Most Popular Books by David Hackett Fischer

David Hackett Fischer has gained a reputation for making history come alive--even stories as familiar as Paul Revere''s ride or as complex as the transit of British culture to America. Now he has done it again in The Great Wave, a history of price movements and cultural change from the middle ages to the present. Fischer examines price records in many nations, and finds our great waves of rising prices in the thirteenth, sixteenth, eighteenth, and twentieth centuries. All were marked by price swings of increasing volatility, falling real wages, a growing gap between rich and poor, and an increase in violent crime, family disintegration, and cultural despair. Each long wave reached its climax in a period of political revolution, demographic contraction, and economic collapse. Every crisis was followed by sharp deflation, and then by a long era of price equilibrium, rising real wages, falling returns to capital, growing equality, and accelerating population-growth. Aggregate demand increased, and another wave began. Fischer concludes that we are living in the late stages of the twentieth century price revolution. He does not predict what will happen next. Rather, he ends with an analysis of where we might go from here, and what our choices are now.

Paul Revere''s midnight ride looms as an almost mythical event in American history--yet it has been largely ignored by scholars and left to patriotic writers and debunkers. Now one of the foremost American historians offers the first serious look at the events of the night of April 18, 1775--what led up to it, what really happened, and what followed--uncovering a truth far more remarkable than the myths of tradition. In Paul Revere''s Ride, David Hackett Fischer fashions an exciting narrative that offers deep insight into the outbreak of revolution and the emergence of the American republic. Beginning in the years before the eruption of war, Fischer illuminates the figure of Paul Revere, a man far more complex than the simple artisan and messenger of tradition. Revere ranged widely through the complex world of Boston''s revolutionary movement--from organizing local mechanics to mingling with the likes of John Hancock and Samuel Adams. When the fateful night arrived, more than sixty men and women joined him on his task of alarm--an operation Revere himself helped to organize and set in motion. Fischer recreates Revere''s capture that night, showing how it had an important impact on the events that followed. He had an uncanny gift for being at the center of events, and the author follows him to Lexington Green--setting the stage for a fresh interpretation of the battle that began the war. Drawing on intensive new research, Fischer reveals a clash very different from both patriotic and iconoclastic myths. The local militia were elaborately organized and intelligently led, in a manner that had deep roots in New England. On the morning of April 19, they fought in fixed positions and close formation, twice breaking the British regulars. In the afternoon, the American officers switched tactics, forging a ring of fire around the retreating enemy which they maintained for several hours--an extraordinary feat of combat leadership. In the days that followed, Paul Revere led a new battle-- for public opinion--which proved even more decisive than the fighting itself. ] When the alarm-riders of April 18 took to the streets, they did not cry, "the British are coming," for most of them still believed they were British. Within a day, many began to think differently. For George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Thomas Paine, the news of Lexington was their revolutionary Rubicon. Paul Revere''s Ride returns Paul Revere to center stage in these critical events, capturing both the drama and the underlying developments in a triumphant return to narrative history at its finest.

Six months after the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was all but lost. A powerful British force had routed the Americans at New York, occupied three colonies, and advanced within sight of Philadelphia. Yet, as David Hackett Fischer recounts in this riveting history, George Washington--and many other Americans--refused to let the Revolution die. On Christmas night, as a howling nor''easter struck the Delaware Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand men. A second battle of Trenton followed within days. The Americans held off a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis''s best troops, then were almost trapped by the British force. Under cover of night, Washington''s men stole behind the enemy and struck them again, defeating a brigade at Princeton. The British were badly shaken. In twelve weeks of winter fighting, their army suffered severe damage, their hold on New Jersey was broken, and their strategy was ruined. Fischer''s richly textured narrative reveals the crucial role of contingency in these events. We see how the campaign unfolded in a sequence of difficult choices by many actors, from generals to civilians, on both sides. While British and German forces remained rigid and hierarchical, Americans evolved an open and flexible system that was fundamental to their success. The startling success of Washington and his compatriots not only saved the faltering American Revolution, but helped to give it new meaning.

Given in memory of Lt. Charles Britton Hudson, CSA and Sgt. William Henry Harrison Edge, CSA by Eugene Edge III.

The entralling biography of the visionary adventurer—explorer, master mariner, soldier, artist, spy—who has straddled our history for 400 years. David Hackett Fischer, one of North America’s most acclaimed historians, brings to life, with rare immediacy and drama, the story of Samuel de Champlain. A remarkable leader in his time, he dreamed of humanity and peace in a world riven by violence, built the first European settlement in Canada founded on a dream of harmony and respect, and played a role in starting the growth of three populations—Québécois, Acadian, and Métis—in the place he called Quebec. His legacy is with us today and helps define Canada. With consummate storytelling skill and comprehensive scholarship drawing on Champlain’s own diaries and accounts, Fischer has definitively recreated for us the life of a rare and fascinating man, and the result is inspiring and gripping.

Fairness and Freedom compares the history of two open societies--New Zealand and the United States--with much in common. Both have democratic polities, mixed-enterprise economies, individuated societies, pluralist cultures, and a deep concern for human rights and the rule of law. But all of these elements take different forms, because constellations of value are far apart. The dream of living free is America''s Polaris; fairness and natural justice are New Zealand''s Southern Cross. Fischer asks why these similar countries went different ways. Both were founded by English-speaking colonists, but at different times and with disparate purposes. They lived in the first and second British Empires, which operated in very different ways. Indians and Maori were important agents of change, but to different ends. On the American frontier and in New Zealand''s Bush, material possibilities and moral choices were not the same. Fischer takes the same comparative approach to parallel processes of nation-building and immigration, women''s rights and racial wrongs, reform causes and conservative responses, war-fighting and peace-making, and global engagement in our own time--with similar results. On another level, this book expands Fischer''s past work on liberty and freedom. It is the first book to be published on the history of fairness. And it also poses new questions in the old tradition of history and moral philosophy. Is it possible to be both fair and free? In a vast array of evidence, Fischer finds that the strengths of these great values are needed to correct their weaknesses. As many societies seek to become more open--never twice in the same way, an understanding of our differences is the only path to peace.

The bestselling author of "Washington''s Crossing" and "Albion''s Seed" offers a strikingly original history of America''s founding principles. Fischer examines liberty and freedom not as philosophical or political abstractions, but as folkways and popular beliefs deeply embedded in American culture. 400+ illustrations, 250 in full color.

"A ... synthesis of African and African-American history that shows how slavery differed in different regions of the country, and how the Africans and their descendants influenced the culture, commerce, and laws of the early United States"--

A study of the migration patterns that characterized the colony and (later) state of Virginia over the three century history following its European founding. Dividing the topic into three patterns--migration to, within, and from Virginia--Fischer (history, Brandeis U) and Kelly (Virginia Historical Society) study the reasons behind the migrations of various populations, paying special attention to African Americans, and explore the cultural legacy of the migrations. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Liberty and freedom: Americans agree that these values are fundamental to our nation, but what do they mean? How have their meanings changed through time? In this new volume of cultural history, David Hackett Fischer shows how these varying ideas form an intertwined strand that runs through the core of American life.Fischer examines liberty and freedom not as philosophical or political abstractions, but as folkways and popular beliefs deeply embedded in American culture. Tocqueville called them "habits of the heart." From the earliest colonies, Americans have shared ideals of liberty and freedom, but with very different meanings. Like DNA these ideas have transformed and recombined in each generation.The book arose from Fischer''s discovery that the words themselves had differing origins: the Latinate "liberty" implied separation and independence. The root meaning of "freedom" (akin to "friend") connoted attachment: the rights of belonging in a community of freepeople. The tension between the two senses has been a source of conflict and creativity throughout American history.Liberty & Freedom studies the folk history of those ideas through more than 400 visions, images, and symbols. It begins with the American Revolution, and explores the meaning of New England''s Liberty Tree, Pennsylvania''s Liberty Bells, Carolina''s Liberty Crescent, and "Don''t Tread on Me" rattlesnakes. In the new republic, the search for a common American symbol gave new meaning to Yankee Doodle, Uncle Sam, Miss Liberty, and many other icons. In the Civil War, Americans divided over liberty and freedom. Afterward, new universal visions were invented by people who had formerly been excluded from a free society--African Americans, American Indians, and immigrants. The twentieth century saw liberty and freedom tested by enemies and contested at home, yet it brought the greatest outpouring of new visions, from Franklin Roosevelt''s Four Freedoms to Martin Luther King''s "dream" to Janis Joplin''s "nothin'' left to lose."Illustrated in full color with a rich variety of images, Liberty and Freedom is, literally, an eye-opening work of history--stimulating, large-spirited, and ultimately, inspiring.

A history of aging in America surveys and compares actualities and attitudes in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries and suggests practical improvements on the current inadequate system of pensions, social security, medicare, and other programs.