Local History

Anyone who has waited in a Christmas line for the Walnut Room's Great Tree can attest that Chicago's loyalty to Marshall Field's is fierce. Dayton-Hudson even had to take out advertising around town to apologize for changing the Field's hallowed green bags. And with good reason—the store and those who ran it shaped the city's streets, subsidized its culture, and heralded its progress. The resulting commercial empire dictated wholesale trade terms in Calcutta and sponsored towns in North Carolina, but its essence was always Chicago.

The past 60 years have shaped and reshaped the group of French-speaking Louisiana people known as the Cajuns. During this period they have become much like other Americans and yet have remained strikingly distinct. The Cajuns: Americanization of a People explores these six decades and analyzes the forces that had an impact on Louisiana's Acadiana.

In this addictive true-life whodunit, author Mardi Link details all the evidence to date in the case of the Robison family murders. She crafts her book around police and court documents and historical and present-day statements and interviews, in addition to exploring the impact of the case on the community of Good Hart and the stigma that surrounds the popular summer getaway. Adding to both the sense of tragic history and the suspense, Link laces her tale with fascinating bits of local and Indian lore.

The Story of Manhattan by Charles Hemstreet is a compelling narrative history of New York City, tracing the island’s evolution from a pristine, wooded homeland of Native Americans to the world-renowned metropolis we know today. Written in the early 20th century, this rich and engaging account captures pivotal moments—from Henry Hudson’s arrival aboard the Half Moon in 1609 to the colonial days of New Amsterdam, and beyond.

The End of the Golden Gate is a penetrating journey that illuminates both what makes San Francisco so magnetizing and how it has changed vastly over time. With essays chronicling the impact of the tech-industry invasion and the evolution, gentrification, and radical cost of living that has transformed San Francisco's most beloved neighborhoods, these prescient essayists capture the lasting imprint of the 1960s counterculture movement, as well as the fight to preserve the art, music, and other creative movements that make this forever the city of love.

The Spanish word cimarron, meaning "wild" or "untamed," refers to a region in the southern Rocky Mountains where control of timber, gold, coal, and grazing lands long bred violent struggle. After the United States occupation following the 1846-1848 war with Mexico, this tract of nearly two million acres came to be known as the Maxwell Land Grant. When Cimarron Meant Wild presents a new history of the collision that occurred over the region's resources between 1870 and 1900.

Our lives are built around businesses that connect far-flung rural places to urban centers and global destinations. This "country capitalism" that proved successful in the US South has made it possible to satisfy our demands at the click of a button, but each click comes with hidden environmental costs.

The Ryedale district of North Yorkshire holds many picturesque villages and the historic market towns of Malton, Pickering, Kirby Moorside and Helmsley set amidst a beautiful countryside. Heather moors, chalk downland, small dales and broad valleys offer a contrasting scene of open land and gentle hills. In this setting, from country mansions to cottages, castles to cruck houses people have lived for thousands of years. The local historian John Rushton, traces the changing experience throughout the centuries, of a people as varied and full of character as any. Many things have happened in ...

From CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams, a revelatory account of how one man, four teenagers, and a struggling city collided over race, vigilantism, and self-defense . . . and exposed the fault lines of a nation.

C.F. McGlashan was the newspaper publisher of the local paper in Truckee, California, the closest town to the Donner Pass. McGlashan interviewed the survivors of the Donner Party, gathered artifacts and amassed an enormous amount of secondary information. Over an 18 month period, McGlashan published serialized articles in his paper and turned his articles into a book. History of the Donner Party is considered the definitive account of one of the most notorious treks in American history.

This new history of North Yorkshire's County Town traces the history of Northallerton from its beginnings to 2002. With 139 maps and illustrations, and a full bibliography for further study it is the standard work on the subject. Michael Riordan has published widely on the town's history and is the Town Council's official historian.

Granny Clampett, on the TV sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, described the War Between the States as "when the Yankees invaded America" and, indeed, it was! Their invasion of America, however, goes back much farther than the conflict of 1861-1865. It began as soon as they dropped their anchor in Plymouth Bay. Since that time, they have meddled, cheated, and lied their way into every nook and cranny of American life.

When Adam Gopnik and his soon-to-be-wife, Martha, left the comforts of home in Montreal for New York, the city then, much like today, was a pilgrimage site for the young, the arty, and the ambitious. But it was also becoming a city of greed, where both life's consolations and its necessities were increasingly going to the highest bidder. At the Strangers' Gate builds a portrait of this particular moment in New York through the story of this couple's journey - from their excited arrival as aspiring artists to their eventual growth into a New York family.

Recalling the classic warnings against militarism, from George Washington's farewell address to Dwight Eisenhower's denunciation of the military-industrial complex, Johnson explores the trend of militarism that is bankrupting the United States and creating conditions for a new century of virulent blowback.

Thing most terrifying thing about serial killers is that sometimes, they’re just like us, as the interesting facts in this true crime collection reveal. The compilation of trivia in this serial killer true crime anthology goes beyond the familiar stories to give you a glimpse of some of the more horrifying aspects of people who become famous for acts of barbarianism that are unfathomable for most of us.

In The Other Side of the River, his eagerly awaited new book, Kotlowitz takes us to southern Michigan. Here, separated by the St. Joseph River, are two towns, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. Geographically close, they are worlds apart, a living metaphor for America's racial divisions: St. Joseph is a prosperous lakeshore community and 95 percent white, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and 92 percent black. When the body of a black teenaged boy from Benton Harbor is found in the river, unhealed wounds and suspicions between the two towns' populations surface as well.

The Huck Finn of foreign correspondents provides a colorful account of old Honolulu, the island nobility, the City of Refuge on the Kona coast, and the active volcano of Kilauea. These selections of Mark Twain's newspaper dispatches are both charming and informative. The light touch of the great humorist is seldom missing as he reveals the "loveliest fleet of islands that lie anchored in any ocean".

Central Park is perhaps the most well-trod and familiar green space in the country. It is both a refuge from the city and Manhattan's very heart; a respite from the urban grind and a hive of activity all its own. Eight hundred forty-three carefully planned acres allow some 37 million visitors each year to come and get lost in a sense of nature. Unsurprisingly, the park also inspires a wealth of great writing, and here Andrew Blauner collects some of the finest fiction and nonfiction - 20 pieces in all.

Dear Traveler, Welcome to the WanderStories™ tour of the top 10 sights in Rome: St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican Museums, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Castel Sant’Angelo, the Trevi Fountain, the Capitoline Museums, Piazza Navona, and the Villa Farnesina. We are now ready to take you on your personal tour of these world famous landmarks. We will also tell you the history of Rome and several additional stories about Italian cuisine, traditions and customs, holidays and celebrations, humor and jokes, and what makes Italians Italian. We, at WanderStories™, are ...

No historian has been able to capture so elegantly the factors influencing the formation of the state of Texas. Three-time winner of the Jefferson Davis Award, William C. Davis precisely describes the spirit of the times during this momentous period. The conflicts between Anglo Texans, native Tejanos, and Mexican officials that led to war come to life with invigorating detail.