American History

Ghost Towns of the American West
· By Robert Silverberg

The story of the American mining frontier can be traced in the ghost towns — from the camps of California's forty-niners to the twentieth-century ruins in the Nevada desert. They mark an epoch of high adventure, of quick wealth and quicker poverty, of gambling and gun-slinging and hell-raising.

Way’s Steam Towboat Directory
· By Frederick Way Jr. and Joseph W. Rutter

After the initial release in 1983 of Way’s Packet Directory, 1848–1983, the demand was enormous for a similar treatment of the steam towboats that once populated the Mississippi River System. Captain Frederick Way, Jr.,

Quivira
· Europeans in the region of the Santa Fe Trail, 1540–1820
· By William Brandon

New Mexico was a frontier to the wilderness, for Europeans, for almost three hundred years. No other frontier history in the area of what is now the United States can support such continuity, or even come close. It was the outside edge of the northern borderlands of New Spain, that later became the northern borderlands of Mexico. It was the western rim of the world for the French explorers and fur traders in the Mississippi valley and for the English who followed them there.

George Kennan and the American-Russian Relationship, 1865–1924
· By Frederick F. Travis

George Kennan’s career as a specialist on Russian affairs began in 1865, with his first journey to the Russian empire. A twenty-year-old telegraphic engineer at the time, he was a member of the Russian-American Telegraph Expedition, a now virtually unknown but nevertheless remarkable nineteenth-century adventure story.

Buckeye Rovers in the Gold Rush
· An Edition of Two Diaries
· By H. Lee Scamehorn
· Edited by Edwin P. Banks and Jamie Lytle-Webb

When “California Fever” raced through southeastern Ohio in the spring of 1849, a number of residents of Athens County organized a cooperative venture for traveling overland to the mines. Known as the “Buckeye Rovers,” the company began its trip westward in early April. The Buckeye Rovers, along with thousands who traveled the overland route to California, endured numerous hardships and the seemingly constant threat of attacks from hostile Indians.

Survival On a Westward Trek, 1858–1859
· The John Jones Overlanders
· By Dwight L. Smith

When gold was discovered in the Fraser River country of British Columbia in the 1850s, St. Paul, Minnesota became the departure point for the plunge westward, as was St. Louis for the American gold rushes. Minnesotans soon caught the fever. Nine young men set out in July of 1858 for the goldfields of British Columbia.

Klondike Women
· True Tales of the 1897–1898 Gold Rush
· By Melanie J. Mayer

Klondike Women is a compelling collection of historical photographs and first-hand accounts of the adventures, challenges, and disappointments of women on the trails to the Klondike gold fields. In the midst of a depression near the turn of the twentieth century, these women dared to act on the American dream.

Mexico Mystique
· The Coming Sixth World of Consciousness
· By Frank Waters

In Mexico Mystique Frank Waters draws us deeply into the ancient but still-living myths of Mexico. To reveal their hidden meanings and their powerful symbolism, he brings to bear his gift for intuitive imagination as well as a broad knowledge of anthropology, Jungian psychology, astrology, and Eastern and esoteric religions. He offers a startling interpretation of the Mayan Great Cycle — our present Fifth World — whose beginning has been projected to 3113 B.C.,

Breaking With Burr
· Harman Blennerhassett’s Journal, 1807
· By Harman Blennerhassett
· Edited by Raymond E. Fitch

First complete publication, newly transcribed from the manuscript, of Harman Blennerhassett’s private diary of his detention pending his trial for treason.

Newport in the Rockies
· The Life and Good Times of Colorado Springs
· By Marshall Sprague

In 1871, General William Jackson Palmer, a Civil War cavalry hero, dreamed of a Rocky Mountain resort town where sedate, temperate, wealthy folk could enjoy life in tranquil comfort. From its inception as a tiny resort hamlet, Colorado Springs has grown into the second largest city in the Colorado Rockies, with a projected population by 1990 of 400,000.

Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, L L. D.
· By Julia P. Cutler and William P. Cutler

A fascinating description of the processes that laid the foundations for civilization in the Ohio Valley.

The Mound Builders
· By Robert Silverberg

Uncovers the history and culture of the ancient Americans who built Ohio’s burial mounds.

Tocqueville’s America
· The Great Quotations
· By Alexis de Tocqueville
· Edited by Frederick Kershner Jr.
· Introduction by Frederick Kershner Jr.

"...boldness of enterprise is the foremost cause of (America's) progress, its strength, and its greatness." With that succinct statement a young French aristocrat, Alexis de Tocqueville, expressed his perceptive analysis of the United States, following a nine-month tour of the young republic beginning in May of 1831.

Montana Pay Dirt
· Guide to Mining Camps of Treasure State
· By Muriel Sibell Wolle