Joy Hakim: Finding the Stories in Science and History

Thousands of years ago- long before Christopher Columbus set sail- wandering tribes of hunters make their way from Asia across the Bering land bridge to North America. They don't know it, but they have discovered a New World. This book tells the story of Native Americans from Alaska to Patagonia. It also tells the story of explorers like Leif Eriksson, Columbus, Cortes and others.

Quotes from the text:

"History is full of stories--true stories--the best ever. Those stories have real heroes and real villains. When you read history, you are reading about real-life adventures."

"They invented a dart-thrower: a wooden handle with a hooked tip that worked like a missile launcher. It was called an 'atl-atl.' The hunter would throw the atl-atl as a ballplayer throws a pitch."

"No one has ever solved the mystery of the Lost Colony."

The American continent, long isolated from the rest of the world, has been rediscovered. This time by Europeans. Some come in search of freedom, some come with the hope of riches. They sometimes bring Africans, in chains. As to the Native Americans, they face disease and competition from these newcomers. Read Making Thirteen Colonies to learn more. Meet Pocahontas and John Smith in Jamestown. Join William Penn and the Quakers of Pennsylvania. Sit with the judges at the Salem witch trials. Hike over the mountains with Daniel Boone. And read what Ben Franklin has to say in Poor Richard's Almanack. The dynamic interaction of all these diverse peoples will create a new kind of nation, one based on the idea that all people deserve equal treatment. Getting that fairness doctrine to work won't be easy.

Quotes from the text:

"These were times when most questions were answered by religious faith or superstition. Modern science was just being born. Stars were thought to be the lights of heaven, and the comets were said to be messengers sent to foretell danger and dire change."

"Captain John Smith would never have been able to make this map of Virginia without help from the Algonquian Indiands, the Powhatans."

"Plantation children don't live at all the way you do. Some of the ways they live are nice, but some you wouldn't like... If you are a very rich planter's son you have to wear velvet pants and ruffled shirts and high-heeled shoes when company comes just like your dad. That must be uncomfortable."

It really didn't make sense for a nation far across the ocean to control the fate of people living on the American continent. Many realized that, but Tom Paine put it into words. This book, perhaps the key book in the whole series, tells the story of the American Revoution. Lots of nations have had revolutions, but few have handled the rebuilding process as well. A group of "founders" realized that it wouldn't be easy for people to run their own government, so they designed a remarkable constitution. Nothing like it had ever been written before. Its ideas would change the whole world.
In this book you will find other stories that may surprise you. Read about two Spanish explorers who set out on July 4, 1776 on a journey that covered an enormous expanse of western land. Or read about a rich landowner and fur merchant whose wife was Native American. They fair, decent and heroic, and won some important battles.
Quotes from text:

"A firebrand can be a hothead: someone who sparks a revolution, someone who lights a fire in people's minds and hearts... Historians say the American Revolution had three firebrands: Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Paine..."

"The British didn't just sit around and let the colonies rebel. They sent an army to put down the revolution."

"The Americans on Long Island were trapped by British troops drawn up between them and their retreat across The East River. They had to fight their way back through the enemy. One rebel said later, 'When we began the attack, General Washington... cried out, "Good God, what brave fellows I must this day lose!"'"

"This is what happened: James Madison served in the first Congress and he wrote the first 10 ammendments to the Constitution. They are called the Bill of Rights."

Beginning with George Washington's innauguration and continuing into the nineteenth century, The New Nation tells of Thomas Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana Territory (bought from France for four cents an acre!), Lewis and Clark's daring expedition through the wilderness, the War of 1812 sometimes called the "Revolutionary War, Part II," Tecumseh's effort to form an Indian confederacy, the growth of Southern plantations, the beginning of the abolitionist movement, and the Trail of Tears. These dramatic events and more are woven into a tale that just happens to be true. It's a History of Us.

Quotes from the text:

"The letter that [Charles] Thompson carried told George Washington that he had been elected president of that union. He had been elected unanimously--and that was important; it would not happen with any other president."

"When [John Marshall] opened up a law ofice in Richmond he didn't have enough money to buy law books. It didn't matter, he had ability, ambition, and that easygoing, not-stuck-up nature... John Marshall never seemed to take himself seriously. Someone who knew him said his clothes seemed 'gotten from some antiquated slopshop.' His dinner parties were famous for their good-natured, witty conversation... In 1799, Marshall was elected to congress as a member of the Federalist party. The following year, President Adams named him secretary of state."

"President number six was the son of president two. The were the first father and son to be presidents."

Henry David Thoreau said, "Eastward I go only by force, but westward I go free." Lots of Americans agreed. The 19th century was an exuberant time in the United States and many were on the move. This book tells of mountain men, railroad builders, whalers, gold rush hopefuls, and farmers, as well as of poets and painters. Read of westward migration, the California Gold Rush, war with Mexico, the Oregon boundary conflict, and Texas and the Alamo. For Americans everywhere there was a gnawing question: How, in the land where "all men are created equal," could there be slaves?

Quotes:

"Some people like danger and adventure, some like to be free of civilization, and some like to live by their wits. It was those specail people who headed west."

"Elizabeth Cady read the nation's great Declaration, and it bothered her. All men are created equal, it said. But what about women?"

"When William Johnson and slave walked down that long, winding American road toward freedom and justice, they didn't realize they would be speaking out for all those left behind. They learned that it would take hard work to make the words of the Declaration of Independence mean what they said. Ellen and William Craft were willing to do their part."

War, Terrible War takes us into the Civil War, from the battle of Manassas to the battle of Gettysburg and on to the South's surrender at Appomattox Court House. Follow soldiers in blue and gray as they endure long marches, freezing winter camps, and awful battles fought on American soil. Abolitionists, slaveowners, and ordinary Americans listen to the debates over slavery and states rights. Meet Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Jefferson Davis, soldiers on both sides, slave owners, abolitionists, average citizens, and others. This is the story of a people affected by the horrors of a war where brother sometimes fought brother.

Quotes:

"It was the worst war in American history. It was called the Civil War, or the War Between the States, and sometimes brother fought brother and father fought son. More than 620,000 Americans died. Cities were destroyed, farms burned, homes leveled, and on one bloody day at a place called Antietam, more men were killed than on any other day in all our history. The total deaths were almost as many as in all o our other wars combined. If the same percentage of today's population were killed it would mean five million deaths."

"General Winfield Scott was in charge of the Union army. He was an old man, and in terrible physical shape. He even had to be helped onto his horse. But there was nothing wrong with his mind--it was as sharp as ever."

"Today, if you want to hear music, you can turn on your headset. So it is hard for most of us to understand the importance of singing in the Civil War. But the soldiers sang everywhere. They sang when they marched, they sang around the campfires, and they sang on the battlefield--to cheer themselves when things were going well, or to rally themselves when things were going badly. Songs helped them survive in the hideous prisons. And it helped them to know that at home their families were singing the same songs."

Reconstructing America looks at life after the Civil War in the newly re-United States. Railroad tycoons are roaring across the country. New cities are springing up , and a new and different American West comes into being: a land of farmers, ranchers, miners, and city dwellers. Immigration is changing the mix of Americans; mostly the newcomers work hard and achieve. Some rare individuals make their mark: P.T.Barnum entertains. Rascally Boss Tweed steals from his constituents. Thomas Edison lights the world. Carry Nation wields a hatchet in her battle against alcholism. And Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois have different ideas on how the newly freed African Americans should behave.

Quotes:

"The thirteenth amendment was ratified on December 6, 1886. That did it. It ended slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation was now the law of the land."

"Like other Americans, cowboys were a mixture: some white, some black, some Mexican, some--like Jesse Chisholm--part Indian. Some were women. It was democratic out there on the trail. People were judged by what they could do, not by the color of their skin, the accent of their speech, or their sex."

"The biggest hit of all is George Henry Corliss's colossal steam engine--the world's largest machine. It looms 40 feet high in Machinery Hall. Steam from the Corliss engine turns wheels; those wheels pull belts strung overhead; and the belts make 8,000 smaller machines work. President Grant sets the big steam engine going."

For the captains of industry (sometimes called Robber Barons)--men like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Henry Ford--the Gilded Age is a time of big money. Technology booms with the new trains, telephones, electric lights, harvesters, vacuum cleaners, and more. But for millions of immigrant workers, it is a time of hardship––workers , including children, often toil 12 to 14 hours a day sometimes under dangerous conditions. In Age of Extremes, you'll meet Mother Jones, Ida Tarbell, Big Bill Haywood, Sam Gompers,Theodore Roosevelt and others. You'll also watch the United States step onto the world stage as it enters the bloody battlefields of Europe in World War I.

Quotes:

"Americans care about individual rights. That has given us strong anti-monopoly feelings; it also makes us want as few laws as possible."

"When Cyrus Hall McCormick opened the McCormick Harvester Works in Chicago in the 1840's, he worked alongside his 23 employees. Of course, he knew them all by name. He cared about them... A few years later, the McCormick factory was making more than 1,000 reapers a year. Cyrus still knew all 200 of his workers."

"World war I was worse than anyone could have dreamed. Many of those 19th-century invetions, which people thought would prevent war, were turned to killing. Airplanes shot at each other overhead, machine guns cracked their deadly staccato, submarines ejected killer torpedoes, and poison gas turned men blind or unable to breathe."

From woman's sufferage to Babe Ruth's home runs, from Louis Armstrong's jazz to Franklin Delano Rosevelt's four presidential terms, from the finale of one world war to the dramatic close of the second, War, Peace, And All That Jazz presents the story of some of the most exciting years in U.S. history. With the end of World War I, many Americans decide to live it up, go to silent flicks, drive cars, and cheer their favorite baseball teams. When Depression strikes the good times dampen--jobs are hard to find, farmers are in trouble, and racism won't seem to go away. Along comes President F.D.R., who promises a New Deal, gives Americans hope, and then sees the nation through the horrors and victories of World War II.

Quotes:

"No one expected it, but Prohibition made crime a big business in the United States. Americans learned that some kinds of prohibition must be done by persuation and education. Laws and force don't always work."

"Those girls who bobbed their hair and wore short skirts and lipstick were called 'flappers.' They did other things, too. They drove automobiles, got jobs, went to the movies, read romantic novels, played Ping-Pong, and danced. My, did they dance!"

"[Eleanor Roosevelt] fought for the underdog--for those who were persecuted, or treated unfairly. She wanted to see that all people were given an equal opportunity. She worked for women's rights. She worked for minority rights. She stood on the side of truth and justice."

Right after World War II, the United States unselfishly helped her former enemies, the defeated nations, by giving money and aid through through the Marshall Plan. At the same time, American soldiers were given free college tuitions under the GI Bill. Together they were among the most enlightened efforts in world history–and they paid off. Then came the Civil Rights movement with, finally, a national realization that "all men are created equal" makes sense--and that it means all people of all backgrounds and women, too. This remarkable, creative time also included destructive wars: a cold war, the Korean War, and Vietnam. All the People tells of September 11, 2001 and asks some questions about the future.
Quotes:

"On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson, up from Montreal, batted in Brooklyn for the first time as a major leaguer. He was put out four times that day. He didn't do much better the rest of the week... Jackie Robinson had won the affection and respect of his fellow ballplayers and of the nation. He was the first; he took the punishment, he made it easy for those who followed. Baseball was now the naional pastime for all the people."

"When North Korea's army entered South Korea, it was a test for the world community, and for Truman and his policy of containing communism (keeping it from expanding into new regions). The world had stood by and let Hitler conquer weaker nations. This time there would be no giving in. The United Nations acted quickly. The United States led the response. The Cold War had turned hot. The Korean War had begun."

"These people [the masterminds of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States] were using the language of the Islamic religion to justify murder."

"We know that being a productive citizen in a nation dedicated to liberty and justice for all takes effort and education. True freedom (which is different from no-government anarchy) involves responsibilies and participation. Solid citizens consider options, ask questions, make choices, and stand up for their beliefs. Are freedom and democracy worth it? What do you think?"

Designed to accompany Joy Hakim's ten volume A History of US or as a stand alone reference, this collection of great American documents is ideal for all students of American history. Filled with primary sources, the Sourcebook and Index traces the gradual unfolding of ideas of freedom in America through letters, declarations, proclamations, court decisions, speeches, laws, acts, the Constitution, and other writings.

All the People, the last volume in the series, has been brought up to date with coverage of the election of Barack Obama, along with some thoughts on its significance. The book, a new fourth edition, has been completely redesigned with a bold contemporary look; Readers will encounter both famous and little-known Americans (Joe McCarthy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama's mother), historical events (the Vietnam War, the first man on the moon, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan), and major cultural movements (Civil Rights, 1960s counterculture, feminism). A chapter on the 21st century financial crisis explains the basics of investment banking. This is a book meant to provoke discussion and thought among readers of all ages.