Books in A Perspectives book series

People from Great Britain came to North America to start new lives in the 13 American colonies. In the beginning colonists accepted British rule without question. But by the mid-1700s, things were changing. Many colonists wanted the right to govern themselves. The British government felt as if the colonists were being ungrateful. By 1775 war between the two sides was inevitable.

American Indians had lived in North America for thousands of years by the time European settlers arrived. The settlers came in search of land and were eager to build farms, roads, and towns. The Indians lived off the land and believed it belonged to everyone. When the U.S. government completed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the plan to expand the country to the Pacific Ocean set up a collision course between the two groups' ways of life.

It's July 1863. The Civil War is at a turning point. The Confederacy has won some important battles, despite having fewer soldiers and resources than the Union does. The two great armies are marching to the same rural fields near the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. What will happen there could change the course of the war -- and the future of the United States. Experience the battle as seen from both sides.

When World War I ended in 1918, it was called, "the war to end all wars." But it wasn't. Unsettled issues and resentments festered for the next 20 years, culminating in the outbreak of war in Europe and Asia in the 1930s. The Axis powers, led by Germany, Italy, and Japan, joined to fight the Allies, led by the U.S., the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. Both sides were determined to rule the world, but only one can succeed.

In 1861 the United States was at a crossroads. People in the Southern states believed that Northerners were trying to change their way of life. People in the North were upset that Southerners wanted to govern themselves. The issue of slavery was caught in the middle. As the events of the Civil War unfolded, each side fought for what they believed in.

In the 1950s, a black man in the South was expected to lower his eyes when he passed a white man on the street. African-American and white citizens attended separate schools, restaurants, and parks. They were even buried in separate graveyards. That was how traditional Southern society had been for more than 300 years but times were changing. Civil rights workers were demanding equal rights for blacks. The nonviolent activists boycotted buses, flouted Jim Crow laws, staged marches, and filled up jails by the dozen. Meanwhile, the Klu Klux Klan and other white segregationists retaliated with their own protests, harsher laws, and increasingly violent attacks. The Split History of the Civil Rights Movement brings alive both sides of the civil rights movement. Learn about key figures and the strategies of the movement. Then flip the book for the lesser-known story of the segregationists and the motives that spurred their actions.