Frank Carlson Library

The wretched and landless poor have existed from the time of the earliest British colonial settlement. They were alternately known as "waste people," "offals," "rubbish," "lazy lubbers," and "crackers." By the 1850s, the downtrodden included so-called "clay eaters" and "sandhillers," known for prematurely-aged children distinguished by their yellowish skin, ragged clothing, and listless minds. Surveying political rhetoric and policy, popular literature...

"Fans of Barbara Kingsolver will love this stunning debut novel from a New York Times bestselling nature writer, about an unforgettable young woman determined to make her way in the wilds of North Carolina, and the two men that will break her isolation open. For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase...

He robbed from the rich and gave to the poor, and had escapades enough to please any adventure-loving child. Now even the youngest readers can have the chance to enter Sherwood Forest with Robin's band of merry men, and meet such unforgettable characters as Friar Tuck, Little John, Allan-a-Dale, the nasty Sheriff of Nottingham, and wicked King John.

On all Hallow's Eve in 1517, a young monk named Martin Luther posted a document he hoped would spark an academic debate. Instead, it ignited a conglagration. Five hundred years after Luther's now famous Ninety-five Theses appeared, Eric Metazas paints a startling portrait of the wild figure whose adamantine faith cracked the edifice of Western Christendom and dragged medieval Europe into the future. Written in riveting prose and impeccably researched,...

Knights in armor weighed so much that they had to be lifted onto their horses. Medieval barbers doubled as dentists. Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor. You may have heard these common sayings or beliefs before. But are they really true? Can they be proven through research? Let's investigate seventeen statements about the Middle Ages and find out which ones are right, which ones are wrong, and which ones stump even the experts! Find...

"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat, a gripping World War II saga of patriotism and courage: the special Japanese-American Army unit that overcame brutal odds in Europe; their families, incarcerated in camps back home; and a young man who refused to surrender his constitutional rights, even if it meant imprisonment. They came from across the continent and Hawaii. Their parents taught them to embrace both their Japanese...

"A prim and proper lady thief must save her aunt from a crazed pirate and his dangerously charming henchman in this fantastical historical romance. Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She's also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt,...

"This book uses the story of Isaac Beckley Werner, a homesteader in Stafford County, Kansas, to reveal how the Populist Movement involved and affected Kansas farmers. From 1884 until his death in 1895, Werner kept a diary whose content revolved around the advice of Henry Ward Beecher: recording events around him rather than focusing on himself. Owner of an extensive personal library, an attendee of Populist lectures who contributed columns to the...

The true story of the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, and the famous Battle at the OK Corral, by the New York Times bestselling author of Dodge City and Wild Bill.
On the afternoon of October 26, 1881, eight men clashed in what would be known as the most famous shootout in American frontier history. Thirty bullets were exchanged in thirty seconds, killing three men and wounding three others.
The fight sprang forth

...

A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, Babylon traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.