Books in Witness to Ancient History series

What was it like to take part in the D-Day landings? What was it like to be a war reporter traveling with the largest invasion force in history? What was it like to be a witness to history? Step back in time to World War II and the D-Day landings and see history through the eyes of those who lived it. Discover what it was like to be a soldier landing on one of the D-Day beaches. Find out about the fighting and battles that took place during the Battle of Normandy. Read how the French Resistance helped the Allies defeat the Germans in occupied France.

What was it like to fight in World War I? What was it like to live in the trenches behind no-man's-land? What was it like to be a witness to history? Step back in time to World War I and see history through the eyes of those who lived it. Discovered what it was like to be a soldier during a trench warfare gas attack. Read the account of a Russian reporter in St. Petersburg when war was declared on Germany in 1914. Learn how it felt to be a German U-boat captain whose orders were to sink a British ship filled with men and horses.

What was it like to be an African American in the 1950s and 1960s? What was it like to take part in a civil rights protest? What was it like to be a witness to history? Step back in time to the civil rights protests and see history through the eyes of those who lived it. Discover what it was like to be one of the first African-American students to go to a white high school in the state of Arkansas. Find out about the determination of the Freedom Riders. Read how a new education program changed the life of an African-American student.

This series uses a variety of sources to give an insight into a particular period. The aim is to provide a history resource with a strong emphasis on evidence, using eye witness accounts from a range of source material, including diaries, letters and newspapers. An initial section introduces the period and the sources available. An extended quotation for the source is on one page, facing a commentary giving the historical background. The reliability of the sources is considered.

What was it like to be a member of the nobility during the French Revolution? What was it like to watch an execution by guillotine? What was it like to be a witness to history? Step back in time to the French Revolution and see history through the eyes of those who lived it. Find out what it was like to be a radical at the heart of the revolution. Discover how it felt to be the mayor of Paris as the streets were filled with rioting crowds. Hear the account of Louis XVI's priest as the king was led to his place of execution–and the feared guillotine.

How Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders exemplified "manhood" and civic virtue.Below a Cuban sun so hot it stung their eyes, American troops hunkered low at the base of Kettle Hill. Spanish bullets zipped overhead, while enemy artillery shells landed all around them. Driving Spanish forces from the high ground would mean gaining control of Santiago, Cuba, and, soon enough, American victory in the Spanish-American War. No one doubted that enemy fire would claim a heavy toll, but these unusual citizen-soldiers and their unlikely commander―39-year-old Colonel Theodore Roosevelt―had volunteered for exactly this kind of mission.In Charging Up San Juan Hill, John R. Van Atta recounts that fateful day in 1898. Describing the battle’s background and its ramifications for Roosevelt, both personal and political, Van Atta explains how Roosevelt’s wartime experience prompted him to champion American involvement in world affairs. Tracking Roosevelt’s rise to the presidency, this book argues that the global expansion of American influence―indeed, the building of an empire outward from a strengthened core of shared values at home―connected to the broader question of cultural sustainability as much as it did to the increasing of trade, political power, and military might.At the turn of the twentieth century, Theodore Roosevelt personified American confidence. A New York City native and recovered asthmatic who spent his twenties in the wilds of the Dakota Territory, Roosevelt leapt into the war with Spain with gusto. He organized a band of cavalry volunteers he called the Rough Riders and, on July 1, 1898, took part in their charge up a Cuban hill the newspapers called San Juan, launching him to national prominence. Without San Juan, Van Atta argues, Roosevelt―whom the papers credited for the victory and lauded as a paragon of manhood―would never have reached a position to become president.

What was it like to lose all the money you had saved? What was it like to live in a shantytown? What was it like to be a witness to history? Step back in time to the Great Depression. See history through the eyes of those who lived it. Hear how on October 24, 1929, a day called Black Thursday sent Wall Street into disastrous decline. Discover what it was like in Germany when a month’s salary couldn’t buy more than a cup of coffee. Find out how it felt to have to pile all of your possessions onto a truck and head across the country in search of work.

How an uprising of debtors and small farmers unwittingly influenced the U.S. Constitution.Throughout the late summer and fall of 1786, farmers in central and western Massachusetts organized themselves into armed groups to protest against established authority and aggressive creditors. Calling themselves "regulators" or the "voice of the people," these crowds attempted to pressure the state government to lower taxes and provide relief to debtors by using some of the same methods employed against British authority a decade earlier. From the perspective of men of wealth and station, these farmers threatened the foundations of society: property rights and their protection in courts and legislature.In this concise and compelling account of the uprising that came to be known as Shays’s Rebellion, Sean Condon describes the economic difficulties facing both private citizens and public officials in newly independent Massachusetts. He explains the state government policy that precipitated the farmers’ revolt, details the machinery of tax and debt collection in the 1780s, and provides readers with a vivid example of how the establishment of a republican form of government shifted the boundaries of dissent and organized protest. Underscoring both the fragility and the resilience of government authority in the nascent republic, the uprising and its aftermath had repercussions far beyond western Massachusetts; ultimately, it shaped the framing and ratification of the U.S. Constitution, which in turn ushered in a new, stronger, and property-friendly federal government. A masterful telling of a complicated story, Shays’s Rebellion is aimed at scholars and students of American history.

What was it like to be a soldier in World War II? What was it like to survive the bomb dropped on Hiroshima? What was it like to be a witness to history? Step back in time to World War II and see history through the eyes of those who lived it. Discover what it was like to be aboard the USS Arizona when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor. Find out how it felt to be a Russian child caught in a bombing raid during the Siege of Leningrad. Hear how, on June 6, 1944, a day called “D-Day” changed the life of one Canadian soldier forever.

Prelude to Revolution tells the story of a critical event in America’s early history, when a new nation’s fate was still uncertain.Before colonial Americans could declare independence, they had to undergo a change of heart. Beyond a desire to rebel against British mercantile and fiscal policies, they had to believe that they could stand up to the fully armed British soldier. Prelude to Revolution uncovers one story of how the Americans found that confidence.On April 19, 1775, British raids on Lexington Green and Concord Bridge made history, but it was an episode nearly two months earlier in Salem, Massachusetts, that set the stage for the hostilities. Peter Charles Hoffer has discovered records and newspaper accounts of a British gunpowder raid on Salem. Seeking powder and cannon hidden in the town, a regiment of British Regulars were foiled by quick-witted patriots who carried off the ordnance and then openly taunted the Regulars. The prudence of British commanding officer Alexander Leslie and the persistence of the patriot leaders turned a standoff into a bloodless triumph for the colonists. What might have been a violent confrontation turned into a local victory, and the patriots gloated as news spread of "Leslie’s Retreat."When British troops marched on Lexington and Concord on that pivotal day in April, Hoffer explains, each side had drawn diametrically opposed lessons from the Salem raid. It emboldened the rebels to stand fast and infuriated the British, who vowed never again to back down. After relating these battles in vivid detail, Hoffer provides a teachable problem in historic memory by asking why we celebrate Lexington and Concord but not Salem and why New Englanders recalled the events at Salem but then forgot their significance.Praise for the work of Peter Charles Hoffer"This book more than succeeds in achieving its goal of helping students understand and appreciate the cultural and intellectual environment of the Anglophone world."―New England Quarterly, reviewing When Benjamin Franklin Met the Reverend Whitefield"A synthetic essay of considerable grace and scope... An excellent overview of the field."―Journal of Legal History, reviewing Law and People in Colonial America

What was it like to lose all the money you had saved? What was it like to live in a shantytown? What was it like to be a witness to history? Step back in time to the Great Depression. See history through the eyes of those who lived it. Hear how on October 24, 1929, a day called Black Thursday sent Wall Street into disastrous decline. Discover what it was like in Germany when a month’s salary couldn’t buy more than a cup of coffee. Find out how it felt to have to pile all of your possessions onto a truck and head across the country in search of work.