New Word City Inc : 659 books

John D. Rockefeller - the world's first billionaire - created an industrial empire on a scale America had never known. He ruthlessly crushed anyone who got in his way, yet lived a quiet, honest life. Here, in this essay by respected historian Bernard W. Weisberger, is Rockefeller's surprising and often contradictory story.

Tall and stiff, J. P. Morgan looked the part of an emperor. And he acted like one, too, making two United States presidents meet his terms to save the country from financial panic. His great power and princely style of life made him a living symbol of the might of money. Here, in this essay by the respected historian Bernard A. Weisberger, is his remarkable story.

Hillary Rodham Clinton was born to parents determined to overcome obstacles to achieve success. She married Bill Clinton, a man from humble roots who rose to serve two terms as President of the United States. She ran for office against, and then worked for, President Barack Obama. But she is not defined...

Inferno is the compelling story of the U.S. atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the ensuing death and destruction that led to the end of World War II. The events that culminated in the fall of Japan - which forever changed the course of diplomacy, geopolitics, and warfare in the twentieth...

The discovery of a nugget in California in 1848 set off the first gold rush in history. In 1849 alone, the population increased 500 percent as 80,000 men rushed to claim its riches; three years later, nearly 250,000 people lived there. By 1865, miners had dug and panned 750 million in gold from the...

". . . the greatest war of all time told as it is best told - by the people who lived it." - The Washington Post. All first-person accounts of great events have their own fascination, but the editors of American Heritage have discovered that people writing about World War II seem to tell...

Critics said Ferdinand de Lesseps's ambitious scheme to link the waters of the Mediterranean and Red seas - thus cutting 5,800 miles off the India to Europe ocean voyage - was impractical, unwise, and even foolish. The hostile, empty desert of the Isthmus of Suez posed a seemingly insurmountable geographical...

Nelson Mandela led a long and remarkable life. From his earliest days herding cows in a South African village, he became a child of privilege, a rebellious runaway, an impoverished student, a father, a successful lawyer, a political dissident, a rising star in the African nationalist movement, an...

Letters from Amelia began with the discovery of four neglected cardboard boxes in an attic in Berkeley, California. Inside were more than 100 revealing letters the legendary pilot wrote to her beloved mother. The first was a four-year-old's thank-you note. The last, three short lines, was written...

In three years, the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, leading a few hundred Spanish soldiers, overcame a centuries-old empire that could put tens of thousands of warriors on the field. Even after his god-like reputation had been shattered, and his horses and cannons were no longer regarded as...

Once derided as a hopeless cynic, American author Ambrose Bierce now enjoys a solid literary reputation. Witty and sardonic, Bierce speaks to our own scandal-ridden times. His savage Civil War stories have become classics and his Devil's Dictionary is often quoted. In this brief biography, Bruce Watson explores the sorrow behind the wit, and probes Bierce's mysterious disappearance a century ago.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Jack London was the most celebrated author in the United States. As rugged as the wilderness he detailed in his adventure stories, he scratched his way up from a hardscrabble beginning to the pinnacle of publishing. But London heard his own call of the wild. From...

The leading actors and events in Boston in the 1770s - Samuel Adams, John Hancock, the Boston Tea Party, Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill - have assumed a cherished place in history. Yet, with the passage of time, a layer of legend has obscured the true picture. Here, from award-winning author Francis Russell, is the bloody story of the early days of the American Revolution.

Every schoolchild knows about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln - how the actor John Wilkes Booth shot the president while he was watching a play, leaped to the stage from the presidential box, and made his escape. But there is far more to the story, including the bizarre scheme that Booth first...