Uses diaries, letters, and memoirs to recount the events of the American Revolution from the perspective of those who lived through it.

Americans of late have taken to waving the Constitution in the air and proclaiming, "The founders were on MY side! See, it’s all right here!" But these phantom constitutions bear little relation to the historical one. By entering the world of the Constitution’s framers, and experiencing it one day after the next as they did, Ray Raphael helps us understand how and why they created the document they did. Casting aside preconceptions and commonly held beliefs, he asks provocative questions that get to the heart of the document and its purposes: Was the aim of the Constitution really to limit government? Why didn’t the framers include a Bill of Rights? Did they hate taxes? Was James Madison actually the "Father of the Constitution," as proclaimed in our textbooks? Can we find the true meaning of the Constitution by reading The Federalist Papers or by revealing the framers' "original intent"? The answers to these questions are bound to surprise and enlighten. Before we can consider what the framers would do if they were alive today, we first need to see what they did during their own time, not in our terms, but theirs. Only then can we begin to resolve the sweeping question that affects us all: what does the Constitution, written at a different time, mean for us today? With this meticulously researched historical tour de force, Raphael sets the record straight—and sounds a vital call for a reasoned and evidence-driven debate about our founding document.

Examines thirteen well-known American stories, including those about Paul Revere's legendary ride and Thomas Jefferson's pivotal role in the establishment of American equality, contending that many of their surrounding myths are not supported by recent scholarship.

Product Description: The dramatic and penetrating story of the political maneuverings and personalities behind the creation of the office of the president, with ramifications that continue to this day.For the first time, by focusing closely on the dynamic give-and-take at the Constitutional Convention, Ray Raphael reveals how politics and personalities cobbled together a lasting, but flawed, executive office...read more

Product Description: Historian Ray Raphael has chosen seven representative characters—some famous, some unknown—to anchor a sweeping new history of the entire Founding Era, from the beginnings of unrest in 1761 through the passage of the Bill of Rights thirty years later...read more

Product Description: A bold new interpretation of America's founding moment. According to the traditional telling, the American Revolution began with "the shot heard round the world." Ray Raphael's The First American Revolution uses the wide-angle lens of a people's historian to tell a surprising new story of America's revolutionary struggle...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

"More Tree Talk" is an insightful and compelling look at the human dimension of the challenges facing forestry. First published in 1981, "Tree Talk" was widely hailed as the most even-handed and well-written introduction to forestry issues available. "More Tree Talk" is an entirely revised edition of that classic volume that brings the book up-to-date with the current situation.Like the original, "More Tree Talk" features a running narrative punctuated by individual portraits that personalize the issues. It translates political and academic aspects of forestry into human terms, focusing on those whose lives and livelihoods depend on the outcome of the debates currently raging -- old-time woodsmen, loggers, naturalists, restoration workers, timber company executives.Ray Raphael explores the new forestry practices, theories, and controversies that have emerged in the past decade as he addresses problems of a declining resource base and increasing regulatory policies. He examines the impact of ecological and economic concerns on rural communities, and considers the possibility of large structural changes in the ways in which timber companies operate. Throughout, he emphasizes that without an understanding of the economic and political factors that interfere with good forest management, all the scientific knowledge -- and all the best intentions of on-site workers -- will come to no avail.

Product Description: "A finely-crafted, well researched, fascinating story about an important, but little-known man in our North Coast history. ... Little White Father is an account of Redick McKee, one of three commissioners appointed to the office of Indian Affairs by President Millard Fillmore in 1850 to negotiate treaties with the indigenous people of the California frontier...read more

After he sees Mickey Mouse pull a gun on Superman at a comic book costume convention, thirteen-year-old Conrad becomes involved in strange doings among the comic book dealers of San Francisco.

Product Description: History book

Product Description: In other times and places the passage from boyhood to manhood was dramatized and facilitated by initiation rites. In ritualized fashion, the complex problems of personal development were translated into clear and concrete tasks. But in the dazzling variety of modern America there is no universal test or ceremony that bestows manhood: each male must find a group with its special initiations, or devise an initiation of his own...read more

Shares interviews with California marijuana growers and those opposed to marijuana, in which they discuss their lifestyles, the region, violence among growers, and the prospect of legalization

Product Description: NEW

Product Description: Ray Raphael (born April 19, 1943) is an American historian and author of sixteen books. He is noted for his work on the American Revolution and the regional history of Northern California. Raphael's first books focused primarily on the history and regional issues of Northern California, where he has lived since the late 1960s...read more

Product Description: Book by Raphael, Ray