Follows the life of Richard M. Johnson from his early life through his political career, service in the War of 1812, and his service as Vice President of the United States.

. The Battle on River Raisin, which was fought in and around Frenchtown (now Monroe), Michigan from January 18 to January 23, 1812, was one of the four principal campaigns of the War of 1812 engaged in by Kentucky forces. Following the massacre of American forces at Frenchtown--including as many as sixty Kentucky soldiers-- Kentucky, patriots exhorted one another with shouts of "Remember the Raisin," which gave the new nation the "vengeance-fired impetus" to wage the remaining battles of the War of 1812. The larger of these two works treats all aspects of the Battle on River Raisin and features detailed biographical and genealogical sketches of nearly 100 officers and enlisted men who served on River Raisin and complete rosters of the Kentucky soldiers who saw action there. The smaller companion volume is a miscellaneous listing of Kentucky veterans of the War of 1812 compiled from newspaper files, pension lists, county histories, veterans' publications, and so on.

That seemingly minor event in the small town of Mount Sterling became national front-page news. Northerners and southerners alike raised questions regarding Reid's response. Would he react as a Christian gentleman, a man of the law, and let the legal system take its course, or would he follow the manly dictates of the code of honor and challenge his assailant? Which choice would win out in Kentucky's notoriously violent society?

In Great Crossings: Indians, Settlers, and Slaves in the Age of Jackson, prize-winning historian Christina Snyder reinterprets the history of Jacksonian America. Most often, this drama focuses on whites who turned west to conquer a continent, extending "liberty" as they went. Great Crossings also includes Native Americans from across the continent seeking new ways to assert anciently-held rights and people of African descent who challenged the United States to live up to its ideals. These diverse groups met in an experimental community in central Kentucky called Great Crossings, home to the first federal Indian school and a famous interracial family. Great Crossings embodied monumental changes then transforming North America. The United States, within the span of a few decades, grew from an East Coast nation to a continental empire. The territorial growth of the United States forged a multicultural, multiracial society, but that diversity also sparked fierce debates over race, citizenship, and America's destiny. Great Crossings, a place of race-mixing and cultural exchange, emerged as a battleground. Its history provides an intimate view of the ambitions and struggles of Indians, settlers, and slaves who were trying to secure their place in a changing world. Through deep research and compelling prose, Snyder introduces us to a diverse range of historical actors: Richard Mentor Johnson, the politician who reportedly killed Tecumseh and then became schoolmaster to the sons of his former foes; Julia Chinn, Johnson's enslaved concubine, who fought for her children's freedom; and Peter Pitchlynn, a Choctaw intellectual who, even in the darkest days of Indian removal, argued for the future of Indian nations. Together, their stories demonstrate how this era transformed colonizers and the colonized alike, sowing the seeds of modern America.

In the second volume of the IHS Press’s Peopling Indiana Series, anthropologist Elizabeth Glenn and ethnohistorian Stewart Rafert put readers in touch with the first people to inhabit the Hoosier state, exploring what it meant historically to be an Indian in this land and discussing the resurgence of native life in the state today. Many natives either assimilated into white culture or hid their Indian identity. World War II dramatically changed this scenario when Native Americans served in the U.S. military and on the home front. Afterward, Indians from many tribal lineages flocked to Indiana to find work. Along with Indiana's Miami and Potawatomi, they are creating a diverse Indian culture that enriches the lives of all Hoosiers.