Tim Getman

The Plot to Change America exposes the myths that help identity politics perpetuate itself. This book reveals what has really happened, explains why it is urgent to change course, and offers a strategy to do so. Though we should not fool ourselves into thinking that it will be easy to eliminate identity politics, we should not overthink it, either. Identity politics relies on the creation of groups and then on giving people incentives to adhere to...

What does it mean to deeply love a home place that haunts us still? From Mark Twain to Grant Wood to Garrison Keillor, regionalists from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age have explored the American Gothic and the homegrown fatalism that flourish in many of the nation's most far-flung and forgotten places. The Haunt of Home introduces us to a cast of real-life Midwestern characters grappling with the Gothic in their own lives, from promising young...

Set in Jazz Age San Diego against the backdrop of yellow journalism, notorious Hollywood scandals, Prohibition corruption, and a lively culture war, Mystery at the Blue Sea Cottage tells the intriguing true-crime story of a beautiful dancer, a playboy actor, and a debonair doctor.

In January 1923, twenty-year-old Fritzie Mann left home for a remote cottage by the sea to meet a man whose identity she had revealed to no one. The next morning,

...

Paul Collins travels the globe piecing together the missing body and soul of one of our most enigmatic founding fathers: Thomas Paine. A typical book about an American founding father doesn't start at a gay piano bar and end in a sewage ditch. But then, Tom Paine isn't your typical founding father. A firebrand rebel and a radical on the run, Paine alone claims a key role in the development of three modern democracies. In death, his story turns truly...

The historical record crowns success. Those enshrined in its annals are men and women whose ideas, accomplishments, or personalities have dominated, endured, and most important of all, found champions. John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists, and Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets are classic celebrations of the greatest, the brightest, the eternally constellated. Paul Collins' Banvard's Folly is a different...

Ten years after graduating from Harvard, lawyer Jack Collins sets out to reinvent himself. The Ivy-leaguer leaves a small Connecticut law practice to join one of the nation's most prestigious firms, trading a nondescript office for one in a gleaming New York City skyscraper. He surrounds himself with people far more glamorous than those he's left behind. He basks in the pride of being with his famous new boss, his alluring new coworker, and his fascinating...

For over 400 years, the mystery of Roanoke's "Lost Colony" has puzzled historians and spawned conspiracies-until now. New discoveries link the lost colony of Roanoke to Hatteras Island. The legend of the Lost Colony has been captivating imaginations for nearly a century. When they left Roanoke Island, where did they go? What is the meaning of the mysterious word Croatoan? In the sixteenth century, Croatoan was the name of an island to the south now...

The Texas Panhandle of the late 1880s is America's last great open range. Into that wild unknown country ride two young cowboys: Nate Reynolds, the scion of a well-to-do family, in search of adventure and gold; and Billy Champion, a ne'er-do-well with a stubborn streak and an eye for the ladies. Together they aim to rid this violent territory of rustlers, horse thieves, and the rest of the devils who slaughter innocents with no remorse. But when the...

Reminiscences of the Civil War is John Brown Gordon's first-hand account of the war as seen through the eyes of the prominent officer. Gordon was trusted and admired by many, including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. The work begins with him being elected as the commander of the "Raccoon Roughs" and his recollection of the Battle of Manassas. He also describes the South's surrender at Appomattox, in which he participated. He recounts his role in...

After a man guns down a greedy, overbearing rancher in self-defense, Smoke Jensen and his posse come to his defense when the rancher's goons aim to string him up.