Making of America

For nearly four centuries, the maritime history of Stratford, Connecticut set the standard for the growing relationship between the United States and the sea. For the long years when ocean and river were the only practical means of travel, and from the struggles for independence to the quest for commerce that played out upon the waves, Stratford's brave sons have navigated both Long Island Sound, whose waters lap their shores, and the wide world beyond. Stratford and the Sea is the story of Captain David Hawley fighting to save the young American Revolution. It is the story of privateer Samuel Nicoll's furious attacks on British shipping in the War of 1812 that forever altered our nation's future. And it is the story of merchant captains like Dowdall, Sterling, and Benjamin who pioneered transatlantic commerce and opened up trade routes to the Orient, establishing American dominance in international trade. But there is more to the story than the men who tell it. Here also-brought to life with 200 vintage photographs, period maps, and antique postcards-is the tale of the rise and fall of the mighty oyster fishery, the birth of decoy carving as a unique American folk art, and the rush of progress and industry brought to town by Igor Sikorsky and his flying boats.

The lives of the Native American, African, and European inhabitants of Bertie County have not only shaped, but been shaped, by its landscape.

One of the oldest counties in North Carolina, Bertie County lies in the western coastal plains of northeastern North Carolina, bordered to the east by Albemarle Sound and the tidewater region and to the west by the Roanoke River in the piedmont.

The county's waterways and forests sustained the old Native American villages that were replaced in the eighteenth century by English plantations, cleared for the whites by African slaves. Bertie County's inhabitants successfully developed and sustained a wide variety of crops including the ""three sisters""-corn, beans, and squash-as well as the giants: tobacco, cotton, and peanuts. The county was a leading exporter of naval stores and mineral wealth and later, a breadbasket of the Confederacy.

Bertie County: An Eastern Carolina History documents the long history of the region and tells how its people, at first limited by the landscape, radically altered it to support their needs. This is the story of the Native Americans, gone from the county for 200 years but for arrowheads and other artifacts. It is the story of the African slaves and their descendants and the chronicle of their struggles through slavery, the Jim Crow era, and the Civil Rights Movement. It is also the story of the Europeans and their rush to tame the wilderness in a new land. Their entwined history is clarified in dozens of new maps created especially for this book, along with vivid illustrations of forgotten faces and moments from the past.

For over 200 years, Cincinnati citizens created a vibrant, if at times volatile, urban culture that frequently harkens back to its remarkable past in an effort to shape its future.

Once known as a great commercial port and pork-packing center, Cincinnati developed a diverse industrial economy in a bid to remain the West's Queen City. It is a community familiar with change as new transportation systems evolved, commercial activity shifted, and poor race relations periodically erupted in unrest.

Hawai'i is filled with traditions, history, and mythology that are sure to engage and interest any reader.

Although its soils are the youngest in the Hawaiian chain, the Big Island's chronicles are at times epic, tragic, and heroic, but always fascinating. Modern Hawai'i is filled with tradition and mythology, accommodating influences as diverse as its inviting landscape. Kamehameha stood tall to mold this nascent region into a unified kingdom and others fought to sustain it, while outside forces molded and shaped this island in astonishing ways.

Since 1850, Chicago has felt the benefits of a vital Italian presence. These immigrants formed much of the unskilled workforce employed to build up this and many other major U.S. cities. From often meager and humble beginnings, Italians built and congregated in neighborhoods that came to define the Chicago landscape. Post-World War II development threatened this communal lifestyle, and subsequent generations of Italian Americans have been forced to face new challenges to retain their ethnic heritage and identity in a changing world. With the city's support, they are succeeding.