Local history Books

Published on the 149th anniversary of the catastrophe, Chicago's Great FireWill appeal to readers of great narrative historians who have chronicled disasters like Erik Larson (Isaac's Storm) and David McCullough, whose first major book was The Johnstown...

One of the nation's foremost urban historians traces the history of cooperative housing in New York City from the 1920s through the 1970s.As World War II ended and Americans turned their attention to problems at home, union leaders and other prominent...

As a child growing up in Manhattan, William Helmreich played a game with his father called "Last Stop." They would pick a subway line, ride it to its final destination, and explore the neighborhood. Decades later, his love for exploring the city is as...

"The Great Starvation Experiment is wide-ranging, weaving progress in the war into the day-to-day suffering of the hungry volunteers." -Saint Paul Pioneer Press"Fascinating . . ." -Minneapolis Star TribuneNear the end of World War II, thirty-six...

A self-described "song-hunter," the folklorist Alan Lomax traveled the Mississippi Delta in the 1930's and '40s, armed with primitive recording equipment and a keen love of the Delta's music heritage. Crisscrossing the towns and hamlets where the blues...

A collection of essays spans the tumultuous decade from 1968, the year of the San Francisco State University strike, to 1978 and the twin traumas of the Jonestown massacre and the assassinations of mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk. This...

In a work of narrative nonfiction that weaves together the racially fraught history of public education in Milwaukee and the broader story of hypersegregation in the rust belt, Lessons from the Heartland tells of an iconic city's fall from grace - and of...