Lost to Time: Unforgettable Stories That History Forgot »

Stories that history forgot…but readers will remember

“The only thing new in the world,” said Harry S. Truman, “is the history you don't know.” In this fresh and fascinating collection of historical vignettes, Martin W. Sandler (author of Resolute and Atlantic Ocean) restores to memory important events, people, and developments that have been lost to time.

Though barely known today, these are major historical stories, from Ziryab, an eighth-century black slave whose influence on music, cuisine, fashion, and manners still reverberates, to Cahokia, a 12th century city north of the Rio Grande, which at its zenith contained a population estimated to have been as high as 40,000 (more than any contemporary European city), to the worst peacetime maritime disaster ever, the explosion and sinking of the Sultana on the Mississippi in 1865.

These tales are far from trivia; they illuminate little-known American and foreign achievements, ingenuity, heroics, blunders, and tragedies that changed the course of history and resonate today.

Preface ix

1 The Slave Who Changed Society (Ninth Century) Ziryab 1

2 The Forgotten Rome of the Americas (Twelfth Century) Cahokia 19

3 Conquering the Point of No Return (1434) Gil Eanes 41

4 Architect of a Revolution (1741-75) Joseph Warren 55

5 Outdoing Revere: History's Forgotten Riders (1777) 85

6 America's Greatest Hero (1847-57) Elisha Kent Kane 109

7 The Sultana: Death on the Great River (1865) 135

8 America's First Subway: Secrets under Broadway (1870) 153

9 Great Fire in the Forest (1871) Peshtigo 181

10 The First to Fly? (1901) Gustave Whitehead 207

11 Exercise Tiger: A Rehearsal for D-Day (1944) 229

Acknowledgments 253

Notes 255

Bibliography 271

Index 279

Photo Credits 290