Colorado Disasters: True Stories of Centennial State Tragedies and Triumphs

Colorado Disasters: True Stories of Centennial State Tragedies and Triumphs

Author: Phyllis J. Perry

Publisher: Farcountry Press

Published:

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1560378360

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DEADLY, DRAMATIC, and WILD... Words that best describe this collection of stories recounting Colorado's long history of catastrophes. In Colorado Disasters, Boulder-based historian and educator Phyllis J. Perry chronicles the Centennial State’s gamut of natural and human-caused disasters, from floods, mudslides and avalanches, to massive wildfires, deadly explosions, train wrecks, airplane crashes, monster tornadoes, and more. Perry honors the survivors and many heroic rescuers who risked their lives to save others. “Most of these stories offer excellent lessons in how to survive a disaster, Perry says. “And they can inspire us to do the right thing when the world turns upside down and your neighbors need help.” Covering more than 150 years of catastrophes, Perry’s careful research and lively writing brings to life the true stories—at turns heart-stopping and heroic—of the victims, survivors, and rescuers who were there. Riveting details from first-person accounts Amply illustrated with more than 70 photographs


Full Body Burden

Full Body Burden

Author: Kristen Iversen

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2013-06-04

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 0307955656

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“An intimate and deeply human memoir that shows why we should all be concerned about nuclear safety, and the dangers of ignoring science in the name of national security.”—Rebecca Skloot, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks A shocking account of the government’s attempt to conceal the effects of the toxic waste released by a secret nuclear weapons plant in Colorado and a community’s vain search for justice—soon to be a feature documentary Kristen Iversen grew up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated "the most contaminated site in America." Full Body Burden is the story of a childhood and adolescence in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful and--unknown to those who lived there--tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium. It's also a book about the destructive power of secrets--both family and government. Her father's hidden liquor bottles, the strange cancers in children in the neighborhood, the truth about what was made at Rocky Flats--best not to inquire too deeply into any of it. But as Iversen grew older, she began to ask questions and discovered some disturbing realities. Based on extensive interviews, FBI and EPA documents, and class-action testimony, this taut, beautifully written book is both captivating and unnerving.


Haunting Experiences

Haunting Experiences

Author: Diane Goldstein

Publisher: University Press of Colorado

Published: 2007-09-15

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 0874216818

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Ghosts and other supernatural phenomena are widely represented throughout modern culture. They can be found in any number of entertainment, commercial, and other contexts, but popular media or commodified representations of ghosts can be quite different from the beliefs people hold about them, based on tradition or direct experience. Personal belief and cultural tradition on the one hand, and popular and commercial representation on the other, nevertheless continually feed each other. They frequently share space in how people think about the supernatural. In Haunting Experiences, three well-known folklorists seek to broaden the discussion of ghost lore by examining it from a variety of angles in various modern contexts. Diane E. Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Grider, and Jeannie Banks Thomas take ghosts seriously, as they draw on contemporary scholarship that emphasizes both the basis of belief in experience (rather than mere fantasy) and the usefulness of ghost stories. They look closely at the narrative role of such lore in matters such as socialization and gender. And they unravel the complex mix of mass media, commodification, and popular culture that today puts old spirits into new contexts.


A Patriot's History of the United States

A Patriot's History of the United States

Author: Larry Schweikart

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2004-12-29

Total Pages: 1373

ISBN-13: 1101217782

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For the past three decades, many history professors have allowed their biases to distort the way America’s past is taught. These intellectuals have searched for instances of racism, sexism, and bigotry in our history while downplaying the greatness of America’s patriots and the achievements of “dead white men.” As a result, more emphasis is placed on Harriet Tubman than on George Washington; more about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II than about D-Day or Iwo Jima; more on the dangers we faced from Joseph McCarthy than those we faced from Josef Stalin. A Patriot’s History of the United States corrects those doctrinaire biases. In this groundbreaking book, America’s discovery, founding, and development are reexamined with an appreciation for the elements of public virtue, personal liberty, and private property that make this nation uniquely successful. This book offers a long-overdue acknowledgment of America’s true and proud history.


Hoosiers and the American Story

Hoosiers and the American Story

Author: Madison, James H.

Publisher: Indiana Historical Society

Published: 2014-10

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 0871953633

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A supplemental textbook for middle and high school students, Hoosiers and the American Story provides intimate views of individuals and places in Indiana set within themes from American history. During the frontier days when Americans battled with and exiled native peoples from the East, Indiana was on the leading edge of America’s westward expansion. As waves of immigrants swept across the Appalachians and eastern waterways, Indiana became established as both a crossroads and as a vital part of Middle America. Indiana’s stories illuminate the history of American agriculture, wars, industrialization, ethnic conflicts, technological improvements, political battles, transportation networks, economic shifts, social welfare initiatives, and more. In so doing, they elucidate large national issues so that students can relate personally to the ideas and events that comprise American history. At the same time, the stories shed light on what it means to be a Hoosier, today and in the past.


Who Pooped in the Park

Who Pooped in the Park

Author: Steve Kemp

Publisher: Farcountry Press

Published: 2005-02

Total Pages: 49

ISBN-13: 1560373210

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"Come along with Julie, Grant, and their family as they follow Ranger Gus and find poop (scat) and footprints (tracks) and discover which animal made them" -- Back cover.


The Big Burn

The Big Burn

Author: Timothy Egan

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2009-10-19

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 0547416865

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National Book Award–winner Timothy Egan turns his historian's eye to the largest-ever forest fire in America and offers an epic, cautionary tale for our time. On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, whipping the hundreds of small blazes burning across the forest floor into a roaring inferno that jumped from treetop to ridge as it raged, destroying towns and timber in the blink of an eye. Forest rangers had assembled nearly ten thousand men to fight the fires, but no living person had seen anything like those flames, and neither the rangers nor anyone else knew how to subdue them. Egan recreates the struggles of the overmatched rangers against the implacable fire with unstoppable dramatic force, and the larger story of outsized president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot, that follows is equally resonant. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by every citizen. Even as TR's national forests were smoldering they were saved: The heroism shown by his rangers turned public opinion permanently in favor of the forests, though it changed the mission of the forest service in ways we can still witness today. This e-book includes a sample chapter of SHORT NIGHTS OF THE SHADOW CATCHER.