Milwaukee’s name, meaning "gathering place by the water," comes from the Native Americans who first populated this attractive area located on the shores of Lake Michigan. The town was founded in the 1840s by the merchants Juneau, Kilbourn, and Walker, and it soon became a thriving center for trade. Many of its early settlers were prosperous businessmen from New England who were seeking new opportunities in this developing town. These entrepreneurs built churches, schools, and parks that really started to put Milwaukee on the map. German immigrants began to arrive in the latenineteenth century and the city developed a strong Germanic influence, from its architecture to the frankfurter sausages that are still sold today. Sites include:City Hall, Nunnemacher Grand Opera House, Cawker Building, Wisconsin Avenue Bridge, Iron Block Building, Chapman’s Department Store, Pfister Hotel, Hull House, Layton Art Gallery, Keenan House, Courthouse Square, Blatz Brewery, Milwaukee River, Usinger’s Famous Sausage, Republican Hotel, Espenhain Department Store, Milwaukee Railroad Depot, Mitchell Building, Midwest Grain Exchange, Chicago Northwestern Depot, Maitland Field, Milwaukee Art Museum, Pulaski Street, Schlitz Brewery, Pabst Brewery, Pfister and Vogel Leather, Tivoli Palm Garden, Plankinton and Pabst Mansions.

Over the past 75 years, gays and lesbians have experienced tremendous social change in America. Gay and lesbian culture, once considered a twilight world that could not be spoken of in daylight, has become today's rainbow families, marriage equality victories, and record-breaking pride celebrations. For a medium-size Rust Belt city with German Protestant roots, Milwaukee was an unlikely place for gay and lesbian culture to bloom before the Stonewall Riots. However, Milwaukee eventually had as many--if not more--known LGBT+ gathering places as Minneapolis or Chicago, ranging from the back rooms of the 1960s to the video bars of the 1980s to the guerrilla gay bars of today.

From the old days of knuckle-cracking nuns to today's more liberal teaching methods, Catholic schools have evolved into the best option even for non-Catholic parents especially if they live in large cities. Author Mary Reardon explores the history of Catholic schools in America, where they are today and where they are headed in the future.

From City Hall to the Pabst Theater, reminders of the past are part of the fabric of Milwaukee. Yet many historic treasures have been lost to time. An overgrown stretch of the Milwaukee River was once a famous beer garden. Blocks of homes and apartments replaced the Wonderland Amusement Park. A quiet bike path now stretches where some of fastest trains in the world previously thundered. Today's Estabrook Park was a vast mining operation, and Marquette University covers the old fairgrounds where Abraham Lincoln spoke. Author Carl Swanson recounts these stories and other tales of bygone days.

German immigrants began arriving to Milwaukee in the 1830s. By 1859, over one-third of the city was German. They opened schools and churches, started businesses, ran for office, and introduced professional German theater, art, and music to the city. Milwaukee soon became known throughout the United States--and even abroad--as the "German Athens of North America." There is a reason Milwaukee is known as the city of beer and brats, why it is here that the biggest Germanfest in the country takes place, and why still today the German language can be seen and heard throughout the city. As the well-known German newspaper the Frankfurter Allgemeine stated in 2008, "Deutscher als Milwaukee ist nirgendwo in Amerika" (There is nowhere in America more German than in Milwaukee).