Lost America

A stunningly photographed examination of the roadside icons that dot America's landscape. Lost America celebrates the boom-to-bust towns, aircraft bone yards, and filling stations of days past that were sacrificed at the altars of speed and technology and relegated to windswept desert plains and abandoned fields. The eye-catching and memorable photography is complemented with a succinct text history that details the rise and fall of each subject. The result is an impressive tour of an America still standing, yet largely forgotten.

Questioning popular belief, a historian and re-examines what exactly led to the British Empire’s loss of the American Revolution. The loss of America was an unexpected defeat for the powerful British Empire. Common wisdom has held that incompetent military commanders and political leaders in Britain must have been to blame, but were they? This intriguing book makes a different argument. Weaving together the personal stories of ten prominent men who directed the British dimension of the war, historian Andrew O’Shaughnessy dispels the incompetence myth and uncovers the real reasons that rebellious colonials were able to achieve their surprising victory. In interlinked biographical chapters, the author follows the course of the war from the perspectives of King George III, Prime Minister Lord North, military leaders including General Burgoyne, the Earl of Sandwich, and others who, for the most part, led ably and even brilliantly. Victories were frequent, and in fact the British conquered every American city at some stage of the Revolutionary War. Yet roiling political complexities at home, combined with the fervency of the fighting Americans, proved fatal to the British war effort. The book concludes with a penetrating assessment of the years after Yorktown, when the British achieved victories against the French and Spanish, thereby keeping intact what remained of the British Empire. “A remarkable book about an important but curiously underappreciated subject: the British side of the American Revolution. With meticulous scholarship and an eloquent writing style, O'Shaughnessy gives us a fresh and compelling view of a critical aspect of the struggle that changed the world.”—Jon Meacham, author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

Bromwell Ault is an essayist and a moralist. He presents here a group of essays examining the changes and weaknesses he has seen growing in American society over the past half century. Central to his thesis is the prospect of "institutional failure" as American politics and society break down from multiple causes. One cause is population growth. Political polarization and the corrupting role of money are among the others. It is a sobering book but a valuable one. You will probably agree with much of it. You will find all of it enlightening. --- Lindsey Grant, Santa Fe, NM, 6-28-2011 The highly educated, cosmopolitan patriots who imagined and constructed the world's first truly functioning republic with its proud Rule of Law and its careful checks and balances could not have foreseen how their present day successors might abuse their accomplishments to our current dangerous level of disorder. Author Ault, a retired businessman, has dramatically traced the process by which the US has been brought to a state of moral and financial dysfunction in a new book which provides a strong wake up call to all citizens. --- Donald A. Collins, Washington, DC, author and journalist, 5-12-2011 Bromwell Ault authors a unique book from an even more profound perspective. His four score years have given him a front row seat to the rise and demise of the United States of America. Whether this civilization understands its dilemma or not, Ault clearly identifies every aspect of America's current predicament. His compelling prose connected to basic realities renders an adroit understanding of what America faces and what actions her people must take if future generations expect to enjoy viable lives in the 21st century. It's a must read for every member of Congress as well as the president. --- Frosty Wooldridge, Golden, CO, teacher, journalist and author, 5-31-2011

Breaking History books offer a front row seat to history as it broke (like “breaking news”) and give the blow-by-blow of historical discovery—what we learned, when we learned it, who made the discovery, and how. Lost America is an illustrated look at fascinating places in the United States that have existed only in myth and have never been found, those that were abandoned and why, and those that were lost to social upheaval or natural disaster. The book reviews the history behind these places—how they began, how long they endured, why they were lost, and how many have been rediscovered. Included are accounts of the mysterious disappearance of the Anasazi from the Southwest, the abandonment of the Roanoke Colony in 1590, the environmental disaster that caused the population of Centralia, Pennsylvania to evacuate the town in the 1980s, and the nearly-intact ghost town of Bodie, California. The book also includes places that were thought to exist, but did not--or not yet, anyway: legendary Norse settlements, lost cities of gold, and The Fountain of Youth.

Short stories that attempt to capture the general mood of life in America in the early 21st century. They range from the realistic to the odd, including post-apocalyptic stories of what might be, stories that are whimsical and quirky, and, of course, just plain out of this world stories.

Lost in America helps inspire Christians to think and behave as missionaries here in North America. It help encourage and challenge church members to change the way they think of evangelism and begin reaching out to people in their communities. Includes practical advice and steps for churches to take towards lasting change.

Americans are losing touch with reality. On virtually every issue, from climate change to immigration, tens of millions of Americans have opinions and beliefs wildly at odds with fact, rendering them unable to think sensibly about politics. In How America Lost Its Mind, Thomas E. Patterson explains the rise of a world of “alternative facts” and the slow-motion cultural and political calamity unfolding around us. We don’t have to search far for the forces that are misleading us and tearing us apart: politicians for whom division is a strategy; talk show hosts who have made an industry of outrage; news outlets that wield conflict as a marketing tool; and partisan organizations and foreign agents who spew disinformation to advance a cause, make a buck, or simply amuse themselves. The consequences are severe. How America Lost Its Mind maps a political landscape convulsed with distrust, gridlock, brinksmanship, petty feuding, and deceptive messaging. As dire as this picture is, and as unlikely as immediate relief might be, Patterson sees a way forward and underscores its urgency. A call to action, his book encourages us to wrest institutional power from ideologues and disruptors and entrust it to sensible citizens and leaders, to restore our commitment to mutual tolerance and restraint, to cleanse the Internet of fake news and disinformation, and to demand a steady supply of trustworthy and relevant information from our news sources. As philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote decades ago, the rise of demagogues is abetted by “people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.” In How America Lost Its Mind, Thomas E. Patterson makes a passionate case for fully and fiercely engaging on the side of truth and mutual respect in our present arms race between fact and fake, unity and division, civility and incivility.

In a provocative assessment of American poverty and policy from 1950 to the present, Frank Stricker examines an era that has seen serious discussion about the causes of poverty and unemployment. Analyzing the War on Poverty, theories of the culture of poverty and the underclass, the effects of Reaganomics, and the 1996 welfare reform, Stricker demonstrates that most antipoverty approaches are futile without the presence (or creation) of good jobs. Stricker notes that since the 1970s, U.S. poverty levels have remained at or above 11%, despite training programs and periods of economic growth. The creation of jobs has continued to lag behind the need for them. Stricker argues that a serious public debate is needed about the job situation; social programs must be redesigned, a national health care program must be developed, and economic inequality must be addressed. He urges all sides to be honest--if we don't want to eliminate poverty, then we should say so. But if we do want to reduce poverty significantly, he says, we must expand decent jobs and government income programs, redirecting national resources away from the rich and toward those with low incomes. Why America Lost the War on Poverty--And How to Win It is sure to prompt much-needed debate on how to move forward.