Experience the thrilling journey of West Tennessee's David Crockett as he rises from frontier to fame to international icon. Using his wits, sense of humor, and common sense, David Crockett rose from the West Tennessee frontier during the divisive Jacksonian Era to become the first American celebrity. Early newspaper editors quickly found that his name and exploits-often exaggerated-led to increased sales, while the first biography about his life, printed while he was still living, became an instant bestseller. He even brokered some of the first licensing deals that reproduced his image and signature on prints and made them available to his fans. Talented men and women who were creating the American arts from scratch found in Crockett a muse who reflected how many in the country wanted to see themselves. They put him in books, plays, songs, and poems. Then, Americans made him a superhero. And there was substance to his style. As a member of Congress, he had a front-row seat as second and third generations of Americans took the torch of Democracy from the country's founding fathers and mothers and struggled to keep it burning. His list of friends and enemies was long and included notables like Andrew Jackson, Sam Houston, Henry Clay, and James K. Polk. As with celebrities who would come later like James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley, Crockett's tragic death would occur too early and fuel his transition from celebrity to icon. Decades later, Walt Disney introduced his own version of "Davy" and ignited a licensed product phenomenon unlike anything that had ever been seen before and rarely since. In The Accidental Fame and Lack of Fortune of West Tennessee's David Crockett, R. Scott Williams uncovers what propelled this meteoric rise from frontier to fame, while also examining the birth of Tennessee during one of the most fascinating periods in American history.

This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.

For the past three decades, many history professors have allowed their biases to distort the way America’s past is taught. These intellectuals have searched for instances of racism, sexism, and bigotry in our history while downplaying the greatness of America’s patriots and the achievements of “dead white men.” As a result, more emphasis is placed on Harriet Tubman than on George Washington; more about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II than about D-Day or Iwo Jima; more on the dangers we faced from Joseph McCarthy than those we faced from Josef Stalin. A Patriot’s History of the United States corrects those doctrinaire biases. In this groundbreaking book, America’s discovery, founding, and development are reexamined with an appreciation for the elements of public virtue, personal liberty, and private property that make this nation uniquely successful. This book offers a long-overdue acknowledgment of America’s true and proud history.

Trammel’s Trace tells the story of a borderlands smuggler and an important passageway into early Texas. Trammel’s Trace, named for Nicholas Trammell, was the first route from the United States into the northern boundaries of Spanish Texas. From the Great Bend of the Red River it intersected with El Camino Real de los Tejas in Nacogdoches. By the early nineteenth century, Trammel’s Trace was largely a smuggler’s trail that delivered horses and contraband into the region. It was a microcosm of the migration, lawlessness, and conflict that defined the period. By the 1820s, as Mexico gained independence from Spain, smuggling declined as Anglo immigration became the primary use of the trail. Familiar names such as Sam Houston, David Crockett, and James Bowie joined throngs of immigrants making passage along Trammel’s Trace. Indeed, Nicholas Trammell opened trading posts on the Red River and near Nacogdoches, hoping to claim a piece of Austin’s new colony. Austin denied Trammell’s entry, however, fearing his poor reputation would usher in a new wave of smuggling and lawlessness. By 1826, Trammell was pushed out of Texas altogether and retreated back to Arkansas Even so, as author Gary L. Pinkerton concludes, Trammell was “more opportunist than outlaw and made the most of disorder.”

"Stevens was the longest-serving American-born correspondent working from within the Soviet Union. In his career, which spanned half a century, he distinguished himself as a war reporter, analyst, and cultural interpreter. Heckler focuses on Stevens's work, especially his reporting for the Christian Science Monitor, and his life from 1934 to 1945"--Provided by publisher.

This book is designed to engage students' interest and promote their writing abilities while teaching them to think critically and creatively. Dowden takes an activist stance on critical thinking, asking students to create and revise arguments rather than simply recognizing and criticizing them. His book emphasizes inductive reasoning and the analysis of individual claims in the beginning, leaving deductive arguments for consideration later in the course.