19th century

Austen's tale follows the feisty, quick-witted Elizabeth Bennet as her parents seek to ensure good marriages for her and her sisters in order to secure their future. The protagonists Darcy and Elizabeth learn much about themselves and those around them.

Staying at a health resort in the wilds of Gilded Age South Florida due to his asthma, twelve-year-old budding naturalist Algie stumbles upon a brand-new species that he must protect from a famous collector of exotic animals in a place where evil is lurking.

"Archie is traveling with his uncle Harold, a member of an entertainment revue hired by the renovated Dawson City Theatre, to perform for the Yukon gold rushers. While there, Harold befriends an older gentleman, Montgomery Wycroft, who is in the area panning for gold. Archie and his uncle opt to stay behind in Dawson City, joining Monty on his dangerous quest for gold, battling with both greedy gold-seekers and the unforgiving Canadian terrain. Will Archie and his uncle strike gold, or will they find something more valuable?"--Provided by publisher.

"When Jasper Jupiter's Circus of Wonders pitches its tent in a poor coastal town, the life of one young girl changes forever. Sold to the ringmaster as a 'leopard girl' because of the birthmarks that cover her body, Nell is utterly devastated. But as she grows close to the other performers, she finds herself enchanted by the glittering freedom of the circus, and by her own role as the Queen of the Moon and Stars. Before long, Nell's fame spreads across the world--and with it, a chance for Jasper Jupiter to grow his own name and fortune. But what happens when her fame begins to eclipse his own, when even Jasper's loyal brother Toby becomes captivated by Nell? No longer the quiet flower-picker, Nell knows her own place in the world, and she will fight for it"--OCLC.

A miser learns the true meaning of Christmas when three ghostly visitors review his past and foretell his future.

"[The] story of how Yellowstone became the world's first national park amid the nationwide turmoil and racial violence of the Reconstruction era . . . In late July 1871, the geologist-explorer Ferdinand Hayden led a team of scientists through a narrow canyon into Yellowstone Basin, entering one of the last unmapped places in the country. The survey's discoveries led to the passage of the Yellowstone Act in 1872, which created the first national park in the world . . . examines the larger context of this American moment, illuminating Hayden's survey as a national project meant to give Americans a sense of achievement and unity in the wake of a destructive civil war . . .follows Hayden and two other protagonists in pursuit of their own agendas: Sitting Bull, a Lakota leader who asserted his peoples' claim to their homelands, and financier Jay Cooke, who wanted to secure his national reputation by building the Northern Pacific Railroad through the Great Northwest. Hayden, Cooke, and Sitting Bull staked their claims to Yellowstone at a critical moment in Reconstruction, when the Grant Administration and the 42nd Congress were testing the reach and the purpose of federal power across the nation . . . also a story of Indigenous resistance, the expansive reach of railroad, photographic, and publishing technologies, and the struggles of Black southerners to bring racial terrorists to justice. It reveals how the early 1870s were a turning point in the nation's history, as white Americans ultimately abandoned the the higher ideal of equality for all people, creating a much more fragile and divided United States"--Provided by publisher.

A horse in nineteenth-century England recounts his experiences with both good and bad masters.

"In 1836, two missionaries and their wives were among the first Americans to cross the Rockies by covered wagon on what would become the Oregon Trail. Dr. Marcus Whitman and Reverend Henry Spalding were headed to present-day Washington state and Idaho, where they aimed to convert members of the Cayuse and Nez Perce tribes. Both would fail spectacularly as missionaries. But Spalding would succeed as a propagandist, inventing a story that recast his friend as a hero, and helped to fuel the massive westward migration that would eventually lead to the devastation of those they had purportedly set out to save. As Spalding told it, after uncovering a British and Catholic plot to steal the Oregon Territory from the United States, Whitman undertook a heroic solo ride across the country to alert the President. In fact, he had traveled to Washington to save his own job. Soon after his return, Whitman, his wife, and eleven others were massacred by a group of Cayuse. Though they had ample reason--Whitman supported the explosion of white migration that was encroaching on their territory, and seemed to blame for a deadly measles outbreak--the Cayuse were portrayed as murderous savages. Five were executed. [The author] traces the ripple effect of these events across the century that followed. While the Cayuse eventually lost the vast majority of their territory, thanks to the efforts of Spalding and others who turned the story to their own purposes, Whitman was celebrated well into the middle of the 20th century for having "saved Oregon." Accounts of his heroic exploits appeared in congressional documents, The New York Times, and Life magazine, and became a central founding myth of the Pacific Northwest"--Provided by publisher.

An acclaimed journalist and novelist offers a portrait of the time when America become modern by tracing the life of his grandfather, John Morris, who was born into a slave-owning Virginia family during the Civil War and died at the height of the Cold War.

Discusses the Wilmington riot and coup of 1898, including the rise of white supremacy.