Many believe that support for the abolition of slavery was universally accepted in Vermont, but it was actually a fiercely divisive issue that rocked the Green Mountain State. In the midst of turbulence and violence, though, some brave Vermonters helped fight for the freedom of their enslaved Southern brethren. Thaddeus Stevens--one of abolition's most outspoken advocates--was a Vermont native. Delia Webster, the first woman arrested for aiding a fugitive slave, was also a Vermonter. The Rokeby house in Ferrisburgh was a busy Underground Railroad station for decades. Peacham's Oliver Johnson worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison during the abolition movement. Discover the stories of these and others in Vermont who risked their own lives to help more than four thousand slaves to freedom.

In an era when immigration was at its peak, the Fabre Line offered the only transatlantic route to southern New England. One of its most important ports was in Providence, Rhode Island. Nearly eighty-four thousand immigrants were admitted to the country between the years 1911 and 1934. Almost one in nine of these individuals elected to settle in Rhode Island after landing in Providence, amounting to around eleven thousand new residents. Most of these immigrants were from Portugal and Italy, and the Fabre Line kept up a brisk and successful business. However, both the line and the families hoping for a new life faced major obstacles in the form of World War I, the immigration restriction laws of the 1920s, and the Great Depression. Join authors Patrick T. Conley and William J. Jennings Jr. as they chronicle the history of the Fabre Line and its role in bringing new residents to the Ocean State.

Each Vermont country store carries its own particular stock of special wares and memorable characters. From the Connecticut River to Lake Champlain, country stores and their dedicated owners offer warmth against the blizzard, advice and a friendly ear or a stern word. Neighbors meet and communities are forged beside these feed barrels and bottomless coffee urns. Author Dennis Bathory-Kitsz returns once again to the Green Mountain State with this updated and revised history and guide to its beloved country stores. When Hurricane Irene threatened many of these local institutions and communities in 2011, Vermonters came together, often at their country stores. Explore the very heart of communities big and small, where locals have been keeping their house keys behind the counter and solving the world's problems on the front stoop for more than two hundred years.

1940: It's the year Nazis rain bombs on London and goose-step into Paris, when President Roosevelt wins an unprecedented third term and Kansas Citians finally run the corrupt Pendergast political machine out of power. The new reform-minded city government is bent on cleaning up the sinful "Paris of the Plains" and streamlining its future with wide, new miles of trafficways. Notorious nightclubs have closed. The City Market opens. Glenn Miller swings, Bojangles taps and "Gone with the Wind" premieres. Old buildings make way for parking lots. A dying meteor lights up the night sky above a racially segregated city, home to Charlie Parker, Thomas Hart Benton, Walter Cronkite, Satchel Paige and Thomas J. Pendergast, ex-con. It's all on display here in photographs snapped by WPA workers and stories curated by John Simonson.

Any Minnesotan worth his lutefisk has heard of the Kensington Runestone. But have you heard of Victor Setterlund? In 1949, he uncovered another runestone less than ten miles away. How about Newmann the Great? In 1909, the Kenyon-born illusionist astonished Minneapolitans by driving a team of horses blindfolded across town to find a key hidden in a drugstore safe at Lake and Nicollet. How about little Mary Weinand? In 1915, her father demanded justice when the "meanest boy" at her one-room schoolhouse in Corcoran cut off her luxurious auburn curls. These little-known stories, along with dozens more culled from Minnesota newspaper archives, are presented here in their original form.

Classrooms and Clinics is the first book-length assessment of the development of public school health policies from the late nineteenth century through the early years of the Great Depression. Richard A. Meckel examines the efforts of early twentieth-century child health care advocates and reformers to utilize urban schools to deliver health care services to socioeconomically disadvantaged and medically underserved children in the primary grades. Their goal, Meckel shows, was to improve the children's health and thereby improve their academic performance. Meckel situates these efforts within a larger late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century public discourse relating schools and schooling, especially in cities and towns, to child health. He describes and explains how that discourse and the school hygiene movement it inspired served as critical sites for the constructive negotiation of the nature and extent of the public school's-and by extension the state's-responsibility for protecting and promoting the physical and mental health of the children for whom it was providing a compulsory education. Tracing the evolution of that negotiation through four overlapping stages, Meckel shows how, why, and by whom the health of schoolchildren was discursively constructed as a sociomedical problem and charts and explains the changes that construction underwent over time. He also connects the changes in problem construction to the design and implementation of various interventions and services and evaluates how that design and implementation were affected by the response of the civic, parental, professional, educational, public health, and social welfare groups that considered themselves stakeholders and took part in the discourse. And, most significantly, he examines the responses called forth by the question at the heart of the negotiations: what services are necessitated by the state's and school's taking responsibility for protecting and promoting the health and physical and mental development of schoolchildren. He concludes that the negotiations resulted both in the partial medicalization of American primary education and in the articulation and adoption of a school health policy that accepted the school's responsibility for protecting and promoting the health of its students while largely limiting the services called for to the preventive and educational.

The importance of fishing in Minnesota goes back thousands of years: first as a means of critical subsistence and then, in the last 200 years, as a major economic influence. In the 1800s, anglers seeking pristine lakes with ample fish traveled to Minnesota on the railroads. The widespread use of automobiles and an improving road system rapidly increased the state's accessibility in the 1900s, and resorts sprouted everywhere. During the early tourist boom, the state was also home to countless boat builders, tackle manufacturers, and other fishing-related businesses. Images of America: Minnesota's Angling Past provides a view of the time when boats were made from wood and propelled by rowing; when great fishing spots were found through experience rather than electronics; and, for some, a suit or dress was proper attire for a day of fishing. This book includes rare images from across the state that capture memorable days of angling, such as the 1955 Leech Lake Muskie Rampage.

The excitement and vibrancy of big-city thrills take a deadly turn when they hit Staten Island. Edward Reinhardt murdered his wife and rolled her body in a barrel down a busy thoroughfare. A known bootlegger--and suspected police informant--was found shot three times in a Packard on South Beach, sparking one of the island's greatest mysteries. In 1843, the bodies of a mother and daughter were discovered in a Christmas Day fire; a family member would stand trial three times for their deaths. During the Jazz Age, a kiss would cost a popular Port Richmond teenager her life. Local historian Patricia M. Salmon has meticulously researched Staten Island's most horrific murders, some well known and others long forgotten.

This study views the economic transformation of Duaca, Venezuela into a major coffee export center in the late nineteenth century. Yarrington examines the rise of the peasantry to prosperity, yet they later lost their stature as the local elite allied itself with the state to restructure society and coffee production on its own terms in the twentieth-century. The book is a pioneering study on peasant studies, export-led development, the relationship of state and society, and the consolidation of nation-states in Latin America.

In Columbia Rising , Bancroft Prize-winning historian John Brooke explores the struggle within the young American nation over the extension of social and political rights after the Revolution. By closely examining the formation and interplay of political structures and civil institutions in the upper Hudson Valley, Brooke traces the debates over who should fall within and outside of the legally protected category of citizen. The story of Martin Van Buren--kingpin of New York's Jacksonian ""Regency,"" president of the United States, and first theoretician of American party politics--threads the narrative, since his views profoundly influenced American understandings of consent and civil society and led to the birth of the American party system. Brooke masterfully imbues local history with national significance, and his analysis of the revolutionary settlement as a dynamic and unstable compromise over the balance of power offers an ideal window on a local struggle that mirrored the nationwide effort to define American citizenship. |Brooke explores the struggle within the young American nation over the extension of social and political rights after the Revolution. By closely examining the formation and interplay of political structures and civil institutions in the upper Hudson Valley, Brooke traces the debates over who should fall within and outside of the legally protected category of citizen. The story of Martin Van Buren threads the narrative, since his views profoundly influenced American understandings of consent and civil society and led to the birth of the American party system. Brooke's analysis of the revolutionary settlement as a dynamic and unstable compromise over the balance of power offers a window to a local struggle that mirrored the nationwide effort to define American citizenship.

As the saying goes, "dead men tell no tales." Or do they? From its humble beginnings as a Spanish settlement in 1691 to the bloody battle at the Alamo, San Antonio's history is rich in haunting tales. Discover Old San Antonio's most haunted places and uncover the history that lies waiting for those who dare to enter their doorways. Take a peek inside the Menger Hotel, the "Most Haunted Hotel in Texas," and just a block away, peer into the Emily Morgan Hotel, one of the city's first hospitals and where many men and women lost their lives. Explore the San Fernando Cathedral, where people are buried within the walls and visitors claim to see faces mysteriously appear. Uncover the legends behind Bexar County Jail. Join authors James and Lauren Swartz and decide for yourself what truly lurks behind the Alamo City's fabled past.

Founded in 1653, the town of Huntington is situated on what is known as the Gold Coast of Long Island. The incorporated villages within the town are Huntington Bay, Lloyd Harbor, Asharoken, and Northport. Huntington has always attracted a population that has created a foundation of diversity. Settlement-era properties, castles of the Victorian period, and main streets still adorn the town as witnesses of the people who lived here and a community that is still thriving. A few of the castles and mansions that once existed in the town have disappeared, some by wear and tear and others through neglect. Still others have been converted into academic institutions and museums. Around Huntington Village shares photographs that give meaning to the events in the lives of the people who lived here.

The Chattahoochee Trace in southeast Alabama and west Georgia is steeped in Native, African and early American tradition--stories often deeply rooted in folklore. Unusual beasts such as the Kolowa, the Wampus Cat and even Bigfoot roam the area. Crossroads magic, hoodoo and Huggin' Molly make their homes in the storied region. The Native American trickster rabbit, the Nunnehi Cherokee watchers, the tales of the Indian mounds and the saga of Brookside Drive are forever etched in Chattahoochee lore. From the Creek wars to Indian removal and Sherman's March to the Sea, the legends of "the Hooch" have left an indelible mark on Georgia and Alabama. Join author Michelle Smith as she reveals many of the strange creatures and myths that sing "the Song of the Chattahoochee."

Manhattan's past whispers for attention amongst the bustle of the city's ever-changing landscape. At Fraunces Tavern, George Washington's emotional farewell luncheon in 1783 echoes in the Long Room. Gertrude Tredwell's ghost appears to visitors at the Merchant's House Museum. Long since deceased, Olive Thomas shows herself to the men of the New Amsterdam Theatre, and Dorothy Parker still keeps her lunch appointment at the Algonquin Hotel. In other places, it is not the paranormal but the abnormal violent acts by gangsters, bombers, and murderers that linger in the city's memory. Some think Jack the Ripper and the Boston Strangler hunted here. The historic images and true stories in Ghosts and Murders of Manhattan bring to life the people and events that shaped this city and raised the consciousness of its residents.

The Chattooga River has run through the American consciousness since the movie Deliverance thrust it into the national spotlight. But this National Wild and Scenic River is much more than the make-believe set of a suburbanite nightmare. People travel from all over the country to run its rapids, cast into its current for trout and hike the miles of trails that meander through thousands of acres of woods in the Chattooga watershed. One of the last free-flowing rivers in the Southeast, the river muscles fifty-seven miles through a southern deciduous forest with one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the country and is home to many species of rare wildflowers. Join author Laura Ann Garren as she describes the history and wonder of the real Chattooga River.

Founded in 1859 and situated at the base of the Rocky Mountains, Boulder's small size harbors a big-city feel, and its rich past hides plenty of hair-raising lore. A home in the Newlands is said to be haunted by a previous owner who was displeased with remodeling done on his longtime abode, while a small Victorian on Pearl Street has been plagued by strange events for over a century. Guests at one hotel might be surprised by the number of mysteries wrapped around the building, and local spirits have a standing reservation at a popular restaurant that was once a mortuary. Authors Ann Alexander Leggett and Jordan Alexander Leggett offer up a tour of the tales that haunt this Colorado college town.

The once-thriving houseboat communities along Arkansas' White River are long gone, and few remember the sensational murder story that set local darling Helen Spence on a tragic path. In 1931, Spence shocked Arkansas when she avenged her father's murder in a DeWitt courtroom. The state soon discovered that no prison could hold her. For the first time, prison records are unveiled to provide an essential portrait. Join author Denise Parkinson for an intimate look at a Depression-era tragedy. The legend of Helen Spence refuses to be forgotten--despite her unmarked grave.

As one of the nation's oldest cities, Cambridge, Massachusetts, has a tumultuous history filled with Revolutionary War beginnings, religious persecution and centuries of debate among Ivy League intelligentsia. It should come as no surprise that the city is also home to spirits that are entangled with the past and now inhabit the dormitories, local watering holes and even military structures of the present. Discover the apparitions that frighten freshmen in Harvard's Weld Hall, the Revolutionary War ghosts that haunt the estates of Tory Row and the flapper who is said to roam the seats of Somerville Theatre. Using careful research and firsthand accounts, author Sam Baltrusis delves into ghastly tales of murder, crime and the bizarre happenings in the early days of Cambridge to uncover the truth behind some of the city's most historic haunts.

Historian Jerome A. Greene is renowned for his memorable chronicles of egregious events involving American Indians and the U.S. military, including Sand Creek, Washita, and Wounded Knee. Now, in January Moon, Greene draws from extensive research and fieldwork to explore a signal - and appallingly brutal - event in American history: the desperate flight of Chief Dull Knife's Northern Cheyenne Indians from imprisonment at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. In the wake of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, the U.S. government expelled most Northern Cheyennes from their northern plains homeland to Indian Territory, in present-day Oklahoma. Following mounting hardships, many of those people, under Chiefs Dull Knife and Little Wolf, broke away, seeking to return north. While Little Wolf's band managed initially to elude pursuing U.S. troops, Dull Knife's people were captured in 1878 and ushered into a makeshift barrack prison at Camp (later Fort) Robinson, where they spent months waiting for government officials to decide their fate. It is here that Greene's riveting narrative edges toward its climax. On the night of January 9, 1879, in a bloody struggle with troops, Dull Knife's people staged a massive breakout from their barrack prison in a last-ditch bid for freedom. Greene paints a vivid picture of their frantic escape, which took place under an unusually brilliant moon that doomed many of those fleeing by silhouetting them against the snow. A climactic engagement at Antelope Creek proved especially devastating, and the helpless people were nearly annihilated. In gripping detail, Greene follows the survivors' dreadful experiences into their aftermath, including creation of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Carrying the story to the present day, he describes Cheyenne tribal events commemorating the breakout - all designed to ensure that the injustices of nineteenth-century U.S. government policy will never be forgotten.

"George Black rediscovers the history and lore of one of the planet's most magnificent landscapes. Read "Empire of Shadows," and you'll never think of our first--in many ways our greatest--national
park in the same way again."--Hampton Sides, author of "Blood and Thunder"""

"Empire of Shadows" is the epic story of the conquest of Yellowstone, Wyoming, a landscape uninhabited, inaccessible and shrouded in myth in the aftermath of the Civil War. In a radical reinterpretation of the nineteenth century West, George Black casts Yellowstone's creation as the culmination of three interwoven strands of history - the passion for exploration, the violence of the Indian Wars and the "civilizing" of the frontier - and charts its course through the lives of those who sought to lay bare its mysteries: Lt. Gustavus Cheyney Doane, a gifted but tormented cavalryman known as "the man who invented Wonderland"; the ambitious former vigilante leader Nathaniel Langford; scientist Ferdinand Hayden, who brought photographer William Henry Jackson and painter Thomas Moran to Yellowstone; and Gen. Phil Sheridan, Civil War hero and architect of the Indian Wars, who finally succeeded in having the new National Park placed under the protection of the US Cavalry. George Blacks Empire of Shadows is a groundbreaking historical account of the origins of Americas majestic national landmark.

Roanoke, in the heart of southwestern Virginia, is one of the most haunted cities in the commonwealth. The Star City is brimming with eerie and unexplainable stories, such as the legendary "Woman in Black," who appeared several times in 1902 but only to married men on their way home at night. There are also macabre stories in many of Roanoke's famous landmarks, such as the majestic Grandin Theatre, where a homeless family is said to have lived and the cries of their deceased children can still be heard. Travel beyond the realm of reality with author L.B. Taylor Jr. as he traces the history of Roanoke's most unique and chilling tales.