Local History

Here is the story of one of Yorkshire's prettiest villages from the earliest times to the present day. It is also the story of the famous people connected with it.

This new history of Hull traces the story of the city from its beginnings as a haven for the transportation of goods to one of the main medieval harbours of England. The town was a key player in the Civil War of the seventeenth century and grew to become one of the country's major cities and ports following rapid expansion in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Alan Avery was educated in Hull and at King's College, London. He has written widely on the history of Yorkshire and is the author of 'The Story of Bradford ' and 'The Story of York' in this series.

Pickering has a long, continuous history, reaching back to prehistoric times. This new book traces the story of the town down the ages from prehistoric times to Saxon village, the coming of the Normans and the building of the castle to modern times when the town's economy changed from serving farming to light industry and tourism. This full colour book will delight tourists and young people and anyone wanting a brief but authoritative history of Pickering.

The story of twenty schoolchildren on the southeastern plains of Colorado, fighting for lives that had just begun . . . Imagine being one of twenty children, ages seven to fourteen, stranded in a makeshift school bus for thirty-three hours, during the worst blizzard to hit Colorado in over fifty years. The gripping narrative of Children of the Storm leads you through this haunting experience.

New York City entered 1986 as a city reborn, with record profits on Wall Street sending waves of money splashing across Manhattan and bringing a once-bankrupt, reeling city back to life. But it also entered 1986 as a city divided. Nearly one-third of the city’s Black and Hispanic residents were living below the federal poverty line. Thousands of New Yorkers were sleeping in the streets—and in many cases addicted to drugs, dying of AIDS, or suffering from mental illness.

What dark secrets lie hidden within the heart of America's Dairyland? From the shadows of Milwaukee's urban landscape to the quiet forests of the Northwoods, this captivating true-story anthology explores the more sinister sides of Wisconsin's history. Uncover the twisted tales of notorious killers, delve into the unsolved mysteries of vanished souls, and journey through the haunted halls of some historical landmarks, where restless spirits linger and ghostly apparitions roam.

The 'History of Beverley' begins with the story of an early settlement centred round the tomb of St John of Beverley, who died in 721. It goes on to tell of the commercial and religious importance of the medieval town (a time when the two great churches, Beverley Minster and St Mary's were built) which by 1377 was the 10th largest town in England. It then follows the town's decline in the 16th and 17th centuries and its rise to prominence in the 18th century when it became the County Town of the East Riding of Yorkshire. Today Beverly remains a thriving busy market town which retains much ...

The earliest settlers in this region were confronted by food shortages, conflicts with native tribes, and the difficulties of settling a new land with little support. Through the use of primary source materials, this audiobook provides the compelling story of the Delaware colony and the conflicts faced by its various leaders, up to and including the early moments of the American Revolutionary period.

The Settlers' Empire traces the first federal endeavor to build states wholesale out of the Northwest Territory, a process that relied on overlapping colonial rule over Euro-American settlers and the multiple Indian nations in the territory. In the Northwest Territory, diverse populations of newcomers and natives struggled over the region's geographical and cultural definition in areas such as religion, marriage, family, gender roles, and economy.

The Quaker City and its hospitals were pioneers in the field of mental health. Yet by the end of the nineteenth century, its institutions were crowded and patients lived in shocking conditions. The mentally ill were quartered with the dangerously criminal. By 1906, the city had purchased a vast acreage of farmland incorporated into the city, and the Philadelphia Hospital dubbed its new venture Byberry City Farms. From the start, its history was riddled with corruption and committees, investigations and inquests, appropriations and abuse.

This comprehensive account of California’s numerous and perilous natural disasters explores how a unique combination of forces has affected Californians throughout the state's history and carries a sobering message about our short disaster memories. California has more natural hazards per square mile than any other state, but this hasn’t deterred people from moving here. Entire California towns and regions frequently contend with destruction caused by earthquakes, floods, landslides and debris flows, and sea-level rise and coastal erosion.

What brought the author's family to Texas? What is it about Texas that for centuries has exerted a powerful allure for adventurers and scoundrels, dreamers and desperate souls, outlaws and outliers? In search of answers, Hodge travels across his home state - which he loves and hates in shifting measure - tracing the wanderings of his ancestors into forgotten histories along vanished roads. Here is an unsentimental, keenly insightful attempt to grapple with all that makes Texas so magical, punishing, and polarizing.

This book is based on visitor descriptions of antebellum Mobile, Alabama's physical and social environment. Mobile's foundational era is a period in which the city transformed from a struggling colonial outpost into one of the nation's most significant economic powerhouses, largely owing to the cotton trade and the labor of enslaved people. On the eve of the Civil War, the Mobile ranked as the fourth most populous community in what would soon become the Confederacy, and within the Gulf Coast region, it stood second only to New Orleans in population, wealth, and influence.

Educated in Amherst, Massachusetts, Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe (1819-1906) accompanied her physician-husband to California in 1849. The Shirley Letters (1922) is the book edition of a series of letters written by Mrs. Clappe to her sister in 1851 and 1852. They were first published under the pseudonym of Dame Shirley in the Pioneer magazine, 1854-55. In these letters, Louise Clappe writes of life in San Francisco and the Feather River mining communities of Rich Bar and Indian Bar.

Filled with hundreds of darkly fascinating tales of murderous mayhem, 50 States of Murder is a chilling work of storytelling and an authoritative survey of the United States’ homicidal history. Master true crime author Harold Schechter explores each state’s most grizzly, gruesome, and notorious murders that have passed into regional lore, from Iowa’s Cornfield Killer to the Texarkana Moonlight Murders to the Beauty School Barbarian of Arizona.

On the day the first shots of the Civil War were fired, a mob in Richmond clambered on top of the Capitol to raise the Confederate flag. Four years later, another flag was raised in its place while the city burned below. A 13-year-old girl compared the stars and stripes to "so many bloody gashes". This richly detailed, absorbing book brings to life the years in which Richmond was the symbol of Southern independence and the theater for a drama as splendid, sordid, and tragic as the war itself.

This audiobook traces the history of Rhode Island from Roger Williams' exodus from the Massachusetts colony, thus creating a settlement - the colony of Rhode Island - where people could live in harmony and worship as they pleased. Using primary source documents to enhance a lively and accessible text, it is a vivid account of the story behind the foundation of this colony - and the independent spirit of those who settled there.

Five years after the Civil War, North Carolina Republican state senator John W. Stephens was found murdered inside the Caswell County Courthouse. Stephens fought for the rights of freedpeople, and his killing by the Ku Klux Klan ultimately led to insurrection, Governor William W. Holden's impeachment, and the early unwinding of Reconstruction in North Carolina.

We all know of Theodore Roosevelt being the US president from 1901 to 1909, an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, and naturalist. But few know of him being an acclaimed historian. Roosevelt’s The Winning of the West quickly became a bestseller. The first edition of his book sold out in little more than a month and helped establish Roosevelt as a literary man and scholar, placing him on a path toward future greatness.

This book includes new heartbreaking stories, such as the seven canyoneers in 2015 who all died in a flash flood in Keyhole Canyon, two separate BASE jumping deaths, rock climbing, and flash flood deaths in the Narrows. Zion National Park is home to majestic and wondrous canyons, cliffs, crags, mesas, rivers, and slot canyons. World travelers remain in awe as they drive, walk, hike, and climb into such a unique place that is filled with vibrant, sacred, and mystical energy.