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 ...

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...

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...

One of New Jersey�s earliest permanent Methodist camp meeting grounds, Mount Tabor embodied the austere evangelical fervor of 1869. Canvas tents on 16-by-25-foot leased lots surrounded Trinity Park, the focal point of all religious and social activity for 10 days in late August. The camp meetings were hugely successful, and the growing community needed more permanent housing. Narrow, two-story Victorian cottages with intricate porches and balconies began to sprout on the lots. In 1885, the...

Strawberry Mansion: The Jewish Community of North Philadelphia is a testament to the urban experience in American Jewish life. Perfect for fans of Jewish-American History. A section of North Philadelphia, Strawberry Mansion is nestled high on the banks of the Schuylkill River, adjacent to the large expanses of Fairmount Park, with many wonderful venues such as Woodside Park. The area became the setting for America's premiere Jewish Community in the 20th century, with over 50,000 inhabitant...

Along the banks of the Hudson River, New Jersey's Bergen County endured much of the brunt of the Revolutionary War. With an impressive compilation of scholarly essays, Barbara Z. Marchant and company vividly portray those who found their lives altered by the conflict, from famous military men, such as George Washington, who attained glory on the battlefields to ordinary citizens like Helen Brasher, who simply wanted to protect her children from the ravages of war. Revolutionary Bergen Coun...

Putting the Barn Before the House features the voices and viewpoints of women born before World War I who lived on family farms in south-central New York. As she did in her previous book, Bonds of Community, for an earlier period in history, Grey Osterud explores the flexible and varied ways that families shared labor and highlights the strategies of mutuality that women adopted to ensure they had a say in family decision making. Sharing and exchanging work also linked nei...