In Being Miss America, Kate Shindle interweaves an engrossing, witty memoir of her year as Miss America 1998 with a fascinating and insightful history of the pageant. She explores what it means to take on the mantle of America's "ideal," especially considering the evolution of the American female identity since the pageant's inception. Shindle profiles winners and organization leaders and recounts important moments in the pageant's story, with a special...

This biography of the singer, actor, and fearless anti-racism activist is "so engaging that readers will crave a sequel" (Kirkus Reviews). A son of poor Jamaican immigrants who grew up in Depression-era Harlem, Harry Belafonte became the first black performer to gain artistic control over the representation of African Americans in commercial television and film. Forging connections with an astonishing array of consequential players on the American...

Christianity takes an astonishing variety of forms in America, from churches that cherish traditional modes of worship to evangelical churches and fellowships, Pentecostal churches, social-action churches, megachurches, and apocalyptic churches-congregations ministering to believers of diverse ethnicities, social classes, and sexual orientations. Nor is this diversity a recent phenomenon, despite many Americans' nostalgia for an undeviating "faith...

True crime meets cultural history in this story of how America's interstate highway system opened a world of mobility and opportunity...for serial killers. Starting in the 1950s, Americans eagerly built the planet's largest public work: the 42,795-mile National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. Before the concrete was dry on the new roads, however, a specter began haunting them: the highway killer. He went by many names: the "Hitcher," the...

John Adams, Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams – learn about a family whose impact on America lasted for generations.

George Washington, Haym Salomon, Noah Webster – find out about how these Patriots used their unique skills to make invaluable contributions to the cause of the Revolution.

From the arrival of English settlers in the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, American society was rooted in British Puritanism. Although whispers of that earlier Puritanical society remain, today's American culture is dramatically different. This volume traces the events that led to these societal changes, discussing such occurrences as the American Revolution, the California Gold Rush, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, spikes in immigration,...

The foundation of the United States was defined by wide-ranging debates about what a government should be. Those debates continue today and have day-to-day effects on Americans and, through foreign policy, countries around the world. Politics and Power in the United States traces the history of America's government and other political institutions, including major political parties like the Federalists, Anti-Federalists, Whigs, Democrats, Republicans,...

No country grows or changes in isolation, and the history of the United States demonstrates the interdependence of countries around the world. The United States' Role in the World explores how government policy and military intervention have influenced daily life, economics, culture, and more. The book analyzes major conflicts and policy changes from the earliest days of America until present day, including the American Revolution, World War I, World...

The United States is constantly evolving in all ways, including how individuals, groups, and institutions define what it means to be an American. This essential guidebook leads readers through this development, from the early days of European invasion, exploration, and settlement to the creation of the Constitution, a living document that continues to change and to be read from new perspectives, to the issues and debates of today. It considers how...