The Vietnam War, Oklahoma City bombing, Columbine High School shooting, and attacks of 9/11 all shattered myths of national identity. Vietnam was a war the U.S. didn't win on the ground in Asia or politically at home; Oklahoma City revealed domestic terrorism in the heartland; Columbine debunked legends of high school as an idyllic time; and 9/11 demonstrated U.S. vulnerability to international terrorism. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was intended to separate the victims from the war that caused their death. This focus on individuals lost (evident in all the memorials and museums discussed here) conflates the function of cemeteries, where deaths are singular and grieving is personal, with that of memorials - to remember and mourn communal losses and reflect on national events seen in a larger context. Memorials to Shattered Myths: Vietnam to 9/11 traces the evolution and consequences of this new hybrid paradigm, which grants a heroic status to victims and by extension to their families, thereby creating a class of privileged participants in the permanent memorial process. It argues against this practice, suggesting instead that victims' families be charged with determining the nature of an interim memorial, one that addresses their needs in the critical time between the murder of their loved ones and the completion of the permanent memorial. It also charges that the memorials discussed here are variously based on strategies of diversion and denial that direct our attention away from actual events, and reframe tragedy as secular or religious triumph. Thus they basically camouflage history. Seen as an aggregate, they define a nation of victims, exactly the concept they and their accompanying celebratory narratives were apparently created to obscure.

St. Louis was a city under siege during Prohibition. Seven different criminal gangs violently vied for control of the town's illegal enterprises. Although their names (the Green Ones, the Pillow Gang, the Russo Gang, Egan's Rats, the Hogan Gang, the Cuckoo Gang and the Shelton Gang) are familiar to many, their exploits have remained largely undocumented until now. Learn how an awkward gunshot wound gave the Pillow Gang its name, and read why Willie Russo's bizarre midnight interview with a reporter from the St. Louis Star involved an automatic pistol and a floating hunk of cheese. From daring bank robberies to cold-blooded betrayals, The Gangs of St. Louis chronicles a fierce yet juicy slice of the Gateway City's history that rivaled anything seen in New York or Chicago.

Oppaymolleah's curse. General Braddock's buried gold. The Original Man of Steel, Joe Magarac. Such legends have found a home among the rich folklore of Western Pennsylvania. Thomas White spins a beguiling yarn with tales that reach from the misty hollows of the Alleghenies to the lost islands of Pittsburgh. White invites readers to learn the truth behind the urban legend of the Green Man, speculate on the conspiracy surrounding the lost B-25 bomber of Monongahela and shiver over the ghostly lore of Western Pennsylvania.

Much like its muddy riverbanks, the mid-South is flooded with tales of shadowy spirits lurking among us. Beyond the rhythm of the blues and tapping of blue suede shoes is a history steeped in horror. From the restless souls of Elmwood Cemetery to the voodoo vices of Beale Street, phantom hymns of the Orpheum Theatre and Civil War soldiers still looking for a fight, peer beyond the shadows of the city's most historic sites.

Author and lifelong resident Laura Cunningham expertly blends fright with history and presents the ghostly legends from Beale to Bartlett, Germantown to Collierville, in this one-of-a-kind volume no resident or visitor should be without.

Drawing on her work with the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute at Bauder College and Ghost Hounds Paranormal Research Society, elite psychic medium and cold case researcher Reese Christian writes of the tragic past and the haunted present of Greater Atlanta. From Peachtree Street in the heart of downtown to the plantations and battlefields surrounding the city, join her in discovering the twisted histories of some of Atlanta's most infamous landmarks and forgotten moments.

Tales of ghostly spirits envelop the northeast Tennessee landscape like a familiar mountain fog. Join Pete Dykes, editor of Kingsport's "Daily News," as he offers up a collection of spooky local stories and legends from centuries past, including such spine-chilling accounts as the foreboding ghost of Netherland Inn Road, spectral disturbances at the Rotherwood Mansion, devilish felines, ruthless poltergeists in Caney Creek Falls, the tortured cries from fallen Rebel soldiers still heard today- and could bigfoot really be buried in the woods of Big Stone Gap?

On June 23, 1900, the Southern Railroad Company's Engine #7 and its passengers were greeted by a tremendous storm en route to Atlanta, Georgia. Stalled for some time in nearby McDonough, travelers grew impatient as rain pelted the roof and wind buffeted the cars. When finally given the go-ahead, their resulting joy was short-lived: the locomotive soon reached Camp Creek--and disaster. After weeks of constant showers, the swollen creek had eroded the bridge supports. Under the train's weight, the bridge collapsed, and all but nine perished in either the fiery fall or watery depths. With the help of local newspapers and eyewitness accounts, Georgia historian and professor Jeffery C. Wells recounts this tragic tale.

With fortunes that have ebbed and flowed with the tides, Annapolis has graced the banks of the Severn River and the Chesapeake Bay since the seventeenth century. Generations have worked the docks, sailed its waters and hunted for Chesapeake Gold--oysters--even as the city became home to a proud military tradition in the United States Naval Academy. Local author Rosemary F. Williams presents a vivid image of Annapolis with tales of violent skirmishes between the dashing Captain Waddell and crews of outlaw oyster poachers, the crabbing rage of the twentieth century, feisty shipwright Benjamin Sallier and the city's Golden Age of Sailing. Williams's fluid prose and stunning vintage images chronicle the maritime history of this capital city and reveal its residents' deep connection to the ever-shifting waters.

The Western Slope towns of Gunnison and Crested Butte are defined by their placement in the Colorado Rockies. Both are located in alpine valleys surrounded by 14,000-foot-high peaks with sparkling mountain-fed streams, and both dominate the Gunnison country, a unique wilderness covering over 4,000 square miles. Beginning over 400 years ago, Native Americans, fur traders, explorers, miners, railroaders, and cattlemen all made a place for themselves in the area. Today Gunnison, Crested Butte, and the Gunnison country remain isolated and tranquil. Recreation, tourism, and cattle ranching now reign supreme as Gunnison and Crested Butte attempt to preserve their distinctly Western heritage.

The Elizabeth River courses through the heart of Virginia. The Jamestown colonists recognized the river's strategic importance and explored its watershed almost immediately after the 1607 founding. The Elizabeth River traces four centuries of this historic stream's path through the geography and culture of Virginia.