Washoe County Library System

Written and oral testimony to the conditions and experiences of slavery reveal the everyday lives and extraordinary culture of black slaves.

In a rural settlement 20 miles or so from Tuskegee in east-central Alabama [they] found him - the man Theodore Rosengarten calls Nate Shaw - a black man, 84 years old, in full possession of every moment of his life and every facet of its meaning. Nate Shaw's father was born under slavery. Nate Shaw was born into a bondage that was only a little gentler. At the age of nine, he was picking cotton for thirty-five cents an hour. At the age of forty-seven,...

Contains a collection of historical documents that have shaped the United States into the nation it is today.

Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the church door at Wittenberg in 1517. In the three years that followed, Luther clarified and defended his position in numerous writings. Chief among these are the three treatises written in 1520. In these writings Luther tried to frame his ideas in terms that would be comprehensible not only to the clergy but to people from a wide range of backgrounds. To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation is...

A collection of thirty-nine contemporary documents tracing the history of the United States, including such areas as human rights, the environment, and immigration. Includes commentary, photographs, and engravings.

An award-winning historian recounts the history of American liberty through the stories of twelve essential documents. Nationalism is inevitable: It supplies feelings of belonging, identity, and recognition. It binds us to our neighbors and tells us who we are. But increasingly-from the United States to India, from Russia to Burma-nationalism is being invoked for unworthy ends: to disdain minorities or to support despots. As a result, nationalism...