"I was born at a crossroads: a crossroads in history, a crossroads in culture, and a geographical crossroads in North Houston County in East Texas. Born in 1945, Ruth J. Simmons grew up the twelfth child of sharecroppers. Her first home had no running water, no electricity to light the two crowded rooms, no books to read. Yet despite this -- or, in her words, because of it -- Simmons would become one of America's preeminent educators. The former president...

A new biography of George Washington, centering on his return from retirement to lead the Constitutional Convention and secure the future of the United States.

The former Vice President looks at the challenges of balancing the demands of life while maintaining a deep commitment to family and faith and how gathering around the dinner table every evening can help keep these principles intact.

"When President Theodore Roosevelt welcomed the country's most visible Black man, Booker T. Washington, into his circle of counselors in 1901, the two confronted a shocking and violent wave of racist outrage. In the previous decade, Jim Crow laws had legalized discrimination in the South, eroding social and economic gains for former slaves. Lynching was on the rise, and Black Americans faced new barriers to voting. Slavery had been abolished, but...

"From journalist and historian Steve Inskeep, a compelling and nuanced exploration of the political acumen of Abraham Lincoln via sixteen encounters before and during his presidency, bringing to light not only the strategy of a great politician who inherited a country divided, but lessons for our own disorderly present. In 1855, as the United States found itself at odds over the issue of slavery, then lawyer Abraham Lincoln composed a note on the...

"In The Presidents Decoded: A Guide to the Leaders Who Shaped Our Nation, author Katie Kennedy presents the 45 people who have held the role of President of the United States. From George Washington to Joe Biden, each leader's time in office is broken down and explained through primary sources--documents, letters, policies, and diaries--that show the what, how and why of our leaders' thoughts, decisions and policies. Familiar documents like the preamble...

"POWER PLAYERS tells all the great stories of presidents and the sports they played, loved and spectated as a way to better understand what it takes to be elected to lead a country driven by sports fans of all stripes. While every modern president has used sports to relate to Joe Q. Public, POWER PLAYERS turns the lens around to examine how sports have shaped our presidents and made for some amazing moments in White House history, including: -Dwight...

Our presidents loom so large in history that we often forget they are human. Are You Prepared for the Storm of Love Making? is a collection of handwritten love letters that offers a surprising and intimate portrait of the men who occupied the White House. From George Washington to Barack Obama, these are not the presidents we see in history books. Instead, when they courted the women they wanted to marry, or seduced women outside of their marriage,...

"From the moment she first enchanted the world as a youthful princess, Queen Elizabeth II found a unique place in American hearts-and she also played an unprecedented role in forging transatlantic ties. Over her seventy-year reign, she developed extraordinary and varied personal bonds with thirteen U.S. presidents-Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, both Bush Sr. and Jr., Clinton, Obama, Trump, and Biden-that other diplomats...