New Books Publishing Today
Some books exist to tell you what happened in the world. Today's new releases exist to tell you what happened on your street, in your county, along the river you've crossed a hundred times without thinking twice. That's the thing about local history, the stories were always there. They just needed someone stubborn enough to go find them.
Every Tuesday, Arcadia adds fresh titles to a catalog that has spent decades doing what national publishers don't bother with: preserving the histories of small towns, overlooked industries, complicated communities, and the people who built them. This week's lineup is no exception. Whether you're drawn to natural history, regional crime lore, industrial rivalries, or the slow transformation of a landscape over centuries, there's a book in today's batch that will make a place you thought you knew feel entirely new.
Let's dive in.
During the 1880s, the new city of Roanoke attracted a large and diverse workforce and a multitude of merchants and investors. But like the Western cow towns and mining camps of the same period, the city also attracted sex workers, professional gamblers, charlatans, and common thieves. By the early 1900s, Roanoke had become well known for its brothels, saloons, gambling halls, and rampant lawlessness.
Despite a campaign to clean up the city, Roanoke was unable to shake its unsavory image. This was particularly true after Virginia went dry in 1916. With easy access to the moonshine whiskey that had long been produced in the surrounding mountains, bootleg kingpins boldly transported illegal liquor into the city and used violence to protect their operations.
The Redemption of Julia Bulette
The murderer was caught and hanged in front of a crowd of thousands, and the citizens of the Comstock considered the matter closed. More than 150 years later, the murder of Julia Bulette has become a local legend.
The man accused, John Millain, was suspected of killing before, but there would be no justice for those victims. Reduced to vague mentions in newspaper articles, little was left to tie their unsolved murders to that of Julia’s. Did John Millain leave a trail of tragedy that stretched from San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood to Julia’s untimely end in Virginia City?
Building Portland's Memorial Coliseum
Portland, Oregon in the 1950s was a city at a crossroads. Would it retain the status quo of the first half of the twentieth century or rush headlong into the future?
Pitting east side upstarts against downtown traditionalists, the battle over where to build the Memorial Coliseum was at times exciting, controversial, and long-winded. Three very different locations set off a storm of subterfuge and political posturing that included the indictment of a commissioner originally tasked with choosing the site, and the rise of an east side used car dealer determined to prevent the city from building the arena downtown.
With the future of sports and recreation in the Rose City at stake, city leaders and private citizens sparred in public hearings and Portland’s first ever televised debates.
For centuries, Nebraska’s Platte River Valley has served as a natural passageway for the nation’s travelers. The Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails guided intrepid settlers west. Soon, the Pony Express, roughly following those trails, provided the first direct mail service connecting the West Coast with east of the Mississippi River. These historic routes later evolved into the transcontinental railroad, the Lincoln Highway, and eventually modern-day Interstate 80. History buffs, road-trippers, and the generally curious alike can navigate the tracks that each era of travel left locally and nationally.
Indiana became a state in 1816, and soon after, roads were considered for the state to help bring in settlers. The first south-to-north road in the state, going from the Ohio River to Lake Michigan, was proposed in 1818 by Rep. William Hendricks. Deciding on where the road would begin on the Ohio River resulted in some discussions before Madison was finally selected. Michigan City was easily chosen as the northern end of the road. From Indianapolis north, South Bend was picked to avoid the Kankakee River’s swamps and marshes. It was called Michigan Road because it went to Lake Michigan. Construction on the road began in 1830 and was completed in 1837, and it covered 260 miles. Since 1837, the road has undergone many changes, but in the 21st century, most of the road is lost to history. The Historic Michigan Road Byway was created in 2011 to showcase the original route.
Deep in the woods of central Pennsylvania, off a winding two-lane road, sits an oasis—Knoebels Amusement Resort. With over 60 rides of all types, along with two campgrounds and a golf course, Knoebels advertises itself as America’s largest free-admission amusement park.
It has come a long way since 1926, when Hartman Henry Knoebel first opened a swimming pool, restaurant, and carousel at his farm outside Elysburg. It was one of dozens of small picnic parks located in the region at the time. But unlike its onetime peers, Knoebels managed to thrive and grow under the careful stewardship of five generations of the Knoebel family, adding transformative attractions such as the Grand Carousel in 1942, Haunted Mansion in 1973, Phoenix in 1985, Twister in 1999, and Flying Turns in 2013. Today, Knoebels Amusement Resort is a beloved institution drawing countless visitors annually.
A classic feminist novel originally published in 1915, and set in Iowa in the early years of the 20th century, Susan Glaspell's Fidelity is a surprising, suspenseful work about the strictures that confine women, the risks those who want to flee them take, and the opportunities that await them if they do.
Each of these titles started the same way, with a local historian who knew that if they didn't write it down, it would disappear. The sponge divers, the river traders, the county jail inmates, the conservationists and the timber cutters and everyone in between: they all get a chapter now. That's what local history publishing is for.
If something in today's lineup caught your eye, don't sit on it, scroll through the titles, grab your copy, and get reading. And if you want to find a book about your specific corner of America, browse the full Arcadia catalog by state or subject and see what's been written about the place you call home. Your community's story is already out there. It's just waiting on your shelf.