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By the time Abraham Lincoln asserted in 1858 that the nation could
not “endure permanently half slave and half free,” the rift
that would split the country in civil war was well defined. The
origins and evolution of the coming conflict between North and
South can in fact be traced back to the early years of the American
Republic, as Stephen G. Hyslop demonstrates in Building a House
Divided, an exploration of how the incipient fissure between the
Union’s initial slave states and free states—or those where
slaves were gradually being emancipated—lengthened and deepened
as the nation advanced westward. Hyslop focuses on four prominent
slaveholding expansionists who were intent on preserving the Union
but nonetheless helped build what Lincoln called a house divided:
Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and James K. Polk and
Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, who managed a plantation in
Mississippi bequeathed by his father-in-law. Hyslop examines what
these men did, collectively and individually, to further what
Jefferson called an “empire of liberty,” though it kept
millions of Black people in bondage. Along with these major
figures, in all their conflicts and contradictions, he considers
other American expansionists who engaged in and helped extend
slavery—among them William Clark, Stephen Austin, and President
John Tyler—as well as examples of principled opposition to the
extension of slavery by northerners such as John Quincy Adams and
southerners like Henry Clay and Thomas Hart Benton, who held slaves
but placed preserving the Union above extending slavery across the
continent. The long view of the path to the Civil War, as charted
through the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian eras in this book, reveals
the critical fault in the nation’s foundation, exacerbated by
slaveholding expansionists like Jefferson, Jackson, Polk, and
Douglas, until the house they built upon it could no longer stand
for two opposite ideas at once.
From the first wagon trains to the building of the railroads, the
story of the American West is epic in scope, full of amazing
stories of grit, tragedy, and triumph. Lavishly illustrated with
photographs and maps, this is the definitive history of a time and
place that forever lives in legend. Travel with fur traders and
trappers through the Pacific northwest; read accounts of brave
pioneers heading west along the Oregon Trail; see 19th-century
technology progress as the golden spike connects the east and west
coasts; and learn the stories of unforgettable characters who made
the American West.
California's early history was both colorful and turbulent. After
Europeans first explored the region in the sixteenth century, it
was conquered and colonized by successive waves of adventurers and
settlers. In "Contest for California," award-winning author Stephen
G. Hyslop draws on a wide array of primary sources to weave an
elegant narrative of this epic struggle for control of the
territory that many saw as a beautiful, sprawling land of promise.
In vivid detail, Hyslop traces the story of early California from
its founding in 1769 by Spanish colonists to its annexation in 1848
by the United States. He describes the motivations and activities
of colonizers and colonized alike. Using eyewitness accounts, he
allows all participants--Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and
Anglo-American--to have their say. Soldiers, settlers,
missionaries, and merchants testify to the heroic and commonplace,
the colorful and tragic, in California's pre-American history.
Even as he acknowledges the dark side of this story, Hyslop avoids
a simplistic perspective. Moving beyond the polarities that have
marked late-twentieth-century California historiography, he offers
nuanced portraits of such controversial figures as Junipero Serra
and treats the Californios and their distinctive Hispanic culture
with a respect lacking in earlier histories. Attentive to tensions
within the invading groups--priests and the military during the
Spanish era, merchants and settlers during the American era--he
also never loses sight of their impact on the original inhabitants
of the region: California's Native peoples. He also recounts the
journeys of colonists from Russia, England, and other countries who
influenced the development of California as it passed from the
hands of Spaniards and Mexicans to Americans.
Exhaustively researched yet concise, this book offers a much-needed
alternative history of early California and its evolution from
Spanish colony to American territory.
"Draws on eyewitness accounts to tell the story of the fabled
Santa Fe Trail"
For nearly half a century, the Santa Fe Trail served as an
avenue of exchange, where transactions ranged from friendly
give-and-take to guarded trade to lethal attempts to settle scores.
In 1846, the trail became the means for American seizure of Mexican
territory--yet the economic and cultural exchanges continued even
in the midst of war. "In Bound for Santa Fe," Stephen G. Hyslop
draws on eyewitness accounts to retrace the journey from Missouri
to New Mexico, weaving together nearly one hundred accounts by
scores of people who traveled the trail.
This comprehensive atlas delves into the cartographic history of
WWII: naval, land, and aerial attacks from the invasion of Poland
to Pearl Harbor and the Battle of the Bulge. Rare maps include a
detailed Germany & Approaches map used by Allied forces in the
final stages of the war, full large-scale wartime maps of the world
used by President Roosevelt, and crucial Pacific theater maps used
by B-17 pilots. Satellite data renders terrain as never before
seen, highlighting countries and continents in stunning detail to
include the towns, cities, provinces, and transportation roads for
a pinpoint-accurate depiction of army movements and alliances.
Gripping wartime stories from these hallowed fields of battle,
along with photographs, sketches, confidential documents, and
artifacts color the rest of this timeless and informative book.
This definitive, lavishly illustrated book features an astonishing
array of vintage and newly created maps, rare photographs, covert
documents, and eyewitness accounts that illuminate the world's
greatest conflict.
California's early history was both colorful and turbulent. After
Europeans first explored the region in the sixteenth century, it
was conquered and colonized by successive waves of adventurers and
settlers. In Contest for California, award-winning author Stephen
G. Hyslop draws on a wide array of primary sources to weave an
elegant narrative of this epic struggle for control of the
territory that many saw as a beautiful, sprawling land of promise.
In vivid detail, Hyslop traces the story of early California from
its founding in 1769 by Spanish colonists to its annexation in 1848
by the United States. He describes the motivations and activities
of colonizers and colonized alike. Using eyewitness accounts, he
allows all participants - Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and
Anglo-American - to have their say. Soldiers, settlers,
missionaries, and merchants testify to the heroic and commonplace,
the colorful and tragic, in California's pre-American history. Even
as he acknowledges the dark side of this story, Hyslop avoids a
simplistic perspective. Moving beyond the polarities that have
marked late-twentieth-century California historiography, he offers
nuanced portraits of such controversial figures as Junipero Serra
and treats the Californios and their distinctive Hispanic culture
with a respect lacking in earlier histories. Attentive to tensions
within the invading groups - priests and the military during the
Spanish era, merchants and settlers during the American era - he
also never loses sight of their impact on the original inhabitants
of the region: California's Native peoples. He also recounts the
journeys of colonists from Russia, England, and other countries who
influenced the development of California as it passed from the
hands of Spaniards and Mexicans to Americans. Exhaustively
researched yet concise, this book offers a much-needed alternative
history of early California and its evolution from Spanish colony
to American territory.
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