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RICHARD BAK’S HISTORY OF HOW THE CIVIL WAR IMPACTED MICHIGAN MAKES ANNUAL LIST OF “MICHIGAN NOTABLE BOOKS”
Ann Arbor, MI (March 15, 2005)—A Distant Thunder: Michigan in the Civil War by author and
historian Richard Bak and published by Huron River Press, has been named by the Library of Michigan to
be a 2005 Michigan Notable Book. The book, which is published by Huron River Press (Ann Arbor, MI),
chronicles the crucial role Michigan played during the four years of the Civil War, as well as in the
tumultuous decades leading up to the outbreak of hostilities.
This is the second year in a row, a Huron River Press title has won the prestigious award. Last year,
Voelker’s Pond: A Robert Traver Legacy by James McCullough and Ed Wargin, was also named to the
2004 Michigan Notable Book list.
This the most recent accolade given to A Distant Thunder, which since its release in May 2004
has been embraced by critics and the reading public. In May 2004, the Detroit Free Press praised its
“smoothly written and well-illustrated account of Michiganders’ contributions during the war.” Hour
Detroit magazine, in its June 2004 issue, opined that “Bak…tells an engaging story” and called
attention to the books “many intriguing photos,” concluding that “Throughout, Bak’s spirited writing
makes history animated, not academic.” “History books can be as dull and dry as dust, but not this
one,” said the Ann Arbor News in July 2004, “…this book crackles with lightning and thunder, and
finally, the welcome rainfall of readable history.”
The Michigan Notable Books list, formerly known as Read Michigan, is an annual selection of books
representing the diverse history and culture of the state. Each year’s list features books published
the previous calendar year that are about or set in Michigan or on the Great Lakes or written by a
native or resident of Michigan. According to the Library of Michigan, the selection committee for this
year’s list included representatives from the Library of Michigan, the Michigan Library Association,
Michigan History magazine, Michigan State University, the Grand Rapids Press, the
Detroit News, Schuler Books & Music, Waystation Books, Archives/Curious Book Shop and
Michigan Center for the Book.
In A Distant Thunder, readers meet a wide range of soldiers, politicians and ordinary
citizens—from abolitionist Laura Haviland of Adrian, a Quaker active in the underground railroad that
smuggled thousands of escaped slaves to freedom in the North, and Julia Wheelock, “Michigan’s Florence
Nightingale,” who nursed thousands of soldiers on battlefields, to the flamboyant “Boy General,” George
Armstrong Custer, and drummer boys Johnny Clem (“Johnnny Shiloh”) and Robert Hendershot. Also
spotlighted are the men of the 102nd U. S. Colored Infantry, the first regiment of African-American
volunteers raised in the state; battlefield nurse Michigan Annie” Etheridge; Sarah Emma Edmonds, one of
the few documented cases of women who fought disguised as men; and “boy soldiers” like 16-year-old
George Sidman of Owosso, one of 67 Michiganians to receive the Medal of Honor during the war.
Accompanying the text are more than 200 historical and contemporary illustrations culled from public
archives and private collections.
Author Richard Bak (Detroit Across Three Centuries) grew up in Detroit and is a graduate of
Eastern Michigan University. He has written 20 books, many of them on Midwestern subjects, including
biographies of Henry Ford, Joe Louis, Charles Lindbergh and Ty Cobb, and award-winning histories of
Tiger Stadium and the city of Detroit. Bak, a U. S. Marine Corps veteran, has written two previous
books about the Civil War, an account of the Lincoln assassination and the story of the Confederate
submarine H. L. Hunley.
Huron River Press, Ann Arbor, MI, offers great books on the Great Lakes region. For more information,
contact Steve Klein: phone: (734) 913-9447; email: sklein@huronriverpress.com.
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