Products Page

The surrender of British General Charles Cornwallis and his entire army to the United States at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781, stunned the world. The thirteen-foundling United States had won their impossible revolution. They could not know that their victory was but a shifting from a war with musket and cannon to one with tariffs and border disputes. With the country sinking into bankruptcy, the leaders in the thirteen states agreed: Come together, or America is doomed.

May, 1787, fifty-five desperate men met in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. For more than four months they sweated in a sealed room and harangued and debated and compromised. The Constitution they produced established a government like none since the dawn of time, and changed the world forever. A More Perfect Union tells the story of that government’s creation.

Carter October 19, 1781: The great guns at Yorktown fell silent, British General Cornwallis surrendered, and England conceded the war. For one euphoric moment a shout of jubilation rolled forth in America – and then harsh reality gripped the country. America was thirteen separate countries, each with its own money, political organization, culture, and history. Congress was essentially powerless. Border tariffs sprang up between states, with cannons to enforce them. Quarrels over control of the great rivers brought states to the brink of war. Banks lacked gold and silver to support their paper currency; bankruptcies raged. The military was paid with unenforceable written promises, and destitute soldiers marched on to Philadelphia, demanding their wages. Finally, in 1786, still unpaid, the soldiers revolted, closing down many New England courthouses to stop the bankruptcy courts from seizing their farms. Shooting erupted; Americans killed Americans. The impending storm was threatening to break.

Having underestimated the resolve and strength of the Continental Army in New England, Great Britain adopts a new strategy in the war to subdue the American rebels. British general Sir Henry Clinton leads British and German forces in an invasion of the South, hoping to use success there as a springboard to subdue the Northern colonies.

At first the British Southern campaign seems an unqualified success when in December 1778, American general Benjamin Lincoln surrenders his entire command army at Savannah, Georgia, and a second army at Charleston, South Carolina. But the British are not prepared for the fierce resistance from the common people in the Southern colonies. Famed guerrilla fighters Dan Morgan, Nathanael Greene, and Frances Marion (the Swamp Fox) use frontier skills and tactics learned in Indian warfare to erode the British forces and wear down British resolve.

Meanwhile, Benedict Arnold enters into treasonous negotiations to surrender Fort West Point to the British, thus betraying the American cause and earning for himself the ignominious title of traitor.

Finally, with the French providing much-needed financial, naval, and military aid, General Washington traps the British at Yorktown, where American and French forces mount a prolonged siege and compel the surrender of General Charles Cornwallis. The embittered and once-proud British see the American victory as evidence that the world has truly been “turned upside down.”

In this sixth volume of his acclaimed Prelude to Glory series, author Ron Carter has crafted another compelling chapter in his depiction of the Revolutionary War. Readers will be interested to learn the fates of beloved fictional characters-Brigitte Dunson and her British captain Richard Buchanan, Eli Stroud and Mary Flint, and childhood sweethearts Matthew Dunson and Kathleen Thorpe. Through their stories and others, Carter brings to vivid life the legendary places, people, and battles that were part of America’s quest for liberty and independence.

The summer of 1777 proves to be a difficult and discouraging time for General George Washington and his poorly equipped and undisciplined Continental Army. Campaigning along the eastern seaboard, they are pitted against General William Howe and his superbly trained and better provisioned British forces. The inspired Americans make a good showing at the battles of Brandywine Creek and Germantown, but in the end they absorb two disappointing defeats. The atrocities suffered by the Americans in the “Paoli Massacre” and the political machinations of the ambitious American officers Horatio Gates and Thomas Conway set the stage for the darkest hour of the entire Revolution—the heartbreaking story of Valley Forge.

Suffering from disease, hunkered down in crude huts and struggling to survive the bitter winter weather, the downtrodden American soldiers lack everything needed to sustain life, especially food. In a letter addressed to Congress, General Washington decries the government’s failure to provide relief, describing his men as occupying “a cold, bleak hill,” sleeping “under frost and snow without clothes or blankets.”

Into this deplorable setting comes the flamboyant Baron Friederich von Steuben. With Washington’s blessing, the eccentric German officer instills a measure of military discipline and pride in the ragtag American army. Then, having survived the terrible winter and now better equipped and fed, the rejuvenated Americans march out of Valley Forge in June 1778, a new and inspired army.

Continuing to follow the personal fortunes of the now familiar characters Billy Weems, Eli Stroud, Mary Flint, and Caleb Dunson, author Ron Carter extends his vivid portrayal of the hardships, disappointments, struggles, and triumphs that were part of the epic struggle to win freedom and liberty for America.

In 1777, aiming to crush the American rebellion and win for himself a lasting fame, British General John Burgoyne sets out from Canada with a massive army. Losing the help of his Indian allies and slowed by the nearly impassable terrain, the flamboyant Burgoyne finds himself locked in the battle of his life at a place called Saratoga. There, under the heroic leadership of General Benedict Arnold, the rustic American force claims an unlikely victory, and a turning point is reached in the American Revolution. Filled with heart-pounding action and true stories of intrigue, bravery, and patriotism, Volume 4 of Prelude to Glory captures the high adventure of America’s quest for independence, a struggle that would have surely failed except for the hand of Providence.

By the end of 1776, the Continental army is faced with the overwhelming truth that they are losing the Revolution. The British have pummeled them with a series of bloody battles that have shattered the American army and have forced them into a desperate retreat. Now, the American camp crouches helplessly on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River as the British move more than three thousand Hessian soldiers into position. Only the black waters of the Delaware River prevent a total ruin. Only a desperate plan promises a chance of success.

This third volume in the Prelude to Glory series, To Decide Our Destiny, focuses on General George Washington as he makes the hard decision to command his struggling and beaten army once more before the soldiers’ enlistments expire at the end of the year. In a torrential blizzard on Christmas Day, Washington and his army cross the Delaware River and march into history.

Throughout the battles of Trenton and Princeton, the discouraged soldiers soon find hope and success as events unfold under the touch of divine intervention. In this third volume, the familiar characters of Billy and Eli, along with the Dunson family and Mary Flint, again witness the dramatic events of the Revolutionary War.

“These are the times that try men’s souls,” writes journalist Thomas Paine at the end of 1776, a dark time in America’s struggle for freedom. As the dramatic events depicted in volume 2 of the monumental Prelude to Glory series show, the high price of liberty for which the colonists fought would include great sacrifice and endurance—even in the face of apparent defeat.

Focusing primarily on events between June and December 1776, this installment in the series follows Billy Weems (friend of Matthew Dunson from volume 1) to the battlefields in the New York area, where General George Washington commands the Continental army. Early on, Billy meets and befriends Eli Stroud, a white man raised by Iroquois Indians, who lends his unusual talents to the Revolutionary cause. But as events unfold, the Americans’ situation looks more and more bleak. A series of engagements with the enemy leaves the colonial soldiers pummeled and staggering, driven to disastrous retreat again and again. By December 1776, the war for independence seems all but lost. Nevertheless, determination and hope remain alive, along with a powerful sense that divine providence is watching over the Americans.

As with the previous volume, author Ron Carter re-creates these historic episodes in such a way as to transport you back in time. Along with fascinating fictional characters, he provides engaging portraits of such luminaries as George Washington, Nathan Hale, and intrepid John Glover. Through this powerful story, you will come to appreciate the fortitude it took for the Patriots to stand firm and resolute during these times that tried men’s souls.

In epic style, the new historical fiction series Prelude to Glory chronicles the miraculous events that gave birth to a new nation. In Our Sacred Honor, the first volume in the series, master storyteller Ron Carter presents the early events of the Revolutionary War through the eyes of common people. We meet the heroes, but we see them through the eyes and hearts of the soldiers and the sailors, men and women, who came out of the shops, fields, and forests and paid the price. No human mind could ever have created a plot so diverse, so intensely gripping, so inspiring as the story of the American Revolution. The history of the Mormon people is inseparably connected with the establishment of a free nation wherein the gospel could be restored. Through fictional as well as real-life characters, Prelude to Glory powerfully depicts that dramatic story.

In this third volume of his Women of Genesis series, Orson Scott Card paints a vivid picture of the intertwined lives of four celebrated women. We meet Leah, the oldest daughter of Laban, whose “tender eyes” prevent her from fully participating in the daily work of her nomadic family, and Rachel, the spoiled younger daughter, the petted and privileged beauty of the family – or so it seems to Leah.

There is also Bilhah, an orphan who is not quite a slave but not really a family member, a young woman desperately searching to fit in, and Zilpah, who knows only how to use her beauty to manipulate men as she strives to secure for herself something better than the life of drudgery and servitude into which she has been born.

Into the desert camp comes Jacob, a handsome and charismatic kinsman who is clearly destined to be Rachel’s husband. But that doesn’t prevent the other women from vying for his attention.

Tracing their lives from childhood to maturity, Card shows how these women change each other – and are changed again by the holy books that Jacob brings with him. Ambition, jealousy, fear, and love motivate them as they vie for the attention of Jacob, heir to the spiritual birthright of Abraham and Isaac.

Born into a time and place where a woman speaks her mind at her own peril, and reared as a motherless child by a doting father, Rebekah grew up to be a stunning headstrong beauty. She was chosen by God for a special duty. For Rebekah must leave her fathers house to marry Isaac, the studious young son of the Patriarch Abraham. Her struggles to find her place in the family of Abraham are a true test of her faith, but through it all she finds her own relationship with God and does her best to serve His cause in the lives of those she loves. In Rebekah, Orson Scott Card has created an astonishing personality, complex and intriguing, and her story will engage your heart as it captures your imagination.

Finally Abram spoke. “I’m glad we’ve never quarreled before,” he said. “Because you’re a terrifying opponent in a war of words.”

So he was going to ignore what she had said, and accuse her of simply bandying words. Despair sent tears from her eyes again. She turned her face away from him so he couldn’t see.

He softened. “I should at least have asked for your side of things.”

“I have no side of things,” said Sarai. “I only want to be left alone while you and Hagar have your baby and go on with your lives.”

In Sarah, author Orson Scott Card uses his fertile imagination and uncanny insight into human nature to flesh out a unique woman—one who is beautiful, tough, smart, and resourceful in an era when women get short shrift in life as well as in the historical record. Sarah takes on vivid reality as a woman desirable to kings, a devoted wife, and a faithful follower of the God of Abraham, chosen to experience an incomparable miracle.

Set in the splendor and excess of Egypt and the starkly beautiful desert landscapes of the Sinai peninsula, Sarah is an altogether believable and provocative drama. This first novel in a trilogy on the women of Genesis illuminates the hardships and the triumphs of a woman destined for greatness.