Note: For readability, some of the primary sources quoted in The Pocket Guide to Brilliance have been updated with modern spelling.

Abraham Lincoln Online. http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/sites/bellevue.htm

Allshouse, Jane E. and Judith Jones Putnam. “Food Consumption, Prices, and Expenditures, 1970-97.” U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Economics Division, Economic Research Service, Statistical Bulletin No. 965.

Amar, Akhil Reed. America’s Constitution. New York: Random House, 2005.

American Experience. “The Presidents: Franklin Pierce.” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/14_pierce/index.html

“The American Way.” Men's Health, July/August 2007.

Applegate, Debby. “Two Can Make History.” The New York Times, May 25, 2008.

Ard, Patricia M. “Charles Dickens and Frances Trollope: Victorian kindred spirits in the American wilderness.” ATQ, December, 1993.

Ashenburg, Katherine. The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History. New York: North Point Press, 2007.

Associated Press.   “Texas Legislature Lauds ‘Strangler’.” Daily Kennebec Journal, April 2, 1971.

Baepler, Paul. “White Slaves, African Masters.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, July 2003.

Barlow, Rondald S. The Vanishing American Outhouse.

Barzini, Luigi Jr. Americans Are Alone in the World. New York: Random House, 1953.

Beatty, Paul, editor. Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor. New York: Bloomsbury, 2006.

The Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary. http://www.benfranklin300.org

Blackmon, Douglas A. Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to World War II. New York: Doubleday, 2008.

Bonner, T.D., The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1972.

Wilson, Elinor, Jim Beckwourth
    University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1972.

Brandt, Anthony, editor. The Tragic History of the Sea. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2006.

Buis, Kipling. “Mrs. Trollope’s America.” Vanity Fair,  June 2007.

Burnham, John. Bad Habits: Drinking, Smoking, Taking  Drugs, Gambling, Sexual Misbehavior, and Swearing in American History. New York University Press, 1993.

C-SPAN. http://www.c-span.org/questions

Cable, Mary. American Manners and Morals. New York: American Heritage Publishing Co., 1969.

Calhoun, Ada. “Chess-Boxing Hits it Big.” Time, July 10, 2008.

Cannon, Carl. “Untruth and Consequences.” The Atlantic Monthly, January/February 2007.

Carnes, Mark. “Iron John in the Gilded Age.” American Heritage Magazine, September 1993.

Carrell, Jennifer Lee, and Tim Raglin. “How the Bard Won the West.” Smithsonian, August 1998.

Chiles, James R. “Congress couldn't have been this bad, or could it?” Smithsonian, November 1995.

Cliff, Nigel. The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama and Death in 19th-Century America. New York: Random House, 2007.

Cose, Ellis. “What's White, Anyway?” Newsweek, September 18, 2000.

Davis, Kenneth C. Don’t Know Much About History. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003.

—. America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation. New York: Collins, 2008.

“Deborah Sampson Gannett.” American Eras, Volume 3: The Revolutionary Era, 1754-1783. Gale Research, 1998.

DeVoto, Bernard, editor. The Journals of Lewis and Clark. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1953.

Doyle, Kathleen. “‘Pvt. Robert Shurtleff’: An Unusual Revolutionary War Soldier.” American History Illustrated, 1988.

Earman, Cynthia. “An Uncommon Scold.” Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0001/royall.html

Efron, Vera and Mark Keller. “Selected Statistics on Consumption of Alcohol (1850-1968).” New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies, 1970.

Ellis, Joseph J. American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic. New York: Knopf, 2007.

—. “What would George do? Wrong question.” The Washington Post, December 24, 2007.

Farquhar, Michael. A Treasury of Great American Scandals. New York: Penguin Books, 2003.

—. A Treasury of Deception. New York: Penguin Books, 2005.

Faust, Drew Gilpin. This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. New York: Knopf, 2008.

Ferling, John. “Rethinking the Revolution.” American History, October 2007.

Ferry, Barbara, and Debbie Nathan. “Mistaken Identity? The Case of New Mexico’s ‘Hidden Jews.’” The Atlantic, December 2000.

Fleming, Thomas. “What We Don't Know About Our Revolution.” Military History, September 2007.

“From Rags to Reading: Discarded medieval underpants rank alongside the invention of printing in the spread of literacy, says historian.” Agence France Press, July 13, 2007

Ganter, Granville. “He Made Us Laugh Some: Frederick Douglass’s Humor.” African American Review, Volume 37, Number 4, 2003.

Gorin, Stuart. “U.S. Political Parties Enjoy Rich History.” America.gov, September 4, 2007.
http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2007/September/20070904164809ndyblehs0.9354975.html

“Great Campaign Moments.” U.S. News & World Report, January 28, 2008.

Harbaugh, William Henry. Power and Responsibility: The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Cudahy, 1961.

Harwood, John, and Gerald F. Seib. Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power. Random House, 2008.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Life of Franklin Pierce, 1852. http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/lfp.html

Hogan, Margaret A., and C. James Taylor. My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams. Harvard University Press, 2007.

Holzel, David. “Five Amazing Facts About Franklin Pierce (in honor of his 203rd birthday).” Mental Floss, http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/9778

Horwitz, Tony. A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 2008.

Hughes, Geoffrey. An Encyclopedia of Swearing. London: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2006.

Isaacson, Walter. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.

Jackson, Kenneth T. “A Colony With a Conscience.” The New York Times, December 27, 2007.

Johnson, David E. “A Ceaseless Torrent of Music.” American History; December 2000.

Johnson, Kirk. “A State That Never Was in Wyoming.” The New York Times, July 24, 2008.

Jones, Jeffrey Owen. “The Pledge’s Creator.” Smithsonian, November 2003.

Jordan, Don, and Michael Walsh. White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America. New York: New Yor University Press, 2008.

Kauffman, Bill. “New York's opera house brawl.” The American Enterprise, June 2002.

Kazin, Michael. “Howard Zinn’s History Lessons.” Dissent, Spring 2004.

Kenney, W. Howland, editor. Laughter in the Wilderness: Early American Humor to 1783. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1976.

Kinzer, Stephen. “Interest Surges in Voodoo, and Its Queen.” The New York Times, November 30, 2003.

Koppel, Niko. “Are Your Jeans Sagging? Go Directly to Jail.” The New York Times, August 30, 2007.

Lane, Eric and Michael Oreskes. The Genius of America. New York: Bloomsbury, 2007.

Lange, Karen E. “What would you take to the New World?” National Geographic, May 2007.

Larson, Edward J. A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign. New York: Free Press, 2007.

Leibovich, Mark. “Rights vs. Rights: An Improbable Collision Course.” The New York Times, January 13, 2008.

Lepore, Jill. “The Creed: What Poor Richard Cost Benjamin Franklin.” The New Yorker, January 28, 2008.

Lewis, Anthony. Freedom for the Thought We Hate. New York: Basic Books, 2008.

Lord, Lewis. “Pirates!” U.S. News & World Report, February 25, 2002.

Liptak, Adam. “When Law Prevents Righting a Wrong.” The New York Times, May 4, 2008.

Lloyd, John, and John Michinson. The Book of General Ignorance. New York: Harmony Books, 2006.

Loewen, James L. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your History  Textbook Got Wrong. New York: The New Press, 2007.

Long, Kim. The Almanac of Political Corruption, Scandals, and Dirty Politics. New York: Delacorte Press, 2007.

"Lucy Terry Prince." Notable Black American Women, Book 1. Gale Research, 1992.

Lyons, Louis. “Calvin Coolidge and the Press.” Nieman Reports (The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University), Winter 1999-Spring 2000.

Lemelson-MIT website. “David Bushnell” http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/bushnelld.html

Liptak, Adam. “Rendering Justice, With One Eye on Re-election.” The New York Times, May 25, 2008.

Mann, Charles C. “America, Found & Lost.” National Geographic, May 2007.

"Mercy Otis Warren." American Eras, Volume 4: Development of a Nation, 1783-1815. Gale Research, 1997.

Micklus, Robert. “The Delightful Instruction of Dr. Alexander Hamilton's Itinerarium.” American Literature, October 1988.

Moore, Robert H. “Belsnickling — when dressing in costumes wasn’t just for Halloween.” Page News & Courier, September 13, 2001.

Nelson, Murry. “Sports History as a Vehicle for Social and Cultural Understanding in American History.” Social Studies; May/June 2005.

Newman, Andy. “A Bygone New York Beckons in the Future.” The New York Times, May 24, 2008.

Nickell, Joe. “Voodoo in New Orleans.” Skeptical Inquirer, Jan-Feb 2002.

Norris, Michele. “Double meaning of a word used in John F. Kennedy's 1963 speech at the Berlin Wall.” All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 06/26/2003.

O’Brien, Cormac. “Desperate Whitehouse Wives.” mental floss, Volume 5, Issue 5.

O’Rourke, P.J. Parliament of Whores. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991.

Officer, Lawrence H. and Samuel H. Williamson, “Measures of Worth.” MeasuringWorth.com, 2008.

The Vice President Who Never Served. American History, 10768866, Dec2007, Vol. 42, Issue 5

“Quirks and Quacks in Trivial Pursuit of Constitutional Oddities.” Life, August 31, 1987.

Bark grinders and fly minders tell a tale of Appalachia. By: Ralston, Jeannie, Smithsonian, 00377333, Feb96, Vol. 26, Issue 11

Rawson, Hugh. Wicked Words. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1989.

Roberts, Cokie. Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation. New York: William Morrow, 2008.

Roberts, Diane. “In Politics, Gender and Race Vie for Top Billing.” Weekend Edition Sunday, NPR, February 17, 2008.

“Roguish Girl.” Time, July 27, 1936.

Schwarz, Frederic D. “Food Fight.” American Heritage, February/March 1999.

Sicherman, Harvey. “Benjamin Franklin and the Traditions of American Diplomacy.” The Robert Strausz-Hupé Memorial Lecture, November 28, 2006.

Simonton, Dean Keith. “Presidential IQ, Openness, Intellectual Brilliance, and Leadership: Estimates and Correlations for 42 U.S. Chief Executives.”
Political Psychology, August 2006.

Smith, Robert. “A Brief History: The Smallest National Park Site.” All Things Considered, NPR, June 30, 2008.

Szkotak, Steve. “Civil War relic collector killed by cannonball; death raises concern about buried explosives.” Associated Press, May 2, 2008.

Tolson, Jay. “The Man Who Would Shape the Future of War.” U.S. News & World Report, July 2, 2007.

Toobin, Jeffrey. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. New York: Doubleday, 2007.

— “The Dirty Trickster.” The New Yorker, June 2, 2008.

Tucker, Glen. Zeb Vance: Champion of Freedom. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965.

U.S. Census Bureau. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/past_years.html

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service: Food Consumption, Prices, and Expenditures, 1970-97.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/sb965/

Varasdi, J. Allen. Myth Information. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989.

Vowell, Sarah. The Partly Cloudy Patriot. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.

Weber, David. “Israel Bissell outrode Paul Revere yet didn't get a poem.” Associated Press, April 15, 2007.

Wertheimer, Linda. “Gilbert Stuart: Views of George Washington.” NPR, Weekend Edition Saturday, May 14, 2005

Whitfield, Stephen J. “Towards an Appreciation of American Jewish Humor.” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies Vol 4, No. 1 March 2005.

Widmer, Ted. “Looking for Liberty.” The New York Times, July 4, 2008.

Wierzbicki, Michael, and Richard David Young. “The Relation of Intelligence and Task Difficulty to Appreciation of Humor.” The Journal of General Psychology, July 1978.

Wright, Joyce. “Blueberry warriors and men with horns: fantasy & folly in the new world.” The Beaver: Exploring Canada's History, February 2002.