Arcadia Bestsellers

A major river port, Madison thrived during the steamboat era as well as when railroads came to dominate the landscape. The city's glorious past is still on display. Many magnificent edifices dating back to eras from the beginning of the 1800s to the early 20th century provide wonderful examples of Federal, Greek Revival, and Italianate architecture. The National Register of Historic Places lists over 133 Madison blocks, making it Indiana's largest historic district. To stroll along the main streets of Madison, to follow the river as it meanders past the town, or to visit the restored railroad station, now home to the Jefferson County Historical Society, is to follow the paths of history. Very few cities in America can boast such centuries-old splendor.

Shaped like a dragon protecting its territory, Lake Martin has witnessed droughts, tornadoes, fishing tournaments, boat races, and even World War II aircraft crashes.

Through many decades, this symbol of sustenance has enticed generations of residents, vacationers, and modern retirees to its welcoming shores. Surrounded by its own unique history, Lake Martin also reflects the dynamic personalities of those who sacrificed childhood homes and family land to bring dreams of a prosperous future to fruition.

Before the Tallapoosa River was dammed to feed Lake Martin's waters, it was an ideal environment for the Native Americans who resided on land now submerged. The land's history is rife with discord as British soldiers and Georgia Rangers resisted French spies in the early 1700s and migrant settlers defended their homefront during the Civil War. The Martin Dam became a state landmark by 1927, generating hydroelectric power while memorializing the 31-mile-long lake as the world's largest man-made body of water at the time. It was not long before Lake Martin evolved into a community enjoying unparalleled growth as a vacation site and permanent home for Americans who discovered the satisfaction lakeside living could provide. Lake Martin: Alabama's Crown Jewel chronicles the trials and triumphs of the people who created one of today's leading retirement communities through courageous choices and determination. The story is told through compelling narrative and evocative images, many of which have not been widely published.

Follow Archaeologist Darla Spencer as she discovers the history and habits of 16 Native American sites in West Virginia.

Once thought of as Indian hunting grounds with no permanent inhabitants, West Virginia is teeming with evidence of a thriving early native population. Today's farmers can hardly plow their fields without uncovering ancient artifacts, evidence of at least ten thousand years of occupation. Members of the Fort Ancient culture resided along the rich bottomlands of southern West Virginia during the Late Prehistoric and Protohistoric periods. Lost to time and rediscovered in the 1880s, Fort Ancient sites dot the West Virginia landscape. This volume explores sixteen of these sites, including Buffalo, Logan and Orchard. Archaeologist Darla Spencer excavates the fascinating lives of some of the Mountain State's earliest inhabitants in search of who these people were, what languages they spoke and who their descendants may be.

Read the story of the Battle of Antietam from the African American perspective.

The African American community around Sharpsburg, Maryland witnessed John Brown’s raid, wartime skirmishes, the Battle of South Mountain, and the aftermath of the bloodiest day in American history. Read stories of encounters with Abraham Lincoln and Union and Confederate generals, and of Black civilian suffering and sacrifice in the cause of freedom. Their experiences during four years of Civil War come to life in vivid detail, often in their own words.

Award-winning historian Emilie Amt recounts the personal stories of African Americans, both enslaved and free, who lived on the battlefield and who worked in the armies who clashed there.

Baseball in Detroit documents nearly a century of this sport, following the Detroit Tigers closely.

Covering over 80 years of America's favorite pastime, Baseball in Detroit 1886-1968 takes fans back to the glory days of Ty Cobb in the early 20th century and follows the progress of the Detroit Tigers. From the three-time pennant winners of this century's first decade to the last real championship team of 1968, Detroiters have flocked to see their team play, win or lose. The fact that they have played at the same intersection of town for over a century is a tribute to the pride and loyalty that each has shown for the other. It could be said that no other baseball franchise has such a close relationship with its constituency. This relationship is clearly shown in a fascinating photographic collection, and sports fans everywhere will appreciate this candid glimpse into our nation's favorite game. As we approach the next millennium, a new stadium is under construction for this historic team. It, too, will be the place of legends, where great players and fans will create another glorious 100 years of baseball history in Detroit. The American League, to which the Detroit Tigers belong as charter members, is fast approaching its own centennial.

Detroit Free Press journalist Robert Allen sifts through these advertising fossils, exposing the gripping stories connected to the Motor City's historic rises, falls and eccentricities.

Across Detroit, fleeting symbols of the past hide in plain sight, behind weeds and under veneers of paint. Demolishing a vacant building among empty storefronts on the west side uncovered the telltale gold and green of a Vernors Ginger Ale sign, preserved almost as vibrantly as the artist intended. In faded red, white and blue, Mac-O-Lac Paint makes an expired pitch to passersby on Gratiot near Eastern Market. On the east side, Mohawk Rock and Rye still declares itself the ""World's Finest!"" Carhartt, Stroh's and Faygo appear in odd, deserted places.

Down East Maine is well known for its breathtaking scenery and art museums. However, much of the history in the traditional mining and fishing area of Rockland and St. George remains untold.

Hanson Gregory from Clam Cove invented the donut. Mary Brown Patten sailed a clipper around Cape Horn. Captain Albert Keller was shipwrecked on Easter Island and Effie Canning of Rockland composed the lullaby "Rock a Bye Baby.'? Captain Charles Holbrook of Tenants Harbor and his ship, the Hattie Dunn, fell victim to a German U-boat in the Atlantic.

Local author Jane Merrill uncovers the forgotten stories and personalities that bring this unique area's history into focus.

Award-winning crime writer Jane Ann Turzillo recounts the stories of Ohio's most notorious vixens, viragoes and villainesses.

The Buckeye State produced its share of wicked women. Tenacious madam Clara Palmer contended with constant police raids during the 1880s and '90s. Only her death could shut the doors of her gilded bordello in Cleveland. Failed actress Mildred Gillars left for Europe right before World War II. Because she fell in love with the wrong man, she wound up peddling Nazi propaganda on the radio as "Axis Sally." Volatile Hester Foster was already doing time at the Ohio State Penitentiary when she bashed in the head of a fellow inmate with a shovel. The sinister Anna Marie Hahn dosed at least five elderly Cincinnati men with arsenic and croton oil and then watched them die in agony while pretending to nurse them back to health.

Although its role has changed over the past few centuries, the Mississippi has always been important to those who lived along its banks. Indigenous peoples fished its waters and depended on the waterway for transportation. Explorers and traders traveled the river in hopes of conquering more land and obtaining wealth for their countries. Settlers moved close to take advantage of the rich farmland the river provided. All of these pursuits resulted in a trade industry that brought about a social and economic transformation, when news and goods made their way downriver and livelihoods were provided. In fact, the Mississippi River's economic and strategic value was so important that when Ulysses S. Grant won the siege of Vicksburg and control of the river during the Civil War, the Confederacy was dealt a serious blow. Today, although still used to transport goods, the river has taken on yet another identity: that of entertainer. Literature, pleasure boats, and floating casinos all showcase a new dimension of this magnificent river.

If you know anything about American history, you know the country was founded on the principle of religious tolerance. If you're more advanced, you know it depended on which religion.

Strange as it may seem today, it was illegal to practice Catholicism in Massachusetts until 1780, and the first public Mass wasn't celebrated until eight years later. However, by 1808, so much progress had been made that Pope Pius VII created the Diocese of Boston, which then encompassed all of New England. The community continued to grow throughout the 19th century, and by the early 1900s was a significant part of the Boston community, greatly bolstered by the waves of Irish and Italian Catholics immigrating in the US. The Catholic community had come of age, from newcomers with customs often perceived as strange, to being ever present at public events and in local, state, and national politics. This book traces the evolution of the Catholic community and its relationship with the larger Boston community, from its very humble beginnings in the 18th century through the death of influential Cardinal Richard J. Cushing in 1970.

Based on Corey Geiger's popular Homesteader's Hope column, On a Wisconsin Family Farm flings the barn doors wide open to a cast of characters who built America's Dairyland.

In 1905, twenty-eight-year-old Anna Satorie, granddaughter of Bohemian immigrants, went against cultural norms and became the sole owner of her family's homestead when she purchased the farm from her father. The next year, Anna married neighboring farmer John Burich, also of Bohemian extraction, and the couple went about building a thrifty family farm. But pioneer life was fraught with trials and tribulations. Polio and tuberculosis claimed loved ones, and the difficulties of Prohibition forced the family to fabricate the death of John's bootlegging brother to keep gangsters away from the farm. Neighbors pitched in as fellow immigrant families helped construct farmsteads and support one another through unsanctioned bank loans, daring dynamite work, and barn raisings. Leaving work aside, this vibrant community also threw parties met by the rooster's early-dawn crow.

Pairing his rural roots with lively storytelling, Geiger captures six generations of farming, family, and faith.

Brooklyn, or "Bruculinu," as many Italians affectionately pronounced it, is where Italian values, culture, and dreams thrived.

In an era when over four million Italians found their way to America, the first significant influx came during the 1880s, primarily from rural peasant communities fleeing poverty and overpopulation. Although Italians in South Brooklyn have been traced back as far as the 1820s, the 1855 New York Census did not list any Italian natives in Brooklyn; however, by 1890, there were 9,563 Italians residing in the borough. By 1900, Brooklyn's Italian population was second only to Manhattan. Although the last notable wave of Italian immigration ended in the 1960s, Italian remains one of the six prevalent foreign languages in New York according to a 2007 census estimate. This work serves as a time capsule to remind us of the contributions and influences these immigrants have offered to the community.

Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state, with more than 120 dotting its expansive Great Lakes shoreline. Many of these lighthouses lay claim to haunted happenings.

Former keepers like Captain Townshend at Seul Choix Point and prankster John Herman at Waugoshance Shoal maintain their watch long after death. At White River Light Station in Whitehall, Sarah Robinson still keeps a clean and tidy house, and a mysterious young girl at the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse seeks out other companions. Countless spirits remain between Whitefish Point and Point Iroquois in an area well known for its many tragic shipwrecks. Join author and Promote Michigan founder Dianna Stampfler as she recounts the tales from Michigan's ghostly beacons.

Once known as Gasparilla Island, Boca Grande has become one of the best places to vacation and live.

Life on Gasparilla Island once had a very different rhythm. With a past intimately tied to Charlotte Harbor and the rich fishing grounds it provided, Gasparilla Island was, in its early history, the site of a small fishing village and a commercial fishery. The discovery of phosphate deposits in the region and the introduction of the railroad soon increased the pace of life, and a thriving port was built on the island's south end. As the twentieth century dawned and the Florida boom loomed on the horizon, the town of Boca Grande began to hum with the activity of a rapidly growing population. Though much has changed through the years--the little fishing village has vanished, the estimable Boca Grande Hotel is gone, and the once bustling port is now a state park--much of the region's unique history continues to inform the modern landscape. The venerable lighthouse, constructed in 1890, now serves as a museum of local history, and the grand Gasparilla Inn still stands firmly upon its original 1911 site. Those who now call Boca Grande home cherish it for the same island magic that fishermen and railroad officials recognized long ago: its unspoiled natural beauty, inviting climate, world-class fishing, and welcoming community.