Often referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World, Stone Mountain is the largest exposed mass of granite in the world. Sixteen miles east of Atlanta the 825-foot dome rises to 1,683 feet above level. The northern face of the mountain is a perpendicular cliff nearly fifty stories tall -- the world's largest piece of sculpture, where ride gigantic carved figures of three Confederate heroes, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson.

In 1915 the United Daughters of the Confederacy leased the land and commissioned Gutzon Borglum, later the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, to carve the Lost Cause memorial on the mountain where the second Ku Klux Klan was resurrected by William J. Simmons. Proceeding intermittently over six decades, the project was given added impetus in the wake of the South's massive resistance to racial integration. Capitalizing on this impulse, the state of Georgia funded the completion of the project in 1958 for use as a tourist attraction. Opening as a theme park in 1970, Stone Mountain now draws some five million visitors a year, exceeded only by the Disney theme parks in Orlando, Florida.

Taking the Fight South provides a timely and telling reminder of the vigilance democracy requires if racial justice is to be fully realized. Distinguished historian and civil rights activist Howard Ball has written dozens of books during his career, including the landmark biography of Thurgood Marshall, A Defiant Life, and the critically acclaimed Murder in Mississippi, chronicling the Mississippi Burning killings. In Taking the Fight South, arguably his most personal book, Ball focuses on six years, from 1976 to 1982, when, against the advice of friends and colleagues in New York, he and his Jewish family moved from the Bronx to Starkville, Mississippi, where he received a tenured position in the political science department at Mississippi State University. For Ball, his wife, Carol, and their three young daughters, the move represented a leap of faith, ultimately illustrating their deep commitment toward racial justice. Ball, with breathtaking historical authority, narrates the experience of his family as Jewish outsiders in Mississippi, an unfamiliar and dangerous landscape contending with the aftermath of the civil rights struggle. Signs and natives greeted them with a humiliating and frightening message: "No Jews, Negroes, etc., or dogs welcome." From refereeing football games, coaching soccer, and helping young black girls integrate the segregated Girl Scout troops in Starkville, to life-threatening calls from the KKK in the middle of the night, from his work for the ACLU to his arguments in the press and before a congressional committee for the extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Ball takes the reader to a precarious time and place in the history of the South. He was briefly an observer but quickly became an activist, confronting white racists stubbornly holding on to a Jim Crow white supremacist past and fighting to create a more diverse, equitable, and just society. Ball's story is one of an imitable advocate who didn't just observe as a passive spectator but interrupted injustice. Taking the Fight South will join the list of required books to read about the Black Lives Matter movement and the history of racism in the United States. The book will also appeal to readers interested in Judaism because of its depiction of anti-Semitism directed toward Starkville's Jewish community, struggling to survive in the heart of the deep and very fundamentalist Protestant South.

Forages through New England's most famous foods for the truth behind the region's culinary myths Meg Muckenhoupt begins with a simple question: When did Bostonians start making Boston Baked Beans? Storekeepers in Faneuil Hall and Duck Tour guides may tell you that the Pilgrims learned a recipe for beans with maple syrup and bear fat from Native Americans, but in fact, the recipe for Boston Baked Beans is the result of a conscious effort in the late nineteenth century to create New England foods. New England foods were selected and resourcefully reinvented from fanciful stories about what English colonists cooked prior to the American revolution-while pointedly ignoring the foods cooked by contemporary New Englanders, especially the large immigrant populations who were powering industry and taking over farms around the region. The Truth about Baked Beans explores New England's culinary myths and reality through some of the region's most famous foods: baked beans, brown bread, clams, cod and lobster, maple syrup, pies, and Yankee pot roast. From 1870 to 1920, the idea of New England food was carefully constructed in magazines, newspapers, and cookbooks, often through fictitious and sometimes bizarre origin stories touted as time-honored American legends. This toothsome volume reveals the effort that went into the creation of these foods, and lets us begin to reclaim the culinary heritage of immigrant New England-the French Canadians, Irish, Italians, Portuguese, Polish, indigenous people, African-Americans, and other New Englanders whose culinary contributions were erased from this version of New England food. Complete with historic and contemporary recipes, The Truth about Baked Beans delves into the surprising history of this curious cuisine, explaining why and how "New England food" actually came to be.

Don Williams, born and raised in the southern Adirondacks, has had columns about his beloved mountains published in newspapers across New York State. His readers have enjoyed informative yet subtly humorous and offbeat topics such as "Adirondack 'Skeeters," "Thars Gold in Them Thar Hills," Speakin' Adirondackish," "Pants Lawrence," "Skunk Oil," and "The 'TellTale'Bill ." You'll love the Adirondacks too, as you explore Don Williams' world of Adirondack mystery, youth, and culture. Unique sketches by North Country artist John Mahaffy 'top off' Williams' thoroughly enjoyable storytelling. Relax and have fun with Inside the Adirondack Blue Line.

Do you remember Pathe News? Taking the train to the seaside? The purple stains of iodine on the knees of boys in short trousers? Knitted bathing costumes? Then the chances are you were born in or around 1950. To the young people of today, the 1950s seem like another age. But for those born around then, this era of childhood feels like yesterday. This delightful collection of photographic memories will appeal to all who grew up in this post-war decade; they include pictures of children enjoying life out on the streets and bombsites, at home and at school, on holiday and at events. These wonderful period pictures and descriptive captions will bring back this decade of childhood, and jog memories about all aspects of life as it was in post-war Britain. Paul Feeney is the author of several bestselling nostalgia books including A 1950s Childhood and A 1960s Childhood (The History Press). He has also written the bestselling From Ration Book to Ebook (The History Press), which takes a nostalgic look back over the life and times of the post-war baby boomer generation.

Located in the area where North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee meet, Pond Mountain rises to over 4,000 feet. In its valley it holds the Pond Mountain community, a small area in Ashe County, North Carolina. Most of the families that live in the valley have been there for generations, farming the land. Here 31 Pond Mountain residents reflect on their childhoods, families, neighbors, customs and traditions, and the changes that have come to their mountain communities. What emerges is a unique look at a way of life that is rapidly being lost to history.

Tracing the history of two small, closely-linked parishes which lie to the south of Basingstoke on the edge of the chalk downlands, and a third parish, Hatch (abandoned towards the end of the 14th century and has formed part of both of the others), Cliddesden, Hatch and Farleigh Wallop is the latest publication from the Victoria County History of Hampshire project. Each settlement has a common manorial descent from the 15th century onwards and they were managed as components of a single estate under the lordship of the Wallop family from their seat at Farleigh House. This volume discusses the manorial owners and the development of the estate, and also includes much more about the lives and activities of ordinary people living and working in the settlements. Religious and social history of the area is covered and the survival of an unusually full set of records has enabled the history of the school to be told in detail. This, coupled with lively tales of social activities, provides a fascinating picture of rural life as it was and as it has become in the 21st century - largely a home for commuters, with Hatch absorbed into an ever-growing Basingstoke and farming undertaken from one centre across nearly all the land. Published by the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London, this is the fourth volume from the Victoria County History of Hampshire following Mapledurwell, Steventon and Basingstoke: a Medieval Town c.1000-c.1600. Each title provides a scholarly account of individual villages and towns of interest to their inhabitants, those in the wider area and to those beyond Hampshire itself.

St Clement Danes, now the central RAF church in the Strand, is at the heart of the capital, sandwiched between `theatreland' and legal London, and connecting the dual historic centres of Westminster and the City. This book reveals the vibrant cultural, economic, political and religious life of the parish from the Restoration to its abolition in 1900.This period was one of rapid urban transformation in the parish, as the large aristocratic riverside houses of the 17th century gave way to a bustling centre of commerce and culture in the 18th. The slums that developed in the 19th century were then swept away by the grand constructions of the Royal Courts of Justice and the Victoria Embankment, followed by the new thoroughfares of Aldwych and Kingsway, which are still the major landmarks in the area.Characterised by its contrasts, St Clement Danes was home to a mix of rich and poor residents, including lawyers, artisans, servants and prostitutes. The history of this fascinating area introduces a cast of characters ranging from the Twinings tea-trading family, to the rowdy theatre-going butchers of Clare Market and from the famous Samuel Johnson, to the infamous pornographers of Holywell Street. This book also unpicks the complicated structure of local government in the parish, and provides detailed accounts of the parish schools and charities.

It's no surprise that remote Martha's Vineyard is home to a significant population of ghosts. There are the strange entities that just may have played a part in the notorious accident at the Chappaquiddick Bridge. There is the ghost of aristocratic Desire Coffin, called back from the Other Side by the power of music and the memory of lost love. And at one haunted inn, Room 8, accessible only by way of a cramped hidden staircase, is the focus of strange events -- including the total disappearance of one guest.

The familiar image of Cheltenham, a large and prosperous former spa town, world-famous on account of its Georgian and Regency architecture, its festivals and educational establishments, masks an earlier history. While numerous descriptions of the town have been published over the years, most say little about the many centuries of its existence before the 1740s, when it began to develop as a fashionable resort. This is the fullest account ever attempted to chronicle those centuries, from the late Saxon period until the 18th century. In this period, Cheltenham developed into a successful small town, ranged along a single main street, with the market and trades serving not only its own needs but also those of the surrounding countryside. It draws on a range of documentary sources preserved in local and national archives, many of them never examined in detail before. It therefore helps to explain the foundations upon which present-day Cheltenham was constructed.

Tells the fascinating story of the Red's climbing community through interviews with the people who lived that history and considers how sustainable ecotourism might contribute to the region economically. Rock Climbing in Kentucky's Red River Gorge documents, for the first time, fifty years of oral history from this famous climbing community. Through extensive interviews, Maples reconstructs the growth of rock climbing in the region-including a twice-failed dam project, mysterious first routes, unauthorized sport-route growth on public lands, and a controversial archaeological dig. The book details five decades of collaborations to secure ongoing access to some of the world's most beautiful and technically demanding routes and the challenges along the way. More than a recounting of the past, however, Rock Climbing in Kentucky's Red River Gorge uses the region's extraordinary history to argue that climbing has the potential to be a valuable source of sustainable economic activity in rural areas throughout Appalachia today and in the years to come. The book concludes by offering policy recommendations and lessons learned about building beneficial partnerships among climbers, local communities, and public land managers to encourage community development and ecotourism alongside preservation.

No profession in the last two centuries has had a more romanticized image than the Adirondack guide. Much of the history and folklore of the Adirondacks has the guide as the central character. Guides were instrumental in the opening of the wilderness to the general public. Stories, interviews and a list of guides fill this volume.

Originally published in 1997, this Adirondack classic features Richard Smith's story as he told it to William J. O'Hern in his home, on the trail, at his rustic camp called Singing Pines, and wherever they chanced to get together. Life With Noah describes a vanished way of life and tells of the friendship between Richard and the Adirondacks' last hermit, Noah John Rondeau. Through the reminiscences of Richard and his friends, O'Hern has reconstructed Smith's life in the Cold River-Duck Hole Country where he went to trap, hunt, fish, and live in his own way.

Reveals the little known history of one of history's most famous maps - and its maker Tucked away in a near-forgotten collection, Virginia and Maryland as it is Planted and Inhabited is one of the most extraordinary maps of colonial British America. Created by a colonial merchant, planter, and diplomat named Augustine Herrman, the map pictures the Mid-Atlantic in breathtaking detail, capturing its waterways, coastlines, and communities. Herrman spent three decades travelling between Dutch New Amsterdam and the English Chesapeake before eventually settling in Maryland and making this map. Although the map has been reproduced widely, the history of how it became one of the most famous images of the Chesapeake has never been told. A Biography of a Map in Motion uncovers the intertwined stories of the map and its maker, offering new insights into the creation of empire in North America. The book follows the map from the waterways of the Chesapeake to the workshops of London, where it was turned into a print and sold. Transported into coffee houses, private rooms, and government offices, Virginia and Maryland became an apparatus of empire that allowed English elites to imaginatively possess and accurately manage their Atlantic colonies. Investigating this map offers the rare opportunity to recapture the complementary and occasionally conflicting forces that created the British Empire. From the colonial and the metropolitan to the economic and the political to the local and the Atlantic, this is a fascinating exploration of the many meanings of a map, and how what some saw as establishing a sense of local place could translate to forging an empire.

Bosbury is the second parish history to be produced by the Trust for the Victoria County History of Herefordshire, following the history of Eastnor published in 2013. Like Eastnor, Bosbury is an agricultural parish, near the market town of Ledbury. It covers a relatively large area below the western slopes of the Malvern Hills. In the Middle Ages Bosbury was the site of one of the favourite residences of the bishops of Hereford; in the western part of the parish, called Upleadon, was an estate belonging first to the Knights Templar and then to the Hospitallers. From the 16th century onwards both estates passed into the hands of tenants, leaving the parish without a major resident landowner until John Stedman and Edward Higgins successively developed the Bosbury House estate in the late 18th and the 19th century. Much of that estate was given after the First World War to create the Bosbury Farm Settlement for former soldiers. The economy of the parish has always been agricultural, mixed farming being practised. Orchards have been important, particularly on the higher ground in the northern part of the parish, and hops have been grown since the 17th century. By the late 19th century the lack of industry, and indeed of any major roads, made the parish appear an oasis of rural peace. The many timber-framed buildings, particularly those along the village street, and the parish church with its detached bell tower, attracted visitors and some new residents, but the parish avoided any large-scale 20th-century development.

Knoydart - the northern edge of the 'Rough Bounds' is one of the most evocative names in Scotland. This text offers a history of Knoydart from the earliest times to the present day. A remote and desolate peninsula, its name derives from Viking settlers who only reckoned it worth three ouncelands - compared to five for the island of Eigg. Its warlike but impoverished inhabitants caused endless problems for their neighbours during the 17th century before becoming notorious in the 18th century under the leadership of Coll of Barrisdale. His protection racket has bequeathed the word 'blackmail' to the English language and he was notorious across Scotland. For the Jacobites, as well, Knoydart was a fertile recruiting ground. In the 18th and 19th centuries the area suffered large scale emigration, partly as a result of the brutal clearances of 1853. A further long century of decline followed, during which sheep and then deer were preferred to people. In 1948 discontent swelled again and it became the scene of the famous land-raid by the 'Seven men from Knoydart'. It has changed hands more often in the last 150 years than in the previous 700 years. The land continues to lie at the heart of the Knoydart problem and the book attempts to place events in their larger historical context. This is the struggle of a community to preserve itself against the harshness of the environment and the cynical exploitation of man.

" Among the darkest corners of Kentucky's past are the grisly feuds that tore apart the hills of Eastern Kentucky from the late nineteenth century until well into the twentieth. Now, from the tangled threads of conflicting testimony, John Ed Pearce, Kentucky's best known journalist, weaves engrossing accounts of six of the most notorior accounts to uncover what really happened and why. His story of those days of darkness brings to light new evidence, questions commonly held beliefs about the feuds, and us and long-running feuds -- those in Breathitt, Clay Harlan, Perry, Pike, and Rowan counties. What caused the feuds that left Kentucky with its lingering reputation for violence? Who were the feudists, and what forces -- social, political, financial -- hurled them at each other? Did Big Jim Howard really kill Governor William Goebel? Did Joe Eversole die trying to protect small mountain landowners from ruthless Eastern mineral exploiters? Did the Hatfield-McCoy fight start over a hog? For years, Pearce has interviewed descendants of feuding families and examined skimpy court records and often fictional newspapeputs to rest some of the more popular legends.

This is the inspiring true story of Sylvia Catheryn Folger Archer, a descendant of the famous Clark brothers William and George Rogers, pioneer explorers and Revolutionary War heroes, and Betty Zane, heroine of the Fort Henry siege of 1782. A widowed mother of nine in rural West Virginia in the early 1900s, redheaded Sylvia was the very embodiment of womanly strength, perseverance, and courage.

Born one of ten children in 1906 on Pursley Hollow, a narrow mud road four miles south of Sistersville, West Virginia, Sylvia's loving family provided her with a happy childhood. But after her marriage at the age of nineteen to Arthur Daniel Archer, Sylvia experienced countless trials, including her own near-death experience, the loss of her husband to a brain tumor, the stroke of a daughter, the tragic death of a daughter and grandson and her own battle with cancer. A true survivor, Sylvia lived to see each of her children graduate from high school and happily marry.

Drawing upon meticulous research into family records, Sylvia's son Elliott Archer pays tribute to his mother in this triumphant portrait of one American woman's unwavering morals, exemplary work ethic, absolute pride in motherhood, and selfless sacrifice for her beloved family.

_______________ WINNER OF THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER A RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK _______________ 'A remarkable achievement' - Sunday Times 'A classic, to my mind, of the finest documentary writing' - John le Carre 'Absolutely riveting' - Sarah Waters, Guardian _______________ On a summer's morning in 1860, the Kent family awakes in their elegant Wiltshire home to a terrible discovery; their youngest son has been brutally murdered. When celebrated detective Jack Whicher is summoned from Scotland Yard he faces the unenviable task of identifying the killer - when the grieving family are the suspects. The original Victorian whodunnit, the murder and its investigation provoked national hysteria at the thought of what might be festering behind the locked doors of respectable homes - scheming servants, rebellious children, insanity, jealousy, loneliness and loathing. _______________ 'Nothing less than a masterpiece' - Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday 'Terrific' - Ian Rankin 'A triumph' - Observer 'Gripping, unputdownable' - Sunday Telegraph 'A terrific read in the Wilkie Collins tradition' - Susan Hill 'The best whodunnit of the year - and it's all true ... Agatha Christie, eat your heart out' - Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler

The eight walks in this book look beyond Oxford's famous dreaming spires to uncover a diverse story of millstreams and medieval lanes, breweries and jam factories, social housing and grand suburbs, religion and science. As well as including the many colleges and majestic University buildings, the walks explore the particular circumstances of the areas they cover and tell the stories of the extraordinary people who shaped Oxford's history - and often that of the world beyond * 8 illustrated walks * details on the best cafes & pubs * information on local attractions, museums and galleries * maps - to help you navigate