Bordered by the Federal capital but separated from Virginia and the Confederacy only by the Potomac River, the citizens of Prince George's County found themselves on the front lines of the Civil War. As Maryland's largest slave-owning county, some--including members of the Bowie and Surratt families--joined the Confederacy. Many remained loyal to the Union, losing sons and property for the cause. Three forts in the county were dedicated to the capital's defense: Fort Foote, Fort Washington...

**Equal parts true crime, twentieth-century history, and science thriller, The Poisoner's Handbook is "a vicious, page-turning story that reads more like Raymond Chandler than Madame Curie." —**The New York Observer**“The Poisoner’s Handbook breathes deadly life into the Roaring Twenties.” —Financial Times“Reads like science fiction, complete with suspense, mystery and foolhardy guys in lab coats tipping test tubes of mys...

A witty memoir that weaves an authentic coming-of-age tale into a bold portrait of New York’s working-class women.Fifth-generation New Yorker, third-generation bartender, and first-generation author Tara Clancy was raised in three wildly divergent homes: a converted boat shed in working class Queens, a geriatric commune of feisty, Brooklyn-born Italians, and a sprawling Hamptons estate she visited every other weekend. This childhood triptych comes to life in Th...

In this utterly immersive volume, Mike Wallace captures the swings of prosperity and downturn, from the 1898 skyscraper-driven boom to the Bankers' Panic of 1907, the labor upheaval, and violent repression during and after the First World War. Here is New York on a whole new scale, moving from national to global prominence -- an urban dynamo driven by restless ambition, boundless energy, immigrant dreams, and Wall Street greed. Within the first two decades of the twentieth century, a newly...

Discover the forgotten story of Mary Mallon—the real Typhoid Mary—in this humanizing portrait offering a window into the ethical dilemmas of public health policy that continue to haunt us in the COVID era.She was an Irish immigrant cook. Between 1900 and 1907, she infected 22 New Yorkers with typhoid fever through her puddings and cakes; one of them died. Tracked down through epidemiological detective work, she was finally apprehended as she hid behind a b...

The western New York state Great Lakes region serves as a scenic setting for supernatural traditions, incidences, and folklore.Avenging specters, demon-tortured roads, holy miracles, weird psychic events, prehistoric power sites, ancient curses, Native American shamans, active battlefields, ghost ships, black dogs, haunted monuments, and the phantoms of Rochester's famous—all are part of the legacy of Rochester and the lower Genesee. Supernatural historian Mason Wi...

The Kingdom of New York is rollicking insider;s history of contemporary New York, as seen through the lens of the city's most irreverent newspaper, the New York Observer. Handsomely designed with great drawings, cartoons, and other illustrations throughout and filled with the paper's unique attention to politics, status, and wealth, this unique insider's view features essays by Cynthia Ozick, Gay Talese, Woody Allen, and Martin Scorsese, and covers such iconic New York pe...

Levittown was created in Bucks County outside of Philadelphia in 1951. As one of the largest "planned communities" in America, this book's superb collection of history and photographs illustrates the birth and growth of this unique area. In 1951, Levittown was created in Bucks County outside of Philadelphia by builder pioneers Levitt and Sons. Dubbed the largest and "most perfectly planned" community in America, it featured single-family homes, schools, churches, shopping centers, and swim...

Seaside Heights tells the history of a timeless seashore resort community located on a barrier island nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and Barnegat Bay. The 224-acre town was settled by residents of Philadelphia and Camden, who purchased white-sand lots to escape city life for the brisk ocean breezes and tranquility that Seaside Heights offered prior to World War II. Seaside Heights uses the scenes captured in vintage postcards, some of them very rare, as a study of the changes that have...

The first biography of Henry and Emily Folger, who acquired the largest and finest collection of Shakespeare in the world.In Collecting Shakespeare, Stephen H. Grant recounts the American success story of Henry and Emily Folger. Shortly after marrying in 1885, the Folgers started buying, cataloging, and storing all manner of items about Shakespeare and his era. Emily earned a master's degree in Shakespeare studies. The frugal couple worked passionately as ...

This absorbing anthology features in-depth portraits of diverse ethnic populations, revealing the surprising new realities of immigrant life in twenty-first-century New York City. Contributors show how nearly fifty years of massive inflows have transformed New York City's economic and cultural life and how the city has changed the lives of immigrant newcomers.Nancy Foner's introduction describes New York's role as a special gateway to America. Subsequent essays focus on the Chinese...

A treasury of photos celebrating over a century of Girl Scout history in DC, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.Girl Scouting came to Washington, DC, in June 1913, when Juliette Gordon Low decided her new girls' empowerment movement needed a national headquarters. Although the headquarters moved to New York City in 1916, the council in Washington, DC, is still actively involved in the programs, and Girl Scouts of the Nation's Capital chronicles the evolu...