The rich and fertile subject of American history usually starts with the Declaration of Independence. However, select events in the 150 years between the landing of the Mayflower and 1776 changed the course of history and had profound and lasting effects on the path our country took.

These stories put our country’s early history in perspective and help the reader understand in new, fresh ways the emergence of the American nation. For example, few people realize that the first permanent settlement on American soil was not Jamestown or Plymouth, but the Spanish town of St. Augustine in Florida. Or that an atrocity committed by George Washington in the Pennsylvania woods in 1754 set off a world war between England and France. Or that the successful siege of a Canadian fort by an untrained group of New Englanders was a key step leading to the American Revolution.