The people who lived at Brant's Ford, or in the countryside around it, have made a considerable contribution to Canadian history. Since Joseph Brant first established himself and the Indians of the Six Nations, there in 1784, the region has been affected by, and has reacted to, great events in Europe and North America, and in the process has grown from a precarious pioneer settlement to a well-developed agricultural and industrial society. This book is an account of nearly two centuries of economic and social change in the Brant area. The author records the effects of these changes on Indian and non-Indian alike and relates them to developments in Ontario and the rest of Canada. He gives much attention to such notables as Joseph Brant himself, Hiram 'King' Capron (the founder of the town of Paris), George Brown, the politician-turned-farmer, and his 'agricultural factory', Alexander Graham Bell, Pauline Johnson, Sara Jeannette Duncan, and to such industrial and philanthropic families as the Veritys and the Cockshutts. This book is published under the auspices of the Ontario Historical Society. It is one that everyone interested in Canadian history will want to read.

The Russian Empire is usually thought of as an expansive continental realm, consisting of contiguous territories. The existence of Russian America challenges this image. The Russian Empire claimed territory and people in North America between 1741 and 1867 but not until 1799 was this colonial activity was organized and coordinated under a single entity-the Russian-American Company, a monopolistic charter company analogous to the West European-based colonial companies of the time. When the ships of Russia's first circumnavigation voyage arrived on the shores of Russian America in 1804, a clash of arms between the Russians and the Tlingit Indians ensued, and a new Russian fortpost was established at Sitka. Russian America was effectively transformed from a remote extension of Russia's Siberian frontier penetrated mainly by Siberianized Russians into an ostensibly modern overseas colony operated by Europeanized Russians. This book examines how Russians conceived and practiced the colonial rule that resulted from this transformation. Under the rule of the Russian-American Company, the colony was governed on different terms from the rest of the empire, a hybrid of elements carried over from Siberia and those imported from rival colonial systems. This approach was particularly evident in Russian strategies to convert the indigenous peoples of Russian America into loyal subjects of the Russian Empire. The first comprehensive history bringing together the history of Russia, the history of colonialism, and the history of contact between native peoples and Europeans on the American frontier, this work is invaluable for understanding the history of Alaska before its sale to the United States.

Founded by a small band of religious freedom seekers in 1639, Newport, Rhode Island, subsequently became a bustling colonial seaport teeming with artists, sailors, prosperous merchants and, perhaps most distinctively, the ultra-rich families of the Gilded Age. Clinging to the lavish coattails of these newly minted millionaires and robber barons was a stream of con artists and hangers-on who attempted to leech off their well-to-do neighbors. From the Vanderbilts to the Dukes, the Astors to the Kennedys, the City by the Sea has served as a sanctuary for the elite--and a hotbed of corruption. Local historian Larry Stanford pulls back the curtain on over 350 years of history, uncovering the real stories behind many of Newport's most enduring mysteries, controversial characters and scintillating scandals.

"Original and wide-ranging, Murphy's discerning and important study is another reminder that America is 'the nation with the soul of a church.'"
-Journal of American History
"A wide-ranging and thoughtful meditation on how the theo-political stories we Americans tell ourselves resonate with and sometimes even create the communities we inhabit. This book deserves an honored place among the oeuvre of work by political scientists and historians on the jeremiad."
-- Politics and Religion
"A significant contribution to the historical account of the role of religion in American politics."
--Perspectives on Politics
"Prodigal Nation is a careful account of how theologies function politically and deserves attention from political scientists, political theologians, American historians, and others interested in the interface of religion and culture."
--Religious Studies Review
"This highly original and wonderfully written analysis will be invaluable to anyone interested in the meaning of America." --Harry S. Stout, author of The New England Soul and Upon the Altar of the Nation
"A brilliant analysis of the American jeremiad. Elegant, powerful, hopeful, and wise - Prodigal Nation is required reading for anyone who wishes to understand the fitful history of the American spirit." --James A. Morone, author of Hellfire Nation and The Democratic Wish

Conflicts and controversies at home and abroad have led Americans to focus on Islam more than ever before. In addition, more and more of their neighbors, colleagues, and friends are Muslims. While much has been written about contemporary American Islam and pioneering studies have appeared on Muslim slaves in the antebellum period, comparatively little is known about Islam in Victorian America. This biography of Alexander Russell Webb, one of the earliest American Muslims to achieve public renown, seeks to fill this gap.
Webb was a central figure of American Islam during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A native of the Hudson Valley, he was a journalist, editor, and civil servant. Raised a Presbyterian, Webb early on began to cultivate an interest in other religions and became particularly fascinated by Islam. While serving as U.S. consul to the Philippines in 1887, he took a greater interest in the faith and embraced it in 1888, one of the first Americans known to have done so. Within a few years, he began corresponding with important Muslims in India. Webb became an enthusiastic propagator of the faith, founding the first Islamic institution in the United States: the American Mission. He wrote numerous books intended to introduce Islam to Americans, started the first Islamic press in the United States, published a journal entitled The Moslem World, and served as the representative of Islam at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. In 1901, he was appointed Honorary Turkish Consul General in New York and was invited to Turkey, where he received two Ottoman medals of merits.
In this first-ever biography of Webb, Umar F. Abd-Allah examines Webb'slife and uses it as a window through which to explore the early history of Islam in America. Except for his adopted faith, every aspect of Webb's life was, as Abd-Allah shows, quintessentially characteristic of his place and time. It was because he was so typically American that he was able to serve as Islam's ambassador to America (and vice versa). As America's Muslim community grows and becomes more visible, Webb's life and the virtues he championed - pluralism, liberalism, universal humanity, and a sense of civic and political responsibility - exemplify what it means to be an American Muslim.

Tales of hauntings, strange happenings and other local lore throughout the Sunshine state!

What better locale to consider for spooky happenings than the home of the Salem witch trials? From mysteries at sea to ghosts and unexplained footprints, you'll shiver your way through these mesmerizing tales. Set in the state's historic towns, charming old islands, and sparsely populated backwoods, the stories in this entertaining and compelling collection are great for the whole family.

From Deadwood to Aberdeen, Vermillion to Belle Fourche, the frontier towns of South Dakota were populated by some of the toughest and most dangerous characters in the West. Chief Two Sticks led a starving band of rebels on a desperate path of destruction. Bud Stevens's murder of a cattle king's son rang a death knell for an entire town. And bank robbers Stelle and Bennie Dickinson did their best to become South Dakota's very own Bonnie and Clyde. All these stories and more come to life in Outlaw Tales of South Dakota.

Between 1853 and 1964, on the western shore of what is now the city of Hayward, there existed a small rural community. This pictorial history traces the role that this region, which became known as Russell City, played in the development of the East Bay. Named for Joel Russell, a New England teacher who came to California during the Gold Rush and found success as a judge, political activist, and businessman, Russell City later became a destination point for diverse migrant and immigrant groups including Spaniards, Danes, Germans, Italians, African Americans, and Mexicans. While the economic means of the residents were never great, social riches abounded in the cultural and religious traditions that were practiced. A plan to create an industrial park on Russell City land emerged during the 1950s, and by 1964 the residents and businesses were entirely removed through eminent domain. An annual reunion picnic, begun in 1978, serves as a reminder of the community once built and then tossed to the winds. In the words of the former residents, aThe city may be gone, but the memories live on.a