The largest freshwater system on Earth, like you’ve never seen it before. 

The Great Lakes region is home to one-tenth of the United States’ population, and one-quarter of Canada’s. Even if we remember the mnemonic HOMES, we might forget what a natural wonder they are. Cartographer Alex B. Hill, author of Detroit in 50 Maps, shifts our perspectives and offers a fresh look at the five lakes and the vibrant region surrounding them. Split into four categories—history & culture, ecology, infrastructure, and physical—these fifty-plus maps show the lakes’ influence and confluences, from the Underground Railroad to monarch butterfly migration. See how many NFL teams play on a Great Lake, where mysterious shipwrecks and Bigfoot sightings cluster, the lakes' effect on snowfall, and even how “not so Great” lakes have vied for (and in one case, temporarily won) a coveted Great designation. Shrinking wetlands, oil spills, and rising temperatures due to climate change reflect both the fragility of the lakes and the vital role they play. 

Great Lakes in 50 Maps is perfect for anyone who appreciates the history, nature, and future of the world’s greatest group of lakes.

The Bowery is New York City’s oldest street. Stretching 1.25 miles from Chatham Square to Cooper Square, it was a Native American footpath, Dutch wagon road, and the triumphal march route as Washington’s troops expelled the British. The city’s first entertainment district, it has seminal ties to tap dance, vaudeville, Yiddish theater, Houdini, modern tattooing, and American song. It was the working-class main street for sailors, shopgirls, sporting men, gangs, gays, and immigrant Irish, Italians, Chinese, Jews, and Germans. It saw America’s first free Black homesteads, first streetcars, first baseball club, and first free university. It boasts New York City’s oldest brick townhouse, oldest hotel, and first community garden. It witnessed labor marches, riots, and Lincoln’s famous antislavery speech at Cooper Union. Though it became a notorious skid row, during the second half of the 20th century its artists’ community and music venues helped foster Abstract Expressionism, Beat literature, improvisational jazz, and punk rock.

The images in this book come from dozens of libraries, archives, museums, photographers, and collections from all over. David Mulkins is a retired history and cinema studies teacher, president of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, and editor/contributing writer for the book Windows on the Bowery: 400 Years on NYC’s Oldest Street. 

“They neither need defense nor eulogy but only just recognition." - Nathanael Greene monument plaque

Despite their contributions in the late period of the American Revolution, the Virginia Line did not garner the same publicity as other units. What was written down often contained errors or misunderstandings regarding the nature of the battalions and their service. Consequently, much of that service has been forgotten. Following the disasters of Charleston and Waxhaws, officers such as Peter Muhlenberg, Nathanael Greene and the Baron de Steuben were left with the difficult task of rebuilding the ranks. This proved to be challenging. Uniformed in blue jackets and later called “the regiment of Hell-fired-blues of the Virginia Line,” the reformed Continentals would reinforce that name in campaigns such as Cowpens, Guilford Courthouse and Yorktown. Using primary sources and firsthand accounts, author John Settle gives a voice to those honorable veterans who many have forgotten.

Ally, an aspiring actress, is about to give up on getting her big break. But then, after another disappointing audition, a charismatic scene partner says he has a fun gig for her. Soon, Ally is making easy money working for a guerrilla-marketing outfit called The Set Up. Now she’s getting lots of practice pretending to be someone she’s not—but each job seems more suspicious than the last.

Marshall is a washed-up journalist, teaching a summer class at the university and struggling to keep his students (and himself) focused on his planned lessons. Someone has been leaving copies of his old articles on his lectern every morning, forcing him to revisit the story of a decades-old tragedy and mistakes he’s made … both personal and professional.

Web, a quirky loner, has always been ready to pick up and go at a moment’s notice. In fact, he’s very good at not being noticed, at least not unless he wants to be. That’s been helpful in his years working for the Set Up, but the new hire’s questions are starting to make Web feel less confident about his work as a con man.

What is the Set Up, and who’s playing whom? The search for answers leads Ally, Web, and Marshall from the glitz of the Strip to the grit of Sin City’s strip-mall suburbs, and from an abandoned Unification compound to a deadly bar mitzvah. As their paths converge, this unlikely trio uncover the shadowy power dynamics and shifting personalities that shape a city. 

The Orange County International Raceway (OCIR) was a dream come true for Southern California race fans. From 1967 to 1983, the raceway featured the best of the best from the world of drag racing.

All the stars of the sport flocked to OCIR just to say they raced there. Race fans from all over the United States and beyond came to experience the comforts and innovations built into Southern California’s super raceway. For spectators, the raceway offered reserved seating, electronic scoreboards, and restaurant-style food. It was also a dream come true for racers with running water in the paved pit area; shade trees; and parking for trailers, recreational vehicles, and big rigs. But eventually the land the track was built on became too valuable as the population in the area grew, and the Orange County International Raceway closed its doors for good on October 29, 1983. 

Author and photographer Steve Reyes made the 10-hour round-trip drive from his Northern California home to Southern California to attend and be a part of OCIR race coverage from 1967 to 1983. His publications with Arcadia Publishing include Southern California Top Fuel Dragsters, Northern California Drag Racing, and Southern California Funny Cars.

Those who Saved South Carolina

In May 1780, Charlestown surrendered to the British army, and an ominous, dark cloud descended over the spirit of independence in South Carolina. More than five thousand Patriots of the Continental army and militias conceded their arms and declared an oath as true and faithful subjects to His Majesty, the king of Great Britain, or otherwise faced prison or exile. That left the volunteers of the state’s militia as the best line of defense for the state. More than two hundred skirmishes and battles in the state provide testament to the passion and dedication with which South Carolinians defended their state. Brian Eleazer details the behind-the-scenes story of how South Carolina survived.

“A deliriously creative tour-de-force … a breathtakingly imaginative and enjoyable novel." (Booklist, starred review)

It begins with a gunshot: a student's public suicide on a university campus. The blast radius of this tragic explosion expands to encompass 50 years of our history and two of the grandest characters in recent American fiction: Simon Magnus, a comic-book writer who transfigured popular culture turned gender activist who transfigures the English language, and Ash del Greco, an online occultist who by the age of 20 has seen to the end of everything and wants desperately to prove the superiority of mind over matter. With a decades-spanning but tightly-knit plot, written in an expansive style, Major Arcana canvasses America’s inner life and moral history from coast to coast and across two generations in a delirious saga about art, magic, love, and death. 

Originally serialized on the author’s Substack newsletter, Major Arcana is a novel about the transformative power of popular culture. With a nod to Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and for fans of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Pistelli reimagines the expansive novel for the 21st century. 

Beatrice, Nebraska, was founded in 1857 along the Big Blue River. Known for its rich farming and manufacturing, Beatrice was marketed by the early settlers as the “Queen City of the Blue.”

Beatrice is home to the first homestead claimed after the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862. After the first railroad line came through Beatrice in 1871, the city’s population exploded. At the turn of the 20th century, Beatrice was home to six self-made millionaires, remarkable for the time. Over the years, Beatrice’s population has remained steady—around 12,000—thanks to the help of nationally known industries like Dempster Mill Manufacturing and Beatrice Foods. Today, industries such as eXmark, Beatrice Bakery Company, and Ratigan-Schottler Manufacturing provide products that reach beyond Nebraska.

Gage County Historical Society and Museum strives to preserve the county’s history, including Beatrice, Nebraska. Its mission is “to preserve, enhance, and showcase the unique history of Gage County by connecting our stories to develop appreciation throughout the wider community.” The museum is housed in the 1906 Chicago, Burlington & Quincy passenger depot in downtown Beatrice. Covering the first 100 years of Beatrice’s history, this book features never-before-published photographs gathered from a variety of sources, including images from the society’s collection.

On November 5, 1976, twenty-seven-year-old Dorothy Milliken left her rural home in Sabattus, Maine, to go to an all-night laundromat. The following morning, her body was found slumped against the outside wall.

Despite various leads, there were no arrests for her murder. Dorothy Milliken became a name typed on an index card filed at state police headquarters, her crime scene displayed in grainy black-and-white photos in the evening newspapers. Nearly five decades later, author Sharon Kitchens examines the cold case, interviewing more than forty people, including Dorothy’s family, friends, former neighbors, law enforcement and forensic specialists. Who was Dorothy? Why has her killer never been found? Did she know her murderer, or was her death due to a random, frenzied attack?

A portion of the profits from the sale of the book are being donated to the Forensic Anthropology Identification and Recovery (FAIR) Lab at the University of New Hampshire. The FAIR Lab trains students to excavate, recover and identify human remains.

The Spirit of Springfield Mountain 

The natural beauty and fertile lands of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, first attracted the Algonquin people, followed by English settlers. The town’s history is rich with fascinating tales, including Reverend Noah Merrick’s love for his wife, Abigail, immortalized in the poem “The Parson’s Rose.” Other stories recount the tragic drowning of six young people in Nine Mile Pond in 1799 and the heroic citizens who helped save the Federal Armory in 1787. Historian David Bourcier brings these and other captivating stories to life, tracing the town’s journey from its roots as Springfield Mountain to present-day Wilbraham.