The history of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley is as astonishing as its disappearance. On February 17, 1864, after a legendary encounter with a Union battleship, the iron “fish boat” vanished without a trace somewhere off the coast of South Carolina. For more than a century the fate of the Hunley remained one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Civil War. Then, on August 8, 2000, with thousands of spectators crowding Charleston Harbor, the Hunley was raised from the bottom of the sea and towed ashore. Now, award-winning journalists Brian Hicks and Schuyler Kropf offer new insights into the Hunley’s final hours and recount the amazing true story of its rescue. The brainchild of wealthy New Orleans planter and lawyer Horace Lawson Hunley, the Hunley inspired tremendous hopes of breaking the Union’s naval blockade of Charleston, only to drown two crews on disastrous test runs. But on the night of February 17, 1864, the Hunley finally made good on its promise. Under the command of the heroic Lieutenant George E. Dixon, the sub rammed a spar torpedo into the Union sloop Housatonic and sank the ship within minutes, accomplishing a feat of stealth technology that would not be repeated for half a century. And then, shortly after its stunning success, the Hunley vanished. This book is an extraordinary true story peopled with a fascinating cast of characters, including Horace Hunley himself, the Union officers and crew who went down with the Housatonic, P. T. Barnum, who offered $100,000 for its recovery, and novelist Clive Cussler, who spearheaded the mission that finally succeeded in finding the Hunley. The drama of salvaging the sub is only the prelude to a page-turning account of how scientists unsealed this archaeological treasure chest and discovered the inner-workings of a submarine more technologically advanced than anyone expected, as well as numerous, priceless artifacts. Hicks and Kropf have crafted a spellbinding adventure story that spans over a century of American history. Dramatically told, filled with historical details and contemporary color, illustrated with breathtaking original photographs, Raising the Hunley is one of the most fascinating Civil War books to appear in years.

Raising the Hunley: The Remarkable History and Recovery of the Lost Confederate Submarine

History

Hicks, Brian

Kropf, Schuyler

Americas

Ballantine Books

On December 4th, 1872, a 100-foot brigantine was discovered drifting through the North Atlantic without a soul on board. Not a sign of struggle, not a shred of damage, no ransacked cargo—and not a trace of the captain, his wife and daughter, or the crew. What happened on board the ghost ship Mary Celeste has baffled and tantalized the world for 130 years. In his stunning new book, award-winning journalist Brian Hicks plumbs the depths of this fabled nautical mystery and finally uncovers the truth. The Mary Celeste was cursed as soon as she was launched on the Bay of Fundy in the spring of 1861. Her first captain died before completing the maiden voyage. In London she accidentally rammed and sank an English brig. Later she was abandoned after a storm drove her ashore at Cape Breton. But somehow the ship was recovered and refitted, and in the autumn of 1872 she fell to the reluctant command of a seasoned mariner named Benjamin Spooner Briggs. It was Briggs who was at the helm when the Mary Celeste sailed into history. In Brian Hicks’s skilled hands, the story of the Mary Celeste becomes the quintessential tale of men lost at sea. Hicks vividly recreates the events leading up to the crew’s disappearance and then unfolds the complicated and bizarre aftermath—the dark suspicions that fell on the officers of the ship that intercepted her; the farcical Admiralty Court salvage hearing in Gibraltar; the wild myths that circulated after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published a thinly disguised short story sensationalizing the mystery. Everything from a voodoo curse to an alien abduction has been hauled out to explain the fate of the Mary Celeste. But, as Brian Hicks reveals, the truth is actually grounded in the combined tragedies of human error and bad luck. The story of the Mary Celeste acquired yet another twist in 2001, when a team of divers funded by novelist Clive Cussler located the wreck in a coral reef off Haiti. Written with the suspense of a thriller and the vivid accuracy of the best popular history, Ghost Ship tells the unforgettable true story of the most famous and most fascinating maritime mystery of all time.

Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew

World

Random House Publishing Group

Profit from the Peak contains the information you need to successfully navigate the end of our oil-based economy. It takes a hard look at the future of oil and gas, examines how you can effectively invest in these resources, and profit from energy alternatives that are poised to power the years ahead. Along the way, this book also explores the potential, and possible limitations, of each major energy source, while carefully cover the investing angles of each one.

Profit from the Peak: The End of Oil and the Greatest Investment Event of the Century

Business & Money

Nelder, Chris

Economics

wiley

Thirty-four-year-old Michael Turner calls his life "a swing and a miss." His wife's uncle got him his job. His wife's grandmother got him his house. He travels too much, and his kids are growing up without him. He dreams of creating a new world for his family, but has no idea how to do it. When his wife, Julie, discovers a family secret with the power to alter their lives forever, Michael is forced to confront the one truth he's been avoiding all his life: Sometimes the only way to redirect your future is to reconnect with your past. Whether you're a salesperson, an athlete, a homemaker or an entrepreneur, this modern-day parable will show you that living your dreams isn't some secret, mystical process, and will inspire you to create an astounding new world for yourself and your family. A unique blend of fiction, allegory and inspiration, The Tinderbox Tapes is the debut offering from Speaker Brian Hicks.

The Tinderbox Tapes: The Secret of Success Isn't a Secret After All

Self-Help

Success

Britin Partners LLC

Documents the story of the luxury liner that burned off the coast of New Jersey in 1934, drawing on previously classified FBI reports and first-person survivor interviews to reveal how the Morro Castle's captain died under mysterious circumstances seven hours before the ship caught fire and how many of the crew abandoned ship, leaving passengers to fend for themselves. 40,000 first printing.

When the Dancing Stopped: The Real Story of the Morro Castle Disaster and Its Deadly Wake

Free Press

During the dark days of the Great Depression, thousands of weary souls escaped their bleak lives for a week of paradise aboard the Ward Line's glamorous cruise ship, the Morro Castle. It was the most famous passenger liner of its day, lightning fast, elegantly appointed. It was also a ticking time bomb. It was the summer of 1934. Two sailors joined the Morro Castle crew, one a teenager on his first job away from home, the other a dangerous psychopath. Within two months, they would witness the end of the party in a single night of death, killer storms, and catastrophic fire. And that was only the beginning of a twenty-year-long story. In When the Dancing Stopped, we too walk up the gangplank to that art-deco liner and, at first, enjoy the glamour and the sultry Havana nights. With mounting suspense, we also witness the launch of a mystery that mesmerized the nation and then, in the midst of troubled times, faded away. Award-winning author Brian Hicks, using newly declassified FBI files, thousands of pages of investigation notes, testimony, and new interviews, takes the reader on a mid-century cruise through history, revealing a cold-case file that had been, until now, left unsolved for history. And, as he relates in this work of masterful storytelling, it all began with the last cruise of the Morro Castle.

Based on research by the scientists who unsealed the Hunley, an account of the Confederate submarine relates its disappearance after a confrontation with a Union battleship and its miraculous recovery from Charleston Harbor in 2000.

Thorndike Pr

Toward the Setting Sun chronicles one of the most significant but least explored periods in American history, recounting the little known story of the first white man to champion the voiceless Native American cause. Son of a Scottish trader and a quarter-Cherokee woman, Ross was educated in white schools and was only one-eighth Indian by blood. But as Cherokee chief in the mid-nineteenth century, he would guide the tribe through its most turbulent period. The Cherokees' plight lay at the epicenter of nearly all the key issues facing a young America: western expansion, states' rights, judicial power, and racial discrimination. Clashes between Ross and President Andrew Jackson raged from battlefields to the White House and Supreme Court. As whites settled illegally on the Nation's land, the chief steadfastly refused to sign a removal treaty. Only when a group of renegade Cherokees betrayed their chief and negotiated an agreement with Jackson's men was he forced to begin his journey west. In one of America's great tragedies, thousands died during the Cherokees' migration on the Trail of Tears. Toward the Setting Sun retells the story of expansionism from the native perspective, and takes a critical look at the well-rehearsed story of American progress.

Toward the Setting Sun: John Ross, the Cherokees and the Trail of Tears

Atlantic Monthly Press

Richly detailed and well-researched, this heartbreaking history unfolds like a political thriller with a deeply human side.”Publishers Weekly Toward the Setting Sun chronicles one of the most significant but least explored periods in American history, recounting the unknown story of the first white man to champion the voiceless Native American cause. Son of a Scottish trader and a quarter-Cherokee woman, John Ross was educated in white schools. It was not until he was twenty-two, when he fought alongside his people” against the Creek Indians, a neighboring rebel tribe, that he knew the Cherokees’ fate would be his. Cherokee chief for forty years, he would guide the tribe through, its most turbulent period. As increasing numbers of whites settled illegally on the Cherokee Nation’s native land, including Ross’s beloved home at Head of Coosa, the chief remained steadfast in his refusal to sign a treaty agreeing to removal. When a group of renegade Cherokees betrayed him and negotiated an agreement with Jackson’s men behind Ross’s back, he was forced to give way and begin the journey west. In one of America’s great tragedies, thousands of Cherokees died during the tribe’s migration on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.

Toward the Setting Sun: John Ross, the Cherokees, and the Trail of Tears

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

GROVE PRESS

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hicks, Brian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hicks, Brian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hicks, Brian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Raising the Hunley: The Remarkable History and Recovery of the Lost Confederate Submarine

Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew

Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew

Profit from the Peak: The End of Oil and the Greatest Investment Event of the Century

The Tinderbox Tapes: The Secret of Success Isn't a Secret After All

When the Dancing Stopped: The Real Story of the Morro Castle Disaster and Its Deadly Wake

When the Dancing Stopped: The Real Story of the Morro Castle Disaster and Its Deadly Wake

Raising the Hunley: The Remarkable History and Recovery of the Lost Confederate Submarine

Toward the Setting Sun: John Ross, the Cherokees and the Trail of Tears

Toward the Setting Sun: John Ross, the Cherokees, and the Trail of Tears