No comments about Minneapolis in the Twentieth Century: The Growth of an American City.

5 comments about Twin Cities by Trolley: The Streetcar Era in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

1. This is a wonderful book. The pictures are amazing. We actually found a picture of my husband's Grandfather, George, that worked on the Lake Steet line.



2. Unlike many streetcar histories that assume that the reader already has a familiarity with at least the geography or operation of the traction company being presented, the authors of this book combine a creative layout and numerous maps with a discussion of all aspects of Minneapolis/St. Paul streetcar operations that can be easily grasped by non-Twin Citians. The maps are the best that I have ever seen, especially the individual route maps that show each street along with dates of the start and end of service on each segment. The book has a rich, "coffee-table" appearance that invites picking it up for frequent browsing, and the nicely reproduced black and white photographs and well-written text amply reward the effort.



3. Fascinating book for a boy who lived in St.Paul from 1928 until 1951. Great pictures,maps and text. A real joy.



4. A marvelous book, extremely well written with accurate detail and and hundreds of wonderful street scene photos on virtually every page. Book is worth twice the price.



5. I was born after the trolleys were gone, so I heard stories from my mom...how great the trolley service was, and how you could go anywhere, and how the waits were short. We rode the yellow trolley that the transportation museum restored and operates at Lake Harriet, and I was hooked. This book answered my questions (yes, Mom was right!) and even furnished maps. I don't know how well the system would have dealt with suburban sprwal, but for it's time, the trolleys sure took care of the needs folks had to get around town! This book is fun to dive into if you like stories and pictures and maps, and would be a super gift to any nostalgic old trolley patron!

5 comments about Creating Minnesota: A History from the Inside Out.

1. Annette Atkins can write the heck out of a story. Her lyrical history of Minnesota is thematic, personal, and a bit quirky. There are chapters in this book that soar, and there are chapters that touch on the mundanity of Minnesota history. I would read an essay by this author, on any topic that touches her heart or mind, in a minute. This book contains several such. My only mild critical comment is that this book would have been even better with more Annette, and a tiny bit less Minnesota, if that is even possible.



2. "Creating Minnesota: A History From The Inside Out" by Annette Atkins (Professor of History at Saint John's University and the College of Saint Benedict) is a superbly written history of how Minnesota evolved from a wilderness territory into a modern American state. In a model of accessible scholarship, Professor Atkins lays out Minnesota's achievement of statehood amidst the competing interests of indigenous natives, traders, farmers, townsmen, and politicians. There are illustrative and fascinating stories such as the family in St. Paul who managed to celebrate Christmas in 1898 with fruit that originated some 1,500 miles from their home. Professor Atkins also includes a photo essay of Minnesota communities as recorded by the cameras of local and itinerant photographers; the role of the railroads; even such culinary traditions as pan-fried walleye and walleye quesadillas. Very strongly recommended for personal, school, and community library American History collections in general, and Minnesota History shelves in particular, "Creating Minnesota" is an entertaining a read as it is informed and informative.



3. I bought it for Christmas for my husband because it was on his list. He says he thinks that it is going to be "good", but he hasn't gotten into it much yet.



4. I have read many Minnesota history books from the seminal state histories by William E. Lass and Theodore C. Blegen to works recently published for the state's sesquicentennial. But nothing can equal the incite and creativity offered by Annette Atkins in Creating Minnesota. I first discovered Atkins's work in Minnesota, Real & Imagined: Essays on the State and Its Culture where she provided an essay entitled "Facing Minnesota" and so I was very excited to read her new book on Minnesota history.
   
   Atkins's approach is that of a seasoned historian who approaches her topic with sensitivity and intelligence. She is aware of her own limits as a historian and the ways her identification as a white, female, South Dakotan can affect her narrative. Furthermore, she does not shy away from the existential questions that any good historian must ask: Why do we study history? Who are we studying when we study history and how do we decide that they are the ones worth studying? How does our position in the narrative affect how we look at history?
   
   But Atkins is not all academic theorizing, however valuable such theorizing may be. Her writing is readable, smart, and often funny. She plays with format in this book by telling the story of Minnesota by turns in broad strokes, with specific case studies, and in the form of a one-act play (an experiment that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't). What is most striking about her work is the humanity that comes forth when reading her stories. Glancing over the section of pictures, I am struck by the faces of the individuals who once called Minnesota home. Their stories are the ones that Atkins strives to tell in one way or another and, in my opinion, she exceeds all expectations.



5. Creating Minnesota has over two chapters about the Campbell Family. It also contains genealogy information on many of the mixed blood families in Minnesota in the early 1800s. For those who descend from Minnesota and those who do not this book is a goldmine.Creating Minnesota: A History from the Inside Out

1 comments about Being Political: Genealogies of Citizenship.

1. This is an interesting take on the emergent field of citizenship studies. Isin argues that the essential process of citizenship is the making of outsiders.

No comments about Rethinking Home: A Case for Writing Local History.

2 comments about Minnesota in 3D: A Look Back in Time: With Built-in Stereoscope Viewer - Your Glasses to the Past!.

1. I really like the old time 3D pictures, and this book is full of them. Clever idea. I found it easy to see the 3D, but some people have difficulty with it. There is no "divider" to hide the left picture from the right eye, and vice versa. But even those that have difficulty, a little practice and they can figure it out.



2. All of the books in this series are great. As a stereocard maker and enthusiast, I was excited about the release of these books.
   Good points: Excellent price! Excellent construction with the fold out viewer in the cover and excellent graphics giving it an 'antique' feel. Some very rare views are presented that would cost a fortune to purchase. The descriptions originally printed on the card's verso are reproduced here on the preceding page to each image so that they can be viewed and read all at once... And, did I mention the excellent price?
   Weak points: Some cards which already suffered from poor image quality are made 'grainy' by the halftone printing. A few of the images are not in 3D. A few images have the left and right images reversed. While the original cards may have been this way, the least they could have done was correct them or note the error in the descriptions.
   Still, these few and minor weaknesses do not detract from the overall quality of the books. Nothing can really describe seeing historical moments and people in 3D.These books should be in classrooms. I look forward to the next 2 releases in the series.

4 comments about Bring Warm Clothes: Letters and Photos from Minnesota's Past.

1. An excellent collection of diaries and letters from Minnesota territory days thru early in her statehood. Accompanied by many great photo's depicting the times.A great fireplace companion!



2. An excellent collection of diaries and letters from Minnesota territory days thru early in her statehood. Accompanied by many great photo's depicting the times.A great fireplace companion!



3. Bring Warm Clothes : Letters and Photos from Minnesota's Past was written by a former columnist for the Minnesota Star and Tribune, Peg Meier. It is a great treat, both as a peek into the past and as a well "written" work of history. The author includes pictures, diary entries, newspaper articles, letters, and government documents to create her biography of the state.

   The book is heavily illustrated. Among the visual works are paintings of Minnesota from its exploration years, mostly by Seth Eastman and Karl Bodmer, which capture the rustic and wild character of a land yet untrammeled by the fences, industrial complexes and housing developments with which most of us are familiar. For those who like to see photographic reality, there are photos of Minnesota's early pre- and post-statehood years during the 19th Century and of the 20th Century up to World War II. The former include pictures of the Civil War in which the volunteers of the First Minnesota Regiment participated. In all some 25,000 men from the state fought in battles like Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg, losing some 2,500 men, almost one out of every ten. Other photos show the old homes, city and town streets, early industry, sod homes, and family and other groups that bring to life a time past.

   Particularly enjoyable were the letters from the early settlement of Saint Paul and Minneapolis as presented in the merry correspondence of the Fuller family, and the witty press releases of Jane Grey Swisshelm in her paper the St Cloud Visiter, later the St. Cloud Democrat. The letters of Harriet Griswold reveal the fact that boom and bust economy is not new to our era, when her correspondence goes from exuberence and big plans in October of 1856 to bearly hanging on in September of 1858. The Civil War diaries of Sam Bloomer and Isaac Taylor and the World War I letters of Philip Longyear, an ambulance driver at the French front, bring those conflicts to a more vivid reality. The plight of the Native Americans and the fear and reactionism that the Indian Wars generated is also covered.

   The author has, wisely in my opinion, allowed the primary sources speak for themselves. She adds very little interpretive material of her own and then only to clarify where necessary or to provide follow up information.

   One of the principle points of note is the fact that most of these people had many of the same problems we have, and that they bring some of the same perspectives, same blind spots, and same sense of humor that we bring to our own daily lives. They lived one day at a time, facing an unknown future with the same uncertainty that we do. Some stories came out with a happy ending, some did not. It makes one wonder what some future writer of Minnesota history will say and think of our own times.




4. This is a wonderful guide into Minnesota's past. Letters and articles accompany photos that bring you to places that you've been and acquaint you with it's character. Truly a terrific book for those that love the warmth and charm of the characters and life that make Minnesota home!

5 comments about The Lonely Land (Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage Book Series).

1. I was looking on information on old canoe routes of the voyageurs and I came upon this book. It tells the experiences of Olson, a famous naturalist of the 50's and 60's, and 5 of his friends, as they paddle three wood and canvas canoes down 500 miles of the Churchhill River in Saskatchewan in 1960. Olson describes the setting and experience so completely, including diary entries of famous fur trappers who traveled the same route, that I have thought of nothing else but going to see the country he describes, the Canadian Shield of Northern Saskatchewan. It is a different place now than it was 40 years ago, less lonely I imagine, but still something I must do. I would recommend this book to anyone who longs to experience this land, North America, before it became overpopulated.



2. It's a great book. I haven't paddled the Churchhill River yet, but rivers closeby, and you still find the wilderness and the loneliness that Sig Olson describes. After reading this book and others by Sig Olson I just want to go out paddling and enjoy the wilderness.



3. I first obtained this book in my youth through the old Outdoor Life Book Club (which also introduced me to other classics such as John J. Rowlands' Cache Lake Country). I'm not sure I read The Lonely Land all the way through at that first encounter, but I recently rediscovered it when cleaning out a family home. I picked it up out of nostalgia, but I soon found that I couldn't put it down.
   
   Apart from the inherent interest of its subject matter -- the majestic wilderness of central Canada's Churchill River drainage -- I was quickly taken by the immediacy of Olson's account. The wind, the waves, the thunder of approaching rapids all spill off the page in vivid detail, as do the detailed descriptions of each night's camp and its routines. As compelling is the exuberance of Olson and his five companions as they explore pristine lakes, shoot the Churchill's wild water, and find refuge time and again on the solid, reassuring outcrops of the Canadian Shield.
   
   Finally, at each stage of the journey, Olson quotes from the journals of those who came before him, the "bourgeois" who led the brigades of voyageurs into the heart of the Lonely Land in search of furs. Men like Alexander MacKenzie, George Simpson, and David Thompson, who worked for the Hudson's bay Company or its competitors: the record of their observations informs Olson's account with vivid descriptions of the land as well as a sense both of how much and how little had changed over the one hundred and fifty years since they had last paddled, poled, and lined their way up the same great river system.
   
   I know that Olson has many well-regarded books to his credit, but a new reader could do worse than enter this world of woods and water by way of The Lonely Land.



4. This book is an account of Olson's canoe journey down long stretches of the Churchill and Sturgeon Weir rivers in Saskatchewan. Olson was a leading popularizer of the notion of wilderness, associated with the North Country of Minnesota and Canada.
   
   The story of someone else's canoe journey risks being mind-numbingly boring: "we paddled, portaged falls, and then paddled some more." Olson's story isn't any different than that basic narrative, but he manages to make the journey more lyrical. Observations about the empty land they traverse, the comraderie of the company of six, reminiscences of the voyageurs of old, and occasional encounters with other people leaven the basic narrative.
   
   It's a great read, and I literally didn't put it down (I was stuck on a transatlantic flight, but even so). Heartily recommended.



5. Great to be able to get an out of print book at a good price and prompt turn around. Product exactly as described. Thank you!

No comments about To Be an Indian: An Oral History (Borealis).

3 comments about A Popular History of Minnesota.

1. Outstanding! I reviewed several histories of Minnesota, and I came to the conclusion that this book is the best general history of Minnesota for most readers. It's very readable, concise, and enjoyable storytelling. The most important and most interesting Minnesota stories are told well. The basics of American history are also woven into the story, so this is the story of Minnesota's journey within the context of American history. A useful map with the most important and interesting historical sites to visit is included as a helpful guide. Useful lists by category of important things you can see are also included throughout the book as the story unfolds.
   
   Other history books, unfortunately, are ruined by boring academic facts and poor story-telling, but not this book. I recommend this book for a quick and enjoyable read on Minnesota. Highest recommendation.
   
   On the back cover are these positive reviews:
   
   "Norman Risjord recounts Minnesota's past with the studied approach of an accomplished historian and the engaging style of a crowd-pleasing storyteller. If only all state histories were this enjoyable to read."
   -Dave Kenney, author of "Northern Lights: The Stories of Minnesota's Past" and "Minnesota Goes to War: The Home Front During World War II." [Northern Lights is used in Minnesota Schools]
   
   "'A Popular History of Minnesota' captures in one volume the thing that makes the state unique. It is, and always has been, a playground. But not as we've been led to believe. We learn here that Minnesota was not only the field of play for Dakota and Ojibwe, but for J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller. It is a vast and fascinating history. Norman K. Risjord has found a way to put it in a finely written, single book."
   -Don Shelby, WCCO 4 News anchor and reporter



2. Since I came to Minnesota three years ago, I have been searching for a comprehensive overview of its history. Not too detailed, just giving a good overview. I found it in this book, and really anjoyed reading it



3. The history of the state of Minnesota is an example of how our nation grew and built its character. This history summary focuses on the high points of the story and leaves one in a position to identify which parts demand more study