Focusing on the ten most influential baseball books of all time, this volume explores how these landmark works changed the game itself and made waves in American society at large. Satchel Paige's Pitchin' Man informed the dialog surrounding integration. Ring Lardner's You Know Me Al changed the way Americans viewed their baseball heroes and influenced the work of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Bill James's Baseball Abstract transformed the way managers-including those in fields other than baseball-analyzed numbers. Pete Rose's My Story and My Prison Without Bars exposed and deepened a cultural divide that paved the way for Donald Trump.

American Stories follows the evolution of our founding stories and myths and how they spread far and wide throughout our history. The story of the cherry tree, for example, tells us nothing about George Washington's actual childhood, but surely it tells us something about what Americans wanted in the father of their country-an incorruptible leader of the people. Along the same lines, the story of Betsy Ross's flag tells us nothing about how the Stars and Stripes came to be, but does tell us something about what Americans wanted in a founding mother-it is no coincidence that the Ross story, featuring a traditional woman's role of sewing at home, was first told in 1870, one year after Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony challenged these roles by founding the National Woman Suffrage Association. There's another reason these stories spread, and that provides another reason to follow their evolution. From Dodge City to Deadwood, and from Bunker Hill to San Juan Hill and beyond, these stories all have one thing in common: they are all a lot of fun to read.

Advance Praise for Did Babe Ruth Call His Shot?
""Aron has found the Rosetta stone to all of baseball's enduring mysteries, and he skips it along the pond with utter disregard for the ducks. His fortunate readers will have so much fun they may not even notice that they are becoming, page by page, real experts. Here is surefire water-cooler ammo.""
--JOHN THORN, editor of Total Baseball
""Paul Aron puts a distant replay on the most famous controversies in baseball history. This is more fun than if he'd been there with a camcorder.""
--ALLEN BARRA, author of Clearing the Bases and Brushbacks and Knockdowns
""Paul Aron has hit a home run for baseball fans. He dissects the evidence on baseball's 28 most charming mysteries. The result is a well-written, enjoyable, enlightening tour of the last hundred years of baseball history.""
--ANDREW ZIMBALIST, author of Baseball and Billions
""Paul Aron's book on elements of baseball is both wise and fun, illuminating and entertaining.""
--ROBERT ADAIR, author of The Physics of Baseball
""The essential last word for every fan who loves to debate baseball fact and fiction.""
--MICHAEL SHAPIRO, author of The Last Good Season

Advance Praise for Did Babe Ruth Call His Shot?

"Aron has found the Rosetta stone to all of baseball's enduring mysteries, and he skips it along the pond with utter disregard for the ducks. His fortunate readers will have so much fun they may not even notice that they are becoming, page by page, real experts. Here is surefire water-cooler ammo."
--JOHN THORN, editor of Total Baseball

"Paul Aron puts a distant replay on the most famous controversies in baseball history. This is more fun than if he'd been there with a camcorder."
--ALLEN BARRA, author of Clearing the Bases and Brushbacks and Knockdowns

"Paul Aron has hit a home run for baseball fans. He dissects the evidence on baseball's 28 most charming mysteries. The result is a well-written, enjoyable, enlightening tour of the last hundred years of baseball history."
--ANDREW ZIMBALIST, author of Baseball and Billions

"Paul Aron's book on elements of baseball is both wise and fun, illuminating and entertaining."
--ROBERT ADAIR, author of The Physics of Baseball

"The essential last word for every fan who loves to debate baseball fact and fiction."
--MICHAEL SHAPIRO, author of The Last Good Season

Praise for Unsolved Mysteries of American History

"The facts are presented clearly and concisely, and the answers have been thoroughly researched using the most up-to-date sources."
-Newark Star Ledger

"Everything that would make a great detective story. It has intellectual twists and turns, alleyways and dead ends; it has politics, espionage, intrigue, murder, cowardice, greed, courage, battles, liars, and frauds."
- New Strait Times

"Stimulating and pleasurable, fair and objective . . . recommended for both the history buff and the fan of true-life mysteries."
-Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Unsolved Mysteries of History

"Draws intelligently and entertainingly on respected-and disputed-primary volumes. . . . Reading a chapter aloud to a group would almost guarantee a lively evening."
-Baltimore Sun

"Unerring good sense and . . . well-paced prose."
-Petersburg Monitor

"Solid speculation . . . full of clever advice."
-Associated Press

"Aron's latest offering proves again that history can be fun and as strange, at least, as fiction."
-Booklist

Remember the ladies. A Republic if you can keep it. I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. If this be treason, make the most of it. Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes. I can't tell a lie. These words and words like them, whether written or spoken, had a profound importance during America's Founding period. These are the words of legend and gravitas, referenced by generations of teachers, politicians, and commentators. These are the words that still inspire revolutionary changes in the United States and elsewhere. But what do they mean? What's the real story behind them? Why do they inspire us today, more than two centuries after first spoken or written? We Hold These Truths...answers these questions about fifty-four of the best-known quotes from the Founding period. This book covers two hundred years of early American history and highlights quotes from both the founders and the founding documents. Combining each quote with a rich narratives that highlights its astounding, and generally unknown, origin. History buffs of all ages will love We Hold These Truths...