The industrial community of Donora was founded in 1901 on a bend of the Monongahela River, 30 miles south of Pittsburgh. The founding of Donora was the result of social, political, and economic interaction among elite and powerful capitalists. Andrew and Richard Mellon partnered with William H. Donner and Henry C. Frick to create the Union Improvement Company and build a mill, developing the surrounding municipality. In less than a year, the population of Donora quickly boomed from an orig...

Nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime!This is the shocking and amazing true story of the first female U.S. District Attorney and traveling detective who found missing 18-year-old Ruth Cruger when the entire NYPD had given up.Mrs. Sherlock Holmes tells the true story of Grace Humiston, the lawyer, detective, and first woman U.S. District Attorney who turned her back on New York society life to become one ...

NOW AN HBO MINISERIESNot in my backyard -- that's the refrain commonly invoked by property owners who oppose unwanted development. Such words assume a special ferocity when the development in question is public housing. Lisa Belkin penetrates the prejudices, myths, and heated emotions stirred by the most recent trend in public housing as she re-creates a landmark case in riveting detail, showing how a proposal to build scattered-site public housing in middle-class ...

In swift, witty chapters that flawlessly capture the pace and character of New York City, acclaimed diarist Edward Robb Ellis presents his masterpiece: a thorough, and thoroughly readable, history of America's largest metropolis. Ellis narrates some of the most significant events of the past three hundred years and more -- the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr's fatal duel, the formation of the League of Nations, the Great Depression -- from the perspective of...

Take a tour of Buffalo, NY's mobster and mafia history. Local mob expert reveals gangsters' stories, hangouts and more. Buffalo has housed its fair share of thugs and mobsters. Besides common criminals and bank robbers, a powerful crime family headed by local boss Stefano Magaddino emerged in the 1920s. Close to Canada, Niagara Falls and Buffalo were perfect avenues through which to transport booze, and Magaddino and his Mafiosi maintained a stranglehold on the city until his death in 1974...

Before blood banks! Before disposable sterile syringes! Before prepackaged single doses of medicine! Before…! A small village hospital provided tender loving care to its citizens.

Since its opening in 1965, the Watergate complex has been one of Washington's chicest addresses, a home to power brokers from both political parties and the epicenter of a scandal that brought down a president. In The Watergate, writer and political consultant Joseph Rodota paints a vivid portrait of this landmark and the movers and shakers who have lived there.Watergate residents—an intriguing casts of politicians, journalists, socialites and spies—have been at the center of Ameri...

Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, formerly the editor of "The American Historical Magazine," and one of the best informed historical writers of our times, left a great legacy at her death, especially to the citizens of New York, in her masterful effort "The History of the City of New York." This work has an increasing value with each succeeding year, and, as the late Hon. Thurlow Weed wrote, "No library is complete without it". Everything about New York, from the first day of its settlement until today...

"City Kid is perhaps one of the seven greatest books ever written. It has the realness of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the warmth of The Color Purple, and the page count of Tuesdays with Morrie. It's a must read."-Chris RockFrom Nelson George, supervising producer and writer of the hit Netflix series, "The Get Down, an affecting memoir of his coming of age.Nelson George was the nerd of his ghetto neighborhood; the kid ...

It has been years since New York has seen anything quite like the old Copacabana. The Copa, Manhattan's best-known night club, was also the most popular nightspot in America. From the moment it burst onto the scene in 1940, an aura of glamour and sophistication hovered over the Copa. It was a luminous glow that, over the course of five decades, served this illustrious establishment well, beckoning the people who made it famous-Hollywood stars, sports heroes, foreign dignitaries, and the to...

From very humble beginnings, this small but charming borough has evolved into one of the New Jersey Shore's most vibrant business and residential communities. While Spring Lake Heights now enjoys numerous modern facilities, the town still contains many visible links to its unique past. This book explores these links and offers readers insight into various personalities, socio-economic factors, and local lore that have helped to shape the identity of this community. It includes an Irish pub...

The skilled craftsmen of New York founded The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen in 1785, and the organization's history is aligned with the city's physical and cultural development. In 1820, The Society founded its library. It began a lecture series in 1837 and opened the Mechanics Institute in 1858 to provide free education in the trades. Prominent New York members included Andrew Carnegie, Peter Cooper, Abram S. Hewitt and Duncan Phyfe. The Society's educational programs continu...