A local food writer explores how a humble Midwest town developed a food scene unlike any other American city and became a culinary destination of its own.Milwaukee's culinary scene boasts more than the iconic beer and bratwurst. It possesses a unique food culture as adventurous as any dining destination in the country. Sample the spreads at landmark hotels like the Pfister that established the city's hospitable reputation, as well as eateries like ...

Farm-to-table dining has become best practice in restaurants across the nation, connecting consumers with those who make and grow their food. While farmers have diversified their crops to meet the needs of both creative chefs and increasingly adventurous home cooks, chefs have played a crucial role in bridging the gap between the field and the fork. Although states with longer growing seasons tend to take the credit for their ability to heed the call for locally grown food, Wisconsin has e...

Detroit Rock City is an oral history of Detroit and its music told by the people who were on the stage, in the clubs, the practice rooms, studios, and in the audience, blasting the music out and soaking it up, in every scene from 1967 to today.From fabled axe men like Ted Nugent, Dick Wagner, and James Williamson jump to Jack White, to pop flashes Suzi Quatro and Andrew W.K., to proto punkers Brother Wayne Kramer and Iggy Pop, Detroit slices the rest of the...

Forgotten Detroit delves into the wellspring of history to retell some of Detroit's lesser-known stories within the Motor City's rich heritage. Detroiters know their history well. Founded in 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, the city subsisted on a variety of industries: fur trading, stove building, and, of course, the automobile. Names such as Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh resonate in Detroiters' common memory while Detroit's meteoric rise during the 20th century established the ci...

The author of Horror in the Heartland delves deep into the dark and sordid annals of the region where Hoosier history began.Prepare to take a tour of some dark, strange moments of southern Indiana's history. From the scheming wife who wanted her dull husband out of the way to make room for a young love affair and the husband who stomped his wife to death because she wouldn't stop singing an irritating song, to the man who murdered an entire family to pay o...

From the end of the Great War to the final years of the 1950s, Kansas Citians lived in a manner worthy of a place called Paris of the Plains. The title did more than nod to the perfumed ladies who shopped at Harzfeld's Parisian or the one-thousand-foot television antenna nicknamed the "Eye-full Tower." It spoke to the character of a town that worked for Boss Tom and danced for Count Basie but transcended both the Pendergast era and the Jazz Age. Author John Simonson introduces readers to a...

Essentially the story of WMMS, Radio Daze captures the radio scene during the ’70s and ’80s, chronicling how this small FM rock station became the top-rated station in Northeast Ohio and made Cleveland one of the most important radio markets in the world. Mike Olszewski obtained exclusive interviews with many radio legends, revealing how insidious and destructive the battle for radio dominance became. Among other things, he exposes the story behind the reports of ballot box stuffing by WMM...

This true crime history recounts more than a century of crime, deviousness, and disaster in the North Star State.In Minnesota Mayhem, local historian and author Ben Welter explores the best of the state's worst moments. Culled from the archives of the Minneapolis Tribune and its successor newspapers, these stories and photos range from the catastrophic to the chillingly curious and the simply strange.Among the true tales told in these pages, Welter...

From our contemporary vantage point, we should take the time to look back to how people in American communities lived at the beginning of the 20th century. The focus of this work is Evansville - in the early 1900s, the only emerging metropolis between Louisville and St. Louis, and then the radial center of a hinterland stretching in all directions for at least 100 miles. Evansville illustrates how the city landscape changed because of the early industrial era, how people made a living and ...

Ride shotgun with the author of Haunted Ozarks on this scary road trip across Missouri's stretch of the "Main Street of America."Alongside the nostalgic appeal of Route 66 lurk ghostly roadside hitchhikers, the Goatman of Rolla, amusement park spirits, the Civil War–dead, and the shadows thrown by the mighty Thunderbird. Spanning three hundred dangerously curving miles, the stretch of the Mother Road in Missouri earned the title of "Bloody 66," and some of...

When the United States acquired New Mexico by invasion and conquest on August 15, 1846, it inherited a land grant problem of considerable magnitude. This problem continued for decades until 1870 when the United States Congress suddenly declined to act at all on any New Mexico grant claim. Among the grants that had been confirmed, however, was the Miranda and Beaubien, or Maxwell Land Grant, and that is the dominant theme of this book. Originally made in 1841 to Guadalupe Miranda and Charle...

Meatless Mondays, Wheatless Wednesdays, vegetable gardens and chickens in every empty lot. When the United States entered World War I, Minnesotans responded to appeals for personal sacrifice and changed the way they cooked and ate in order to conserve food for the boys "over there." Baking with corn and rye, eating simple meals based on locally grown food, consuming fewer calories, and wasting nothing in the kitchen became civic acts. High-energy foods and calories unconsumed on the Americ...