This is the fourth post in a series relating to University Presses. The first was about the environmental books published by the University of Washington. The other two were about the books produced by two universities closer by: Penn State and Wayne State. They both devote some of their publishing efforts to regional books. Penn State's are in the "Keystone Books" collection, while Wayne State has a "Great Lakes Book Series."
The University of Minnesota also produces a number of books that relate to our general geographic area. A short list of some of them is provided below. Full a full listing: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS
It can be difficult to find good books. Here are some for those interested in the Midwest and more will be found at the U. of M. site.
This is being written during the "Great COVID-19 Quarantine." We are supposed to stay home and the border between Canada and the U.S. is closed. At least we can read about the places we currently can't visit.
The Great Lakes at Ten Miles an Hour: One Cyclist’s Journey along the Shores of the Inland Seas
2017 • Author: Thomas Shevory
A chronicle of travels by bicycle around the Great Lakes, combining personal observations with reflections on the geology, ecology, history, and culture of the region
Over the course of four summers, Thomas Shevory biked along the Great Lakes’ shores, absorbing the stories the lakes tell—of nature’s grandeur and decay, of economic might and squandered promise, of exploration, colonization, migration, and military adventure. This is Shevory’s account of his travels and explorations of the geological, environmental, historical, and cultural riches harbored by these great inland seas.
Border Country: The Northwoods Canoe Journals of Howard Greene, 1906–1916
2017 • Author: Martha Greene Phillips
Border Country is a collection of the remarkable, handmade journals from businessman Howard Greene’s early 1900s canoe trips to the north woods of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and Canada. Reproduced with numerous photographs and maps, these journals are a window into a world at once familiar and strange, the wilderness caught on the verge of becoming the North Woods we know today.
Fresh from the Garden: An Organic Guide to Growing Vegetables, Berries, and Herbs in Cold Climates
2016 • Author: John Whitman
Grow your own vegetables, berries, and herbs with the fourth book in the best-selling cold climate gardening series
A concise guide, with nutrition information tables and hundreds of color photographs, Fresh from the Garden will help you extend the growing season to produce the best vegetables, berries, and herbs. It includes more than 150 edible plants and provides a wealth of information for determining the best varieties, harvesting techniques, and uses for your bounty—especially for cold climate gardeners.
Apparently we are not the only ones who know about canoes. Note the positive review by Canada's 'canoe man' and also that John McPhee was willing to offer a foreward - a good sign.
Canoes: A Natural History in North America
2016 • Authors: Mark Neuzil and Norman Sims
Foreword by John McPhee
Mark Neuzil and Norman Sims have written a wonderfully detailed biography of the vessel that made North America possible, treating it as a living, breathing personality. As enjoyable as a swift, steady, and smooth river, this is the ideal book for canoeists—the perfect canoe trip of a read.
— Roy MacGregor, author of Canoe Country: The Making of Canada
North Shore: A Natural History of Minnesota’s Superior Coast
In North Shore Chel Anderson and Adelheid Fischer offer a comprehensive environmental history of one of Minnesota’s most beloved places. Compelling and accessible, the book will provide readers with a science-based knowledge of the Minnesota North Shore watershed so that together we can write a new, hopeful chapter for its inhabitants, both human and wild.
Lake Superior Flavors: A Field Guide to Food and Drink along the Circle Tour
2014 • Author: James Norton
From the founders of the popular food website Heavy Table comes Lake Superior Flavors, a celebration of food culture around the shores of the greatest of the Great Lakes. Author James Norton and photographer Becca Dilley take readers on a culinary tour around Lake Superior, hitting high-traffic tourist spots and cultural institutions as well as off-the-beaten-path discoveries.
A Love Affair with Birds:The Life of Thomas Sadler Roberts
2013 • Author: Sue Leaf
The father of Minnesota ornithology, whose life story opens a window on a lost world of nature and conservation in the state’s early days
A Love Affair with Birds is the first full biography of Thomas Sadler Roberts. Bird enthusiast, doctor, author, curator, educator, conservationist: every chapter in Roberts’s life is also a chapter in the state’s history, and in his story acclaimed author Sue Leaf—an avid bird enthusiast and nature lover herself—captures a true Minnesota character and his time.
The Lure of the North Woods: Cultivating Tourism in the Upper Midwest
2013 • Author: Aaron Shapiro
The origins of the North Woods vacation across northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan
This book tells the story of how northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula became a tourist paradise, turning a scarred industrial countryside into the playground we know today. Aaron Shapiro describes how residents and visitors reshaped the region from a landscape of exploitation to a vacationland and reveals how leisure—and tourism in particular—has shaped modern America.
The book below about the Lost Mansions of the Twin Cities reminds me of a similar book about ruins closer by. See the very expensive and out-of-print The Ruins of Detroit, by Marchand and Meffre. It was produced by Steidl, the subject of an earlier post relating to, of all things, Gas Stations.
Once There Were Castles: Lost Mansions and Estates of the Twin Cities
2011 • Author: Larry Millett
The first in-depth look at the history of the Twin Cities’ mansions, Once There Were Castles presents ninety lost mansions and estates, organized by neighborhood and illustrated with photographs and drawings. An absorbing read for Twin Cities residents and a crucial addition to the body of work on the region’s history, Once There Were Castles brings these “ghost mansions” back to life.
The untold history of how the land of the Dakota and Ojibwe became the State of Minnesota
North Country: The Making of Minnesota unlocks the complex origins of the state—origins that have often been ignored in favor of legend and a far more benign narrative of immigration, settlement, and cultural exchange. It is the unflinching account of how the land the Dakota named Mini Sota Makoce became the State of Minnesota and of the people who have called it home.
There are even a couple about beer. Apparently craft brewing is not new.
In North Shore Chel Anderson and Adelheid Fischer offer a comprehensive environmental history of one of Minnesota’s most beloved places. Compelling and accessible, the book will provide readers with a science-based knowledge of the Minnesota North Shore watershed so that together we can write a new, hopeful chapter for its inhabitants, both human and wild.
Lake Superior Flavors: A Field Guide to Food and Drink along the Circle Tour
2014 • Author: James Norton
From the founders of the popular food website Heavy Table comes Lake Superior Flavors, a celebration of food culture around the shores of the greatest of the Great Lakes. Author James Norton and photographer Becca Dilley take readers on a culinary tour around Lake Superior, hitting high-traffic tourist spots and cultural institutions as well as off-the-beaten-path discoveries.
A Love Affair with Birds:The Life of Thomas Sadler Roberts
2013 • Author: Sue Leaf
The father of Minnesota ornithology, whose life story opens a window on a lost world of nature and conservation in the state’s early days
A Love Affair with Birds is the first full biography of Thomas Sadler Roberts. Bird enthusiast, doctor, author, curator, educator, conservationist: every chapter in Roberts’s life is also a chapter in the state’s history, and in his story acclaimed author Sue Leaf—an avid bird enthusiast and nature lover herself—captures a true Minnesota character and his time.
The Lure of the North Woods: Cultivating Tourism in the Upper Midwest
2013 • Author: Aaron Shapiro
The origins of the North Woods vacation across northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan
This book tells the story of how northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula became a tourist paradise, turning a scarred industrial countryside into the playground we know today. Aaron Shapiro describes how residents and visitors reshaped the region from a landscape of exploitation to a vacationland and reveals how leisure—and tourism in particular—has shaped modern America.
The book below about the Lost Mansions of the Twin Cities reminds me of a similar book about ruins closer by. See the very expensive and out-of-print The Ruins of Detroit, by Marchand and Meffre. It was produced by Steidl, the subject of an earlier post relating to, of all things, Gas Stations.
Once There Were Castles: Lost Mansions and Estates of the Twin Cities
2011 • Author: Larry Millett
The first in-depth look at the history of the Twin Cities’ mansions, Once There Were Castles presents ninety lost mansions and estates, organized by neighborhood and illustrated with photographs and drawings. An absorbing read for Twin Cities residents and a crucial addition to the body of work on the region’s history, Once There Were Castles brings these “ghost mansions” back to life.
The untold history of how the land of the Dakota and Ojibwe became the State of Minnesota
North Country: The Making of Minnesota unlocks the complex origins of the state—origins that have often been ignored in favor of legend and a far more benign narrative of immigration, settlement, and cultural exchange. It is the unflinching account of how the land the Dakota named Mini Sota Makoce became the State of Minnesota and of the people who have called it home.
There are even a couple about beer. Apparently craft brewing is not new.
Land of Amber Waters: The History of Brewing in Minnesota
2007 • Author: Doug Hoverson
Starting with its first brewery in 1849, Doug Hoverson tells the story of Minnesota’s beer industry from the small-town breweries that gave way to larger companies with regional and national prominence to the vibrant beer culture of today. Complete with a comprehensive list of Minnesota’s breweries—including many never before listed in print—and more than 300 tempting illustrations of beer and breweriana, Land of Amber Waters marvelously chronicles Minnesota’s rich brewing traditions.
And
2007 • Author: Doug Hoverson
Starting with its first brewery in 1849, Doug Hoverson tells the story of Minnesota’s beer industry from the small-town breweries that gave way to larger companies with regional and national prominence to the vibrant beer culture of today. Complete with a comprehensive list of Minnesota’s breweries—including many never before listed in print—and more than 300 tempting illustrations of beer and breweriana, Land of Amber Waters marvelously chronicles Minnesota’s rich brewing traditions.
And
The Drink That Made Wisconsin Famous
From grain to glass—a complete illustrated history of brewing and breweries in the state more famous for beer than any other
From the global breweries that developed in Milwaukee in the 1870s to the “wildcat” breweries of Prohibition and the upstart craft brewers of today, Doug Hoverson tells the stories of Wisconsin’s rich brewing history. Going beyond the giants like Miller, Schlitz, and Pabst that loom large in the state’s brewing renown, Hoverson delves into the stories of the hundreds of small breweries started by immigrants and entrepreneurs that delivered Wisconsin’s beer from grain to glass.
Sources:
All of the images and the annotations are from the University of Minnesota Press website.
They typically publish over 100 books per year with about 50% of them being devoted to the region and subjects of general interest. The other 50% are scholarly. They also publish around five academic journals.
For more details see this article from a Canadian university press journal: "The University of Minnesota Press," Pam Werre, Journal of Scholarly Publishing, Vol. 40, No.4, July, 2009 (U of T Press)
Post Script: If you had troubles as an adolescent you may be familiar with the The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent psychology inventory also produced by the University of Minnesota Press.
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