Here in this remarkable collection from American Heritage, such noted authors as Tom Brokaw, Wallace Stegner, John Lukacs, and others bring to life many of the most famous men and women of the Old West - from Lewis and Clark to Charles Frémont, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Chief Joseph, Frederick Remington, the defenders of the Alamo, the Texas Rangers, and the riders of the Pony Express. It also shines a light on topics such as the origins of scalping, the famous Lincoln County War, the grim medical reality of Western gunfights, cowboy jargon, and the first rodeo.

Twenty true adventure stories by noted Western authors on the Alamo, the gold rush, Geronimo and the Lincoln County War, etc.

America's story is made up of many elements, but through it have coursed two main streams that have nourished and carried a people forward to a destiny that was beyond all imagining when the story began. One of these is an idea that goes back to the rim of recorded time. It was first a dim, gnawing hope that the future lay in a magic land off to the west. Once that land was found, it drew people to it like a magnet. It is easy to say that it was gold or precious stones or land that led them on, for it was all of these. Yet, it was more - and here was the second great stream of American history. There was something that literally drove people westward, goading them across the endless mountains, through steep passes, across searing plains and desert into the face of terrors known and those unguessed. It was vision. It was courage. It was, at times, the sheer joy of overcoming fantastic obstacles. And it was also the conviction that what they were doing was different from anything that had happened before, that nothing would ever be quite the same again, and that the world would be a better place for what they had accomplished. "Eastward I go only by force," Henry David Thoreau said, "but westward I go free." The sleep of 100 centuries was stirred up in that surge toward the sunset, for out of it emerged not only a new people and a new nation but a force that changed the globe.

Here, acclaimed American historians - among them, Max Boot, Douglas Brinkley, and Stanley Karnow - tell the dramatic story of America's war in Vietnam. It's all here - from the first American deaths in Vietnam and the controversial Gulf of Tonkin attack to the Tet offensive, the My Lai massacre, and, finally, the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Winston Churchill had genius as a leader, statesman, orator, and writer, but as Henry Grunwald writes in this extraordinary book, “one of his greatest talents was being a man - a man both legendary and loved, admirable and amusing, larger than life and closer to Earth than most great figures.” Here, John D. Eisenhower, Pamela C. Harriman, John Lukacs, Kenneth McArdle, William Manchester, and A. L. Rowse bring Churchill vividly to life, assessing his place in history and exploring his relationships with world leaders and family alike.

Here, from some of America's greatest historians and generals - among them, John Steele Gordon, General George C. Kinney, and John Lukacs - is the story of U.S. involvement in World War I. War is both intimate and sprawling, and this collection includes panoramic perspectives as well as personal reflections that show the heart, soul, and courage of American soldiers.

"Douglas Brinkley and American Heritage have done a grand job. This is a first-rate book: fair, clear, and enormously welcome." - David McCullough "Douglas Brinkley's one-volume history is a riveting narrative of unique people who have come to call themselves American. There is no dust on these pages as the author brilliantly tells our national story with skill and brevity." In this rich and inspiring book, acclaimed historian Douglas Brinkley takes us on the incredible journey of the United States - a nation formed from a vast countryside on whose fringes thirteen small British colonies fought for their freedom, then established a democratic nation that spanned the continent, and went on to become a world power. This book will be treasured by anyone interested in the story of America.

The story of America's westward movement is at heart the story of men and women of all origins and beliefs who helped shape the character of a nation. They lived a stirring epic, the telling of which grows ever more fascinating it becomes ever more remote. It has become a romance, a drama of men and women against the forces of a stupendous land and nameless terrors. Pain and violence tormented whites and Indians alike. Here, from award-winning historian David Lavender, is their enduring story.

Here, from New York Times bestselling historian Richard Russell, is the vivid story of the confident years - those days of America's exuberant growth in population, industry, and world prestige - from the end of the Civil War to the outbreak of World War I. Here are the stories of political power struggles, Reconstruction, western expansion, Ellis Island immigrants, the rise of American tycoons and labor unions, and the country's entry into World War I.