Explore one of history's most notorious maximum-security prisons through these tales of mayhem and madness.As "animal factories" go, the Ohio Penitentiary was one of the worst. For 150 years, it housed some of the most dangerous criminals in the United States, including murderers, madmen and mobsters. Peer in on America's first vampire, accused of sucking his victims' blood five years before Bram Stoker's fictional villain was even born; peek into the cage of the o...

"Johann Kohl was an educated, urbane, and well-trained German geographer, ethnologist, and popular writer. During his visit with the Lake Superior Ojibwa in 1855, he made useful and unbiased studies of their material culture, religion, and folklore. . . . The extent of Kohl's observations is really amazing. They cover the fur trade, canoe building, domestic utensils, quillwork, native foods, hunting, fishing, trapping, cooking, toboggans, snowshoes, gardening, lodge building, games and war...

Is prison a humane form of punishment and an effective means of rehabilitation? Are current prison policies, such as shifting resources away from rehabilitation toward housing more offenders, improving the safety and lives of incarcerated populations?Considering that many Canadians have served time, are currently incarcerated, or may one day be incarcerated–and will be released back into society–it is essential for the functioning and betterment of communities that we understand th...

Out and Proud in Chicago takes readers through the long and rich history of the city's LGBT community. Lavishly illustrated with color and black-and white-photographs, the book draws on a wealth of scholarly, historical, and journalistic sources. Individual sections cover the early days of the 1800s to World War II, the challenging community-building years from World War II to the 1960s, the era of gay liberation and AIDS from the 1970s to the 1990s, and on to the city's vital, po...

Los Angeles incarcerates more people than any other city in the United States, which imprisons more people than any other nation on Earth. This book explains how the City of Angels became the capital city of the world’s leading incarcerator. Marshaling more than two centuries of evidence, historian Kelly Lytle Hernández unmasks how histories of native elimination, immigrant exclusion, and black disappearance drove the rise of incarceration in Los Angeles. In this telling, which spans from ...

As the year 1890 wound to a close, a band of more than three hundred Lakota Sioux Indians led by Chief Big Foot made their way toward South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation to join other Lakotas seeking peace. Fearing that Big Foot’s band was headed instead to join “hostile” Lakotas, U.S. troops surrounded the group on Wounded Knee Creek. Tensions mounted, and on the morning of December 29, as the Lakotas prepared to give up their arms, disaster struck. Accounts vary on what triggered the v...

Winner: Ferguson Kansas History Book AwardWinner: Hamlin Garland Prize in Popular HistoryWinner: Midwest Book Award-Nature CategoryA Kansas Notable BookSince the last wild bison found refuge on the back of a nickel, the public image of natural Kansas has progressed from Great American Desert to dust bowl to flyover country that has been landscaped, fenced, and farmed. But look a little harde...

“A trove of tales—some poignant, even tragic; many hilarious.” — Akron Beacon JournalDan Coughlin serves up a second rollicking collection of stories about colorful characters and memorable events from his four decades covering sports for Cleveland TV and newspapers. Meet the gun-toting fanatics of Morgana Park—once home of “the most intense slow pitch softball league in the world.” Sit in on a star-studded night in the legendary Theatrical Restaurant alongsi...

Cleveland storyteller Dan Ruminski discovered that the 6 acres under his home were originally part of a 1,400-acre grand estate known as the Circle W Farm. The impressive estate was created by Walter White, founding brother of the White Motor Company. Drawn in by the fascinating history, Ruminski's investigation soon embraced the full legacy of Cleveland's industrial history and the indomitable characters who created the city's Gilded Age. John D. Rockefeller, Samuel Mather and more giants...

Ohio's Lake Erie Shore began to blossom as a resort area in the mid 1800s, and came into full bloom around the turn of the century when the prospering steamboat navigation industry started to bring thousands of tourists to Put-in-Bay, Cedar Point, and the spiritual retreats at Lakeside on Marblehead.

Based on vintage postcards, this new book is a unique and welcome addition to the small number of works devoted to the history of Martinsville. Captured here in more than 220 postcard images is an important chronicle of the past 100 years in the 'City of Mineral Water.' This visual record showcases the sanitariums'including the glorious Home Lawn and its sibling, the Martinsville'industries and businesses, buildings and people, courthouse square, and special events that shaped the past and...

Dinkytown belies its name with a big history and outsized influence on the culture of Minneapolis. It began as a business district serving the University of Minnesota and became a creative center between the flour milling district and a massive railroad yard. By 1875, Dinkytown was a terminus on the horse-drawn streetcar system. The area transformed into a nexus of culture and counterculture with the growth and expansion of the university. Its burgeoning arts scene launched Bob Dylan and T...