We have a glut of text and trade books on American history. But what we don’t have is a compact, inexpensive, authoritative, and compulsively readable book that will offer to intelligent young Americans a coherent, persuasive, and inspiring narrative of their own country.

Drawn Swords in a Distant Land showcases the fascinating, untold story of the rise and fall of the Republic of Vietnam. Putting aside outdated ideological debates, it offers the first in-depth review of the South Vietnamese successes and failures in building and defending their state.

In Two Nations Under God: How (Biblical) Israel Inspires America, Stuart Halpern demonstrates that America’s identity has been profoundly shaped by the people, principles, and promises of the Jewish national project. Spanning every era of American history and reaching across political and denominational lines, this compelling work reveals how the Hebrew Scriptures have influenced America’s vision of liberty, justice, covenant, and civic purpose.

With deep reporting from America’s blue-collar heartland coupled with quantitative data analysis explaining how representative each of the people we meet are, Second Class will provide readers with an ethnography of today’s working class, introducing them to people across the country—their neighbors—who are fighting tooth and nail for a fair shot at the American Dream.