The bloody 1846-1848 war between the United States and Mexico filled out the shape of the continental United States, forcing Mexico to recognize its loss of Texas and give up the rest of what became the Southwestern United States. Generally people argue that the United States won this war because unlike Mexico it was already a unified nation that commanded the loyalty of its citizens. Focusing on the vivid experiences of ordinary soldiers and civilians,...

One hundred and thirty-three years after its 1885 publication by Mark Twain, Elizabeth Samet has annotated this lavish edition of Grants landmark memoir, and expands the Civil War backdrop against which this monumental American life is typically read. No previous edition combines such a sweep of historical and cultural contexts with the literary authority that Samet, an English professor obsessed with Grant for decades, brings to the table.Whether...

"In 1846, the Mexican-American War cast together Latter-day Saints fleeing persecution and the U.S. Army on a desperate mission to capture California. The Mormon Battalion -- including two pregnant laundresses -- must march two thousand miles. Among the army's First Dragoons, Moses Cole, a Virginia farm boy running from his abusive father, grows to manhood under the mentorship of a tormented alcoholic and former professor. Among the Mormons, Orson...