Best of
Local-History

2014

Long Mile Home: Boston Under Attack, the City's Courageous Recovery, and the Epic Hunt for Justice


Scott Helman - 2014
    Through the eyes of seven principal characters including the bombers, the wounded, a cop, and a doctor, Boston Globe reporters Helman and Russell trace the paths that brought them together.

Boston Strong: A City's Triumph Over Tragedy


Casey Sherman - 2014
    From the Tsarnaev brothers’ years leading up to the act of terror to the bomb scene itself (which both authors witnessed first-hand within minutes of the blast), from the terrifying police shootout with the suspects to the ultimate capture of the younger brother, Boston Strong: A City’s Triumph over Tragedy reports all the facts—and so much more. Based on months of intensive interviews, this is the first book to tell the entire story through the eyes of those who experienced it. From the cop first on the scene, to the detectives assigned to the manhunt, the authors provide a behind-the-scenes look at the investigation. More than a true-crime book, Boston Strong also tells the tragic but ultimately life-affirming story of the victims and their recoveries and gives voice to those who lost loved ones. With their extensive reporting, writing experience, and deep ties to the Boston area, Sherman and Wedge create the perfect match of story, place, and authors.If you’re only going to read one book on this tragic but uplifting story, this is it.

Dirty Old Boston: Four Decades of a City in Transition


Jim Botticelli - 2014
    And for good reason; after World War II, Boston changed rapidly, without apology, for better and worse, and in many ways forever. Dirty Old Boston chronicles the people, streets, and buildings from the postwar years to 1987. From ball games to dive bars, Dirty Old Boston also covers some of the city's most tumultuous events including the razing of neighborhoods, Boston s busing crisis, and the continual fight for affordable housing. Photographs assembled from family albums, student projects, institutional archives, and professional collections reveal Boston as seen from the streets. Illuminating Boston's tenacity and spirit, Dirty Old Boston presents proud moments and growing pains. Raw and beautiful, this book is an evocative tribute to the city and its people.

Ashes Under Water: The SS Eastland and the Shipwreck That Shook America


Michael McCarthy - 2014
    Horrified morning commuters watched it all unfold. The final death toll would not come for weeks but would be 835 people, including 21 entire families. The trial would make national headlines and cause public outrage; the effort to bring the guilty ship owners to justice was thwarted by future star lawyer Clarence Darrow. Darrow defended the only true hero of the ship, engineer Joseph Erickson, whose wealthy bosses laid all the blame at his feet. A national disaster and tragedy, a courtroom drama, corrupt businessmen and Chicago politics, and a story of the cost of America’s industrial might all in one gripping story. Author Michael McCarthy takes the reader back one hundred years to the one of the most shocking accidents in American history. But the aftermath and cover-up just may have been even worse.

In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland's Torso Murders Authoritative Edition, Revised and Expanded


James Jessen Badal - 2014
    

Hood's Tennessee Campaign: The Desperate Venture of a Desperate Man (Civil War Sesquicentennial)


James R. Knight - 2014
    General John Bell Hood of the ConfederateArmy of Tennessee attempted to capture Nashville, the final realistic chance fora battlefield victory against the Northern juggernaut. Hood’s former West Pointinstructor, Major General George Henry Thomas, led the Union force, fighting thosewho doubted him in his own army as well as Hood’s Confederates. Through thebloody, horrific battles at Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville and a freezingretreat to the Tennessee River, Hood ultimately failed. Civil War historianJames R. Knight chronicles the Confederacy’s last real hope at victory and itsbitter disappointment.

Lost Boston


Anthony Mitchell Sammarco - 2014
    Organized chronologically starting with the earliest losses and ending with the latest, the book features much-loved insitutions that failed to stand the test of time, along with old-fashioned hotels and sports facilities that were beyond updating or refurbishment. Losses include Franklin Place, Boston City Hall, Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Hancock House, Gleason’s Publishing Hall, Fort Hill, Franklin Street, Boston Coliseum, Boylston Market, Merchants Exchange, Haymarket Square, Boston Public Library, Horticultural Hall, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Revere House (Hotel), Huntington Avenue Grounds, Charlestown City Hall, Molasses Tank, Cyclorama, Readville Trotting Park and Race Track, East Boston Airport, Boston Latin School, East Boston Ferries, Braves Field, Massachusetts State Prison, Boston Opera House, Boston Aquarium, The Howard Athenaeum, and Dudley Street Station.

Sensational Vancouver


Eve Lazarus - 2014
    The top job at the Vancouver Police Department was a revolving door with the average tenure for a police chief of just four years.In those early years, Detective Joe Ricci's beat was the opium dens and gambling joints of Chinatown, while Lurancy Harris-the first female cop in Canada-patrolled the high-end brothels of Alexander Street. Later, proceeds from rum running produced some of the city's iconic buildings, cops became robbers, and the city reeled from a series of unsolved murders.But Vancouver is more than bookies, brothels, and bootleggers-the city also produced legendary women, world-class entertainers and ground-breaking architecture.Sensational Vancouver is a fully illustrated popular history book about Vancouver's famous and infamous, the ordinary and the extraordinary, filtered through the houses in which they lived.

Heaven, by Hotel Standards: The History of the Omni Parker House


Susan Wilson - 2014
    It was here where the brightest lights of America’s Golden Age of Literature — writers like Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Longfellow — regularly met for conversation and conviviality in the legendary nineteenth century Saturday Club. It was here where baseball greats like Babe Ruth and Ted Williams wined, dined, and unwound. And it was where generations of local and national politicians — including Ulysses S. Grant, James Michael Curley, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and William Jefferson Clinton — assembled for private meetings, press conferences, and power breakfasts.“Heaven, By Hotel Standards” takes readers through a historic Boston journey as seen through the eyes of the Omni Parker House and its many guests, dignitaries, authors, celebrities, and influential figures who have stayed at the property. From its famed employees like Ho Chi Minh and Malcolm “X” to the birthplace of the Parker House Rolls and the Boston Cream Pie, the book provides a comprehensive first-hand account of New England’s antiquity from the last 159 years.

The Kelayres Massacre: Politics & Murder in Pennsylvania's Anthracite Coal Country


Stephanie Hoover - 2014
    When Republican boss Big Joe" Bruno sensed his grip on Pennsylvania's anthracite coal region slipping away with the night's election, he and a few family members opened fire on a peaceful Democratic parade passing Bruno's home. The carnage was shocking--five men gunned down and nearly two dozen other victims wounded but alive. Convicted and sentenced to the Schuylkill County Prison, Bruno quickly escaped, allegedly with help from the guard. It took authorities eight months to put him back behind bars. Author Stephanie Hoover delves into this true story of politics, murder and deceit."

The Vineyard We Knew: A Recollection of Summers on Martha's Vineyard


Kevin Parham - 2014
    Decades ago, six young cousins spent summers with their grandmother in an old, rickety, two-bedroom cottage in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts. There, discipline ruled and privilege was a pipe dream. The Vineyard We Knew is a charming and entertaining story of life seen through the eyes of a young boy named Kevin. Through these vignettes, you will: * Experience the nuances of a humble lifestyle on Martha's Vineyard * Enjoy the unpredictable and spirited personalities of Kevin and his family * Discover how adversity strengthens character, regardless of social class or economic circumstances * Remember the beautiful link between childhood experiences and adult revelations Come and take a ferry ride back through time to Martha's Vineyard in the 1960s, where the trials and triumphs of these close-knit cousins—who find themselves stranded on an island off the coast of Cape Cod—are on full display. This book will captivate you with its enchanting story about summer life on Martha's Vineyard—a story unlike any written before. Don't wait to experience it!

Boston and the Civil War: Hub of the Second Revolution


Barbara F. Berenson - 2014
    Before the war, Bostonians were bitterly divided between those who supported the Union and those opposed to its endorsement of slavery. The Fugitive Slave Act brought the horrors of slavery close to home and led many to join the abolitionists. March to war with Boston's brave soldiers, including the grandson of Patriot Paul Revere and the Fighting Irish. The all-black Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment battled against both slavery and discrimination, while Boston's women fought tirelessly against slavery and for their own right to be full citizens of the Union. Join local historian and author Barbara F. Berenson on a thrilling and memorable journey through Civil War Boston.

Vancouver Is Ashes: The Great Fire of 1886


Lisa Anne Smith - 2014
    Vancouver is Ashes: The Great Fire of 1886 is the first detailed exploration of what happened on that pivotal, yet seldom revisited day in the history of Canada's third-largest city. Lisa Anne Smith tells the story with numerous archival photographs. She uses eye-witness accounts to describe flames sweeping down wooden sidewalks "faster than a man could run," houses that were constructed of freshly milled lumber, which virtually exploded in the onslaught, as well as hair-breadth escapes of Vancouver citizens from all walks of life. She records how two businessmen lying face-down in a patch of gravel bid each other goodbye, while a young married couple cling to a makeshift raft, and a mother and her children cower in fear beneath a stable blanket in a shallow ditch. Strange, often unlikely stories emerge in the aftermath, such as the pile of ice discovered amidst the burned out wreckage and the near-miraculous survival of a downtown hotel. Ramifications of the catastrophe that continued into the days, months and years following are examined, resulting in some surprisingly positive, as well as negative conclusions. Part proceeds from sales of Vancouver is Ashes are being donated to the Vancouver Firefighters' Charitable Society.

Legends and Lore of the North Shore


Peter Muise - 2014
    In the summer of 1692, phantom men were spotted in the fields of Gloucester. Farther north, A" marks the spot for pirate treasure in the marshes of Newbury, while to the east, full moons might bring out the werewolf of Dogtown. The devil himself has burned his mark on the boulder-strewn landscape, while shaggy humanoids have been sighted loping along the coast. From Boston to New Hampshire, Massachusetts's North Shore is filled with remarkable stories and legendary characters. Join author Peter Muise and discover the North Shore's uncanny legends and tales of the paranormal."

To Plead Our Own Cause: African Americans in Massachusetts and the Making of the Antislavery Movement


Christopher Cameron - 2014
    While the period from 1831 to 1865 is known as the heyday of radical abolitionism, the work of Garrison's predecessors in Massachusetts was critical in laying the foundation for antebellum abolitionism. To Plead Our Own Cause explores the significant contributions of African Americans in the Bay State to both local and nationwide antislavery activity before 1831 and demonstrates that their efforts represent nothing less than the beginning of organized abolitionist activity in America.Fleshing out the important links between Reformed theology, the institution of slavery, and the rise of the antislavery movement, author Christopher Cameron argues that African Americans in Massachusetts initiated organized abolitionism in America and that their antislavery ideology had its origins in Puritan thought and the particular system of slavery that this religious ideology shaped in Massachusetts. The political activity of black abolitionists was central in effecting the abolition of slavery and the slave trade within the Bay State, and it was likewise key in building a national antislavery movement in the years of the early republic. Even while abolitionist strategies were evolving, much of the rhetoric and tactics that well-known abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass employed in the mid-nineteenth century had their origins among blacks in Massachusetts during the eighteenth century.

Ninigret, Sachem of the Niantics and Narragansetts


Julie A. Fisher - 2014
    1600-1676) was a sachem of the Niantic and Narragansett Indians of what is now Rhode Island from the mid-1630s through the mid-1670s. For Ninigret and his contemporaries, Indian Country and New England were multipolar political worlds shaped by ever-shifting intertribal rivalries. In the first biography of Ninigret, Julie A. Fisher and David J. Silverman assert that he was the most influential Indian leader of his era in southern New England. As such, he was a key to the balance of power in both Indian-colonial and intertribal relations.Ninigret was at the center of almost every major development involving southern New England Indians between the Pequot War of 1636-37 and King Philip's War of 1675-76. He led the Narragansetts' campaign to become the region's major power, including a decades-long war against the Mohegans led by Uncas, Ninigret's archrival. To offset growing English power, Ninigret formed long-distance alliances with the powerful Mohawks of the Iroquois League and the Pocumtucks of the Connecticut River Valley. Over the course of Ninigret's life, English officials repeatedly charged him with plotting to organize a coalition of tribes and even the Dutch to roll back English settlement. Ironically, though, he refused to take up arms against the English in King Philip's War. Ninigret died at the end of the war, having guided his people through one of the most tumultuous chapters of the colonial era.

St. Louis: An Illustrated Timeline


Carol Ferring Shepley - 2014
    Through fascinating vignettes, illustrated with hundreds of photographic treasures, St. Louis: An Illustrated Timeline reveals how a fur-trading outpost grew into a major American city. This tour through the past, guided by award-winning author and historian Carol Shepley, delivers more than the typical highlights. We meet maverick Jacques Clamorgan, a fur trader who left his entire estate to the children he fathered with slaves; Josephine Baker, an entertainer who fought racism to achieve iconic status here and abroad; and Larry Roos, who took a stand against political corruption in St. Louis County. We encounter visionaries like James Buchanan Eads, who built the ironclad boats that helped the Union army conquer Vicksburg, and William Greenleaf Eliot, who believed women deserved an equal education and founded Washington University to meet that goal. Along the way, we greet legends of sports and entertainment, including the Gashouse Gang, Branch Rickey, Stan Musial, Scott Joplin, Miles Davis, and Nelly. Heroes and villains, saints and rapscallions, innovators and obstructionists, all have shaped this city. A rare and important publication, St. Louis: An Illustrated Timeline captures the story of this gateway to the West in a way not seen before.

Northumberland Folk Tales


Malcolm Green - 2014
    Their origins lost in the oral tradition, these thirty stories from Northumberland reflect the wisdom (and eccentricities) of the county and its people. Discover the places in the Northumberland landscape where dragons walked, horses flew and fairy folk guarded the creatures of the moors. Read about how the Deurgar lures the lost traveller and goads him to an unfortunate fate, and the werms that reside in the wells of unsuspecting villagers!

No Dreadlocks No Cry (Ngāti Dread, #2)


Angus Gillies - 2014
    The Rastas had a mission to return local land to the original Ngati Porou owners and in that period more than 30 buildings were burned, including houses, a police station, a fire station, businesses, a school, churches and a marae. No Dreadlocks No Cry covers most of the major fires and revisits the famous trial of five detectives for the kidnap and assault of Rasta Dick Maxwell, who claimed police had cut off his dreadlocks. It also includes a fascinating interview with Dion Hutana, the man convicted of escaping from prison and burning down Ngati Porou Marae.

Murder Now & Then


Diana Jackson - 2014
    It is 2019 and Joanna Thomas, a less than conventional farmer's wife is accused of murdering her husband, but with no motive or murder weapon uncovered, the likelihood of a speedy conviction is diminishing, much to the dismay of the, soon to retire, Inspector Norton. His officers try to placate him whilst uncovering a series of most strange coincidences, all compelling them towards an unsolved murder back in 1919. From no obvious suspects they now have several seemingly unlikely candidates, none with totally believable alibis. While puzzling over the complexity of this strange case DS Tony Brown and DC Cathy Peterson take a trip to Jersey, but losing their lead they return just as the case turns decidedly sinister. Could an unsolved murder in Haynes, Bedfordshire back in 1919 really have a bearing on this case?

Silver Lake Park


Mary L. McClure - 2014
    Lodge in the 1870s, quickly grew to become one of northeast Ohio's most popular amusement parks. Thanks to its many exciting offerings, which included two roller coasters, a miniature railway, a merry-go-round, a dance pavilion, water toboggans, steamboat rides, live animal exhibits, and many other unique features, the park attracted up to 10,000 to 20,000 visitors a day from across Ohio and surrounding states. Always anxious to add new and thrilling attractions to the park, the Lodge family also introduced features described as the first public aquarium in the state of Ohio and the first aviation field in Summit County. In later years, the park added a popular Chautauqua, bringing the leading musical acts, entertainers, and orators of the day to the community.

Central Florida's Civil War Veterans


Bob Grenier - 2014
    Johns River; Gen. William Birney's Raid; the intrepid Cow Cavalry; Confederate spy sisters Lola, Panchita, and Eugenia Sanchez; and the "flight into oblivion" of the Confederate cabinet members. Following the war, in the midst of Reconstruction, many veterans from both sides of the Mason-Dixon packed what remained of their lives and traveled to the warm climate of the "Eastern Frontier" to begin a new life. This book serves as a memorial and tribute to those courageous veterans and their families who endured through this tumultuous time in American history. In the eloquent words of Capt. John Jackson Dickison, "Florida may be justly proud of her gallant sons; wherever her standard has been borne, they have covered it with glory, and, with their heart's blood, secured for her an honorable position among her sister states."

Adventures of a Mid-America Street Urchin


James Emory Thompson - 2014
    It is a picture of community life in that western Pennsylvania industrial town -- its struggles and its successes during the economic upheaval that followed World War II. It adds the perspective of the same boy as a seasoned journalist, who has followed the region for 35 years as a reporter, editor and commentary writer on two daily newspapers.. The author's hometown is an American melting pot, a place where hard work was necessary just to get by for most; and in which education provided the only real opportunity to reach the American Dream. It is an America prior to Great Society social programs and the broad safety net that came decades later. It was the beginning of the middle class for some, but poverty and low wages for others; of a well-structured society, but with discrimination much a part of it. In this true story, the author's hard-luck family goes from riches to rags because of untimely deaths. The boy's widowed mother with five young children finds out just how hard it is to get by without a reliable job. And family members watch in horror as their house is gutted by fire, forever ending their dream of "normal" family life. It takes deep-seated loyalty and unflinching hope to keep the family together. The story is told in journalistic style with plenty of detail, wit and humor. Only after he has finished the book the author realizes that what he has written is also an odyssey -- the story of a boy's never-ending search for a father he never knew, in a nation in which so many fathers had been lost. Enjoy! www.mid-americastreeturchin.com

Mt. Washington Auto Road


Steven Caming - 2014
    Washington Auto Road have been luring and challenging adventure seekers on foot, on bicycles, or in race cars for over 150 years. The Mt. Washington Auto Road was opened to the public in 1861 and has remained in continuous operation ever since—making this the nation’s first man-made attraction. Located in the heart of New Hampshire’s White Mountains, the Mt. Washington Auto Road has witnessed the evolution of transportation from mountain wagons drawn by six-horse teams to the modern cars of today. Mt. Washington Auto Road documents the history of this eight-mile path to the summit of the Northeast’s highest peak.

Faces Like Devils: The Bald Knobber Vigilantes in the Ozarks


Matthew J. Hernando - 2014
    But in the nineteenth century, vigilantes roamed the country long before they ever made their way onto the silver screen. In Faces Like Devils , Matthew J. Hernando closely examines one of the most famous of these vigilante groups—the Bald Knobbers.Hernando sifts through the folklore and myth surrounding the Bald Knobbers to produce an authentic history of the rise and fall of Missouri’s most famous vigilantes. He details the differences between the modernizing Bald Knobbers of Taney County and the anti-progressive Bald Knobbers of Christian County, while also stressing the importance of Civil War-era violence with respect to the foundation of these vigilante groups.Despite being one of America’s largest and most famous vigilante groups during the nineteenth century, the Bald Knobbers have not previously been examined in depth. Hernando’s exhaustive research, which includes a plethora of state and federal court records, newspaper articles, and firsthand accounts, remedies that lack. This account of the Bald Knobbers is vital to anyone not wanting to miss out on a major part of Missouri’s history.