More than 12,000 years of Montana history come to life in Montana: Stories of the Land. This new book, created for use in teaching Montana history, offers a panorama of the past beginning with Montana's first people and ending with life in the twenty-first century. Incorporating Indian perspectives, Montana: Stories of the Land is the first truly multicultural history of the state. It features hundreds of historical photographs, unique artifacts, maps, and paintings largely drawn from the Society's extensive collections. Sidebar quotations bring the stories of ordinary people to life while providing diverse perspectives on important historical events. Published by the Montana Historical Society Press with production management by Farcountry Press. Features 463 photos, maps, and artifacts primarily drawn from the Montana Historical Society's collections Fully integrates the history of Montana's Indians into the state's story Uses quotations from everyday people to bring Montana's past to life

Contains all the short stories written during the last year of Katherine Mansfield's life at Montana, with a new and lengthy publisher's note.

Sitting at the kitchen tables of twelve women in their eighties who were born in or immigrated to Montana in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, between 1982 and 1988 oral historian Donna Gray conducted interviews that reveal a rich heritage. In retelling their life stories, Gray steps aside and allows theses women with supposedly “nothing to tell” to speak for themselves. Pride, nostalgia, and triumph fill a dozen hearts as they realize how remarkable their lives have been and wonder how they did it all. Some of these women grew up in Montana in one-bedroom houses; others traveled in covered wagons before finding a home and falling in love with Montana. These raw accounts bring to life the childhood memories and adulthood experiences of ranch wives who were not afraid to milk a cow or bake in a wooden stove. From raising poultry to raising a family, these women knew the meaning of hard work. Several faced the hardships of family illness, poverty, and early widowhood. Through it all, they were known for their good sense of humor and strong sense of self.

Lori, the heroine of this rousing narrative, is attempting to flee the hectic East Coast for a better life in the West. She is a child of the Seventies who feels misled by the rebellious "boomer" generation and disappointed with life in 1980s New Jersey. Spurred by the tale of her pioneering grandparents, who immigrated to Montana, and following her friend Madeleine, who has all the answers, Lori quits her job, loosens her ties, and sets off into a wild frontier. Lori's story is one of love for people and for places that are more mythic than real. Her pursuit is as painfully familiar as it is impossible: she seeks meaning in life while working dead-end jobs, falls in love with uninterested partners, and plans a future that seems doomed from the start. Somehow, though, she persists and ultimately finds her place as a twenty-first-century pioneer.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK ONE OF THE NEW YORKER’S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Carrying a single suitcase, Kailash arrives in post-Reagan America from India to attend graduate school. As he begins to settle into American existence, Kailash comes under the indelible influence of a charismatic professor, and also finds his life reshaped by a series of very different women with whom he recklessly falls in and out of love. Looking back on the formative period of his youth, Kailash’s wry, vivid perception of the world he is in, but never quite of, unfurls in a brilliant melding of anecdote and annotation, picture and text. Building a case for himself, both as a good man in spite of his flaws and as an American in defiance of his place of birth, Kailash weaves a story that is at its core an incandescent investigation of love—despite, beyond, and across dividing lines.

In Treasure State Tycoon, John C. Russell regales us with an intimate look at the life of Montana entrepreneur Nelson G. Story. This richly detailed biography is set against the tumultuous backdrop of the nineteenth-century West. Beautiful maps and photographs bring Story's journey from humble prospector to Bozeman tycoon to life. Story's dazzling ability to sniff out opportunity-from the gold fields of Montana to the real estate boom in southern California-made him a fortune. Russell's unflinching look at Story's darker side in both his personal life and business dealings serves as a reminder that ambition and cruelty often go hand in hand. Book jacket.