Memphis gave birth to music that changed the world — Memphis Mayhem is a fascinating history of how music and culture collided to change the state of music forever “David Less has captured the essence of the Memphis music experience on these pages in no uncertain terms. There's truly no place like Memphis and this is the story of why that is. HAVE MERCY!” — Billy F Gibbons, ZZ Top Memphis Mayhem weaves the tale of the racial collision that led to a cultural, sociological, and musical revolution. David Less constructs a fascinating narrative of the city that has produced a startling array of talent, including Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Al Green, Otis Redding, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Justin Timberlake, and so many more. Beginning with the 1870s yellow fever epidemics that created racial imbalance as wealthy whites fled the city, David Less moves from W.C. Handy’s codification of blues in 1909 to the mid-century advent of interracial musical acts like Booker T. & the M.G.’s, the birth of punk, and finally to the growth of a music tourism industry. Memphis Mayhem explores the city’s entire musical ecosystem, which includes studios, high school band instructors, clubs, record companies, family bands, pressing plants, instrument factories, and retail record outlets. Lively and comprehensive, this is a provocative story of finding common ground through music and creating a sound that would change the world.

In the hollows of Lewis County, Tennessee, Mormon missionaries baptized nearly fifty members of a large extended family. But their initial success was marred by false accusations of salacious behavior. A few influential citizens were disturbed by the rumors and by the missionaries' apparent popularity. On August 10th 1884, tensions erupted into violence and bloodshed. Two of the Utah missionaries, two young Tennessean converts, and one vigilante were shot dead. At least one other member of the congregation was wounded and never fully recovered. Much has been written about the two missionaries killed, but the real story is much deeper. Step into the lives of these proud Tennesseans, the earnest converts, the fearsome gunmen, and those stuck in between. See how their families intertwined in the years before and after the shooting. Its a snapshot of post-bellum rural Tennessee you won't soon forget.

One of the most exuberant move palaces of the South, the Tennesse Theatre is a Jazz Age spectacle, a glimmer of a brifely extravagant era, a bold architectural celebration of an astonishing and suddenly popular new form of art. The motion picture changed the way Americans experienced their world,within its broad region, the Tennesseee became the superlative venue for that experiences. Despite its reputation as the finest, the most expensive, the theater with chandeliers and original art and antiques in its lobby, the Tennessee was also the largest, the busiest, and the most popular...Exclusiveness is one of the Tennessee's most effective illusions. After almost a century, the Tennessee is still obligatory on any trip to Knoxville, one of these sights you have to witness at least at once. Designed with dozens of shapes and countless colors to awe, it is distinct in appearance from every other theater in the world. It's a complex and fascinating artifact. But the Tennessee is also a practical edifice, a modern venue for classical music, opera, rock, jazz, bluegrass, and dozens of other genres that benefit from the old theater's excellent acoutiscs, praised in the national media for the quaility of its sound.

In a career spanning four decades, Gerald R. North contributed groundbreaking research that continues to shape the modern field of climate science. However, the route he has taken was full of surprising twists and turns that included hate mail, eavesdropping by the KGB, and sometimes acrimonious debate with climate-change deniers. North’s significant contributions to the field include his innovative “toy model” analysis of climate change based on ingeniously simplified models and his lead proposal for and successful approval of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. Launched in 1997, the TRMM’s purpose was to collect data on the global climate system. The TRMM operated successfully for 17 years before it was deactivated in 2015. In The Rise of Climate Science, North recounts in detail his life in the vanguard of modern climate science. He offers an insider look at the academic research and government initiatives around global warming and what that means for the planet. He includes stories of conversations with top Soviet climate scientists at the height of the Cold War in the late 1970s—complete with clandestine electronic surveillance. He also describes the experience of testifying before Congress and engaging in public exchanges with those who doubted the reality of the phenomenon his research field described. Climatology today has advanced into a mature phase. This book is an important contribution to understanding its development in the twentieth century and adds a distinctly human face and sensibility to the ongoing societal conversation around climate change and its implications for our future.

A 200-page illustrated guide including Downtown, Historic Homes, Neighborhoods, Parks, Cemeteries, University of Tennessee, and more!

Whether you are reading from your armchair or on the road, this comprehensive tour guide to the state of Tennessee will inform you about the incredible diversity of historic places from east to west. Focusing on the built environment, this reference covers architectural achievements from the state capitol in Nashville to the earliest humble cabins in East Tennessee.

This text presents the story of the Civil War in Knoxville, Tennessee - a perpetually occupied, bitterly divided southern town. It documents the loyalties of more than half of the townspeople, identifies complex patterns of individual decisions, and explores the agonizing personal decisions that the war made inescapable.