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Historical Books |
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Old Farm: A History (October,
2008) By Jerry Apps With Photographs by
Steve Apps
Hardcover: $29.95
ISBN: 978-0-87020-406-7
256 pages, 100 photos, 2 maps, 8 x 9 "
Purchase this book from:
Wisconsin Historical Society,
Amazon
"Jerry Apps has a historian's eye and a storyteller's heart—count
me among his legion of grateful readers."
—Michael Perry, author of Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One
Siren at a Time and Truck: A Love Story
One of the Midwest's best-loved authors tells the story of his
land, from the last great glacier that dug out its valleys and
formed its hills, to his own family's forty-year relationship with
the beloved farm they call Roshara. In this quiet but epic tale,
Apps describes the Native Americans who lived on the land for
hundreds of years—tapping the maple trees and fishing the streams
and lakes—as well as the first white settlers who tilled its sandy
acres, ploughing the native grasses that grew taller than their
teams of oxen. For all their work, the farm proved tough to tame.
Hardscrabble farming methods—and hard luck—often brought failure,
not success.
Breathtakingly beautiful color photographs by
Apps' son, Steve (a professional
photographer), highlight the ever-changing beauty of the land in
every season, and hint at the spiritual gifts that are the true
bounty this family reaps from Roshara.
Central to Apps's work is his belief that the land is something
to cherish and revere. Like Aldo Leopold before him, Apps sounds an
inspirational call to readers to preserve wild and rural places,
leaving them in better condition that we found them for future
generations.
Click here for Reviews of
"Old Farm: A History"
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Breweries of Wisconsin, Second Edition (April,
2005)
Purchase this book from:
Amazon
The story of the Dairy State's other major industry—beer! From the
immigrants who started brewing here during territorial days to the
modern industrial giants, this is the history, the folklore, the
architecture, the advertising, and the characters that made
Wisconsin the nation's brewing leader. Updated with the latest
trends on the Wisconsin brewing scene. This second edition of Jerry
Apps's popular history of brewing in the Badger State brings the
story up to the present.
"Highly readable. . . . Apps links together ethnic influence,
agriculture, geography, natural resources, meteorology, changing
technology, and transportation to explore some of the mystique,
romance, and folklore associated with beer from antiquity to the
present day in Wisconsin."—The Brewers Bulletin
"Apps adeptly combines diligent scholarship with fascinating
anecdotes, vividly portraying brewmasters, beer barons,
saloonkeepers, and corporate raiders. All this plus color
reproductions of popular beer labels and a detailed recipe for home
brew."—Wisconsin Magazine of History
Winner of: Distinguished Service to History: Award of Merit,
Wisconsin Historical Society and Outstanding Literary Achievement
Award, Wisconsin Library Association
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Ringlingville USA - The Stupendous Story of Seven
Siblings and Their Stunning Circus Success (October, 2004)
Purchase this book from:
Amazon (paperback),
Amazon (hardcover),
UW Press
Ringlingville USA is the story of seven brothers who started with
next to nothing and became the most famous circus family ever known.
This is an extensively illustrated history with many never before
published photographs. This history of the Ringling Circus, the
first in more than fifty years, recounts the hard work, business
savvy, and entrepreneurship of the Ringling Brothers as they created
the largest, most famous circus in the world. Author Jerry Apps
presents a comprehensive history of the family business while
recreating the sights and sounds of the circus at the turn of the
century. Winner of Outstanding Academic Title award,
Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library
Association.
Reviews:
JS Online,
UW
Madison,
Amazon,
Wisconsin State Journal,
Wisconsin Writer
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The People Came First - A History of Wisconsin Cooperative
Extension (July, 2002)
Purchase this book from:
Amazon, Coop
Extension Publications
352 pages. Black and White photos throughout. 6x9" size
softcover - An historical account of the development of Cooperative
Extension in Wisconsin from 1850 to 2001. Included are stories from
Extension staff, county office secretaries, historical photos, and a
list of notable dates, plus a careful chronicling of how Cooperative
Extension changed over the years. Winner of Award of Merit,
Wisconsin Historical Society and Scholarly Book Award, Wisconsin
Council For Writers.
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Cheese - The Making of a Wisconsin Tradition (April, 1998)
Purchase this book
In Cheese, The Making of a Wisconsin Tradition, award-winning
author Jerry Apps narrates the history of cheese making in Wisconsin
from the 1840s to the present. In his compelling yet conversational
style, Apps documents the daily lives of early cheese makers and how
Wisconsin became the nation's number one cheese producer. The
experiences come from the cheese makers, milk haulers, cheese graders,
and buyers with stories of snow-blocked roads and frozen milk, of fish
in milk cans, wine in cellars, and cheese aging on shelves.
Winner of Award of Merit, Wisconsin Historical Society.
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One Room Country Schools (April, 1996)
Purchase this book
Remembering his first day of school, award-winning author Jerry
Apps writes, Mother insisted that I comb my hair, which I reluctantly
did before clamping on my cap. A cap was wonderful for little boys who
hated combing their hair, but now I had to comb mine before I could
wear my cap. This simple event signaled great changes that were about
to occur.
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Barns of Wisconsin (September, 1977-- revised August, 1995)
Purchase this book
(out of print, used copies available)
In this revised edition of an award-winning work, Jerry Apps
provides an informative and moving account of Wisconsin's most hard
working structures--its barns. Symbols of optimism, pride and
practicality, barns are as diverse as the people who built them. Here
Apps describes the exquisite craftsmanship with which the Finns,
Norwegians, Germans and other immigrant groups built their pioneer
barns. We learn, too, how round and octagonal barns developed, why
cupolas and lighting rods were used, and how some of Wisconsin's barns
became covered with colorful murals and billboards. Allen Strang's
meticulous pencil sketches and eight stunning watercolors illustrate
the text.
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Mills of Wisconsin (October, 1980)
Purchase this book
(out of print, used copies available)
The companion to Barns of Wisconsin, this book provides a warm and
nostalgic look at the handsome mills that dot the landscape of
Wisconsin and the Midwest. Illustrated with 8 watercolors and more
than 35 pencil drawings, Mills of Wisconsin discusses, as author Jerry
Apps said, "milling and mills from the perspectives of mechanics and
poetry, economics and aesthetics, reality and myth -- all within a
social and historical context.
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Rural Life Series | Historical Books |
Other
Country Life Books |
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