In this newletter:

• Personal Update
• New Book Cover Reveal
• FREE Mississippi River book this weekend
• Halloween Party Video - music and fun!

We have just transitioned from the Cumberland River at Nashville and started our final Eagle Society cruise - a 10-day journey from New Orleans to Memphis. We have a wonderful collection of many guests who we have cruised with before and look forward to a wonderful journey. We also are polishing and rehearsing our new Arkansas River presentations for the debut cruise up to Tulsa starting next cruise. We'll be sharing highlights here and more free unlocked features at our Patreon member site.

NEW BOOK INSIGHTS

Thanks for all the nice remarks about my new book cover. Since the "United States Expansion" book and this one are sort of sibling books, each telling a different side fo the American story, I wanted the two covers to have the same feel and style. The Expansion book chronicles how we physically expanded. But this new book began with a question that has fascinated me for years: How does a nation decide what it stands for?

Sometimes the answer emerges from elections, laws, wars, and decisions made behind closed doors. But sometimes it happens in public.

Americans have gathered by the thousands—and occasionally by the millions—to celebrate heroes, dedicate monuments, open bridges and railroads, attend world's fairs, hear speeches, watch competitions, and demand that the nation live up to its promises. Those gatherings are the subject of Shaping American Identity.

The story begins in 1824, when the Marquis de Lafayette returned to the United States nearly fifty years after the Declaration of Independence. Americans turned his thirteen-month tour into an enormous national celebration.

When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, New Yorkers staged a spectacular celebration stretching from Buffalo to New York Harbor. Governor DeWitt Clinton ceremonially poured Lake Erie water into the Atlantic, symbolically connecting America's interior with the world.

In 1854, thousands boarded trains and steamboats for the Grand Excursion, celebrating the arrival of the railroad at the Mississippi River. The event showcased a nation pushing transportation, settlement, and commerce steadily westward.

But national celebrations could not conceal the growing crisis over slavery, and less than a decade later, Americans were killing one another in the Civil War.

In the middle of the war, in November 1863, thousands gathered at Gettysburg to dedicate a cemetery for Union soldiers. The featured speaker, Edward Everett, spoke for roughly two hours. Then Abraham Lincoln rose and delivered less than 300 words. His Gettysburg Address transformed a cemetery dedication into something much larger. Lincoln connected the Civil War to the Declaration of Independence and challenged Americans to consider whether a nation founded on equality could survive.

That is one of the recurring themes of Shaping American Identity. Public events didn't merely celebrate what America was. They repeatedly asked what America wanted to become.

After the Civil War, that conversation would become bigger, louder, and considerably more spectacular. Soon Americans would celebrate a transcontinental railroad, race steamboats before enormous crowds, build colossal world's fairs—and erect a giant statue in New York Harbor.

I'll highlight more about the book next week. Mark your calendar for the November 14 release in just two weeks!

FREE STEAMBOATS BOOK

TRICK OR TREAT - A free eBook!

As the young United States expanded, the development of steamboats reshaped western migration, expansion, and development. Dozens of navigable river connected to the mainstem Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans and to the ocean-going vessels that connected to global trade. If you are financially unable to support our work, we still want you to enjoy these stories, so this weekend, we are offering our Steamboats Changed America book for free. Just CLICK HERE.​

If you are able to support our work, consider joining our Member Support Group at Patreon.com and enjoy our curated journey of discovery with more history stories, insights, free eBooks, videos, personal updates, and more. Thank you for all your support, feedback, and encouragment! You keep our efforts moving forward.

HALLOWEEN PARTY VIDEO

Since today is Halloween, we also are sharing the musical Halloween Party we filmed a few years ago. It's the perfect soundtrack for your candy distribution. Enjoy some fun! Just CLICK HERE.

We send you all the best,

Bill and Laura