By the end of America s Golden Age of Magic, Chicago had taken center stage in front of an American audience drawn to the craft by the likes of Harry Houdini and Howard Thurston. Cashing in on a craze that rivaled big-band mania, magic shops and clubs sprang up everywhere across the Windy City, packed in customers and put down roots. Over the last century, for example, Magic, Inc. has outfitted magicians from Harry Blackstone Sr. to Penn and Teller to David Copperfield. Magic was an integral part of Chicago s culture, from its earliest venture into live television to the card sharps and hucksters lurking in its amusement parks and pool halls. David Witter keeps track of the shell game of Chicago s fascinating magic history from its vaudeville circuit to its contemporary resurgence.

Alabama is no stranger to the battles and blood of the Civil War, and nearly every eligible person in the state participated in some fashion. Some of those citizen soldiers may linger still on hallowed ground throughout the state. War-torn locations such as Fort Blakely National Park, Crooked Creek, Bridgeport and Old State Bank have chilling stories of hauntings never before published. In Cahawba, Colonel C.C. Pegue's ghost has been heard holding conversations near his fireplace. At Fort Gaines, sentries have been seen walking their posts, securing the grounds years after their deaths. Sixteen different ghosts have been known to take up residence in a historic house in Athens. Join author Dale Langella as she recounts the mysterious history of Alabama's most famous battlefields and the specters that still call those grounds home.

The Motor City. The City on the Strait. The Arsenal of Democracy. Detroit is the city that put the world on wheels. Once the fourth largest in the country, its streets were filled with bustling crowds and lined with breathtaking landmarks. Over the years, many of Detroit's most beautiful buildings--packed with marble, ornate metalwork, painted ceilings and glitz and glamour--have been reduced to dust. From the hallowed halls of Old City Hall to the floating majesty of steamships to the birthplace of the automotive industry, Dan Austin, author of Lost Detroit and creator of HistoricDetroit.org, recaptures stories and memories of a forgotten Detroit, giving readers a glimpse into some of the most stunning buildings this city has ever known.

As "animal factories" go, the Ohio Penitentiary was one of the worst. For 150 years, it housed some of the most dangerous criminals in the United States, including murderers, madmen and mobsters. Peer in on America's first vampire, accused of sucking his victims' blood five years before Bram Stoker's fictional villain was even born; peek into the cage of the original Prison Demon; and witness the daring escape of John Hunt Morgan's band of Confederate prisoners. Uncover the full extent of mayhem and madness locked away in one of history's most notorious maximum-security prisons.

For twenty-six straight seasons from 1978 to 2003 Mount Saint Charles Academy captured the hearts of its fans and the state s high school hockey championship. Attributing the streak to a near-mystical force called Mount Pride, beloved coach Bill Belisle and his team have built the most successful hockey program in Rhode Island. In the thrilling 2013 season, they recaptured the Mount glory as state champions. Yet the high school hockey team is much more than its wins and losses it s a culture and a family. Beginning with the earliest days when Rhode Island s four-team league took to the frozen ponds with tree branches serving as rudimentary hockey sticks, author Bryan Ethier chronicles the history of the MSC Flying Frenchmen. Join Ethier as he takes to the ice with the great games, the star players and the unforgettable moments to tell the remarkable story of Mount Saint Charles Hockey.

In the 1840s, land west of the Missouri River was a new frontier for courage, adventure, freedom and true grit. During this era and the decades that followed, Utah became the focal point for many brave settlers yearning for a new way of life. While Utah's proud Mormon legacy is well documented, there are lesser-known stories that contribute to the state's fascinating history. Join public historian, author and history columnist Eileen Hallet Stone for a look into the state's forgotten past as she presents a revelatory collection of tales culled from her popular "Salt Lake Tribune" "Living History" column. From newly freed slaves, early suffragists, desert farmers and union men to railroad kings, cattle barons, influential statesmen and more, this is "Hidden History of Utah."

The revolutions in the England, North America, and France ushered in the modern political age. Cultural Revolutions analyzes the place of material culture, ritual, and everyday life during these revolutions, providing a fresh and engaging interpretation of the strategies used to transform people from monarchists into republicans.The author shows how, faced with the challenge of persuading large populations to alter their previous convictions and loyalties, revolutionaries in all three countries turned to the power of aesthetics. From the banning of dancing in Cromwell's England, to the 'homespun' clothing of Revolutionary America, to France's new calendar and naming systems, Auslander assesses how daily habits and tastes were altered in the interests of political change.

Route 66 is no longer the main thoroughfare between Chicago and St. Louis, but if local lore is to be believed, ghostly traffic along the Mother Road continues unabated. Janice Tremeear chases down accounts of a man executed for witchcraft, the demon baby of Hull House and the secrets of H.H. Holmes's "Murder Castle." Native American legends place the piasa bird in the skies above the highway's southern stretch with the same insistence that characterize contemporary UFO sightings in the north. In between, spirits such as Resurrection Mary join the throng of hapless souls wandering the roadside of the Prairie State's most famous byway.

Roger Williams purchased the fertile Aquidneck Island from the Narragansett tribe in 1637. It was here that Anne Hutchinson, along with William Coddington and other colonists who had been banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, found shelter from persecution. The intrepid dissenters of Rhode Island Colony saw their community flourish with the founding of Portsmouth and Newport townships. The Battle of Rhode Island was the only clash between American colonials and the British on Rhode Island soil during the Revolutionary War. From the mercantile success of the Atlantic triangle trade routes to the establishment of the United States Navy, noted historian Richard V. Simpson brings these and other stories from the Ocean State to life. Join Simpson as he explores the landmarks and architecture of the period to discover the remnants of Rhode Island's colonial past.

Long before the era of the foodie, the little coal-mining town of Krebs set the standard for celebrating food in Oklahoma. Its reputation as the Sooner State's Little Italy began in the mid-1870s when Italian immigrants chased the coal boom to Pittsburg County, deep in the heart of the Choctaw Nation. After 150 years, Italians and Choctaw neighbors are now bound by pasta, homemade cheeses and sausages and native beer once brewed illegally in basement bathtubs and delivered by children from door to door. Stop by for a steak at GiaComo's, a Choc at Pete's Place, lamb fries at the Isle of Capri, gnocchi at Roseanna's or a gourd of caciocavallo at Lovera's--venues that have proven impervious to time and hardship. Join Food Dude Dave Cathey on a tour through this colorful and delicious history.

Many Americans are familiar with Thomas Edison's "invention factory" in Menlo Park, where he patented the phonograph, the light bulb and more than one thousand other items. Yet many other ideas have grown in the Garden State, too--New Jerseyans brought sound and music to movies and built the very first drive-in theater. In addition to the first cultivated blueberry, tasty treats like ice cream cones and M&Ms are also Jersey natives. Iconic aspects of American life, like the batting cage, catcher's mask and even professional baseball itself, started in New Jersey. Life would be a lot harder without the vacuum cleaner, plastic and Band-Aids, and many important advances in medicine and surgery were also developed here. Join author Linda Barth as she explores groundbreaking, useful, fun and even silly inventions and their New Jersey roots.

If there's any place in Chicago that's been all things to all men, it has to be the corner of the city that is occupied by Edgewater and Uptown. Babe Ruth and Mahatma Gandhi found a place of refuge at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, but the locale has also been a sanctuary for Appalachian coal miners and Japanese Americans released from internment camps. Al Capone reportedly moved booze through a secret tunnel connecting the Green Mill and the Aragon Ballroom, "Burglar Cops" moonlit out of the Summerdale police station and a "Kitchen Revolt" by some not-very-ordinary housewives sent once-invulnerable machine ward boss Marty Tuchow on his way to Club Fed. Ferret out the hidden history of Uptown and Edgewater with veteran beat reporter Patrick Butler in this curio shop of forgotten people and places.

The DeAutremont brothers were looking for a big score. They brought dynamite, guns and a getaway car. On October 11, 1923, at the summit of the Siskiyou Mountains in southern Oregon, the three young men held up a passenger train, with disastrous consequences. Their rash actions resulted in the tragic deaths of three Southern Pacific trainmen and one U.S. Mail clerk, unleashing a public outcry that still rings through Oregon's history. In this riveting account, rail historian Scott Mangold draws on interviews, in-depth research and previously unpublished maps and photographs to document the events at Tunnel 13. Join Mangold as he chronicles the resulting four-year manhunt and eventual conviction of the DeAutremonts and provides insight into the lives derailed by the robbery's bitter legacy.

Cape May began as Cape May Island, where families journeyed to enjoy wide white beaches and gentle surf during the early nineteenth century. With the advent of steamships and railroads, the quiet village soon became America's first seaside resort town. Despite its charm and elegance, visitors slowed in the 1880s, as a series of mysterious fires claimed some of its most beloved structures. As the twentieth century dawned, Cape May's failure to modernize ultimately became its salvation. By the 1960s, visitors were once again flocking to this seaside destination to enjoy its quaint Victorian charm. Experience the elegant Chalfonte Hotel, stately Congress Hall and the classic Cape May Boardwalk with local historian Emil Salvini.

University Park is one of Los Angeles's most diverse and historic neighborhoods. Beginning with the founding of the University of Southern California in 1880, the area has hosted two Olympic Games and numerous presidents and been featured as a backdrop for dozens of movies, along with countless other events of cultural and historical significance. Few areas in Southern California boast such a wide variety of historic buildings--residential, educational and commercial--dating to LA's earliest days. With USC as its anchor, University Park thrives as a microcosm of LA's culture, architecture and development from an outpost accumulating settlers into one of the world's great cosmopolitan metropolises. Join author Charles Epting on this historical inventory of University Park's significant moments and lasting legacy.

First published in 1935, this book provides a valuable contribution to the history of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. Written as a recollection of the experiences and knowledge of Sir Arthur Newsholme, the book covers a period in which phenomenal progress was made.

Named for the famous Spanish explorer who was said to have discovered the Fountain of Youth, Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Avenue began as a simple country road that conveyed visitors to the healing springs that once bubbled along it. Now, as one of Atlanta's major commuter thoroughfares, few motorists realize that the Avenue was a prestigious residential street in Victorian Atlanta, home to mayors and millionaires. An economic turn in the twentieth century transformed the Avenue into a crime-ridden commercial corridor, but in recent years, Atlantans have rediscovered the street's venerable architecture and storied history. Join local historian Sharon Foster Jones on a vivid tour of the Avenue-- from picnics by the springs in hoopskirts, to the Fox Theatre and Atlanta Crackers baseball, and the days when Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable lodged in the esteemed hotels lining this magnificent Avenue.

It is the most famous speech Lincoln ever gave, and one of the most important orations in the history of the nation. Delivered on November 19, 1863, among the freshly dug graves of the Union dead, the Gettysburg Address defined the central meaning of the Civil War and gave cause for the nation's incredible suffering. The poetic language and moral sentiment inspired listeners at the time, and have continued to resonate powerfully with groups and individuals up to the present day. What gives this speech its enduring significance? This collection of essays, from some of the best-known scholars in the field, answers that question. Placing the Address in complete historical and cultural context and approaching it from a number of fresh perspectives, the volume first identifies how Lincoln was influenced by great thinkers on his own path toward literary and oratory genius. Among others, Nicholas P. Cole draws parallels between the Address and classical texts of Antiquity and John Stauffer considers Lincoln's knowledge of the King James Bible and Shakespeare. The second half of the collection then examines the many ways in which the Gettysburg Address has been interpreted, perceived, and utilized in the past 150 years. Since 1863, African Americans, immigrants, women, gay rights activists, and international figures have invoked the speech's language and righteous sentiments on their respective paths toward freedom and equality. Essays include Louis P. Masur on the role the Address played in eventual emancipation; Jean H. Baker on the speech's importance to the women's rights movement; and Don H. Doyle on the Address's international legacy. Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg in a defining moment for America, but as the essays in this collection attest, his message is universal and timeless. This work brings together the foremost experts in the field to illuminate the many ways in which that message continues to endure.

Eerie tales have been part of the city's history from the beginning: Pikes Peak and Cheyenne Mountain are the subjects of several spooky Native American legends, and Anasazi spirits are still seen at the ancient cliff dwellings outside town. In the Old North End neighborhood, the howls of hellhounds ring through the night, and visitors at the Cheyenne Canon Inn have spotted the spirit of Alex Riddle on the grounds for over a century. Henry Harkin has haunted Dead Mans' Canyon since his gruesome murder in 1863, and Poor Bessie Bouton is said to linger on Cutler Mountain, hovering where her body was discovered more than a century ago. Ghost hunter and tour guide Stephanie Waters explores the stories behind "Little London's" oldest and scariest tales.

Chartered by Gov. Benning Wentworth in 1764, Claremont received its name from the English estate of Claremont, home of the Earl of Clare. The town was known in early years for its fertile farmland along the Connecticut River, and mills sprang up along the Sugar River after the War of 1812 and following the formation of the Sunapee Dam Company. Numerous inventions by locals, such as John Tyler's iron turbine waterwheel, an important advance in harnessing waterpower, helped fuel Claremont's evolution from a farming community to a textile mill town. Albert Ball, whose patents included the diamond core drill, revolutionized the mining industry. Once known as the "Shopper's Town," Claremont enjoyed a period of prosperity as the industrial, commercial, and social center of western New Hampshire. Today, still reeling from the loss of industry in recent decades, Claremont is making steps to revitalize itself. The Monadnock Mills Revitalization Project, which brought the Common Man Inn & Restaurant to Claremont, and other projects are helping to once again make the community a travel destination.

In 1604, when Frenchmen landed on Saint Croix Island, they were far from the first people to walk along its shores. For thousands of years, Etchemins--whose descendants were members of the Wabanaki Confederacy-- had lived, loved and labored in Down East Maine. Bound together with neighboring people, all of whom relied heavily on canoes for transportation, trade and survival, each group still maintained its own unique cultures and customs. After the French arrived, they faced unspeakable hardships, from "the Great Dying," when disease killed up to 90 percent of coastal populations, to centuries of discrimination. They never abandoned Ketakamigwa, their homeland. In this book, anthropologist William Haviland relates the history of hardship and survival endured by the natives of the Down East coast and how they have maintained their way of life over the past four hundred years.