A John Brown's Spy tells the nearly unknown story of John E. Cook, the person John Brown trusted most with the details of his plans to capture the Harper's Ferry armory in 1859. Cook was a poet, a marksman, a boaster, a dandy, a fighter, and a womanizer-as well as a spy. In a life of only thirty years, he studied law in Connecticut, fought border ruffians in Kansas, served as an abolitionist mole in Virginia, took white hostages during the Harper's...

Arthur Schlesinger served as a special assistant to President John F. Kennedy throughout his presidency-from the long and grueling campaign to the tragic and unexpected end when Kennedy was assassinated by Oswald. In A Thousand Days, he combines intimate knowledge as one of President Kennedy's inner circle with sweeping research and historic context to provide a look at one of the most legendary presidential administrations in American history. From...

A combination of literary analysis and historical detail, this biography of the much misunderstood sixth president of the United States reveals the many sides of this forward-thinking man whose progressive vision helped shape the course of America.

From one of America's most distinguished journalists, the story of his time with Jack Kennedy as both reporter and friend. Conversations with Kennedy is legendary reporter and executive Benjamin C. Bradlee's account of his intimate dialogues with JFK - a man he counted as a confidante and friend. Beginning in 1958, when Kennedy was a US senator running for president, and continuing until 1963, the year that Kennedy died, Bradlee shared a close professional...

"Jack Ruby changed history with one bold, violent action: killing accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on live TV two days after the November 22, 1963, murder of President John F. Kennedy. But who was Jack Ruby-and how did he come to be in that spot on that day? As we approach the sixtieth anniversaries of the murders of Kennedy and Oswald, Jack Ruby’s motives are as maddeningly ambiguous today as they were the day that he pulled the...

From the speechwriter and top adviser to presidents Kennedy and Johnson: A behind-the-scenes history of the most momentous decade in American politics.
Richard N. Goodwin entered public service in 1958 as a law clerk for Supreme Court Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter. He left politics ten years later in the aftermath of Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination. Over the course of one extraordinary decade, Goodwin orchestrated...

"A beautiful, gracious act of connection with a man who kept his secrets." - Kirkus Reviews Readers will not only find absorbing narratives but also the early signs of America's now highly contentious culture wars. - Booklist An exceptional work ... about a man ... whose family album is pasted into a book of American history. - Baltimore Sun A passionately researched and engaging memoir...poignantly distanced. - New York Times Book Review

The final reflections, words, and wisdom of esteemed civil rights champion and late Congressman John Lewis, who continued to offer inspiration and hope to millions even while he battled the cancer that ultimately ended his life.

From master crime writer Joseph Wambaugh, comes the extraordinary true story of a firefighter who may have been, according to U.S. government profilers, "the most prolific American arsonist of the twentieth century." Growing up in Los Angeles, John Orr would watch in awe as firefighters scrambled to put out blazes with seeming disregard for their own lives. One day he would become a fireman himself, and a good one. As a member of the Glendale Fire...

"Starting in the 1960s, John Lewis began his activism alongside civil rights legend and good friend Martin Luther King Jr. He participated in many now-historic events, including the 1963 March on Washington, the Freedom Rides, and the Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. John continued his impactful career when he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1986. He went on to serve seventeen terms until his death in 2020....