The story of two men's obsessions with the Chicago World's Fair, one its architect, the other a murderer. "The Devil in the White City" draws the reader into a time of magic and majesty, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke ...
Ten years in the making and a masterpiece of reportage, "Columbine" is an award-winning journalist's definitive account of one of the most shocking massacres in American history.
Quirky essayist Sarah Vowell, known both for her pieces on NPR's "This American Life" and her star turn voicing teen superhero Violet in the animated Pixar blockbuster THE INCREDIBLES, waxes both witty and rhapsodic in this monumentally obsessive travelogue chronicling her so-called pilgrimage to various places related to the first three ...
The large audience that drove "The Perfect Storm" high on national bestseller lists is sure to welcome this superb narrative of the extreme hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas, in 1900, leaving at least 8,000 dead in its wake. An unforgettable story of the conflict between human hubris and the last great uncontrollable force, "Isaac's Storm" ...
In 1803, when the United States purchased Louisiana from France, the great expanse of this new American territory was a blank - not only on the map but in our knowledge. President Thomas Jefferson keenly understood that the course of the nation's destiny lay westward and that a national "Voyage of Discovery" must be mounted to determine the nature ...
This book offers an original and persuasive interpretation of the changing circumstances in New England's plant and animal communities that occurred with the shift from Indian to European dominance.
Santiago recounts her bi-cultural childhood: as a country girl in Puerto Rico, and as a highschool student at New York's High School of the Performing Arts where she graduated with the highest honors and went on to Harvard. A unique story told in vivid prose.
Liberal journalist Thomas Frank turns his witty and insightful pen on this nation's gradual drift to the right over the last 30 years of the 20th century, asking "Why?" The conservative movement, once the bastion of Bill Buckley, Barry Goldwater, and protected interests now appears to be the people's party, the party of populism, and Frank wants ...
This is a history of the Johnstown Flood. On May 31, 1889, following a storm, the old earth dam at Lake Conemaugh--outside of Johnstown, Pennsylvania--burst. The torrent of water which that flooded the Little Conemaugh River Valley killed over 2,000 people. The lake was home to the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, the membership of which ...
The San Andreas fault runs along the coast of California. In April, 1906, it cracked, resulting in the devastating earthquake, measuring 8.25 on the Richter scale, that leveled much of San Francisco; this was followed by fires that raged through the city for days. All told, the loss of life was estimated in the thousands, and many thousands more ...
From the author of the million-selling Angela's Ashes -- the most keenly anticipated sequel of the decade Angela's Ashes was a publishing phenomenon. Frank McCourt's critically acclaimed, lyrical memoir of his Limerick childhood won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics' Circle Award, the Royal Society of Literature Award and the Los ...
Step into the perfumed parlors of the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history. Culminating in a dramatic last stand between brothel keepers and crusading reformers, this book presents a vivid snapshot of Americas journey from Victorian-era propriety to 20th-century modernity.
A New Orleans resident and history professor at Tulane University, Brinkley rips the story of Hurricane Katrina apart and exposes the failures, ulterior motives, and inexperience that allowed the Katrina disaster to devastate the Gulf Coast. 16-page color insert.
Historian David Von Drehle revisits the March 25, 1911, Triangle shirtwaist fire in New York City, in which 146 workers who were locked in a sweatshop were killed. The public was horrified, and the event became a force for significant change in labor laws and caused a realignment in NYC politics. The author examines the event and its aftermath, ...
The story of Homer and Langley Collyer--sons of a doctor, graduates of Columbia--is bizarre indeed. Found at their once-elegant Harlem home after Homer's death was a lifetime of hoarding, 140 tons' worth of rusty metal, old machines, auto parts, broken appliances, pieces of musical instruments, newspapers, and plain junk--everything, in fact, that ...
As he did previously in COD: A BIOGRAPHY OF THE FISH THAT CHANGED THE WORLD and in SALT: A WORLD HISTORY, historian Mark Kurlansky takes a unique, and rewarding, entry-point into the past, this time relating the rich social history of New York City through its once-plentiful denizen of the deep, the oyster. Manhattan's harbor was once ideal for ...
A personal history of slavery in the South, written by a descendant of South Carolina slaveowners who traced the histories of the slave families owned by his ancestors and searched out their descendants. A New York Times Notable Book for 1998.
America's Black fraternities and sororities are a unique and vital part of 20th-century African-American history. "The Divine Nine" tells how these organizations have played a major role in shaping generations of black leaders. Includes interviews with Star Jones, Shaquille O'Neal, Spencer Christian, and Nikki Giovanni. Two 24-page photo inserts.
Fiddle making, spring houses, horse trading, sassafras tea, berry buckets, gardening, and other affairs of plain living are the topics covered in this volume.
Kimmel, aka "Zippy" because of her propensity as a toddler to race around like a monkey, shares the details of her quirky childhood in the Midwest, where the cast of family characters includes her beauty-queen sister, deeply religious brother, wise mother, and gambling father.
An American frontier study, focusing on the fastest growing city of 19th-century America - Chicago. It shows the land as it was when inhabited by Indians and a few white settlers, and the frenzy of development of the meat-packing industry, the grain emporiums and the lumber markets which followed.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize. Across the Wide Missouri tells the compelling story of the climax and decline of the Rocky Mountain fur trade during the 1830s. More than a history, it portrays the mountain fur trade as a way of business and a way of life, vividly illustrating how it shaped the expansion of the American West.
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