Indiana

Weird Indiana: Your Travel Guide to Indiana's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets (Weird)

Why Did It Have To Be Snakes: From Science to the Supernatural, The Many Mysteries of Indiana Jones

The ultimate Indiana Jones companion

The true history, supernatural wonders, and mysteries of Indiana Jones

Could you really use a bullwhip to swing across a chasm? Or rip out a man's heart without killing him? Was there a Shanghai mob in the 1930s-and did the Nazis have a real-life connection to the occult?

At last, here is the book that finally answers the Indiana Jones-related questions that have troubled you for years. It tells you everything you've ever wanted to know about the history, culture, and science behind your favorite Indy scenes and settings. You'll find out the truth about the Thuggees and their deadly practices, ancient death traps, the Well of Souls, Kali worship in India, the infamous bizarre banquet that included chilled monkey brains, the Sankara Stones, the Cross of Coronado, the Holy Grail, and more.

Get ready for adventure-and more than a few snakes-as you explore the secrets and stories of Indiana Jones and his world. The journey will take you around the globe and through history as you move from ancient Egypt to India, China, and the United States, and from Biblical times to the Spanish Conquest to World War II. You'll also learn about Indiana himself, including the origins of his trademark fedora, leather jacket, and bullwhip. So why did it have to be snakes? Read the book and find out.

Notre Dame Vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan

The riveting tale of the clash of two powerful institutions Notre Dame and the Klu Klux Klan that changed both institutions and America forever.

In 1924, students of the University of Notre Dame and members of the Ku Klux Klan faced off in a violent confrontation in South Bend, Indiana. This shocking and true hidden chapter in Catholic and American history is recounted in Notre Dame vs. The Klan, the story of two uniquely American institutions that rose to power amdist rampant anti-Catholicism and collided druing a riotous weekend.

Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary

On April 4, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., arrived in Indiana to campaign for the Indiana Democratic presidential primary. As Kennedy prepared to fly from an appearance in Muncie to Indianapolis, he learned that civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had been shot outside his hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. Before his plane landed in Indianapolis, Kennedy heard the news that King had died. Despite warnings from Indianapolis police that they could not guarantee his safety, and brushing off concerns from his own staff, Kennedy decided to proceed with plans to address an outdoor rally to be held in the heart of the city's African American community. On that cold and windy evening, Kennedy broke the news of King's death in an impassioned, extemporaneous speech on the need for compassion in the face of violence. It has proven to be one of the great speeches in American political history.

Marking the 40th anniversary of Kennedy's Indianapolis speech, this book explains what brought the politician to Indiana that day, and explores the characters and events of the 1968 Indiana Democratic presidential primary in which Kennedy, who was an underdog, had a decisive victory.

Environmental Inequalities: Class, Race, and Industrial Pollution in Gary, Indiana, 1945-1980

By examining environmental change through the lens of conflicting social agendas, Andrew Hurley uncovers the historical roots of environmental inequality in contemporary urban America. Hurley's study focuses on the steel mill community of Gary, Indiana, a city that was sacrificed, like a thousand other American places, to industrial priorities in the decades following World War II. Although this period witnessed the emergence of a powerful environmental crusade and a resilient quest for equality and social justice among blue-collar workers and African Americans, such efforts often conflicted with the needs of industry. To secure their own interests, manufacturers and affluent white suburbanites exploited divisions of race and class, and the poor frequently found themselves trapped in deteriorating neighborhoods and exposed to dangerous levels of industrial pollution.

In telling the story of Gary, Hurley reveals liberal capitalism's difficulties in reconciling concerns about social justice and quality of life with the imperatives of economic growth. He also shows that the power to mold the urban landscape was intertwined with the ability to govern social relations.

Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s

Ignorant. Brutal. Male. One of these stereotypes of the Ku Klux Klan offer a misleading picture. In Women of the Klan, sociologist Kathleen Blee unveils an accurate portrait of a racist movement that appealed to ordinary people throughout the country. In so doing, she dismantles the popular notion that politically involved women are always inspired by pacifism, equality, and justice.
"All the better people," a former Klanswoman assures us, were in the Klan. During the 1920s, perhaps half a million white native-born Protestant women joined the Women's Ku Klux Klan (WKKK). Like their male counterparts, Klanswomen held reactionary views on race, nationality, and religion. But their perspectives on gender roles were often progressive. The Klan publicly asserted that a women's order could safeguard women's suffrage and expand their other legal rights. Privately the WKKK was working to preserve white Protestant supremacy.
Blee draws from extensive archival research and interviews with former Klan members and victims to underscore the complexity of extremist right-wing political movements. Issues of women's rights, she argues, do not fit comfortably into the standard dichotomies of "progressive" and "reactionary." These need to be replaced by a more complete understanding of how gender politics are related to the politics of race, religion, and class.

Mr. Jefferson's Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy

Often remembered as the president who died shortly after taking office, William Henry Harrison remains misunderstood by most Americans. Before becoming the ninth president of the United States in 1841, Harrison was instrumental in shaping the early years of westward expansion. Robert M. Owens now explores that era through the lens of Harrison's career, providing a new synthesis of his role in the political development of Indiana Territory and in shaping Indian policy in the Old Northwest.

Owens traces Harrison's political career as secretary of the Northwest Territory, territorial delegate to Congress, and governor of Indiana Territory, as well as his military leadership and involvement with Indian relations. Thomas Jefferson, who was president during the first decade of the nineteenth century, found in Harrison the ideal agent to carry out his administration's ruthless campaign to extinguish Indian land titles.

To this day, we live with the echoes of Harrison's proclamations, the boundaries set by his treaties, and the ramifications of his actions. Mr. Jefferson's Hammer offers a much needed reappraisal of Harrison's impact on the nation's development and key lessons for understanding American sentiments in the early republic.

God, Country, Notre Dame: The Autobiography of Theodore M. Hesburgh

I have traveled far and wide, far beyond the simple parish I envisioned as a young man. My obligation of service has led me into diverse yet interrelated roles: college teacher, theologian, president of a great university, counselor to four popes and six presidents. Excuse the list, but once called to public service, I have held fourteen presidential appointments over the years, dealing with the social issues of our times, including civil rights, peaceful uses of atomic energy, campus unrest, amnesty for Vietnam offenders, Third World development, and immigration reform. But deep beneath it all, wherever I have been, whatever I have done, I have always and everywhere considered myself essentially a priest. —from the Preface

"Father Hesburgh should be on almost everyone's list of the most influential figures in American higher education over the past few decades. In these fascinating memoirs, he chronicles the transformation of Notre Dame from a somewhat mediocre midwestern university into a major national teaching and research institution. As president of Notre Dame for 35 years, he used that position as a platform to argue the truly critical issues not only within the academy, but outside as well. The chapters on his involvement with the Civil Rights movement and criticism of early Vatican policy on academic freedom at Catholic universities are most compelling. Recommended for all readers, especially in these days of seeming cynicism and doubt." —Library Journal

"William F. Buckley might disagree, but the former university president is clear on the three most important things in life." —_New York Magazine_

"Father Hesburgh says that each one of us can do something effective in the cause of a better world. God, Country, Notre Dame itself embodies an obvious refutation of the apathetic notion that 'in the modern world one person cannot make a difference'." —Commonweal

"The temptation is to subtitle this book, 'Adventures of Superpriest.' If Father Hesburgh made it all up, it would still be a wonderful story, a compendium of what-ifs . . . its warmth and humanity are infectious, and most readers will not have the nerve to fight off the pleasure of going along." —Chicago Tribune

Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture

Horse-Drawn Carriage Catalog, 1909 (Dover Pictorial Archives)