History / History by country / United States / State & Local

Song of Brooklyn: An Oral History of America's Favorite Borough

by Marc Eliot

The voices of Brooklyn:

“I’m a Brooklyn guy, it’s in my bones and it’s there in Brooklyn. There’s a certain rhythm you get growing up there. Every Brooklyn kid has it. Always on the right beat. The...

Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon

by Chuck Palahniuk

Want to know where Chuck Palahniuk’s tonsils currently reside?

Been looking for a naked mannequin to hide in your kitchen cabinets?

Curious about Chuck’s debut in an MTV music video?

What goes on at the Scum...

The Oregon Trail: An American Saga

by David Dary

A major one-volume history of the Oregon Trail from its earliest beginnings to the present, by a prize-winning historian of the American West.

Starting with an overview of Oregon Country in the early 1800s, a...

Goodlands

by Frances W Kaye

Goodlands suggests methods for redeveloping the Great Plains region that are founded on native cultural values.

Mail-Order Homes: Sears Homes and Other Kit Houses

by Rebecca Hunter

At the turn of the last century, the American middle class was expanding rapidly as homesteaders moved west and as trains took travellers across the country, where they established themselves in the depot towns...

Blues City: A Walk in Oakland

by Ishmael Reed

Oakland is a blues city, brawling and husky . . .

Often overshadowed by San Francisco, its twinkling sister city across the Bay, Oakland is itself an American wonder. The city is surrounded by and filled with...

Blue-grass and Rhododendron

by John , Jr. Fox

Serving as tour guide, Fox invites his audience to go with him log rafting down the Kentucky River, bass fishing in the Cumberland Mountains, rabbit hunting in the Bluegrass, and chasing outlaws in the border...

Staten Island: Conservative Bastion in a Liberal City

by Daniel C. Kramer & Richard M. Flanagan

This book chronicles how the “forgotten borough” has grappled with its uneasy relationship with the rest of the City of New York since the 1920s. The authors analyze the politics behind events that have...

Crude Awakening: Money, Mavericks, and Mayhem in Alaska

by Amanda Coyne & Tony Hopfinger

Crude Awakening is the rollicking story of politics in America’s last frontier and oil province—Alaska, the nation’s most wild and mysterious state, where politics and oil blurred on the day wildcatters...

Watergate: The Hidden History: Nixon, The Mafia, and The CIA

by Lamar Waldron

While Richard Nixon's culpability for Watergate has long been established—most recently by PBS in 2003—what's truly remarkable that after almost forty years, conventional accounts of the scandal still don't...

Five Points: The Nineteenth-Century New York City Neighborhood

by Tyler Anbinder

The very letters of the two words seem, as they are written, to redden with the blood-stains of unavenged crime. There is Murder in every syllable, and Want, Misery and Pestilence take startling form and crowd...

Letter from America, 1946-2004

by Alistair Cooke

For over half a century, Alistair Cooke entertained and informed millions of listeners around the world in his weekly BBC radio program Letter from America. An outstanding observer of the American scene, he...

The Devil's Playground: A Century of Pleasure and Profit in Times Square

by James Traub

As Times Square turns 100, New York Times Magazine contributing writer James Traub tells the story of how this mercurial district became one of the most famous and exciting places in the world. The Devil’s...

California: A History

by Kevin Starr

California has always been our Shangri-la–the promised land of countless pilgrims in search of the American Dream. Now the Golden State’s premier historian, Kevin Starr, distills the entire sweep of California’s...

Idaho Falls: The Untold Story of America's First Nuclear Accident

by William McKeown

When asked to name the world’s first major nuclear accident, most people cite the Three Mile Island incident or the Chernobyl disaster. Revealed in this book is one of American history’s best-kept secrets:...

Battle at Alcatraz: A Desperate Attempt to Escape the Rock

by Ernest B. B. Lageson

One of the bloddiest battles in the history of American prisons occurred at Alcatraz in May 1946, when prisoners staged a breakout, obtaining guns from the gun gallery and taking nine guards hostage. The escape...

America the Philosophical

by Carlin Romano

   A bold, insightful book that rejects the myth of America the Unphilosophical, arguing that America today towers as the most philosophical culture in the history of the world, an unprecedented marketplace...

Local Elections and the Politics of Small-Scale Democracy

by J. Eric Oliver, Shang E. Ha & Zachary Callen

Local government is the hidden leviathan of American politics: it accounts for nearly a quarter of gross domestic product, it collects nearly as much in taxes as the federal government, and its decisions have...

Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast

by Mike Tidwell

The Cajun coast of Louisiana is home to a way of life as unique, complex, and beautiful as the terrain itself.  As award-winning travel writer Mike Tidwell journeys through the bayou, he introduces us to the...

Blue Sky Dream

by David Beers