Appleton (Images of America)

What a fun read for history buffs of the City of Appleton! Great old photos of the early city are included as well as stories, anecdotes and local history of the area.

There are few books available on Amazon about the history of Appleton, Wisconsin. Like the other books in the same series by the same publisher, this book features a bunch of photographs arranged in loose themes. As a Lawrence alum I was pleased to see the Lawrence references at the beginning. (Like many Lawrence alumni I believe the school came first and the town came second.) Then the random parade of pictures began and I remembered I was reading an Arcadia book. I think the random picture / scrapbook layout works well for single events like a Worlds Fair. It fails as a history book about a town. To present this work as any kind of useful history of Appleton is a mistake because it lacks a clear timeline or context.The upside is that the Kindle version is much cheaper than the paper version. I would rate the book fewer stars but I hate to dissuade the Appleton Historical Society from releasing any more works about Appleton. Plus the book's structure and format are the publisher's fault. Arcadia has released the same kind of "history" scrapbook about the area where I live in Arizona. Ugh!