Author Joseph Wheelan has marvelously captured the story of America's war against the Barbary pirates, our first war against terror and the nations that support it. The Barbary pirates, a Muslim enemy from Tripoli, attacked European and American merchant shipping with impunity. Jefferson ordered the U.S. Navy to Tripoli in 1801 to repel "force with force." The Barbary War was also a proving ground for such young officers as William Bainbridge, Stephen Decatur, Isaac Hull, and David Porter -key players in the impending War of 1812 against Great Britain.

When John Quincy Adams--the sixty-three-year-old former president, U.S. senator, secretary of state, and diplomat--was elected to the House of Representatives by his Massachusetts neighbors, he embarked on a spectacular late-life career.

He became Congress's most acerbic and influential critic of slavery as well as a tireless proponent for human freedoms and First Amendment rights. This remarkable congressional career utterly transformed him, the public's perception of him, and his legacy--in many ways redeeming his failed presidency. Mr. Adams's Last Crusade renders an insightful...

During the winter of 1863-1864, 1,200 Union officers lived in squalor and semi-starvation in Richmond's Libby Prison, known as "The Bastille of the South." On February 9, 109 of those officers wriggled through a fifty-five-foot tunnel to freedom. After an all-out Rebel manhunt, survivors reached Washington, and their testimony spurred far-reaching investigations into the treatment of Union prisoners.

Libby Prison Breakout tells the largely unknown story of the most important escape of the Civil War from a Confederate prison, one that ultimately increased the North's and South's...

In this compelling and crisply written biography, historian Joseph Wheelan examines the life and wars of the indomitable General Phil Sheridan, whose leadership and aggressive tactics helped win the Civil War, crush the marauding Plains Indians--and save Yellowstone.

In the spring of 1864, Robert E. Lee faced a new adversary: Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. Named commander of all Union armies in March, Grant quickly went on the offensive against Lee in Virginia. On May 4, Grant's army struck hard across the Rapidan River into north-central Virginia, with Lee's army contesting every mile. They fought for forty days until, finally, the Union army crossed the James River and began the siege of Petersburg.

The campaign cost more than 100,000 men--the largest loss the war had seen. While Grant lost nearly twice as many men as Lee did, he could replace...

In this fast-paced narrative, historian Joseph Wheelan relates the dramatic events of early 1865, from the battles ending the Petersburg siege and forcing Lee's surrender at Appomattox to the destruction of South Carolina's capital, the assassination of Lincoln, and the intensive manhunt for his killer. Meticulously researched, Their Last Full Measure braids the rapidly unfolding events into a compelling account that includes powerful armies; leaders civil and military, flawed and splendid; and ordinary people, black and white, struggling to survive in the war's wreckage.

A sweeping narrative history--the first in over twenty years--of America's first major offensive of World War II, the brutal, no-quarter-given campaign to take Japanese-occupied Guadalcanal

From early August until mid-November of 1942, US Marines, sailors, and pilots struggled for dominance against an implacable enemy: Japanese soldiers, inculcated with the bushido tradition of death before dishonor, avatars of bayonet combat--close-up, personal, and gruesome. The glittering prize was Henderson Airfield. Japanese planners knew that if they neutralized the airfield, the...