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State Historical Society Honors Two Books, One Series from SIU Press    The Illinois State Historical Society has singled out two recent Southern Illinois University Press publications and a long-running book series for recognition at the 2004 Association of Illinois Museums and Historical Societies Awards.    Nat Brandt’s Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903 and David Kenney and Robert E. Hartley’s An Uncertain Tradition: U.S. Senators from Illinois, 1818–2003 received certificates of excellence in the scholarly publications category. The Shawnee Classics series and Gordon Pruett received an award of superior achievement in the special programs category.    In Chicago Death Trap, Brandt’s historical investigative journalism creates the definitive narrative of the deadliest blaze in American history. On December 30, 1903, during a sold-out matinee performance, a fire broke out in Chicago’s then-most modern playhouse. In less than half an hour, 507 people were asphyxiated, burned or trampled to death. A century later, Brandt provides the only detailed chronicle of this horrific event to assess the titanic tragedy of the fire itself as well as the corruption and greed that kindled the flames beforehand and the political cover-ups hidden in the embers afterwards.   Rigorously documented and supremely readable, An Uncertain Tradition represents a unique collaboration between political scientist Kenney and journalist Hartley in which they underscore nearly two centuries of Illinois history with biographical and political portraits of the forty-seven individuals who represented the state in the U. S. Senate between 1818 to 2003. From the notorious to the heroic, the popular to the pioneering, the senatorial roster in this sweeping study includes such luminaries as “The Little Giant” Stephen A. Douglas; “Black Jack” John A. Logan; and modern leaders such as Adlai Stevenson III, Paul Simon, and Carol Moseley-Braun.   For ten years, the Shawnee Classics series has made significant historical resources available to a broader group of students, scholars, and the general public by reprinting classic Illinois books and providing a new context for them with an added introduction or preface. The 22 titles Pruett selected and edited for the series help to preserve and make accessible important aspects of the state’s history for years to come.   Chicago Death Trap by Nat Brandt, An Uncertain Tradition by David Kenney and Robert E. Hartley, and the books in the Shawnee Classics series are all available from Southern Illinois University Press.     More marketing news