Book Description

Richard James Oglesby is best known for introducing the rail-splitter image into Abraham Lincoln's successful presidential campaign of 1860, and in many ways his career ran parallel to Honest Abe's. This biography of the three-time governor of Illinois offers the first detailed view of a key figure in the great changes that swept Illinois and the country from the Jacksonian era through the Gilded Age.

Like Lincoln, Oglesby was born in Kentucky and spent most of his youth in central Illinois, apprenticing as a lawyer in Springfield and standing for election to the Illinois legislature, Congress, and U.S. Senate. Oglesby participated in the battles of Cerro Gordo and Vera Cruz during the Mexican-American War and made a small fortune in the gold rush of 1849. A superlative speaker, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in a campaign that featured the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, then was elected to the Illinois senate as Lincoln was being elected president.

When the Civil War came, Oglesby resigned his senate seat to lead a regiment of the Union Army. Critically wounded at the Battle of Corinth, he was promoted to major general before resigning his commission to run successfully for governor of Illinois. Oglesby was at Lincoln's deathbed and led the effort to build the sixteenth president's tomb in Springfield, delivering the major oration at its dedication. In the postwar years, Oglesby drew on his popularity, his association with the martyred Lincoln, and his extraordinary stump-speaking skills to rescue the Illinois Republican Party in a time of political crisis. In his third term as governor, Oglesby faced massive labor unrest in the aftermath of the Haymarket affair.

A mature and thoughtful biography, Lincoln's Rail-Splitter chronicles Oglesby's pivotal contribution to American political life while also providing a sensitive portrait of this able, energetic man. ... Read more

Book Description

Although his name is little known today outside Iowa, during the early part of the twentieth century Benjamin Shambaugh (1871-1940) was a key figure in the historical profession. Using his distinguished career as a lens, Conard's seminal work is the first book to consider public history as an integral part of the intellectual development of the historical profession as a whole in the United States.

Conard draws upon an unpublished, mid-1940s biography by research historian Jacob Swisher to trace the forces that shaped Shambaugh's early years, his administration of the State Historical Society of Iowa, his development of applied history and commonwealth history in the 1910s and 1920s, and the transformations in his thinking and career during the 1930s. Framing this intriguingly interwoven narrative are chapters that contextualize Shambaugh's professional development within the development of the historical profession as a whole in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and assess his career within the post-World War II emergence of the modern public history movement.

Shambaugh's career speaks to those who believe in the power of history to engage and inspire local audiences as well as those who believe that historians should apply their knowledge and methods outside the academy in pursuit of the greater public good. ... Read more

Book Description

A compelling and evocative history of an ordinary 21st century American family detailing its varied and diverse historical and cultural elements through out history. Using records and tools as varied as archeology, anthropology, ethnology, etymology, geology, mythology, legends and historical documentation, Scales embarks on a fascinating quest to link together the pieces of a vast jigsaw of the forgotten Celtic heritage of many American families while developing a chronological framework to historical events and family bloodlines.With an astonishing insight into the cultural effects of the travels and historical events of our founding fathers, more than a dozen separate family lines are identified with their earliest American ancestors and which part of the ancient Celtic world those families came from. Reaching as far back into the origin of the Celtic people as the Sumerian Culture of 4000bc to their arrival in Ireland, Germany and Scotland sets a framework for the detailed history of the Picts and Scots who's blood still runs in many American veins. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

This is what storytelling is all about
A great book that touches anyone who ever grew up.While it entertains and makes me laugh, it triggers memories of my own life and feelings...just like storytelling should. ... Read more

Book Description

Small town Minnesota plays a leading role in Minnesota Memories, a new collection of twenty-seven remembrances written and edited by former Albert Lea resident Joan Claire Graham and Owatonna native Kathy Megyeri.

With tones ranging from melancholy to hilarious, these Minnesota Memories convey an impression of what it is to be grounded in the Midwestern culture of the mid twentieth century.Mature Minnesotans will relate to stories about family secrets, Mom’s good Bavarian china, childhood games, local radio shows, country school, or the Owatonna motel entrepreneurs who were the vanguard of the travel industry boom after World War II.

These true stories invite the reader to empathize.Their richly detailed and good humored narrative evokes similar memories in the minds of readers.Whether as an addition to a collection, a gift, a historical reference, a conversation piece, or merely as a completely enjoyable reading experience, Minnesota Memories is a great choice. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

A Wagon Load of Memories
One story, "Toyota City", is worth the price of all of the "Minnesota Memories" books. Joan and her fellow writers take us back to our childhood and memories of friends and relatives. Even though I am from North Dakota, these collections of stories ring true to the stories we were told when visiting the "Home Place" in Minnesota. Never been to Minnesota? Read the books and find people as they really are. People like you and me or like we wish we were. Fill your wagon with real stories of real people as you join Joan and friends in a journey to the real Minnesota. We were privileged to have Joan visit our home. She is as delightful as her books and her time with us is now one of our very own "Minnesota Memories."

Nostalgia and Laughter from the North Star State
Readers of this book write and say, "Send me another; I want to give it for Christmas to my relatives who already have every refrigerator magnet and walleye shot glass from Mall of America." Tell newcomers or those who have retired from Minnesota winters and relocated in Florida that this is one book they should share with anyone who still holds the North Star State dear to their hearts. It's a gem!

Uplifting Memories
You'll be charmed by the North Star memories these 2 ladies evoke of their lives in Minnesota in the '50's. How I had forgotten the polio epidemic, the love-affair with Elvis most of us had, the local swimming holes, and the scrap books I kept but now can't find. I laughed, I cried, and I sent in my own submission to their upcoming Vol. II because I too was introduced to my first theatrical performance at the high school gym when basketball nets served to hold spot lights and the velvet curtain was strung between them. Their writing even captures the speech patterns I wanted to lose, but my Minnesota accent still gives me away. Their guest writers capture memories that my family holds dear--the local church pageant, the one-room schoolhouse that educated most of my family, and the centennial parade with its primite floats and antique cars that stole our hearts and made us yearn for those by-gone years of the simple life, valued time with family, and Christian values that are never appreciated till later in life. This is a fun read, one that all Midwesterners can identify with and appreciate.

This book is a visit back home
Minnesota Memories is the kind of book you finish at three in the morning and wish you had more chapters yet to read. It evokes thoughts of the quirkiness in Minnesota practices--calling casseroles hot dishes, referring to going to any of Minnesota's l0, 000 lakes as "going to THE Lake", or referring to the noon meal as dinner and the six p.m. meal as supper. Remember when adventure was having the family sit down for supper at
seven?

Authors Joan Graham and Kathy Megyeri, both native Minnesotans, recall some of their favorite tales of growing up in the North Star state. The book brings forth pure joy. It is clean, totally charming, and recalls a Minnesota where hard work, innocence--or not getting caught-- and having a little fun was the way to go. The descriptions of the localities, the stories, the lifestyles and even the pictures of ancestors, proms, school and First Communions bring back memories and smiles.

Growing up in Minnesota in the 50's, 60's and 70's meant that what happened in your house, stayed in your house. You learned to keep your mouth closed and talked about politics, the price of strawberries or the weather. As we were growing up, we all thought we were the only ones who had strange relatives, wanted to juggle on the Johnny Carson Show or were fearful that someone would find out we were different.

Minnesota Memories authors share their own family practices and stories, and guess what? The same things that were shushed in our houses, also happened in the authors' homes. As you cuddle in a soft chair to read the stories, you'll remember long forgotten thoughts and memories of life in Minnesota.

One particularly endearing tale tells of Joan Graham mother who had been raised during the Depression and had learned to live with the frugality of many of our parents. She longed for something utterly beautiful and regal. Finally, she was able to send away for an elegant eight place setting of Bavarian china. For almost twenty-five years the treasured china was never used, however...

The writing style is honest and freshly straightforward. You find yourself right there in the room with the story teller. You put the book down and the events stay with you and mingle with your own past memories. This is one sweet little book that feels like a visit back home to Minnesota--or to any state that was once home. This is one book not to miss.

Marilyn Mikulewicz Baranski
Minnesota native--thirty years removed

Memory Lane
Personal history--two words that, for many, generate mixed feelings. The value of getting something, anything down on paper is inarguable. How many of us wish that Mom or Dad, Grandma or Grandpa had left us something written to remember them by? How many (or few) generations back do you have to go before ancestors become merely names, because the details of their lives have become forever lost? On the other hand, the task of writing personal or family history is incredibly daunting. Where to begin? How to get it all down without becoming tedious? In Minnesota Memories, Graham and Megyeri provide us with a delightful example of personal history done right. Their formula is simple: take a topic and run with it. Imaginary friends, moving away, Elvis, old photos, summer, the skeleton in the closet. Forget the timelines and the begats, the crises and grudges, instead write about the everyday stuff of life. With humor and grace, the authors explore both the ordinary and the odd. They help us feel we have experienced what life was really like in small-town, mid-century America. Minnesota Memories provides would-be family historians a fine example of what a successful memoir looks like. But would someone please tell me, what in heck are "kickerinos"? ... Read more

Book Description

Philip Hubbard's life story begins in 1921 in Macon, a county seat in the Bible Belt of north central Missouri, whose history as a former slave state permeated the culture of his childhood. When he was four his mother moved her family 140 miles north to Des Moines in search of the greater educational opportunities that Iowa offered African American students. In this recounting of the effects of that journey on the rest of his life, Phil Hubbard merges his private and public life and career into an affectionate, powerful, and important story.

Hubbard graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in electrical engineering in 1946; by 1954 he had received his Ph.D. in hydraulics. The College of Engineering extended a warm welcome, but nonacademic matters were totally different: Hubbard was ineligible for the housing and other amenities offered to white students. Intelligent, patient, keenly aware of discrimination yet willing to work from within the university system, he advanced from student to teacher to administrator, retiring in 1991 after decades of leadership in the classroom and the conference room.

Hubbard's major accomplishments included policies that focused on human rights; these policies transformed the makeup of the students, faculty, and staff by seeking to eliminate discrimination based on race, religion, or other nonacademic factors and by substituting affirmative action for the traditional old-boy methods of selecting faculty and administrators. At the same time that he was advancing the cause of human rights and cultural diversity in education, his family as growing and thriving, and his descriptions of home life reveal one source of his strength and inspiration.

The decades that Hubbard covers were vital in the evolution of the nation and its educational institutions. His dedication to the agenda of public higher education has always been matched by his sensitivity to the negative effects of discrimination and his gentle perseverance toward his goals of inclusion, acceptance, and fairness. His vivid personal and institutional story will prove valuable to this critical juncture in America's racial history.

My Iowa Journey is part of the Singular Lives: The Iowa Series in North American Autobiography series edited by Albert E. Stone. ... Read more

Book Description

Between my home in Topeka on the eastern edge of the Flint Hills and Hope on the western side, there are 100 miles of prairie and sky. This tallgrass land has sheltered my people for generations. It has taunted us and calmed us, broken us and nurtured us, starved us and fed us. It is our span over birth, growth, and death. Death, which beckons now to my Mother.

So begins Carol Brunner Rutledge's diary of the three months preceding the death of her mother Alice, whose entire life was lived in the Flint Hills of Kansas. Like Terry Tempest Williams's Refuge, it unites a profound reverence for nature with a moving testament of a daughter's love for her dying mother.

With quiet eloquence Rutledge celebrates her mother's life and guides us on a journey from anguish and doubt through self-discovery and healing. In the tradition of earlier plainswomen, she fuses deeply personal emotions with universal themes tied to family, community, religion, and work--amidst the stark beauty of the Flint Hills.

Rutledge vividly describes the people and the seasons of the prairie, providing insight into how generations of tallgrass people have related to the land. She offers nostalgic memories of her childhood and family history, as well as reflections on the Kansas pioneer spirit and its special brand of humor.

Rutledge also records with excruciating honesty her frustration at the insensitivity of medical professionals who ignore her mother's strong spirit while continuing to labor over a body that no longer works. Rising above these false hopes, mother and daughter forge an even stronger bond as they come to understand that dying is a natural part of living.

On the road between Hope and home, between the callously impersonal world of high-tech medicine and the healing rhythms of nature, Rutledge meditates on the mysteries of death and finds refuge in the vast prairie landscape: Tonight on the prairie, as every time I go back and forth between the hospital and home, I am well aware I am just one small speck in the midst of the grasslands. I am not in charge of everything, and those things I am in charge of are quite insignificant. I cannot take my Mother's dying and make her well. I cannot fix it this time. How unbelievably comforting it is to be only one small part of this vast land and how safe to be a part of this mysterious happening which I don't have to control.

Throughout, the silent, powerful prairie provides solace and strength. By diary's end, at the end of her lonely travels back and forth across the prairielands, Rutledge and her mother have finally made peace with the inevitability of loss and accepted death on its own terms. Ultimately, her words remind us that in the end "love is all that matters." ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Daughter of a country doctor
Cora Frear Hawkins was born in Iowa in 1887. As the daughter of a rural doctor, Cora had the experience of travelling with her father on medical calls and assisting with his practice as she got older. This book is a memoir of those times with her father. It opens with a blizzard that he went out in just before she was born, and closes with his death more than forty years later. It is a slim volume and a quick, smooth read. The chapters are loosely grouped around subject areas such as the life of the wife of a doctor, the buggy and horses that the doctor used, and her period as an office assistant.

I am delighted to see that the book has been reprinted. It is well-written enough to be of interest to general readers of all ages. In addition, it should be of specific interest to anyone interested in the history of women, pioneer medicine, or that particular time in US history. Cora herself inspired at least one book for younger readers, so if you are familiar with the book Cora Frear, this might be worth reading as well. ... Read more

Book Description

A fascinating and inspirational biography of Alanson D. Brown, who through years of struggle and perseverance (and a few lucky breaks) made St. Louis the center for shoe manufacturing in the U.S. in the previous century.Not only does this book have value as an inspirational business guideline, but it also shines as local Saint Louis history, and encompasses an interesting portion of Western Americana as well. ... Read more

Book Description

Wanda Gg rose from poverty in small-town Minnesota to international fame in the 1920s as the author of the children's classic Millions of Cats.Her early diaries, first published in 1940, are the touching, often humorous record of her youth and her struggles to develop her talent. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A great read and a Betsy-Tacy link
This book was a wonderful insight into the mind of a woman and artist in the early twentieth century. Growing Pains follows the story of Wanda Gag from age 12 to 22 or 23. It is fascinating to see how different life was at that time, and watch a woman with vast creativity and talent as she struggles to survive the poverty of her childhood. How poignant the destitution of her early years, as well as her discovery and development of her talent. Wanda Gag was also a very introspective person, and had a decided trancendentalist slant. It is interesting to read her philosophies about the self which apply even today. I think this book would appeal to people who have an interest in the early twentieth century or illustration. I also recommend it to fans of the Betsy-Tacy books, as Wanda grew up in New Ulm, MN, not far from Mankato (Deep Valley) and during the same time period. She also appears to be aquainted with Delos Lovelace (the husband of Maud Hart Lovelace (the real Betsy) who wrote the series). Later in the book she mentions going to a concert or play with tickets given to her by Delos Lovelace (Before he ever met Maud!). Overall this book was very good and I was extremely sorry to reach the last page. ... Read more

Book Description

A CENTURY OF STORIES will take you from the late 1800's through the 20th Century.Not with dry facts and dates usually encountered in history studies, but with stories by and about people who lived through our incredible 20th Century. ... Read more

Book Description

A historical novel transporting readers back into the personal lives of the famous couple, J. Sterling and Caroline Morton, who conceived and constructed the original Arbor Lodge and arboretum of Nebraska City. ... Read more

Book Description

Longtime resident Ed Robb combines memoir with narrative history to profile this quiet river town---which even in the third millennium remains blessedly unspoiled by progress. ... Read more