Martin W. Sandler

"A nation in need of hope, the most powerful rocket ever launched, and the first three men to break the bounds of Earth: Apollo 8 was headed to the moon. In 1957, when the USSR launched Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth, America's rival in the Cold War claimed victory on a new frontier. The Space Race had begun, and the United States was losing. Closer to home, a decade of turbulence would soon have Americans reeling, with the...

Though barely known today, these are major historical stories, from Ziryab, an eighth-century black slave whose influence on music, cuisine, fashion, and manners still reverberates, to Cahokia, a twelfth-century city north of the Rio Grande, which at its zenith contained a population estimated to have been as high as 40,000 (more than any contemporary European city), to the worst peacetime maritime disaster ever, the explosion and sinking of the Sultana...

In 1897, whaling in the Arctic waters off Alaska's coast was as dangerous as it was lucrative. And in that particular year, winter blasted early, bringing storms and ice packs that caught eight American whale ships and three hundred sailors off guard. Their ships locked in ice, with no means of escape, the whalers had limited provisions on board, and little hope of surviving until warmer temperatures arrived many months later. Here is the incredible...

"In 1903, the Wright brothers made three brief flights, and no one was there to watch them. Six years later, Wilbur Wright traveled to Europe to evangelicize about aviation and raise money for patents--and the world got aviation fever. That summer, a group of champagne companies organized the first ever international air meet in Rheims, France. They knew they could throw a great party and sell a lot of champagne. They didn't know that this single...

This book features photographs taken for the Farm Security Administration by ten renowned photographers, featuring scenes from regions throughout the United States.

Provides insight into how JFK used the new medium of television and the advances in color photography to further his ambitious agenda.

A definitive collection of letters by and to JFK offers unique insights into his character and times, in a volume that includes correspondences with such figures as Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, and a young John Kerry.