Reexamines the lives of bona-fide American heroes such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, and reevaluates the legacies of religious figures such as Anne Hutchinson, whose trial for heresy and banishment riveted the colonies in 1637, and unknown martyrs such as Mary Easty and Giles Cory, executed for practicing witchcraft.

"A series of brilliant historical portraits combine to create a self-portrait of one of our greatest historians. With characteristic vitality and brilliance, Bernard Bailyn revisits the major phases of his long, pathbreaking career and offers readers new insights into history and his distinctive approach to understanding it. From his early work on the New England merchants through his groundbreaking study of the American Revolution and on into his...

"'An expert, extremely detailed account of John Adams' finest hour.'--Kirkus Reviews. Honoring the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Massacre The New York Times bestselling author of Lincoln's Last Trial and host of LivePD Dan Abrams and David Fisher tell the story of a trial that would change history. History remembers John Adams as a Founding Father and our country's second president. But in the tense years before the American Revolution, he was still...

"A history of the British thinkers who developed the Enlightenment-era ideas and ideals that drove the American Revolution"-- "The most famous phrase in American history once looked quite different. "The preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness" was how Thomas Jefferson put it in the first draft of the Declaration, before the first ampersand was scratched out, along with "the preservation of." In a statement as pithy--and contested--as...