colonial period, ca. 1600-1775

The first in a five-volume history of the United States, covering a period that ranges from 13,000 B.C. to 1820, looking at how the intermingling cultures, people, plants, and animals of England, Spain, Russia, France, and the Netherlands, as well as African slaves and Native Americans, influenced the development of the American colonies.

Features Charles Brockden Brown's "Wieland," in which a woman searches for the cause of her brother's madness after he claims God ordered him to murder his wife and children; and includes short stories and a newspaper account of the murder that inspired Brown's tale.

A biography of English explorer John Smith, discussing his exploits as a mercenary in Turkey, his founding of the Jamestown settlement where his life was allegedly saved by the intervention of Pocahontas, and his later years in England.

With the Salem witch trials as a background, a young woman seeks revenge against her married lover by accusing him and his wife of sorcery.

Collection of writing by Arthur Miller over the course of sixty years, from the 1930s through the 1990s, including the complete texts of some of his well-known plays, such as "The Crucible," and "Death of a Salesman," and a radio drama previously thought to be lost.

Looks at what towns were like in colonial America, discussing how they were organized, how people got around, the arts, and how news was spread, and examines Native American villages of the time.

Covers American history from the French and Indian War to the Constitutional Convention.