Irreverent History

Gumbo and Grit: A Not-So-Polite History of Louisiana dives into the state’s layered past with equal parts candor and wit. You’ll meet conquistadors and Cajuns, pirates and populists, enslaved laborers and jazz legends, all stirring the pot that made Louisiana what it is today.

This is not your high school history. From atomic showgirls and quickie divorces to Burning Man billionaires and desert survivalists, Nevada has built its reputation on contradictions. It is a place where nothing should have thrived and yet everything did, in the most outrageous ways possible. In this book, you’ll meet miners who gambled away fortunes before breakfast, mobsters who turned Vegas into a playground, politicians who looked the other way, and dreamers who set fire to wooden effigies in the desert just to see what would happen.

Alaska’s history is as wild as its wilderness, and just as unwilling to be tamed. Before the Russians showed up for fur and trouble, Indigenous peoples had been thriving here for thousands of years, navigating ice, sea, and politics with skill that would make modern survival shows blush. Then came the explorers who “discovered” places already mapped in someone else’s memory, the gold rush stampedes, the salmon wars, the Japanese invasion in WWII, the oil-fueled pipeline boom, and the endless political battles over land, resources, and who gets to decide Alaska’s future.

Connecticut loves to market itself as reasonable, refined, and reliably well behaved. The truth is far more fun. Clocks, Constitution, and Contradictions dives into the offbeat, dramatic, and frequently ridiculous history hiding under the Nutmeg State’s polished veneer.

New Hampshire’s industrial revolution didn’t unfold in quiet workshops. It exploded along the rivers in a storm of spinning frames, flooded mills, and enough cotton lint to make the mountains sneeze.