Walter R Borneman

"The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America presents the triumphs and tragedies of the epic struggle for a continent, placing them in the larger context of France and Great Britain's global conflict - what Samuel Eliot Morison called truly the first world war - and emphasizes that the seeds of discord sown in its aftermath would give root to the American Revolution."--BOOK JACKET.

The history of Alaska is filled with stories of new land and new riches -- and ever present are new people with competing views over how the valuable resources should be used: Russians exploiting a fur empire; explorers checking rival advances; prospectors stampeding to the clarion call of "Gold!"; soldiers battling out a decisive chapter in world war; oil wildcatters looking for a different kind of mineral wealth; and always at the core of these...

Tennessee Democrat James K. Polk is generally ranked among the nation's most effective chief executives. In this straightforward, unnuanced biography, Borneman (1812: The War That Forged a Nation) relates why. Coming into office determined to annex Texas, gain the Oregon Territory from Britain, lower the tariff and reform the national banking system, Polk achieved all four aims in his single term in office (1845-1849). But Borneman overlooks that...

The driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit, which marked the completion of the country's first transcontinental railroad, was only the beginning of the race for railroad dominance. In the aftermath of this building feat, dozens of railroads, each with aggressive empire builders at their helms, raced one another for the ultimate prize of a southern transcontinental route that was generally free of snow, shorter in distance, and gentler in...

Discusses the fact that at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, many of the servicemen on the USS Arizona were blood relatives.