Bandon Public Library

"Oregon is a landscape of brilliant waterfalls, towering volcanoes, productive river valleys, and far-reaching high deserts. It is also a land of stories. People have lived on the Oregon landscape for at least twelve thousand years, and during that time they have established communities, named places, built railroads, harvested fish and timber, and made laws that both protected and threatened the land. It is a history of commodification and conservation,...

Reflecting on his career, Stephen E. Ambrose - one of the country's most influential historians - confronts America's failures and struggles as he explores both its moral and pragmatic triumphs. To America celebrates the men and women who invented the United States and made it exceptional. Taking a few swings at today's political correctness, Ambrose grapples with the country's historic sins of racism, its neglect and ill treatment of Native Americans,...

"Do historians reconstruct the truth or simply tell stories? This book suggests that they do both, and that the balance between 'truth' and 'story' is tremendously important to history. Taking us from the fabulous tales of ancient Greek historians to the varied approaches of modern professionals, History: A Very Short Introduction illuminates our relationship to the past by making us aware of how 'history' has changed as a subject. Concepts such as...

Gibbon's masterpiece, which narrates the history of the Roman Empire from the second century A.D. to its collapse in the west in the fifth century and in the east in the fifteenth century, is widely considered the greatest work of history ever written. This abridgment retains the scope of the original, but in a compass equivalent to a long novel. Casual readers now have access to the full sweep of Gibbon's narrative, while instructors and students...

An iconoclastic look at America's past: overlooked episodes that shaped the nation's destiny and character. Spanning a period from the Spanish arrival in America to George Washington's inauguration in 1789, these narratives bring to light little-known but fascinating, myth-busting facts. Read the story of the first real Pilgrims in America, who were wine-making French Huguenots, not dour English Separatists; the coming-of-age story of Queen Isabella,...

Master historian Barbara W. Tuchman looks at history in a unique way and draws lessons from what she sees. This accessible introduction to the subject of history offers striking insights into American's past and present, trenchant observations on the international scene, and thoughtful pieces on the historian's role. History should not just be a series of facts, names, and dates—it should be a flowing narrative, the story of humanity, written

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"In a forceful but humane narrative, former soldier and head of the West Point history department Ty Seidule's Robert E. Lee and Me challenges the myths and lies of the Confederate legacy--and explores why some of this country's oldest wounds have never healed. Ty Seidule grew up revering Robert E. Lee. From his southern childhood to his service in the U.S. Army, every part of his life reinforced the Lost Cause myth: that Lee was the greatest man...

"From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot, a searingly smart and bitingly hilarious retelling of American history that corrects the record and showcases the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans. America's backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory. It is the story of the pilgrims on the Mayflower building a new nation. It is George Washington's cherry tree and Abraham Lincoln's log...

Ranum analyzes the canons of writing history and describes the lives and achievements of the royal French historiographers. He examines the manner in which these writers described and, in some sense, created the glory that surrounded the lives of the nobility, hoping by so doing to enhance their own glory. Through studying the careers of these men, the author demonstrates how rhetorical, ideological, and social beliefs determined the way history was...