By legislative decree, the planned community of Belleville began in 1814 as the new county seat on the site of George Blair's farm, in proximity to no major crossroads or rivers. This book chronicles Belleville's remarkable--if not phenomenal--rise to become the "Capitol of Southern Illinois," a feat celebrated to no small degree by proud residents on the occasion of Belleville's centennial celebration. Much of what contributed to Belleville's 19th-century rise to prominence in politics and its economic growth in agribusiness, mining, banking, manufacturing, and retail sectors are illustrated here. This collection of photographs shows some of the many reasons why modern-day Bellevillian's retain pride in the city's history and continue their efforts to preserve it.

In 1914, celebrants marked the anniversary of the founding of Belleville, Illinois, by observing the progress the city had made since it was established a hundred years before. In that time, it had become a regional hub for surrounding communities, with robust commercial, manufacturing, coal-mining, and agricultural sectors. Over the next century, the automobile, wars, economic depression, and technological innovation transformed daily life in ways unimaginable to those citizens of 1914. Bellevilleans' civic volunteerism would serve the city well as Belleville approached its bicentennial. In 2011, the National Civic League designated it an All-American City.

Here is an incomparably rich portrait of France in the years when the disparate elements that made up the fragmented kingdom of the ancien regime were forged into the modern nation. The survey begins with an exploration of national obsessions and attitudes. It considers the tendency to revolution and war, the preoccupation with the idea of a New Order and the deep strain of national paranoia that was to be intensified by the dramatic debacle of the Franco-Prussian War. Robert Tombs then investigates the structures of power and in Part Three he turns his attention to social identities, from the individual and family to the nation at large. When every aspect of the period has been put under the microscope, Robert Tombs draws them all into the broad political narrative that brings the book to its rousing conclusion. Bursting with life as well as learning, this is, quite simply, a tour de force.