Russell Freedman

"In his signature eloquent prose, backed up by thorough research, Russell Freedman tells the story of Austrian-born Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie. They belonged to Hitler Youth as young children, but began to doubt the Nazi regime. As older students, the Scholls and a few friends formed the White Rose, a campaign of active resistance to Hitler and the Nazis. Risking imprisonment or even execution, the White Rose members distributed leaflets urging...

From the author of Lincoln: A Photobiography, comes a clear-sighted, carefully researched account of two surprisingly parallel lives and how they intersected at a critical moment in U.S. history. Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass were both self-taught, both great readers and believers in the importance of literacy, both men born poor who by their own efforts reached positions of power and prominence—Lincoln as president of the United...

An introduction to World War I explains its relevance as a conflict that involved many nations and casualties while introducing modern weaponry and military strategies that have shaped all subsequent wars.

Examines the archaeological evidence that various explorers such as the Vikings and the Chinese came to America long before Columbus.

Tells the life history of philosopher Confucius who lived 2,500 years ago. His words of wisdom are still alive and influential today. Born in China in 551 B.C., Confucius rose from poverty to the heights of his country's ruling class. But then he quit his high post for the life of an itinerant philosopher. "The Analects" collects his teachings on education and government, the definition of nobility, the equality of man, and the right way and purpose...

A biography of the nineteenth-century Frenchman who, having been blinded himself at the age of three, went on to develop a system of raised dots on paper that enabled blind people to read and write.

Covers the events surrounding and including the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the end of segregation on buses.

Looks at the history of the port of entry off the coast of California that was "the other Ellis Island" for Asian immigrants to the United States between 1892 and 1940.