Washoe County Library System

''A fascinating examination of what "the pursuit of happiness" meant to our nation's Founders and how that famous phrase defined their lives and became the foundation of our democracy. The Declaration of Independence identified "the pursuit of happiness" as one of our unalienable rights, along with life and liberty. Jeffrey Rosen, the president of the National Constitution Center, profiles six of the most influential founders—Benjamin Franklin,...

"How to Survive Middle School: U.S. History is a highly illustrated, handy field guide that will help kids master the essential skills and lessons of middle school U.S. History. With expert knowledge presented in a bold and fun format that's easy to readand understand, students will learn the history of the United States and explore important questions of context, power, and inequality"-- "THINK U.S. HISTORY IS HARD? Make learning easy with this...

"The remarkable story of a hidden New Deal program that tried to change America and end the Great Depression using folk music, laying the groundwork for the folk revival and having a lasting impact on American culture. In 1934, the Great Depression had destroyed the US economy, leaving residents poverty-stricken. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt urged President Roosevelt to take radical action to help those hit hardest--Appalachian miners and mill workers...

With the nation badly divided and the two major parties on a bitter collision course, a former governor and current presidential candidate wonders what Americans can learn from the presidency of Ronald Reagan. "With the nation badly divided and the two major parties on a bitter collision course, what can we learn from America’s last great president? A lot, says New York Times bestselling author and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie. In...

"This book offers the first full account of Harriet Tubman's Civil War service and the Combahee River Raid. It details how Tubman commanded a ring of spies, scouts, and pilots and participated in military expeditions behind Confederate lines. It also recounts the story of enslaved families living in bondage and fighting for their freedom, using their own distinct and individual voices. The book uses more than 175 US Civil War pension files of the...

''The best-selling classic about a mixed-race child in the Civil War–era South that "chronicles the triumph of a free spirit over many kinds of bondage" (New York Times Book Review). Jubilee tells the true story of Vyry, the child of a white plantation owner and his black mistress. Vyry bears witness to the antebellum South in both its opulence and its brutality, its wartime ruin, and the promises of Reconstruction. Weaving her own family's oral...

"A legend. A warrior. A hero. A classic American epic. Two centuries ago, with the support of the young Revolutionary government, George Rogers Clark led a small but fierce army west from Virginia to conquer all the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. He battled the British, forged friendships with French and Spanish settlers, and made treaties with many Indian tribes who revered the lanky, red-haired white man and called him Long...

""It was not the Baby Boomers who ushered in the first era of widespread drug experimentation. It was their parents." Far from the repressed traditionalists they are often painted as, the generation that survived the second World War emerged with a profoundly ambitious sense of social experimentation. In the '40s and '50s, transformative drugs rapidly entered mainstream culture, where they were not only legal, but openly celebrated. American physician...

"A dramatically illustrated biography of Private Rosetta "Lyons" Wakeman, the only soldier whose letters capture the Civil War from a woman's perspective. In 1862, the war between North and South showed no signs of stopping. In rural New York, nineteen-year-old Rosetta Wakeman longed for a life beyond the family farm. One day she made a brave, bold choice: she cut her braid and disguised herself as a man. No one suspected that "Lyons" was a woman—not...

"In the 1870s, a Black family undertakes a perilous wagon journey westward for a tenuous shot at freedom in Nebraska"-- "1879, Mississippi. Young dreamer Lettie may have her head in the stars, but her body is on a covered wagon heading westward. Her father, Thomas, promises that Nebraska will be everything the family needs: an opportunity to claim the independence they’ve strived for over generations on their very own plot of land. But Thomas’...