New Books Publishing Today That Bring Local History to Life
There is something special about reading a book that tells the story of the place you call home. Whether you grew up in a small town, recently moved to a new city, or simply love discovering the hidden stories behind familiar streets and landmarks, new books about local history have a way of making the past feel personal. At Arcadia Publishing, we believe every community has a story worth telling, and this season we are proud to bring a fresh collection of new books to readers who love where they live.
From forgotten founding stories to celebrated community milestones, our newest titles cover the remarkable history happening right in your own backyard. These are not just new books for history buffs. They are books for anyone who has ever looked at an old photograph of their town and wondered what life was really like, for anyone who wants to understand the roots of the place they love, and for anyone searching for new books that feel both meaningful and close to home.
Whether you are browsing for yourself or looking for the perfect gift for a history lover in your life, you are in the right place. Read on to explore our newest local history releases and find the story that speaks to you.
New Books Publishing Today
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Today, people enjoy the convenience of Colorado’s roads without realizing that beneath lie the original Ute and Spanish trails, mountain men’s pathways, and early military wagon roads. The cultural landscape of western Colorado has undergone immense changes since the mid-sixteenth century. The rapid advancement of transportation technology has enabled the conquest of complex climate zones and challenging regional topography. Early western Colorado inhabitants once migrated on footpaths that followed the path of least resistance, traversing lush meadow corridors between rugged mountain ranges, paralleling the river bottoms, and enjoying the welcome shade of cool canyon trails in the high desert. The early Ute people, Spanish explorers, mountain men, and U.S. topographical engineers developed resourceful ways to make travel less strenuous and cover greater distances. Historian David P. Bailey chronicles their early treks, which paved the way for the first major thoroughfare through western Colorado.
Revisit the Revolutionary War through the eyes of Charleston’s most misunderstood figures, the Loyalists. Often erased from more traditional narratives, these men and women lived in the deadliest gray space of the war, where allegiance shifted by necessity, survival outweighed ideology, and every decision carried life-and-death consequences.
Featuring more than eighty rare and striking historic images, this book reconstructs Charleston as a high-stakes garrison town: a city of spies, secret networks, and double agents—one operating directly under General Nathanael Greene himself. Drawn from newly examined primary sources and firsthand accounts, the story exposes the covert war beneath the battlefield, where Patriots and Loyalists often moved indistinguishably through the same streets, salons, and homes.
Beyond the fighting, the narrative follows the war’s long shadow into post-Revolutionary South Carolina, where confiscation, exile, and political vengeance threatened to tear the region apart. Why did iconic Patriot leaders like Henry Laurens, Francis Marion, and Nathanael Greene intervene to restore seized Loyalist estates? And how did those decisions quietly shape the foundation of reconciliation in the new republic?
At the heart of the story are the women of Loyalist Charleston, forced out of the domestic sphere and into the raw machinery of power. Their petitions before the state legislature were pleas for property, protection, and survival.
Haunted Oklahoma Brothels and Saloons
Saloons and brothels were often the first businesses to spring into existence when the boomtowns of Oklahoma were formed overnight in the state’s early history. During Prohibition, they entertained in the shadows, and their stories have often been left untold. But those stories, and the forgotten women who were often at the center of them, still shaped an indelible legacy. Sometimes their echoes linger in the present, from a saloon patron who continues to tip a McAlester bar from the great beyond to the phantom of a Tulsa brothel worker that appears with enough energy to flip over a pizza pan. Brooke Montoya embarks on a journey through the haunted history of Oklahoma’s saloons, bars, brothels and speakeasies.
The streets of Fairfield have played host to a multitude of businesses over the years. Some have come and gone without much fanfare, but others have left a lasting impression on the community.
Many locals started their lives as “Bunney babies,” delivered by Dr. Gordon Bunney at the Empire Street hospital bearing his name, and grew up playing Donkey Kong and Pac-Man at the Gold Mine arcade at the Solano Mall. People shopped at Freitas Toggery, Pinkerton Hardware, and Napadashery and then met up with friends at places like the Solano Theatre and Pepperbelly's Comedy Club. If you were looking to buy a car, there was no better place to go than Woodard Chevrolet or Chet Monez Ford.
Fairfield also welcomed innovative companies like Explosive Technology, which was founded in 1965 and helped put the first men on the moon.
The American Revolution on the Jersey Shore
On the Jersey Shore, the Revolutionary War was more than a contest between the Continental and British Armies. In this neglected region, locals divided into pro- and anti-independence camps that fought a tumultuous six-year war only intermittently tied to the larger conflict. This war brought unprecedented economic opportunity to the Jersey Shore’s formerly poor and secluded villages, as locals risked their savings on speculative salt-making ventures and risked their lives in privateer vessels. British ships bound for New York were hunted by smaller vessels lurking in shore inlets. Local leaders sought to find and punish stealthy “London Traders” smuggling provisions behind British lines, and militia battled so-called Pine Robber gangs that frequently bested them.
The Blackfeet Indian Reservation was established in 1851 and forms the westernmost portion of present-day Pondera County. The Montana Territory was established in 1864, with the area originally being included in the vast Choteau County with Fort Benton as its county seat. The 1880s brought cattlemen and sheepherders, with Montana becoming a state in 1889. The Carey Land Act of 1894, subsequent amendments to the act in 1909 and 1912, and newly built railroads brought homesteaders and businesses to what would become Pondera County in 1919. Pondera County has a rich history of Blackfeet Indians, fur traders, trading posts, the Whoop-Up Trail and Riplinger Trail to Alberta, stagecoaches, mule trains, cattlemen, sheepherders, homesteaders, the Great Falls–Canada Railroad, and the Great Northern Railroad. Communities and towns established in Pondera County have included Fort Conrad, Robare, Willow Rounds, Pondera, Dupuyer, Conrad, Valier, Heart Butte, Williams, Manson, Fowler, Sollid, Brady, Ledger, Lytle, and Lucille. Most communities are still in existence.
Steam Railroads in Central Wyoming
The two main lines, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad and the Chicago & North Western Railway, both operated steam until diesel-electric locomotives began to replace them. This journey will focus on the lines between Valentine, Nebraska, and central Wyoming as well as the survey work done beyond the town of Lander, Wyoming. The areas around the towns of Douglas, Glenrock, Casper, and Riverton will all be examined. The last steam locomotive in regular service would leave the region in 1952, and with its departure would come sweeping changes to how the railroads of the region operated and of their connections to the communities they served. The majority of the photographs presented have never been published.
New books have a way of opening doors to worlds we never knew existed, and when those worlds are woven into the history of our own communities, the connection runs even deeper. We hope this collection of new local history books inspires you to explore, to ask questions, and to see the places you love with fresh eyes.
Every title we publish starts with a community, a story, and someone passionate enough to make sure that story is not forgotten. When you pick up one of these new books, you are not just adding to your reading list. You are helping preserve the history that makes each community unique.
Ready to find your next great read? Browse our full collection of new books at Arcadia Publishing and discover the local history waiting to be found in your corner of the world. And if you know a story in your community that deserves to be told, we would love to hear from you. The next great local history book might be yours to write.