America in the Twentieth Century

Preserve the rights of all Americans with this elegant hardback gift edition of the Bill of Rights, proudly made in the USA.

Collectively known as the United States Bill of Rights, these first ten amendments to the United States Constitution limit the powers of the federal government and protect the rights of all citizens, residents and visitors on United States territory. Introduced in 1789 in the First United States Congress by James Madison, these amendments came into effect on December 15, 1791, when ratified by three-fourths of the states. This document plays a central role in American law and remains to this day a symbol of the freedoms and culture of the nation. In this beautiful gift edition, the text of the Bill of Rights is presented alongside a history of the amendments. 

Teddy Roosevelt's Historic Guide to Living Life to the Fullest

In 1899 Theodore Roosevelt was Governor of New York and gave a stirring speech on his philosophy of living a most productive life. Based on his own experiences, Roosevelt defined the American ethos of overcoming hardship and hard work in a compelling speech only Teddy could produce. Part of Applewood's "Books of American Wisdom" series, this elegant hardback is a perfect gift for any occasion.

"Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country" —John F. Kennedy

This pocket sized hardcover book contains nearly one hundred quotations from one of America's best-loved presidents, John F. Kennedy. War hero, politician, and 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy embodied the hopes and dreams of an age.

Author Lee Lancaster retraces the movement of a remarkable time in our nation’s agricultural history.  In 1976, America sent a peanut farmer from Plains to Washington, D.C. Farmers throughout the nation, especially in Georgia, had high hopes for President Jimmy Carter, but those dreams vanished when he seemingly disregarded their problems—historic drought and embarrassing commodity prices. Peach State farmers took to the streets, slow rolling a tractorcade on I-75 toward Atlanta. The result was the largest ever farmer-led demonstration in the United States. The farmers pledged not to sell, plant or buy anything until “100% parity” was obtained. The farmers eventually steered their tractorcade to D.C., trying to prevent the foreclosure of dozens of farms with help from an armed group in Middle Georgia and a real estate tycoon from New York who would become the forty-fifth president.

The Yuma Proving Ground’s early history began in 1849 with the establishment of Army outposts in the region.

When the United States entered World War II in 1942, the Army established a large-scale training center that expanded from eastern California into western Arizona. Gen. George S.Patton Jr. was assigned to develop the Desert Training Center as a location to train personnel and test equipment in the harsh desert for the war effort. As part of the Desert Training Center, Camp Laguna and the Yuma Test Branch were founded to conduct specific training and testing in support of the war effort. In 1951, the Yuma Test Branch was renamed the Yuma Test Station, and by 1957, the Army began training personnel on military freefall.In 1963, the Army renamed the Yuma Test Station as the Yuma Proving Ground. Today, the Yuma Proving Ground stands near the original sites with the continued task of testing equipment and training personnel.

Lt. Col. Scott Laverty is a 29-year veteran of the US Army Reserves and holds a graduate degree in military history. He has drawn on the archives of the Yuma Proving Ground Heritage Center, the General Patton Memorial Museum, the Yuma Quartermaster Depot Historic Park, the Yuma County Library District’s Heritage Library, and various other museums and archives to provide this historical account of the fascinating history of the Army’s Yuma Proving Ground.

From a brave American veteran comes an eyewitness account of a gruesome chapter in World War II history.

Captured when America surrendered the Philippines’ Bataan Peninsula, James Bollich experienced first-hand the march that cost more than 8,000 American and Filipino lives. Now, he shares the unforgettable experience of his three and a half years of Japanese imprisonment.  

This journal relates his personal experience, first focusing on the sixty-five-mile march that deprived prisoners of food, water, and rest. Prisoners received harsh punishments for any infraction, one of the most brutal of these being the policy of beheading them for taking a sip of water. Rather than force him to give up, these things made Bollich fight for life even more. Witnessing his comrades falling beside him and watching his own body waste away to ninety pounds, he never yielded his will to survive.

After completing the march, he remained a prisoner of war, first at an old Philippine army base, then in another camp at Mukden, Manchuria. He relates his imprisonment in detail, from starvation and torture to digging their own comrades graves in the hot sun, without hats or water. Through it all, he remained courageous and hopeful that he would one day make it back home. His story reminds both past and present generations of the horror and brutality of the Pacific war, all the while providing an inspiring testament to the will of the human spirit.

This journal recounts the 65-mile journey, during which prisoners had no food, water, or rest. The author survived the POW camps on the Philippine island of Luzon.

Originally published in 1910, The Story of the American Flag tells the thrilling history of the Stars and Stripes in picture, prose, poetry, and song. This essential handbook of the flag was written in cooperation with “The Youth’s Companion,” a Boston publication that supported the presence of the American flag in our nation’s schools.

Author Wayne Whipple highlights the honor and glory of the American standard by recounting the struggle and strife during which the flag’s design evolved. Whipple emphasizes the role of the flag as a icon of peace, beauty, and patriotism. Perfect for any American or flag lover, this classic overview of Old Glory is a tribute to the majesty of America’s celebrated banner.

Discover how the people and places of Missouri helped delivery victory to a war-torn Europe.

The state of Missouri played a unique role in World War I—as the birthplace of Gen. John J. Pershing, the commanding officer of the American Expeditionary Forces, and Maj.Gen.Enoch Crowder, the primary author of the military draft—and it is an impressive legacy featuring a colorful cast of characters, events, and communities.Missouri was home to two flying aces of the war as well as Bennett Champ Clark, the youngest colonel in the American Expeditionary Forces and the first national commander of the American Legion. During the war, the state was home to farms and ranches that provided an army of mules that assisted Allied forces in hauling critical materials and equipment in the harshest of conditions. Additionally, 156,000 of the state’s citizens served in the military with approximately 10,000 wounded or killed in action.

Jeremy Paul Amick, a former Missouri National Guardsman and military historian/public affairs officer with the Silver Star Families of America, has collected a unique set of photographs illustrating the impact of the Great War on the people of the state of Missouri.

February 22, 1960, bore witness to an event that would forever change the social, political, and economic life of a city, a state, and millions of inhabitants.

The arrest of 34 Virginia Union University students during a sit-in protest at the most upscale department store in Richmond, Virginia, heralded the upending of a long-established way of life and a change of direction from which there would be no turning back. The students would see their actions galvanize a community into effecting wide-ranging reforms in desegregation and play a significant role in ending the nearly 70-year grip on power of one of the nation’s strongest political machines. Bafflingly, their achievement faded into obscurity, and only in recent years has its importance been recognized.

Dr. Kimberly A. Matthews is a professor of leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Matthews earned her doctorate in education at Virginia Commonwealth University (2012) and began teaching with Virginia Commonwealth University’s LEAD living-learning program. She is the author of a history of the Richmond Crusade for Voters. Dr. Raymond Pierre Hylton is professor of history at Virginia Union University. Dr. Hylton earned his doctorate in history at the University College Dublin, Ireland (1986), and first taught at Virginia Union as an adjunct instructor in 1988. He became a full-time faculty member in 1991 and served as dean and department chair. He is the author of a History of Virginia Union University.

The fight against the Axis required sacrifice and dedication, and Nebraskans proudly answered the call with grit, determination and duty.

Three ordnance plants and two naval munitions depots brought employment and economic opportunities but also housing shortages and racial disturbances. The U.S. Army Air Corps established eleven air bases here, leading to community engagement through USOs and war bond drives. In central Nebraska, the North Platte Canteen welcomed thousands of service members en route to war on troop trains. Henry Doorly’s successful scrap campaign became a model for a nationwide operation. Local farmers fed the nation, K-9 war dogs trained at Fort Robinson and native sons Ben Kuroki and Andrew Higgins affected the war in very different ways.

Through detailed archival research, author Melissa Amateis tells the remarkable story of the Cornhusker State’s homefront.

#YeahThatGreenville is the official slogan of a city with a Southern Charm and congenial reputation. But the beauty of the Reedy River Falls cannot cover up its secret past. Theodosia Burr Alston regularly summered in Greenville prior to being “lost at sea” in 1812. Rival newspaper editors Benjamin Perry and Turner Bynum, faced off in a fatal duel in 1832.Hugh Bramlett murdered his mother-in-law in 1919, before it was revealed that insanity populated his family tree. Genealogical researcher, Jennifer Stoy presents uncovered tales of mayhem, insanity, and a side of Greenville you didn’t know existed.

Searching for the Spirit of '76

With America's 250th founding anniversary upcoming, it is opportune to reflect upon the cultural impact and history of America's Bicentennial celebration of 1976. The early 1970s was dominated by economic and political turmoil, and the nation looked to the Bicentennial to provide an outlet for moving past difficult times by defining the American ethos through a celebration of its past. Though the celebration sought to recycle many of the nation's mythologies, both good and bad, it was successful in reinvigorating the country by reminding them of what made America exceptional. Author Lawrence Samuel explores the cultural history of the American Bicentennial and helps us to ponder the very same questions of who we are as a people and a nation, as we look ahead to America at 250.

Outlaws who preyed on traffic along the Natchez Trace from Natchez to New Orleans from about 1880 until 1885, among other violent and lawless acts, planned to build an empire using the labor of stolen slaves. This is the 90th anniversary edition, original and unabridged.

Marvel at the mettle of Montanans in World War I.

World War I continued with fury in the spring of 1918 as American Yanks endeavored to play the key role in stemming the German tide. Montana’s Marines suffered the bloodiest day in their history as they became “Devil Dogs,” charging through hell on earth at Belleau Wood. Locals in the Wild West Division stormed “over the top” into the Argonne Forest, while nurses, “hello girls,” Navy Yeomanettes and YMCA workers blazed new gender roles. And young Seaman Mike Mansfield, future legendary senator, served on convoy duty against lurking German U-boats.

Award-winning historian Ken Robison illuminates the story of young and vibrant Montanans of all ethnicities as they fought for elusive democracy, at home and abroad, in this world war to end all wars.