A compact summary like Probing the Sutras has been sorely needed for some time, as more and more Westerners have dipped into meditation without any understanding of its predominantly Buddhist scriptural underpinning. This concise, well-informed introduction to the history and contents of eleven seminal Buddhist sutras also provides suggestions for reflection, meditation, and practical applications related to the key teachings of each scripture. Readers of Probing the Sutras will be able to...

Critically Reading the Theory and Methods of Archaeology stands out as the most thorough and practical guide to the essential critical reading and writing skills that all students, instructors, and practitioners should have.It provides priceless insight for the here and now of the Theory and Methods of Archaeology classes and for a lifetime of reading, learning, teaching, and writing. Chapters focus on rigorous reasoning skills, types of argument, the main research orientations in archaeol...

Histories of Minnesota typically begin with seventeenth-century French fur traders exploring the western shores of Lake Superior. And yet, archaeology reveals that Native Americans lived in the region at least 13,000 years before such European incursions. Archaeology of Minnesota tells their story—or as much as the region’s wealth of artifacts, evidence of human activity, and animal and plant remains can convey.From archaeological materials, Guy Gibbon reconstructs the soc...

Through his incredibly varied fifty-year career, John J. Healy left an indelible mark on the Canadian and American west. At different points in his storied life, Healy was a soldier, a trapper, a prospector, a free trader, an explorer, a horse dealer, a scout, a lawman, a newspaper editor, a speculator, a merchant, a capitalist, a historian, and a politician. He defied classification while defining the lifestyle of a frontier adventurer and buccaneer capitalist in the late nineteenth centu...

In Shining Big Sea Water, historian Norman K. Risjord offers a grand tour of Lake Superior's remarkable history, taking readers through the centuries and into the lives of those who have traveled the lake and inhabited its shores.Through lively, informative chapters, Risjord begins with the lake's cataclysmic geological birth, then explores the lives of native peoples along the shore before European contact and during the fur trade, showing how Superior functioned as an unusual "bl...

Duluth's majestic Glensheen Mansion, featuring thirty-nine ornate rooms and expansive landscaped grounds. Minneapolis's stunning Purcell-Cutts House, a showplace of finely crafted woodwork of Prairie School design. Stevens County's Trantow Log Cabin, built in the German style with dovetailed log corners. Minnesota has a remarkable array of house museums, each with its own unique history and architectural significance. Minnesota Open House features nearly two hundred of these grand mansions...

On a chilly January morning in 1872, a special visitor arrived by train in North Platte, Nebraska. Grand Duke Alexis of Russia had already seen the cities and sights of the East—New York, Washington, and Niagara Falls—and now the young nobleman was about to enjoy a western adventure: a grand buffalo hunt. His host would be General Philip Sheridan, and the excursion would include several of the West’s most iconic characters: George Armstrong Custer, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Spotted Tail of th...

Eloise, which started out as a poorhouse, later became known as Wayne County General Hospital. Today, all that remains are five buildings and a smokestack. From only 35 residents on 280 acres in 1839, the complex grew dramatically after the Civil War until the total land involved was 902 acres and the total number of patients was about 10,000. Only one of them, the Kay Beard Building, is currently used.In Eloise: Poorhouse, Farm, Asylum, and Hospital, 1839-1984, this institution and medica...

Beginning with the retreat of the Wisconsin glacier and the story of early Native American peoples, Janik narrates the journey of Wisconsin's capital city from the "center of the wilderness"? to the "Laboratory of Democracy."? Learn how Madison's citizens responded to the Civil War, industrialization and two world wars, as well as how advances in the rights of workers, women, Native Americans and African Americans made Madison the multifaceted city it is today. Comprehensive, accessible an...

From murder and matchstick men to all-consuming fires, painted women, and Great Lakes disasters--and the wide-eyed public who could not help but gawk at it all--"Milwaukee Mayhem" uncovers the little-remembered and rarely told history of the underbelly of a Midwestern metropolis. "Milwaukee Mayhem" offers a new perspective on Milwaukee's early years, forgoing the major historical signposts found in traditional histories and focusing instead on the strange and brutal tales of mystery, vice,...

On a summer evening, the overlook at the Rookwood Pottery in Mount Adams will be visited by at least a few, as it is one of the most romantic and fascinating hilltop vantage points in Cincinnati. One hundred years ago, though, this was the place to see and be seen. The fashionable Highland House, a world-class entertainment complex, put Cincinnati on the cultural map, and the city became known as "the Paris of America." Every weekend, crowds of thousands of hardworking Cincinnatians watche...

In the early 1900s, southwest Missouri, also known as the Ozarks, quickly became a golfer�s retreat. Professionals such as Walter Hagen and the legendary gambler Titanic Thompson toured the area and tested their skills against locals Horton Smith, Ky Laffoon, and others. Over the years, tour professionals including Hale Irwin, Payne Stewart, and Cathy Reynolds developed their games on the Ozark fairways. Today southwest Missouri can proudly claim the winners of five U.S. Opens, three Maste...