Laura Van Dusen's New Book Now Out

Laura Van Dusen’s latest book is out. Titled Early Days in South Park: Parked in the Past, it covers fascinating aspects of South Park’s history and characters from the 1860s through the 1970s. There’s even a prehistorical section. A number of old photos help bring to life times when a family might lose four children to typhoid fever, when “Bayer Heroin” was actually marketed as a medicine to the public, and when coal mines around Como were marked by Italian-Chinese feuding and fatal explosions. While I edited the book—and am thus perhaps not free of bias—I think any objective observer need only look to the bibliography to be convinced that an enormous amount of research lies behind the well-told stories that make this a fun book to read.