The WPA Guide to the Minnesota Arrowhead Country, first published in 1941, offers a lively and detailed introduction to the northeastern part of the state, long famed for the breathtaking beauty of its landscape, the colorful variety of its ethnic groups, and the worldwide impact of its industries-now with a new introduction by Cathy Wurzer. Cathy Wurzer is the host of Morning Edition on Minnesota Public Radio and cohost of Almanac on Twin Cities Public Television. She has been honored with four Emmys for her work on Almanac.

Minnesota’s Twin Cities have long been powerful engines of change. From their origins in the early nineteenth century, the Twin Cities helped drive the dispossession of the region’s Native American peoples, turned their riverfronts into bustling industrial and commercial centers, spread streets and homes outward to the horizon, and reached well beyond their urban confines, setting in motion the environmental transformation of distant hinterlands. As these processes unfolded, residents inscribed their culture into the landscape, complete with all its tensions, disagreements, contradictions, prejudices, and social inequalities. These stories lie at the heart of Nature’s Crossroads. The book features an interdisciplinary team of distinguished scholars who aim to open new conversations about the environmental history of the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.

Lake Superior's North Shore-the vast stretch between Duluth and Grand Portage-is nearly 150 miles long, with an abundance of state parks, state and national forests, streams and rivers, and more than thirty distinct communities representing a broad range of ethnic and religious groups. Many visitors have made the famous drive along scenic Highway 61, the central artery of this popular vacation destination, but few are aware of the historical significance of the villages, homes, and markers that they pass along the way. In Lake Superior's Historic North Shore, Deborah Morse-Kahn takes vacationers and armchair travelers alike on a unique journey along old roads and byways and into the hidden history of the land and communities along a stunning section of this great inland sea. This informative, easy-to-follow guide offers the history of First Nation peoples, the historic fur trade years, the development of Norwegian fishing villages, and the heydey of splendid tourist lodges like Babe Ruth's famous Naniboujou-traces of which can be found in the grand sites and unassuming structures that still stand today. Detailed maps and practical visitor information help vacationers hit their favorite destinations with ease. Deborah Morse-Kahn works as a specialist in historic preservation and cultural resource management and is the author of A Guide to the Archaeology Parks of the Upper Midwest.

In the late nineteenth century, the North Woods offered people little in the way of a pleasant escape. Rather, it was a hub of production supplying industrial America with vast quantities of lumber and mineral ore. This book tells the story of how northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula became a tourist paradise, turning a scarred countryside into the playground we know today. Stripped of much of its timber and ore by the early 1900s, the North Woods experienced deindustrialization earlier than the Rust Belt cities that consumed its resources. In The Lure of the North Woods, Aaron Shapiro describes how residents and visitors reshaped the region from a landscape of exploitation to a vacationland. The rejuvenating North Woods profited in new ways by drawing on emerging connections between the urban and the rural, including improved transportation, promotion, recreational land use, and conservation initiatives. Shapiro demonstrates how this transformation helps explain the interwar origins of modern American environmentalism, when both the consumption of nature for pleasure and the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the North Woods and elsewhere led many Americans to cultivate a fresh perspective on the outdoors. At a time when travel and recreation are considered major economic forces, The Lure of the North Woods reveals how leisure—and tourism in particular—has shaped modern America.

As a New Deal program, the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) aimed to put unemployed writers, teachers, and librarians to work. The contributors were to collect information, write essays, conduct interviews, and edit material with the goal of producing guidebooks in each of the then forty-eight states and U.S. territories. Project administrators hoped that these guides, known as the American Guide Series, would promote a national appreciation for America's history, culture, and diversity and preserve democracy at a time when militarism was on the rise and parts of the world were dominated by fascism. Marilyn Irvin Holt focuses on the Nebraska project, which was one of the most prolific branches of the national program. Best remembered for its state guide and series of folklore and pioneer pamphlets, the project also produced town guides, published a volume on African Americans in Nebraska, and created an ethnic study of Italians in Omaha. In Nebraska during the New Deal Holt examines Nebraska’s contribution to the project, both in terms of its place within the national FWP as well as its operation in comparison to other state projects.

Minnesotan Tricia Cornell brings years of traveling experience to the table in Moon Minnesota. Cornell spotlights a great list of travel strategies, such as "Best of Minnesota", "A Long Weekend in the Twin Cities", and "Wacky Minnesota". She covers the Twin Cities' thriving nightlife as well as the recaptured Victorian allure found in Duluth's historic B&Bs. Whether they're exploring the old European charm of St. Paul or enjoying the sophistication of Minneapolis, Moon Minnesota gives travelers the tools they need to create a more personal and memorable experience. This ebook and its features are best experienced on iOS or Android devices and the Kindle Fire.

"Picturing Minnesota brings together the best of the images taken in Minnesota from the collection of photographs commissioned by the Farm Security Administration during the depression era and the advent of World War II. Among the photographers represented here are John Vachon, a native of St. Paul, Russell Lee, Jack Delano, Arthur Rothstein and Marion Post Wolcott. Outstanding as photographic works of art, these pictures are unique in their ability to convey the details of life in Minnesota during those years"--Publisher's description from lensculture.com.

There are so many books on so many aspects of the history of the United States, offering such a wide variety of interpretations, that students, teachers, scholars, and librarians often need help and advice on how to find what they want. The Reader's Guide to American History is designed to meet that need by adopting a new and constructive approach to the appreciation of this rich historiography. Each of the 600 entries on topics in political, social and economic history describes and evaluates some 6 to 12 books on the topic, providing guidance to the reader on everything from broad surveys and interpretive works to specialized monographs. The entries are devoted to events and individuals, as well as broader themes, and are written by a team of well over 200 contributors, all scholars of American history.