FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 8, 2012

CONTACT: Jeff Mammenga, Media Coordinator, (605) 773-6000, Jeff.Mammenga@state.sd.us

History book club discussing updated history book

PIERRE, S.D. -- Energy and the economy are some of South Dakota’s challenges. Photo credits and schedules were a Sioux Falls man’s main challenges in writing South Dakota’s Challenges Since 1960.

Charles M. Rogers will be the guest speaker at the August History and Heritage Book Club meeting. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, Aug. 14, at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. Rogers will be at the Cultural Heritage Center at 6:30 that evening to sign copies of the book. Everyone is welcome to attend the free meeting.

“This is an opportunity to hear about a book that is one of the most recent updates on South Dakota history,” said Patricia Miller, president of the South Dakota Historical Society Foundation. “The author will be at the meeting in person to tell about the book and the challenges he faced in writing it.”

The Foundation is the nonprofit fundraising partner of the South Dakota State Historical Society. The Foundation and SDSHS Press partner in sponsoring the History and Heritage Book Club.

South Dakota’s Challenges since 1960 updates Challenge –The South Dakota Story by Robert Karolevitz. Karolevitz’s book was commissioned as a textbook for use in middle schools.

“I was using the original (Challenge –The South Dakota Story) as my textbook at Kilian Community College. Because I was using the book, the publisher asked me to update it,” said Rogers. He taught American history at Scotland High School and at Washington High School in Sioux Falls before retiring and becoming an adjunct professor at Kilian Community College in Sioux Falls, teaching American history.

The publisher gave Rogers permission to follow the same format used in Challenge --The South Dakota Story. Chapters center on a theme, rather than being a chronological history of the state. Each chapter begins with a full-page picture on the left-hand side of the page, and the text begins with a quote.

“The publisher gave me some ideas for chapters. I made an outline for each chapter, the editor approved it and I started doing the research,” Rogers said.

A challenge was locating photographs and getting permission to use those photographs, he said.

“I did some researching on the internet to find photos and individuals and contacted them that way,” Rogers said.

The other main challenge was time.

“The editor assigned to me had a full-time job and a part-time job in addition to working on the book,” Rogers said. “The challenge was to get together so we could work on the book. But we kept working on it until we got it done.”

South Dakota’s Challenges Since 1960 is comprised of four chapters. They focus on energy development, population, well-known South Dakotans and the state’s economic ups and downs.

Rogers said he is pleased with the book and will use it as a textbook when he teaches history at Kilian Community College.

Both South Dakota’s Challenges Since 1960 and Challenge –The South Dakota Story are available at the Heritage Store at the Cultural Heritage Center.

Call (605) 773-6006 for more information about the History and Heritage Book Club.

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The South Dakota Historical Society Foundation is a private charitable nonprofit that seeks funding to assist the South Dakota State Historical Society in programming and projects to preserve South Dakota’s history and heritage for future generations.

The South Dakota State Historical Society is a division of the Department of Tourism. The Department of Tourism is comprised of Tourism, the South Dakota Arts Council, and the State Historical Society. The Department is led by Secretary James D. Hagen. The State Historical Society is headquartered at the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. The center houses the society’s world-class museum, the archives, and the historic preservation, publishing and administrative/development offices. Call (605) 773-3458 or visit www.history.sd.gov for more information. The society also has an archaeology office in Rapid City; call (605) 394-1936 for more information.