Traces the competition between two railroad companies to build the first cross-country railroad, detailing the environmental and industrial dangers the tens of thousands of workers faced while working to link the nation.

"Some of the most important issues of our time were no less important 100 years ago. America in 1919, at the close of World War I, was shaken from the events of large-scale warfare, fearing a Communist takeover, and facing an incredible amount of social and political change. From Prohibition to women's suffrage, the labor strikes to the violence of the Red Summer and the Red Scare, this book explores each major movement of 1919. Showing how these...

Provides insight into how JFK used the new medium of television and the advances in color photography to further his ambitious agenda.

In 1897, whaling in the Arctic waters off Alaska's coast was as dangerous as it was lucrative. And in that particular year, winter blasted early, bringing storms and ice packs that caught eight American whale ships and three hundred sailors off guard. Their ships locked in ice, with no means of escape, the whalers had limited provisions on board, and little hope of surviving until warmer temperatures arrived many months later. Here is the incredible...

Traces the development of photography in the United States. Illustrated with over 200 photographs.

In 1869, Alfred Beach wanted to build America's first air-powered railway below New York City, but Boss Tweed, powerful politician and notorious crook, opposed. Working under night cover, Beach and his crew carved a three-hundred-foot tunnel beneath a department store. Before long, the project was discovered and the public raved about its potential. But no further tunnels were ever built. What happened to Beach's railway, and where is it now?

"In 1903, the Wright brothers made four brief flights, and no one was there to watch them. They spent the next few years mostly in solitude, experimenting with new ways to build an aircraft and crashing many times. It wasn't until about five years later that Wilbur Wright traveled to Europe to publicly demonstrate the possibilities of flight and raise money for airplane patents that the world caught aviation fever. Building on this newfound enthusiasm,...

Drawing from interviews and oral histories, chronicles the history of Japanese American survivors of internment camps.