Midwest

The largest freshwater system on Earth, like you’ve never seen it before. 

The Great Lakes region is home to one-tenth of the United States’ population, and one-quarter of Canada’s. Even if we remember the mnemonic HOMES, we might forget what a natural wonder they are. Cartographer Alex B. Hill, author of Detroit in 50 Maps, shifts our perspectives and offers a fresh look at the five lakes and the vibrant region surrounding them. Split into four categories—history & culture, ecology, infrastructure, and physical—these fifty-plus maps show the lakes’ influence and confluences, from the Underground Railroad to monarch butterfly migration. See how many NFL teams play on a Great Lake, where mysterious shipwrecks and Bigfoot sightings cluster, the lakes' effect on snowfall, and even how “not so Great” lakes have vied for (and in one case, temporarily won) a coveted Great designation. Shrinking wetlands, oil spills, and rising temperatures due to climate change reflect both the fragility of the lakes and the vital role they play. 

Great Lakes in 50 Maps is perfect for anyone who appreciates the history, nature, and future of the world’s greatest group of lakes.

There are as many versions of Greater Cincinnati as there are residents of the region. That’s roughly two million different perceptions of the city.

In Cincinnati in 50 Maps, editor Nick Swartsell and cartographer Andy Woodruff present over fifty ways of looking at the Queen City, from its early roadways and Indigenous earthworks to its shifting neighborhood borders. A visualization of relative population density can tell one story, and one showing where jobs are clustered tells another. New maps with up-to-date data sit beside historical maps that show things like exactly how communities were razed to make room for highways. Broken up into five sections—Mapping the Past, the Shape of Cincinnati, Communities and Culture, Getting Around, and Health and Environment—these visual representations show both the commonalities and the contradictions of an ever-changing American city.

These maps present reported statistics in new ways, and they represent the things that make Cincinnati the unique place that residents know and love: Find every place you can get Cincinnati chili, the location of every public stairway, and where the infamous Cincy traffic is worst.

Anyone who calls or ever called Cincinnati home will find something familiar, something surprising, and something revealing in this glossy, full-color volume.

Pittsburgh in 50 Maps offers unique new views of a city at a crossroads—culturally, economically, and demographically.

There are countless ways to map a city. Roads, bridges, and waterways help you navigate the twists and turns; topography gives you the lay of the land; population trends show you a region’s changing fortunes. But the best maps let you feel what a city’s really like. Whether you call it the Steel City, the City of Bridges, City of Champions, Hell with the Lid Off, or even the Paris of Appalachia, Pittsburgh’s distinctive character is undeniable. Pittsburgh in 50 Maps considers the boundaries of the city’s 90 distinct neighborhoods (plus Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood), the legacy of the steel industry, and how immigration continues to shape the city. You’ll also find the areas with the highest concentrations of bike lanes, supermarkets, tree cover, and fiberglass dinosaurs. Each colorful map offers a new perspective on one of America’s most consistently surprising cities and the people who live here.

Sure to be a conversation starter for Pittsburgh locals, transplants, and expats, Pittsburgh in 50 Maps is for anyone keen to understand the city in new and unexpected ways.

Detroit in 50 Maps shows you the Motor City from entirely new perspectives, from neighborhood coffee shops to the legacy of redlining.

There are thousands of ways to map a city. Roads, bridges, and railways help you navigate the twists and turns; topography gives you the lay of the land; population growth shows you its changing fortunes. But the best maps let you feel what that city's really like. Detroit in 50 Maps deconstructs the Motor City in surprising new ways. Track where new coffee shops and coworking spaces have opened and closed in the last five years. Find the areas with the highest concentrations of pizzerias, Coney Island hot dog shops, or ring-necked pheasants. In each colorful map, you'll find a new perspective on one of America's most misunderstood cities and the people who live here.

A conversation starter for Detroiters past, present, and future, Detroit in 50 Maps is for anyone keen to understand the city in new and surprising ways.

This full-color book of maps, one of Belt Publishing’s 50 Maps Series, presents the capital and biggest city in Ohio like you’ve never seen it before. 

Columbus is a place perpetually in search of an identity. Once called a “cow town,” it is now a sprawling metropolitan area and home to the behemoth Ohio State University. How can one best represent the city, in all its complications and contradictions? 

One way is through maps, as editor Brent Warren and cartographer Vicky Johnson-Dahl explore here. These fifty-plus maps show things that are inherently Columbus, from ComFest to the present and former locations of the city’s iconic arches. But you will also find maps that offer surprising ways of looking at the city, whether charting immigrant populations, LGBTQ+ landmarks, or mass transit that was never actually built. Divided into four sections—Situating the City, Getting to Know the City, Getting Around, and People and Places—Columbus in 50 Maps will excite current, former, and future Columbusites as well as people with an interest in the region or creative urban cartography.

An urban atlas that is about so much more than directions, Cleveland in 50 Maps offers new perspectives on one of America's most misunderstood cities.

The best maps let you feel what a place is really like, and Cleveland in 50 Maps deconstructs the Forest City in a way that's never been done before. With colorful maps and insightful commentary, follow the changing locations of breweries, music venues, and commuter rail lines. Track the Cleveland Clinic's growing east side footprint, year-by-year attendance at the Jake, and the addition of communities to the Cultural Gardens. Find out which local high schools produce the most NFL players and which locations major presidential candidates visited in 2016. Discover the massive salt mine under Lake Erie and the barricades on the border of Shaker Heights. In each one of these artful gems, you'll gain a deeper understanding of how people actually experience the city of Cleveland and how its diverse communities actually take shape there.

A beautiful insider's look that's perfect for native Clevelanders or urban explorers who are looking to get to know their city even better.

The third entry in Belt's urban cartography series, Buffalo in 50 Maps offers a truly unique view of the City of Good Neighbors, from the East Side to Millionaires' Row to Cazenovia Park.

The best maps give you a feeling for what a place is really like, and Buffalo in 50 Maps offers a brand-new look at both the past and present of the Queen City of the Great Lakes. Through its colorful maps and insightful commentary, you'll discover the history of the city's changing boundaries, its numerous breweries, and its most popular bus routes. Learn how long it takes to get to a Bills game on Sunday, why the city smells like Cheerios, or where the city's immigrants have recently opened businesses. You'll also discover the city's food deserts, how the layout of its streets led to intense segregation, and how its vacant lots reveal where reinvestment and development have actually taken place.

It's a beautiful and nuanced look that's perfect for Buffalo natives but also for those who just want to get to know the city a little bit better.

The Architecture of Chicago’s Beverly Hills/Morgan Park is the first complete large-format visual record published of these Southwest Side twin communities in Chicago. The historic and significant architecture and distinctive landscape of these neighborhoods is gorgeously captured by Mati Maldre in hundreds of photographic plates, maps, and illustrations, supplemented by essays by Timothy Barton, Harold Wolff, Robert Wagner, and Paul Sprague.

Many of Chicago’s most important designers are represented in this community, including Frank Lloyd Wright, George Washington Maher, Daniel H. Burnham, Robert E. Seyfarth, Dwight H. Perkins, Robert S. Smith, and Walter Burley Griffin. This community also called on noteworthy local architects, including Harry Hale Waterman, Rudolph P. Boehm, and John Todd Hetherington and his son Murray. The book also documents nationally and locally designated historic districts such as the Ridge Historic District, Longwood Drive, the Walter Burley Griffin Place District, and the Beverly/Morgan Park Railroad Station District, as well as individual designated historic houses.

See Boston from a new point of view in over fifty crisp, full-color maps.

Covering four distinct categories (“The Making of Boston,” “The Lay of the Land,” “Getting Around,” and “People and Culture” ), Andy Woodruff’s newly created, original maps investigate all facets of Boston’s past and present. In unraveling the many complex layers that comprise the “real” Boston, some explorations are expected: sports championships, universities, and pothole complaints. Others, such as the former cow paths that predated downtown streets, are decidedly more hidden.

Dig into the city’s history with a guided tour through Revolutionary War sites, landmarks of nineteenth-century Black Boston, and notable “first in the nation” events (like the first recorded UFO sighting). Uncover the structural forces that shaped the social and lived experience of Boston, with maps showing the impact of redlining, urban renewal practices, and the busing crisis of the 1970s. Discover how the city’s boundaries evolved through annexation and landfill and how they’ll continue to change due to coastal flooding risks. Explore some of Boston’s most unique quirks through surprising revelations about the density of Dunkin’ locations, the distinctive architecture of three-deckers, and the spread of the infamous Great Molasses Flood.

Entertaining and informative in equal parts, Boston in 50 Maps brings The Hub’s history, urban plans, and lore to life. A perfect welcome gift for a new Bostonian, or a fresh perspective on the city for a lifelong resident.

The Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner 2024

Corey Geiger, international agricultural journalist and author of On a Wisconsin Family Farm, pairs his rural roots and lively storytelling talents to capture six generations of life in America’s Dairyland.

After his mother Anna was killed by a train, Elmer Pritzl was thrown into adulthood at the tender age of sixteen. A clever and crafty fellow, Elmer quickly found work at the local foundry. Promoted to foreman by age eighteen, he began supervising men double and even triple his age during the depths of the Great Depression. However, that professional career track ended abruptly five years later when Elmer fell in love with a farmer’s daughter, Julia Burich. Six months after their wedding, Julia’s father passed away, and with no living male relatives left in her life, Julia’s mother, Anna Burich, asked, “Elmer, will you run my farm?” So, Elmer, born a city boy, transformed his life and began a love affair with a Wisconsin family farm.

The Midwest finally gets its due through essays penned by architects and critics, who shine a much-deserved spotlight on the region's architecture, from its celebrated landmarks to its lesser-known projects.

Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright may be the Midwest's (and the nation's) most famous architects, but the region has always been fertile ground for both master and amateur builders. Through a gorgeous array of photographs and short essays, Midwest Architecture Journeys takes readers on a trip to visit some of the region's most inventive buildings by architects such as Bertrand Goldberg, Bruce Goff, David Haid, Earl Young, and Lillian Leenhouts. It also includes stops at less obvious but equally daring sites, such as:

- The Cahokia mounds

- Buffalo grain silos

- Flint parking lots

- Dayton flea markets

- Fermilab

- New Glarus restaurants

- Minneapolis underground buildings

- Bronzeville churches

- Pruitt-Igoe public housing

- Cleveland's abandoned warehouses.

This vital collection of essays, full of stunning photographs, proves that what might seem flat is actually monumental, and what we assume to be boring is brimming with experimentation.

The perfect coffee table book that's also perfect for your next road trip.

After an extremely hot and dry summer, Chicago got a spark that grew into something unimiginable and unforgettable on Oct. 8, 1871.

On Oct. 8, 1871, what became known as the Great Chicago Fire was a massive firestorm that moved faster than most men could run, fueled by southwest winds of at least 30 miles per hour. The heat was so intense it melted stone and brick buildings in minutes and turned sand on the lakeshore into glass. A total of 18,000 buildings were destroyed. About 100,000 were left homeless, and over 300 lost their lives. The very same day, and nearly the same hour, both the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and Peshtigo, Wisconsin, suffered similar firestorms. Peshtigo's was even worse, creating an event that came to be known as the Peshtigo Paradigm. Many people believe the three fires forming a huge triangle of destruction were related as one with cosmic causes, and it remains a mystery to this day. Authors and native Chicagoans John Boda and Ray Johnson take you inside this historic happening.

Relive the World Series upset that gave rise to St. Louis's baseball obsession

With a legacy of 11 World Series wins, the culture of St. Louis intertwines with the Cardinals. It all started in 1926 with a legendary World Series upset against Babe Ruth’s Yankees. But what goes untold are compelling stories—like Ruth charming the city into what became a tradition of cheering opposing players—that made St. Louis fans go baseball crazy for the first time while early radio broadcasts helped turn the region into “Cardinal country.” These forgotten anecdotes made 1926 more than another championship. The victory transformed St. Louis into a baseball town, putting in place practices, traditions, loyalties, and an energy that have been passed down through time.

Terry Lemons, a St. Louis native, brings a reporter’s eye to recover faded memories that shine new light on the story that began in 1926.

When Rubén Castilla Herrera died suddenly in 2019, he left an acute void in Ohio's grassroots organizing community. Notably at the forefront of many regional social justice campaigns, his life and work still reverberate through the lives of those he fought so hard for: immigrants, refugees, farmworkers, the displaced, and many, many others who refuse to simply comply with injustice. Synthesizing oral histories, community voices, and ideas from queer Latinidad and migrant worker activism, Trust the Circle details Herrera's intimate and vulnerable way of seeing the world and his role in it as an agent of change. Here, you'll learn about: - His childhood in Texas and Oregon, where he and his siblings were forced into agricultural labor after the early death of their mother, and where Herrera first encountered the Chicano activism of César Chávez and Dr. José Ángel Gutiérrez. - His move to Columbus, Ohio, and the development of his unique circle-based leadership approach. - His coming-out as a queer Latinx man in middle age. - His tireless work toward the end of his life to help provide sanctuary for undocumented migrants during the Trump administration.  Marked by the voices and remembrances of those who knew Herrera best, Trust the Circle is a biography about one grassroots organizer and the profound changes he was able to accomplish. But it's also about the ways that an intersectional and inclusive approach to organizing can be applied anywhere there is injustice.

An accessible, intimate look at the oft-neglected history of Arab Americans in Greater Indianapolis who have made a remarkable impact on the region since the late 1800s.From establishing local businesses to working in the fields of health care and education, Arab Americans have made indelible contributions to the cultural vitality, economic growth, and social fabric of central Indiana. Arab Indianapolis features the stories of Arab Americans--some famous, some not--who have shaped the Capital City's past and will continue to define its future. It details a history hidden in plain sight, one sometimes buried beneath Indianapolis's most iconic landmarks such as Lucas Oil Stadium, Monument Circle, the Indiana War Memorials, the Governor's Residence, and Riverside Park. Highlights include: Helen Corey, the first Arab American to hold statewide elected office and the author of one of the most famous books on Syrian cuisine

• Jeff George, a Syrian American from the region who went on to play quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts
• The Syrian Christian community and the building of St. George Orthodox Church
• Indianapolis's connection to St. Jude Children's Hospital
• Governor Mitch Daniels, Indiana governor and grandson to Syrian immigrants

Through short essays, over eighty beautiful photographs, interviews, and even a few recipes, this collection embraces the full humanity of Arab Americans in the Midwest. It will give you a deeper sense of the myriad lives of Arab-descended Hoosiers who call Indianapolis home. Arab Indianapolis is an indispensable resource for anyone looking to know the full story of how Arab Americans continue to shape one of the Midwest's most iconic cities.

From summer getaway to historic landmark, this history of Bloomfield Hills is a perfect visual history for Detroit and Michigan enthusiasts.

Bloomfield Hills is an affluent suburban city located 20 miles north of downtown Detroit. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, much of the area's rolling farmland was purchased by wealthy Detroit residents who had first discovered The Hills when they went touring northward in their new horseless carriages. Seeking refuge from Detroit's summer heat and crowds, the newcomers built weekend homes that ranged from elaborate farmhouses to large manor estates. Philanthropists George Gough Booth and his wife, Ellen Scripps Booth, envisioned more than a manor house for themselves, however, and built what is now a National Historic Landmark, the Cranbrook Educational Community. In 1932, Bloomfield Hills incorporated as a city. The city retains its mystique as an enclave of elegant living and exceptional schools, but its history also includes instances of poverty and mayhem.

Bloomfield Hills, written by historian, journalist, and local resident Christine Blackwell, takes a look at a city with a very vibrant history.

“A well-told, richly contextualized investigation of an appalling episode in American history” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

Between 1927 and 1979, more than 8,000 people were involuntarily sterilized in five hospitals across the state of Virginia. From this plain and terrible fact springs Elizabeth Catte’s Pure America, a sweeping, unsparing history of eugenics in Virginia, and by extension the United States. Virginia’s eugenics program was not the misguided initiative of well-meaning men of the day, writes Catte, it was a manifestation of white supremacy. It was a form of employment insurance. It was a means of controlling “troublesome” women and a philosophy that helped remove poor people from valuable land. It was cruel and it was wrong. As was amply evidenced by her acclaimed 2018 book What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, Catte has no room for excuses; no patience for equivocation. What does it mean for modern America, she asks here, that such buildings are given the second chance that 8,000 citizens never got?

“Riveting and tightly argued,” Pure America is another necessary corrective to the historical record, a must-read for anyone concerned with how to repair its damage (The Wall Street Journal).

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2021

Cleveland's Ohio City Neighborhood is a testament to unity and resilience, and the ability of neighbors to come together and live in harmony despite their differences, creating a thriving urban melting pot.

Ohio City’s story begins with conflict. The 1836 “Battle of the Bridge” pitted neighbor against neighbor, yet the story evolved into one of connection, symbolized by the grand bridges that would later unite Cleveland’s east and west sides. Following its 1854 annexation to Cleveland, Ohio City developed into a remarkable urban tapestry where immigrant workers’ homes and mansions shared the same neighborhood. The iconic West Side Market has anchored a vibrant commercial district through generations, its clock tower standing sentinel over a neighborhood shaped by breweries like Leisy and Schlather that reflected the area’s strong German heritage. Franklin Boulevard emerged as the west side’s “Millionaire’s Row,” home to industrialists and civic leaders, including the Rhodes family and Marcus Hanna. Through decades of change—from urban renewal to today’s thriving craft brewery scene—Ohio City’s historic architecture and cultural landmarks have endured.

Thomas Kaschalk, founder of My Cleveland History and volunteer researcher for the Cuyahoga County Archives, brings Ohio City’s rich heritage to life through vintage photographs. Drawing from the Cleveland Public Library Photograph Collection, the Cleveland Memory Project, and various historical archives, this visual history captures the spirit of one of Cleveland’s most distinctive neighborhoods.

Cook up iconic dishes from all along Route 66 in the comfort of your own kitchen.

Fuel up with the “world’s best” coffee and donut holes at Lou Mitchell’s in downtown Chicago and then cruise into Doc’s Soda Fountain in Girard for a fizzy Green River phosphate. The tiger stripe fudge in Uranus, Missouri, doesn’t disappoint, but you best save room for the Big Texan seventy-two-ounce steak challenge in Amarillo. Bop into Midpoint Café in Adrian for a slice of ugly crust pie and then ready yourself for a fiesta of flavors in New Mexico, from prickly pear margaritas to poblanos rellenos. Arizona’s Hualapai Lodge serves up piñon stew, rich with tradition, just like the comforting bowl of chili you can dig into at Barney’s Beanery in Santa Monica, the end of the road.

Author Amy Bizzarri serves up recipes—each paired with a side of history—that capture the essence of the classic diners, cozy chili parlors, welcoming inns, old-school soda shops, tasty burger joints, and unforgettable dive bars that have fueled generations of travelers.

Woodrow Nash’s sculptures of enslaved children populate the first American slavery museum—Whitney Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana. His works breathe spirit into history, a legacy as painful as it is inspiring, a vision that engages us in powerful ways. The stories he tells of his artistic process and the images of proud figures fill this unusual book with emotion.

Award-winning novelist Shelley Fraser Mickle became friends with Nash and together they crafted a strong statement that illuminates the true history of slavery and the shadows it casts on all Americans.

In a collection of biographies informed by historical documents, Nash and Mickle walk readers through his creation of proud statues celebrating African royalty and rough images of enslaved children still carrying the vestiges of their fierce heritage.  The research that binds the images to our reality is found in ship’s manifests, post-Civil War cartes de visite, and a wealth of books and articles cited in the bibliography. A brief history of sculpture provides context for the art created by Nash—sculptures that illuminate the lives of Africans before their enslavement and reveal their resilience in their new existence. Stunning photographs frame the story and beautifully capture the relationship between artist and creation in this one-of-a-kind book for young readers.

Examining her mother’s youth as a runaway, the editor-in-chief of Salon analyzes how pop culture treats men’s stories versus women’s stories.

In 1970, Erin Keane’s mother ran away from home for the first time. She was thirteen years old. Over the next several years, and under two assumed identities, she hitchhiked her way across America, experiencing freedom, hardship, and tragedy. At fifteen, she met a man in New York City and married him. He was thirty-six.

Through a deft balance of journalistic digging, cultural criticism, and poetic reimagining, Keane pieces together the true story of her mother’s teenage years, questioning almost everything she’s been told about her parents and their relationship. Along the way, she also considers how pop culture has kept similar narratives alive in her. At stake are some of the most profound questions we can ask ourselves: What’s true? What gets remembered? Who gets to tell the stories that make us who we are?

Whether it’s talking about painful family history, #MeToo, Star Wars, true crime forensics, or Gilmore Girls, Runaway is an unforgettable look at all the different ways the stories we tell—both personal and pop cultural—create us.

Praise for Runaway

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR
“Keane provides a lyrical, sharp feminist analysis of her family’s history.” —Kirkus Reviews

The geographic heart and soul of Rhode Island is a 25-mile estuary of great beauty and ecological importance. A talented photographer teams with the offical Narragansett BayKeeper to create a remarkable gift book that is as thought-provoking as it is attractive.

The Chicago Outfit, which evolved from the Capone gang at the end of Prohibition, became the most successful of the Cosa Nostra crime families in terms of enriching its members.

This was primarily due to the criminal abilities of two men, Paul Ricca and Tony Accardo, who were at the top of the organization for years. At its height in the 1960s, the Chicago Outfit was involved in gambling, labor racketeering, juice lending, prostitution, narcotics, and strong-arm activities such as hijacking and robbery. It did so by using violence and, since many of its activities were essentially out in the open, by corrupting numerous police officers and politicians. During the early 1960s, before the US government was fully up to speed on fighting organized crime, honest local politicians and members of law enforcement fought an uphill battle against it.

The discussion and photographs in this book, which are largely from author John J. Binder’s extensive personal collection, cover the many aspects of the Chicago Outfit during this decade when it was at its zenith, with operations in the Chicago area and elsewhere in the country.

Haunted Hoaxes of the Hoosier State

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, newspapers were a major source of ghost stories. Paranormal experiences, no matter how mundane, were newsworthy and entertaining—even when they turned out not to be ghosts after all. A coffin holding a “talking corpse” on a train turned out to be a box of bullfrogs. An overturned automobile carrying white paint resulted in a paint-covered “ghost” wandering the streets, and a spiritualist tackled a phantom haunting a cemetery only to find that it was a fraternity pledge all along.

Revealing that the truth can sometimes be as amusing as the legend, author Ashley M. Watson gathers newspaper clippings about Indiana ghost stories that were not ghosts at all.

Author Jeffrey Alan John explores the history, theories and fundamental Serpent Mound questions: What culture made it? Why? And when? Thousands of years ago, people in what would become southern Ohio encountered a vista they recognized as special. They couldn’t know that their view overlooked a 300-million-year-old crater, but as time passed, they made the plateau a resting place for generations of societies that eventually raised—with considerable planning and effort—the Great Serpent Mound, a place where history and mystery coincide. Uninhabited and overgrown when early Ohio settlers found it, the preserved effigy inspired pioneering archaeology and continues to prompt increasingly elaborate thinking. Scientists say that it measures the calendar, while theologians and mystics ponder its spiritual meaning.

The state of Michigan is home to Great Lakes and greater mysteries.

What made Paige Renkoski abandon her running car on the side of the freeway in broad daylight? Who murdered Eddie Hollman while he slept at his parents’ home? Greg McRoberts died in a hit-and-run accident. Will a mysterious letter writer with knowledge of the crime ever come forward? Ten-year-old Valerie Bishop was murdered after visiting the corner store. Could untested evidence reveal the identity of her killer? Why did Connie Royce walk away from a busy nightclub never to be seen again?

Nina Innsted, host of the Already Gone podcast, leads a journey through the missing, the mysterious, and the unsolved in a quest for answers and justice.

When the police caught up with Johann Hoch, he’d already proposed to what they believed would have been wife number fifty-five.

For a decade, he traveled the country, marrying and deserting desperate women—and five of his wives were lying in their graves. He married Marie Walcker in Chicago in 1904, and when Marie died five weeks later, he proposed to her sister while the corpse lay on the bed. The sister agreed, only to be swindled out of her savings. Adam Selzer trails jovial, big-talking Hoch through a twisting tale of Chicago journalism, Chicago justice and the coming together of some of most daring and corrupt characters the city had to offer.

With vivid, design-centric illustrations that and short whimsical rhymes, C is for Chicago Board Book shows off the iconic people, places, food and music of Chicago. This A-Z tour of the Windy City takes readers through iconic landmarks in the Second City, including Millennium Park and "The Bean", Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain, The El, The Chicago River and Navy Pier. "C is for Chicago" also highlights the food and music that make Chicago great: Chicago Hot Dogs, Deep Dish Pizza and the Chicago Blues.

Chicago ports fans won't be disappointed either with a stop at Wrigley Field and iconic Chicago sports legends' jerseys. Can you guess them all?

This Chicago children's book is a durable version of the beloved picture book C is for Chicago and is great for traveling and little hands. Whether on a coffee table or on the nightstand, this large-format book is sure to make any local or visitor smile.

Lover's of Ohio history and presidential history will love this exploration of William H. Taft, one of Cincinnati’s favorite sons.

Most Americans know that William Howard Taft was President of the United States and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. But his life and legacy contain much beyond that—especially in his hometown.

He fought to put crooks away in court, and he fought for ethics and integrity. He made judgements that made him unpopular. Beyond the law, he and his wife Nellie were influential in the city’s arts and culture, including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. For all of this and more, he is remembered today as one of the Queen City’s greatest citizens.

After years studying Taft’s career in Cincinnati, Brian Planitz brings to life Taft’s time in his birthplace and how it shaped his later career in Washington D.C. and around the world.

Explore the true story of a famous crime that inspired Anatomy of a Murder

Just after midnight on July 31, 1952, Army Lieutenant Coleman A. Petersen walked into the Lumberjack Tavern in Big Bay, Michigan, and shot Mike Chenoweth in retaliation for an assault on his wife. This revenge killing rocked the small lumber town in the Upper Peninsula, and the trial that followed inspired a best-selling novel and an Academy Award–nominated motion picture, Anatomy of a Murder.

Using the testimony taken from trial transcripts, the police investigator, and the killer, author Patrick J. Baker shares the real story of a sensational murder trial that captivated the Midwest and the aftermath that drew the eyes of the nation.

An enduring feedback loop where belief masquerades as evidence and credibility becomes collateral damage.

In April 1966, police officers in rural Ohio and western Pennsylvania chased a glowing object across eighty miles of back roads. The encounter—silent, blinding, and seemingly intelligent—became one of the most famous UFO cases in American history and helped inspire the opening scenes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But the mystery didn’t end when the lights vanished. Drawing on primary sources, official records, and personal experience, this book traces how a single night’s events were transformed into lasting folklore—shaped not just by witnesses and the media, but by the U.S. military’s own investigative machinery. Rather than merely asking what the police chased, a more unsettling question is asked here: how did government involvement, belief, and mistrust combine to create a self-perpetuating legend that still echoes today?

Author Michael Kishbucher, a career Air Force and Defense Intelligence Agency officer, revisits this strange Appalachian legend from an uncommon perspective: from within the intelligence community itself.

Explore Minneapolis and St. Paul in a brand new way through a full-color book of maps.

New, colorful, innovative maps show everything from the original Dakota place names in the region to the bedrock geology below our feet; the smellscape of the Minnesota State Fair to which buildings have claimed the most bird lives; how racial covenants shaped the cities to mapping the 2025 Operation Metro Surge, when ICE descended in force and the cities resisted. Perfect for newcomers and city experts alike. 

Jake Steinberg is a graphics reporter at the Minnesota Star Tribune. He holds a BA in journalism from the University of Minnesota and an MS in cartography and GIS from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Originally from the east metro, Jake lived in and reported from Alaska, Arizona, Iowa, Wisconsin and New York before returning to Minnesota. His maps have appeared in the pages of The Wall Street Journal and have been featured in the Atlas of Design, the North American Cartographic Information Society’s premier showcase of exemplary mapmaking. Jake lives in the suburbs of Uptown Minneapolis with three bikes, a rotating cast of plants, and Juneau, an American dingo.

Detroit Lions: A 1950s Dynasty offers a compelling photographic narrative of the history of a revered team. This retrospective of the Detroit Lions’ glory years is an evocative reminder of what the cheering at Briggs Stadium was all about. Behind such storied figures as quarterback Bobby Layne, halfback Doak Walker, and defensive stalwarts Yale Lary, Joe Schmidt, and Jack Christiansen, coach Buddy Parker’s squad dominated the National Football League for much of the Eisenhower decade. The three-time world champions—competitive, colorful, controversial, and a mainstay on that marvelous new medium called television—helped make professional football a Sunday ritual in Detroit and around the country.

Journalist and author Richard Bak has been writing about his native Detroit for more than 40 years. His many works include biographies of Joe Louis, Ty Cobb, and Henry and Edsel Ford as well as histories of Tiger Stadium, the Detroit Red Wings, and Detroit’s Negro Leagues. He has won book awards from the Society for American Baseball Research and the Professional Football Researchers Association and two Emmy Awards as the writer and coproducer of the Tiger Stadium documentary Stranded at the Corner. 

100 years of cruising from Chicago to Santa Monica.

Opened in 1926, Route 66 was one of America's original highways. In modern times, the Mother Road is an icon of nostalgia and kitsch, but behind each pitstop is a uniquely human story. From Alberta Ellis, who created safe havens for African-American travelers in the first half of the 20th century to Bob Waldmire and Angel Delgadillo, who worked to preserve the history of the route after the interstates came through, the people behind these places are what truly makes them special. 

Just off the well-traveled path are places like the Santa Fe Internment Camp, where many Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated during WWII, and the Apache Death Cave near Two Guns, Arizona, that is said to be the site where many Native Americans lost their lives. Visit the Amboy Crater, a dormant volcano in the Mojave Desert of California that hints at the distant geological past, and the town of Baxter Springs, which was once a major part of America's Main Street. 

Author Brain Clune brings to life the tales that left a legacy along Route 66. 

A Presidential Love Story   

When a young officer newly graduated from West Point met the eldest daughter of a gruff Missouri slaveowner, farmer and land speculator, it was love at first sight. Ulysses Grant and Julia Dent courted at her family farm, White Haven, until he was called away to the Mexican-American War. Secretly engaged, Ulysses wrote tender letters to Julia between daring exploits in battle. Upon his return, they were married. Ulysses’s military career stagnated, and after a miserable period of separation while he was stationed on the West Coast, Ulysses resigned to join Julia at White Haven before his second stint during the Civil War. Authors Vicki and Jim Erwin relate the Grants’ early life, their courtship, their life in Missouri and how that life shaped their future.

The murders that shocked Michigan

In the early morning of Tuesday, August 11, 1931, a Washtenaw County farmer found the smoldering remains of a car. Inside were the bodies of four teens, burned almost beyond recognition. Police immediately began an investigation, even tapping Harry Bennett, head of the Ford Motor Company Service Department, for assistance. Three killers stood trial two days later as a mob gathered outside the Ann Arbor Courthouse clamoring for a lynching. With the mob held back by the Michigan National Guard, Bennett delivered the killers to Jackson Prison by midnight Thursday. At the time, the so-called Torch Murders were deemed the most gruesome act of homicide in Michigan’s history—and perhaps the nation’s.

Peeling away myth from truth, author James Mann tells the story in full for the first time ever.

Since opening its doors in September 1965, Rock Valley College has been a cornerstone of education and community for northern Illinois. From its formation following a district-wide referendum in October 1964, the college embraced national and regional movements, demonstrating that Rock Valley College’s story is one of progress and transformation.

During the 1970s, the college expanded educational, employment, and athletic opportunities for women, and in the 1980s, it confronted the region’s Rust Belt decline through investments in advanced technical and health care fields. This legacy continued in the 21st century when Rock Valley College formed partnerships with Northern Illinois University and OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center. The college’s dedication to high-quality liberal arts and science education has empowered students to transfer to four-year universities, while its commitment to fostering an inclusive environment reflects the growing diversity of the community. Rock Valley College’s influence extends far beyond the classroom. Its alumni—over 33,000 degree and certificate holders—serve as a testament to the college's lasting impact.

Daniel Blumlo, PhD, is a history professor at Rock Valley College, where he has taught since 2010. This book draws upon images and documents from the Rock Valley College Archives and the Starlight Theater Archives to chronicle the college’s dynamic journey.

The waters of Lake Michigan are a calm and tranquil place--until they aren't

Lake Mishigami, as the Ojibwe referred to the big waters of Lake Michigan, has a violent side, especially when the winds roar, creating waves that are freshwater giants. These waves have mercilessly taken many ships—along with their crews and passengers—to the bottom. Many have paid a dear price for mistakenly thinking this massive lake is nothing but an oversized pond. A single monstrous storm in November of 1880 sank or damaged north of 100 ships and claimed nearly 100 lives. But tragedy on the lake is so often met with heroism, those who brave carnage to save their fellow man. Lake Michigan can go from serene to devilish in less than an hour—author Michael Passwater delves into these transformations and their aftermath.

Hidden History of Black Cincinnati reveals the untold stories that shaped a city and defined a people. 

Long before the Civil Rights Movement or the Harlem Renaissance, Black Cincinnatians were building communities, owning businesses, and resisting injustice in bold and brilliant ways. B.F. Howard and Pullman Porter Arthur J. Riggs co-founded the international organization now known as the Black Elks, and Margaret Garner’s tragic flight to freedom inspired Toni Morrison’s Beloved and ignited national debates on slavery. Celebrated painter Robert S. Duncanson rose to international acclaim in the nineteenth century despite the limitations of race.

Writer, historian, and cultural advocate Kareem A. Simpson unearths these powerful stories and more with clarity and care, offering a rich portrait of a city’s soul and the Black lives that shaped it.

Lovers of true crime and Ohio history will find themselves riveted by these crimes of passion.

There is a thin line between love and hate, and when intense passion threatens that border, blood will flow. Northern Ohio has had its share of people who felt that line snap. In Canton, the Phantom-Flapper Killer shot down her lover in cold blood after he threatened to expose her infidelity to the world. In Toledo, Dorothy Brown’s married boyfriend brutally attacked her when he learned that she was expecting. Max Amerman of Medina was willing to kill for the girl of his dreams, and when Cleveland’s Matilda Waldman believed that her husband was cursed by a witch, she took out the she-devil by way of a pistol.

Author Wendy Koile examines these relationships once bound by love, unraveled by lies, and cut off by murder.

Northern Ohio’s past is rich and deep, but it also has a darker and odder side.

A police chase for a UFO began in Portage County and stretched eighty-five miles from Ohio into Pennsylvania. Gangster Pretty Boy Floyd met his end in East Liverpool, and infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer began his murderous career in Medina County. The region is also home to peculiar beings such as Orange Eyes, the Melonheads and the armless Charles Mill Lake Monster.

Join author James A. Willis as he forges a trail across Northern Ohio in search of all things eerie, inexplicable and just plain weird.

Delve into ghost stories pulled from century-old headlines and reported anew with author and investigative historian William G. Krejci. There was a time when ink-stained scribes would head into the community to report on ghostly visitations—many of their stories have been forgotten until now. At a Lorain County farmhouse, spectral women were said to manifest in the darkness of night. A haunted mansion was replete with the unexplained in Akron’s North Hill neighborhood. Rumors of a haunting at Cleveland’s Grays Armory have long circulated. New evidence reveals the site to have been the scene of two mysterious deaths and possibly a haunted house. Does a peddler who went missing two centuries ago drag chains across the attic floor at a Portage Lakes tavern?

Authors Cary O’Dell and Richard L. Sprehe lead a literary investigation of a brutal cold-case murder. 

In May 1975, in the small Southern Illinois town of Centralia, the body of one of its best-known residents, John Shakespeare, was found nearly nude, bound, and shot, execution-style, in the basement of his home. Shakespeare, sixty-nine, was a wealthy bachelor, an eccentric, an heir to the Shakespeare fishing fortune, a world-renowned collector of vintage cars, and, maybe, a possessor of a few secrets.

Despite the victim being well liked in the community, state and local police, and eventually even the FBI and Interpol, found a plethora of suspects while investigating the crime. Could it have been his longtime business associate? Or the mysterious hitchhiker seen in town just days before his body was found? Or a long-ago name from his past?

A work stoppage on the rails led to a fascinating moment in Ohio history.

As the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 made its way into Ohio, the state already had its share of problems. Tramps, men who’d taken to the road looking for work because of the economic depression of the 1870s, seemed to be overrunning the state. Railroads, one of Ohio’s biggest employers, cut jobs. Those not fired suffered from repeated cuts in wages and hours, making their already unsafe work conditions worse.

Strikes in neighboring states, instigated by another 10 percent wage cut on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, became violent and destructive. When they broke out in Ohio, something remarkable happened. Strikers remained mostly peaceful, avoiding the killing, looting, and vandalism seen elsewhere. Much of the credit for the path taken by Ohio must go to its level-headed governor, Thomas L. Young, who used the Ohio National Guard to great effect. 

The sun is setting on Northwest Indiana and it's time for families to say "sweet dreams," to their favorite places.

From the shores of Lake Michigan through farmland and cities and towns like Hammond and La Porte and Indiana Dunes and Rensselaer, the Region quietly settles in for a beautiful night.

"Shines the harsh light of truth on a forgotten--and whitewashed--chapter of American history. Graphic and sometimesappalling, James R. Hall's account of conditions at Indianapolis's Camp Morton is necessary reading for anyone who prefers genuine history to the sanitized version."--Brian D. Smith, member, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting team, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel , 1983

The term"prison abuse scandal" has become a familiar phrase in our lifetime. But long before this phrase was used on the nightly news, truths about the treatment of enemy prisoners were defiantly denied, and the media-whose primary sources (much like today) were politicians and military officials-inevitably distorted the facts.

In the case of Camp Morton, however, records exist from the firsthand accounts of prisoners, who were extremely vocal about their experiences after the Civil War ended. Confederate veterans who had been held at Camp Morton and heard that prominent Union officials were calling it a"model" Civil War prison were enraged and inspired to proclaim the truth about their suffering. Their experiences first were revealed publicly by former Morton prisoner, prominent physician, and medical researcher Dr. John A. Wyeth. James R. Hall has picked up where Dr. Wyeth left off, making the Camp Morton controversy known to a new generation.

Den of Misery: Indiana's Civil War Prison details the cover-ups and denials as well as the cruel realities of the prison camp and chronicles the efforts by Confederate veterans to make known the truth about their experiences. The author includes a full list of prisoners who died at Camp Morton and are buried in a mass grave in Indianapolis.