When it comes to Irish America, certain names spring to mind Kennedy, O'Neill and Curley testify to the proverbial footsteps of the Gael in Boston. However, few people know of Sister Mary Anthony O'Connell, whose medical prowess carried her from the convent to the Civil War battlefields, earning her the nickname the Boston Irish Florence Nightingale, or of Barney McGinniskin, Boston's first Irish cop, who proudly roared at every roll call, McGinniskin from the bogs of Ireland present! Along with acclaim or notoriety, many forgotten Irish Americans garnered numerous historical firsts. In "Hidden History of the Boston Irish," Peter F. Stevens offers an entertaining and compelling portrait of the Irish immigrant saga and pays homage to the overlooked, yet significant, episodes of the Boston Irish experience.

The Isle os are not nearly as well-known as the Cajuns or the Creoles or the French, but they have had an undeniable and lasting impact on this state and the south. Adaptable, resourceful, and undeniably proud, they have shaped their destinies against the odds. As their settlements failed, they rebuilt. As the governments changed from Spanish to French to American, they endured. Many campaigned in the American Revolution; they secured victory in the famous Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812; and as they began to understand the surrounding marshes, they learned to make their livings from trapping and fishing and pass on their wisdom and culture through oral tradition. They shaped the development of the state but are too often ignored, even in local history.

"The history of water development . . . offers a particularly fine post for observing the astonishing and implausible workings of historical change and, in response, for cultivating an appropriate level of humility and modesty in our anticipations of our own unknowable future."
Tracing the origins and growth of the Denver Water Department, this study of water and its unique role and history in the West, as well as in the nation, raises questions about the complex relationship among cities, suburbs, and rural areas, allowing us to consider this precious resource and its past, present, and future with both optimism and realism.
Patricia Nelson Limerick is the faculty director and board chair of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, where she is also a professor of history and environmental studies. She currently serves as the vice president for the teaching division of the American Historical Association. Her most widely read book, "The Legacy of Conquest," is in its twenty-fifth year of publication.
Jason L. Hanson is a member of the research faculty at the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where his work focuses on natural resource use and the environment. He lives in Denver.

The history of the Pine Tree State would be bare but for the contributions of hardy and impassioned individuals--generals, governors, settlers and activists whose lives of leadership make up the story of Maine's "hidden history." Author Harry Gratwick creates intimate and detailed portraits of these Mainers, from the controversial missionary Sebastien Rale to Woolwich native William Phips, whose seafaring attacks against French Canada earned him the first governorship of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Gratwick also profiles inventors who "challenged the assumptions of their] time and place," such as Robert Benjamin Lewis, an African American from Gardiner who patented a hair growth product in the 1830s, and Margaret Knight, a York native who defied nineteenth-century sexism to earn the nickname "the female Edison." Discover four hundred years of Maine's history through the tales of its unique residents, from soprano Lillian Nordica, who left Farmington to become the most glamorous American opera singer of her day, to slugger George "Piano Legs" Gore, the only Mainer to have ever won a Major League batting championship.

Over the course of many decades, the city of Shreveport witnessed dramatic growth and ever-changing landscapes. Mule-drawn railways gave way to electric streetcars, and what was once the Confederate capital of the state became today's vibrant commercial hub of northwest Louisiana. Drawing from their extensive image collection, authors Joiner and Roberson depict the disappearing scenes and lost stories that form the complex layers of Shreveport history. From the famous performances of Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show to the infamous red-light district, from the decline of vigilante justice to the victims who perished from yellow fever, Joiner and Roberson recover and remember lost Shreveport.

Nashua's growth began with strong-minded industrialists who had visions of great mills powered by the Nashua River. The Nashua Manufacturing Company expanded this small settlement, at the time called Dunstable, to a thriving and affluent community. In a speech given on July 4, 1803, civic leader Daniel Abbot inspired the town to change the name of the area to Nashua Village, and in 1853, Nashua was granted city status. Nashua places vintage images alongside contemporary photographs to illustrate the changes that have taken place in this city through the years. Readers will find well-known businesses such as the Bellavance Beverage Company, historical buildings such as Martha's Exchange, and fantastic street scenes including architectural treasures such as the Nashua Telegraph building and the Indian Head Bank.

The Kennebunks the phrase evokes peace, ocean breezes and small-town pride. In this captivating collection of vignettes, Kennebunk town historian Kathleen Ostrander reveals another side of the area's allure: its rich and varied past. From an account of the amateur astronomer whose name now graces the Bates College Observatory to the origins of Kennebunk's encyclopedic Walker Diaries, Ostrander offers a tour of the area's historical highlights. She notes the mysterious creature once said to live near the mouth of the Kennebunk River, treasures hidden in fireplaces and under floorboards and the scandalous murder trial of 1866, during which the wife of deceased doctor, drunk and temperance supporter Charles Swett was imprisoned on the testimony of her own daughter. Through quirky tales and serious sketches, Ostrander offers an affectionate portrait of the Kennebunks sure to charm and inform.

After many years of research, award-winning historian Hugh Thomas portrays, in a balanced account, the complete history of the slave trade. Beginning with the first Portuguese slaving expeditions, he describes and analyzes the rise of one of the largest and most elaborate maritime and commercial ventures in all of history. Between 1492 and 1870, approximately eleven million black slaves were carried from Africa to the Americas to work on plantations, in mines, or as servants in houses. The Slave Trade is alive with villains and heroes and illuminated by eyewitness accounts. Hugh Thomas's achievement is not only to present a compelling history of the time but to answer as well such controversial questions as who the traders were, the extent of the profits, and why so many African rulers and peoples willingly collaborated. Thomas also movingly describes such accounts as are available from the slaves themselves.

The Irish have a long and proud history in America, and New Jersey is no exception. Beginning with the first Irish immigrants who settled in every corner of the state, this vital ethnic community has left an indelible mark on all facets of life in the Garden State. New Jersey's Irish natives expressed their own discontent over British oppression by battling alongside colonists in the American Revolution. Brave Fenians fought to preserve their new home in the Civil War. New Jersey's Irish also have become professional athletes, United States Representatives, religious leaders, spies and business trailblazers. Author and Irish heritage researcher Tom Fox relays these and other stories that demonstrate the importance of Ireland to the development of New Jersey and the United States.

A unique blend of memoir and public history, Packinghouse Daughter, winner of the Minnesota Book Award, tells a compelling story of small-town, working-class life. The daughter of a Wilson & Company millwright, Cheri Register recalls the 1959 meatpackers' strike that divided her hometown of Albert Lea, Minnesota. The violence that erupted when the company "replaced" its union workers with strikebreakers tested family loyalty and community stability. Register skillfully interweaves her own memories, historical research, and oral interviews into a narrative that is thoughtful and impassioned about the value of blue-collar work and the dignity of those who do it.

The Horseshoe Curve is known worldwide as an engineering achievement by the Pennsylvania Railroad. This landmark, located just west of Altoona, opened to traffic on February 15, 1854, and it enabled a railroad line to climb the Allegheny Mountains and the eastern continental divide. The Horseshoe Curve's construction impacted railroad design and development for mountainous terrain everywhere, enabling access to coal and other raw materials essential for the industrial age. J. Edgar Thomson, chief engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad, is widely recognized for his engineering and design of the Horseshoe Curve, a concept never utilized previously. Today the curve is still in use and sees approximately 70 trains daily. Through vintage photographs, Horseshoe Curve chronicles how this marvel remains one of the vital transportation arteries linking the east and west coasts of the United States.

Maple Sugaring in New Hampshire is a photographic history depicting the process, equipment, structures, and social aspects of maple sugaring from the 1700s to the present day. Maple products are made almost exclusively in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, where sugar maples thrive and the climate is conducive to good sap runs. Native Americans used sap, or "sweet water," for drinking and cooking, and they used maple sugar for bartering. Early settlers consumed large quantities of the sugar when other food was scarce and traded their surplus as a means of economic survival.

Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, hidden in the northeast region of Georgia, lies - literally and figuratively - one of the Peach State's most treasured areas. Dahlonega, Georgia is known primarily as the site of the first major United States gold rush. But now, as the gold dust has settled, we can look back on the town's complex history - a history more valuable than its famous abundance of precious metal. Dahlonega, Georgia: A Brief History, is not to be confused with works focusing solely on the distant past. The most up-to-date account available, Dahlonega, Georgia even includes the famous 2006 discovery of gold underneath an old hotel. Anne Dismukes Amerson, author of "The Best of I Remember Dahlonega," once again brings vitality and passion to her account as she explores the intriguing history of this beautiful Georgia city.

From its opening moments of Hamptons real estate broker Allan Schneider's choking on a piece of rare steak to its final scene of Lauren Bacall's singing 'God Bless America' while watching the fireworks over East Hampton's Main Beach, Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons is a spellbinding chronicle of one of the most unusual communities in the world. Steven Gaines skillfully weaves together the stories of the Hamptons' mansions and millionaires, as told through the extraordinary lives of the people who have lived there, into a rich, gossipy tapestry. Both a contemporary portrait of the Hamptons and a historical narrative, Philistines at the Hedgerow is filled with tales of pirate treasure, a witch-hunt, and the many beguiling eccentricities of the Hamptons today.

Masterfully told by bestselling author and Hamptons insider Steven Gaines, Philistines at the Hedgerow is also a story of real estate. Gaines reveals how thirty miles of once inaccessible oceanfront farmland became the playground to the super rich, the nexus of Nouvelle Society, and the obsession of the most creative and powerful personalities in the corporate, entertainment, and media worlds. Investigating the telling relationship between property and personality, Gaines shows how land in the Hamptons has become the showcase of self-worth--be it castles, indoor lagoons, or mere acreage--the greater the ego, the more fantastic the manor.

This is an engaging examination of the historical legacy of the East End of Long Island, from the original Indian tribes who hunted and fished the land to the polo players who ride it today. Ultimately, Philistines at the Hedgerow is an insider's depiction of a unique cultural phenomenon: the rapturous embodiment of the American dream in a magical place.

Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons is the first-ever social history of the most exclusive and unusual enclave in America. Steven Gaines gets inside the world behind the walled estates and rolling dunes, in a mesmerizing story of money, celebrity, property, and eccentric characters.

America's Cup: Trials & Triumphs is a concise history of some of the most interesting of the international struggles for possession of the acclaimed Cup. But more than that, Simpson writes about the ingenuity and technical advancements made over the years in hull and sail design for swift oceangoing sailing yachts. Not satisfied by relating only the history of the America's Cup challenges and defenses, Simpson illustrates some of the interesting events that have changed commercial sailing into the popular sport of sailboat racing. A sport that was once the singular pleasure of wealthy barons of industry is now enjoyed by thousands of middle-class citizens from many nations with access to the sea. Also included in this volume are sailing techniques, maneuvers and useful nautical terminology.

First published in 1990, Songs of the Doomed is back in print -- by popular demand! In this third and most extraordinary volume of the Gonzo Papers, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson recalls high and hideous moments in his thirty years in the Passing Lane -- and no one is safe from his hilarious, remarkably astute social commentary.

With Thompson's trademark insight and passion about the state of American politics and culture, Songs of the Doomed charts the long, strange trip from Kennedy to Quayle in Thompson's freewheeling, inimitable style. Spanning four decades -- 1950 to 1990 -- Thompson is at the top of his form while fleeing New York for Puerto Rico, riding with the Hell's Angels, investigating Las Vegas sleaze, grappling with the "Dukakis problem," and finally, detailing his infamous lifestyle bust, trial documents, and Fourth Amendment battle with the Law. These tales -- often sleazy, brutal, and crude -- are only the tip of what Jack Nicholson called "the most baffling human iceberg of our time."

Songs of the Doomed is vintage Thompson -- a brilliant, brazen, bawdy compilation of the greatest sound bites of Gonzo journalism from the past thirty years.

Motor City Mafia: A Century of Organized Crime in Detroit chronicles the storied and hallowed gangland history of the notorious Detroit underworld. Scott M. Burnstein takes the reader inside the belly of the beast, tracking the bloodshed, exploits, and leadership of the southeast Michigan crime syndicate as never before seen in print. Through a stunning array of rare archival photographs and images, Motor City Mafia captures Detroit's most infamous past, from its inception in the early part of the 20th century, through the years when the iconic Purple Gang ruled the city's streets during Prohibition, through the 1930s and the formation of the local Italian mafia, and the Detroit crime family's glory days in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, all the way to the downfall of the area's mob reign in the 1980s and 1990s.

The beloved thoroughfare at the heart of Denver, Sixteenth Street has always been the Mile-High City's "Main Street." Sixteenth Street got its jump start in 1879 when Leadville's Silver King and Colorado's richest man, Horace Austin Warner Tabor, came to town and built the city's first five-story skyscraper at the corner of Sixteenth and Larimer Streets. In coming years, Sixteenth Street became Denver's main retail center as shopkeepers and department store owners constructed ever-more impressive palaces, culminating in the Daniels and Fisher Tower--the city's tallest building for five decades and the symbol of the city. In the second half of the 20th century, Sixteenth Street saw major changes, including the creation of one of the most successful pedestrian malls in the country, an archetype of the power of great urban places and an inspiration to other cities, large and small.

Do you know the true meaning of a dollar?

Few people do. Now an expert on arcane symbolism uncovers the fascinating secret meanings behind the design of the money we use every day.

In The Secret Symbols of the Dollar Bill, David Ovason explores the visual complexity and magic behind the world's most influential currency. Lively and readable, this extraordinary book invites you to take a dollar bill in hand and set off on a visual adventure. You will discover dazzling explanations of its secret contents -- from the symbols derived from the Great Seal to the extraordinary strands of numerology interwoven into its structure, to sur-prising hidden alignments.

Once you discover the magic and mystery revealed in The Secret Symbols of the Dollar Bill, you will find that the dollar in your wallet is worth so much more than what you can buy with it.

Pioneering African-American families, spanning generations from slavery to freedom, enrich Savannah's collective history. Men and women such as Andrew Bryan, founder of the nation's oldest continuous black Baptist church; the Rev. Ralph Mark Gilbert, who revitalized the NAACP in Savannah; and Rebecca Stiles Taylor, founder of the Federation of Colored Women Club, are among those lauded in this retrospective. Savannah's black residents have made immeasurable contributions to the city and are duly celebrated and remembered in this volume.

Orcas Island, the largest of the 172 islands in San Juan County, lies in the Salish Sea north of Puget Sound. Known as the "Gem of the San Juans" for her shimmering emerald hills bounded by 125 miles of rocky, tree-lined shore, Orcas was home to countless generations of Native Americans before the arrival of its first white settlers, formerly Hudson's Bay men who had hunted on the island, in the late 1850s. An international boundary dispute, popularly known as the Pig War, prevented early pioneers from settling land claims until the dispute was resolved by the German kaiser in 1872. Settlement grew slowly until improved steamship routes and increased commerce brought more tourists to the island. In 1906, Robert Moran built a fabulous estate, Rosario, now a world-class resort. Thousands of visitors have been coming to Orcas Island over the years to explore her forested hills, camp in Moran State Park or stay at one of the many historic resorts, and fish in the pristine waters surrounding this island paradise.

Routledge Library Editions: Immigration and Migration, a collection of 20 previously out-of-print titles, features some key research on a multitude of subject areas. Integration, assimilation, multi-culturalism, historical and modern migration, questions on culture, language, labour and law - all are covered here, forming a snapshot of the immigrant experience across the world.