The history hidden in the story of our borders. How those borders were formed. What deals were struck. Why Minnesota looks like it does.

Culled from the best of Minnesota History magazine, these essays on 200 years of Minnesota history encompass a wide range of its past, from frontier life to the age of technological innovation, from Dakota and Ojibwe history to the story of a Chinese family in St. Paul, from lumber workers' and truckers' strikes to the women's suffrage movement.

A fabulous showcase of individuals, events, and inventions that have made Minnesota.

In 'Minnesota, the North Star State', William Watts Folwell provides a comprehensive history of Minnesota, exploring its native inhabitants, early explorers, settlement period, and the state's rapid development in the 19th century. Written in a scholarly yet accessible style, the book offers a detailed account of the state's unique geographical features, political climates, and cultural influences. Folwell's narrative is enriched with archival research and personal anecdotes, making it a valuable resource for both scholars and general readers interested in the history of Minnesota. This book is a testament to Folwell's dedication to preserving the heritage of the 'North Star State' and his passion for historical storytelling. William Watts Folwell, a renowned historian and educator, served as the first president of the University of Minnesota and was a leading authority on the history of the Upper Midwest. His in-depth knowledge of the region's past and his commitment to academic excellence shine through in this meticulously researched volume. Folwell's intimate connection to Minnesota and his scholarly expertise make 'Minnesota, the North Star State' a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the state's rich history. I highly recommend 'Minnesota, the North Star State' to history enthusiasts, students, and residents of Minnesota. Folwell's engaging writing style and thorough research make this book a captivating journey through the state's past, shedding light on its unique heritage and significance in American history.

Serial Forms: The Unfinished Project of Modernity, 1815-1848 proposes an entirely new way of reading the transition into the modern. It is the first book in a series of three which will take the reader up to the end of the First World War, moving from a focus on London to a global perspective. Serial Forms sets out the theoretical and historical basis for all three volumes. It suggests that, as a serial news culture and a stadial historicism developed together between 1815 and 1848, seriality became the dominant form of the nineteenth century. Through serial newsprint, illustrations, performances, and shows, the past and the contemporary moment enter into public visibility together. Serial Forms argues that it is through seriality that the social is represented as increasingly politically urgent. The insistent rhythm of the serial reorganizes time, recalibrates and rescales the social, and will prepare the way for the 1848 revolutions which are the subject of the next book. By placing their work back into the messy print and performance culture from which it originally appeared, Serial Forms is able to produce new and exciting readings of familiar authors such as Scott, Byron, Dickens, and Gaskell. Rather than offering a rarefied intellectual history or chopping up the period into 'Romantic' and 'Victorian', Clare Pettitt tracks the development of communications technologies and their impact on the ways in which time, history and virtuality are imagined.

Sarah Milledge Nelson’s bold thesis is that the development of states in East Asia—China, Japan, Korea—was an outgrowth of the leadership in smaller communities guided by shamans. Using a mixture of historical documents, mythology, archaeological data, and ethnographic studies of contemporary shamans, she builds a case for shamans being the driving force behind the blossoming of complex societies. More interesting, shamans in East Asia are generally women, who used their access to the spirit world to take leadership roles. This work challenges traditional interpretations growth of Asian states, which is overlaid with later Confucian notions of gender roles. Written at a level accessible for undergraduates, this concise work will be fascinating reading for those interested in East Asian archaeology, politics, and society; in gender roles, and in shamanism.

The Toughest Beat uses the rise of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the state's powerful prison officers' union, to explore the actors and interests that have created, shaped, and protected the Golden State's sprawling, dysfunctional penal system -- and how it might yet be transformed.