Books in World landmark books, W-50 series

Abraham Lincoln was born to a poor family on the American frontier. He was a hard worker, but he wanted more than a farmer’s life. As he learned about the issues of his day, Abe longed to be a lawmaker himself, so he ran for the state legislature. Soon the farm boy would become the brilliant orator and admired president who finally proclaimed freedom for all Americans. Focusing on Lincoln’s childhood and early manhood, this book explores the people and events that shaped one of America’s greatest presidents.

Seventeen-year-old Moses Schallenberger wanted to go to California. In 1844, he joined a wagon train to do just that. There was only one problem: Nobody had ever made it to California by wagon before. For a year, he and 50 others struggled through high mountain passes and across wide rushing rivers, enduring dangerous encounters with Indians and buffalo, inclement weather, difficult terrain, near-starvation and disaster.Ultimately, Moses and his friends succeeded–becoming the first pioneers to cross the Sierra Nevadas by wagon. Today, the trail they blazed is a major route into California.

From the very first passenger train to roll down the tracks in 1825 to the advent of today’s high-speed trains, the railroad has been and is still one of the most vital forces in civilization. Focusing on American railroad history but touching on other countries, award-winning author Milton Meltzer shows how something as ubiquitous as the railroad is, in fact, a force that changed the world.Praise for There Comes a Time by Milton Meltzer:“Readers of every ethnicity will leave this book with a more inspired understanding of what it means to be free.”—Boston Sunday GlobeH “An accessible and vivid outline of the events that led to changes in civil rights in the U.S.”—Kirkus Reviews, StarredAmong Milton Meltzer’s many honors are five nominations for the National Book Award and the 2001 Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for his substantial and lasting contribution to children’s literature. The author lives in New York City.From the Hardcover edition.

A History of TerrorismWho are terrorists? How do they justify what they do?Award-winning author Milton Meltzer searches for answers as he puts terrorism and its practitioners into historical context. Asking moral questions more troubling than ever before, Meltzer shows that terrorism is as old as humankind and that it has been the tool of innumerable ideologies, religions, and ethnic groups, all over the world.Originally published in 1983 as The Terrorists, The Day the Sky Fell has been updated by the author, with new chapters and a new introduction

In the early 15th century, France was in turmoil. The country had been at war for years, and it had no king. Out of the chaos came Joan of Arc. No one knows how Joan, a poor farm girl, was able to command armies and win battles, but she did all that and more. Some called Joan a heroine. Others called her a witch. But with her determination and unwavering faith, she would go down in history as Saint Joan of Arc.

Back in the sixth century the British Isles were not as they are now. England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, all were divided up into small kingdoms each with its own ruler, each looking for trouble. They fought together, won or lost their lands, shifted their boundaries, until, as one writer says, we need the magic of Merlin to set us straight about the places. But here on this island of Great Britain the conditions under which men lived were much the same in all of the kingdoms. Most of the people were poor beyond belief, and moreover they had no possible way of escaping from that plight of poverty. They were in a complete state of slavery to the rich... Read these tales, then, and realize as you read, that here through the most potent magic of all, the power of the printed word to convey reality, you have come upon a might that moved the world.