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Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History

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Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History

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Overview

Here Is Where chronicles Andrew Carroll’s eye-opening – and at times hilarious — journey across America to find and explore unmarked historic sites where extraordinary moments occurred and remarkable individuals once lived. Sparking the idea for this book was Carroll’s visit to the spot where Abraham Lincoln’s son was saved by the brother of Lincoln’s assassin. Carroll wondered, How many other unmarked places are there where intriguing events have unfolded and that we walk past every day, not realizing their significance? To answer that question, Carroll ultimately trekked to every region of the country — by car, train, plane, helicopter, bus, bike, and kayak and on foot. Among the things he learned:

*Where in North America the oldest sample of human DNA was discovered

* Where America’s deadliest maritime disaster took place, a calamity worse than the fate of the Titanic

*Which virtually unknown American scientist saved hundreds of millions of lives

*Which famous Prohibition agent was the brother of a notorious gangster

*How a 14-year-old farm boy’s brainstorm led to the creation of television

Featured prominently in Here Is Where are an abundance of firsts (from the first use of modern anesthesia to the first cremation to the first murder conviction based on forensic evidence); outrages (from riots to massacres to forced sterilizations); and breakthroughs (from the invention, inside a prison, of a revolutionary weapon; to the recovery, deep in the Alaskan tundra, of a super-virus; to the building of the rocket that made possible space travel). Here Is Where is thoroughly entertaining, but it’s also a profound reminder that the places we pass by often harbor amazing secrets and that there are countless other astonishing stories still out there, waiting to be found.

Look for Andrew's new book, My Fellow Soldiers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307463982
Publisher:	Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/06/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	5.16(w) x 7.97(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

ANDREW CARROLL is best known for creating the Legacy Project, which archives wartime correspondence, and War Letters, which sold more than 300,000 copies and inspired an acclaimed PBS documentary. Other New York Times bestsellers include Letters of a Nation and Behind the Lines. Carroll’s Operation Homecoming inspired an Emmy-winning documentary. He lives in Washington, D.C. Look for Andrew's new book, My Fellow Soldiers.

Read an Excerpt

Niihau
(Continues…)

Excerpted from "Here Is Where"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Andrew Carroll.
Excerpted by permission of Crown/Archetype.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Introduction 1

I Where to Begin: Starting Points 13

II The World Before Us: Coming to, Exploring, and Conserving America 65

III This Land is My Land: The Dark Side of Expansion and Growth 115

IV Landmark Cases: Crimes and Lawsuits That Changed the Nation 161

V Sparks: Inventions and Technological Advancements 211

VI Bitter Pills and Miracle Cures: Medical Pioneers and Discoveries 265

VII Burial Plots: Forgotten Graves, Cemeteries, and Stories About the Dead 337

VIII All is Not Lost: Finding and Preserving History 407

Acknowledgments and Sources 459

Index 487

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Andrew Carroll has always been a top-notch editor. I had no idea he was as fine a storyteller. Great storytelling can be wonderfully addictive. Here Is Where captured me completely — I couldn't put it down."
—Jeff Shaara, New York Times bestselling author of Gods and Generals, Last Full Measure and Blaze of Glory

“Here is Where is remarkable for the painstaking research on display and its yield of rescued-from-obscurity stories. Many of the true incidents Andrew Carroll has uncovered aren’t just surprising but powerful. Others are simply laugh-out-loud funny, but all are described with considerable skill. America has always had among its citizenry a number of individuals whose legacy is immense but unappreciated, and Carroll has truly done them justice.”
—Steven Pressfield, bestselling author of Gates of Fire, Tides of War and Killing Rommel

"Impressive...Carroll has discovered a way of doing history that, once you
see it, seems so obvious, indeed right under your nose or feet. But to the best of my knowledge, no one has done this before."
—Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Revolutionary Summer and Founding Brothers

“Both a fascinating excavation of under-appreciated events and agents and a compelling analysis of what binds us together, Here Is Where makes for rich and vivid reading. It seems to me that Andrew Carroll has become the Charles Kuralt of American history.”
—Les Standiford, author of Desperate Sons and Last Train to Paradise

“Writing with a historian’s insight and the skill of a master storyteller, Andy Carroll reminds us to look for the fascinating bits of history that lie just behind the curtains of our modern surroundings. Here is Where is a captivating, thoroughly enjoyable journey across the country with a friend who knows all the cool places to stop and have a look.”
—Gregory A. Freeman, The Last Mission of the Wham Bam Boys and The Forgotten 500

"In Here Is Where, one of our best historian-sleuths, Andrew Carroll, has given us a fresh and irresistible approach to experiencing history. Until someone invents a time machine, it's the next best thing to being there—and he's such a vivid, engaging writer that it's probably more fun."
—James Donovan, author of A Terrible Glory and The Blood of Heroes

"Andrew Carroll takes the reader on a fascinating journey of discovery to uncover the forgotten history that lies hidden around us. This is a terrific book: refreshingly original, fast-paced, entertaining, and always insightful. It’s full of fun and interesting stories that bring the past to life and remind us that we are surrounded by the artifacts of history."
—Steven M. Gillon, Scholar-in-Residence at The History Channel and author of Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America

From the B&N Reads Blog

Page 1 of

Editorial Reviews

"Readers should fasten their seatbelts...Carroll's explorations are strangely compelling—I started wondering what history had disappeared from my own neighborhood. Here Is Where could be the basis for a cool Google Glass app—mash it up with GPS coordinates and let it populate the spaces around us with ghosts, both good and evil. We may lose a bit of ourselves by outsourcing our imagination. But we may lose even more by letting time erode the history of our land."—Wall Street Journal

“Carroll takes readers on an eye-opening and entertaining grand tour of America in this lively exploration of lesser-known or overlooked historical sites. From birthplaces to gravesites and high points to low, from those that inspired inventions to those that sparked change, he leaves no stone unturned or landmark unvisited…Part travelogue, part history, this book should be required reading for anyone interested in America’s past.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Andrew Carroll has always been a top-notch editor. I had no idea he was as fine a storyteller. Great storytelling can be wonderfully addictive. Here Is Where captured me completely — I couldn't put it down."
—Jeff Shaara, New York Times bestselling author of Gods and Generals, Last Full Measure and Blaze of Glory

“Here is Where is remarkable for the painstaking research on display and its yield of rescued-from-obscurity stories. Many of the true incidents Andrew Carroll has uncovered aren’t just surprising but powerful. Others are simply laugh-out-loud funny, but all are described with considerable skill. America has always had among its citizenry a number of individuals whose legacy is immense but unappreciated, and Carroll has truly done them justice.”
—Steven Pressfield, bestselling author of Gates of Fire, Tides of War and Killing Rommel

"Impressive...Carroll has discovered a way of doing history that, once you
see it, seems so obvious, indeed right under your nose or feet. But to the best of my knowledge, no one has done this before."
—Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Revolutionary Summer and Founding Brothers

“Both a fascinating excavation of under-appreciated events and agents and a compelling analysis of what binds us together, Here Is Where makes for rich and vivid reading. It seems to me that Andrew Carroll has become the Charles Kuralt of American history.”
—Les Standiford, author of Desperate Sons and Last Train to Paradise

“Writing with a historian’s insight and the skill of a master storyteller, Andy Carroll reminds us to look for the fascinating bits of history that lie just behind the curtains of our modern surroundings. Here is Where is a captivating, thoroughly enjoyable journey across the country with a friend who knows all the cool places to stop and have a look.”
—Gregory A. Freeman, The Last Mission of the Wham Bam Boys and The Forgotten 500

"In Here Is Where, one of our best historian-sleuths, Andrew Carroll, has given us a fresh and irresistible approach to experiencing history. Until someone invents a time machine, it's the next best thing to being there—and he's such a vivid, engaging writer that it's probably more fun."
—James Donovan, author of A Terrible Glory and The Blood of Heroes

"Andrew Carroll takes the reader on a fascinating journey of discovery to uncover the forgotten history that lies hidden around us. This is a terrific book: refreshingly original, fast-paced, entertaining, and always insightful. It’s full of fun and interesting stories that bring the past to life and remind us that we are surrounded by the artifacts of history."
—Steven M. Gillon, Scholar-in-Residence at The History Channel and author of Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America

From the Publisher

Carroll (War Letters) takes readers on an eye-opening and entertaining grand tour of America in this lively exploration of lesser-known or overlooked historical sites. From birthplaces to gravesites and high points to low, from those that inspired inventions to those that sparked change, he leaves no stone unturned or landmark unvisited. Bite-sized chapters focusing on a specific destination as well as Carroll’s own personal journey make this an addictive experience—each entry sheds a little more light on the people and locations we’ve forgotten. The reasons for such obscurity vary, but common threads emerge: these places “evoke shame, they’re inaccessible, the original structure is gone, there’s no funding to mark them, they’ve been overshadowed by other events....” Carroll’s task, “to tackle the larger question of what makes them worth remembering at all,” is thus admirable and illuminating. His accessible and informative style invites readers to join him on his quixotic quest to visit everywhere from Niihau, Hawaii (where an incident sparked the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII), to Hart Island (New York City’s infamous potter’s field) and so much more. Part travelogue, part history, this book should be required reading for anyone interested in America’s past. Agent: Miriam Altshuler, Miriam Altshuler Literary Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

The author chronicles his travels across the country exploring unmarked historical sites. It’s an enlightening work, with an offbeat charm. Carroll also narrates the book, and he has the enthusiasm and energy you’d expect from someone who’s excited about what he has to say. He takes care to enunciate every word and pronounce every name correctly (perhaps a bit too much so). Like that of most authors, his performance is rough, and it’s clear he’s reading his book, not creatively performing it. Still, the book has charm and is worth listening to. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2013 - AudioFile

From the editor of several popular collections of letters (Behind the Lines, 2005, etc.), a down-home account of his travels in search of neglected historical sites. There's no particular rhyme or reason to the places Carroll chose to visit, which range from the tiny Hawaiian island where a Japanese pilot crash-landed after bombing Pearl Harbor to Daniel Boone's grave, which may not actually hold his remains and which gives rise to a long discourse on other famous people who were buried, dug up and buried again elsewhere. This grab-bag approach suits Carroll, whose appreciation of history is sincere but shallow. At one point, in a Cleveland bar that stands on the site of a movie theater whose showing of a risqué French film led to the Supreme Court's landmark 1964 ruling on obscenity, the author got into a conversation with a patron "about how boring we thought [history] was growing up." Now that he loves history, the author's strategy for converting others is to make it as unintimidating as possible: He offers chatty descriptions of his journeys and of his guides to the various sites, who were often just amateur historians like Carroll, and he makes eloquent pleas for the importance of such forgotten episodes as the Wyoming race riot that killed dozens of Chinese coal miners in 1885. Still, it's odd that he spends so much time at places where no physical traces remain of the incidents he wishes to commemorate. "The stories, not the physical sites, are what's paramount," he avers, a claim that would be more convincing if it weren't immediately followed by, "and they become more indelibly impressed in our minds when we travel to where they occurred." Since Carroll is a good storyteller and has done an impressive amount of research, his lack of rigor and aw-shucks manner will grate only on readers who prefer a more systematic approach to history. Amiable pop history.

Kirkus Reviews

Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History

Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History

Paperback(Reprint)

Paperback(Reprint)

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Read an Excerpt

Table of Contents

What People are Saying About This

Customer Reviews

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Read an Excerpt

Table of Contents

What People are Saying About This

Related Subjects

Customer Reviews