Maurice Isserman

"Essential reading for anyone with a connection to mountains." --Conrad Anker

A History of American Mountaineering

Continental Divide

Michael Kazin

Explores the tumultuous decade in American history, covering such topics as civil rights, Vietnam, the assasination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, the war on poverty, marijuana usage, and the policies of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixo

The Civil War of the 1960s

America Divided

"The epic story of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division, whose elite soldiers broke the last line of German defenses in Italy's mountains in 1945, spearheading the Allied advance to the Alps and final victory."--Provided by publisher.

The World War II Odyssey of the 10th Mountain Division, America's Elite Alpine Warriors

The Winter Army

In Continental Divide, Maurice Isserman tells the history of American mountaineering through four centuries of landmark climbs and first ascents. Mountains were originally seen as obstacles to civilization; over time they came to be viewed as places of redemption and renewal. The White Mountains stirred the transcendentalists; the Rockies and Sierras pulled explorers westward toward Manifest Destiny; Yosemite inspired the early environmental conservationists. Isserman traces the evolving social, cultural, and political roles mountains played in shaping the country. He describes how American mountaineers forged a "brotherhood of the rope," modeled on America's unique democratic self-image that characterized climbing in the years leading up to and immediately following World War II. And he underscores the impact of the postwar "rucksack revolution," including the advances in technique and style made by pioneering "dirtbag" rock climbers.

a history of American mountaineering

Continental divide

Walter Cronkite

The iconic American journalist shares the story of his World War II experiences as a then-obscure United Press wire service reporter, tracing his two convoys across the dangerous North Atlantic to assignments in England and North Africa, which he documented in long, detailed letters to his beloved wife, Betsy.

His World War II Letters Home

Cronkite's War

"If I Had a Hammer unearths the roots of the counter-culture and political radicalism of the 60s, and shatters the myth of the 50s as a decade of deadening conformity. For the 'Old Left,' the 50s were indeed a decade of defeat and disillusionment, as Maurice Isserman demonstrates through incisive and poignant portraits of aging radicals, including Irving Howe, Norman Thomas, and A. J. Muste. But defeat also compelled a reexamination of cherished beliefs, like the myth of the revolutionary proletariat, and facing up to new political realities, like the domestic consequences of the Cold War. Old dogmas were discarded along with old dreams. Professor Isserman challenges the current notion that the radicalism of the 60s was mere psychological aberration. He also dispels a favorite illusion of the 'New Left' itself--that it was borne by immaculate conception without ties to a 'Old Left' it pointedly repudiated. Ironically, the 'New Left' drew lessons from its predecessor never intended by the 'Old Left,' while it repeated mistakes it found unforgivable in the parent it disowned. If I Had a Hammer calls into question our favored assumptions about this pregnant moment in American history." -- Book jacket

If I Had A Hammer

William R Kenan Jr Professor of History Maurice Isserman

Explores the tumultuous decade in American history, covering such topics as civil rights, Vietnam, the assasination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, the war on poverty, marijuana usage, and the policies of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.

The Death of the Old Left and the Birth of the New Left

If I Had a Hammer

Tom Smith

John S. Bowman

Interesting topics Include: Books and printing in the age of Columbus; The Inca Empire; The horse in North America; The legend of El Dorado; The Nootka Convention; The Pueblo Revolt; The role of California missions.

Discovery of the Americas, 1492-1800

"Most Americans first heard of Michael Harrington with the publication of The Other America, his seminal book on American poverty. Isserman expertly tracks Harrington's beginnings in the Catholic Worke"

The Other American The Life Of Michael Harrington

Stewart Angas Weaver

Dee Molenaar

In the first comprehensive history of Himalayan mountaineering in 50 years, the authors offer detailed, original accounts of the most significant climbs since the 1890s, and they compellingly evoke the social and cultural worlds that gave rise to those expeditions.

Maurice Isserman

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