In his memoir, Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain personified the river as "Sudden Death and General Desolation! Sired by a hurricane, dam'd by an earthquake, half-brother to the cholera, nearly related to the small-pox on the mother's side! Look at me! I take nineteen alligators and a bar'l of whiskey for breakfast when I'm in robust health, and a bushel of rattlesnakes and a dead body when I'm ailing!" Twain's time as a steamboat pilot showed him the true character of The Great River, with its unpredictable moods and hidden secrets. Still a vital route for U.S. shipping, the Mississippi River has given life to riverside communities, manufacturing industries, fishing, tourism, and other livelihoods. But the Mighty Mississippi has also claimed countless lives as tribute to its muddy waters. Climate and environmental conditions made the Mississippi the perfect incubator for diseases like malaria. Natural disasters like tornadoes, floods, and even an earthquake have changed and reshaped the river's banks over thousands of years. Shipwrecks and steamboat explosions were once common in the difficult-to-navigate waters. But when there was money to be made, there were some willing to risk it all-from the brave steamboat captains who went down with their ships, to the illegal moonshiners and pirates who pillaged the river's bounty. In this book, author and Mississippi River historian Dean Klinkenberg explores the many disastrous events to have occurred on and along the river in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries-from steamboat explosions, to Yellow Fever epidemics, floods, and Prohibition piracy. Enjoy this journey into the darkest deeds of the Mississippi River.

This is the story of Thomas McCreary, a slave catcher from Cecil County, Maryland. Reviled by some, proclaimed a hero by others, he first drew public attention in the late 1840s for a career that peaked a few years after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Living and working as he did at the midpoint between Philadelphia, an important center for assisting fugitive slaves, and Baltimore, a major port in the slave trade, his story illustrates in raw detail the tensions that arose along the border between slavery and freedom just prior to the Civil War. McCreary and his community provide a framework to examine slave catching and kidnapping in the Baltimore-Wilmington-Philadelphia region and how those activities contributed to the nation's political and visceral divide.

People love getting nostalgic and what better way than the history of school days of yesteryear? Over six hundred school buildings are scattered across the Centennial State-and some were still operating in rural communities through the 1950s. A community's construction of a school building reflected the importance of universal education, and also a desire to establish permanence in the community itself in the ever-expanding Western frontier. These schools were often the social centers of the community. Civic town meetings were held in them, as well as other political events. Today, these schools are the touchstones to Colorado's pioneering past. Colorado's Historic Schools is part-regional history, and part-travel guide featuring over 150 of the most significant schools across the state, all recognized as historic landmarks. Along with interesting school stories and building descriptions, there are historic photos, and information on how to visit the schools that are open to the public. Readers will also enjoy sidebars featuring stories of legendary teachers, tragedies, and even murder over the 150-year history of Colorado's schools.

Country Never Yet Trod: William Lewis Manly's Voyage Down the Green River, traces Manly's little-known descent of the Green River, twenty years before John Wesley Powell's famous first expedition, followed by his overland trek through some of the most desolate stretches of Utah. Previous scholarship has Manly floating only 292 miles to the Uinta Basin, but as he researched, Kane became convinced Manley went 150 miles further, all the way to what is now Green River, Utah. To prove it, he did all the primary research he could, and then he built his own wooden canoes and made the trip himself, tracing Manly's footsteps and comparing notes with the earlier traveler. This book lays out Manly's story, interspersed with Kane's journal entries and photographs documenting his own trip.

In 1861, war between the United States and the Chiricahua seemed inevitable. The Apache band lived on a heavily traveled Emigrant and Overland Mail Trail and routinely raided it, organized by their leader, the prudent, not friendly Cochise. When a young boy was kidnapped from his stepfather's ranch, Lieutenant George Bascom confronted Cochise even though there was no proof that the Chiricahua were responsible. After a series of missteps, Cochise exacted a short-lived revenge. Despite modern accounts based on spurious evidence, Bascom's performance in a difficult situation was admirable. This book examines the legend and provides a new analysis of Bascom's and Cochise's behavior, putting it in the larger context of the Indian Wars that followed the American Civil War.

Part of the Myths and Mysteries series, Myths and Mysteries of Pennsylvania explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in Pennsylvania's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in Pennsylvania's history.

Storyteller Tony Bonning brings together stories from one of the most enigmatic regions of Scotland: a land hemmed in by rivers and mountains; a land that vigorously maintained its independence, and by doing so, has many unique tales and legends. Here you will meet strange beasts, creatures and even stranger folk; here you will meet men and women capable of tricking even the Devil himself, and here you will find the very tale that inspired Robert Burns's most famous poem, Tam o'Shanter. With each Story told in an engaging style, and illustrated with unique line drawings, these humorous, clever and enchanting folk tales are sure to be enjoyed and shared time and again.

Dublin has many histories: for a thousand years a modest urban settlement on the quiet waters of the Irish Sea, for the last four hundred it has experienced great - and often astonishing - change. Once a fulcrum of English power in Ireland, it was also the location for the 1916 insurrection that began the rapid imperial retreat. That moment provided Joyce with the setting for the greatest modernist novel of the age, Ulysses, capping a cultural heritage which became an economic resource for the brash 'Tiger Town' of the 1990s. David Dickson's magisterial survey of the city's history brings Dublin to life from its medieval incarnation through the glamorous eighteenth century, when it reigned as the 'Naples of the North', through to the millennium. He reassesses 120 years of Anglo-Irish Union, in which Dublin - while economic capital of Ireland - remained, as it does today, a place in which rival creeds and politics struggled for supremacy. Dublin reveals the rich and intriguing story behind the making of a capital city.

The modern lobster boat has evolved slowly over decades to become the craft it is today: seaworthy, strong, fast, and trusted implicitly by the lobstermen and women to get the job done and get them home, each and every time, through the most terrifying--and sometimes life-threatening--conditions that the sea can dish up. "Where do lobster boats come from?" "What is the origin of their design?" "Who builds them?" "How do they work?" The story of the Maine lobster boat needs to be told--before the storied history of this iconic American craft slips away forever into the past, on the heels of what may be the last surviving traditional lobster boat builders. Filled with colorful characters, old maritime tales, and fascinating details, this a definitive look at the origins and lore of Maine's most ubiquitous vessel.

A Girl's Life in New Orleans presents the diary of Ella Grunewald, an upper-middle-class teenager in New Orleans at the end of the nineteenth century. Grunewald, the daughter of one of the Crescent City's leading music dealers, used her journal to record the major events of her day-to-day life, documenting family, friendships, schooling, musical education, and social activities. Her entries frequently describe illness, death, and other tragedies. Though attentive to the city's classical music scene, Grunewald also recounts theater shows, Carnival balls and parades, Catholic religious observances, and the World's Fair that the city hosted in 1884. Expertly annotated and introduced by Hans Rasmussen, Grunewald's journal is a rare window on the life of a young woman in the South between 1884 and 1886. Adding depth to that account, Rasmussen includes a shorter journal Grunewald kept of her family's travels in Italy and Germany in the spring of 1890. In it, she describes visits to Catholic churches, museums, Roman ruins, and other tourist attractions. Tragically, Grunewald contracted malaria during the latter part of the journey and died overseas at age twenty-two.

Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody were considered heroes and the greatest plainsmen of their time. They were larger than life, legendary characters. They knew where to locate water, good grass for livestock, sheltered campsites, and game for hunting. They knew how to survive the blistering heat and terrific thunderstorms of summer and the subzero blizzards of winter. They could avoid Indians or act as trackers following the trails of Indians as well as desperados. They were expert marksmen and did not back down from a fight. They rushed in where others held back. Hickok, a frontier wagon and stagecoach driver, became a Union spy during the Civil War, furthering his reputation after the war as a frontier Army scout, gunfighter, and lawman. Cody, who claimed to ride for the Pony Express, served in the Union Army, and became legendary as an expert buffalo hunter and Army scout. Hickok and Cody were good friends and experienced a series of adventures together. Hickok traveled to Deadwood, Dakota Territory, during the 1876 Black Hills goldrush where he was assassinated by Jack McCall. Cody continued scouting for the Army and after the Battle of the Little Big Horn, won a one-on-one duel with a Cheyenne warrior, Yellow Hair. Cody went on to become one of the most well-known showmen in the world with his Buffalo Bill's Wild West. Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody: Plainsmen, the fourth book in the Legendary West series, explores the lives of these two well-known characters.

Fourteen Mind-Boggling Tales from the Badger State Was Joe Davis, Civil War veteran and Menominee Indian, really the son of Confederate president Jefferson Davis? What really happened the night that banker H. C. Mead was murdered inside the Exchange Bank of Waupaca? Did a flying saucer really land in Joe Simonton's yard, and did the aliens aboard ask for a jug of water and serve him pancakes? From pirate ships to pancakes from outer space, Myths and Mysteries of Wisconsin makes history fun and pulls back the curtain on some of the state's most fascinating and compelling stories.

Faces of Mallorca features fifty-nine locals from the island and authentically captures people's hopes, dreams and aspirations. It showcases the diverse culture and the rich heritage of the past and shows how its people adapt to a bright new future. Whether you love beautiful photography, moving stories or just love Mallorca, Faces of Mallorca transports you into the lives of people in this sunny, warm climate. * Big book format * Full color photography * Foreword by Toni Nadal * Texts by Mark Julian Edwards and Stephanie Schulz * Photography by Mark Julian Edwards

Quaker William Penn once described Charles Town as "a hotbed of piracy," full of wayward women "who frequented a tap room on The Bay and infected a goodly number of the militia with the pox." Since the Carolina Colony was founded and named for Charles II, the Merry Monarch, it's no surprise that Charlestonians have always had a flair for flouting the rules. In the 18th century, Bostonian Josiah Quincy complained that Charlestonians, "are devoted to debauchery and probably carry it to a greater length than any other people." In Storied & Scandalous Charleston, storyteller Leigh Jones Handal weaves tales of piracy, rebellion, ancient codes of honor, and first-hand accounts of the madness that ensued as the city fell first to the British in 1780 and then to the Union in 1865. Meet some of the foremost female criminals of the day-lady pirate Anne Bonny and highwaywoman Livinia Fisher. And learn how centuries of war, natural disasters, bankruptcy, and chaos shaped modern Charleston and the Carolina Low Country.

Many stories have been written about the exploits of Billy the Kid, the charismatic outlaw of the Old West. Some have been pure fiction, designed to entertain and excite. Purple prose writers began chronicling the exploits of Billy as early as the late 1870s. Others have been biographical, researched by historians or recorded by those who knew him, including his murderer, Sheriff Pat Garrett. But there was once a different side to the famous gunfighter, a softer more artistic side that seems at odds with Billy's reputation for shooting, killing, and robbing. Born Henry McCarty, he was also known by the names Henry Antrim, Kid Antrim, and William H. Bonney. He didn't shoot twenty-one men, as has been claimed. Four is a more likely number, three in self-defense. In Before Billy the Kid, author Melody Groves explores the early life of the infamous outlaw, the teenage boy who loved to sing and dance. The young man who was polite, educated, and popular. A boy who had the bad luck to be orphaned at fifteen and left with no one to guide him through life. How different history might have been if Billy had pursued his love of music instead of a life of crime.

From the famed Oregon Trail to the boardwalks of Dodge City to the great trading posts on the Missouri River to the battlefields of the nineteenth-century Indian Wars, there are places all over the American West where visitors can relive the great Western migration that helped shape our history and culture. This guide to the Southwest states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas--one of the five-volume Finding the Wild West series--highlights the best preserved historic sites as well as ghost towns, reconstructions, museums, historical markers, statues, works of public art that tell the story of the Old West. Use this book in planning your next trip and for a storytelling overview of America's Wild West history.

In the waning days of World War I, William K. Dean was brutally murdered, his body hog-tied and dumped in a rainwater cistern on his farm in the quiet town of Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Suspicion quickly fell on Dean's wife, an invalid in the early stages of dementia. Her friends, outraged at the accusations, pointed instead to a former tenant of Dean's, whom many suspected of being a German spy. Others believed that Dean's best friend, a politically powerful banker and judge, was involved. Deep Water is based on extensive research into the Dean murder, including thousands of pages of FBI documents, Grand Jury testimonies, newspaper accounts, private correspondence, and the archives of the Jaffrey Historical Society.

Edition of the records of a medieval Suffolk eyre reveal rich details of life at the time. The eyre was an organised judicial visitation to the counties of England by the king's justices to hear all types of plea, civil and crown, as well as to investigate any matters for the king that pertain to the county; it was thus a hugely important part of the legal process. This volume, edited by Eric Gallagher with an introduction by Henry Summerson, follows on from Dr Gallagher's edition and translation of the civil pleas of the same eyre, published by the Suffolk Records Society in 2009. But whereas the civil pleas deal primarily with litigation between landowners, the crown pleas are mostly concerned with the actions of townsmen and peasants, recorded both as killers and thieves, and as the victims of crime. Like the civil pleas, the crown pleas illuminate the workings of the common law, but in addition they illustrate the functions and purposes of local and central government, shedding light in sometimes vivid detail upon the lives of the humbler members of society, upon their occupations, relationships, misfortunes and quarrels - and the sometimes bizarre ways in which they met their deaths. The eyre was led by William of York, the King's justiciar and later bishop of Salisbury, and his colleagues who met at Ipswich, Cattishall (outside Bury St Edmunds) and Dunwich. The eyre roll, now in the National Archives, is the first from Suffolk surviving in full to have been edited and published; it has the particular interest of coming from a county that was then one of the most populous and prosperous of English shires.

The book provides a comprehensive history of the third-largest Jewish community in Britain and fills an acknowledged gap in both Jewish and urban historiography. Bringing together the latest research and building on earlier local studies, the book provides an analysis of the special features which shaped the community in Leeds. Organised in three sections, Context, Chronology and Contours, the book demonstrates how Jews have influenced the city and how the city has influenced the community. A small community was transformed by the late Victorian influx of poor migrants from the Russian Empire and within two generations had become successfully integrated into the city's social and economic structure. More than a dozen authors contribute to this definitive history and the editor provides both an introductory and concluding overview which brings the story up to the present day. The book will be of interest to both historians and general readers. -- .

A modern-day explorer's guide to the Old West From the famed Oregon Trail to the boardwalks of Dodge City to the great trading posts on the Missouri River to the battlefields of the nineteenth-century Indian Wars, there are places all over the American West where visitors can relive the great Western migration that helped shape our history and culture. This guide to the states Along the Mississippi, including Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota--one of the five-volume Finding the Wild West series--highlights the best preserved historic sites as well as ghost towns, reconstructions, museums, historical markers, statues, works of public art that tell the story of the Old West. Use this book in planning your next trip and for a storytelling overview of America's Wild West history.