The Devil in the White City – Erik Larson

The Devil in the White City – Erik Larson

Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book’s categorization to be sure that ‘The Devil in the White City’ is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Author Erik Larson is a former features writer for The Wall Street…

The Professor and the Madman – Simon Winchester

The Professor and the Madman – Simon Winchester

The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary — and literary history. Author Simon Winchester, OBE, is a British writer, journalist and broadcaster who resides in the United…

Tocqueville’s Discovery of America – Leo Damrosch

Tocqueville’s Discovery of America – Leo Damrosch

Alexis de Tocqueville is more quoted than read; commentators across the political spectrum invoke him as an oracle who defined America and its democracy for all times. But in fact his masterpiece, Democracy in America, was the product of a young man’s open-minded experience of America at a time of rapid change. In Tocqueville’s Discovery…

The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears – Perdue & Green

The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears – Perdue & Green

In 1830 the U.S. government shifted its policy from one of trying to assimilate American Indians to one of relocating them and proceeded to drive seventeen thousand Cherokee people west of the Mississippi. Authors THEDA PERDUE is a professor of history at the University of Kentucky. She is the author or editor of eight books,…

The Private Lives of the Impressionists – Sue Roe

The Private Lives of the Impressionists – Sue Roe

Though they were often ridiculed or ignored by their contemporaries, today astonishing sums are paid for their paintings. Their dazzling works are familiar to even the most casual art lovers—but how well does the world know the Impressionists as people? Author Sue Roe is an acclaimed biographer and poet with a strong interest in the…

Destiny of the Republic – Candice Millard

Destiny of the Republic – Candice Millard

James A. Garfield (1831 – 1881) was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment….

Genius of Place – Justin Martin

Genius of Place – Justin Martin

Genius of Place tells the story of one of the most important figures in the history of America, Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted was a fervent abolitionist, noted journalist, Civil War hero, early environmentalist, and the landscape architect behind New York’s Central Park, Boston’s Emerald Necklace, Stanford University, the Biltmore Estate and dozens of other green…