You may know the story of the O-rings and the fatal launch of January 1986 and still be shocked by all the near-misses that preceded that catastrophe. Higginbotham reminds us of the inherent dangers of space travel, exploring the boundary between courage and recklessness.
'Gripping' ED CAESAR * 'Masterly' GEOFF DYER * 'Incredible' TIM HARFORD * 'A universal story that transcends time' NEW YORK TIMES * 'Superb' DAILY TELEGRAPH * 'We know what's going to happen, but feel the suspense nonetheless' THE TIMES
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The definitive, dramatic, minute-by-minute story of the Challenger space shuttle disaster based on fascinating in-depth reporting and new archival research - this is riveting history that reads like a thriller.
On the morning of 28 January 1986, just seventy-three seconds into flight, the…
The American transportation system—encompassing not only roads but also vehicles, transit systems, and even tax policy—makes driving remarkably easy for most Americans but at a terrible cost in money, pollution, and lives. Transportation professor Susan Handy writes clearly and hopefully of the choices we can make about how to live and travel.
An expertly woven history and critique of the ideas shaping transportation in the United States.
Excruciating traffic jams. Struggling transit agencies. An epidemic of pedestrian fatalities. It is clear that transportation is not working in the United States and that we need to rethink our approach. In Shifting Gears, Susan Handy provides an in-depth history of the ideas embedded in American transportation policy and the emergence of new ways of thinking that could give us better transportation options. Weaving in bits of her own personal narrative, Handy gives readers a deeper and clearer understanding of our transportation system and the…
As Americans prepare for a presidential administration that won power on the promise of mass deportation, now is a good time to read about the violence and corruption that defined the deportation of Native Americans in the 1830s. Cruelty takes a lot of work.
In May 1830, the United States launched an unprecedented campaign to expel 80,000 Native Americans from their eastern homelands to territories west of the Mississippi River. In a firestorm of fraud and violence, thousands of Native Americans lost their lives, and thousands more lost their farms and possessions. The operation soon devolved into an unofficial policy of extermination, enabled by US officials, southern planters, and northern speculators. Hailed for its searing insight, Unworthy Republic transforms our understanding of this pivotal period in American history.
A gripping and masterful account of the moment one of America's founding cities turned on itself, giving the nation a preview of the Civil War to come.
America is in a state of deep unrest, grappling with xenophobia, racial, and ethnic tension a national scale that feels singular to our time. But it also echoes the earliest anti-immigrant sentiments of the country. In 1844, Philadelphia was set aflame by a group of Protestant ideologues—avowed nativists—who were seeking social and political power rallied by charisma and fear of the immigrant menace.
For these men, it was Irish Catholics they claimed would upend morality and murder their neighbors, steal their jobs, and overturn democracy. The nativists burned Catholic churches, chased and beat people through the streets, and exchanged shots with a militia seeking to reinstate order.
In the aftermath, the public debated both the militia’s use of force and the actions of the mob. Some of the most prominent nativists continued their rise to political power for a time, even reaching Congress, but they did not attempt to stoke mob violence again.
Today, in an America beset by polarization and riven over questions of identity and law enforcement, the 1844 Philadelphia Riots and the circumstances that caused them demand new investigation.
At a time many envision America in flames, The Fires of Philadelphia shows us a city—one that embodies the founding of our country—that descended into open warfare and found its way out again.
