Alex Stewart was a recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship Award in 1983 by the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington which recognized him as a living national treasure. Over a twenty year period of friendship the author developed a profound respect and great love for Alex Stewart, a truly remarkable Tennessee mountain character whose life epitomizes the pioneer development in America. The best of hundreds of hours of recorded conversations with Stewart are compiled into a moving portrait of this cooper, father of 13, farmer, logger, railroad man, and do-it-yourself interpreter of his rugged homeland. Because the ways Stewart tells his own stories are as important as the stories themselves, he is allowed to do most of the "talking" throughout the book. Through his own account of the people around him, Alex describes his rural life in the late 19th and 20th centuries through stories such as when he was bit by a rabid dog, when neighbor children begged for food, or how people gathered honey, made marbles, moonshine or furniture. Throughout his 94 years, Alex, who died in 1985, depended upon his own good sense to direct him and it led him through a rich and fascinating life. This book is a genuine labor of love.

The dramatic account of a Revolutionary-era conspiracy in which a band of farmers opposed to military conscription and fearful of religious persecution plotted to kill the governor of North Carolina. Less than a year into the American Revolution, a group of North Carolina farmers hatched a plot to assassinate the colony's leading patriots, including the governor. The scheme became known as the Gourd Patch or Lewellen Conspiracy. The men called themselves the Brethren. The Brethren opposed patriot leaders' demand for militia volunteers and worried that "enlightened" deist principles would be enshrined in the state constitution, displacing their Protestant faith. The patriots' attempts to ally with Catholic France only exacerbated the Brethren's fears of looming heresy. Brendan McConville follows the Brethren as they draw up plans for violent action. After patriot militiamen threatened to arrest the Brethren as British sympathizers in the summer of 1777, the group tried to spread false rumors of a slave insurrection in hopes of winning loyalist support. But a disaffected insider denounced the movement to the authorities, and many members were put on trial. Drawing on contemporary depositions and legal petitions, McConville gives voice to the conspirators' motivations, which make clear that the Brethren did not back the Crown but saw the patriots as a grave threat to their religion. Part of a broader Southern movement of conscription resistance, the conspiracy compels us to appreciate the full complexity of public opinion surrounding the Revolution. Many colonists were neither loyalists nor patriots and came to see the Revolutionary government as coercive. The Brethren tells the dramatic story of ordinary people who came to fear that their Revolutionary leaders were trying to undermine religious freedom and individual liberty-the very causes now ascribed to the Founding generation.

There exist thousands of books covering every theme of Parisian life. Several hundred of these are guide books issued only in the last decade, and a few dictionaries of important Parisian monuments. However, not until now has a single comprehensive work, encompassing not only the existing buildings of this great city but also information about its past and present economic and social institutions, made its appearance. The Historical Dictionary of Paris begins with an extensive historical chapter of the twenty centuries that separate the Gallic farmers and Roman builders of the city through present-day Paris. The dictionary portion of the book contains over 400 entries and deals with various features of life in Paris. It includes brief biographical sketches of well-known Parisian personalities such as Etienne Marcel, Charles Baudelaire, Maurice Chevalier, Coco Chanel, and Jacques Chirac. The book also contains descriptions of the principal districts and monuments of the city, and numerous thematic entries covering a variety of topics, from commercials and cultural activities of the past, to luxury grocery shops and world famous art galleries and bistros. The book concludes with a large bibliography of nearly one thousand titles, most of them recent and in English. Also includes a chronology of Paris, four maps, and sixteen black and white photographs.

This is a new paperback version for 2011. It includes absorbing real life accounts of nearly every reported murder that took place in Sussex during the twentieth century. It features well-known cases and those which are lesser known but equally fascinating tales of jealousy, revenge and tragedy. In many ways, the counties of East and West Sussex might well be described as the murder capital of the country. True, London has had more murders that ended in the death penalty but Sussex has seen many of the cases which captured the nation's headlines. Amongst those famous cases are John Thorne, who killed his girlfriend and then buried her body on his chicken farm, Patrick Mahon, who cut his victim into pieces at a bungalow on the Crumbles, and Field and Gray who battered Irene Munro to death on that same stretch of shingle beach. The most famous case of all, though, must be that of John George Haigh, who earned himself epithets such as 'the Vampire Killer' or 'the Acid Bath Killer'. However, the lesser-known cases can be even more fascinating and these include a case which involves a house owned by a king. Sussex has them all. This book tells the stories of all the murderers of the 20th century who either killed in Sussex, or had a strong Sussex connection, and who went on to pay the ultimate penalty. Decide for yourself if they all deserved that fate.

Prepare to visit a Kent you've never seen before, phantom ships, haunted castles, alien abductions and unwelcome spirit house guests, its all in Unexplained Kent, intriguing contributions unearthed by reporters from ordinary people with extraordinary stories to tell. Whether or not it's out there, truth is stranger than fiction, as this fascinating collection of eerie experiences will show. What is truth? It's what you believe in and all the people who have offered their stories believe what they saw, what they encountered. Many of the cases have been drawn from the files of "Kent Messenger Group" newspapers. Indeed, several are reprinted from "The X Files series" published in "The Kent Messenger". But there are also new, intriguing contributions unearthed by reporters from ordinary people with extraordinary stories to tell. Such as: The former policeman who dabbed with a ouija board and attracted spirited, but unwelcome, guests into his house; the hard-nosed investigative journalist who was astounded when he suddenly recalled being a charioteer in ancient Rome; and, the devoted wife who says her dead husband plays chess in the lounge to show he is still around. As the cornerstone of England, steeped in history and legend, Kent can boast its far share of tales about phantom ships and haunted castles. They are part of the fabric of the county, the kind of stuff eagerly digested by the thousands of visitors who meander through its leafy lanes. But no tourist guide we have ever seen includes reports of abductions by aliens. And yet, in Greenhithe and the Sevenoaks area, it would seem, such things may go on. So, settle back, open your mind and prepare to visit a Kent you've never seen before. Oh, and keep the lights on...

This is a new paperback version for 2011. Following the highly successful first volume, it features even more nostalgic photos and memories from the archives of the "Yorkshire Evening Post". There is no more faithful recorder of events which, year in year out, make up the daily life of a great city, than is the local daily newspaper. So there was no better place to begin the stroll down this Memory Lane of Leeds than in the Yorkshire Post Newspapers Library and the Photographic Department, from where most of our pictures were obtained. Others are credited in the text. We think they will jog older minds, intrigue those not so old, astonish and educate the younger end. Perhaps what has most surprised visitors to the city over the years is that Leeds is not packed, boundary to boundary, with dark, satanic mills and spoil heaps. Indeed, it has some fine buildings, a wealth of public parks and open spaces, is ahead of many provincial cities in the provision of outstanding centres of learning and finance and is exceptionally well-served by public transport. Leeds is a city that appeals to tourists, revellers, and of course when it comes to sports Leeds is a city to be reckoned with. The past three decades have seen Leeds grow in stature and importance as well as become a pleasant place to live, work and play.

The photographs in this book capture the gritty reality of life in East London during the Swinging Sixties. As the images graphically illustrate, the pop revolution and the early stirrings of flower power had little discernible impact on the working-class Cockney. East Enders were preoccupied with other concerns: widespread poverty, poor housing, industrial unrest and racial tension. The area proved fertile ground for news-gatherers, among them Steve Lewis, destined to become a distinguished national newspaper photographer. In the 1960s, he covered the 'manor' for the local press and picture agencies. On quiet days, Lewis focused on the disappearing vignettes of street life: the milkman straining under the weight of his Edwardian handcart; the rag-and-bone man plodding the streets with his horse-drawn wagon; the bicycle-borne totter with sign proclaiming: 'Complete Homes Purchased'. Many of the locations in which Lewis worked have changed beyond recognition. Tower blocks supplanted swathes of Blitz-scarred terraces; docklands was recast as the capital's alternative commercial hub. Now the site of the 2012 Olympics offers new vistas. As the old fabric of the East End was consigned to memory, so were many of its traditions. Here is a glimpse of the way it was...

Historic postcards take you on an eye-candy tour of Cape May's past. Hand-colored images portray bonneted ladies in long dresses treading the boardwalk, and the great Victorian hotels where they stayed. Hand-tinted photography dating back one hundred years opens an keyhole to the past, when the streets were still paved with sand and traversed by horse and carriage. An extensive collection of images portrays the U.S. Naval Training Station. Photo chromes further trace the development of the Washington Street Mall, the restoration of the Emlen Mansion, the sinking of the Atlantus off the point, and the transformation of the Convention Center. Imagery and text trace this wonderful town's story, from nostalgic, sepia-toned past through its renaissance as one of East Coast's most popular, and distinctive historic resort towns.

Using a 'battered medium format camera' once belonging to Fay Godwin, Alex Boyd captures the archipelago of St Kilda in a new light, from a 21st century perspective. From the crumbling Cold War military base to the wild beauty of the natural landscape, this collection of photographs is both an ode to the history of the islands and an insight into the modern day lives of those who live and work on St Kilda today.

This is a unique account of the impact that the Second World War had on the city of Sheffield. Soon after the declaration of war, the government and the people of Sheffield realised that the Germans would make the city one of their prime targets, due to the importance of the steel industry. Also, for the first eighteen months of the war Sheffield had the only drop hammer in the country, which was capable of producing Rolls Royce crankshafts for Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft. Using contemporary diaries, letters, police accounts and other archive material, this book reveals how, despite heavy bombing, the people of Sheffield refused to be intimidated. It looks at the events that were happening in the city during the countdown to the war, such as the evacuation of the children not only to other safer districts, but to the Dominions, and the development of the Sheffield Home Guard, who started out as 'Dads Army' but were sent to London to relieve its Home Guard when the capital was under heavy fire from German rockets. Also included is a description of the protection of the dams above Sheffield and how the Ladybower reservoir was used as a training ground for the 'Dambusters'.Finally, there are accounts not only of Sheffield men who were taken as prisoners of war, but how the police dealt with the German and Italian prisoners at Lodge Moor Camp.

Massachusetts, the birthplace of America, is home to some of the most fascinating haunts in the world. Colonial ghosts still watch over their ancient inns in Concord and Charlemont. A railroad tunnel under the Mohawk Trail is doomed by the spirits of those who perished while digging it. The unearthly shrieks of a banshee in Marblehead chills the very marrow of those who must endure its curse. And phantom trawlers ply the waters near Gloucester. You will also experience tales of reincarnated souls, haunted lighthouses, mythical creatures, and remains of ancient civilizations. Investigations into haunted mansions and taverns reveal that the people of the past still reside with those of the present. Glowing gravestones, witches, ghost towns and haunted quarries are among the encounters that will bring you to the edge of alarm. Forty-one towns and cities hold legends and mysteries that stretch beyond the imagination into the chilling realm of the macabre. Follow, if you dare.

The archetypal Routemaster is arguably the most recognised vehicle in the world, as witnessed at the recent Beijing Olympic handover ceremony. Buses have been operating on London's streets since 1829, originally with horse-drawn omnibuses, and the London Omnibus Company was founded in 1855 to regulate the various services. The first motorised buses made an appearance in 1902 with the LGOC beginning to manufacture the buses itself two years later. For six decades London went its own way with specially designed buses. More recent innovations such as the 'bendy' bus have not been popular, but today practicality of pushchair and wheelchair access has consigned the Routemaster to a nostalgic, but much-loved, position. With full-colour photographs, this book comprehensively tells the story behind London's famous red buses.

Miami, one of the most popular cities in Florida, is seen through 338 images, including over 140 pairs of Past and Present views featuring vintage postcards and modern-day photographs. Many of Miami's early structures remain, but in dramatically different settings: the Miami News Tower, City Hall, Fort Dallas, and Olympic Theater. Tour the famous Pier 5 and the Bayside Marketplace. Stroll Flagler Street, Biscayne Boulevard, and South Beach's Ocean Drive. Colorful text provides insight to the area's history. This is a journey into the past for both residents who remember Miami's early days and those who are new to Miami, as well as being a great resource for history buffs.

Popular local historian and broadcaster Ken Pye has collected a further fifty tales to take you on another entertaining journey across the centuries, and around Liverpool and the towns and villages of Merseyside. His stories are a celebration of just how remarkable and endlessly interesting this community is. The weird and wonderful tales in this book are more intriguing than ever, and include Spiders and Other Giants; 'Roast Beef' - The Crosby Hermit; The Horrors of Crank Caverns; The Iron Men of Crosby; The Monster and the Ghost Ship; The Countess and the Murderous Footman; Cavern Club - Where Merseybeat was Born; The Black Rock Mermaid of old Wallasey; The Thugs of Willalloo; Bidston Hill and The Holy Grail; The Pyramid Tomb of Rodney Street; Everton Beacon ~ Fires and Flags; The Iron Duke's Column; Glastonbury Thorn of Allerton; Run Over by The Rocket; True Inventor of Radio; and the Nude Bathers of the Pier Head.

From the first rap battles in Seattle's Central District to the Grammy stage, hip hop has shaped urban life and the music scene of the Pacific Northwest for more than four decades. In the early 1980s, Seattle's hip-hop artists developed a community-based culture of stylistic experimentation and multiethnic collaboration. Emerging at a distance from the hip-hop centers of New York City and Los Angeles, Seattle's most famous hip-hop figures, Sir Mix-A-Lot and Macklemore, found mainstream success twenty years apart by going directly against the grain of their respective eras. In addition, Seattle has produced a two-time world-champion breaking crew, globally renowned urban clothing designers, an international hip-hop magazine, and influential record producers. In Emerald Street, Daudi Abe chronicles the development of Seattle hip hop from its earliest days, drawing on interviews with artists and journalists to trace how the elements of hip hop-rapping, DJing, breaking, and graffiti-flourished in the Seattle scene. He shows how Seattle hip-hop culture goes beyond art and music, influencing politics, the relationships between communities of color and law enforcement, the changing media scene, and youth outreach and educational programs. The result is a rich narrative of a dynamic and influential force in Seattle music history and beyond. Emerald Street was made possible in part by a grant from 4Culture's Heritage Program.

This is a book about the end of childhood. Much of it is drawn directly from a diary the author kept while he was a bright but insecure freshman at Harvard in the 1950s. From these pages emerges a precise description of the raw, half-understood experience of late adolescence--the anguish and arguments, the rivalry and anxiety about sex, the facile cynicism and desperate fumblings for purpose, the bull sessions held late at night--just as Peter Prescott recorded them only hours after the event.

These diary excerpts are contained in a narrative that examines that freshman experience from a vantage point of twenty years. Thus, we are able to look at the past with a double perspective: Th e exact record, unclouded by memory or nostalgia, of what was said and done is set in a structure that reveals the form of the experience. Th e result is an ironic, witty, and often moving book.

Writing with some compassion and even more asperity, Peter S. Prescott not only captures the confl icts and emotions of a single year, but probes beneath the surface of memory to explore certain tribal customs and rites of passage as they are played out in the classrooms and living quarters of the college. A few famous people--T. S. Eliot and Edith Sitwell among them--play brief parts in this chronicle, but young Prescott's attention was primarily engaged in his struggle with his extravagant roommates and an assortment of eccentric undergraduates.

"Peter S. Prescott" was book review editor for "Newsweek." His books include "Encounters with American Culture" (Volumes 1 and 2), and "The Child Savers: Juvenile Justice Observed." His critical essays about books and other cultural phenomena have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers.

"Anne Lake Prescott" is Helen Goodhart Altschul Professor of English at Barnard College. She is a specialist in the English Renaissance and is affi liated with the comparative literature program and the medieval and Renaissance studies program at Barnard College. Her most recent book is "Renaissance Historicisms: Essays in Honor of Arthur F. Kinney."

In a little more than a hundred years, a wild and desolate barrier island in Maryland became a teeming resort city. The story began in 1875 when a group of Eastern Shore, Baltimore, and Philadelphia businessmen held a grand opening of a five-story frame building called the Atlantic Hotel, and offered surrounding lots for sale at $25 each. Skeptics observing the scene predicted disaster with the first bad storm. What follows is a narrative of shifting sands-and shifting fortunes-as the city weathered natural and economic setbacks and advances to become, every summer, Maryland's second-largest city. The narrative draws extensively on the memoirs of early resort residents and, most of all, on conservations with people who have given the town its distinctive character. This is an appealing portrait of an outstanding resort that has been a magnet to vacationers for more than a century.

Tour historic Fort Lauderdale, Florida through 276 color postcard images that depict the growth of the "Venice of America" and "Gateway to the Everglades." Be transported to earlier days before urban sprawl and renewal. From the 1900s through the 1960s, images of Seminoles, farming, tourism, the beach, buildings, and the New River will appeal to everyone interested in Florida history, architecture, and water activities.

THE GREAT NORTH ROAD-- since 1922 classified officially as the A1 has been the main route between London and Edinburgh since earliest times, but roads change, and so much of the original has since been bypassed leaving an intriguing trail of discovery for author Chris 'Wolfie' Cooper. As we travel the 400 miles, we follow every twist and turn of the old road, past the remains of bygone carriageways, forgotten byways, dead ends, and wayside rest houses of distant memory, and even trace parts which have completely disappeared.

Aside from the havoc wreaked by the Civil War bombardment, Charleston has endured a succession of fires, hurricanes and earthquakes over the last 200 years. Though famous for its grand ante-bellum buildings of the nineteenth century, there have been some significant losses, particularly those from the Great Fire of 1861. From the dawn of the photographic era, Lost Charleston chronicles the markets, mansions, hotels, halls, church towers and cherished businesses that time, progress and fashion have swept aside. Sites include: Castle Pinckney, Battery Ramsay, Institute Hall, Washington Race Course, Comingtee, Vendue Range, The St. Phillips Church "Lighthouse," Mills House Hotel, Roper Hospital, Thompson Auditorium, King Street stores, St. Andrews Hall, the original Charleston Hotel, Jenkins Orphanage Band, Union Station, and Middleton Place plantation house.

The "Illustrated History of Leicester's Suburbs" shows, through a fine selection of photographs from the Leicester Mercury and Leicestershire Record Office, how the countryside, farms and villages developed into the urban streets, residential areas, shopping districts and industrial estates that are so familiar today. In the course of the last 150 years, the outskirts of the city have been transformed, and they would have expanded in a way that would astonish Leicester residents of just a few generations ago.In this detailed and fully-illustrated account of the suburbs, Christine Jordan offers a concise history of each district, but she also features local anecdotes, myths and folklore, and she remembers remarkable, sometimes bizarre, episodes and notable individuals who played their part in the story. Her survey will be essential reading and reference for everyone who takes an interest in their neighbourhood and in the complex, surprising history of the city itself.Leicester evolved over the centuries, gradually at first, then swiftly during the 19th and 20th centuries. In the space of a few generations, small villages on the periphery were absorbed by the city's expansion. But Christine Jordan shows how these villages retained an identity, and their names have lived on in the urban areas that surround the centre. The origins and development of districts as diverse as Aylestone, Braunstone, Stoneygate, Evington, Spinney Hills and Clarendon Park are recalled in her account, as are the stories of the many other communities that make up the modern city.