Forget Doris Day singing on the stagecoach. Forget Robin Weigert’s gritty portrayal on HBO’s Deadwood. The real Calamity Jane was someone the likes of whom you’ve never encountered. That is, until now.This book is a definitive biography of Martha Canary, the woman popularly known as Calamity Jane. Written by one of today’s foremost authorities on this notorious character, it is a meticulously researched account of how an alcoholic prostitute was transformed into a Wild Wes...

With a widowed mother and six siblings, Annie Oakley first became a trapper, hunter, and sharpshooter simply to put food on the table. Yet her genius with the gun eventually led to her stardom in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The archetypal western woman, Annie Oakley urged women to take up shooting to procure food, protect themselves, and enjoy healthy exercise, yet she was also the proper Victorian lady, demurely dressed and skeptical abo...

• The Federal Writers’ Project named an area three miles south-southeast of Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley the Devil’s Cornfield because the arrowweed growing there resembled shocks of corn tied about the middle.• The Devil’s Golf Course got its name because it was thought that only a fiend could play golf on the rough surface of crystallized salt at the place.• Lost Cannon Creek owes its name to the local legend that a cannon left by John C. Fremont was discovered in the ...

The sixth volume in one of the great ongoing works of American cultural history--Kevin Starr's monumental Americans and the California Dream--Embattled Dreams is a peerless work of cultural history following California in the years surrounding World War II. During the 1940s California ascended to a new, more powerful role in the nation. Starr describes the vast expansion of the war industry and California's role as the "arsenal of democracy" (especially the significant part women ...

This volume showcases the most exciting new voices in the fields of business and political history. While the media frequently warns of the newfound power of business in the world of politics, the authors in this book demonstrate that business has mobilized to shape public policy and government institutions, as well as electoral outcomes, for decades. Rather than assuming that business influence is inevitable, the chapters explore the complex evolution of this relationship in a wide range ...

CONTENTSThe Country and the PeopleTHE LANDTHE PEOPLEBLAZING THE TRAILTHE MOUNTAINEERLand of Feuds and StillsHATFIELDS AND MCCOYSPEACEMAKERTAKING SIDESMARTIN-TOLLIVER TROUBLESFAMILY HONORProducts of the SoilTIMBERWOMAN’S WORKTraditionPHILOMEL WHIFFET’S SINGING SCHOOLRIDDLES AND FORTUNESTHE INFARE WEDDING

20th Century American History tells about the ideas and issues that have shaped the United States in the 20th century from the bottom up. You can think of it not just as a series of history of America and its people, but a series of lessons. The subjects include exploration, revolution, social and political change, the rise of industry, modern technology and more.Learn English as you read and listen to the descriptions and histories of the United States. Ad...

A Plea for Captain John Brown is a classic American history essay by Henry David Thoreau. I trust that you will pardon me for being here. I do not wish to force my thoughts upon you, but I feel forced myself. Little as I know of Captain Brown, I would fain do my part to correct the tone and the statements of the newspapers, and of my countrymen generally, respecting his character and actions. It costs us nothing to be just. We can at least express our sympathy with, and admiration of, him ...

Contemporaneous essay by a resident describing the fall of the city.

Follow a barge of Ore from the mines to Boonton New Jersey in the mid 19th century, with glimpses of the tow boat life and the New Jersey wilds, into the hands of the nail makers, with their furnaces and machinery. A good look at New Jersey and at the manufacturing of Nails in New Jersey at the time of the Civil War.

Tennessee is famous for more than just Elvis Presley, Davy Crockett, and Jack Daniel’s. The Volunteer State is also home to enough ghosts, haunts, and spirits to make your skin crawl. Christopher K. Coleman’s Ghosts and Haunts of Tennessee is a new collection of 28 tales of the supernatural. This compilation explores never-before-published legends that span the entire state, from the mysterious mountains of Appalachia to the haunted banks of the Mississippi River. Those familiar w...

Did you know that Chicago was named for a wild onion? Or that the only president born in Illinois was Ronald Reagan? Or that the Ferris Wheel, processed cheese, the game of softball, the fly swatter, and the automatic dishwasher were all invented by Illinoisans? You'll find these stories and hundreds more in Roadside History of Illinois, an entertaining and revealing tour of the Prairie State's historical places. Native Illinoisan Stan Banash describes the state's diverse history as he gui...