Two hundred years ago, herds of elk and antelope dotted the hills of the San Francisco-Monterey Bay area. Grizzly bears lumbered down to the creeks to fish for silver salmon and steelhead trout. From vast marshlands geese, ducks, and other birds rose in thick clouds "with a sound like that of a hurricane." This land of "inexpressible fertility," as one early explorer described it, supported one of the densest Indian populations in all of North America....

The real story of Hollywood as told by such luminaries as Steven Spielberg, Frank Capra, Katharine Hepburn, Meryl Streep, Harold Lloyd, and nearly four hundred others, assembled from the American Film Institute's treasure trove of interviews, reveals a fresh history of the American movie industry from its beginnings to today.  From the archives of the American Film Institute comes a unique picture of what it was like to work in Hollywood from its...

"The age of pirates spanned nearly two hundred years and was considered a plague on the high seas. Even the far reaches of what was then Alta California weren’t safe, and a surprising number of unexpected visitors sailed into Monterey Bay. Argentinian Hippolyte Bouchard, spurred by revolutionary fervor, attacked Monterey, the then Spanish capital of Alta California, using pirating tactics that left their mark centuries later, and privateers like...

Looks behind fortress walls to explore how they were built to house hundreds of people and animals, how a boy rose from page to knight, and what castle life was like.

It tells the story of the aftermath of the Civil War and how the United States transformed into the "land of opportunity" spanning the years 1865 to 1890. Viewers will be transported into the violent world of cowboys, Indians, outlaws, and lawmen. The eight-episode limited event series chronicles the personal, little-known stories of Western legends such as Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull.

Discover the history, culture and heritage of all 21 missions that comprise California's Historic Mission Trail.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A deeply engaging history of how European settlements in the post-Colombian Americas shaped the world—from the highly acclaimed author of 1491. • "Fascinating...Lively...A convincing explanation of why our world is the way it is." —The New York Times Book Review

Presenting the latest research by biologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians, Mann shows...

Chronicles the life of King Leopold II of Belgium and discusses how he plundered the Congo, how his people tried to overthrow him, and other related topics.

"The prizewinning author of Founding Brothers and American Sphinx now gives us the unexpected story--brilliantly told--of why the thirteen colonies, having just fought off the imposition of a distant centralized governing power, would decide to subordinate themselves anew. The triumph of the American Revolution was neither an ideological nor political guarantee that the colonies would relinquish their independence and accept the creation of a federal...

"From the authors of the New York Times bestselling book Rad American Women A-Z, comes a bold new collection of 40 biographical profiles, each accompanied by a striking illustrated portrait, showcasing extraordinary women from around the world. In Rad Women Worldwide, writer Kate Schatz and artist Miriam Klein Stahl tell fresh, engaging, and inspiring tales of perseverance and radical success by pairing well researched and riveting biographies with...