whites only" fountain? Why couldn't she feel safe beyond home? This memoir paints a picture of Beals' early journey on the road to becoming a champion for equal rights, an acclaimed journalist, author, and recipient of Congressional Gold Medal.
Born Survivors by
The Nazis murdered their husbands but concentration camp prisoners Priska, Rachel, and Anka would not let evil take their unborn children too. Having concealed their condition from infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, they are forced to work and almost starved to death, living in daily fear of their pregnancies being detected by the SS. In 1945, as the Allies close in, Priska gives birth. She and her baby and the remaining inmates are sent to Mauthausen concentration camp but a miracle occurs.
Code Girls by
Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. These women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history.
Fly Girls by
At the height of World War II, the US Army Airforce faced a desperate need for skilled pilots--but only men were allowed in military airplanes, even if the expert pilots who were training them to fly were women. Through grit and pure determination, 1,100 of these female pilots--who had to prove their worth time and time again--were finally allowed to ferry planes from factories to bases, to tow targets for live ammunition artillery training, to test repaired planes and new equipment, and more.
The Girls of Atomic City by
New York Times bestseller, an incredible true story of the top-secret World War II town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the young women brought there unknowingly to help build the atomic bomb. At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents, and consumed more electricity than New York City, yet it was shrouded in such secrecy that it did not appear on any map. Thousands of civilians, were recruited enticed by the promise of solid wages and war-ending work.
The Secret Rescue by
When 26 Army nurses and medics-- part of the 807th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron-- boarded a cargo plane for in November 1943, they never anticipated the crash landing in Nazi-occupied Albania that would lead to their months-long struggle for survival. A drama that captured the attention of the American public, the group dodged bullets and battled blinding winter storms as they climbed mountains and fought to survive, aided by courageous villagers who risked death at Nazi hands.
Women Heroes of World War II by
Readers will meet courageous women and girls who risked their lives to help defeat the Nazis. 26 engaging and suspense-filled stories unfold from across Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, and the United States, providing an inspiring reminder of women
109 East Palace by
In 1943, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant, charismatic head of the Manhattan Project, recruited scientists to live as virtual prisoners of the U.S. government at Los Alamos, a barren mesa thirty-five miles outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. Thousands of men, women, and children spent the war years sequestered in this top-secret military facility. They lied to friends and family about where they were going and what they were doing, and then disappeared into the desert to build the atomic bomb.
Band of Brothers by
The story of the men who were in Easy Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne during World War II. They came together, citizen soldiers, in the summer of 1942, drawn to Airborne by the $50 monthly bonus and a desire to be better than the other guy. And at its peak, Easy Company was as good a rifle company as any in the world. In combat, the reward for a job well done is the next tough assignment, and as they advanced through Europe, the men of Easy kept getting the tough assignments.
Bomb by
1938: in Great Britain and the United States, Soviet spies worked their way into the scientific community; in Norway, a commando force slipped behind enemy lines to attack German heavy-water manufacturing; and deep in the desert, one brilliant group of scientists was hiddenaway at a remote site at Los Alamos. This is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that created the world's most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb.
Citizen Soldiers by
The inspiring story of the ordinary men of the U.S. army in northwest Europe from the day after D-Day until the end of the bitterest days of World War II. The story opens at 0001 hours, June 7, 1944, on the Normandy beaches, and ends at 0245 hours, May 7, 1945, with the allied victory. It is biography of the US Army in the European Theater of Operations, and Ambrose again follows the individual characters of this noble, brutal, and tragic war.
Courage Has No Color - The True Story of the Triple Nickles by
They became America's first black paratroopers. Why was their story never told? Tanya Lee Stone reveals the history of the Triple Nickles during World War II. World War II is raging, and back on the home front, the injustice of discrimination against African Americans plays out as much on Main Street as in the military. Enlisted black men are segregated from white soldiers and regularly relegated to service duties. The Triple Nickles are America's first black paratroopers, who fought in a little-known attack on the American West by the Japanese.
D-Day by
Drawing on more than 1,400 interviews with American, British, Canadian, French, and German veterans, Ambrose reveals how the original plans for the invasion had to be abandoned, and how enlisted men and junior officers acted on their own initiative when they realized that nothing was as they were told it would be.
The Devil's Mercedes by
In 1938, Mercedes-Benz began production of the largest, most luxurious limousine in the world. A machine of frightening power and sinister beauty, the Grosser 770K Model 150 Offener Tourenwagen was 20 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 5 tons. Deployed mainly for propaganda purposes before the war, the hand-built limousines--in which Hitler rode standing in the front seat--motored through rallies and appeared in countless newsreels, swiftly becoming the Nazi party's symbol of wealth and power.
Farewell to Manzanar by
During World War II a community called Manzanar was created in the high mountain desert country of California. Its purpose was to house thousands of Japanese Americans. Among them was the Wakatsuki family, who were ordered to leave their fishing business in Long Beach and take with them only the belongings they could carry. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, who was seven years old when she arrived at Manzanar in 1942, recalls life in the camp through the eyes of the child she was.
Flyboys by
Brilliantly illuminates a hidden piece of World War II history telling a harrowing true story of nine American airmen shot down in the Pacific. One of them, George H. W. Bush, was miraculously rescued. What happened to the other eight remained a secret for almost 60 years. After the war, the American and Japanese governments conspired to cover up the shocking truth, and not even the families of the airmen were informed of what happened to their sons. Their fate remained a mystery--until now.
The Forgotten 500 by
The astonishing, never before told story of the greatest rescue mission of World War II--when the OSS set out to recover more than 500 airmen trapped behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia... During a bombing campaign over Romanian oil fields, hundreds of American airmen were shot down in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. Local Serbian farmers and peasants risked their own lives to give refuge to the soldiers while they waited for rescue, and in 1944, Operation Halyard was born. The risks were incredible. The starving Americans in Yugoslavia had to construct a landing strip large enough for C-47 cargo planes--without tools, without alerting the Germans, and without endangering the villagers. And the cargo planes had to make it through enemy airspace and back--without getting shot down themselves.
The Ghost Army of World War II by
In the summer of 1944, a handpicked group of young GIs, landed in France to conduct a secret mission. Armed with truckloads of inflatable tanks, a massive collection of sound-effects records, and more than a few tricks up their sleeves, their job was to create a traveling road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe, with the German Army as their audience. Known as the Ghost Army, these men conjured up phony convoys, phantom divisions, and make-believe headquarters to fool the enemy.
Ghosts in the Fog by
Few know the story of the Japanese invasion of Alaska during World War II--until now. A narrative nonfiction book for young adults to tell the riveting story of how the Japanese invaded and occupied the Aleutian Islands in Alaska during World War II. This little-known piece of American history is told from the point of view of the American civilians who were captured and taken prisoner, along with the American and Japanese soldiers who fought in one of the bloodiest battles during the war.
Ghost Soldiers by
On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected troops from the elite U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: March thirty miles in an attempt to rescue 513 American and British POWs who had spent three years in a surreally hellish camp near the city of Cabanatuan. The prisoners included the last survivors of the Bataan Death March left in the camp, and their extraordinary will to live might soon count for nothing—
Imprisoned by
While Americans fought for freedom and democracy abroad, fear and suspicion towards Japanese Americans swept the country after Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Culling information from extensive, previously unpublished interviews and oral histories with Japanese American survivors of internment camps, Sandler gives an in-depth account of their lives before, during their imprisonment, and after their release. Bringing readers inside life in the internment camp.
Infamy by
After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed an executive order that forced more than 120,000 Japanese Americans into primitive camps for the rest of war. Their only crime: looking like the enemy. Men we usually consider heroes--FDR, Earl Warren, Edward R. Murrow--were in this case villains. We also learn of internees who joined the military to fight for the country that had imprisoned their families, even as others fought for their rights all the way to the Supreme Court.
In Harm's Way by
On July 30, 1945, the "USS Indianapolis" was torpedoed in the South Pacific by a Japanese submarine. An estimated three hundred men were killed upon impact; close to nine hundred sailors were cast into the Pacific Ocean, where they struggled to stay alive, battered by a savage sea and fighting off sharks, hypothermia, and dementia. By the time help arrived--nearly four days and nights later--all but 317 men had died.
In the Garden of Beasts by
A story of Hitler's rise to power. Berlin in 1933- when William E. Dodd becomes America's first ambassador to Hitler's Nazi Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his family. As laws change and Jews are persecuted, Dodd becomes concerned but the U.S. fails to act. This story show why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Europe was awash in blood and terror.
Killing Patton by
General George S. Patton, Jr. died under mysterious circumstances in the months following the end of World War II. For almost seventy years, there has been suspicion that his death was not an accident--and may very well have been an act of assassination. Killing Patton takes readers inside the final year of the war and recounts the events surrounding Patton’s tragic demise, naming names of the many powerful individuals who wanted him silenced.
Killing the Rising Sun by
1944 World War II is nearly over in Europe but escalating in the Pacific, where American soldiers face an opponent who will go to any length to avoid defeat. Story takes you to the Philippines, where General MacArthur has made a triumphant return and is plotting to invade Japan. Across to Los Alamos, where Dr.Oppenheimer is preparing to test the atomic bomb. And to Washington, DC, where President Truman must decide whether to use it. And in Tokyo, Emperor Hirohito, refuses to surrender.
The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz by
An extraordinary true story of a British soldier who marched willingly into the concentration camp. In the summer of 1944, Denis Avey was being held in a British POW labor camp near Auschwitz III. He had heard of the brutality and he was determined to witness what he could. He hatched a plan to swap places with a Jewish inmate and smuggled himself into his sector of the camp. He spent the night there on two occasions and experienced at first-hand the cruelty of a place and survived to tell about it.
The Monuments Men by
At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Momuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture. Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis.
The Perfect Horse by
The heroic rescue of priceless horses in the closing days of World War II. A small troop of American soldiers captures a German spy and finds his briefcase is empty but for photos of beautiful white horses that have been stolen and kept on a secret farm. Hitler has stockpiled the world's finest purebreds in order to breed the perfect military machine--an equine master race. With only hours to spare, Colonel Hank Reed, makes a decision to mount a covert rescue operation.
Symphony for the City of the Dead by
National Book Award winner M. T. Anderson delivers a brilliant and riveting account of the Siege of Leningrad and the role played by Russian composer Shostakovich and his Leningrad Symphony. In September 1941, Adolf Hitler’s Wehrmacht surrounded Leningrad in what was to become one of the longest and most destructive sieges in Western history—almost three years of bombardment and starvation that culminated in the harsh winter of 1943–1944. More than a million citizens perished. Survivors recall corpses littering the frozen streets, their relatives having neither the means nor the strength to bury them. Residents burned books, furniture, and floorboards to keep warm; they ate family pets and—eventually—one another to stay alive. Trapped between the Nazi invading force and the Soviet government itself was composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who would write a symphony that roused, rallied, eulogized, and commemorated his fellow citizens—the Leningrad Symphony, which came to occupy a surprising place of prominence in the eventual Allied victory. This is the true story of a city under siege: the triumph of bravery and defiance in the face of terrifying odds. It is also a look at the power—and layered meaning—of music in beleaguered lives. Symphony for the City of the Dead is a masterwork thrillingly told and impeccably researched by National Book Award–winning author M. T. Anderson.
The Things Our Fathers Saw by
How soon we forget. Or perhaps, we were never told. That is understandable, given what they saw. But, it happened. From the book: -'I was talking to a shipmate of mine waiting for the motor launch, and all at once I saw a plane go over our ship. I did not know what it was, but the fellow with me said, 'That's a Jap plane, Jesus!' It went down and dropped a torpedo. Then I saw the Utah turn over.' U.S. Navy seaman, Pearl Harbor -'Rage is instantaneous. He's looking at me from a crawling position. I didn't shoot him; I went and kicked him in the head. Rage does funny things. After I kicked him, I shot and killed him.' Marine veteran, Battle of Guadalcanal -'Marched to Camp I at Cabanatuan, a distance of six miles, which is the main prison camp here in the Philippines. Food is scarcer now than anytime so far. Fifty men to a bucket of rice!' U.S. Army prisoner of war, Corregidor -'They were firing pretty heavily at us...it's rather difficult to fly when you have a rosary in each hand. I took more fellas in with me than I brought home that day, unfortunately.' U.S. Navy torpedo bomber pilot, Guadalcanal -'I remember it rained like hell that night, and the water was running down the slope into our foxholes. I had to use my helmet to keep bailing out, you know. Lt. Gower called us together. He said, 'I think we're getting hit with a banzai. We're going to have to pull back.' Holy Jesus, there was howling and screaming! They had naked women, with spears, stark naked!' U.S. Army veteran, Saipan -'So I had a hard... two months, I guess. I kept mostly to myself. I wouldn't talk to people. I tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do when I got home. How was I going to tell my mother this? You know what I mean?' Marine veteran, Battle of Okinawa, on finding out he would be blind for life -'After 31/2 years of starvation and brutal treatment, that beautiful symbol of freedom once more flies over our head! Our camp tailor worked all night and finished our first American flag! The blue came from a GI barracks bag, red from a Jap comforter and the white from an Australian bed sheet. When I came out of the barracks and saw those beautiful colors for the first time I felt like crying!' U.S. Army prisoner of war, Japan, at war's end -'There was a family that lost two sons in World War II. The family got a telegram on a Monday that one of the boys was killed, and that Thursday they got another telegram saying that his brother had been killed. There were about 35 young men from our town who were killed in World War II, and I knew every one of them; most were good friends of mine.' U.S. Navy seaman, Tokyo Bay -'I hope you'll never have to tell a story like this, when you get to be 87. I hope you'll never have to do it.' Marine veteran, Iwo Jima At the height of World War II, LOOK Magazine profiled a small American community for a series of articles portraying it as the wholesome, patriotic model of life on the home front. Decades later, author Matthew Rozell tracks down over thirty survivors who fought the war in the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor to the surrender at Tokyo Bay. The book resurrects firsthand accounts of combat and brotherhood, of captivity and redemption, and the aftermath of a war that left no American community unscathed. Here are the stories that the magazine could not tell, from a vanishing generation speaking to America today. It is up to us to remember--for own sakes, as much as theirs. -Featuring over a dozen custom maps and 35 photographs, including never-before published portraits. Extended notes and companion website.
The Things Our Fathers Saw-The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation-Volume II by
Dying for freedom isn't the worst that could happen. Being forgotten is. THE LONG-AWAITED SEQUEL IN THE BEST SELLING 'The Things Our Fathers Saw' SERIES At the height of World War II, LOOK Magazine profiled a small upstate New York community for a series of articles portraying it as the wholesome, patriotic model of life on the home front. Seventy years later, a history teacher tracks down the veterans with a connection to "Hometown, USA" who fought the war in the air over Europe, men who were tempered in the tough times of the Great Depression and forged in battle. He rescues and resurrects firsthand accounts of combat and brotherhood, of captivity and redemption, and the aftermath of a war that left no American community unscathed. Here are the stories that the magazine could not tell, from a vanishing generation speaking to America today.
The Things Our Fathers Saw-The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation-Volume III by
Dying for freedom isn't the worst that could happen. Being forgotten is. (The War in the Air Book Two) VOLUME 3 IN THE BEST SELLING 'The Things Our Fathers Saw' SERIES --"After the first mission Colonel Davis told us, 'From now on you are going to go with the bombers all the way through the mission to the target.' It didn't always work, but that was our mission--we kept the Germans off the bombers. At first they didn't want us, but toward the end, they started asking for us as an escort, because we protected them to and from the missions."-Clarence Dart, Tuskegee Airman, WWII ANOTHER BOOK IN THE BEST SELLING 'The Things Our Fathers Saw' SERIES How soon we forget. Or perhaps, we were never told. That is understandable, given what they saw. -- Someone in the PoW camp] said, 'Look down there at the main gate ', and the American flag was flying We went berserk, we just went berserk We were looking at the goon tower and there's no goons there, there are Americans up there And we saw the American flag, I mean--to this day I start to well up when I see the flag." -Sam Lisica, former prisoner of war, WWII By the end of 2018, fewer than 400,000 WW II veterans will still be with us, out of the over 16 million who put on a uniform. But why is it that today, nobody seems to know these stories? Maybe our veterans did not volunteer to tell us; maybe we were too busy with our own lives to ask. But they opened up to the younger generation, when a history teacher told their grandchildren to ask. This book brings you the previously untold firsthand accounts of combat and brotherhood, of captivity and redemption, and the aftermath of a war that left no American community unscathed. As we forge ahead as a nation, we owe it to ourselves to become reacquainted with a generation that is fast leaving us, who asked for nothing but gave everything, to attune ourselves as Americans to a broader appreciation of what we stand for. This book should be a must-read in every high school in America. It is a very poignant look back at our greatest generation; maybe it will inspire the next one. Reviewer, Vol. I This book picks up where the previous 'War in the Air' volume left off, in the air war over Europe.
Triumph by
At the 1936 Olympics, against a backdrop of swastikas and goose-stepping storm troopers, an African-American son of sharecroppers won a staggering four gold medals and single-handedly demonstrated that Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy was a lie. The story of Jesse Owens at the Berlin games is that of an athletic performance that transcends sports. It is also the intimate and complex tale of one remarkable man's courage.
Unbroken by
In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he channeled his defiance into running, that carried him to the Berlin Olympics. But when World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943. When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.
Unbroken- YA version by
In this captivating and lavishly illustrated young adult edition of her award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller, Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of a former Olympian's courage, cunning, and fortitude following his plane crash in enemy territory. This adaptation of Unbroken introduces a new generation to one of history's most thrilling survival epics.
When Books Went to War by
World War II in 1941, America faced an enemy that had banned and burned 100 million books. Outraged librarians launched a campaign to send free books to American troops and gathered 20 million hardcover donations. In 1943, the War Department and the publishing industry stepped in with an extraordinary program: 120 million small, lightweight paperbacks for troops to carry in their pockets and rucksacks in every theater of war.
Baseball's Great Experiment by
A gripping account of one of the most important steps in the history of American desegregation, This is the story of Jackie Robinson's crossing of baseball's color line. Examining the social and historical context of Robinson's introduction into white organized baseball, both on and off the field, Tygiel also tells the often neglected stories of other African-American players--such as Satchel Paige, Roy Campanella, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron--who transformed our national pastime.
Eight Men Out by
The headlines proclaimed the 1919 fix of the World Series and attempted cover-up as "the most gigantic sporting swindle in the history of America!" First published in 1963, Eight Men Out has become a timeless classic. A scene-by-scene reconstruction of the scandal in which eight Chicago White Sox players arranged with the nation's leading gamblers to throw the Series in Cincinnati. Describes the plays in which the Series was thrown, the Grand Jury indictment, and the 1921 trial.
Fire on the Track by
The inspiring and irresistible true story of the women who broke barriers and finish-line ribbons in pursuit of Olympic Gold When Betty Robinson assumed the starting position at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, she was participating in what was only her fourth-ever organized track meet. She crossed the finish line as a gold medalist and the fastest woman in the world. This improbable athletic phenom was an ordinary high school student, discovered running for a train in rural Illinois mere months before her Olympic debut. Amsterdam made her a star. But at the top of her game, her career (and life) almost came to a tragic end when a plane she and her cousin were piloting crashed. So dire was Betty's condition that she was taken to the local morgue; only upon the undertaker's inspection was it determined she was still breathing. Betty, once a natural runner who always coasted to victory, soon found herself fighting to walk. While Betty was recovering, the other women of Track and Field were given the chance to shine in the Los Angeles Games, building on Betty's pioneering role as the first female Olympic champion in the sport. These athletes became more visible and more accepted, as stars like Babe Didrikson and Stella Walsh showed the world what women could do. And--miraculously--through grit and countless hours of training, Betty earned her way onto the 1936 Olympic team, again locking her sights on gold as she and her American teammates went up against the German favorites in Hitler's Berlin. Told in vivid detail with novelistic flair, Fire on the Track is an unforgettable portrait of these trailblazers in action.
Seabiscuit by
Seabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938. But his success was a surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged racehorse with the sad tail. Over four years, three unlikely partners survived a phenomenal run of bad fortune, conspiracy, and severe injury to transform Seabiscuit from a neurotic horse into an American sports icon.
Hidden Figures by
Before John Glenn orbited Earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as 'human computers' used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation.
The Radium Girls by
The newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive -- until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.
Rise of the Rocket Girls by
A New York Times bestseller and Amazon Best Book of 2016. In the 1940s and 50s, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate velocities and plot trajectories, they didn't turn to male graduates. Rather, they recruited an elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design, helped bring about the first American satellites, and made the exploration of the solar system possible.