Here Is Where - by Andrew Carroll (Paperback)

About the Book

A fifty-state tour of lesser-known historical sites based on a campaign backed by "National Geographic" reveals the events that took place at near-forgotten locales.

Book Synopsis

Here Is Where chronicles Andrew Carroll's eye-opening - and at times hilarious -- journey across America to find and explore unmarked historic sites where extraordinary moments occurred and remarkable individuals once lived. Sparking the idea for this book was Carroll's visit to the spot where Abraham Lincoln's son was saved by the brother of Lincoln's assassin. Carroll wondered, How many other unmarked places are there where intriguing events have unfolded and that we walk past every day, not realizing their significance? To answer that question, Carroll ultimately trekked to every region of the country -- by car, train, plane, helicopter, bus, bike, and kayak and on foot. Among the things he learned:

*Where in North America the oldest sample of human DNA was discovered

* Where America's deadliest maritime disaster took place, a calamity worse than the fate of the Titanic

*Which virtually unknown American scientist saved hundreds of millions of lives

*Which famous Prohibition agent was the brother of a notorious gangster

*How a 14-year-old farm boy's brainstorm led to the creation of television

Featured prominently in Here Is Where are an abundance of firsts (from the first use of modern anesthesia to the first cremation to the first murder conviction based on forensic evidence); outrages (from riots to massacres to forced sterilizations); and breakthroughs (from the invention, inside a prison, of a revolutionary weapon; to the recovery, deep in the Alaskan tundra, of a super-virus; to the building of the rocket that made possible space travel). Here Is Where is thoroughly entertaining, but it's also a profound reminder that the places we pass by often harbor amazing secrets and that there are countless other astonishing stories still out there, waiting to be found.

Look for Andrew's new book, My Fellow Soldiers.

Review Quotes

"Readers should fasten their seatbelts...Carroll's explorations are strangely compelling--I started wondering what history had disappeared from my own neighborhood. Here Is Where could be the basis for a cool Google Glass app--mash it up with GPS coordinates and let it populate the spaces around us with ghosts, both good and evil. We may lose a bit of ourselves by outsourcing our imagination. But we may lose even more by letting time erode the history of our land."--Wall Street Journal

"Carroll takes readers on an eye-opening and entertaining grand tour of America in this lively exploration of lesser-known or overlooked historical sites. From birthplaces to gravesites and high points to low, from those that inspired inventions to those that sparked change, he leaves no stone unturned or landmark unvisited...Part travelogue, part history, this book should be required reading for anyone interested in America's past."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Andrew Carroll has always been a top-notch editor. I had no idea he was as fine a storyteller. Great storytelling can be wonderfully addictive. Here Is Where captured me completely -- I couldn't put it down."
--Jeff Shaara, New York Times bestselling author of Gods and Generals, Last Full Measure and Blaze of Glory

"Here is Where is remarkable for the painstaking research on display and its yield of rescued-from-obscurity stories. Many of the true incidents Andrew Carroll has uncovered aren't just surprising but powerful. Others are simply laugh-out-loud funny, but all are described with considerable skill. America has always had among its citizenry a number of individuals whose legacy is immense but unappreciated, and Carroll has truly done them justice."
--Steven Pressfield, bestselling author of Gates of Fire, Tides of War and Killing Rommel

"Impressive...Carroll has discovered a way of doing history that, once you
see it, seems so obvious, indeed right under your nose or feet. But to the best of my knowledge, no one has done this before."
--Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Revolutionary Summer and Founding Brothers

"Both a fascinating excavation of under-appreciated events and agents and a compelling analysis of what binds us together, Here Is Where makes for rich and vivid reading. It seems to me that Andrew Carroll has become the Charles Kuralt of American history."
--Les Standiford, author of Desperate Sons and Last Train to Paradise

"Writing with a historian's insight and the skill of a master storyteller, Andy Carroll reminds us to look for the fascinating bits of history that lie just behind the curtains of our modern surroundings. Here is Where is a captivating, thoroughly enjoyable journey across the country with a friend who knows all the cool places to stop and have a look."
--Gregory A. Freeman, The Last Mission of the Wham Bam Boys and The Forgotten 500

"In Here Is Where, one of our best historian-sleuths, Andrew Carroll, has given us a fresh and irresistible approach to experiencing history. Until someone invents a time machine, it's the next best thing to being there--and he's such a vivid, engaging writer that it's probably more fun."
--James Donovan, author of A Terrible Glory and The Blood of Heroes

"Andrew Carroll takes the reader on a fascinating journey of discovery to uncover the forgotten history that lies hidden around us. This is a terrific book: refreshingly original, fast-paced, entertaining, and always insightful. It's full of fun and interesting stories that bring the past to life and remind us that we are surrounded by the artifacts of history."
--Steven M. Gillon, Scholar-in-Residence at The History Channel and author of Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America

About the Author

ANDREW CARROLL is best known for creating the Legacy Project, which archives wartime correspondence, and War Letters, which sold more than 300,000 copies and inspired an acclaimed PBS documentary. Other New York Times bestsellers include Letters of a Nation and Behind the Lines. Carroll's Operation Homecoming inspired an Emmy-winning documentary. He lives in Washington, D.C. Look for Andrew's new book, My Fellow Soldiers.