James West Davidson – författare

A character-filled history that brings the American saga to life  A New York Times Bestseller  “Davidson has written a work that should lead readers to reflect anew on America’s past and present. . . . We can all use not just a good refresher course on American history, but also some good historical thinking on how we might better realize freedom, equality, and E pluribus unum.”—Daily Beast  The United States is one of the most powerful countries in the world. This is the remarkable story of how it came to be. Beginning with the first contact between the old world and the new over 500 years ago, this Little History moves through the centuries from the first European explorers and slave-owning farmers, to the Declaration of Independence and the Civil War, to the Great Depression and the wars of the twentieth century.  We meet key figures, including founding father Benjamin Franklin, the Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull, the abolitionist Harriet Tubman, and the civil rights activist Rosa Parks. This is a fast-paced, character-filled history that brings the great, diverse American saga to life.  Little Histories – Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds

Between 1880 and 1930, Southern mobs hanged, burned, and otherwise tortured to death at least 3,300 African Americans. And yet the rest of the nation largely ignored the horror of lynching or took it for granted, until a young schoolteacher from Tennessee raised her voice. Her name was Ida B. Wells. In "They Say," historian James West Davidson recounts the first thirty years of this passionate woman''s life--as well as the story of the great struggle over the meaning of race in post-emancipation America. Davidson captures the breathtaking, often chaotic changes that swept the South as Wells grew up in Holly Springs, Mississippi: the spread of education among the free blacks, the rise of political activism, the bitter struggles for equality in the face of entrenched social custom. As Wells came of age she moved to bustling Memphis, eager to worship at the city''s many churches (black and white), to take elocution lessons and perform Shakespeare at evening soirées, to court and spark with the young men taken by her beauty. But Wells'' quest for fulfillment was thwarted as whites increasingly used race as a barrier separating African Americans from mainstream America. Davidson traces the crosscurrents of these cultural conflicts through Ida Wells'' forceful personality. When a conductor threw her off a train for not retreating to the segregated car, she sued the railroad--and won. When she protested conditions in the segregated Memphis schools, she was fired--and took up full-time journalism. And in 1892, when an explosive lynching rocked Memphis, she embarked full-blown on the career for which she is now remembered, as an outspoken writer and lecturer against lynching. Richly researched and deftly written, "They Say" offers a gripping portrait of the young Ida B. Wells, shedding light not only on how one black American defined her own aspirations and her people''s freedom, but also on the changing meaning of race in America.

In July 1903 Leonidas Hubbard set out to explore the uncharted interior of Labrador by canoe, accompanied by Dillon Wallace, his best friend, and George Elson, a Métis guide. Bad luck and bad judgment led the expedition into disaster and the party was forced to turn back. Hubbard died of starvation just thirty miles from camp. Two years later Wallace decided to complete the overland expedition and clear himself of blame for Hubbard''s death. He had, however, a rival - Mina Hubbard. She blamed Wallace for her husband''s death and, with Elson as her guide, intended to complete the trek first. The result was an epic race between the avenging widow and her husband''s best friend. Reconstructing the story from the long-lost journals and diaries of the 1903 and 1905 expeditions, James Davidson and John Rugge trace the explorers'' routes and re-create the saga. Great Heart is a gripping drama of individuals pushed to the limits of human endurance.

For more than twenty-five years, After the Fact has guided students through American history and the methods used to study it. In dramatic episodes that move chronologically through American history, this best-selling book examines a broad variety of topics including oral evidence, photographs, ecological data, films and television programs, church and town records, census data, and novels. Whether for an introductory survey or for a historical methods course, After the Fact is the ideal text to introduce readers, step by step, to the detective work and analytical approaches historians use when they are actually doing history.

For more than twenty-five years, After the Fact has guided students through American history and the methods used to study it. In dramatic episodes that move chronologically through American history, this best-selling book examines a broad variety of topics including oral evidence, photographs, ecological data, films and television programs, church and town records, census data, and novels. Whether for an introductory survey or for a historical methods course, After the Fact is the ideal text to introduce readers, step by step, to the detective work and analytical approaches historians use when they are actually doing history.