ONeill - The Great Book of American Heroes

The Great Book of American Heroes

32 True Tales From American History That Made Them Legends

Bill O'Neill

Copyright 2020 by LAK Publishing

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Contents

Welcome to The Great Book of American Heroes! In this book, youll read about 32 of the United States greatest heroes and heroines, whove shaped the direction of this country and helped make it what it is today. Youll learn about what made these exceptional people great and why they are considered heroes today, sometimes decades or even hundreds of years after they died. This book goes beyond the big events and brings you closer to the heroes themselves, revealing some little-known facts about these important people.

There are heroes and heroines from all walks of American life in this book: some who went from rags to riches and others who had plenty of privileges and opportunities and took full advantage to make themselves a success and leave their imprint on American history.

Youve no doubt heard of or read about many of the people profiled in this book. This book examines some pretty important political personalities, including a few presidents, but does so in a way that will keep you interested. More than just a boring history book that recites fact after fact, this book brings you right into the heroes lives and lets you experience all of their triumphs and failures on their way to influencing American society.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Luther King Junior are just three of the American political heroes profiled in this book. And, since the United States has been known as a nation of innovation for more than 100 years, some heroes of American science are also explored. What would this country be without the likes of Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Graham Bell? It would be a lot more backward, thats for sure!

As vast as America is geographically, it needed some pretty incredible people to explore it from coast to coast and beyond during the European settlement. Youll learn all about how Lewis and Clark explored what would become the West and how Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart risked it all by flying into the great unknown.

Entertainment, sports, and literature are an important part of any culture, so we cover some of the true leaders of American pop culture. From important writers such as Upton Sinclair and Mark Twain to athletes and actors such as Jim Thorpe, Babe Ruth, and John Wayne, youll learn how some of these people influenced their professions and changed the American cultural landscape in the process.

This book also covers important military leaders who fought forand in two cases, againstthe American government. The American experience has been complex and not every important American willingly went along with American expansion.

Finally, the United States has always been known for being a country of individuals. Americans are a people who march to the beat of their own drum, sometimes to the point where they make their own rules. Well explore two notorious American anti-heroes and how, despite being killers, they have achieved legendary status and are revered long after their deaths.

So, sit back, open the pages of this book, and be prepared to be intrigued, shocked, and edified. This is sure to be one of the most fascinating and engaging books of American biography youll ever read!

The fruits of the works of some of Americas greatest heroes are with us every day, but we are rarely aware of them. Im talking about some of the United States greatest scientists, inventors, and doctors, who sacrificed their timeoften for little monetary rewardto make their country and the world a better place.

These heroes may not have had the glamor of generals, statesmen, or entertainers, but their contributions to the country are just as, if not more, profound. And perhaps no American inventor/scientist has contributed more to our lives than Thomas Alva Edison (18471931).

Lets face it, without Edisons invention of the incandescent light bulb, our lives would be a whole lot different today and a whole lot darker! But it wasnt just the light bulb that Edison invented. The genius filed over 1,000 patents, most related to electricity, and included some of the following: the phonograph, a moving-picture projector, alkaline storage batteries, and an electric railroad train. If you think about it, without Edison, the modern electrical grid, and therefore the Computer/Internet Age, wouldnt have been possible.

But things werent always easy for the self-taught scientist from Ohio.

A Not So Great Start

Young Thomas Edison was always a creative dreamer, but that wasnt necessarily viewed as a good thing in mid-1800s America. His formal schooling was minimal and not of the best quality, with one of his teachers referring to him as a little addled when he was eight. A true genius like Edison didnt need school, though, especially in a system that stifled his creative abilities.

However, things werent much better for him at home.

It would be an understatement to say that Edisons dad didnt understand him. He saw his son as a dreamer who wasted time with his experiments.

It wasnt until Edison found work as a telegraph operator in his twenties that he was able to properly work on his craft that would later make him famous. He also became a successful entrepreneur at an early age, starting a company in New Jersey.

The road to success wasnt always easy for Edison, though. Many of his inventions were never used or proved to be impractical. In 1875, he was cheated out of $275,000 by one of his business partners. Yet Edison displayed the true American spirit, learning from his setbacks and coming back even stronger each time.

Lighting up America

His first major invention was the phonograph in 1877, which became the base for the record player and all later recording devices. The invention of the phonograph revolutionized the way people communicated because, prior to that, all correspondence and records were recorded by writing. Written documents are good, but they arent always accurate. Edisons invention ensured that precise details of conversations, documents, and just about anything said could be accurately recorded.

Even more important than the invention of the phonograph, though, was Edisons invention of the incandescent light bulb.

It may not seem like a big deal, but this invention allowed electricity to illuminate homes and businesses for the first time. Before the light bulb, gas and oil were needed to light homes. Yet, as important as the invention of the incandescent light bulb is, Edison didnt come to it overnight in an aha moment. Instead, it was the result of a fairly long process with several detours and failures along the way.

Edisons initial experiments with a platinum filament were unsuccessful, until he began experimenting using a lower current through a copper wire with a carbon filament. After testing this new bulb, he discovered that that bulb would light indefinitely.

After perfecting the light bulb, Edison was then able to combine his scientific knowledge with his business acumen to make the consumption of electricity practical and inexpensive. Edison devised the countrys first electrical power plant in New York City in 1882, which brought direct current (DC) to less than 100 people in the city. Within five years, those numbers had multiplied, and plans were being made to bring power to people throughout the country.