American County Histories

Local histories tell the story of how America has evolved—discrete communities coming together as a whole.

Trace agriculture, architecture, and archaeology. Transportation and urban-rural migration. Climate, the environment, crime, and politics. Health, Native American affairs, and religion.

You can even find the jumping frog of Calaveras County.

Research example: Population and migration trends

The histories document population movements from overcrowded urban industrial centers to rural areas and towns, the development of immigrant communities in /the Midwest and West, the spread of xenophobia and racial discrimination, and the creation of transportation networks throughout America—tracing migration trends of colonial East Coast ports, the California Gold Rush, and the Great Migration.

Research example: Climate and environmental changes

The histories show how developments in agriculture, industry, communities, the economy, and society have impacted climate and the environment—the banning of hydraulic mining in California, industrial pollution in the central states, the horrific hurricanes along the coasts in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

American County Histories is available either as a complete collection or by region:

• Mid-Atlantic—Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania
• New England—Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
• Southeast—Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia
• The West—Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
• Southwest—Arizona, Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas
• Central—Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota
• Midwest—Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin