Writing Local History Today guides local historians through the process of researching, writing, and publishing their work. Mason & Calder present step-by-step advice to guide aspiring authors to a successful publication and focus not only on how to write well but also how to market and sell their work. Highlights include: Discussion of how to identify an audience for your writing project Tips for effective research and planning Sample documents, such as contracts and requests for proposals Discussion of how to use social media to leverage your publication Discussion of the benefits and drawbacks to self-publishing An essay by Gregory Britton, the editorial director of John Hopkins University Press, about financial pitfalls in publishing This guide is useful for first-time authors who need help with this sometimes daunting process, or for previously published historians who need a quick reference or timely tip.

Completely revised and updated edition of the guide for local historians.

There's something about vintage garden photos: preserved moments of beauty from gardens long gone. Iowa Gardens of the Past features 300+ color and grayscale images of beautiful Iowa gardens, together with lovely seed catalog art, from the mid-nineteenth century through 1980. From impressive mansion grounds to humble flower-filled farmsteads, they include: Victorian-style flower bedding; formal rose gardens; exotic Japanese-style gardens; midcentury modern landscaping. Discover how Iowans coped with severe weather events, economic depressions, world wars, grasshopper plagues and Dutch Elm Disease. Despite these challenges, Iowans have made countless gardens of great beauty. Now these gardens can be admired and enjoyed once again, in these hauntingly beautiful images of Iowa Gardens of the Past.

For over thirty years, Carol Kammen’s On Doing Local History has been a valuable guide to professional and “amateur” historians alike. First published in 1986, revised in 2003, this book offers not only discussion of practical matters, but also a deeper reflection on local, public history, what it means, and why it is done. It is used in classrooms and found on the shelves of local historians across the U.S. The third edition features: Updates to chapters that focus on the current concerns and situation of local historians A new chapter on how the field of history cooperates with other arts A new chapter on writing a congregational history Updated references With the same passion (and now even more experience) that drove her to write the first edition, Kammen has brought her seminal work into today’s context for the next generation of local historians. The new edition ensures that this classic will continue to move anyone interested in public history towards a better understanding of why they do what they do and how it benefits their communities.

"This book is the definitive study of imperial Chinese local gazetteers, one of the most important sources for premodern Chinese studies. Methodologically innovative, it represents a major contribution to the history of books, publishing, reading, and society. By examining how gazetteers were read, Joseph R. Dennis illustrates their significance in local societies and national discourses. His analysis of how gazetteers were initiated and produced reconceptualizes the geography of imperial Chinese publishing. Whereas previous studies argued that publishing, and thus cultural and intellectual power, were concentrated in the southeast, Dennis shows that publishing and book ownership were widely dispersed throughout China and books were found even in isolated locales. Adding a dynamic element to our earlier understanding of the publishing industry, Dennis tracks the movements of manuscripts to printers and print labor to production sites. By reconstructing printer business zones, he demonstrates that publishers operated across long distances in trans-regional markets. He also creates the first substantial data set on publishing costs in early modern China—a foundational breakthrough in understanding the world of Chinese books. Dennis’s work reveals areas for future research on newly-identified regional publishing centers and the economics of book production."