As the American Revolution broke out, dramatic events unfolded in Virginia that proved every bit as decisive as the battles of Lexington. Virginia was led by Lord Dunmore, who counted George Washington as his close friend. As enslaved people flocked to his camp, skirmishes broke out and with Jefferson’s encouragement, furious rebels burned Norfolk. The port’s destruction and Dunmore’s emancipation led to adoption of the Declaration of Independence and ultimately, to Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Chronicling these stunning and widely overlooked events in full for the first time, A PERFECT FRENZY offers a striking new perspective on the American Revolution that reorients our understanding of its causes, highlights the radically different motivations between patriots in the North and South, and reveals the seeds of the nation’s racial divide.

In 1587, 115 men, women and children arrived at Roanoke Island on the coast of North Carolina to establish the first English settlement in the New World. But when the new colony's leader returned to Roanoke from a resupply mission, his settlers had vanished, leaving behind only a single clue --- a "secret token" etched into a tree. What happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke? That question has consumed historians, archaeologists and amateur sleuths for 400 years. In THE SECRET TOKEN, Andrew Lawler sets out on a quest to determine the fate of the settlers, finding fresh leads as he encounters a host of characters obsessed with resolving the enigma.

In WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE WORLD?, science writer Andrew Lawler takes us on an adventure from prehistory to the modern era with an account of the partnership between human and chicken (the most successful of all cross-species relationships). In a masterful combination of historical sleuthing and journalistic exploration on four continents, Lawler reframes the way we feel and think about our most important animal partner --- and, by extension, all domesticated animals, and even nature itself.