Most Popular Books by Thomas Fleming

Fleming looks at the resons of why the Civil War was fought.

In this swift, insightful book, New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming brings vividly to life the remarkable youth of Thomas Jefferson, one of America''s greatest presidents. Here are all of Jefferson''s early triumphs and tragedies - from his inspired design and construction of Monticello and election as Virginia''s second governor to his achievement as the author of the Declaration of Independence and the devastating loss of his wife.

A bestselling historian takes a scathing new look at Woodrow Wilson''s handling--and mishandling--of World War I, the war that spawned all the catastrophes of the 20th century.

New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming tells a haunting love story set against of the more perplexing and least explored chapters of World War II. In Berlin, Berthe von Hoffman dreams of an angel in the depths, embracing her husband''s submarine – and remembers Kristallnacht, when Hitler declared all-out war on the Jews. The stench of evil in that memory draws her to the headquarters of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, enigmatic head of the German secret service – and guiding spirit of the Schwarze Kapelle, the circle of courageous men and women who comprise the secret dangerous resistance to Nazism. Aboard the USS Spencer Lewis off Iceland, Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Trumbull Talbot is denouncing President Franklin D. Roosevelt''s unconstitutional undeclared war against Germany when a torpedo fired by Berthe''s husband, Kapitanleutnant Ernst von Hoffmann, cut the destroyer in half. Out of this conjunction grows a tormented tangle of love and jealousy and patriotic deceit when the three meet in Spain after Pearl Harbor has catapulted American into the war. By that time, Talbot''s criticism of the president has wrecked both his naval career and his marriage to Annie Richman, daughter of a congressman whose power depends on FDR''s political wizardry. When Talbot returns from Spain to urge negotiations with Canaris and other leaders of the German resistance, Annie, now a powerful journalist, becomes a player in the struggle for the mind of the intransigent, mortally ill president. At its gripping climax, Loyalties draws everyone into an anguished confrontation with the limits of patriotism and God''s baffling role in the middle of human destiny. From murderous contests between rival intelligence agencies in Spain to the labyrinthine political machinations in Washington, London, and Berlin to warfare beneath the North Atlantic, Loyalties is a dazzling mosaic of men and women caught in the crossfire of history – yet finding in the midst of destruction and chaos inexplicable glimpse of meaning and hope.

The greatest American general of the twentieth century wasn''t Dwight Eisenhower or George Patton or Douglas MacArthur. The honor, according to New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming, belongs to Matthew Ridgway, who led America''s Eighth Army to victory in Korea. Here, in this essay, is his courageous story.

All school children know the story of the fatal duel between Hamilton and Burr - but do they really? In this remarkable retelling, Thomas Fleming takes the reader into the post-revolutionary world of 1804, a chaotic and fragile time in the young country as well as a time of tremendous global instability. The success of the French Revolution and the proclamation of Napoleon as First Consul for Life had enormous impact on men like Hamilton and Burr, feeding their own political fantasies at a time of perceived Federal government weakness and corrosion. Their hunger for fame spawned antagonisms that wreaked havoc on themselves and their families and threatened to destabilize the fragile young American republic. From that poisonous brew came the tangle of regret and anger and ambition that drove the two to their murderous confrontation in Weehawken, New Jersey. Readers will find this is popular narrative history at its most authoritative, and authoritative history at its most readable.

In "Hints to Young Yacht Skippers," Thomas Fleming Day provides an essential guide for novice sailors venturing into the world of yachting. Through a blend of practical advice and engaging narrative, Day elucidates crucial principles of seamanship, navigation, and yacht management. The book is structured to combine technical expertise with accessible language, making complex concepts digestible for the uninitiated while maintaining an authoritative tone. Situated within the broader context of early 20th-century maritime literature, this work resonates with the era''s burgeoning interest in recreational sailing and reflects the values of adventure and self-sufficiency prevalent among yachting enthusiasts of the time. Thomas Fleming Day, a notable figure in yachting circles and an accomplished sailor himself, drew upon his extensive experience to craft this accessible handbook. His background as an editor and writer, paired with a deep-seated passion for the sea, greatly informed the informative yet conversational style of this book. Day''s firsthand encounters with the challenges of yachting lend authenticity to his insights, resulting in a text that not only instructs but also inspires. "Hints to Young Yacht Skippers" is a vital resource for aspiring sailors eager to navigate the complexities of yachting. Readers will find both guidance and encouragement in its pages, making it an indispensable tool for those looking to embark on their sailing journey. This book is highly recommended for anyone passionate about the sea and seeking practical knowledge to enhance their maritime adventures.

Once the South was beaten, Eastern and Western troops of the Union army resented each other so violently that some feared for the survival of the victorious government. Then the tension disappeared in one happy stroke that gave the United States its grandest pageant - and General William Tecumseh Sherman the proudest moment of his life. Here, in this short-form book by New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming, is the little-told story 1865''s Grand Review.

The most famous collision in American Navy history took place on a hot, starless, moonless night in 1943. PT109 was idling off the South Pacific island of Kolombangara. With virtually no warning, a Japanese destroyer smashed into the boat, slicing it in half and igniting its thousands of gallons of gasoline. PT109''s commander and surviving crew were flung or leaped into the blazing water, beginning an ordeal that writers, relatives, and friends would use to create a drama that propelled John F. Kennedy to the presidency of the United States. Here, in this essay from New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming, is the story of what really happened that night.

Seventy-year-old Benjamin Franklin charmed Paris and pulled off a diplomatic miracle that led to the British defeat in the American Revolution. Here, in this essay from New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming is the little-told story.

Paradise Beach, New Jersey. The perfect place for Dick O''Gorman and Billy Kilroy to smuggle ashore Cuban missiles to be used in the Irish Republican Army''s war against England. Paradise Beach is an Irish American enclave, one that has no idea about the violent upheaval into which it will soon be thrown. It is 1984. Irish Americans, preoccupied with a loss of political power in the cities, have little sympathy for Ireland and the IRA. This is especially true of Mick O''Day, an ex-marine whose moral failure in Vietnam haunts him still. It is a combustible mix, as a British secret agent disguised as a priest sows suspicion between the Irish Americans and the IRA men that could ignite into a physical and spiritual explosion and could tear the community apart at its very seams. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The effort to understand human nature in a political context is a daunting challenge that has been undertaken in a variety of ways and by a myriad of disciplines through the ages. From Plato to Hobbes and Burke, to Wallas and Oakeschott in our era, efforts have been made to provide some organic framework for the political study of mankind. What has added greatly to the complexity of the task is the increasing denial, even rejection, in the positivist and behaviorist traditions, of the very notion of a human nature. The work can be described as a series of interlocking propositions: the proverbial view of human nature can be explained by evolutionary theory. Biological differences between men and women are responsible for family, community and group life. Social evolution goes through stages which are recapitulated in the moral life of individuals. A well-defined federal system mirrors human development. And finally, for Fleming, most problems in social and political life stem from violations of this federalist system. Fleming''s volume takes up a variety of issues: sex and gender differences, democracy and dictatorship, individual and familial patterns of association. He does so in the context of showing how forms of legitimate authority such as families, communities and nations establish such authority by appeals to human nature, and that these appeals, while presumably resting on empirical evidence, also confirm the existence of normative structures. Fleming''s work is an effort of synthesis that is sure to arouse discussion and debate. It represents a serious addition to a literature retrieved from the historical dustbins to which it has been repeatedly consigned.

Catalyntie is a Dutch woman living in pre-Revolutionary America, struggling to come to terms with the conflicts created by growing up captive in a Seneca Indian village. She shared her captivity with Clara Flowers, an extraordinarily gifted black woman who remains deeply involved in her life. They also share a love for the same man, a brooding giant who, with their help, will slowly discover his American identity. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Even fifteen years after the end of the Cold War, it is still hard to grasp that we no longer live under its immense specter. For nearly half a century, from the end of World War II to the early 1990s, all world events hung in the balance of a simmering dispute between two of the greatest military powers in history. Hundreds of millions of people held their collective breath as the United States and the Soviet Union, two national ideological entities, waged proxy wars to determine spheres of influence–and millions of others perished in places like Korea, Vietnam, and Angola, where this cold war flared hot. Such a consideration of the Cold War–as a military event with sociopolitical and economic overtones–is the crux of this stellar collection of twenty-six essays compiled and edited by Robert Cowley, the longtime editor of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History. Befitting such a complex and far-ranging period, the volume’s contributing writers cover myriad angles. John Prados, in “The War Scare of 1983,” shows just how close we were to escalating a war of words into a nuclear holocaust. Victor Davis Hanson offers “The Right Man,” his pungent reassessment of the bellicose air-power zealot Curtis LeMay as a man whose words were judged more critically than his actions. The secret war also gets its due in George Feiffer’s “The Berlin Tunnel,” which details the charismatic C.I.A. operative “Big Bill” Harvey’s effort to tunnel under East Berlin and tap Soviet phone lines–and the Soviets’ equally audacious reaction to the plan; while “The Truth About Overflights,” by R. Cargill Hall, sheds light on some of the Cold War’s best-kept secrets. The often overlooked human cost of fighting the Cold War finds a clear voice in “MIA” by Marilyn Elkins, the widow of a Navy airman, who details the struggle to learn the truth about her husband, Lt. Frank C. Elkins, whose A-4 Skyhawk disappeared over Vietnam in 1966. In addition there are profiles of the war’s “front lines”–Dien Bien Phu, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Bay of Pigs–as well as of prominent military and civil leaders from both sides, including Harry S. Truman, Nikita Khrushchev, Dean Acheson, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Richard M. Nixon, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, and others. Encompassing so many perspectives and events, The Cold War succeeds at an impossible task: illuminating and explaining the history of an undeclared shadow war that threatened the very existence of humankind.

Sally Fairfax stole George Washington''s heart long before he met Martha. Here, in this essay by New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming, is their love story.

From The Louisiana Purchase Like many other major events in world history, the Louisiana Purchase is a fascinating mix of destiny and individual energy and creativity. . . . Thomas Jefferson would have been less than human had he not claimed a major share of the credit. In a private letter . . . the president, reviving a favorite metaphor, said he ""very early saw"" Louisiana was a ""speck"" that could turn into a ""tornado."" He added that the public never knew how near ""this catastrophe was."" But he decided to calm the hotheads of the west and ""endure"" Napoleon''s aggression, betting that a war with England would force Bonaparte to sell. This policy ""saved us from the storm."" Omitted almost entirely from this account is the melodrama of the purchase, so crowded with ""what ifs"" that might have changed the outcome-and the history of the world. The reports of the Lewis and Clark expedition . . . electrified the nation with their descriptions of a region of broad rivers and rich soil, of immense herds of buffalo and other game, of grassy prairies seemingly as illimitable as the ocean. . . . From the Louisiana Purchase would come, in future decades, the states of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, and large portions of what is now North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota, Colorado, and Louisiana. For the immediate future, the purchase, by doubling the size of the United States, transformed it from a minor to a major world power. The emboldened Americans soon absorbed West and East Florida and fought mighty England to a bloody stalemate in the War of 1812. Looking westward, the orators of the 1840s who preached the ""Manifest Destiny"" of the United States to preside from sea to shining sea based their oratorical logic on the Louisiana Purchase. TURNING POINTS features preeminent writers offering fresh, personal perspectives on the defining events of our time.

In the months after her husband''s death, Martha Washington told several friends that the two worst days of her life were the day George died -- and the day Thomas Jefferson came to Mount Vernon to offer his condolences. What could elicit such a strong reaction from the nation''s original first lady? Though history tends to cast the early years of America in a glow of camaraderie, there were, in fact, many conflicts among the Founding Fathers -- none more important than the one between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The chief disagreement between these former friends centered on the highest, most original public office created by the Constitutional Convention -- the presidency. They also argued violently about the nation''s foreign policy, the role of merchants and farmers in a republic, and the durability of the union itself. At the root of all these disagreements were two sharply different visions for the nation''s future. Acclaimed historian Thomas Fleming examines how the differing temperaments and leadership styles of Washington and Jefferson shaped two opposing views of the presidency -- and the nation. The clash between these two gifted men, both of whom cared deeply about the United States of America, profoundly influenced the next two centuries of America''s history and resonates in the present day.

A biography of the surveyor, militia major, and aide to the British General Braddock, who became leader of the American forces during the Revolution and first President of the new nation.

Few writers have told the story of the American Revolution with more grace, clarity, or emotional power than New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming. Here, collected for the first time and posthumously, are Fleming''s favorite works. He takes us back to the days of the founders, detailing the surprising facts of American life in 1776, including its resemblance to today. He tells the seldom-told tale of the Loyalists, supporters of England who acted on their political convictions with impressive courage during the Revolution, and reveals little-known facets of men ranging from Franklin to Lafayette, Howe to Washington. He concludes with the Constitutional Convention of 1787 when fifty-five men from twelve virtually autonomous states came to Philadelphia in a brave - some thought foolhardy - attempt to replace a loose and fragile confederation with a strong national government. Their astonishing achievement became a standard of enlightenment the world over.

Here, in this short-form book by New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming, is the gripping - and all too timely - account of the great stock market crash of 1929.

Choosing the most important moments in the long history of the American presidency is difficult. But here, New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming vividly recreates many of those hours of crisis - from George Washington''s fight for peace and the night Abraham Lincoln was almost shot to Ronald Reagan''s plea to "tear down this wall" and George W. Bush on September 11, 2001, "the day that changed everything."

Thomas Fleming is best known as a historian of the American Revolution and a biographer of America''s founding fathers. But, as the following collection shows, this award-winning writer, whose career spanned more than fifty years, also explored with equal passion and curiosity the history of other, later eras. Spanning the generations from the beginnings of the United States to modern times, these chronicles explore events and decisions that continue to have an impact the nation to this day - from the battles of Jefferson and Hamilton and trials of Aaron Burr and John Brown to the sinking of the Maine and John Kennedy at war to the high cost of unconditional surrender in World War II and what America''s presidents say about each other.

The charge of treason pitted President Thomas Jefferson against his former vice president, Aaron Burr, and the chief justice of the United States, John Marshall. Here, in this essay by New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming, is the dramatic story of one of the most famous trials in American history.

Today''s spectacle of an imperial Congress battling the president of the United States is unsettling to many Americans. But it should not come as a surprise. Since the earliest days of the republic, writes New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming in this essay, Congress has sought to seize power for itself and diminish the presidency.

They called themselves Loyalists. The rebels called them Tories. This derogatory term had previously been reserved for the supporters of the predominantly Catholic line of Stuart kings, whose reign ended in England''s bloodless revolution of 1688. For well over 100 years, it was the fashion among American historians to accept Thomas Paine''s 1776 declaration that "Every Tory is a coward . . . fear is the foundation of Toryism." But more recent historical research has revealed many New England Loyalists acted on their political convictions with impressive courage during the American Revolution. Here, in this short-form book by New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming, is their story.

In Verdicts of History, New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming highlights six courtroom dramas that changed the future of America. From unexpected verdicts, like the acquittal won by John Adams when he defended British soldiers charged with the Boston Massacre in 1770 to stirred passions when abolitionist John Brown was convicted of murder - a precedent to the Civil War - to the breakthrough in racial relations when Clarence Darrow won a stunning "not guilty" verdict for black physician Ossian Sweet - at a time when black Americans could hardly expect a fair trial. Fleming also includes the trials of Aaron Burr for treason and a well-known congressman for murder. In courtrooms throughout the nation''s history, vivid emotion and heated rhetoric have established consequential precedents and enlarged average men and women to historical dimensions.

On April 19, 1775, thirty-eight Americans formed two uneven lines on the wet grass of the two-acre common in Lexington, Massachusetts. They were summoned by the rolling beat of sixteen-year-old William Diamond''s brightly painted drum. The order to sound the call to arms had been given by Lexington''s militia captain, John Parker. A British column had been reported just fifteen minutes away. This is one of the vivid scenes New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming sets in First Stroke, his award-winning history of the opening days of the American Revolution, beginning with the Boston Tea Party.

They called themselves Sons of Liberty--a revolutionary conspiracy that intended to form a new confederacy in the American heartland--and put an end to the American Civil War. Backed by the South, the Sons launch guerilla attacks against Union troops. The year is 1864, the place Indiana and Kentucky. A time of ruthless censorship, conscription, and a seemingly endless war that has left a half a million Americans dead. Union Major Paul Stapleton falls in love with Janet Todd, courier and evangelist for the Sons of Liberty. Another admirer, Colonel Adam Jameson, readies his Confederate cavalry division to support the Sons'' revolt. The battle for the future of America is about to begin. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

It was not just his wealth that made Frank Hague unique - it was the totality of his power and the ferocity with which he exercised it. For thirty years, he reigned as mayor of Jersey City and ruler of New Jersey. Here, in this short-form book by New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming, is the little-told story of one of the most powerful political bosses in American history.

On February 15, 1898 the Maine, an American battleship in Havana Harbor, blew up. It was no accident. The event led to the Spanish-American War, but the Spanish were not to blame. Here New York Times bestselling historian and novelist Thomas Fleming investigates who really sank the ship.

Perhaps more than even Washington, Jefferson, or Adams, Ben Franklin is the Founding Father who best exemplifies the authentic American spirit and values. Eminent historian Thomas Fleming paints a lively portrait of this self-made man blessed with a wealth of talents: a best-selling author, the most important newspaper publisher in America, and a world-renowned scientist and inventor before he took on the task of becoming the true Father of American independence. Fleming''s remarkable story of how Franklin worked behind the scenes to ensure the success of the American Revolution will inspire readers of all ages.