2022 Midwest catalog

A Brick and a Bible

Black Women’s Radical Activism in the Midwest during the Great Depression Melissa Ford

“In A Brick and a Bible, radical Black working-class women take center stage as the shapers of their own destinies. By charting these women’s diverse engagement with Communist-affiliated groups across the Midwest, Melissa Ford reveals the centrality of the region as a key site for Black radical politics. With clarity and grace, Ford recovers the stories of Black women determined to bring an end to race, gender, and class oppression.”—Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom

Uncovering the social revolution led by Black women in the heartland

Paper: 978-0-8093-3855-9 E-book: 978-0-8093-3856-6 $28.50, 242 pages, 14 illus.

Learn more and order at www.siupress.com/brickandbible.

In this first study of Black radicalism in midwestern cities before the civil rights movement, Melissa Ford connects the activism of Black women who championed justice during the Great Depression to those involved in the Ferguson Uprising and the Black Lives Matter movement. A Brick and a Bible examines how African American working-class women, many of whom had just migrated to “the promised land” only to find hunger, cold, and unemployment, forged a region of revolutionary potential.

A Brick and a Bible theorizes a tradition of Midwestern Black radicalism, a praxis-based ideology informed by but divergent from American Communism.

Midwestern Black radicalism contests that interlocking systems of oppression directly relate the distinct racial, political, geographic, economic, and gendered characteristics that make up the American heartland. This volume illustrates how, at the risk of their careers, their reputations, and even their lives, African American working-class women in the Midwest used their position to shape a unique form of social activism.

Case studies of Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago, and Cleveland—hotbeds of radical activism—follow African American women across the Midwest as they participated in the Ford Hunger March, organized the Funsten Nut Pickers’ strike, led the Sopkin Dressmakers’ strike, and supported the Unemployed Councils and the Scottsboro Boys’ defense. Ford profoundly reimagines how we remember and interpret these “ordinary” women doing extraordinary things across the heartland. Once overlooked, their activism shaped a radical tradition in midwestern cities that continues to be seen in cities like Ferguson and Minneapolis today.

Melissa Ford is an assistant professor at Slippery Rock University specializing in African American history. Her work has appeared in American Communist History. She is a former Black Metropolis Research Consortium fellow.

Forgetting and the Forgotten

A Thousand Years of Contested Histories in the Heartland Michael C. Batinski

“This is an exquisitely crafted study that highlights the ways that local pastkeepers in Jackson County, Illinois, marginalized and silenced Native American, African American, and working-class experiences and stories.”—Sean Farrell, coauthor of The Irish in Illinois

Revealing the forgotten in community histories Histories try to forget, as this evocative study of one community reveals. Forgetting and the Forgotten details the nature of how a community forged its story against outsiders. Historian Michael C. Batinski explores the habits of forgetting that enable communities to create an identity based on silencing competing narratives. The white settlers of Jackson County, Illinois, shouldered the hopes of a community and believed in the justice of their labor as it echoed the national story. The county’s pastkeepers, or keepers of the past, emphasizing the white settlers’ republican virtue, chose not to record violence against Kaskaskia people and African Americans and to disregard the numerous transient laborers.

Instead of erasing the presence of outsiders, the pastkeepers could offer only silence, but it was a silence that could be broken.

Batinski’s historiography critically examines local historical thought in a way that illuminates national history. What transpired in Jackson County was repeated in countless places throughout the nation. At the same time, national history writing rarely turns to experiences that can be found in local archives such as court records, genealogical files, archaeological reports, coroner’s records, and veterans’ pension files. In this archive, juxtaposed with the familiar actors of Jackson County history—Benningsen Boon, John A. Logan, and Daniel Brush—appear the Sky People, Italian immigrant workers, black veterans of the Civil War and later champions of civil rights whose stories challenge the dominant narrative.

Michael C. Batinski, a professor emeritus of history at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, first expressed his interest in historical consciousness in small places by writing Pastkeepers in a Small Place: Five Centuries in Deerfield, Massachusetts. He is also the author of two books on early American politics, The New Jersey Assembly, 1738–1775: The Making of a Legislative Community and Jonathan Belcher: Colonial Governor.

Paper: 978-0-8093-3837-5 E-book: 978-0-8093-3838-2 $28.50, 268 pages, 8 illus Shawnee Books

Read more and order at www.siupress.com/forgetting.

A Backyard Prairie The Hidden Beauty of Tallgrass and Wildflowers

Fred Delcomyn and James L. Ellis “Cultivating and learning about the rich life of the prairies, grasslands that once occupied most of the Midwest, inspired in Fred Delcomyn and James L. Ellis a love and appreciation that they transmit beautifully through the pages of this lovely book. Their adventures come alive here, providing a model for others eager to understand the plants and animals, the original inhabitants of the lands where we live and farm today.”—Peter H. Raven, coauthor, Biology of Plants Paper: 978-0-8093-3818-4 E-book: 978-0-8093-3819-1 $24.50, 128 pages, 115 illus.

Read more and order at www.siupress.com/backyardprairie.

All the makings of natural wonder in your backyard In 2003 Fred Delcomyn imagined his backyard of two and a half acres, farmed for corn and soybeans for generations, restored to tallgrass prairie.

Over the next seventeen years, Delcomyn, with help from his friend James L. Ellis scored, seeded, monitored, reseeded, and burned these acres into prairie. In A Backyard Prairie, they document their journey and reveal the incredible potential of a backyard to travel back to a time before the wild prairie was put into plow rows. It has been said, “Anyone can love the mountains, but it takes a soul to love the prairie.” This book shows us how.

The first book to celebrate a smaller, more private restoration, A Backyard Prairie offers a vivid portrait of what makes a prairie. Delcomyn and Ellis describe selecting and planting seeds, recount the management of a prescribed fire, and capture the prairie’s seasonal parades of colorful flowers in concert with an ever-growing variety of animals, from the minute eastern tailed-blue butterfly to the imperious red-winged blackbird and the reclusive coyote.

This book offers a unique account of their work and their discovery of a real backyard, an inviting island of grass and flowers uncovered and revealed.

We often travel miles and miles to find nature larger than ourselves. In this rich account of small prairie restoration, Delcomyn and Ellis encourage the revival of original prairie in our backyards and the patient, beauty-seeking soul sleeping within ourselves.

Both Fred Delcomyn and James L. Ellis serve on the board of directors of Grand Prairie Friends, a conservation organization in east-central Illinois involved in prairie restoration projects. Fred Delcomyn, a certified master naturalist and professor emeritus of the School of Integrative Biology at the University of Illinois, is the author of Foundations of Neurobiology along with numerous scholarly articles on insects. James L. Ellis, a botanist with the Illinois Natural History Survey, manages and maintains the University of Illinois Natural Areas. He has published extensively on prairie ecology, conservation, restoration, and management.

Snake Road

A Field Guide to the Snakes of LaRue–Pine Hills Joshua J. Vossler

“The LaRue–Pine Hills area is one of our favorite ‘day trip’ spots, and we unreservedly recommend that visitors take Vossler’s book along to enhance this unique experience. Go and enjoy a ‘snaky’ day!”—Larry P. and Donna J. Mahan, authors, 20 Day Trips in and around the Shawnee National Forest

Visiting the mecca of snake watching Twice a year, spring and fall, numerous species of reptiles and amphibians migrate between the LaRue–Pine Hills’ towering limestone bluffs and the Big Muddy River’s swampy floodplain in southern Illinois. Snakes, especially great numbers of Cottonmouths, give the road that separates these distinct environments its name. Although it is one of the best places in the world to observe snakes throughout the year, spring and fall are the optimal times to see a greater number and variety. Among the many activities that snakes can be observed doing are sunning themselves on rocks, lying in grasses, sheltering under or near fallen tree limbs, or crossing the road. In this engaging guide, author Joshua J. Vossler details what to expect and how to make the most of a visit to what is known around the world as Snake Road.

Vossler catalogs twenty-three native snake species by both common and scientific names, lists identifying features, and estimates the probability of spotting them. Throughout this book, stunning color photographs of each species’ distinctive physical characteristics enable identification by sight only, an important feature, since Illinois law prohibits the handling, harming, or removal of reptiles and other wildlife on and around the road. Since snakes are visually variable—individual snakes of the same species can differ tremendously in size, color, and pattern—photographs of as many variations as possible are included. To aid in identification, eleven sets of photographs contrast the features of similar species and point out how and why these snakes may be easily confused. Visitors can keep track of the snakes they have identified by using the checklist in the back of the book. A list of recommended reading provides sources of additional information about snakes in southern Illinois and beyond.

Joshua J. Vossler, an associate professor and academic librarian at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is the coauthor of Humor and Information Literacy: Practical Techniques for Library Instruction. He specializes in making instructional videos about research skills. He is a lifelong snake watcher and herpetological enthusiast.

Paper: 978-0-8093-3805-4 E-book: 978-0-8093-3806-1 $19.50, 168 pages, 355 illus.

Shawnee Books

Read more and order at www.siupress.com/snakeroad.

Edith

The Rogue Rockefeller McCormick Andrea Friederici Ross

“A deeply researched, briskly readable account of the life of Chicago grande dame Edith Rockefeller McCormick. . . . This is fascinating, stranger-thanfiction Chicago history, and a page-turner. Can’t wait for the miniseries it’s sure to inspire.”—Deanna Isaacs, Chicago Reader

“‘Unusual woman’ is only a hint to whom readers will meet in the book.

It is filled with family members and recipients of her patronage who have their own views of Edith and her spending. She acquired costly jewels and antiques but was also interested in affordable housing for young, first-time home buyers.”—Jodie Jacobs, Chicago Theater and Arts

Chicago’s quirky patron saint Paper: 978-0-8093-3862-7 Cloth: 978-0-8093-3790-3 E-book: 978-0-8093-3791-0 $22.95, 248 pages, 34 illus.

Read more at www.siupress.com/edith.

The story of Edith Rockefeller McCormick, daughter of John D. Rockefeller, is that of a woman who strove for the independence to make her own choices.

Rejecting the limited gender role carved out for her, she forged her own path, despite pushback from her family and ultimate financial ruin.

After marrying Harold McCormick, Edith spent lavishly. The couple purchased treasures like the jewels of Catherine the Great, entertained in their Chicago mansion, and helped found both the Chicago Grand Opera and the John R. McCormick Memorial Institute for Infectious Diseases. Societal and personal issues caused Edith to experience phobias and panic attacks. Dissatisfied with rest cures, she moved her family to Zurich and pursued analysis with then-unknown Carl Jung, becoming his leading patron. While in Europe she funded up-and-coming musicians, artists, and writers, including James Joyce as he wrote Ulysses. Later, in Chicago, Edith donated land for what would become Brookfield Zoo. Her unusual beliefs and pursuit of humanitarian goals ultimately provoked her family to cut her off financially.

Respectful and truthful, Ross presents the full arc of this amazing woman’s life and expertly explains Edith’s generosity, intelligence, and fierce determination to change the world.

Andrea Friederici Ross is the author of Let the Lions Roar! The Evolution of Brookfield Zoo. A native of the Chicago area and a graduate of Northwestern University, Ross works in a grade school library, where she encourages young readers to develop a lasting love of books.

The Loop

The ‘L’ Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago Patrick T. Reardon

“It is an odd paradox that few Chicagoans would call the ‘L’ beautiful, yet we’re quite sure and happy that it defines the very essence of our town. It is a set of trains screeching overhead, yet also a place—the Loop!—and a state of mind. Now a superb reporter, Patrick T. Reardon, tells the full and fascinating story of how Chicago built the ‘L’ and how the ‘L’ built Chicago. Read this book on the ‘L’ and you might miss your stop.”—Tom McNamee, editorial page editor of the Chicago Sun-Times Every day Chicagoans rely on the loop of elevated train tracks to get to their jobs, classrooms, or homes in the city’s downtown. But how much do they know about the single most important structure in the history of the Windy City? In engagingly brisk prose, Patrick T. Reardon unfolds the fascinating story about how Chicago’s elevated Loop was built, gave its name to the downtown, helped unify the city, saved the city’s economy, and was itself saved from destruction in the 1970s. This unique volume combines urban history, biography, engineering, architecture, transportation, culture, and politics to explore the elevated Loop’s impact on the city’s development and economy and on the way Chicagoans see themselves.

Paper: 978-0-8093-3810-8 E-book: 978-0-8093-3811-5 $26.95, 312 pages, 31 illus.

For more than three decades Patrick T. Reardon was an urban affairs writer, a feature writer, a columnist, and an editor for the Chicago Tribune. In 2000 he was one of a team of 50 staff members who won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. Now a freelance writer and poet, he has contributed chapters to several books and is the author of Faith Stripped to Its Essence.

Tales of Forgotten Chicago Richard C. Lindberg

“Reading Richard Lindberg’s new book Tales of Forgotten Chicago is like spending the afternoon exploring Chicago’s attic. Nestled in amongst the holiday decorations and old suitcases are people, places, and events that were once the talk of the Windy City, but have since slipped from civic memory.”—Dana Dunham, Chicago Review of Books Tales of Forgotten Chicago contains twenty-one fascinating, little-known stories about a great city and its people. Richard C. Lindberg has dug deeply to reveal lost historical events and hidden gems from Chicago’s past. Spanning the Civil War through the 1960s, the volume showcases forgotten crimes, punishments, and consequences: poisoned soup that nearly killed three hundred leading citizens, a woman in showbiz and her street-thug husband whose checkered lives inspired a 1955 James Cagney movie, and the first policewoman in Chicago. Also included are tales of industry and invention, such as America’s first automobile race, the haunting of a wealthy Gilded Age manufacturer’s mansion, and the identity of the telephone’s rightful inventor. Chapters on the history of early city landmarks spotlight the fight to save Lakefront Park and a North Side baseball park becoming Wrigley Field.

Other chapters explore civic, cultural, and political happenings such as the great Railroad Fairs of 1948 and 1949, Richard J. Daley’s revival of the St. Patrick’s Day parade, and the founding of the Special Olympics in Chicago. Finally, some are just wonderful tales, such as a touching story about the city’s first Christmas tree.

Richard C. Lindberg is an award-winning author, journalist, and lecturer who has written and published nineteen other books about Chicago history, politics, criminal justice, sports, and ethnicity.

Paper: 978-0-8093-3781-1 E-book: 978-0-8093-3782-8 $24.95, 280 pages, 24 illus.

The Bonds of War

A Story of Immigrants and Esprit De Corps in Company C, 96th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Diana L. Dretske

“In this intriguing collective biography of five immigrant men, Diana L. Dretske sheds important light on immigrant soldiers in the Civil War and on the Western Theater of the war, two aspects of the Civil War that are traditionally neglected. Their story is well told, making for a very rewarding and edifying read.”—Jason H. Silverman, author of Lincoln and the Immigrant and When America Welcomed Immigrants

The bond of citizenship earned during the Civil War

Paper: 978-0-8093-3820-7 E-book: 978-0-8093-3821-4 $26.50, 276 pages, 23 illus.

Engaging the Civil War

Read more and order at www.siupress.com/bondsofwar.

When curator Diana L. Dretske discovered that the five long-gone Union soldiers in a treasured photograph in the Bess Bower Dunn Museum were not fully identified, it compelled her into a project of recovery and reinterpretation. Utilizing an impressive array of local and national archives, as well as private papers, the author’s microhistorical approach records events that often go unnoticed, such as a farmer enlisting in the middle of a crop field, a sister searching her brother’s face for signs of war, and an immigrant dying in an effort to become a good American citizen.

This book, the most intensive examination of the 96th Illinois Volunteer Infantry since the regiment’s history was published in 1887 centers on immigrants from the British Isles who wished to be citizens of a country at war with itself. Far removed from their native homelands, they found new promise in rural Illinois. These men, neighbors along the quiet Stateline Road in Lake County, decide to join the fighting at its most dangerous hour. The bonds of war become then the bonds of their new national identity.

The Bonds of War uncovers the common soldier from the cataclysm that is the American Civil War by offering a collective biography of five soldiers of the 96th in the Western Theater. The human drama of their lives unfolds before the reader on battlefields such as Chickamauga and within the high pine stockades of Andersonville. Their lives argue that those who seem to matter least in military history are the very ones who can tell us the most about the experience of war and the reasons for remembering.

Diana L. Dretske, curator and Lake County historian at the Bess Bower Dunn Museum of Lake County, has explored, for more than thirty years, the history of northeastern Illinois through her research, presentations, and blog. Her books include Lake County, Illinois: An Illustrated History and Views of America: Fort Sheridan. In 2012 the Illinois State Historical Society recognized her with a lifetime achievement award for outstanding contributions in promoting, preserving, and commemorating Illinois history.

Women Making War

Female Confederate Prisoners and Union Military Justice Thomas F. Curran

“Women Making War takes up a worthy topic that has not received enough attention from historians. To date, it is the only full scholarly treatment of Confederate women engaged in war in the critical area of St. Louis. The book combines prodigious research in many dispersed and difficult-to-use sources with deep knowledge of the local context. Women Making War is an excellent piece of historical writing.”—Stephanie McCurry, author of Women’s War: Fighting and Surviving the American Civil War “Thomas F. Curran provides much-needed insight into the lives of Confederate women who, in their efforts to subvert the Union cause, ran afoul of military authorities. Anchored by a variety of entertaining and informative primary sources, he reminds us that there is still more to explore about female agency in directing the course of the Civil War.” —Victoria E. Ott, author of Confederate Daughters: Coming of Age during the Civil War

Paper: 978-0-8093-3803-0 E-book: 978-0-8093-3804-7 $26.50, 274 pages, 18 illus.

Partisan activities of disloyal women and the Union army’s reaction During the American Civil War, hundreds of women were arrested and imprisoned by the Union Army in the St. Louis area. The majority of them were fully aware of the political nature of their actions and had made conscious decisions to assist Confederate soldiers in armed rebellion against the U.S. government.

Their crimes included offering aid to Confederate soldiers, smuggling, spying, and sabotaging. By determining that women—who were excluded from the politics of the public sphere—were capable of treason, Federal authorities implicitly acknowledged that women acted in ways that had serious political meaning.

Thomas F. Curran analyzes the activities that led to arrests, the reactions women partisans evoked from Federal authorities, and the impact women’s partisan activities had on Federal military policy and military prisons. He also reveals how these women’s experiences were later disregarded in order to comport with a Lost Cause myth: the need for valiant men to protect defenseless women.

Thomas F. Curran has taught in the department of social studies at Cor Jesu Academy in St. Louis since 2003, and before that he taught at Saint Louis University and the University of Notre Dame. For eight years he served as managing editor of the Journal of Policy History. Curran is the author of Soldier of Peace: Civil War Pacifism and the Postwar Radical Peace Movement.

Read more and order at www.siupress.com/womenmakingwar.

Lincoln’s New Salem

Benjamin P. Thomas with a foreword by Ralph G. Newman and introduction by Kenneth J. Winkle “Benjamin P. Thomas, author of the best single-volume biography of Lincoln, made his debut as a Lincolnian with this evocative, highly readable study. Like the biography, it has held up remarkably well in the decades since its publication. Southern Illinois University Press deserves kudos for reissuing it with a new introduction by such an exceptionally knowledgeable scholar as Kenneth Winkle.”—Michael Burlingame, author of An American Marriage: The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd

A new edition of a Lincoln classic This authoritative classic tells the story of the Illinois village on the Sangamon River in which Abraham Lincoln lived from 1831 to 1837. Benjamin P. Thomas’s three-part examination of the town often referred to as Lincoln’s “alma mater” features the founding and early history of New Salem, Lincoln’s impact on the village and its effect on him, and the story of the Lincoln legend and the reconstruction of the town.

Paper: 978-0-8093-3859-7 Cloth: 978-0-8093-3860-3 E-book: 978-0-8093-3861-0 $16.95 paper, $28.50 cloth, 218 pages, 21 illus.

Lincoln’s New Salem highlights the young Lincoln’s arrival, his important wrestling match with Jack Armstrong, his self-education, his brief military career in the Black Hawk War, his experience as a postmaster largely indifferent to postal regulations, his financial woes with the general store, and his election to the state legislature. Making the point that New Salem was where Lincoln acquired faith in himself and in other people, Thomas introduces us to those who created New Salem and who knew, influenced, and befriended Lincoln, delving into his relationships with his neighbors and the loyal friends who often came to his aid.

Read more and order at www.siupress.com/newsalem.

This colorful history closes with a discussion of the Lincoln legend, which prompted the gradual realization that New Salem was not a dismal mire from which Abraham Lincoln had to extricate himself but was, in fact, an energizing force. This realization led to research and finally to the restoration of New Salem, which began in 1932. The preservation of the village remains vitally important.

First published in 1934 and revised by the author in 1954, this reissue includes a previously unpublished piece about New Salem and Illinois governor Henry Horner by Benjamin Thomas, a new introduction by Kenneth J. Winkle, and new photos by Robert Shaw, in addition to original drawings by Romaine Proctor and a 1971 foreword by Ralph G. Newman.

Benjamin P. Thomas (1902–56), a lifetime Lincoln scholar, is best known for his definitive Abraham Lincoln: A Biography. For many years he was the secretary of the Abraham Lincoln Association.

Concise Lincoln Library

This exciting series brings together expert scholars to elaborate on the life, times, and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. Through short, focused books, each concentrating on a different area of Lincoln’s life and career, the Concise Lincoln Library brings fresh perspectives to well-known topics, investigates previously overlooked subjects, and explores in greater depth topics that have not yet received book-length treatment. Learn more and see the full list of titles at www.conciselincolnlibrary.com.

Looking for Lincoln

Full-color, heavily illustrated guidebooks in the Looking for Lincoln series invite readers to learn more about the life, times, and legacy of Abraham Lincoln in central Illinois and the people, places, and forces in the region that shaped and elevated him to the White House. Collectively, books in the series examine Lincoln’s development and rise during his time in central Illinois; promote public awareness of the region’s history, culture, and significance; encourage heritage, cultural, and recreational tourism; and raise public consciousness about the needs and benefits of preserving the historic and cultural legacies of central Illinois.

The Irish in Illinois

Mathieu W. Billings and Sean Farrell “Mathieu W. Billings and Sean Farrell have done a magnificent job of combining primary research with a wealth of secondary material to produce an erudite and absorbing portrait of the Irish in Illinois from the mid-eighteenth to the early twenty-first century. The Irish in Illinois is a comprehensive and engaging book that should be read by everyone with an interest in Irish America, Illinois, or Chicago.”—Gillian O’Brien, author of Blood Runs Green: The Murder That Transfixed Gilded Age Chicago

The first statewide history of the Irish in the Prairie State Today over a million people in Illinois claim Irish ancestry and celebrate their love for Ireland. In this concise narrative history, authors Mathieu W. Billings and Sean Farrell bring together both familiar and unheralded stories of the Irish in Illinois, highlighting the critical roles these immigrants and their descendants played in the settlement and the making of the Prairie State. Short biographies and twenty-eight photographs vividly illustrate the significance and diversity of Irish contributions to Illinois.

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Billings and Farrell remind us of the countless ways Irish men and women have shaped the history and culture of the state. They fought in the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the Civil War, and two world wars; built the state’s infrastructure and worked in its factories; taught Illinois children and served the poor. Irish political leaders helped to draw up the state’s first constitution; served in city, county, and state offices; and created a machine that dominated twentieth-century politics in Chicago and the state.

This lively history adds to our understanding of the the Irish in the state over the past 250 years. Illinoisans and Midwesterners celebrating their connections to Ireland will treasure this rich and important account of the state’s history.

Mathieu W. Billings is a faculty associate in the history and political science department at the University of Indianapolis.

Sean Farrell is a professor of history at Northern Illinois University. He is the author of Rituals and Riots: Sectarian Violence and Political Culture in Ulster, 1784–1886 and coeditor of Shadows of the Gunmen: Violence and Culture in Modern Ireland.

Coming in 2023 Puerto Ricans in Illinois Maura I. Toro-Morn and Ivis García

Immigrants in the Valley

Irish, Germans, and Americans in the Upper Mississippi Country, 1830–1860 Mark Wyman

“Mark Wyman has painted a vivid picture of settlement in the Upper Mississippi Valley. He traces the origins, settlement patterns, and economic and cultural activities of migrants from Ireland, the German states, New England, and the South.”—Illinois Historical Journal Thousands of newcomers flocked into the Upper Mississippi country in the decades leading up to the Civil War. Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, and Minnesota received immigrants from most areas of Europe, as well as Americans from the Upper South, New England, and the Middle Atlantic states. They all carried with them religious beliefs, experiences, and expectations that differed widely, attitudes and opinions which often threw them into conflict with each other. Drawing extensively on family letters sent home to Europe, missionary reports, employment records, and other diverse materials from 1830 to 1860, Wyman shows the interplay between the major groups traveling the roads and waterways of the Upper Mississippi Valley during those crucial decades. The result is a lively, richly illustrated account that will help Americans everywhere better understand their diverse heritage and the environment in which their family trees took root.

Paper: 978-0-8093-3556-5 E-book: 978-0-8093-3557-2 $24.50, 282 pages, 38 illus.

Mark Wyman is a professor emeritus of history at Illinois State University. He is the author of six books on labor, frontier, and immigration history.

German Americans on the Middle Border

From Antislavery to Reconciliation, 1830–1877 Zachary Stuart Garrison

“[E]xquisitely crafted history, both in its nuanced reassessment of the nature and results of German antislavery activism before, during, and after the Civil War and its lucid explanation of the many complicated reasons behind the dizzying rise and fall of German social and political influence and status in the region over that period of time.”—Andrew J. Wagenhoffer, Civil War Books and Authors Before the Civil War, Northern, Southern, and Western political cultures crashed together on the middle border, where the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers meet. German Americans who settled in the region took an antislavery stance, asserting a liberal nationalist philosophy rooted in their revolutionary experience in Europe that emphasized individual rights and freedoms. By contextualizing German Americans in their European past and exploring their ideological formation in failed nationalist revolutions, Zachary Stuart Garrison adds nuance and complexity to their story. Garrison’s unique transnational perspective to the sectional crisis, the Civil War, and the postwar era complicates our understanding of German Americans on the middle border.

Zachary Stuart Garrison teaches history at Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis, Missouri. He previously taught at the University of Cincinnati and Lindenwood University and worked at Ohio Valley History.

Paper: 978-0-8093-3755-2 E-book: 978-0-8093-3756-9 $30, 232 pages, 4 illus.

St. Louis & Empire

250 Years of Imperial Quest and Urban Crisis Henry W. Berger

“With a book that either defies or transcends categorization, Henry W. Berger gives us a history of St. Louis from the perspective of its imperial aspirations as expressed through two hundred and fifty years of commercial initiatives. Berger’s book. . . is as much an endorsement as a critique of this interesting and exhaustively researched work that takes the reader on an interesting and enlightening journey from the origins of St. Louis.”— John Reda, Middle West Review

Cloth: 978-0-8093-3395-0 E-book: 978-0-8093-3396-7 $39.50, 368 pages, 32 illus.

At first glance, St. Louis, Missouri, or any American city, for that matter, seems to have little to do with foreign relations, a field ostensibly conducted on a nation-state level. However, St. Louis, despite its status as an inland river city frequently relegated to the backwaters of national significance, has stood at the crossroads of international matters for much of its history. From its eighteenth-century French fur trade origins to post–Cold War business dealings with Latin America and Asia, the city has never neglected nor been ignored by the world outside its borders. In this pioneering study, Henry W. Berger analyzes St. Louis’s imperial engagement from its founding in 1764 to the present day, revealing the intersection of local political, cultural, and economic interests in foreign affairs.

Henry W. Berger is a professor emeritus of history at Washington University in St. Louis.

He is the editor of A William Appleman Williams Reader: Selections from His Major Historical Writings.

Corn Kings and OneHorse Thieves

A Plain-Spoken History of Mid-Illinois James Krohe Jr.

“Krohe is both entertaining and enlightening on a wide variety of issues, events, and personalities. His literary voice is knowledgeable and bemused, with a dry wit that makes for an enthralling narrative.”—James A. Edstrom, The Annals of Iowa

Paper: 978-0-8093-3602-9 E-book: 978-0-8093-3603-6 $29.50, 360 pages, 57 illus.

James Krohe Jr. presents an engaging history of an often overlooked region, filled with fascinating stories and surprising facts about Illinois’s midsection. Krohe describes in lively prose the history of mid-Illinois from the Woodland period of prehistory until roughly 1960, covering the settlement of the region; the exploitation by Euro-Americans of forest, fish, and waterfowl; the transformation of farming into a high-tech industry; and the founding and deaths of towns. The economic, cultural, and racial factors that led to antagonism and accommodation between various people of different backgrounds are explored, as are the roles of education and religion in this part of the state. The book examines remarkable utopian experiments, social and moral reform movements, and innovations in transportation and food processing. Accessible and entertaining yet well-researched and informative, Corn Kings and One-Horse Thieves draws on a wide range of sources to explore a surprisingly diverse section of Illinois whose history is America in microcosm.

In more than forty years as an award-winning magazine journalist, essayist, and critic, James Krohe Jr. has explored the history, politics, and culture of his native Illinois.

The Illustrated Flora of Illinois

All Titles in the Series

Ferns Flowering Plants: Asteraceae, Part 1 Flowering Plants: Asteraceae, Part 2 Flowering Plants: Asteraceae, Part 3 Flowering Plants: Basswoods to Spurges Flowering Plants: Flowering Rush to Rushes

Flowering Plants: Hollies to Loasas Flowering Plants: Lilies to Orchids Flowering Plants: Magnolias to Pitcher Plants Flowering Plants: Nightshades to Mistletoe Flowering Plants: Pokeweeds, Four-o’clocks, Carpetweeds, Cacti, Purslanes, Goosefoots, Pigweeds, and Pinks

Flowering Plants: Smartweeds to Hazelnuts Flowering Plants: Willows to Mustards Grasses: Bromus to Paspalum, Second Edition Grasses: Panicum to Danthonia, Second Edition Sedges: Carex Sedges: Cyperus to Scleria

The Natural Heritage of Illinois: Essays on Its Lands, Waters, Flora, and Fauna John E. Schwegman Paper: 978-0-8093-3484-1 $24.50, 256 pages, 35 illus.

In Their Letters, in Their Words: Illinois Civil War Soldiers Write Home Edited by Mark Flotow Paper: 978-0-8093-3763-7 $26.50, 320 pages, 12 illus.

Organizing Freedom: Black Emancipation Activism in the Civil War Midwest Jennifer R. Harbour Paper: 978-0-8093-3769-9 $27, 208 pages 5 illus.

The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History Libby Hill Paper: 978-0-8093-3707-1 $24.50, 328 pages, 86 illus.

Fortune and Faith in Old Chicago: A Dual Biography of Mayor Augustus Garrett and Seminary Founder Eliza Clark Garrett Charles H. Cosgrove Cloth: 978-0-8093-3794-1 $29.50, 320 pages, 32 illus.

Kaskaskia: The Lost Capital of Illinois David MacDonald and Raine Waters Paper: 978-0-8093-3731-6 $26.50, 226 pages, 99 illus.

Prairie Boys Go to War: The Fifth Illinois Cavalry, 1861–1865 Rhonda M. Kohl Paper: 978-0-8093-3822-1 $26.50, 330 pages, 22 illus.

Pembroke: A Rural, Black Community on the Illinois Dunes Dave Baron Paper: 978-0-8093-3502-2 $26.50, 248 pages, 18 illus.

Legends and Lore of Southern Illinois John W. Allen Paper: 978-0-8093-2967-0 $26.50, 440 pages, 37 illus.

The Poorhouse: Subsidized Housing in Chicago Devereux Bowly Jr. Paper: 978-0-8093-3052-2 $29.50, 288 pages, 172 illus.

Railroad Tycoon Who Built Chicago: A Biography of William B. Ogden Jack Harpster Paper: 978-0-8093-3736-1 $22.50, 328 pages, 26 illus.

Chicago’s Fabulous Fountains Greg Borzo Cloth: 978-0-8093-3579-4 $29.95, 224 pages, 139 illus.

Black Writing from Chicago: In the World, Not of It? Edited by Richard R. Guzman Paper: 978-0-8093-2704-1 $22.95, 360 pages

The Ordeal of the Jungle: Race and the Chicago Federation of Labor, 1903–1922 David Bates Paper: 978-0-8093-3744-6 $29.50, 268 pages, 9 illus.

America’s Deadliest Twister The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 Geoff Partlow Paper: 978-0-8093-3346-2 $19.95, 160 pages, 48 illus.

Chicago: Metropolis of the MidContinent, 4th Edition Irving Cutler Paper: 978-0-8093-2702-7 $24.95, 464 pages, 300 illus.

Death Underground: The Centralia and West Frankfort Mine Disasters Robert E. Hartley and David Kenney Paper: 978-0-8093-2706-5 $22.95, 250 pages, 30 illus.

Chicago Heights: Little Joe College, the Outfit, and the Fall of Sam Giancana Charles Hager with David T. Miller Paper: 978-0-8093-3672-2 $22.95, 184 pages, 14 illus.

20 Day Trips in and around the Shawnee National Forest Larry P. and Donna J. Mahan Paper: 978-0-8093-3255-7 $19.95, 160 pages, 102 illus.

Fluorspar Mining: Photos from Illinois and Kentucky, 1905-1995 Herbert K. Russell Paper: 978-0-8093-3668-5 $19.50, 102 pages, 86 illus.

Making the Heartland Quilt: A Geographical History of Settlement and Migration in Early-Nineteenth-Century Illinois Douglas K. Meyer Paper: 978-0-8093-3514-5 $35, 354 pages, 67 illus.

It’s Good to Be Black Ruby Berkley Goodwin Paper: 978-0-8093-3122-2 $19.95, 280 pages

The Wreck of the “America” in Southern Illinois: A Flatboat on the Ohio River Mark J. Wagner Paper: 978-0-8093-3436-0 $19.50, 132 pages, 59 illus.

Prairie Defender: The Murder Trials of Abraham Lincoln George R. Dekle, Sr. Cloth: 978-0-8093-3597-8 $34.50, 248 pages, 21 illus.