Here, Michael F. Holt gives us the only comprehensive history of the Whigs ever written. He offers a panoramic account of the tumultuous antebellum period, a time when a flurry of parties and larger-than-life politicians--Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, Martin Van Buren, and Henry Clay--struggled for control as the U.S. inched towards secession. It was an era when Americans were passionately involved in politics, when local concerns drove national policy, and when momentous political events--like the Annexation of Texas and the Kansas-Nebraska Act--rocked the country. Amid this contentious political activity, the Whig Party continuously strove to unite North and South, emerging as the nation's last great hope to prevent secession.

Tells the story of the thousands of enslaved African Americans who fled to British forces during the war in what became the largest emancipation of enslaved Americans until the abolition of slavery in the United States. During the Anglo-American War of 1812, British forces launched hundreds of amphibious raids on the United States. The richest parts of the United States were slave-states, and thousands of enslaved African Americans fled to British forces in what was to be the largest emancipation of enslaved Americans until the abolition of slavery in the USA. From these refugees from slavery, the British built a force - the Corps of Colonial Marines. Black redcoats, they were a fusion of two great American fears, the return of the British King and an uprising by their own oppressed slaves. The Corps of Colonial Marines turned Britain's campaign on America's coasts from one of harassment to one of existential threat to the new nation. Although small in number, the Colonial Marines - fighting to liberate their own families as much as for Great Britain - exerted a massive psychological impact on the United States which paralysed American resistance with fear of a widespread slave uprising, and allowed British forces in the Chesapeake to burn down Washington DC. As well as examining this little-remembered part of British military and African-American history, this book will also look to the post-war history of the Colonial Marines, their continued survival as a unique ethnic group in the Caribbean today, and their involvement in the largest act of armed African-American resistance to slavery. The "Battle of Negro Fort" in 1816 was the only time American forces left American territory to destroy a fugitive slave community - a community led by former Colonial Marines who, when faced with American attack, raised the British flag. This book brings black history to the fore of the War of 1812, and gives a voice to those enslaved people who - amidst great power competition between a slave-holding Republic and a slave-holding Empire – demonstrated exceptional bravery and initiative to gain precious freedom for themselves and their descendants.

Born in Shawneetown, Illinois in time to be newly graduated from West Point when the Civil War started, James H. Wilson became a brigadier general by the age of twenty-six. Fueled by boundless ambition and the desire to serve his country, he reorganized the Union cavalry in time to gain the upper hand over the Confederate army. But the story of this brash, young man did not end with the capture of Jefferson Davis, for which Wilson was ultimately responsible. His life after the Civil War was also representative of American tenacity in the midst of explosive growth and change during the late-nineteenth century. He became a military governor in Georgia during Reconstruction, a railroad baron from the start of the Industrial Revolution, and a military advisor during World War I. The story of Wilson’s life remains a compelling example for us in these rapidly changing times, and resonates as an excellent account of one man’s lasting impression on his century.

A union list of serials commencing publication after Dec. 31, 1949.

In this magnificent biography, Jean Edward Smith skillfully reconciles the disparate, conflicting assessments of Ulysses S. Grant, confirming his genius as a general, but convincingly showing that Grant's presidential accomplishments were as considerable as his military victories. 40 photos.