Lucero is a licensed psychologist who spent much of his life in New Mexico, and he has written this historical account of two New Mexican families who settled in the region in the 16th century and continued to be guiding cultural forces until statehood was granted in 1912. Written for anyone interested in the history of the southwest United States, this volume covers 12 generations of the Lucero and Baca families to gain insight into colonization, independence, the Plains Indians, the growth of permanent settlements, the territorial period and statehood. This second edition corrects mistakes and typos present in the first edition and incorporates newly found data on the Baca family. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The view that slavery could best be described by those who had themselves experienced it personally has found expression in several thousand commentaries, autobiographies, narratives, and interviews with those who "endured." Although most of these accounts appeared before the Civil War, more than one-third are the result of the ambitious efforts of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to interview surviving ex-slaves during the 1930s. The result of these efforts was the Slave Narrative Collection, a group of autobiographical accounts of former slaves that today stands as one of the most enduring and noteworthy achievements of the WPA. Compiled in seventeen states during the years 1936-38, the collection consists of more than two thousand interviews with former slaves, most of them first-person accounts of slave life and the respondents' own reactions to bondage. The interviews afforded aged ex-slaves an unparalleled opportunity to give their personal accounts of life under the "peculiar institution," to describe in their own words what it felt like to be a slave in the United States. -Norman R. Yetman, American Memory, Library of Congress This paperback edition of selected Alabama narratives is reprinted in facsimile from the typewritten pages of the interviewers, just as they were originally typed.

Amarillo, the queen city of the Texas Panhandle, is known far beyond its immediate vicinity--the high tableland called the Llano Estacado. The famous highway Route 66 ran through the very heart of Amarillo. Alan Jackson, Emmylou Harris, Neil Sedaka, & James Durst each recorded a different song entitled 'Amarillo.' Named by 'True West' magazine as one of the fifty most western towns in America, this city of 176,000 people remains rooted in its western past--yet at the same time Amarillo's background & outlook have a distinctly Midwestern flavor.

In 2006, conservationists everywhere celebrated the 100th anniversary of professional forestry in Maryland, the Old Line State. Under the leadership of Fred Wilson Besley, Maryland's first and the nation's third state forester, scientific forest management and the larger conservation impulse became firmly ensconced. A protTgT of America's most famous forester, Gifford Pinchot, Besley moved aggressively to implement pioneering scientific and conservation practices that are commonplace today. Besley helped to stem the tide of forest loss from excessive logging and rampant fire, he started a state forest nursery and launched a program to reforest thousands of acres of "wasteland" along utilitarian principles, and, perhaps his greatest legacy, and he built an exemplary system of state forest reserves that today form the nucleus of Maryland's network of public lands. Although more than fifty years have passed since Besley's death, his legacy as a pioneer in conservation and forestry science lives on.Less well known to environmental historians is the city of Baltimore's extensive experience with professional forestry during the past century, a movement and legacy that is ongoing today.America's Conservation Impulse: A Century of Saving Trees in the Old Line State explores the roots and early history of professional forest management in Maryland in Baltimore and how that history coincides with AmericaÆs larger conservation impulse. Many of the ideas that he began here gained regional and national attention. The book also examines the unique challenges that resource managers and citizens alike have faced in the past and must confront in the future-in Maryland and across America-if we are to secure the survival of our forest heritage.

Everyone knows stories about the American Mafia and its varied forms of crime, from racketeering to stock manipulation to murder. American Mafia: Chicago explores the story of those families and their ties to the Windy City, revealing the events behind the legends and the history of the families' beginnings and founding members. The history of the Windy City is revealed through the stories of the exploits of its most notorious bad guys and perpetrators of mischief from the deadly Black Hand to Al Capone. Black and white historical photos throughout.

A lively account of the All-American humorist from Oklahoma. Rogers accrued his wide-angle popularity through dozens of films, a daily column that syndicated for nine years in the newspapers, and countless lectures and stageperformances. The book is filled with charming, revealing and delightful anecdotes about the 'cowboy philosopher' hailed by the New York Times as 'America's Aristophanes.' B&W photos. 288p.