Former Providence Journal columnist Seth Brown writes his award-winning weekly column "The Pun Also Rises" for the North Adams Transcript, and occasional reviews for the Berkshire Eagle and USA Today. He has written four books, including Rhode Island Curiosities and From God To Verse. His website is www.RisingPun.com.

From the story of Rhode Island's first colonist (who contrary to your elementary-school history book wasn't Roger Williams) to the revolutionary precursors to the Boston Tea Party to the wedding of Jack and Jackie Kennedy, It Happened in Rhode Island captures some the great events in American History and the history of the small, but fascinating, Ocean State.