In this newletter:

• Personal Update
• FREE Lower Mississippi Port Highlights
• New Book Next Week Update
• New Podcast Audio Features!
• FREE eBook this weekend

We are aboard a 10-day Eagle Society cruise from New Orleans to Memphis. We love how these 10-day cruises expand the experience. Do you have a favorite port along the lower Mississippi River? Many choose Natchez, Mississippi. So here's an audio feature we did for American Cruise Lines to highlight the port of Natchez. Just CLICK HERE.​

NEW BOOK NEXT WEEK!

Continuing of book preview from last week's highlights...

On May 10, 1869, crowds gathered at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, as the final spike completed the first transcontinental railroad. For the first time, telegraph wires allowed people across the country to experience a national event almost simultaneously. America had entered the age of spectacle.

In 1870, thousands crowded the Mississippi River to watch the legendary race between the steamboats Robert E. Lee and Natchez.

Six years later, nearly ten million visitors attended the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where the United States celebrated its hundredth birthday and displayed its growing industrial power.

Then came the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, and increasingly ambitious world's fairs. Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 created an enormous "White City" illuminated by electric lights. Buffalo, St. Louis, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York later hosted major expositions of their own. These spectacles allowed Americans to show themselves—and the world—what the nation had accomplished.

But there was always another side to the story. Whose version of America was being celebrated? That question became increasingly important as the story approaches the twentieth century.

By 1963, one of America's most significant public gatherings wasn't primarily celebrating national accomplishment. It was demanding that the country fulfill promises made generations earlier. More than 200,000 people gathered in Washington for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Standing before the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. invoked the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Lincoln, and America's founding promises. The setting was no accident.

Nearly a century after Gettysburg, Americans were still using public gatherings to define the national identity. The events are fascinating history and their impacts are a thread that has become one of my favorite themes to explore while writing this book.

Watch for next week's release of Shaping American Identity. Public events didn't merely celebrate what America was. They repeatedly asked what America wanted to become.

NEW PODCAST AUDIO FEATURES: Untied States Expansion

We have a fascinating new podcast that highlights our United States Expansion book, chapter by chapter, episode by episode. Best of all, each episode is only about five minutes long. You're gonna love these! They initally are only available to our Patron Member Supporters, but bit by bit, they will be unlocked and available to everyone for free. The first couple are already unlocked. Just CLICK HERE. Check back regularly to enjoy the entire series, or join our Members to support our work and enjoy access to all the hundreds of article, videos, and audio features that are part of our curated exploration of United States. The podcast is the most fun when accompanied by our United States Expansion book, which is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook formats. Just CLICK HERE.​

Just FYI - We also will soon have a new podcast season which will highlight my new Shaping American Identity book. Stay tuned!

FREE MARK TWAIN BOOK

Explore how the Mississippi River impacted the life, career, and writings of Mark Twain. Get your FREE eBook edition of Mark Twain and the Mississippi River book for free. Just CLICK HERE. We also have nice paperback and audiobook editions.

We are so excited to release our new book next week. Stay tuned!

We send you all the best,

Bill and Laura