National Network for Equitable Library Service

John O'Brien first learned about Oak Island in 1958 at the age of twelve, listening intently as his pharmacist father and a Saint Mary's University professor debated, for an entire winter, the merits of existing theories of Oak Island and the mysterious lost treasures of the world.

He had fifty-seven seconds of screen time in the most lavish POW film Hollywood ever produced. He was blond. A Gestapo agent. Sauntering down the aisles of a speeding train, he speaks in terse German to Richard Attenborough, Gordon Jackson, David McCallum. The film is The Great Escape (by John Sturges, starring Steve McQueen); the actor, though uncredited, is Michael Paryla. He was part Jewish. Shortly after filming he died.

An illustrated history of bootlegging along the Great Lakes, Rumrunners gives us a sense of Prohibition and the larger-than-life rumrunners and bootleggers who thrived during it in a way that no document before or after has managed. This revised and enlarged 30th Anniversary edition brings back the original book with new stories and over 180 photographs and illustrations.

In the twenty-first century, Canada has a reputation for being one of the most gay-friendly nations on earth, a pioneer in legalizing same-sex marriage, and home to enormously popular Pride parades. Yet Canada was not always so hospitable to its gay and lesbian citizens. Homosexuality was only decriminalized in Canada in 1969 and remained socially stigmatized for many years. 'Queers Were Here: Heroes & Icons of Queer Canada' will tell personal stories to illuminate the enormous social changes that have transformed sexuality in Canada.

My Town brings together more than 70 snapshots of the people and places that have called Windsor home. More than this, they have made Windsor, for better and for worse, the city it is today. Some of these faces you will recognize; others will have slipped beneath the radar. Marty has sought them out and made their stories his own.

The tales in this book have remained hidden. First there's the story of renegade Indian guide Simon Girty, called 'the white savage,' who was despised by the Americans during the Revolutionary War and nearly murdered by Joseph Brant. There's the story of Tecumseh's mysterious burial.

Border Cities Powerhouse chronicles one of the most dramatic urban transformations in Canadian history, documenting the shift from modest industry to manufacturing dynamo. The coming of the automobile in 1904 put the Border Cities on the map, sparking a period of explosive growth. From the bright lights of hydro-electric power and the construction of the Ambassador Bridge to the Battle of Ford City, communist agitation, and the Border Cities' forced amalgamation during the Great Depression, this was a period of unprecedented progress and open conflict.

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is a remarkable examination of twelve illuminated manuscripts from the medieval period. Noted authority Christopher de Hamel invites the listener into intimate conversations with these texts to explore what they tell us about nearly a thousand years of medieval history-and sometimes about the modern world too. In so doing, de Hamel introduces us to kings, queens, saints, scribes, artists, librarians, thieves, dealers, and collectors.

Although much has been written about Al Capone, there has not been-until now-a complete history of organized crime in Chicago during Prohibition. This exhaustively researched book covers the entire period from 1920 to 1933. Author John J. Binder, a recognized authority on the history of organized crime in Chicago, discusses all the important bootlegging gangs in the city and the suburbs and also examines the other major rackets, such as prostitution, gambling, labor and business racketeering, and narcotics.

Most Americans believe that slavery was a creature of the South, and that Northern states and territories provided stops on the Underground Railroad for fugitive slaves on their way to Canada. In this paradigm-shifting book, celebrated historian Tiya Miles reveals that slavery was at the heart of the Midwest's iconic city: Detroit. In this richly researched and eye-opening book, Miles has pieced together the experience of the unfree-both native and African American-in the frontier outpost of Detroit, a place wildly remote yet at the center of national and international conflict.