Novelist/historian Ackroyd's Innovation wraps up his long-running history of England, starting with the Boer War, then moving through the Bloomsbury Group, World War II, the rise of Labour, and the Swinging Sixties to Tony Blair and the Millennial Dome (30,000-copy first printing). The Washington Post's senior style editor, Argetsinger offers a 100-year retrospective of the Miss America pageant in There She Was (100,000-copy first printing). A specialist in early modern European history at the University of Bristol, Mexican historian Cervantes is also a descendant of a conquistador, and in The Conquistadores (originally scheduled for Nov. 2020), he takes a new approach to the Spanish conquest of the Americas that neither celebrates its adventurism nor condemns it as intentionally cruel. Great-great-great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, CNN anchor Cooper joins with novelist/historian Howe to tell the story of his famous—and famously disputatious—family in The Vanderbilts (300,000-copy first printing). Julius Silver Professor of History and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University, Cuban-born, American-raised Ferrer assays 500 years of history as she highlights the ties binding Cuba and America. From Frankel, a former executive editor at Foreign Policy magazine, Into the Forest chronicles the Rabinowitz family's escape from a German killing squad in 1942 Poland and subsequent survival for two years in the Bialowieza Forest, followed by immigration to America (60,000-copy first printing). With Lee, three-time Lincoln Prize winner Guelzo profiles the many contradictions of the Confederate general. Rubinstein follows up the New York Times best-selling How To Lead and The American Story with The American Experiment, more conversations on American culture and ideas with the likes of Jill Lepore, David McCullough, and Rita Moreno as interlocutors (100,00-copy first printing). In The Afghanistan Papers, Whitlock, an investigative reporter for the Washington Post and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, examines the longest war in American history and how three successive administrations consistently misrepresented it to the American people (125,000-copy first printing).

CNN anchor Cooper (The Rainbow Comes and Goes) and novelist Howe (The Daughters of Temperance Hobbes) tell the story of "the greatest American fortune ever squandered" in this juicy portrait of Cooper's forebears, the Vanderbilts. Tracing the family's American origins to a Dutch indentured servant who arrived in New Amsterdam (present-day New York City) in 1650, the authors showcase the Vanderbilts as a study in "our country's mythos," the belief that anyone can become wealthy if "they have enough gumption, have enough grit, or ruthlessness." In the 19th century, 18-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt made money ferrying supplies to the British military during the war of 1812, and went on to build railroads, leaving behind a $100 million inheritance to his son William, who was the only Vanderbilt to ever add to the family fortune. William's daughter-in-law, Alva, transformed from a society doyenne to a key leader of the women's suffrage movement, while her son, Harold, became a champion yachtsman. In the book's most moving section, Cooper recounts his mother Gloria's traumatic childhood, which involved a "sort-of-kidnapping" and a drawn-out custody battle, and her out-of-control spending and dysfunctional relationships as an adult. Marked by meticulous research and deep emotional insight, this is a memorable chronicle of American royalty. (Sept.)