100 Turning Points in American History

Arnold J. Toynbee, the most famous professional historian of the twentieth century, is widely quoted as having declared that ';History is just one damn thing after another.' This book argues that history is not about ';things' at all but is all about turning pointsthe decisions, acts, innovations, errors, ideas, successes, and failures on which the shape of a nation's lifeour livesdepends. It presents the 100 points at which America's path decisively turned on its way to where we find ourselves today. * Columbus arrives in the New World* The first slaves arrive in America * Independence is declared * Female suffragists meet in Seneca Falls* Fort Sumter falls* A transcontinental railroad is completed* Edison lights his first electric lamp* FDR offers a ';New Deal' * The B-29 Enola Gay drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima* Neil Armstrong sets foot on the moon* President Nixon creates the EPA* 9/11 Obama Sandy Hook Russian election ';meddling' the Age of Trump These and many more are the crucial ';plot points' in our grand national story, and best-selling historian Alan Axelrod presents them here.