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.

Experience the thrill, twenty-five years later, of Steve Scott's epic finals match against Tiger Woods in the 1996 United States Amateur Championship! In August of ‘96, Steve Scott went head to head against Tiger Woods at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in the finals of the US Amateur Championship. Five thousand three hundred forty-five players whittled down to two. Scott found himself a surprising 5-up after the first 18, but at hole 35 Tiger squared the grueling match with an improbable 40-foot birdie putt. With the result coming down to the last hole, the difference in the outcome actually came earlier, when Scott reminded Woods to move his mark back to its rightful place on hole 34. Had Scott not done the morally correct thing, Tiger would have been penalized and, in turn, not have won three straight U.S. Amateur Championships (something not even the great Jack Nicklaus or legendary Bobby Jones had done), forever changing the course of Tiger’s career and golf history. In Hey, Tiger—You Need to Move Your Mark Back, Scott teams up with esteemed storyteller Tripp Bowden to explain, twenty-five years later, what led to that life-changing moment and to describe, in his own words, the exhilaration of that ‘96 U. S. Amateur Championship and how it ultimately changed golf history and the two competitors' lives. Forever. Hey Tiger—You Need to Move Your Mark Back is a story for the ages for golf fans looking for an unlikely new perspective on the greatest game in the world.

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.

Even as a pup, Davy Crockett "always delighted to be in the very thickest of danger." In his own inimitable style, he describes his earliest days in Tennessee, his two marriages, his career as an Indian fighter, his bear hunts, and his electioneering. His reputation as a b'ar hunter (he killed 105 in one season) sent him to Congress, and he was voted in and out as the price of cotton (and his relations with the Jacksonians) rose and fell. In 1834, when this autobiography appeared, Davy Crockett was already a folk hero with an eye on the White House. But a year later he would lose his seat in Congress and turn toward Texas and, ultimately, the Alamo.

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.”

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.