To defeat Nazi Germany, the Allies had to mount the largest amphibious attack in history. Nothing like it in size and scope had ever been attempted. Failure would mean, at best, prolonging the war. At worst, it would give Germany the chance to develop the "wonder weapons" they had been talking about for so long. Despite all of the mistakes and miscues of the Allied armies, as well as the great cost in lives, they secured the beaches with heroic determination and moved on to defeat Germany. The much-celebrated Allied landing at Omaha and the other Normandy beaches on D-Day was just the...

Fredericksburg was one of the most tragic battles of the Civil War. No sector was more hotly contested than the area held by Longstreet's troops and known as Marye's Heights. While the heights seemed impregnable to the charging Union troops, Longstreet's men took heavy casualties and many times felt they were on the point of being overrun. The latest Battleground America volume covers the actions, units and personalities of this key section of the Fredericksburg battlefield and describes in detail the area as it was in 1862 and the national park that occupies the site today.

Last Season of Innocence discusses the lives of the preteens and teenagers who were in junior high school, high school, and the first year of college in the 1960s. These are the young people who read Seventeen and Mad, watched more television than their older siblings, and tended to listen to 45 rpm singles or "mono" LPs rather than the more sophisticated stereo albums of their older siblings. Substantial numbers of these teens could and did join political protests, but they also engaged in a more personal daily struggle with school dress codes and parental intrusion on social life. In a...