From Saloons to Steak Houses


Book Description

Since its early days as a boomtown on the Florida frontier, Tampa has had a lively history rich with commerce, cuisine, and working-class communities. In From Saloons to Steak Houses, Andrew Huse takes readers on a journey into historic bars, theaters, gambling halls, soup kitchens, clubs, and restaurants, telling the story of Tampa’s past through these fascinating social spaces—many of which can’t be found in official histories. Beginning with the founding of modern Tampa in 1887 and spanning a century, Huse delves into the culture of the city and traces the struggles that have played out in public spaces. He describes temperance advocates who crusaded against saloons and breweries, cigar workers on strike who depended on soup houses for survival, and civil rights activists who staged sit-ins at lunch counters. These stories are set amid themes such as the emergence of Tampa’s criminal underworld, the rise of anti-German fear during World War I, and the heady power of prosperity and tourism in the 1950s. Huse draws from local newspaper stories and firsthand accounts to show what authorities and city residents saw and believed about these establishments and the people who frequented them. This unique take on Tampa history reveals a spirited city at work and play, an important cultural hub that continues to both celebrate and come to terms with its many legacies.




Food Lovers' Guide to® Montana


Book Description

The essential handbook to the Treasure State's gastronomic delights * The ultimate guide to the food scene in Montana, this book provides the inside scoop on the best places to find, enjoy, and celebrate local culinary offerings. Engagingly written by a local authority, it is a one-stop for residents and visitors alike to find producers and purveyors of tasty local specialties, as well as a rich array of other, indispensable food-related information, including: • Food festivals and culinary events • Farmers’ markets and farm stands • Specialty food shops • Places to pick your own produce • One-of-a-kind restaurants and landmark eateries • Recipes using local ingredients and traditions • The state’s best wineries and brewpubs • Cooking schools and seminars • Local food lore, kitchen wisdom, anecdotes, and “best of” selections




Ybor City


Book Description

Decades before Miami became Havana USA, a wave of leftist, radical, working-class women and men from prerevolutionary Cuba crossed the Florida Straits, made Ybor City the global capital of the Cuban cigar industry, and established the foundation of latinidad in the Sunshine State. Located on the eastern edge of Tampa, Ybor City was a neighborhood of cigar workers and Caribbean revolutionaries who sought refuge against the shifting tides of international political turmoil during the early half of the twentieth century. Historian Sarah McNamara tells the story of immigrant and U.S.-born Latinas/os who organized strikes, marched against fascism, and criticized U.S. foreign policy. While many members of the immigrant generation maintained their dedication to progressive ideals for years to come, those who came of age in the wake of World War II distanced themselves from leftist politics amidst the Red Scare and the wrecking ball of urban renewal. This portrait of the political shifts that defined Ybor City highlights the underexplored role of women's leadership within movements for social and economic justice as it illustrates how people, places, and politics become who and what they are.




Explorer's Guide Yosemite & the Southern Sierra Nevada (Explorer's Complete)


Book Description

An updated and redesigned guide one of America's greatest destinations Yosemite is a tremendously popular tourist destination, gaining visitors every year. The only complete guide to California’s southern Sierra Nevada—some of the most stunning wilderness in North America—is better than ever in this revised, updated, and beautifully redesigned third edition. Detailed reviews of lodging, dining, and recreation, plus outfitters, campsites, trails, and points of historic and cultural interest, make this book an essential companion to the incomparable Yosemite region. Renowned travel writer David T. Page makes it easy to get the very most out of your journey. In this book, as with every title in the Explorer’s Guide series, you’ll get beautiful photography, up-to-date maps, and lots of helpful advice from an expert author. Page has seen everything the Sierra Nevada has to offer and now so can you!




Grain and Fire


Book Description

While a luscious layer cake may exemplify the towering glory of southern baking, like everything about the American South, baking is far more complicated than it seems. Rebecca Sharpless here weaves a brilliant chronicle, vast in perspective and entertaining in detail, revealing how three global food traditions—Indigenous American, European, and African—collided with and merged in the economies, cultures, and foodways of the South to create what we know as the southern baking tradition. Recognizing that sentiments around southern baking run deep, Sharpless takes delight in deflating stereotypes as she delves into the surprising realities underlying the creation and consumption of baked goods. People who controlled the food supply in the South used baking to reinforce their power and make social distinctions. Who used white cornmeal and who used yellow, who put sugar in their cornbread and who did not had traditional meanings for southerners, as did the proportions of flour, fat, and liquid in biscuits. By the twentieth century, however, the popularity of convenience foods and mixes exploded in the region, as it did nationwide. Still, while some regional distinctions have waned, baking in the South continues to be a remarkable, and remarkably tasty, source of identity and entrepreneurship.




The Six Pack


Book Description

From the bestselling author of The Wax Pack, comes another eye‑opening road trip adventure into a pocket of iconic pop culture—professional wrestling—starring the Iron Sheik, Hulk Hogan, Tito Santana, and many more larger‑than‑life characters of the WWF of the 1980s. In 2005, Brad Balukjian left his position as a magazine fact-checker to pursue a dream job: partner with his childhood hero, The Iron Sheik (whose real name was Khosrow Vaziri), to write his biography. Things quickly went south, culminating in the Sheik threatening Balukjian’s life. Now seventeen years later, Balukjian returns to the road in search of not only a reunion with the Sheik, but something much bigger: truth in a world built on illusion. Balukjian seeks out six of the Sheik’s contemporaries, fellow witnesses to the World Wrestling Federation’s (WWF) explosion in the mid-‘80s, to unearth their true identities. As Balukjian drives 12,525 miles around the country, we revisit the heady days when these avatars of strength, villainy, and heroism first found fame and see where their journeys took them. From working out with Tony Atlas (Tony White) to visiting Hulk Hogan’s (Terry Bollea) karaoke bar, we see where these men are now and how they have navigated the cliffs of fame. The Six Pack combines the spirit of a fan with the rigor of an investigative reporter, tracking down former WWF employees, childhood friends, and mutually curious archivists. Wrestling is perceived as a subculture without a cultural home, somewhere between sport and theater—often dismissed as silly and low‑brow. But what makes this book so compelling is the humanity beneath each wrestler. The Iron Sheik, Hulk Hogan, and the rest of the cast were not characters in a comic book movie. They were real people, with families and feelings and bodies that could break. Most of them did, in fact, break; some have been repaired, but none of them will ever be the same.







Death's-Head Trail


Book Description




Moon Dallas & Fort Worth


Book Description

Whether you're looking for world-class art or chicken-fried steak, discover what sets DFW apart with Moon Dallas & Fort Worth. Inside you'll find: Flexible itineraries, from a weekend in Dallas to a longer trip exploring the region The top sights and unique experiences: Tour landmarks of both cities' infamous outlaw history, museum-hop in the Dallas Arts District, or hit the indie shops in Bishop Arts. Watch the cattle-drive at the Fort Worth Stockyards, learn how to line dance, or risk a ride on a mechanical bull The best local flavors: Dig into barbecue or Tex-Mex (with a margarita or two). Graze at the food trucks in Klyde Warren Park and soak up stunning skyline views, try tacos from a roadside stand, or indulge in Texas-sized steak Local insight from born-and-bred Dallas expert Emily Toman Full-color, vibrant photos and detailed maps throughout Background on culture and history, geography, and regional vernacular Experience the best of Texas with Moon Dallas & Fort Worth. Looking to explore more of the Lone Star State? Try Moon Austin, San Antonio & the Hill Country, or Moon Texas.




Amore


Book Description

Amore is Mark Rotella's celebration of the "Italian decade"—the years after the war and before the Beatles when Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Dean Martin, and Tony Bennett, among others, won the hearts of the American public with a smooth, stylish, classy brand of pop. In Rotella's vivid telling, the stories behind forty Italian American classics (from "O Sole Mio," "Night and Day," and "Mack the Knife" to "Volare" and "I Wonder Why") show how a glorious musical tradition became the sound track of postwar America and the expression of a sense of style that we still cherish. Rotella follows the music from the opera houses and piazzas of southern Italy, to the barrooms of the Bronx and Hoboken, to the Copacabana, the Paramount Theatre, and the Vegas Strip. He shows us the hardworking musicians whose voices were to become ubiquitous on jukeboxes and the radio and whose names—some anglicized, some not—have become bywords for Italian American success, even as they were dogged by stereotypes and prejudice. Amore is the personal Top 40 of one proud son of Italy; it is also a love song to Italian American culture and an evocation of an age that belongs to us all.