Making of America

Terre Haute's storied past from 1811 to the present.

From the days of French explorers and the establishment of Fort Harrison in 1811 to the rise of the ""Pittsburgh of the West"" and beyond, Terre Haute's history is a study in paradox. Home to prominent schools, railroads, and distilleries as well as social reformers, national figures, and corrupt politicians, the city that grew up along the Wabash suffered devastating setbacks but also soared to spectacular achievements.

The lives of the Native American, African, and European inhabitants of Bertie County have not only shaped, but been shaped, by its landscape.

One of the oldest counties in North Carolina, Bertie County lies in the western coastal plains of northeastern North Carolina, bordered to the east by Albemarle Sound and the tidewater region and to the west by the Roanoke River in the piedmont.

The county's waterways and forests sustained the old Native American villages that were replaced in the eighteenth century by English plantations, cleared for the whites by African slaves. Bertie County's inhabitants successfully developed and sustained a wide variety of crops including the ""three sisters""-corn, beans, and squash-as well as the giants: tobacco, cotton, and peanuts. The county was a leading exporter of naval stores and mineral wealth and later, a breadbasket of the Confederacy.

Bertie County: An Eastern Carolina History documents the long history of the region and tells how its people, at first limited by the landscape, radically altered it to support their needs. This is the story of the Native Americans, gone from the county for 200 years but for arrowheads and other artifacts. It is the story of the African slaves and their descendants and the chronicle of their struggles through slavery, the Jim Crow era, and the Civil Rights Movement. It is also the story of the Europeans and their rush to tame the wilderness in a new land. Their entwined history is clarified in dozens of new maps created especially for this book, along with vivid illustrations of forgotten faces and moments from the past.

Taking its name from a fortification established more than 160 years ago during the Second Seminole War, Fort Lauderdale boasts a history stretching back 5,000 years before the first white settlers arrived in the eighteenth century. From beautiful tales of the "mysterious" New River that helped launch the community to more recent stories of rum running and gambling, segregation and integration, and boom and bust, the history of this Florida city is told here through the everyday lives of those who lived it.

Although known as the retail capital of Rhode Island, Warwick is much more than a conglomeration of shopping centers, malls, and industrial parks; it is a city marked by an extraordinary history and in many ways, serves as a mirror of the American experience. Like many communities across the United States, Warwick developed from a rural hamlet into a town distinguished by a variety of industries in the nineteenth century, attracting immigrants from across the globe desiring a new beginning within its mill villages. These industries brought wealth and opportunity, and paved the way for Warwick's transformation from small town to cosmopolitan center. Warwick: A City at the Crossroads is not a stale chronology, but is a work that breathes new life into the memorable characters and events that shaped the community's history over the past four centuries. Taking readers on an exciting journey through Warwick's past, this unique illustrated history begins with the first Narragansett Indian tribes that hunted amidst the virgin wilderness and details an evolving landscape touched by colonial settlement, wars, storms, depressions, resort development, and industrialization up through the present day. However, the true measure of a community is in its people, and Warwick possesses a remarkable cast of colorful characters, such as controversial city father, Samuel Gorton, Revolutionary War heroes Nathanael Greene and James Varnum, textile magnate Robert Knight, and scores of other distinct personalities, ranging from privateers and bootleggers to feared political bosses and industrial giants.

Documenting the history of Lake Winnipesaukee from its early Native American heritage to the lasting legacy of the first American settlers.

A world unto itself, Lake Winnipesaukee and its environs have attracted and sustained a variety of cultures over the past centuries from early American Indian tribes to New World settlers to today's seasonal tourists. Whether Indian hunter, aspiring pioneer or modern-day angler, each, in turn, fell for the region's wild allure: its sheer natural beauty, fertile soils, and waters teeming with an assortment of fish, including great quantities of shad, salmon, pickerel, smelt, and trout. Within this magnificent setting, scores of hardy and resolute frontier men and women worked tirelessly to fashion homes and towns along the bays, tributaries, islands and shoreline of the lake.

With over 150 accompanying illustrations, the many stories recorded in this unique volume evoke memories of a simpler way of life, when the lake was evolving from a scattering of humble villages, like Laconia, Meredith, and Wolfeboro, and just beginning to toy with a budding tourist industry. Readers of many generations will enjoy reliving the early summer camps, upstart businesses and the variety of entertainment and recreation the lake's waters have provided, such as canoe trips, steamships rides and ski boat adventures.

For nearly four centuries, the maritime history of Stratford, Connecticut set the standard for the growing relationship between the United States and the sea. For the long years when ocean and river were the only practical means of travel, and from the struggles for independence to the quest for commerce that played out upon the waves, Stratford's brave sons have navigated both Long Island Sound, whose waters lap their shores, and the wide world beyond. Stratford and the Sea is the story of Captain David Hawley fighting to save the young American Revolution. It is the story of privateer Samuel Nicoll's furious attacks on British shipping in the War of 1812 that forever altered our nation's future. And it is the story of merchant captains like Dowdall, Sterling, and Benjamin who pioneered transatlantic commerce and opened up trade routes to the Orient, establishing American dominance in international trade. But there is more to the story than the men who tell it. Here also-brought to life with 200 vintage photographs, period maps, and antique postcards-is the tale of the rise and fall of the mighty oyster fishery, the birth of decoy carving as a unique American folk art, and the rush of progress and industry brought to town by Igor Sikorsky and his flying boats.

For over 200 years, Cincinnati citizens created a vibrant, if at times volatile, urban culture that frequently harkens back to its remarkable past in an effort to shape its future.

Once known as a great commercial port and pork-packing center, Cincinnati developed a diverse industrial economy in a bid to remain the West's Queen City. It is a community familiar with change as new transportation systems evolved, commercial activity shifted, and poor race relations periodically erupted in unrest.

Hawai'i is filled with traditions, history, and mythology that are sure to engage and interest any reader.

Although its soils are the youngest in the Hawaiian chain, the Big Island's chronicles are at times epic, tragic, and heroic, but always fascinating. Modern Hawai'i is filled with tradition and mythology, accommodating influences as diverse as its inviting landscape. Kamehameha stood tall to mold this nascent region into a unified kingdom and others fought to sustain it, while outside forces molded and shaped this island in astonishing ways.

Since 1850, Chicago has felt the benefits of a vital Italian presence. These immigrants formed much of the unskilled workforce employed to build up this and many other major U.S. cities. From often meager and humble beginnings, Italians built and congregated in neighborhoods that came to define the Chicago landscape. Post-World War II development threatened this communal lifestyle, and subsequent generations of Italian Americans have been forced to face new challenges to retain their ethnic heritage and identity in a changing world. With the city's support, they are succeeding.