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Alabama governor George Wallace ran for president four times between 1964 and 1976. In the Badger State, his campaigns fueled a debate over constitutional principles and values. Wallace weaponized states’ rights, arguing that the federal government should stay out of school segregation, promote law and order, restrict forced busing and reduce burdensome taxation. White working-class Wisconsinites armed themselves with Wallace’s rhetoric, pushing back on changes that threatened the status quo. Civil rights activists and the Black community in Wisconsin armed themselves with a different constitutional principle, equal protection, to push for strong federal protection of their civil rights. This clash of ideals nearly became literal as protests and counterprotests erupted until gradually diminishing as Wallace’s political fortunes waned. Historian Ben Hubing reveals the tensions that embroiled Wisconsinites as Wallace took his struggle north of the Mason-Dixon line.   https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467151375 

In 2000, the newly created Montpelier Foundation took over management of the historic home of James Madison with a seemingly insurmountable task before it. The house was no longer recognizable as the home of the Madisons, and most other structures were in poor condition. Within ten years, the foundation overcame numerous hurdles to restore the house and turn Montpelier into a monument to the Father of the Constitution. Over the next decade, the site also became a monument to Montpelier’s enslaved. The buildings in their community next to the Madisons’ home were reconstructed, and award-winning exhibits dramatically illustrate the tragedy of slavery and essential role of enslaved people in Madison’s life. Foundation co-founder William H. Lewis details the nonprofit’s ambitious preservation projects and remarkable achievements.

Union general John Reynolds was one of the most beloved and respected military leaders of the Civil War, yet beyond the battlefield, the captivating true story of his secret romance with Catherine “Kate” Mary Hewitt remains etched into his legacy. Clandestinely engaged before John marched off to war, the couple’s love remained a secret. Kate made a poignant “last promise,” a commitment to enter into a religious life if her beloved were to be killed. Tragically, Reynolds lost his life leading troops into action during the opening phases of the Battle of Gettysburg. Within days Kate was embraced by the Reynolds family and soon began to honor her promise of a religious life. Yet a few years later she seemed to disappear. Author Jeffrey J. Harding unveils new findings on Kate’s life before and after John’s death as he recounts Gettysburg’s saga of star-crossed love. https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467151597 

Rosalind and Maggie Bunn have recently written a great children’s book which explores the Peach State entitled, All aboard Georgia. In the book A young child rides the train through Georgia's beautiful, historic, and interesting landscapes. https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781455626144 

The abolitionist John Brown still roams the West Virginia panhandle—and beyond. In Lexington, a statue sheds real tears, mourning Virginians killed in battle. Decades of abuse at a sanatorium unleashed malevolent entities in Staunton. Spirits of Native Americans, Civil War soldiers and children frequent natural springs in Frederick County and caves near Strasburg. Ghosts stay free of charge at the nation’s oldest inn in Middletown, and at the Natural Bridge Hotel, phantom children play in the halls. Visitors from beyond the grave enjoy live performances at several theaters in the region, while spectral soldiers gather for combat in the battlefields scattered throughout the area. Join Denver Michaels as he delves into folklore, eyewitness accounts and urban legends to bring you the best ghost stories from the Shenandoah Valley.   https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467149426 

Nestled between Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point, what was once a sleepy little village, just a stop on the Great Wagon Road, became a thriving community in the nineteenth century. Residents have spent lifetimes looking after one another—and sometimes they continue to do so even in death. Does a young soldier haunt the Kernersville Museum, flirting with the women who work there? Learn the truth of the ghost of the old McCuiston House. Local institutions like the P&N Store and Snow’s Diner also claim their share of spooky experiences. Kernersville Museum director Kelly Hargett and local theater founder Scott Icenhower tell ghost tales that are sometimes comical, sometimes heartwarming and sometimes a little hair-raising.   https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467147552 

On February 2, 1963, a tanker with thirty-nine men aboard departed Beaumont and never returned. In the mid-spring of 1882, Billy the Kid’s friend, foe and equal escaped Huntsville Penitentiary and vanished. On December 9, 1961, a young boy in Wichita Falls disappeared without a trace. On November 18, 1936, a father and son were swallowed by a “Walled Kingdom.” On December 23, 1974, three girls went to a Fort Worth mall and were never seen or heard from again. This collection explores twenty baffling disappearances that investigators have studied for decades, to no avail. Homicide, patricide, filicide, genocide, devil worship, the Devil’s Triangle, the Devil’s River, the assassination of JFK, UFO abductions, legal limbo, literal limbo—oblivion. Award-winning author E.R. Bills drags the facts of these mystifying cases back from the void.   https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467147378

One of the surest ways to connect with the past is to sample what was on its plate. That’s the goal with this gustatory journey through Alabama history. Sweetmeats with the governor’s lonely, oft-depressed wife in 1832 Greensboro. Shrimp and crabmeat casserole at a long-departed preacher’s house at the Gaines Ridge Dinner Club in Camden. Pimento cheese and tea with notes of cinnamon and citrus at the Bragg-Mitchell Mansion in Mobile. Poundcake from Georgia Gilmore’s kitchen in Montgomery, where workaday freedom fighters and luminaries of the civil rights movement sought sustenance. Author Monica Tapper serves up a stick-to-your-ribs trek through Alabama history, providing classic recipes modified for the modern kitchen along the way. https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467149730

These artists were also adventurers!   Florida’s amazing landscapes and fascinating wildlife were sources of inspiration for early naturalists seeking new horizons. Among them was John James Audubon. Elegant herons, acrobatic terns, endearing pelicans and colorful roseate spoonbills all feature among his beloved artwork. But Audubon was not the first nature artist inspired by Florida. Mark Catesby, an English country squire turned adventurer, helped introduce the wonders of Florida to a European audience in the 1700s. And William Bartram, a Pennsylvania Quaker, traveled south to explore the Florida wilderness, where he canoed across a lake full of alligators and lived to sketch the creatures. Author Chris Fasolino shares the stories of these artistic expeditions in a collection replete with gorgeous artwork that includes high-definition images of Audubon’s rarely seen original paintings.   https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467150323 

George Pullman’s legacy lies in the town that bears his name. As one of the first thoroughly planned model industrial communities, it was designed to give the comforts of a permanent home to the employees who built America’s most elegant form of overnight railroad travel. But the town was more than just a residential wing of sleeper car manufacturing; its 1894 railroad strike led to the national Labor Day holiday. In the early twentieth century, the Pullman Company became the country’s largest employer of African Americans, who then formed the nation’s first successful Black labor union. Author Kenneth Schoon revisits Pullman’s monumental history and the lessons it continues to provide. https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467149860 

The epic saga of Big Basin began in the late 1800s, when the surrounding communities saw their once “inexhaustible” redwood forests vanishing. Expanding railways demanded timber as they crisscrossed the nation, but the more redwoods that fell to the woodman’s axe, the greater the effects on the local climate. California’s groundbreaking environmental movement attracted individuals from every walk of life. From the adopted son of a robber baron to a bohemian woman winemaker to a Jesuit priest, resilient campaigners produced an unparalleled model of citizen action. Join author Traci Bliss as she reveals the untold story of a herculean effort to preserve the ancient redwoods for future generations. https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467145046   

Ebenezer Allen was born during political instability and hardships in an unknown frontier. He matured during the tipping point of the American Revolution as an invincible leader who personified patriotism. Unlike his better-known cousins, Ebenezer was a skilled commando and combat veteran in Warner’s Regiment and Herrick’s Rangers. Following the capture of a British rear-guard force in 1777, Captain Allen took leave of his regiment and wrote an emancipation statement for a captured enslaved woman and her child. The document, which he filed with the Bennington town clerk, read, “It is not right in the sight of God to keep slaves.” Join historian and Vermont native Glenn Fay as he recounts how Colonel Allen became the forefather and elected legislator of two towns and one of the most prominent men in Vermont.   https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467149358

On this special edition of Author Conversations I speak with 16 year old Jack Drake who has authored his first book with us entitled Preston Hollow. 

From a man who rivals Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr in treachery to a State Treasurer who absconded with $7 Million in today's money. This book has it all! Does a Civil War General deserve the moniker "The Butcher of Kentucky"? What does a mysterious blood stain in the U.S. Capitol Building have to do with the Bluegrass State?  Listen to this week's episode of Author Conversations to find out!  Click the link below to order your copy of Hidden History of Kentucky Political Scandals.  https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467145824

From ghostly tales to joke books with big facts, Arcadia Kids has it all. Nancy Ellwood joins me again to talk about new books from Arcadia Kids and exciting new series that are on the horizon.   https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Search?searchtext=ghostly%20tales&searchmode=anyword&searchoption=allbooks 

In 1778, two years after the British forced the Continental Army out of New York City, George Washington and his subordinates organized a secret spy network to gather intelligence in Manhattan and Long Island. Known today as the “Culper Spy Ring,” Patriots like Abraham Woodhull and Robert Townsend risked their lives to report on British military operations in the region. Vital reports clandestinely traveled from New York City across the East River to Setauket and were rowed on whaleboats across the Long Island Sound to the Connecticut shore. Using ciphers, codes and invisible ink, the spy ring exposed British plans to attack French forces at Newport and a plot to counterfeit American currency. Author Bill Bleyer corrects the record, examines the impact of George Washington’s Long Island spy ring and identifies Revolutionary War sites that remain today. https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467143479

On a sultry August morning in 1970, the battered body of a young woman was hoisted from a dry well just outside Hogansville, Georgia. Author and investigator Clay Bryant was there, witnessing the macabre scene. Then fifteen, Bryant was tagging along with his father, Buddy Bryant, Hogansville chief of police. The victim, Gwendolyn Moore, had been in a violent marriage. That was no secret. But her husband had connections to a political machine that held sway over the Troup County Sheriff’s Office overseeing the case. To the dismay and bafflement of many, no charges were brought. That is, until Bryant followed his father’s footsteps into law enforcement and a voice cried out from the well three decades later.   https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467150071 

In the summer of 1967, nineteen-year-old Brenda Joyce Holland disappeared. She was a mountain girl who had come to Manteo to work in the outdoor drama The Lost Colony. Her body was found five days later, floating in the sound. This riveting narrative, built on unique access to the state investigative file and multiple interviews with insiders, searches for the truth of her unsolved murder. This island odyssey of discovery includes séances, a suicide and a supposed shallow grave. Journalist John Railey cuts through the myths and mistakes to finally arrive at the long-hidden truth of what happened to Brenda Holland that summer on Roanoke Island. https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467147392 

The dark woods of Maine have been the setting for many eerie and unexplained events, none more captivating than sightings of a giant hominid known as Bigfoot. But what makes this corner of New England such a perfect place for this cryptid to live? Learn about the ecology and geography that support the legend and meet the people forever changed by close encounters with it. From previously unpublished eyewitness accounts to modern-day media portrayals, author and illustrator Michelle Souliere presents this detailed history of the phenomenon and folklore that has lurked in shadows for generations. https://greenhandbookshop.com/products/preorder-bigfoot-in-maine-by-michelle-souliere-signed?_pos=1&_sid=a4ff9ee7f&_ss=r

Newly elected president George Washington set out to visit the new nation aware that he was the singular unifying figure in America. The journey's finale was the Southern Tour, starting in March 1791. The long and arduous trek from the capital, Philadelphia, passed through seven states and the future Washington, D.C. But the focus was on Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. The president kept a rigorous schedule, enduring rugged roads and hazardous water crossings. His highly anticipated arrival in each destination was celebrated with countless teas, parades, dinners and dances. Author Warren Bingham reveals the history and lore of the most beloved American president and his survey of the newly formed southern United States.   https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467119795