Helen Plum Library

For the captains of industry-men like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Henry Ford-the Gilded Age is a time of big money. Technology boomed with the invention of trains, telephones, electric lights, harvesters, vacuum cleaners, and more. But for millions of immigrant workers, it is a time of big struggles, with adults and children alike working 12 to 14 hour a day under extreme, dangerous conditions. The disparity between the...

People call it "post-war," but All the People covers a period in U.S. history that features battles of another kind-from Cold War combat overseas to struggles for equality at home to learning to live with the threat of terrorism on U.S. soil. During these years, the United States began to be a nation for all its people, outlawing school segregation, protesting war in Vietnam, and campaigning for equal rights for women. From Supreme Court Justice Thurgood...

Thousands of years ago - way before Christopher Columbus set sail - wandering tribes of hunters made their way from Asia across the Bering land bridge to North America. They didn't know it, but they had discovered a New World. The First Americans is a fascinating re-creation of pre-Columbian Native American life, and it's an adventure of a lifetime! Hunt seals with Inuit; harvest corn on a cliff-top mesa; hunt the mighty buffalo; and set sail with...

How did compliant colonials with strong ties to Europe get the notion to become an independent nations? Perhaps the seeds of liberty were planted in the 1735 historic courtroom battle for the freedom of the press. Or maybe the French and Indian War did it, when colonists were called "Americans" for the first time by the English, and the great English army proved itself no so formidable after all. But for sure when King George III started levying some...

Early nineteenth-century America could just about be summed up by Henry David Thoreau's words when he said, "Eastward I go only by force, but westward I go free." It was an exuberant time for the diverse citizens of the United States, who included a range of folks from mountain men and railroad builders to whalers and farmers, as they pushed forward into the open frontier, and all their hopes and fears are captured in Liberty for All? In addition...

People are coming to America-all kinds of people. If you're European, you come in search of freedom or riches. If you're African, you come in chains. And what about the Indians, what is happening to them? Soon with the influx of so many people, thirteen unique colonies are born, each with its own story. Meet Pocahontas and John Smith in Jamestown. Join William Penn and the Quakers in Pennsylvania. Sit with the judges at the Salem witch trials. Hike...

Beginning with George Washington's inauguration and continuing into the nineteenth century, The New Nation, tells the story of the remarkable challenges that the new country faced. Thomas Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana Territory (bought from France at a mere four cents an acre!), Lewis and Clark's daring expedition through the wilderness, the War of 1812 a.k.a. "Revolutionary War, Part II", Tecumseh's effort to form an Indian confederacy, the...

Covering a time of great hope and incredible change, Reconstructing America is a dramatic look at life after the Civil War in the newly re-United States. Railroad tycoons were roaming across the country. New cities sprang up across the plains, and a new and different American West came into being: a land of farmers, ranchers, miners, and city dwellers. Back east, large-scale immigration was also going on, but not all Americans wanted newcomers in...

Covers the period of American history from 1918 to 1945, including the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and World War II

Riveting and moving, War, Terrible War takes us into the heart of the Civil War, from the battle of Manassas to the battle of Gettysburg and on to the South's surrender at Appomattox Court House. Follow the common soldiers in blue and gray as they endure long marches, freezing winter camps, and the bloodiest battles ever fought on American soil. Off the ware fields, War, Terrible War captures the passion and commitment of abolitionists and slave owners...