Wisconsin Books

Wisconsin's river systems have been critical to the state's developmental history and continue to provide irreplaceable economic and recreational resources fundamentally necessary to insure the prosperity of the Badger State. Ranging from minor tributaries to major thoroughfares, Wisconsin's reviewers were the produce of glaciation and geologic conditions that helped to shape the landscape as we know it today. They served as transport Native American systems that were readily adopted and exploited by European settlers. They served as energy, food, commerce, and recreational sources and today offer memorable recreation experiences and essential ecological supports. In "Wisconsin Underground" Wisconsin author and academician Doris Green explored Wisconsin's caves and cave systems. Now in "Explore Wisconsin Rivers" she turns her expert attention to the beauty and history of Wisconsin's rivers and rivers systems in terms of both their history and their beauty. Personally traveling hundreds of miles of Badger State rivers, exploring their natural and cultural aspects, Doris Green (with the assistance of Michael H. Knight) has produced an informed and informative travel guide perfect for planning a recreational itinerary for enjoying what Wisconsin rivers have to offer. The format is the grouping of rivers according to which body of water they ultimately pour into. Section one offers four rivers emptying into Lake Superior; Section two showcases six rivers emptying into Lake Michigan; Section tree describes nine rivers running to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Enhanced with occasional black-and-white photography, "Explore Wisconsin Rivers" is enthusiastically recommended as an essential guide for anyone interested in Wisconsin's river systems and is a core addition to both academic and community library Wisconsin Studies & History reference collections.

Compiled and written by Brett Barker, Exploring Civil War Wisconsin: A Survival Guide For Researchers is a practical, step-by-step guide presented especially for Civil War enthusiasts, genealogists, students, and other researchers. Offering tips, tricks, and techniques for taking maximum advantage of resources in the libraries, military and census records, published primary sources, newspapers, and the useful yet sometimes unreliable wealth of information to be found on the Internet, Exploring Civil War Wisconsin is enhanced with black-and-white illustrations combined with down-to-earth, practical advice, making it a "must-read" for dedicated Civil War enthusiasts and Wisconsin History researchers.

Fairlawn was originally a palatial Victorian mansion built by Martin Pattison on the shores of Lake Superior. It became a children's home in later years. Enhanced with dozens of period and contemporary photographs, Fairlawn: Restoring The Splendor documents the challenges, dedication, and demand for perfection that resulted in the restoration of this magnificent historic home from the strains and damage of generations of use and neglect that brought it to the brink of demolition. Fairlawn is strongly recommended reading for anyone with an interest in landmark architecture renovation and preservation -- as well as students of Midwest architectural history.

This is a demanding, scholarly book, but one which anyone interested in the historical causes of the Irish Famine should read. O'Neill focuses on a parish in Co. Cavan which has incredibly complete records, allowing him to portray the true nature of landholding and tenancy in the century before the Famine. In doing so, he counters some of the myths on both sides of the question about who was responsible for a potato blight becoming the killer of millions. The statistical information can be daunting, but the use O'Neill makes of it is eye-opening.

The new book "Famous Wisconsin Musicians" is consistently upbeat and historically informative. Madison music journalist and disc jockey Susan Masino impressively researches and documents the career stories of 32 state musicians, singers and groups, and provides more than 100 thumbnail sketches of other notable Badger music-makers. The profiles include Liberace, Steve Miller, Richard Davis, Ben Sidran, Al Jarreau, Eric Benet, Woody Herman, Hildegarde, Adrian Belew, Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads, Butch Vig of Garbage and Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers.
Masino gets the good story down better in her piece on legendary guitarist and instrument innovator Les Paul. She establishes a homespun tone with the tale of this gifted musical tinkerer who created one of the most popular electric guitars in history and devised the first electric amplified guitar.
With a full index, the book is an interesting read and valuable reference for anyone who cares about the local and national impact of our native musicians.

Kevin Lynch is an arts writer for The Capital Times.

This book is extremely well written and the illustrations are beautiful. I teach American History and would recommend this to anyone who loves the land.
Allman travels all over the Great Lakes region and the reader learns a lot about how the region took shape and the present state ot its ecosystem.
I gave it as a gift.

The author purports "not to provide another description of fascism but to wrestle with some basic problems of definition and comparison"; that abstract task does, however, involve a good deal of historical exposition. Fascism is defined within the historical context of the Italian Fascist and German National Socialist parties, their historical antecedents and contemporary parallels, and the Mussolini and Hitler regimes. The existence of present-day fascism, in the strict and literal sense, is considered at most an anachronism.

The book represents a significant academic acheivement, analysing a vast amount of research material and thoughtfully synthesizing an objective viewpoint. Although "forces that promoted a world historical disaster are hard to view with scientific detachment", the author succeeds in "disengag[ing] this analysis as much as possible from political emotions and overt moralizing." The work does much to clarify and de! fine what is "probably the vaguest of contemporary political terms", rejecting overly simplistic and/or ideologically biased conceptions of fascism.

This is a terribly intimate book that says much about the experience of being a male in our violent culture. The question it raised for me is: How can a man who conforms to the masculine imperative to remain detached from pathos, to remain callous to the pain and death of gentle innocent creatures, manage a psychological confrontation with the unexpected death of his own young son? Certainly, the author does not state this dramatic question explicitly. This is a book, after all, that says what it has to say poetically. But the question lurks behind every stitch in the fabric of Robert Peters powerful story. Masculinity may prepare one for battle, for danger, for risk, but it does not prepare one for an ordinary afternoon to rip the life out of one's own child. And so the question is, what happens to toughness when one loses a son?

The book's poetic answer to this question of masculinity and caring builds itself gradually out of zigzagging wafts of seemingly disconnected recollections, recollections that, weave themselve into a psychologically coherent picture. Then, through this experiential picture the reader sees what happens: such a masculine man learns to feel and cherish the warmth of his love, to recognize and accept own his own tenderness -- and so the dying son bequeaths his father a gift.

But this book is more than a psychological tale about the author. It is story to be experienced deeply by the reader and those with the courage to read this shocking book will, I believe, end up more in touch with their own tenderness.

..Lois Shawver
author of And the Flag Was Still There

This lively book of recipes & remembrances of Italian holidays thoughout the year reminded me of my Sicilian grandmother's traditions.

Well-written, informative, & fun! I enjoyed reading it & actually use it from time to time.

Michelle Berriedale-Johnson is an expert in recreating historical recipes. In Festive Feasts Cookbook, Michelle presents 50 timeless dishes from world history that have been modernized and tested, complete with alternative ingredients and serving suggestions. 60 color and 20 line illustrations add visual delights to exotic cuisine ranging from a Jewish Passover supper to the banquets of the Forbidden City to what the Mughal emperors used to consider delicacies, and much more. A remarkable culinary tour through the ages, with text as devoted to giving a feel for the era and circumstance of its offered recipes as how-to instructions to prepare the food itself, especially for cooks seeking inspiration, succulence, and variety worthy of royalty, Festive Feasts Cookbook is a very welcome addition to any dedicated, multicultural, culinary history cookbook collection.