Best of
Local-History
2015
Detroit 67: The Year That Changed Soul
Stuart Cosgrove - 2015
Berry Gordy, owner of Motown Records, is trapped in his home, unable to do anything about the internal war ravaging his most successful group, The Supremes. Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard are imploding as Ballard battles alcoholism and the aftermath of rape. But soon, even more chaos will descend on Detroit. As the year heats up, melting the snow, Gordy and his city face one of the most challenging periods of its existence.Detroit 67 is the story of Detroit in the year that changed everything. Twelve monthly chapters take you on a turbulent year long journey through the drama and chaos that ripped through the city in 1967. Over a dramatic 12-month period, the Motor City was torn apart by personal, political and inter-racial disputes. It is the story of Motown, the breakup of The Supremes and the implosion of the most successful African-American music label ever.Set against a backdrop of urban riots, escalating war in Vietnam and police corruption, the book weaves its way through a year when soul music came of age, and the underground counterculture flourished. LSD arrived in the city with hallucinogenic power and local guitar-band MC5 -self-styled "holy barbarians" of rock went to war with mainstream America. A summer of street-level rebellion turned Detroit into one of the most notorious cities on earth, known for its unique creativity, its unpredictability and self-lacerating crime rates.1967 ended in social meltdown, personal bitterness and intense legal warfare as the complex threads that held Detroit together finally unraveled. Detroit 67 is the story of the year that changed everything.
The Salish Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest
Audrey DeLella Benedict - 2015
This fascinating visual journey through the Salish Sea combines a scientist’s inquiring mind, beautiful photographs, and a lively narrative of fascinating stories, all of which impart a sense of connection with this intricate marine ecosystem and the life that it sustains.
By Canoe and Dog Train: The Adventures of Sharing the Gospel with Canadian Indians
Egerton Ryerson Young - 2015
It meant nearly freezing when sleeping outside in 50-below-zero weather. It meant canoeing upstream for hundreds of miles to reach remote Indian villages. It meant eating wild cat and other stranger things, or eating nothing for days at a time. But it also meant you were privileged to present the good news of the true Great Spirit to those who were often misunderstood and mistreated. The adventures in this book are rivaled only by the incredible conversions of those who saw the Creator in nature and then worshipped Him too. You will be challenged and inspired by the results of one man who went where the Lord led, with little regard for himself. About the Author Egerton Ryerson Young was a teacher, pastor, author, and a brave missionary to remote Canadian Indians. Young’s mother died in 1842, and consequently he was raised by his stepmother, Maria Farley. After a brief stint as a school teacher, Young was ordained and called to a pastorate of the First Methodist Church in Hamilton. In 1868, however, he was invited to become a missionary to the natives of Rupert’s Land. After praying over this with his new wife, Elizabeth, he asked her what she thought about this call. “I think it is from God and we will go,” was her reply. What happens next is the compelling story of this book.
Anarchist's Guide to Historic House Museums
Franklin D. Vagnone - 2015
They need not only to engage the communities surrounding them, but also to collaborate with visitors on the type and quality of experience they provide. This book -is a ground-breaking manifesto that calls for the establishment of a more inclusive, visitor-centered paradigm based on the shared experience of human habitation;-draws inspiration from film, theater, public art, and urban design to transform historic house museums;-provides a how-to guide for making historic house museums sustainable, through five primary themes: communicating with the surrounding community, engaging the community, re-imagining the visitor experience, celebrating the detritus of human habitation, and acknowledging the illusion of the shelter’s authenticity;-offers a wry, but informed, rule-breaking perspective from authors with years of experience; -gives numerous vivid examples of both good and not-so-good practices from house museums in the U.S.
Murder City: The Untold Story of Canada's Serial Killer Capital, 1959-1984
Michael Arntfield - 2015
In its coming to inherit the unwanted distinction of being the serial killer capital of not just Canada—but apparently also the world during this dark age in the city’s sordid history— the crimes seen in London over this quarter-century period remain unparalleled and for the most part unsolved. From the earliest documented case of homicidal copycatting in Canada, to the fact that at any given time up to six serial killers were operating at once in the deceivingly serene “Forest City,” London was once a place that on the surface presented a veneer of normality when beneath that surface dark things would whisper and stir. Through it all, a lone detective would go on to spend the rest of his life fighting against impossible odds to protect the city against a tidal wave of violence that few ever saw coming, and which to this day even fewer choose to remember. With his death in 2011, he took these demons to his grave with him but with a twist—a time capsule hidden in his basement, and which he intended to one day be opened. Contained inside: a secret cache of his diaries, reports, photographs, and hunches that might allow a new generation of sleuths to pick up where he left off, carry on his fight, and ultimately bring the killers to justice—killers that in many cases are still out there. Murder City is an explosive book over fifty years in the making, and is the history of London, Ontario as never told before. Stranger than fiction, tragic, ironic, horrifying, yet also inspiring, this is the true story of one city under siege, and a book that marks a game changer for the true crime genre.
The Sea Is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs
Joshua L. Reid - 2015
Unlike most other indigenous tribes whose lives are tied to lands, the Makah people have long placed marine space at the center of their culture, finding in their own waters the physical and spiritual resources to support themselves. This book is the first to explore the history and identity of the Makahs from the arrival of maritime fur-traders in the eighteenth century through the intervening centuries and to the present day. Joshua L. Reid discovers that the “People of the Cape” were far more involved in shaping the maritime economy of the Pacific Northwest than has been understood. He examines Makah attitudes toward borders and boundaries, their efforts to exercise control over their waters and resources as Europeans and then Americans arrived, and their embrace of modern opportunities and technology to maintain autonomy and resist assimilation. The author also addresses current environmental debates relating to the tribe’s customary whaling and fishing rights and illuminates the efforts of the Makahs to regain control over marine space, preserve their marine-oriented identity, and articulate a traditional future.
Ozette: Excavating a Makah Whaling Village
Ruth Kirk - 2015
Archaeologist Richard Daugherty took note of the site in a survey of the coast in 1947 and later returned at the request of the Makah tribal chairman when storm waves began exposing both architecture and artifacts. Full-scale excavations from 1966 to 1981 revealed houses and their contents--including ordinarily perishable wood and basketry objects that had been buried in a mudflow well before the arrival of Europeans in the region. Led by Daugherty, with a team of graduate and undergraduate students and Makah tribal members, the work culminated in the creation of the Makah Museum in Neah Bay, where more than 55,000 Ozette artifacts are curated and displayed.Ozette: Excavating a Makah Whaling Village is a comprehensive and highly readable account of this world-famous archaeological site and the hydraulic excavation of the mudslide that both demolished the houses and protected the objects inside from decay. Ruth Kirk was present, documenting the archaeological work from its beginning, and her firsthand knowledge of the people and efforts involved enrich her compelling story of discovery, fieldwork, and deepen our understanding of Makah cultural heritage.
Coventry: Thursday, 14 November 1940
Frederick Taylor - 2015
Only after eleven hours of continual bombardment by the German Luftwaffe could its people emerge from their half-sunk Anderson shelters and their cellars, from under their stairs or kitchen tables, to venture up into their wounded city. That long night of destruction marked a critical moment in the Second World War. It heralded a new kind of air warfare, one which abandoned the pursuit of immediate military goals and instead focused on obliterating all aspects of city life. It also provided the push America needed to join Britain in the war. But while the Coventry raid was furiously condemned publically, such effective enemy tactics provided Britain's politicians and military establishment with a 'blueprint for obliteration', to be adapted and turned against Germany. A merciless four-year war of attrition had begun. In this important work of history Frederick Taylor draws upon numerous sources, including eye witness interviews from the archives of the BBC which are published here for the first time, to reveal the true repercussions of the bombing of Coventry in 1940. He teases out the truth behind the persistent rumours and conspiracy theories that Churchill knew the raid was coming, assesses this significant turning point in modern warfare, looks at how it affected Britain's status in the war, and considers finally whether this attack really could provide justification for the horror of Dresden, 1945.
Lost Cincinnati
Jeff Suess - 2015
Though many of these treasures have vanished, they left an indelible mark on the city. Revisit the favorite locales from old Coney Island to Crosley Field. Celebrate lost gems, such as the palatial Albee Theater and the historic Burnet House, where Generals Grant and Sherman plotted the end of the Civil War. Along the way, author Jeff Suess uncovers some uniquely Cincinnati quirks from the inclines and the canal to the infamous incomplete subway. Join Suess as he delves into the mystery and legacy of Cincinnati’s lost landmarks.
One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America's First Witch Hanging
Beth M. Caruso - 2015
Finally settling in Windsor, Connecticut, she encounters the rich American wilderness and its inhabitants, her own healing abilities, and the blinding fears of Puritan leaders which collide and set the stage for America's first witch hanging, her own, on May 26, 1647. This event and Alice's ties to her beloved family are catalysts that influence Connecticut's Governor John Winthrop Jr. to halt witchcraft hangings in much later years. Paradoxically, these same ties and the memory of the incidents that led to her accusation become a secret and destructive force behind Cotton Mather's written commentary on the Salem witch trials of 1692, provoking further witchcraft hysteria in Massachusetts forty-five years after her death. The author uses extensive historical research combined with literary inventions, to bring forth a shocking and passionate narrative theory explaining this tragic and important episode in American history.
Secret Liverpool
Mark Rosney - 2015
Secret Liverpool is a gazetteer of the lesser-known places and little forgotten corners of the city, where tantalising clues to the region's past have miraculously survived, often hidden in plain sight among newer structures. Fully illustrated throughout with photographs and maps, this guide shows you where to go to find amazing locations that span over 3,000 years of history, from the semi-fossilised footprints of Neolithic hunters on the beaches of Formby to an amazing twentieth-century car graveyard in a disused railway tunnel. Learn also about some of Merseyside's forgotten heroes; discover a few select viewing points where you can see semi-permanent mirages over the Mersey skyline; find out about the long lost underground grotto and tunnels said to be still in existence somewhere beneath Princes Park ... and much more besides.
Lost Relations: Fortunes of My Family in Australia's Golden Age
Graeme Davison - 2015
Times were tough, and after their landlord put their farm up for sale, Jane Hewett emigrated to Australia with all her children in 1850. Graeme Davison traces the lives of two generations of the Hewett family, setting them in their historical context in both the UK and Australia. With scant family records, he draws on the full array of public records available in both the UK and Australia, showing as he works how a master historian weighs the evidence and pulls the story together. Throughout he reflects on the meaning of family history, but with a light touch that doesn't get in the way of the story. Through the Hewett family, he paints a picture of colonial Australia: migration of free settlers taking over from the convict period, the work available to men and to women, the gold rush, the rise of the railways, growth of farming. The rise and fall of family fortunes reflects the turbulent growth of the colonies during this period. He writes, "I did not look for skeletons in my family's cupboard, but once the cupboard was open, they simply fell out."
On Track: Searching out the Bundian Way
John Blay - 2015
The 360-kilometre route traverses some of the nation’s most remarkable landscapes, from the highest place on the continent to the ocean. This epic bushwalking story uncovers the history, country and rediscovery of this significant track. Now heritage-listed, and thanks to the work of Blay and local Indigenous communities, the Bundian Way is set to be one of the great Australian walks.
Educating Milwaukee: How One City’s History of Segregation and Struggle Shaped Its Schools
James K. Nelsen - 2015
Author James K. Nelsen follows Milwaukee's tumultuous education history through three eras--"no choice," "forced choice," and "school choice." Nelsen details the whole story of Milwaukee's choice movement through to modern times when Milwaukee families have more schooling options than ever--charter schools, open enrollment, state-funded vouchers, neighborhood schools--and yet Milwaukee's impoverished African American students still struggle to succeed and stay in school. "Educating Milwaukee" chronicles how competing visions of equity and excellence have played out in one city's schools in the modern era, offering both a cautionary tale and a "choice" example. 178 pages of text followed by extensive notes (pp. 179-252; bibliography pp. 253-271 plus acknowledgments & index.
Éamon de Valera: A Will to Power
Ronan Fanning - 2015
Much as Churchill personified British resistance to Hitler and de Gaulle personified the freedom of France, de Valera personified Irish independence.From his emergence in the aftermath of the 1916 rebellion as the republican leader, he bestrode Irish politics like a colossus for more than fifty years.On the eve of the centenary of the Irish Revolution, one of Ireland's most eminent historians explains why Éamon de Valera was such a divisive figure that he has never - until now - received the recognition he deserves.This biography reconciles an acknowledgement of de Valera's catastrophic failure in 1921-22, when his petulant rejection of the Anglo-Irish Treaty shaped the dimensions of a bloody civil war, with an appreciation of his subsequent greatness as the statesman who single-handedly severed the ties with Britain and defined nationalist Ireland's sense of itself.
Disaster in Paradise: Landslide at Johnson's Landing
Amanda Bath - 2015
She had no forewarning of what the placid summer day would bring. But just over an hour later, a massive landslide tore into the community, destroying her home and killing four people: Valentine Webber, aged 60, and his daughters, 22-year-old Diana and 17-year-old Rachel, along with 64-year-old Petra Frehse. Returning the next day to search for her cat, Mandy narrowly avoided being buried beneath a second slide. Disaster in Paradise tells a story of survival, grief and recovery, as Mandy and the other residents of Johnson’s Landing gradually rebuild their community in the wake of the tragedy. Mandy eloquently details her own experience of trauma and healing, and weaves in the stories of other residents and volunteers in the rescue and recovery missions as the community bands together to collectively mourn their loss. The story is grounded by the author’s intimate knowledge of the Johnson’s Landing community, but also reflects the greater themes of loss, perseverance and bravery that arise in natural disasters everywhere.
Portrait of a Town: Cape Charles, 1940-1960
Patricia Joyce Parsons - 2015
Its placement on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, along with its fleet of ferries and fishing boats and its position among the farming communities of the Eastern Shore, made it a town of plenty in the lean times of rationing that occurred during the war-and a perfect place for a child to grow up. Portrait of a Town takes the reader on a nostalgic, invigorating journey through Cape Charles with a child's-eye-view-from playing in a swamp, to jumping the railroad's coal chute, to fishing the barrier islands that line Virginia's oceanfront. In this collection of vignettes, Patricia Parsons portrays life in Cape Charles during World War II and beyond. Using her own childhood memories and her family's life as a powerful touchstone, she follows the town's period of prosperity into a period of decline that transformed it from a bustling commercial center to a forsaken backwater-and back again. Recently, this historic town has experienced revitalization, rising from its own ashes to become a family-style tourist destination. Today, Cape Charles beckons you to explore-and see why it truly is a memorable town.
The Irish Brotherhood: John F. Kennedy, His Inner Circle, and the Improbable Rise to the Presidency
Helen O'Donnell - 2015
Led by Bobby Kennedy, Kenny O’Donnell, Larry O’Brien, and Dave Powers they were tough minded, Irish-Catholic guys who were joined together by a common ambition to see Jack Kennedy through to the White House. War veterans who were young, ambitious, and they wanted their country back. Jack Kennedy was their man, their leader. No matter that he was Irish, Catholic, and his “Old Man” had made as many enemies as friends – Jack had ambition, brains, a special charisma. To win the White House would be a victory not only for Jack Kennedy, but for the downtrodden. They collectively decided that if the political powers would not let them in willingly then they would kick the door down. At the center of the story is Kenny O’Donnell, Jack Kennedy’s tough talking, no-bullshit, top political aide. Jack recognized he needed Kenny’s blue collar, political genius and Kenny recognized something special in Jack.The Irish Brotherhood describes what it was like to be inside the Kennedy inner circle. With Bobby, who was determined to make his own mark apart from his famous family, his life-long struggle, never won, never lost. With Joe, as Kenny and Larry prove to him that their outsider approach was going to work after Jack’s crushing victory in ’58, which sets the stage for the Presidential campaign to come. This book is a missing piece of the story of the improbable rise to power of John F. Kennedy and further fills out the picture of the man revealing that Jack Kennedy was at heart a politician. He enjoyed the rough and tumble and despite his personal issues, or perhaps because of them, he became determined to succeed beyond anybody’s expectations. It is intriguing an indelible portrait of the son, brother, friend, Congressman, Senator and President.
His Father Still: A Parenting Memoir
Tim Hollister - 2015
While he delighted many friends with humor and antics, he struggled as a student, regularly tested his parents’ patience, and chafed at efforts to guide and discipline him. As he began his senior year in a private high school, Reid suddenly found himself accused of misconduct, which he vehemently denied. Several days later, driving on a highway, Reid died in a one-car crash. His Father Still: A Parenting Memoir is, first, Reid’s father’s disarmingly candid account of the tumult of parenting Reid through his teenage years, and then confronting the unthinkable obligations of a father to a son after a sudden tragedy. But this book is about much more than parenting and grief. In the months following Reid’s crash, as Tim Hollister worked to steady himself and his family, he found himself consumed by an accelerated need to answer two questions: Had he been a good father? And in raising his son, had he struck the right balance between exposing him to life’s risks while protecting him from life’s dangers? Answers came in large part from a flood of condolences conveyed through letters and emails, and also in social media posts -- which at the time, 2006, were a brand-new phenomenon. From these messages emerged a mosaic of Reid’s character and personality that was barely known to Tim while Reid was alive because, as parents raise teens by “letting out the tether,” they see less of and know less about their kids. Thus, after Reid’s passing, Tim learned more about his son than he had known while Reid was alive. While this portrait arrived too late, it was not unwelcome; Reid’s crash and its aftermath eventually segued to Tim forging these new insights into the foundation of a renewed relationship with his son that was, if nothing else, a sustainable way forward. This book is, therefore, remarkable not only for its honesty but also for its forays into a breadth of universal issues, topics that shaped both Tim ‘s experience as a father while Reid was alive and his reconstruction of their parent-child bond after the crash: balancing protection and freedom when raising a teen; delivering discipline; reacting to a school’s contested accusation of misconduct; supervising a teen driver; writing an obituary and eulogy for a teen; composing condolence messages, especially through social media; preserving and then giving away a deceased’s possessions; using the aftermath of tragedy to rebuild a frayed relationship; counting blessings; establishing an enduring connection with a loved one who has passed away; and harnessing the power of communities to care for those reeling from a sudden loss. Tim Hollister is an environmental attorney who has been ranked among the Best Lawyers in America. After Reid’s crash in 2006, Tim became an advocate for safer teen driving. In 2009, he launched a national blog for parents of teen drivers, “From Reid’s Dad,” www.fromreidsdad.org, and in 2013 he published Not So Fast: Parenting Your Teen Through the Dangers of Driving (Chicago Review Press), www.nsfteendriving.com. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Transportation honored Tim’s advocacy with the nation’s highest civilian award for traffic safety, and in 2014, the Governors Highway Safety Association recognized Not So Fast with its own national public service award. Tim has appeared on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley, the “Home and Family Show” on the Hallmark Channel, and Kyra Phillips’ Raising America on HLN. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and daughter.
Lost Toledo
David Yonke - 2015
Recall the birth of the Jeep, as well as unique shopping experiences at Tiedtke’s, Lasalle’s, Lamson’s and Portside Festival Marketplace. Catch the action of a Toledo Mud Hens game at bygone ballpark Swayne Field. Watch the glittering marquees light up the downtown skyline once again with the names of performers ranging from Count Basie and Elvis Presley to B.B. King and KISS. Author David Yonke jogs fond memories in this nostalgic stroll through Toledo’s heritage.
Debriefing Elsipogtog The Anatomy of a Struggle
Miles Howe - 2015
Democracy Abroad, Lynching at Home: Racial Violence in Florida
Tameka Bradley Hobbs - 2015
& Harriette V. Moore Award “Hobbs unearths four lynchings that are critical to the understanding of the origins of civil rights in Florida. The oral histories from the victims’ families and those in the communities make this a valuable contribution to African American, Florida, and civil rights history.”—Derrick E. White, author of The Challenge of Blackness “A compelling reminder of just how troubling and violent the Sunshine State’s racial past has been. A must read.”—Irvin D.S. Winsboro, editor of Old South, New South, or Down South? Florida is frequently viewed as an atypical southern state—more progressive and culturally diverse—but, when examined in proportion to the number of African American residents, it suffered more lynchings than any of its Deep South neighbors during the Jim Crow era. Investigating this dark period of the state’s history and focusing on a rash of anti-black violence that took place during the 1940s, Tameka Hobbs explores the reasons why lynchings continued in Florida when they were starting to wane elsewhere. She contextualizes the murders within the era of World War II, contrasting the desire of the United States to broadcast the benefits of its democracy abroad while at home it struggled to provide legal protection to its African American citizens. As involvement in the global war deepened and rhetoric against Axis powers heightened, the nation’s leaders became increasingly aware of the blemish left by extralegal violence on America’s reputation. Ultimately, Hobbs argues, the international implications of these four murders, along with other antiblack violence around the nation, increased pressure not only on public officials in Florida to protect the civil rights of African Americans in the state but also on the federal government to become more active in prosecuting racial violence.
Landscapes of Exclusion: State Parks and Jim Crow in the American South
William E. O'Brien - 2015
The Saltwater Frontier: Indians and the Contest for the American Coast
Andrew Lipman - 2015
When the English and Dutch empires both tried to claim the same patch of coast between the Hudson River and Cape Cod, the sea itself became the arena of contact and conflict. During the violent European invasions, the region’s Algonquian-speaking Natives were navigators, boatbuilders, fishermen, pirates, and merchants who became active players in the emergence of the Atlantic World. Drawing from a wide range of English, Dutch, and archeological sources, Lipman uncovers a new geography of Native America that incorporates seawater as well as soil. Looking past Europeans’ arbitrary land boundaries, he reveals unseen links between local episodes and global events on distant shores. Lipman’s book “successfully redirects the way we look at a familiar history” (Neal Salisbury, Smith College). Extensively researched and elegantly written, this latest addition to Yale’s seventeenth-century American history list brings the early years of New England and New York vividly to life.
Along the Appalachian Trail: West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania
Leonard M. Adkins - 2015
Yet they succeeded in creating a trail within many of the states' scenic areas. Hundreds of vintage photographs--provided by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, National Park Service, state archives, and local trail-maintaining clubs--present an illustrated narrative of the Herculean work and dedication it took for volunteers to plan, build, and continue to maintain the trail in these states. Included are the glimpses of American history the trail passes by, the pathway's early (and later) supporters and hikers, and original locations that have been rerouted off of today's trail.
Soviet Princeton: Slim Evans and the 1932-33 Miners' Strike
Jon Bartlett - 2015
A dramatic, never-before-told account of a tense strike that roiled a town, featuring midnight beatings, burning crosses, strike-breaking police, and, throughout it all, coal miners who refused to back down.
De Zwaan: The True Story of America's Authentic Dutch Windmill
Alisa Crawford - 2015
Believed to have been built in 1761, then moved to the village of Vinkel in North Brabant, The Netherlands, where it produced flour for eighty years, the windmill was dismantled, shipped to the United States, and reassembled in 1964. For more than a half-century, “The Swan” (the translation of De Zwaan) has drawn visitors from all over the world.Alisa Crawford, De Zwaan’s miller—and the only Dutch certified miller in the United States—shares a fascinating look at the story of this historic structure as well as other American- and Dutch-built windmills. Through years of research and interviews with people connected to De Zwaan, she reveals the true origins of its construction, the damage it sustained in World War II, its journey to America, its resurrection as a working mill, its rise as a premier Midwestern attraction, and even the effect its relocation had on the village of Vinkel.Delivering the only complete story of this working mill and an extraordinary collection of images spanning its life in the Netherlands and America, this book is a collector edition to commemorate De Zwaan’s productive and lengthy career and the City of Holland’s commitment to this significant monument of living history.
All Access Cleveland: The Rock and Roll Photography of Janet Macoska
Janet Macoska - 2015
Distilled in Maine:: A History of Libations, Temperance Craft Spirits
Kate McCarty - 2015
Later, rapid industrial advances and ever-present drinking opportunities made daily life unnecessarily hazardous. Overindulgence triggered a severe backlash, a fierce temperance movement and eighty-two years of prohibition in the Pine Tree State. While the coastal state never really dried out, the Maine Law sent both serious and social drinking under the table for the better part of a century. Liquor crafted in Maine has slowly and quietly remade itself into a respected drink, imbued with history and representing the best of the state's ingenuity and self-reliance. Contemporary distillers across the state are concocting truly local spirits while creative bartenders are mixing the new and old, bringing back the art of a fine drink. Join Portland food writer Kate McCarty on a spirited romp through the evolution of Maine's relationship with alcohol.
Billy Cannon: A Long, Long Run
Charles N. deGravelles - 2015
LSU’s only Heisman Trophy winner, Cannon led the Tigers to a national championship in 1958, igniting a love of the game in Louisiana and establishing a tradition of greatness at LSU. But like many stories of lionized athletes who rise to the status of legend, there was a fall—and in the case of Billy Cannon, also redemption. For the first time, Charles N. deGravelles reveals in full the thrilling highs and unexpected lows of Cannon’s life, in Billy Cannon: A Long, Long Run. Through conversations with Cannon, deGravelles follows the athlete-turned-reformer from his boyhood in a working-class Baton Rouge neighborhood to his sudden rush of fame as the leading high school running back in the country. Personal and previously unpublished stories about Cannon’s glory days at LSU and his stellar but controversial career in the pros, as well as details of his indictment for counterfeiting and his post-release work as staff dentist at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, unfold in a riveting biography characterized by uncanny success, deep internal struggles, and a champion’s spirit that pushed through it all.
Builders of the Hoosac Tunnel
Cliff Schexnayder - 2015
Cliff was one of the fortunate who, having received a Dibner Library Resident Scholar award, spent many an hour on the other side of those secreted doors. It was an experience rather like that of C. S. Lewis's Lucy, who climbed into the wardrobe and discovered a magical land. He met no White Witch, but the experience produced this book--the result of a wonderful adventurous journey.Builders of the Hoosac Tunnel traces the interactions between those who worked to bore the five-mile Hoosac railroad tunnel and those who hindered its construction. From the railroad stockholders, to the Canadian brothers who achieved daylight through the mountain, the story follows the evolution of American Civil Engineering.
Bibsy
Brenda Ross - 2015
The tranquil, free-spirited lifestyle she casually enters into with Jake Tucker collides with intractable memories of a difficult past, a new community fated for development and heartbreaking loss. This multifaceted and riveting historical novel gives greater insight into the complexity of African American lives. With New York State’s major road and bridge construction in the background, rural enclaves become casualties of suburbanization."
Buried Beneath Cleveland:: Lost Cemeteries of Cuyahoga County
William G. Krejci - 2015
Occasionally, they wind up in the backyard. As towns grew in Cuyahoga County during the late 1800s, many of its cemeteries were relocated to make room for urban sprawl.But not all of these graves made the journey. Author William G. Krejci tracks down more than fifty displaced cemeteries throughout the Greater Cleveland area. Discover the Revolutionary War veterans, famous scientists and illustrious dignitaries found beneath gas stations and grocery stores in this eerie history of Cuyahoga County's forgotten dead.
The Sons of Italy in Massachusetts
Anthony Mitchell Sammarco - 2015
The lodge recently celebrated its centennial with a long list of events that extolled the preservation and promotion of Italian heritage and culture that has endured since its inception. Founded by Italian immigrants and continued by their descendants, the organization has seen local lodges and junior lodges spring up across the commonwealth with the mission to foster fraternal, social, and charitable work. The Sons of Italy encourages all eligible persons to join and assist in promoting national education, charitable fundraising, securing adequate laws for the benefit of its members, enriching Italian culture and heritage, and combating discrimination while protecting and upholding the positive image of people of Italian birth or descent.