American History Biographies

A novel in The L.A. Quartet. Internationally acclaimed author James Ellroy presents another literary noir masterpiece of historical paranoia. Los Angeles, 1958. Killings, beatings, bribes, shakedowns—it's standard procedure for Lieutenant Dave Klein, LAPD. He's a slumlord, a bagman, an...

From one of America’s most respected journalists and modern historians comes the highly acclaimed, “splendid” (The Washington Post) biography of Jimmy Carter, the thirty-ninth president of the United States and Nobel Prize–winning humanitarian. Jonathan Alter tells the epic story of an...

The United States has always been a nation of immigrants - and now you can learn all about the amazing people who’ve helped shape it, with this history book for kids age 9-12. Home of the Brave: An American History Book for Kids gives you an exciting and engaging look into the lives and contributions of these incredible individuals.

Updated with a New Foreword ""Medical writing at its finest.""—David Oshinsky, author of Polio and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History Respected physician Paul Offit tells a fascinating story of modern medicine and pays tribute to one of the greatest lifesaving...

When Tara Roberts first caught sight of a photograph at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History depicting the underwater archaeology group Diving With a Purpose, it called out to her. Here were Black women and men strapping on masks, fins, and tanks to explore Atlantic Ocean waters along the coastlines of Africa, North America, and Central America, seeking the wrecks of slave ships long lost in time. Inspired, Roberts joined them—and started on a path of discovery more challenging and personal than she could ever have imagined.

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft a “deeply layered and insightful” (The Washington Post) testament to people who are left out of the archives...

**One of Literary Hub’s Five “Most Critically Acclaimed” Biographies of 2022** From acclaimed cultural and film historian James Curtis—a major biography, the first in more than two decades, of the legendary comedian and filmmaker who elevated physical comedy to the highest of arts and...

Amazing Grace is the surprising true story of John Newton, author of the song that has touched millions. A biography that reads like a novel, it reveals Newton’s dramatic story of sin and salvation as a slave trader before his ultimate transformation to speaking out against the horror of...

The definitive portrait of one of the American Century’s most towering intellectuals: her writing and her radical thought, her public activism and her hidden private face. No writer is as emblematic of the American twentieth century as Susan Sontag. Mythologized and misunderstood, lauded and...

“Practically every paragraph has a line or two that demands to be read aloud to the mirror, tattooed on foreheads, carved on tombstones.” –Rolling Stone “Morrissey is a pop star of unusual writing talent.” –The New York Times Autobiography covers Morrissey’s life from his birth...

Who are the Kennedys? Are they the brilliant, heroic, extraordinary people their admirers believe them to be? Or are they arrogant, competitive, self-absorbed children of a willful and immensely rich patriarch, as their detractors claim? In fact, they are all of these things, and more.

For a world of devoted fans, a much-awaited new volume of absorbing stories and inspirational wisdom from one of our best-loved writers. Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter reveals Maya Angelou’s path to living well and living a life with...

A new rip-roaring essay collection from the smart, edgy, hilarious, unabashedly raunchy, and bestselling Samantha Irby. Irby is forty, and increasingly uncomfortable in her own skin despite what Inspirational Instagram Infographics have promised her. She has left her job as a receptionist at a...

Dramatized in the major motion picture Amazing Grace, the story of William Wilberforce is the remarkable account of how one man’s vision, courage, and relentless pursuit of justice brought freedom to thousands and changed the course of history. “That the greatest and most successful reformer...

""Lizzie Wade is an exceptional journalist and a master storyteller. She reminds us that survival always has been, and still is, possible, and that our world always has been, and still is, a choice."" –Ed Yong, author of An Immense World “This book upended my understanding of the ancient...

A magisterial journey through the epic life and transformative times of John Quincy Adams In this masterful biography, historian Randall B. Woods peels back the many layers of John Quincy’s long life, exposing a rich and complicated family saga and a political legacy that transformed the...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER THE BASIS FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE A “riveting” (USA Today) true tale of courage during America’s “forgotten war” in Korea, from the author of A Higher Call and Spearhead “In the spirit of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat comes Devotion...

Our American Revolution for Beginners audiobook is written in a style and structure that makes listening and immersing yourself in history as enjoyable and captivating as possible. You'll witness the daring strategies, meet the real revolutionaries, and finally understand what pushed colonists to fight for independence.

The enthralling and often harrowing history of the adventurers who searched for the Northwest Passage, the holy grail of nineteenth-century British exploration. After the triumphant end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British took it upon themselves to complete something they had been trying...

In this thrilling panorama of real-life events, the bestselling author of Empire of Pain investigates a secret world run by a surprising criminal: a charismatic middle-aged grandmother, who from a tiny noodle shop in New York’s Chinatown managed a multi-million dollar business smuggling people...