It’s Fourth of July, and a great excuse to highlight the three books we’ve written associated with American History. Ready? Grab your red, white and blue-striped cupcake and Budweiser and let’s jump in, shall we?

Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence. This is the grand-daddy of them all. First published back in 2009, the book features short mini-biographies on the 56 men who signed that famous document in August 1776. Oh, you thought it was signed in July 1776? This is why you need the book!

Signing Their Rights Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the U.S. Constitution. The follow-up to the bestseller. We knew we had to write this one as soon as we heard someone remark, “I didn’t know the Constitution had signers!” Well, it did. Thirty-nine of them, in fact, and the story of that hot, torturous summer is at least as good as the story behind the summer of ‘76.

Stuff Every American Should Know. Here’s a slim, tiny book suitable for gift-giving or stocking-stuffing that touches upon a small assortment of factoids about American history. People love to give this book to kids, but we happen to think grown-ups enjoy it too. Learn about flags, patriotic songs, and Geronimo. Yes, Geronimo.

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One last thing: the editor behind this trio has since left the publisher to go his own way, but I’ll never forget the day we met for lunch and he opined that these books are awesome because, at the very least, “they’re books people have an excuse to talk about once a year, and you can’t say that about many books.”

Over the years, those words have proved prescient. People love talking about the signers this time of year. Here’s just a sampling of this year’s crop of news articles referencing our book:

A lovely story in The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, Mass.: A quick-and-dirty interview I did with a reporter.

Cool piece in The Wilmington Star, NC.: Didn’t know they had done a story until our publisher sent the link.

Nice interview I did with Radio America: I was on the road when they called but we managed to speak. The sound file is embedded below…

Another groovy podcast: This one comes with a longer article on the vote for Independence at a separate page.

Great Tampa Bay Times article on a relative of Signer Elbridge Gerry, the father of gerrymandering: This piece first ran in 2014 but they re-published it in light of the recent Supreme Court decision.

Delightful piece in the Omaha World-Herald that recommends our book to help celebrate the holiday.: Just don’t get BBQ sauce on the pages.

So there you go. A great assortment of stories and coverage that brings a smile to our faces and proves our editor right once again!

Happy Fourth!

Icepop image by Nick Torontali via Unsplash.

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