Making of America

Founded as a township in 1798, Hamtramck remained primarily a rural area until the early twentieth century, when auto pioneers John and Horace Dodge opened a factory on the south end of town. In just 20 years, the city's population increased by a staggering 1,600 percent. The majority of these newest residents were Polish immigrants, who brought with them a strong work ethic, a rich culture, a genuine joy for living, and an intense appreciation for democracy. Legendary to this day for its fiery politics, the solidly Democratic Hamtramck openly flaunted Prohibition, received a visit from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, strongly supported the early labor unions, and even served as a key headquarters for the Communist Party in North America. In Hamtramck: The Driven City, an engaging narrative combined with more than 100 black-and-white images will take readers on a fascinating journey into the past and breathe new life into the memorable characters and events, the conflicts and scandals that formed the city's distinctive identity.

Chronicling the region's history from the year 500 to modern times, Sunland and Tujunga: From Village to City tells the singular story of the development of these California towns from quiet native home to inconspicuous village to thriving city. Exploring the growth of industry, agriculture, and recreation in Sunland and Tujunga, this volume also depicts the daily life of early inhabitants who built homes, erected churches, set up schools, opened businesses, and worked hard to establish a strong, healthy community for the generations that would follow. Over 100 compelling photographs highlight the awesome beauty of the area, as well as the unyielding spirit of the men and women who shaped Sunland and Tujunga into the communities they are today.

Rumson Road, once a sandy path among the farms, grew into one of the most famed driving roads in the United States. Longtime residents will recognize familiar names and locales as they discover early Black Point, one of the first sites of the Rumson settlement. Thomas Hunt, whose Pavilion Hotel and steamboat for guests ushered in a new era of resort activity, altered the face of the community in 1845. Most of the town's spiritual, social, and community organizations began in Oceanic, whose permanent residents led the campaign to make Rumson a borough. The new history Rumson: Shaping a Superlative Suburb keeps readers captivated with lively narrative and beautiful images featuring the influential people and places that contribute to Rumson's past and present.

Gravesend: The Home of Coney Island takes readers on a fascinating journey from the town's first settlement in the 1640s by Lady Deborah Moody, an intrepid and visionary leader of religious freedom, across four centuries of progress, conflict, and change. Containing over 120 black-and-white images, this stunning illustrated history brings to life early figures and events that shaped Gravesend's past and initiated Coney Island's prominence as the world's playground. Like a visitor of yesteryear, readers will stroll along the busy boardwalk, taste the world-famous hot dogs from Nathan's Restaurant, explore the renowned dance halls, race tracks, and casinos, and thrill at the kaleidoscopic assortment of roller coasters and other breathtaking rides, such as the Parachute Jump, at the celebrated Dreamland, Luna, and Steeplechase Parks.

York County is representative of the Carolina experience and its dual identity, with its "big city" opportunities along its eastern boundaries and its rustic, austere charm lingering in its western sections. This volume explores the county's bucolic setting from the centrally located county seat of York to its western border along the Broad River and traces the history of the county from an era dominated by early American Indian tribes, to the arrival of the first Scotch-Irish settlers, across three centuries of struggle and progress, to the present. York and Western York County: The Story of a Southern Eden brings to life, through word and image, the personalities and events that shaped York and its western rural paradise, including the small towns of Sharon, Hickory Grove, Smyrna, McConnells, and Bullock's Creek.

Springdale: The Courage of Shiloh not only explores the extraordinary history of the city, but also highlights the lives of the families who survived the hardships of immigration and homesteading, the horrors of the Civil War, and the reconstruction and progress of Springdale. From John Holcombe, the founder of Shiloh, who envisioned a city growing from the springs surrounding his church, to the birth of the Frisco Railroad, which turned a small farming community into the Fruit Center of Arkansas, this amusing and enlightening tale traces a city's continuing evolution.

Minden thrived commercially, with economic gain centralized in Bayou Dorcheat, which was composed of separate landings acting as shipping points for goods coming from much of northern Louisiana. Industries like cotton farming and the Minden Lumber Mill, formed in 1901 as one of the largest mills in the United States at the time, caused the town's population to nearly double in just ten years. Under the leadership of great men like E.S. Richardson, Minden also became a model for other towns of similar size in the field of education. At the same time, disastrous fires, a catastrophic tornado, and the devastation of the steamboat trade on Bayou Dorcheat by the coming of the railroad challenged the community in the ever-changing twentieth century.

In the eighteenth century, stalwart pioneers began to establish settlements in the rough and varied landscape of the region that was one day to become Harnett County. Traveling along old Native American trails or following the watery highways of the Cape Fear River and its tributaries, these mainly European settlers-including a large influx of Highland Scots-made their way into the remote interior of the province, where they constructed modest cabins and set about farming the land. Through the years, the people of Harnett joined in the struggles to win freedom from England, to defend the South, and to battle the forces of evil on the other side of the world, but they also fought to build strong communities, such as Erwin, Lillington, and Dunn, and to enhance the daily lives of all county residents. Plank roads and canals, mills and iron works, railroads and academies, all served to connect citizens to the world beyond their doors and to advance the growing prosperity. Situated between the metropolitan cities of Raleigh and Fayetteville, the county begins the new century with a focus on developing industry and fostering the pride so deeply felt by all who call Harnett County home.

Paducah: Frontier to the Atomic Age tells the story of a community torn apart from the start between Chickasaw and American claims, then Confederate and Union invasions. Exploring the expanding city streets and the ever-busy waterfront, readers will meet natives Quintus Quincy Quigley, chronicler of events on the eve of the Civil War; the "Dean," Dr. Robert Gordon Matheson, who revolutionized two-year colleges; and Mrs. Houston "Dolly" McNutt, among the first female mayors in Kentucky.

This unique volume also recounts the story of the city's central role in nineteenth-century history, thanks to its strategic location at the mouth of the Tennessee River on the Ohio. At that time, the Civil War struggle for control of border states tested Paducah's loyalty even while the rest of Kentucky fought to remain neutral, and Reconstruction brought new challenges in race relations to a region deeply divided by the ghosts of slavery. In the twentieth century, the city developed tremendously with the advent of new industry and was the adopted home of President Truman's pioneering Vice President Alben Barkley, among the most effective and groundbreaking statesmen to fill that office.