Marc Leepson's Books

Flag

An American Biography

By: Marc Leepson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Flag: An American Biography is a vivid narrative that uncovers little-known facts and sheds new light on the more than 200-year history of the American flag. The thirteen-stripe, fifty-star flag is as familiar an American icon as any that has existed in the nation's history. Yet the history of the flag, especially its origins, is cloaked in myth and misinformation. Flag: An American Biography rectifies that situation by presenting a lively, comprehensive, illuminating look at the history of the American flag from its beginnings to today. Journalist and historian Marc Leepson uncovers scores of little-known, fascinating facts as he traces the evolution of the American flag from the colonial period to the twenty-first century. Flag sifts through the historical evidence to--among many other things--uncover the truth behind the Betsy Ross myth and to discover the true designer of the Stars and Stripes. It details the many colorful and influential Americans who shaped the history of the flag. "Flag," as the novelist Nelson DeMille says in his preface, "is not a book with an agenda or a subjective point of view. It is an objective history of the American flag, well researched, well presented, easy to read and understand, and very informative and entertaining." "Our love for the flag may be incomprehensible to others, but at least we now have a comprehensive guide to its unfolding."--The Wall Street Journal

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

494

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

1429906472

ISBN 13

9781429906470

What So Proudly We Hailed

Francis Scott Key, A Life

By: Marc Leepson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

What So Proudly We Hailed

Francis Scott Key, A Life

By: Marc Leepson

What So Proudly We Hailed is the first full-length biography of Francis Scott Key in more than 75 years. In this fascinating look at early America, historian Marc Leepson explores the life and legacy of Francis Scott Key. Standing alongside Betsy Ross, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Paul Revere, and John Hancock in history, Key made his mark as an American icon by one single and unforgettable act, writing "The Star-Spangled Banner." Among other things, Leepson reveals: • How the young Washington lawyer found himself in Baltimore Harbor on the night of September 13-14, 2014 • The mysterious circumstances surrounding how the poem he wrote, first titled "The Defense of Ft. M'Henry," morphed into the National Anthem • Key's role in forming the American Colonization Society, and his decades-long fervent support for that controversial endeavor that sent free blacks to Africa • His adamant opposition to slave trafficking and his willingness to represent slaves and freed men and women for free in Washington's courts • Key's role as a confidant of President Andrew Jackson and his work in Jackson's "kitchen cabinet" • Key's controversial actions as U.S. Attorney during the first race riot in Washington, D.C., in 1835. Publishing to coincide with the 200th anniversary of "The Star Spangled Banner" in 2014, What So Proudly We Hailed reveals unexplored details of the life of an American patriot whose legacy has been largely unknown until now.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

350

Publisher

Palgrave Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

1137464313

ISBN 13

9781137464316

Saving Monticello

The Levy Family's Epic Quest to Rescue the House that Jefferson Built

By: Marc Leepson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Saving Monticello

The Levy Family's Epic Quest to Rescue the House that Jefferson Built

By: Marc Leepson

The complete history of Thomas Jefferson's iconic American home, Monticello, and how it was not only saved after Jefferson's death, but ultimately made into a National Historic Landmark. When Thomas Jefferson died on the Fourth of July 1826, he was more than $100,000 in debt. Forced to sell thousands of acres of his lands and nearly all of his furniture and artwork, in 1831 his heirs bid a final goodbye to Monticello itself. The house their illustrious patriarch had lovingly designed in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, his beloved "essay in architecture," was sold to the highest bidder. So how did it become the national landmark it is today? Saving Monticello offers the first complete post-Jefferson history of this American icon and reveals the amazing story of how one Jewish family saved the house that became their family home. With a dramatic narrative sweep across generations, Marc Leepson vividly recounts the turbulent saga of this fabled estate. Monticello's first savior was the mercurial U.S. Navy Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy, a sailor celebrated for his successful campaign to ban flogging in the Navy and excoriated for his stubborn willfulness. In 1833, Levy discovered that Jefferson's mansion had fallen into a miserable state of decay. Acquiring the ruined estate and committing his considerable resources to its renewal, he began what became a tumultuous nine-decade relationship between his family and Jefferson's home. After passing from Levy control at the time of the commodore's death, Monticello fell once more into hard times. Again, a member of the Levy family came to the rescue. Uriah's nephew, a three-term New York congressman and wealthy real estate and stock speculator, gained possession in 1879. After Jefferson Levy poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into its repair and upkeep, his chief reward was to face a vicious national campaign, with anti-Semitic overtones, to expropriate the house and turn it over to the government. Only after the campaign had failed, with Levy declaring that he would sell Monticello only when the White House itself was offered for sale, did Levy relinquish it to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in 1923. Pulling back the veil of history to reveal a story we thought we knew, Saving Monticello establishes this most American of houses as more truly reflective of the American experience than has ever been fully appreciated.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

320

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

074322602X

ISBN 13

9780743226028

Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General

By: Marc Leepson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General

By: Marc Leepson

The life, legacy, and lessons of France's great general, who left his country to fight for American independence. The Marquis de Lafayette is an icon of American—and French—history. Lafayette's life story is the stuff of legend. Born into an aristocratic French family of warriors, made lieutenant in the French Royal Guard at age 14, and married into the royal family at 16, he traveled to the colonies at his own expense to fight in the American Revolution. By age 20, he was embraced by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who became his life-long friends. Here, historian Marc Leepson delivers an insightful account of the great general, whose love of liberty and passionate devotion to American and French independence shines in the pages of history.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

225

Publisher

St. Martin's Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0230115659

ISBN 13

9780230115651

Desperate Engagement

How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C., and Changed American History

By: Marc Leepson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Desperate Engagement

How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C., and Changed American History

By: Marc Leepson

The Battle of Monocacy, which took place on the blisteringly hot day of July 9, 1864, is one of the Civil War's most significant yet little-known battles. What played out that day in the corn and wheat fields four miles south of Frederick, Maryland., was a full-field engagement between some 12,000 battle-hardened Confederate troops led by the controversial Jubal Anderson Early, and some 5,800 Union troops, many of them untested in battle, under the mercurial Lew Wallace, the future author of Ben-Hur. When the fighting ended, some 1,300 Union troops were dead, wounded or missing or had been taken prisoner, and Early---who suffered some 800 casualties---had routed Wallace in the northernmost Confederate victory of the war. Two days later, on another brutally hot afternoon, Monday, July 11, 1864, the foul-mouthed, hard-drinking Early sat astride his horse outside the gates of Fort Stevens in the upper northwestern fringe of Washington, D.C. He was about to make one of the war's most fateful, portentous decisions: whether or not to order his men to invade the nation's capital. Early had been on the march since June 13, when Robert E. Lee ordered him to take an entire corps of men from their Richmond-area encampment and wreak havoc on Yankee troops in the Shenandoah Valley, then to move north and invade Maryland. If Early found the conditions right, Lee said, he was to take the war for the first time into President Lincoln's front yard. Also on Lee's agenda: forcing the Yankees to release a good number of troops from the stranglehold that Gen. U.S. Grant had built around Richmond. Once manned by tens of thousands of experienced troops, Washington's ring of forts and fortifications that day were in the hands of a ragtag collection of walking wounded Union soldiers, the Veteran Reserve Corps, along with what were known as hundred days' men---raw recruits who had joined the Union Army to serve as temporary, rear-echelon troops. It was with great shock, then, that the city received news of the impending rebel attack. With near panic filling the streets, Union leaders scrambled to coordinate a force of volunteers. But Early did not pull the trigger. Because his men were exhausted from the fight at Monocacy and the ensuing march, Early paused before attacking the feebly manned Fort Stevens, giving Grant just enough time to bring thousands of veteran troops up from Richmond. The men arrived at the eleventh hour, just as Early was contemplating whether or not to move into Washington. No invasion was launched, but Early did engage Union forces outside Fort Stevens. During the fighting, President Lincoln paid a visit to the fort, becoming the only sitting president in American history to come under fire in a military engagement. Historian Marc Leepson shows that had Early arrived in Washington one day earlier, the ensuing havoc easily could have brought about a different conclusion to the war. Leepson uses a vast amount of primary material, including memoirs, official records, newspaper accounts, diary entries and eyewitness reports in a reader-friendly and engaging description of the events surrounding what became known as "the Battle That Saved Washington.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

392

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

1466851708

ISBN 13

9781466851702

Desperate Engagement

How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C., and Changed American History

By: Marc Leepson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Desperate Engagement

How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C., and Changed American History

By: Marc Leepson

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

392

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

1466851708

ISBN 13

9781466851702

Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General

By: Marc Leepson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General

By: Marc Leepson

Provides an account of the life and military career of the Marquis de Lafayette, a French aristocrat who, enamored with the ideals of the American Revolution, traveled to the colonies to join the fight for democracy, and became lifelong friends with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

225

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

0230105041

ISBN 13

9780230105041

Flag

An American Biography

By: Marc Leepson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Flag

An American Biography

By: Marc Leepson

Journalist and historian Marc Leepson uncovers scores of little-known, fascinating facts as he traces the evolution of the American flag from the colonial period to the twenty-first century. Flag sifts through the historical evidence to--among many other things--uncover the truth behind the Betsy Ross myth and to discover the true designer of the Stars and Stripes. It details the many colorful and influential Americans who shaped the history of the flag"--Page 4 of cover.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

364

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

0312323093

ISBN 13

9780312323097

What So Proudly We Hailed

Francis Scott Key, A Life

By: Marc Leepson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

What So Proudly We Hailed

Francis Scott Key, A Life

By: Marc Leepson

A fresh look at Francis Scott Key, a man who embodied the contradictions of his time, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of "The Star-Spangled Banner

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

257

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

1137278285

ISBN 13

9781137278289

The Unlikely War Hero

A Vietnam War POW's Story of Courage and Resilience in the Hanoi Hilton

By: Marc Leepson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Unlikely War Hero

A Vietnam War POW's Story of Courage and Resilience in the Hanoi Hilton

By: Marc Leepson

On April 6, 1967, twenty-year-old U.S. Navy Seaman Apprentice Doug Hegdahl fell off his ship, a guided-missile cruiser, in the Gulf of Tonkin. Close to exhaustion after nearly four hours in the water, he was picked up by a small fishing boat and soon found himself in Hỏa Lò Prison, the notorious North Vietnamese POW camp the prisoners called the Hanoi Hilton. Under intense interrogation, Hegdahl pretended to be a country bumpkin who could barely read or write. His captors fell for the ruse, calling him “The Incredibly Stupid One.” But Doug Hegdahl was far from stupid. Possessing a razor-sharp memory, during the next two years he memorized the names of 254 fellow prisoners and senior officers ordered him to accept an early release. After coming home in August 1969, Hegdahl shocked his debriefers by rattling off the names of the men. Hanoi had admitted holding only a few dozen, although the U.S. military had reliable intel on scores of others. With Hegdahl’s names, 63 missing servicemen were reclassified to Prisoners of War. But that’s not all. In addition to divulging the names, Doug Hegdahl told the Pentagon about the systematic torturing of the American POWs in Hanoi and reported many other hitherto unknown details about life inside the Hanoi POW camps. The new information became an important factor in North Vietnam’s fall 1969 decision to make life immeasurably easier for the 500-plus POWs held in Hanoi and assuaged the doubts and fears of dozens of POW families. In a vividly written book based on archival research, personal interviews, and his experiences in the Vietnam War, Marc Leepson, for the first time, tells the incredible tale of the youngest and lowest-ranking American POW captured in North Vietnam. Doug Hegdahl has never been properly recognized for his extraordinary efforts, and his story has never been fully told. It’s a story of survival—has own and scores of POWs. As a U.S. Navy historian put it: the North Vietnamese “made a bad mistake when they released Seaman Doug Hegdahl.”

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

288

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

0811772934

ISBN 13

9780811772938

Saving Monticello

The Levy Family's Epic Quest to Rescue the House that Jefferson Built

By: Marc Leepson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Saving Monticello

The Levy Family's Epic Quest to Rescue the House that Jefferson Built

By: Marc Leepson

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

320

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

074322602X

ISBN 13

9780743226028

Ballad of the Green Beret

The Life and Wars of Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler from the Vietnam War and Pop Stardom to Murder and an Unsolved, Violent Death

By: Marc Leepson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Ballad of the Green Beret

The Life and Wars of Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler from the Vietnam War and Pop Stardom to Murder and an Unsolved, Violent Death

By: Marc Leepson

The rough-and-tumble life of Special Forces vet and Sixties pop star Barry Sadler The top Billboard Hot 100 single of 1966 wasn’t “Paint It Black” or “Yellow Submarine”--it was “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” a hyper-patriotic tribute to the men of the Special Forces by Vietnam vet Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler. But Sadler’s clean-cut, all-American image hid a darker side, a Hunter Thompson-esque life of booze, girls, and guns. Unable to score another hit song, he wrote articles for Soldier of Fortune and pulp novels that made “Rambo look like a stroll through Disneyland.” He killed a lover’s ex-boyfriend in Tennessee. Settling in Central America, Sadler ran guns, allegedly trained guerrillas, provided medical care to residents, and caroused at his villa. In 1988 he was shot in the head by a robber on the streets of Guatemala and died a year later. This life-and-times biography of an American character recounts the sensational details of Sadler’s life vividly but soberly, setting his meteoric rise and tragic fall against the big picture of American society and culture during and after the Vietnam War.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

297

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

0811765687

ISBN 13

9780811765688

The Unlikely War Hero

A Vietnam War POW's Story of Courage and Resilience in the Hanoi Hilton

By: Marc Leepson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Unlikely War Hero

A Vietnam War POW's Story of Courage and Resilience in the Hanoi Hilton

By: Marc Leepson

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

288

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

0811772934

ISBN 13

9780811772938

Ballad of the Green Beret

The Life and Wars of Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler from the Vietnam War and Pop Stardom to Murder and an Unsolved, Violent Death

By: Marc Leepson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Ballad of the Green Beret

The Life and Wars of Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler from the Vietnam War and Pop Stardom to Murder and an Unsolved, Violent Death

By: Marc Leepson

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

297

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

0811765687

ISBN 13

9780811765688

Southern Splendor

Saving Architectural Treasures of the Old South

By: Marc R. Matrana,Robin S. Lattimore,Michael W. Kitchens

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Southern Splendor

Saving Architectural Treasures of the Old South

By: Marc R. Matrana,Robin S. Lattimore,Michael W. Kitchens

Few things evoke thoughts and memories of the past more than a house from a bygone era, and few places are identified and symbolized more by historic dwellings than the American South. Plantation houses built with columned porticos and wide porches, stout chimneys, large rooms, and sweeping staircases survive as legacies of both a storied and troubled past. These homes are at the heart of a complex web of human relationships that have shaped the social and cultural heritage of the region for generations. Despite their commanding appearance, the region's plantation houses have proven to be fragile relics of history, vulnerable to decay, neglect, and loss. Today, only a small percentage of the South's antebellum treasures survive. In Southern Splendor: Saving Architectural Treasures of the Old South, historians Marc R. Matrana, Robin S. Lattimore, and Michael W. Kitchens explore almost fifty houses built before the Civil War that have been authentically restored or preserved. Methodically examined are restoration efforts that preserve not only homes and other structures, but also the stories of those living in or occupying those homes. The authors discuss the challenges facing specific plantation homes and their preservation. Featuring over 275 stunning photographs, as well as dozens of firsthand accounts and interviews with those involved in the preservation of these historic properties, Southern Splendor describes the leading role the South has played, since the nineteenth century, in the historic preservation movement in this country.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

800

Publisher

Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1496817648

ISBN 13

9781496817648

Marc Rawls

His Life: His Art

By: Fay Thornton Rawls,Marc Rawls

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Marc Rawls

His Life: His Art

By: Fay Thornton Rawls,Marc Rawls

A mother's reminiscences on the life and artwork of her gifted son.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

Published Date

ISBN 10

1882913086

ISBN 13

9781882913084

Book's by Marc Leepson

Flag

Flag

What So Proudly We Hailed

What So Proudly We Hailed

Saving Monticello

Saving Monticello

Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General

Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General

Desperate Engagement

Desperate Engagement

Desperate Engagement

Desperate Engagement

Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General

Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General

Flag

Flag

What So Proudly We Hailed

What So Proudly We Hailed

The Unlikely War Hero

The Unlikely War Hero

Saving Monticello

Saving Monticello

Ballad of the Green Beret

Ballad of the Green Beret

The Unlikely War Hero

The Unlikely War Hero

Ballad of the Green Beret

Ballad of the Green Beret

Southern Splendor

Southern Splendor

Marc Rawls

Marc Rawls

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email