Product Description: 1776, 1945, 1968 . . . some years take on an identity of their own, and live on in the nation’s memory as watersheds or turning points in our collective history. 1877, in contrast—a year no less pivotal—marked a time many Americans longed to forget...read more

Product Description: Violence forms a constant backdrop to American history, from the revolutionary overthrow of British rule, to the struggle for civil rights, to the present-day debates over the death penalty. It has served to challenge authority, defend privilege, advance causes, and throttle hopes...read more

Draws on archival material to challenge popular misconceptions about the American belief system about arms rights, tracing 'gun fever' to its European origins while documenting the rarity of firearms in early America as well as the technological advances and events that made guns an integral part of American life. Original.

Product Description: A demystifying guide to the complex debates surrounding the constitutional right to bear arms. With help from the National Rifle Association and the pro-gun lobby, the idea that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees an unrestricted right to gun ownership has achieved a firm footing in recent decades...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: By any standard, the United States is the most violent nation in the industrialized world. To find comparable levels of interpersonal violence, one must look to nations in the midst of civil war. Most observers of modern American violence do not consider the historical roots of current levels of violence, preferring to criticize American liberalism, permissive child-rearing practices, and excessive greed and individualism as the sources of the problem...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Life in frontier New England as seen through the affairs of a family instrumental in settling its lands and shaping its destiny. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: In this revisionary look at the eighteenth-century frontier, Michael A. Bellesiles shows us that more than a legendary Revolutionary War hero, Ethan Allen was the leader of a group of frontier subsistence farmers united in their opposition to New York elites and land speculators; the independence Allen and his followers fought for was as much from eastern elites as it was from the British crown...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)