Montevallo: a mountain in a valley. This bucolic, natural phrase aptly describes the beauty of this central Alabama town. Early settlers were drawn to the area by its abundant agricultural and mineral resources, and in 1826, the tiny village of Montevallo was born. The nature of the town changed significantly in 1896 with the founding of the Alabama Girls' Industrial School, now the University of Montevallo. The Olmsted Brothers firm of Brookline, Massachusetts, laid out the central campus, and its master plan still inspires current development. Since 1896, the focus of the town has shifted from agriculture and mining to education. The university's mission is to be Alabama's "Public Liberal Arts College." Prominent figures include writer and veteran E. B. Sledge, actresses Polly Holiday and Rebecca Luker, and Major League Baseball player Rusty Greer.

Join local scholar Cyndy Bittinger on a journey through the forgotten tales of the roles that Native Americans, African Americans and women-often overlooked-played in Vermont's master narrative and history. Bittinger not only shows where these marginalized groups are missing from history, but also emphasizes the ways that they contributed and their unique experiences.

On February 13, 2003, a plane carrying three American military contractors crash-landed in the jungle-covered mountains of Colombia. Within minutes, FARC guerrillas swarmed the wreckage and killed the American pilot and a Colombian crew member, then marched the survivors--Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, and Thomas Howes--at gunpoint into the rain forest. The Colombian government sent 147 soldiers to rescue the Americans. The troops spent weeks subsisting on monkey meat and Amazon rodents as they chased the guerrillas deeper into the jungle. But then a soldier on a bathroom break stuck his machete into the ground and pulled out 20 million pesos--part of a buried rebel cache of $20 million--and the game suddenly changed.

Veteran journalist John Otis places the Colombian hostage story in its full context, exploring the inner workings of the FARC, the U.S.-backed war on drugs, and Colombia's efforts to free the rebel-held prisoners. Law of the Jungle is an edge-of-your-seat adventure and a shocking cautionary tale about the pursuit of fortune in one of the world's most dangerous places.

With Wicked Carlisle, author Joe Cress revisits the criminal history of Cumberland County. Taking a more focused and less bloody approach, Cress will largely bring new stories of mischief to the table, though he will revisit the lighter side of two or three crimes from Murder and Mayhem in Cumberland County. From stories of college pranks gone wrong, Carlisle's own Robin Hood and the robbing and subsequent torching of a beloved local theater (the Strand where the local HS now sits ) to abuses at the Carlisle Indian School and the town's connection to the raid on Harper's Ferry, Cress scours the underbelly of the borough for mischief and misdeeds.

This is the rambunctious story of how America came to declare independence in Philadelphia in 1776. As late as that May, the Continental Congress had no plans to break away from England. Troops under General George Washington had been fighting the British for nearly a year--yet in Philadelphia a mighty bloc known as "reconciliationists," led by the influential Pennsylvanian John Dickinson, strove to keep America part of the British Empire.
But a cadre of activists--led by the mysterious Samuel Adams of Massachusetts and assisted by his nervous cousin John--plotted to bring about American independence. Their audacious secret plan proposed overturning the reconciliationist government of Pennsylvania and replacing it with pro-independence leaders. Remarkably, the adventure succeeded. The Adams coalition set in motion a startling chain of events in the Philadelphia streets, in the Continental Congress, and throughout the country that culminated in the Declaration of Independence on July 4.
In "Declaration "William Hogeland brings to vibrant life both the day-to-day excitement and the profound importance of those nine fast-paced weeks essential to the American founding yet little known today. He depicts the strange-bedfellow alliance the Adamses formed with scruffy Philadelphia outsiders and elegant Virginia planters to demand liberty. He paints intimate portraits of key figures: John Dickinson, a patriot who found himself outmaneuvered on the losing side of history; Benjamin Franklin, the most famous man in America, engaged in and perplexed by his city's upheavals; Samuel Adams, implacable in changing the direction of Congress; his cousin John, anxious about the democratic aspirations of their rabble-rousing Philadelphia allies; and those democratic radical organizers themselves, essential to bringing about independence, all but forgotten until now.
As the patriots' adventure gathers toward the world-changing climax of the Declaration, conflicts and ironies arise, with trenchant relevance for the most important issues confronting Americans today. "Declaration "offers a fresh, gripping, and vivid portrait of the passionate men and thrilling events that gave our country birth.

After covering the environment and energy beat for more than a decade, columnist Amanda Little decided that the only way to fully understand America's energy crisis was to travel into the heart of it. So she embarked on a daring, cross-country power trip to the most extreme and exciting frontiers of our energy landscape.

In "Power Trip," we accompany her to a deep-sea oil rig, the cornfields of Kansas, the catacombs of the Pentagon, the Talladega Superspeedway, and inside New York City's electrical grid. We visit laboratories creating the innovations that will carry us into a clean-energy future. Little also travels back through history to investigate how America developed its unrivaled appetite for fossil fuels. In vivid, fast-paced prose, she illustrates how the same American ingenuity that got us into this mess can get us out of it too.

America's greatest idea factory isn't Bell Labs, Silicon Valley, or MIT's Media Lab. It's the secretive, Pentagon-led agency known as DARPA. Founded by Eisenhower in response to Sputnik and the Soviet space program, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) mixes military officers with sneaker-wearing scientists, seeking paradigm-shifting ideas in varied fields--from energy, robotics, and rockets to doctorless operating rooms, driverless cars, and planes that can fly halfway around the world in just a few hours.

Michael Belfiore was given unpre-cedented access to write this first-ever popular account of DARPA. "The Department of Mad Scientists" contains material that has barely been reported in the general media--in fact, only 2 percent of Americans know much of anything about the agency. But as this fascinating read demonstrates, DARPA isn't so much frightening as it is inspiring--it is our future.

In this bold reevaluation of a decisive moment in American history, Michael Hiltzik dispels decades of accumulated myths and misconceptions about the New Deal to capture with clarity and immediacy its origins, its legacy, and its genius.

In Historic Columbus Crimes, the father-daughter team of David Meyers and Elise Meyers Walker looks back at sixteen tales of murder, mystery and mayhem culled from city history. Take the rock star slain by a troubled fan or the drag queen slashed to death by a would-be ninja. Then there's the writer who died acting out the plot of his next book, the minister's wife incinerated in the parsonage furnace and a couple of serial killers who outdid the Son of Sam. Not to mention a gunfight at Broad and High, grave-robbing medical students, the bloodiest day in FBI history and other fascinating stories of crime and tragedy. They're all here, and they're all true

Routledge Library Editions: Colonialism and Imperialism is a 51-volume collection of previously out-of-print titles that examine the history, practice and implications of Western colonialism around the globe. From the earliest contact by European explorers to the legacies that remain today, these books look at various aspects of the topic that, taken together, form an essential reference collection. Two of the titles study colonialism in Southeast Asia by non-Western states, and provide a counterpoint in the European-focused study of worldwide colonialism.

Get an inside look at Colorado s rich history, from the time of early American Indians to the Colorado Gold Rush to today. This engaging social studies book is four chapters, covering major events, people, and time periods in Colorado history. It includes a glossary, extension activity, guided reading questions, and other exciting features. Colorado s History covers the early history of American Indians in Colorado through the exploration of the territory, its path to statehood, westward expansion, developments in technology, and other important events throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. This reader combines vibrant pictures and illustrations with rich text to craft a detailed account of Colorado, from 14,000 years ago to modern times.

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.

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.

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?