A City with a Violent Past: The predominant hue of the city's colorful past is blood red, and restless souls are rumored to inhabit the night. The streets have echoed with gunfire as Knoxville survived the violence of frontier times, the Civil War, and the shadowy gaslight decades when the elite classes strolled Gay Street while just down the hill in the saloon district known as the Bowery, murderers and thieves played their dark dangerous games. Join writer and history tour guide Laura Still on a journey into her home town's past as she tells the amazing true stories behind the ghostly phantoms and unquiet spirits that haunt Knoxville. Featuring: 75 photos and illustrations; 23 haunted houses and buildings; 10 spooky burial grounds; 81/2 hanged men; 3 tragic love stories; and 40 chapters of untimely death and mysterious phenomena. Storyteller Laura Still, a native Tennessean, is a published poet and playwright as well as storyteller and guide for her tour business, Knoxville Walking Tours. Foreword by columnist and Knoxville history author Jack Neely.

The award-winning author of Eveningland “combines a coming-of-age tale, a ghost story and a meditation on history in his engrossing latest novel” (Minneapolis Star Tribune). It’s 1994 and Lenore Littlefield is a junior at Briarwood School for Girls. She plays basketball. She hates her roommate. History is her favorite subject. She has told no one that she’s pregnant. Everything, in other words, is under control. Meanwhile, Disney has announced plans to build a new theme park just up the road, a “Technicolor simulacrum of American History” right in the middle of one of the most history-rich regions of the country. If successful, the development will forever alter the character of Prince William County, VA, and have unforeseeable consequences for the school. When the threat of the theme park begins to intrude on the lives of the faculty and students at Briarwood, secrets will be revealed and unexpected alliances will form. Lenore must decide whom she can trust—will it be a middle-aged history teacher struggling to find purpose in his humdrum life? A lonely basketball coach tasked with directing the school play? A reclusive playwright still grappling with her own Briarwood legacy? Or a teenage ghost equally adept at communicating with the living via telephone or Ouija board? Following a cast of memorable characters as they reckon with questions about fate, history, and the possibility of happiness, At Briarwood School for Girls is “an inventive coming of age tale” (Southern Living). “A stunning novel with a hint of the supernatural that’s sure to delight readers.”—Publishers Weekly “Irresistible and satisfying.”—Christine Schutt, author of Florida: A Novel

Perhaps it is the abundance of decaying mansions that harbor dark and sinister secrets, or perhaps it is Tennessee's tragic heritage of war and defeat, or it may just be the love of a good story that accounts for the fact that Tennessee is steeped in strange tales.

Named for its ebullient natural springs, Fountain City, Tennessee, has a rich history and a truly unique identity. Originally established in 1788 by John Adair as Adair's Fort, this area was a depot for the Cumberland Guard, which protected emigrant families traveling to settlements in present-day Nashville. With a population of about 30,000, Fountain City was thought to be the nation's largest unincorporated city by the mid-20th century. Though this distinction was lost when the community was incorporated into Knoxville in 1962, Fountain City has maintained a separate identity and preserved its extensive history. Filled with detailed images of the area, this volume provides a rare glimpse of the people, places, and events that have molded the suburb into an ideal environment in which to learn, relax, and enjoy a myriad of recreational activities.

“A Demon-Haunted Land is absorbing, gripping, and utterly fascinating... Beautifully written, without even a hint of jargon or pretension, it casts a significant and unexpected new light on the early phase of the Federal Republic of Germany’s history. Black’s analysis of the copious, largely unknown archival sources on which the book is based is unfailingly subtle and intelligent.” —Richard J. Evans, The New Republic In the aftermath of World War II, a succession of mass supernatural events swept through war-torn Germany. A messianic faith healer rose to extraordinary fame, prayer groups performed exorcisms, and enormous crowds traveled to witness apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Most strikingly, scores of people accused their neighbors of witchcraft, and found themselves in turn hauled into court on charges of defamation, assault, and even murder. What linked these events, in the wake of an annihilationist war and the Holocaust, was a widespread preoccupation with evil. While many histories emphasize Germany’s rapid transition from genocidal dictatorship to liberal democracy, A Demon-Haunted Land places in full view the toxic mistrust, profound bitterness, and spiritual malaise that unfolded alongside the economic miracle. Drawing on previously unpublished archival materials, acclaimed historian Monica Black argues that the surge of supernatural obsessions stemmed from the unspoken guilt and shame of a nation remarkably silent about what was euphemistically called “the most recent past.” This shadow history irrevocably changes our view of postwar Germany, revealing the country’s fraught emotional life, deep moral disquiet, and the cost of trying to bury a horrific legacy.

A reporter for the Washington Star newspaper wrote in 1891, "Washington is the greatest town for ghosts in this country." Here is a collection of tales and over 180 images of famous personalities who revisit the White House, the U.S. Capitol, and other Virginia, Maryland and Washington buildings and homes said to be haunted. It is a revised and updated edition of Ghosts! Washington's Most Famous Ghost Stories.

In this collection of 13 stories combining solid history with spooky ghost lore, children are introduced to the ghostly visions of famous people who fought in Civil War battles. Includes 8-page photo insert and information about visiting the historic sites.