America A to Z

Book excerpt: A parade of fun facts, fantastic photographs, and inside information, gathered together in an all-American celebration.Stretching from the White House's Rose Garden to Hollywood's back lots, "America A To Z" is a panorama of Americana. More than 1000 alphabetically arranged entries bring to light little-known facts, hidden histories, and sometimes strange stories about familiar people, places, events, inventions, fads, foods, and much more. Hundreds of illustrations -- including vintage photographs and woodcuts, drawings by well-known artists like Norman Rockwell, and portraits of movie stars, writers, entertainers, politicians, and other public figures -- enhance every page."America A To Z" reveals the origins of everything from blue jeans to hot dog buns, the Boy Scouts to the League of Women Voters. It introduces the heroes of the Alamo, the occupants of the Oval Office, the denizens of the locker rooms in every sport, and the men and women who have exercised their creative genius in laboratories, automobile factories, and fashion showrooms, on typewriters and piano keyboards. Readers will peek behind the scenes at the FBI and the Mall of America, get the inside scoop on Walter Winchell, and find out what Paul Revere really shouted on his ride through Boston, which children's author got his start writing advertising copy, and who invented Lincoln Logs.A great family reference, "America A To Z" makes it fun for kids to look up facts, for adults to journey down memory lane, and for everyone to get a close up look at America's rich and diverse history and culture.