American History & Events – Featured Titles
The First Thanksgiving Truth vs. Tradition: A History’s Famous Stories Book
What really happened at the First Thanksgiving? Most people know the story: Pilgrims and Native Americans gathered together, shared a meal, and celebrated peace. It’s a familiar image—simple, comforting, and widely accepted. But how much of that story is true? In this carefully researched and clearly written book, Chet Matterson takes readers beyond the traditional version to explore the real history behind the event. Step by step, the story is rebuilt—starting with what we think we know, then uncovering what has been left out. Inside, you’ll discover: What the first winter was really like, Who the Wampanoag were—and why they chose to engage, How the gathering actually happened, What was truly eaten, and What came after—and why the story didn’t end in lasting peace. This is not about replacing a familiar story. It’s about understanding it more fully. Part of the History’s Famous Stories: Truth vs. Fiction series, this book presents history in a clear, balanced way—accessible to general readers, students, and anyone interested in seeing the past with fresh eyes. If you’ve ever wondered what really happened at the First Thanksgiving, this book will give you the full picture.
Watergate: What the Public Never Read
Most Americans know the headlines.
A burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.
A political cover-up.
A president forced to resign.
But the real story of Watergate is far more complex than the simplified version most people remember.
In Watergate: What the Public Never Read, Chet Matterson revisits one of the most consequential political scandals in American history by examining the documented events behind the headlines. Drawing on congressional testimony, court records, presidential documents, and contemporary reporting, this book reconstructs the investigation step by step.
Readers will see how a seemingly minor break-in at an office complex in Washington, D.C. grew into a constitutional crisis that reshaped American politics.
This book explores:
• How the Watergate burglary was discovered
• The network of political operatives connected to the break-in
• The role of investigative journalism in uncovering new evidence
• The Senate Watergate hearings that captivated the nation
• The discovery of the secret White House recording system
• The Supreme Court decision that forced the release of the tapes
• The events that led to the first resignation of a U.S. president
Beyond the scandal itself, the book examines how Watergate permanently changed American expectations of government accountability, political ethics, and the role of the press.
Part of the History’s Famous Stories: Truth or Fiction series, this volume separates myth from documented history to provide a clear and accessible account of one of the most important political crises in modern America.
For readers interested in American history, political power, and the enduring lessons of democratic accountability, Watergate remains a story worth understanding in full.
Presidential Assissaniton: Ledgens vs Ledger
Presidential Assassination: Legends & Ledgers is a brisk, story-first tour of America’s darkest political moments—and how we got smarter about surviving them. Chet Matterson keeps the goosebumps (the theater box, the open car, the rope line) but swaps numerology and folklore for receipts: minutes, angles, medicine, and the boring heroes who turn panic into procedure.
From Lincoln to Reagan to recent near-misses, the book separates the photograph (what we all remember) from the blueprint (what actually saved lives). It explains why the famous “zero-year curse” looked real in one century and vanished in the next—not because spells expire, but because competence scales. Along the way you’ll pick up a two-minute script for arguing with myths, a pocket “myth audit” checklist, and a new respect for the unglamorous systems that keep open democracy… open.
If you like narrative history with MythBusters energy—and you prefer checklists over conspiracies—this is your lane: legends where they help, ledgers where they matter.
Hatfields and McCoys: Fact and Fiction
The names Hatfield and McCoy have become shorthand for endless conflict—but the real story behind America’s most famous feud is far more human, more tragic, and more instructive than legend allows.
Set along the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River on the Kentucky–West Virginia border, this carefully researched volume separates documented history from long-told myth. Moving beyond jokes, cartoons, and exaggerated folklore, Chet Matterson traces the feud from its Civil War roots through disputed court cases, broken romance, election-day violence, midnight raids, and the trials that finally brought state and federal law into the conflict.
Along the way, readers meet the real men and women behind the famous names—Devil Anse Hatfield, Randolph McCoy, Roseanna McCoy, and others—seeing them not as caricatures, but as flawed people shaped by pride, loss, and a hard landscape where justice often arrived late.
This book also follows the feud beyond gunfire, showing how newspapers, Hollywood, and popular culture reshaped the story, and how modern descendants eventually chose reconciliation over inheritance of old anger.
Clear, measured, and grounded in historical record, Hatfields & McCoys: Fact and Fiction is not a retelling of legend, but a restoration of truth—and a reminder of the cost of letting grievance turn into identity.
Inside you’ll find:
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A clear chronological narrative of the feud
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Fact-versus-fiction explanations throughout
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Maps, timelines, and key figures guides
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The legal aftermath, including Supreme Court involvement
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The story of the modern truce between descendants
This is American history as it deserves to be told: plainly, responsibly, and with respect for those who lived it.