Minneapolis


Book Description

A concise history of Minneapolis, featuring stories that are familiar, surprising, and sure to change the way you see the City of Lakes--newly updated with reflections on the city at the center of a global social uprising. Minneapolis is Minneapolis because of the water--because of the Mississippi River, and St. Anthony Falls, and the beautiful lakes that dot the city's neighborhoods. Energized by the power of a magnificent waterfall that was harnessed with stolen technology, it became a major, even global, city. In this succinct and thought-provoking book, Tom Weber provides an urban biography of the City of Lakes. The confluence of the Mississippi and the Minnesota River is a sacred place for Dakota people, who have lived here for millennia. Since the city's beginnings in the 1850s, Minneapolis has experienced continual collapses and rebuilding. Some collapses were real, as when the Falls were nearly destroyed; some are metaphorical, as when corruption and the mob threatened to overtake the life of the city. Weber also explores the effects of the rebuilding and who was in charge: who was left in, and who was left out. In this updated paperback edition, a new conclusion recounts the context for and the worldwide reaction to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May of 2020. In the midst of a pandemic, the city was thrust into the global spotlight, and a spotlight was turned once again on the legacies of racism and inequality that brought Minneapolis to the breaking point. Cities, like people, are always changing, and the history of that change is the city's biography. This book illuminates the unique character of Minneapolis, weaving in the hidden stories of place, politics, and identity that continue to shape its residents' lives.







The Mississippi Courts and the Communities Surrounding Them 1949-2009


Book Description

Over 100 families lived at the Mississippi Courts from 1949-1986. The Mississippi Courts were a small community of twenty-five quad homes built on the lawn of the Workhouse and along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, MN. They were some of the first public housing built in the post WWII era and in the state of Minnesota. This unique book is filled with over one hundred pages of first-hand stories of former residents, countless maps and over 300 photographs helping unraveling the history of the Mississippi Courts, life at the "Courts", and its demise when Interstate 94 came through in 1986. Also included are stories about: The Workhouse, Hopewell Hospital, Camden Bank, Camden Bridge, Galeno's grocery store, the Paul Bunyan Aquatennial Canoe Derby, and many more! This one of a kind book captures for the first time memories of the many families that lived in the Mississippi Courts. It documents who lived there from beginning to end and shares countless stories of what it was like living in the Camden community of Minneapolis, MN from 1949-2009. No coffee table or home library will be complete without a copy of this important large print anthology.




Our Way Or the Highway


Book Description

"Construction plans for the reroute of Highway 55 through south Minneapolis sparked an environmental movement that pitted activists against public authorities in one of the most dramatic episodes in the city's history. Mary Losure was there: as a reporter for Minneapolis Public Radio she witnessed the neighborhood's transformation from a quiet street to the center of an emotionally charged standoff. Fueled by idealism and anger, a diverse coalition of Native Americans, neighborhood residents, and young anarchists banded together to try to stop the highway expansion. Beginning in 1998, this group sustained protests for more than a year and eventually faced an unprecedented show of force by law enforcement." "Through her detailed account of this struggle, Losure explores the roles of ecoanarchism and grassroots activism in the age of globalization. This subculture, brought to the spotlight during protests over the World Trade Organization in Seattle and Genoa, has been largely undocumented in the mainstream press. With a practical reporter's eye, Mary Losure portrays the activists' experiences and the establishment's view of them, ultimately revealing the power of the existing order and the fragility and absolute necessity of dissent."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved







Subterranean Twin Cities


Book Description

In Subterranean Twin Cities, geologist, historian, and urban speleologist Greg Brick takes us on an adventurous, educational, and-thankfully-sanitary journey beneath the streets and into the myriad tunnels, caves, and industrial spaces that make up the Twin Cities' fascinating and surprisingly vast underground landscape. In this groundbreaking tour, the first of its kind of the Twin Cities, Brick mines the stories that lie below the city surface.










My Mighty Journey


Book Description

The story of the past twelve thousand years of Minnesota told from the perspective of the only major waterfall on the Mississippi River, with stunning artwork by Gaylord Schanilec.




The Bohemian Flats


Book Description