IN SEARCH OF AMERICA
Published on 10. February 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-1-955338-41-7 (ISBN)
Description
What were they thinking? And what happened next? Come on a brisk trek through US history, from past to present, from 1860 to 2025. IN SEARCH OF AMERICA: A NEW HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, 1860-2025 introduces many dozens of individuals and the things they did to change the course of history in their communities, across the US, even around the world
Scenes and people include D-Day at Normandy. A San Francisco sit-in in by a wheelchair brigade. Harriet Tubman and a military incursion in Civil War South Carolina. Andrew Carnegie, "from rags to riches." Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Going to school on the GI Bill. Coal, timber, and Appalachia. The first Earth Day.
A. Philip Randolph and the "greatest march that never happened." Grape pickers in California, Freedom Riders in Mississippi. Mr. Wong and birthright citizenship. Rosie the Riveter, Tuskegee Airmen, and the Code Talkers. Grandma got her Social Security. Harry Truman and the A-bomb, Harry Truman and civil rights.
More details
Person
Peter Wallenstein, a college dropout with a PhD, has taught history in four different countries and has published many books, though not (yet) his memoir, I Did Not Mean to Write That Book. He grew up in rural New Hampshire, graduated from Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University, and taught at Sarah Lawrence College, at the University of Toronto, and in the University of Maryland's program on military bases in Japan and Korea, plus Guam. Then he came to Virginia Tech's Department of History,where for many years he has taught a wide range of courses, both graduate and undergrad. His previous books include Tell the Court I Love My Wife: Race, Marriage, and Law-An American History and Cradle of America: A History of Virginia.