New Books Publishing Today
If you love discovering the stories that shaped your hometown and the people who lived them, these new local history books deserve a place on your shelf. Local history offers a powerful lens into american history, revealing how national movements, cultural shifts, and everyday lives unfolded at the community level. From forgotten neighborhoods to influential local figures, local history books preserve the voices and events that rarely make it into textbooks but are essential to understanding the full story of American history.
New Local History Books
A decade after Gerald McCabe opened up a guitar repair shop in Santa Monica, California, legendary folk musicians Elizabeth Cotten and Mike Seeger came looking for a way to earn money to get back home. Their inaugural performance kickstarted a concert series that has featured some of the world’s finest musicians—including Doc Watson, Jackson Browne, Bill Monroe and Linda Ronstadt—in one of the most intimate performance spaces on the West Coast.
In Santa Fe, the shade of Julia Staab wanders through La Posada, once the site of her opulent home, and in Cloudcroft, the Lodge hosts its own ghostly resident, Rebecca, who once worked as a chambermaid in the very place she haunts. The colorful past of Casa Vieja in Corrales inspired not only rumors of hidden bodies but also the menu, and on the Plaza of Old Town Albuquerque, tales of spectral encounters abound.
Οn May 5, 1931, Callie Wiggins rose from her bed, dressed, and—as she had done many times before—headed to 323 Wagner Street in Water Valley to the home of her employers, W.B. and Mamie Wagner. She was planning to cook them a hearty breakfast, but when she entered the house, she found the usually pristine interior in shambles. The smell of blood hung heavy in the air. Then she saw the hardwood floors streaked with gore. When police arrived, they ventured into the carnage to find bloody footprints, signs of an attempted cleanup, and, in the dining room, an axe covered in blood, hair, and bone.
From El Rancho de Los Gatos, the Mexican land grant of 1839, to 1854 when James Alexander Forbes built his flour mill, and to the era of the Valley of Heart’s Delight, an orchardist’s paradise, history has been recorded, and photographs still survive. The railroad arrived in 1877 and put Los Gatos on the map. The town burned down twice, in 1891 and 1901, but was rebuilt by residents who took pride in the matchless small town they called home. In the 1920s, Los Gatos attracted writers, painters, poets, and other assorted creative folk. The population expanded rapidly after World War II, and the orchards disappeared, replaced by homes and businesses. The October 17, 1989, Loma Prieta Earthquake devastated the town, with old unreinforced masonry buildings on Main Street and North Santa Cruz Avenue collapsing and at least 400 homes, including stately restored Victorians, damaged. Images of America: Los Gatos Remembered showcases the memories and history of this picturesque area of California.
The first incorporated village in Westchester County, Ossining is defined by a history of remarkable firsts: the county’s first newspaper, first volunteer fire department, first childcare facility, and first official American casualty of World War I, Edmond C. Genet. One of its most enduring symbols is the infamous Sing Sing Prison, established in 1825. Although its presence has left an indelible mark on the village’s identity, the prison remains just one chapter in Ossining’s rich and textured story.
New Mexico is known as the Land of Enchantment, so it is appropriate that the state has an Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway. The 84-mile circular route crosses the Sangre de Cristo Mountains twice and is anchored in Taos. While the creation of the byway is a modern-day tourist development, the history of the area goes back at least 1,000 years to the creation of Taos Pueblo. The ancient Puebloans built a five-story adobe structure on the banks of the Rio Pueblo, still standing today just north of the present town of Taos. The village of Taos hosted trade fairs in the early 1800s with attendance by the Puebloans, fur traders, and other native tribes of the area. The 1900s witnessed the arrival of artists drawn by the beautiful scenery and native culture. Other historic towns of the Enchanted Circle grew up around short-lived gold and silver mines.
Exploring local history books is one of the most meaningful ways to connect with American history and support the preservation of regional stories for future generations. Whether you are a lifelong resident, a researcher, or simply curious about the past, these new releases offer fresh perspectives and rich storytelling rooted in real places. Browse the collection today, support local authors and historians, and start uncovering the history that happened right where you live.
And of course, if these books don't satisfy your curiosity, browse our full collection of local history books here.