American Heritage

For the first time, the editors of the acclaimed American Heritage(R) Dictionary have applied their efforts to word usage as its own subject. The result is this practical guide that includes chapters on grammar, style, diction, gender, social groups, pronunciation, word formation, science terms, and a subject and a word index.

The history of the United States has been characterized by ferventidealism, intense struggle, and radical change. And for everycritical, defining moment in American history, there were thosewhose impassioned voices rang out, clear and true, and whose wordscompelled the minds and hearts of all who heard them. When PatrickHenry declared, "Give me liberty, or give me death!", when MartinLuther King Jr. said, "I have a dream", Americans listened and wereprofoundly affected. These speeches stand today as testaments tothis great nation made up of individuals with bold ideas andunshakeable convictions. The American Heritage Book of Great American Speeches for YoungPeople includes over 100 speeches by founding fathers, patriots,Native American and African American leaders, abolitionists,women's suffrage and labor activists, writers, athletes, and othersfrom all walks of life, featuring inspiring and unforgettablespeeches by such notable speakers as: Patrick Henry * Thomas Jefferson * Tecumseh * Frederick Douglass *Sojourner Truth * Abraham Lincoln * Susan B. Anthony * Mother Jones* Lou Gehrig * Franklin D. Roosevelt * Albert Einstein * Pearl S.Buck * Langston Hughes * John F. Kennedy * Martin Luther KingJr. These are the voices that shaped our history. They are powerful,moving, and, above all else, uniquely American.

America's story is made up of many elements, but through it have coursed two main streams that have nourished and carried a people forward to a destiny that was beyond all imagining when the story began. One of these is an idea that goes back to the rim of recorded time. It was first a dim, gnawing hope that the future lay in a magic land off to the west. Once that land was found, it drew people to it like a magnet. It is easy to say that it was gold or precious stones or land that led them on, for it was all of these. Yet, it was more - and here was the second great stream of American history. There was something that literally drove people westward, goading them across the endless mountains, through steep passes, across searing plains and desert into the face of terrors known and those unguessed. It was vision. It was courage. It was, at times, the sheer joy of overcoming fantastic obstacles. And it was also the conviction that what they were doing was different from anything that had happened before, that nothing would ever be quite the same again, and that the world would be a better place for what they had accomplished. "Eastward I go only by force," Henry David Thoreau said, "but westward I go free." The sleep of 100 centuries was stirred up in that surge toward the sunset, for out of it emerged not only a new people and a new nation but a force that changed the globe.

Twenty true adventure stories by noted Western authors on the Alamo, the gold rush, Geronimo and the Lincoln County War, etc.

"Douglas Brinkley and American Heritage have done a grand job. This is a first-rate book: fair, clear, and enormously welcome." - David McCullough "Douglas Brinkley's one-volume history is a riveting narrative of unique people who have come to call themselves American. There is no dust on these pages as the author brilliantly tells our national story with skill and brevity." In this rich and inspiring book, acclaimed historian Douglas Brinkley takes us on the incredible journey of the United States - a nation formed from a vast countryside on whose fringes thirteen small British colonies fought for their freedom, then established a democratic nation that spanned the continent, and went on to become a world power. This book will be treasured by anyone interested in the story of America.

The books in the Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series demonstrate the University Press of Florida’s long history of publishing Latin American and Caribbean studies titles that connect in and through Florida, highlighting the connections between the Sunshine State and its neighboring islands. Books in this series show how early explorers found and settled Florida and the Caribbean. They tell the tales of early pioneers, both foreign and domestic. They examine topics critical to the area such as travel, migration, economic opportunity, and tourism. They look at the growth of Florida and the Caribbean and the attendant pressures on the environment, culture, urban development, and the movement of peoples, both forced and voluntary. The Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series gathers the rich data available in these architectural, archaeological, cultural, and historical works, as well as the travelogues and naturalists’ sketches of the area in prior to the twentieth century, making it accessible for scholars and the general public alike. The Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series is made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, under the Humanities Open Books program.