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Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Local history
Four decades ago, the areas around Yellowstone and Glacier National
Parks sheltered the last few hundred surviving grizzlies in the
Lower 48 states. Protected by the Endangered Species Act, their
population has surged to more than 1,500, and this burgeoning
number of grizzlies now collides with the increasingly populated
landscape of the twenty-first-century American West. While humans
and bears have long shared space, today's grizzlies navigate a
shrinking amount of wilderness: cars whiz like bullets through
their habitats, tourists check Facebook to pinpoint locations for a
quick selfie with a grizzly, and hunters seek trophy prey. People,
too, must learn to live and work within a potential predator's
territory they have chosen to call home. Mixing fast-paced
storytelling with rich details about the hidden lives of grizzly
bears, Montana journalist Robert Chaney chronicles the resurgence
of this charismatic species against the backdrop of the country's
long history with the bear. Chaney captures the clash between
groups with radically different visions: ranchers frustrated at
losing livestock, environmental advocates, hunters, and
conservation and historic preservation officers of tribal nations.
Underneath, he probes the balance between our demands on nature and
our tolerance for risk.
Eliza Acton, despite having never before boiled an egg, became one of
the world’s most successful cookery writers, revolutionizing cooking
and cookbooks around the world. Her story is fascinating, uplifting and
truly inspiring.
Told in alternate voices by the award-winning author of The Joyce Girl,
and with recipes that leap to life from the page, The Language of Food
by Annabel Abbs is the most thought-provoking and page-turning
historical novel you’ll read this year, exploring the enduring struggle
for female freedom, the power of female friendship, the creativity and
quiet joy of cooking and the poetry of food, all while bringing Eliza
Action out of the archives and back into the public eye.
This book examines the many ways in which the New Deal revived
Texas's economic structure after the 1929 collapse. Ronald Goodwin
analyzes how Franklin Roosevelt's initiative, and in particular,
the Work Progress Administration, remedied rampant unemployment and
homelessness in twentieth-century Texas.
A heart-warming historical novel about surviving against the odds
and finding a family, from top 10 bestseller Lindsey Hutchinson.In
two rundown houses, at the side of a barren heath, live six
children with no family but each other. Abandoned or orphaned,
every day is a fight to find food and keep warm. But they are
determined to stay free of the clutches of the workhouse and the
horrors that would face them if they were ever torn apart. Dora
Parsons lives with her mother Mary and her evil grandmother Edith.
Edith's house may be comfortable and warm, and food is plentiful,
but every day Dora suffers at the hands of her spiteful gran.
Desperate to protect her child, Mary longs to run away but she has
no money to keep them alive and nowhere else to call home. When
fate intervenes and Mary and Dora meet the children, events are set
in train that will change all their lives forever. But will the
friends find peace and comfort at last, or does the chill of the
winter signal the most desperate ending of all... The top 10
best-seller is back with a heart-breaking, page-turning story of
survival, friendship and what it means to be a family. Perfect for
fans of Catherine Cookson, Val Wood and Lyn Andrews. Praise for
Lindsey Hutchinson: 'A great story with a great mix of characters,
well written and keeps you hooked with each page turn!' Sarah
Davies, NetGalley 'A wonderful read ... The author writes so well,
it's a really hard novel to put down!' Grace Smith, NetGalley.
'Make sure to read this book where you won't be disturbed because
once it gets going, you won't want to put it down' Andrea Ruiz,
NetGalley 'A very poignant, feel-good-factor novel' Shelia Easson,
NetGalley 'Excellent story!' Stephanie Collins, NetGalley 'The
story will linger in your mind long after you finish it' The Avid
Reader
Mark Twain's Hawaii: A Humorous Romp through Paradise, combines
Twain's own writings on Hawaii with personal reminiscences by
others who met him at that time, and traces Twain's journey through
the region just as he experienced it in 1866. The heavily
illustrated book highlights Twain's humor, travel in the 19th
century, history, social commentary, and the exotic locale. Mark
Twain's wit and wisdom is timeless-his observations on Hawaii, some
of which formed part of the classic Roughing It are collected here
in an authoritative and entertaining volume for Twain fans and
Hawaii enthusiasts.
A beautifully illustrated introduction to mudlarking which tells
the incredible, forgotten history of London through objects found
on the foreshore of the River Thames. Often seen combing the
shoreline of the River Thames at low tide, groups of archaeology
enthusiasts known as 'mudlarks' continue a tradition that dates
back to the eighteenth century. Over the years they have found a
vast array of historical artefacts providing glimpses into the
city's past. Objects lost or discarded centuries ago - from ancient
river offerings such as the Battersea Shield and Waterloo Helmet,
to seventeenth-century trade tokens and even medals for bravery -
have been discovered in the river. This book explores a fascinating
assortment of finds from prehistoric to modern times, which
collectively tell the rich and illustrious story of London and its
inhabitants - illustrated with and array of photographs taken of
the items in situ in the mud and gravel of the Thames estuary, at
the same time both gritty and glimmering.
On a hillside near Ballachulish in the Scottish Highlands in May
1752 a rider is assassinated by a gunman. The murdered man is Colin
Campbell, a government agent travelling to nearby Duror where he's
evicting farm tenants to make way for his relatives. Campbell's
killer evades capture, but Britain's rulers insist this challenge
to their authority must result in a hanging. The sacrificial victim
is James Stewart, who is organising resistance to Campbell's
takeover of lands long held by his clan, the Appin Stewarts. James
is a veteran of the Highland uprising crushed in April 1746 at
Culloden. In Duror he sees homes torched by troops using terror
tactics against rebel Highlanders. The same brutal response to
dissent means that James's corpse will for years hang from a
towering gibbet and leave a community utterly ravaged. Introducing
this new and updated edition of his account of what came to be
called the Appin Murder, historian James Hunter tells how his own
Duror upbringing introduced him to the tragic story of James
Stewart.
The churches of Wales are one of Britain's great unheralded
treasures, yet for many years there has been no book devoted to
them and they await the kind of complete coverage given to churches
elsewhere in Britain. Astonishingly, this is the first opportunity
for a book on the subject to show them at their best in colour as
well as words.The archetypal Welsh church is not in town or
village, enhanced by generations of patronage: it is the isolated,
simple, evocative walls-with-roof, in a landscape often spiritually
charged. The Welsh churches tell us about medieval times, and the
Age of Saints that came before and, amazingly of the pagan Celtic
times before that, which they were meant to erase.Illustrated in
colour, "One Hundred Welsh Churches" encompasses a millennium of
churches around Wales, from tiny St Govan's tucked in its
cliff-face, through ruined Llanthony to the magnificence of the
cathedrals at Llandaff and St David's. It is an invaluable
repository of history, art and architecture, spirituality and
people's lives which will appeal to the historian and the tourist,
communicants and those without a god.
'Utterly irresistible and joyful - the perfect summer read!'
bestselling author, Faith Hogan 'A gorgeous story of friendship,
community and starting over' Jessica RedlandDreams can come true,
you just have to believe... After 10 years in London, working in a
stressful City firm, Liv O'Neill returns home to Sandycove, a
picturesque seaside village, just outside Dublin to care for her
mother after a fall. Whilst Liv reconnects with friends and family,
she is amazed by Sandycove's thriving community spirit with its
artisan shops, delis and cafes - it's not quite the place she left
behind. As village life begins to creep under her skin, Liv is
forced to confront the things that drove her away. Can Liv balance
her past, present and future and find her own happy place? And will
a handsome young doctor help her make a decision about the life she
really wants? Suddenly her old life in London begins to seem
extremely unappealing and Liv is forced to use her family's past in
order to forge a brand new future.
What do the traditional plain-living Amish have to teach
twenty-first-century Americans in our hyper-everything world? As it
turns out, quite a lot! It sounds audacious, but it's true: the
Amish have much to teach us. It may seem surreal to turn to one of
America's most traditional groups for lessons about living in a
hyper-tech world-especially a horse-driving people who resist
"progress" by snubbing cars, public grid power, and high school
education. Still, their wisdom confirms that even when they seem so
far behind, they're out ahead of the rest of us. Having spent four
decades researching Amish communities, Donald B. Kraybill is in a
unique position to share important lessons from these fascinating
Plain people. In this inspiring book, we learn intriguing truths
about community, family, education, faith, forgiveness, aging, and
death from real Amish men and women. The Amish are ahead of us, for
example, in relying on apprenticeship education. They have also
out-Ubered Uber for nearly a century, hiring cars owned and
operated by their neighbors. Kraybill also explains how the Amish
function in modern society by rejecting new developments that harm
their community, accepting those that enhance it, and adapting
others to fit their values. Pairing storytelling with informative
and reflective passages, these twenty-two essays offer a critique
of modern culture that is provocative yet practical. In a time when
civil discourse is raw and coarse and our social fabric seems torn
asunder, What the Amish Teach Us uproots our assumptions about
progress and prods us to question why we do what we do. Essays
include: 1. Riddles: Negotiating with Modernity 2. Villages: Webs
of Well-Being 3. Community: Taming the Big "I" 4. Smallness:
Bigness Ruins Everything 5. Tolerance: A Light on a Hill 6.
Spirituality: A Back Road to Heaven 7. Family: A Deep and Durable
Bond 8. Children: At Worship, Work, and Play 9. Parenting: Raising
Sturdy Children 10. Education: The Way It Should Be 11.
Apprenticeship: An Old New Idea 12. Technology: Taming the Beast
13. Hacking: Creative Bypasses 14. Entrepreneurs: Starting Stuff
15. Patience: Slow Down and Listen 16. Limits: Less Choice, More
Joy 17. Rituals: A Natural Detox 18. Retirement: Aging in Place 19.
Forgiveness: Pathway to Healing 20. Suffering: A Higher Plan 21.
Nonresistance: No Pushback 22. Death: A Good Farewell
Dolly Perkins and Jack Larkin have grown up in the notorious gin
palaces of Birmingham.It's a world of happiness and friendship, but
also violence and poverty. Now that Dolly runs the Daydream Gin
Palace on Gin Barrel Lane she can finally control her own destiny,
but sometimes fate still plays its hand. Keen to expand her empire,
Dolly and Jack take on a new pub, but they are in for a shock when
a foul smell in one of the bedrooms turns out to come from a body
hidden in the wall. As the police hunt for their suspect, rumours
abound, spread by the local urchins - happy to be used as runners
for a little bit of food and a coin or two. But rumours can be
dangerous, and as one of the worst winters on record covers
everything in snow, Dolly and Jack have to fight for the lives they
have made for themselves, and for the urchins that they have come
to think of as family. Will the arrival of a new baby on Gin Barrel
Lane bring the promise of new hope, or will the long-awaited thaw
uncover new secrets and new tragedies... The Queen of Black Country
sagas is back on Gin Barrel Lane with a rip-roaring, heart-warming,
page-turning story of family, friendship and beating the odds.
Perfect for fans of Val Wood and Lyn Andrews. Praise for Lindsey
Hutchinson: 'A great story with a great mix of characters, well
written and keeps you hooked with each page turn!' Sarah Davies,
NetGalley 'A wonderful read ... The author writes so well, it's a
really hard novel to put down!' Grace Smith, NetGalley. 'Make sure
to read this book where you won't be disturbed because once it gets
going, you won't want to put it down' Andrea Ruiz, NetGalley 'A
very poignant, feel-good-factor novel' Shelia Easson, NetGalley
'Excellent story!' Stephanie Collins, NetGalley 'The story will
linger in your mind long after you finish it' The Avid Reader
A microcosm of the history of American slavery in a collection of
the most important primary and secondary readings on slavery at
Georgetown University and among the Maryland Jesuits Georgetown
University's early history, closely tied to that of the Society of
Jesus in Maryland, is a microcosm of the history of American
slavery: the entrenchment of chattel slavery in the tobacco economy
of the Chesapeake in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; the
contradictions of liberty and slavery at the founding of the United
States; the rise of the domestic slave trade to the cotton and
sugar kingdoms of the Deep South in the nineteenth century; the
political conflict over slavery and its overthrow amid civil war;
and slavery's persistent legacies of racism and inequality. It is
also emblematic of the complex entanglement of American higher
education and religious institutions with slavery. Important
primary sources drawn from the university's and the Maryland
Jesuits' archives document Georgetown's tangled history with
slavery, down to the sizes of shoes distributed to enslaved people
on the Jesuit plantations that subsidized the school. The volume
also includes scholarship on Jesuit slaveholding in Maryland and at
Georgetown, news coverage of the university's relationship with
slavery, and reflections from descendants of the people owned and
sold by the Maryland Jesuits. These essays, articles, and documents
introduce readers to the history of Georgetown's involvement in
slavery and recent efforts to confront this troubling past. Current
efforts at recovery, repair, and reconciliation are part of a
broader contemporary moment of reckoning with American history and
its legacies. This reader traces Georgetown's "Slavery, Memory, and
Reconciliation Initiative" and the role of universities, which are
uniquely situated to conduct that reckoning in a constructive way
through research, teaching, and modeling thoughtful, informed
discussion.
This is a funny, fast-paced, fact-packed compendium of the sort of
frivolous, fantastic or simply strange information which no-one
will want to be without. Dorset's most unusual crimes &
punishments, eccentric inhabitants, famous sons & daughters,
& royal connections come together to make essential reading for
vistors & locals.
From its south-eastern tip Sussex is little more than sixty miles
from continental Europe and the county's coastline, some
seventy-six miles long, occupies a large part of Britain's southern
frontier. Before the days of Macadam and the Turnpike, water travel
could prove more certain than land transportation and the seas that
define the borders of our nation aided, rather than deterred, the
invader.Though the last successful invasion of Britain took place
almost 1,000 years ago, the gently shelving beaches of Sussex have
tempted the prospective invader with the promise of both an easy
disembarkation and a short and direct route to London - the last
time being just seven decades ago.As the authors demonstrate, the
repeated threat of invasion from the Continent has shaped the very
landscape of the county. The rounded tops of the Iron Age hill
forts, the sheer walls of the medieval castles, the squat stumps of
Martello towers, the moulded Vaubanesque contours of the
Palmerstone redoubts and the crouched concrete blocks and bricks of
the Second World War pillboxes constitute the visible evidence of
Sussex's position on Britain's front line.
Bath: City on Show provides a unique and fascinating blend of
historical images and contemporary photography, contrasting a World
Heritage city as depicted over several hundred years with how it is
seen through the lens today. Talented local photographers have
worked in all seasons developing a stunning portfolio of new and
original views of Bath's most notable locations. These are
presented with a pick of classic images of the city from the
extensive archive of Bath in Time. From the Roman Baths of 2,000
years ago to the twenty-first century Thermae Bath Spa, via
Georgian splendour and architectural grandeur, Bath has evolved to
meet the changing needs and tastes of its residents and visitors.
This book is a compelling and powerful reminder of past times with
a fresh and revealing look at life today.
Beyond its housing estates and identikit high streets there is
another Britain. This is the Britain of mist-drenched forests and
unpredictable sea-frets: of wraith-like fog banks, druidic
mistletoe and peculiar creatures that lurk, half-unseen, in the
undergrowth, tantalising and teasing just at the periphery of human
vision. How have the remarkably persistent folkloric traditions of
the British Isles formed and been formed by the identities and
psyches of those who inhabit them? In her sparkling new history,
Carolyne Larrington explores the diverse ways in which a myriad of
imaginary and fantastical beings has moulded the cultural history
of the nation. Fairies, elves and goblins here tread purposefully,
sometimes malignly, over an eerie, preternatural landscape that
also conceals brownies, selkies, trows, knockers, boggarts,
land-wights, Jack o'Lanterns, Barguests, the sinister Nuckleavee,
or water-horse, and even Black Shuck: terrifying hell-hound of the
Norfolk coast with eyes of burning coal. Focusing on liminal points
where the boundaries between this world and that of the
supernatural grow thin those marginal tide-banks, saltmarshes,
floodplains, moors and rock-pools wherein mystery lies the author
shows how mythologies of Mermen, Green men and Wild-men have helped
and continue to help human beings deal with such ubiquitous
concerns as love and lust, loss and death and continuity and
change. Evoking the Wild Hunt, the ghostly bells of Lyonesse and
the dread fenlands haunted by Grendel, and ranging the while from
Shetland to Jersey and from Ireland to East Anglia, this is a book
that will captivate all those who long for the wild places: the
mountains and chasms where Gog, Magog and their fellow giants lie
in wait."
Arran is an archaeological and geological treasure trove of
stunning scenic beauty. Its history stretches back to the great
stone circles, more than 5,000 years old, whose remnants still
decorate the plains of Machrie. Runic inscriptions tell of a Viking
occupation lasting centuries. Later, in 1307, King Robert the Bruce
began his triumphant comeback from Arran. Subsequently, the island
was repeatedly caught up and devastated in the savage dynastic
struggles of medieval Scotland. After the 1707 Parliamentary Union,
came a new and strange upheaval - unwarlike but equally unsettling:
Arran became a test-bed for the new theories of the ideologists of
the Industrial Revolution. The ancient 'runrig' style of farming
gave way to enclosed fields and labour-saving methods, which
eventually lead to the socially disastrous Highland Clearances to
Arran, and the misfortune of the times was culminated by the Great
Irish Potato Famine of 1845. At last, the area began to settle down
through an increasingly stable mixture of agriculture and tourism
in the 19th and 20th centuries. In this book, Thorbjorn Campbell
gives an original, fascinating and comprehensive account of Arran's
long and eventful history.
Major General Lewis A. Grant was one of Vermont's greatest heroes
in the Civil War. He organized the Fifth Vermont in 1861 and led
the First Vermont Brigade from February 1863 to June 1865. He
participated in 22 battles; most notable were Savage's Station in
1862, Marye's Heights and Bank's Ford in 1863, the Wilderness,
Spotsylvania Court House, and Cedar Creek in 1864, and the
breakthrough of the Confederate lines in 1865. He was selected by
General Meade to lead the brigade to suppress the Draft Riots in
New York after Gettysburg, and also, to defend the Brock Road in
the Battle of the Wilderness. He personally discovered the weak
point in the confederate lines at Petersburg and was honored by
having his brigade lead the assault on April 2, 1865, action which
quickly led to the end of the war.
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