Alan Harper left his home in England in 1979 on a pilgrimage to find the blues. His journey led him to Chicago where he worked at a sandwich restaurant and […]
Category: Illinois / regional
Burn days at Prairie Crossing
Our new release Prairie Crossing looks at a suburban Chicago housing development founded as an experiment to use access to nature as a means to challenge America’s failed culture of suburban sprawl. […]
The fate of Mr. Pitner
In the new UIP release The Dumville Letters, Anne M. Heinz and John P. Heinz bring us the antebellum-era correspondence of Ann Dumville and her daughters Hepzibah, Jemima, and Elizabeth, as well as their […]
Throwbacklist Thursday
Drink bothered the Founding Fathers. Not on a personal level, of course. John Adams drank a tankard of hard cider with his breakfast and George Washington went on many a bender. […]
“Uncle Honey” a family affair
Thousands of newspaper readers across North America are familiar with Alan Guebert’s family members. Since 1993, along with the agribusiness issues of the day, Guebert has sprinkled family memories into […]
Christmas in Illinois: Carol fail
Christmas in Illinois is one of our more popular titles of recent years. A fruitcake of prose bursting with stories, songs, good cheer, and recipes, Christmas in Illinois features contributions by Illinoisians […]
Chicago River Bridges wins Society for the History of Technology prize
Patrick McBriarty’s Chicago River Bridges has been selected as the winner of the 2015 Eugene S. Ferguson Prize, awarded biennially by the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT). The Ferguson […]
Q&A with Becoming Beautiful author Joanna Bosse
Joanna Bosse is an associate professor of ethnomusicology and dance studies at Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University. She answered some questions about her book […]
Digging out of Corrupt Illinois
Some might say it is just a drop in a very deep and very full bucket but lawmakers in Illinois state government have taken at least one measure to amend […]
The world’s a nicer place
In the 1800s, crowds flocked to watch balloon ascensions for many of the same reasons they go to stock car races. You got to see an odd vehicle do amazing […]
The ‘face of Illinois corruption’ gets a new day in court
A federal appeals court has overturned some of former Governor Rod Blagojevich’s convictions On Tuesday, July 21st, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out convictions on five of […]
A familiar face from Corrupt Illinois back in the headlines
It’s Friday, so it must (again) be time for the Illinois Congressional indictment story of the week. The news of June 26, 2015 brings a familiar face back into the ignominious […]