Claudia L. Bushman

"A lively look at how each generation of Americans has reinvented Columbus in its own image and for its own purposes. Was Christopher Columbus a hero or a villain, discoverer or destroyer? ... By focusing on popular representation of the explorer and his story through the years, rather than the actual man or deeds, Bushman chronicles the invention of Columbian tradition. In doing so, she provides a historical and cultural context for the quincentennial debate over Columbus's legacy, demonstrating that the current questioning is only the latest in a long tradition of revising the explorer's reputation."--From publisher.

Chronicles the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints beginning in America in the early 1800s and continuing to the present day throughout the world.

"In 1824, John Walker purchased a 500-acre farm in King and Queen County, Virginia, and began working it with a dozen slaves. The son of a local politican and planter who grew tobacco, Walker lost status when he became a devout Methodist, raised wheat, and treated his slaves like brothers and sisters. He also kept a detailed and fascinating journal.". "Drawing on this forty-three-year chronicle, Claudia L. Bushman provides an illuminating study, a microhistory that is rewarding to read. Walker sets aside most of the "Old South planter" sterotype. He sold wheat in Baltimore and Norfolk and invested in railroad stock, and yet he grew, spun, and wove cotton for clothing, tanned leather, and made shoes. He avoided lavish creature comforts in favor of purchasing the latest farm equipment. Rather than losing out to soil exhaustion, he experimented with improved farming methods, nourished his land, and kept his yields high.". "Walker's journal describes the legal cases he tenaciously pursued, records devotion to the local Methodist church, and explains his practice of Thomsonian medicine on slaves and family members alike. He provides insight into women's work and lays out the drama of blacks and whites living in close intimacy and constant fear. Walker humbly referred to himself as "a poor illiterate worm," but his diary dramatically captures the life of a small planter in antebellum Virginia."--BOOK JACKET.

Mormonism is one of the world's fastest growing religions, doubling its membership every 15 years. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the formal denomination of the Mormon church) is now 10 million strong, with more than half of its membership coming from outside the United States. More than 88 million copies of The Book of Mormon have been printed, and it has been translated into more than 50 languages. Mormons in America tells the tumultuous story of this religious group, from its humble origins in small-town New York State in 1830 to its present heyday. Claudia and Richard Bushman introduce us to charismatic leaders like Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, go deep behind Mormon rites and traditions, take us along the adventurous trail of the Mormon pioneers into the West, evoke the momentous erection of Salt Lake City in the desert, and draw us into the dozens of skirmishes, verbal attacks, and court battles between Mormons and their neighbors, other religions, the media, and the American government.