Paperback,192 pages, 45 b&w photos, 6 x 9 inches

A concise history, featuring stories that are familiar, surprising, and sure to change the way you see the City of Lakes.

Minneapolis is Minneapolis because of the water—because of the Mississippi River, and St. Anthony Falls, and the beautiful lakes that dot the city’s neighborhoods. Energized by the power of a magnificent waterfall, it became a major, even global, city. In this succinct and thought-provoking book, Tom Weber provides a biography of the City of Lakes, starting with Bdote, the confluence of the Mississippi and the Minnesota River and a sacred place for Dakota people, who have lived here for millennia. Since the city’s beginnings in the 1850s, Minneapolis has experienced continual collapses and rebuilding. Some collapses were real, as when the falls were nearly destroyed; some are metaphorical, as when corruption and the mob threatened to overtake the life of the city. Taking readers to specific places on the Mississippi, Weber highlights stories of immigrants, milling, the American Indian Movement, the KKK, the university, business innovators, the vibrant arts and music scene, powerful sports teams, and a wealth of other topics. The serenity of Minneapolis’s beautiful waters underlies the tumultuous, contentious striving that has built the city. This book tells the story of its residents, living their history in the balance.

Tom Weber, an award-winning writer, journalist, and radio host, is the author of 100 Things to Do in the Twin Cities Before You Die.