This volume is an account of the events of World War II, and how they affected the county of Surrey.

The Roaring Twenties in New York was a time of exuberant ambition, free-flowing optimism, an explosion of artistic expression in the age of Prohibition. New York was the city that embodied the spirit and strength of a newly powerful America.
In 1924, in the vibrant heart of Manhattan, a fierce rivalry was born. Two architects, William Van Alen and Craig Severance (former friends and successful partners, but now bitter adversaries), set out to imprint their individual marks on the greatest canvas in the world--the rapidly evolving skyline of New York City. Each man desired to build the city's tallest building, or 'skyscraper.' Each would stop at nothing to outdo his rival.
Van Alen was a creative genius who envisioned a bold, contemporary building that would move beyond the tired architecture of the previous century. By a stroke of good fortune he found a larger-than-life patron in automobile magnate Walter Chrysler, and they set out to build the legendary Chrysler building. Severance, by comparison, was a brilliant businessman, and he tapped his circle of downtown, old-money investors to begin construction on the Manhattan Company Building at 40 Wall Street.
From ground-breaking to bricklaying, Van Alen and Severance fought a cunning duel of wills. Each man was forced to revamp his architectural design in an attempt to push higher, to overcome his rival in mid-construction, as the structures rose, floor by floor, in record time. Yet just as the battle was underway, a third party entered the arena and announced plans to build an even larger building. This project would be overseen by one of Chrysler's principal rivals--a representative of the General Motors group--and the building ultimately became known as The Empire State Building.
Infused with narrative thrills and perfectly rendered historical and engineering detail, " Higher" brings to life a sensational episode in American history. Author Neal Bascomb interweaves characters such as Al Smith and Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, leading up to an astonishing climax that illustrates one of the most ingenious (and secret) architectural achievements of all time.

Jonathan Carver's Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768 became a bestseller in London in the 1780s, and arguments over its author's accuracy and honesty have raged ever since. This book published for the first time the well-known explorer's original account of his expedition. Editor John Parker compares and interweaves the four manuscript versions of Carver's journals discovered in the twentieth century in the British Museum to form the text of this book. Also included are the hitherto unpublished journal of veteran fur trader James Stanley Goddard, who accompanied Carver; related correspondence; a Dakota dictionary; commissions and other records; and a bibliography of major editions of the Travels. In this volume John Parker explains the alleged plagiarism, examines Carver's early life, and offers new information on the land swindle in the Midwest known as the "Carver grant." Editor John Parker was curator of the James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota, a collection specializing in early travel and exploration.

The fame of French scientist and geographer Joseph N. Nicollet rests upon his monumental map and report of the Upper Mississippi Valley. The map, published by the United States government in 1843, remained the foundation of Upper Mississippi cartography until the era of modern surveys. Nicollet's journals illuminate the 1836 trip to the source of the Mississippi and a journey up the St. Croix River in 1837. His day-by-day accounts include careful notes on geographical features, flora and fauna, and the aurora borealis. But above all, his keen observations on the customs and culture of the Ojibwe Indians provide the first systematic recording and a remarkably sympathetic depiction of the people of the area. Martha Bray's introduction and annotation to this translation by Andre Fertey provide a brief biography of one of the fathers of American science.

Progressivism, one of the most important political and social trends of the early twentieth century, focused the nation's attention on attempts to reform its political and economic systems. Against this backdrop of national and international events, historian Carl H Chrislock records the rise and decline of the movement in Minnesota, where Progressivism had many links with earlier Granger, Farm-ers Alliance, and Populist traditions. Clearly written and thought provoking, this book also tells the stories of the Bull Moose campaign of 1912, strikes on the Mesabi Range, and the painful divisions of loyalty before and during World War I.

J. Fletcher Williams' "History of St. Paul," first published in 1876, is a thoroughly charming, intimate chronicle of the city's earliest years. The author spins tales of villains, heroes, dark deeds, and progress with wit, irony, and relish. Sprinkled among the careful descriptions of pioneers, city fathers, and important events is a healthy dose of trivia, oddities, and "firsts." Lucile M. Kane's introduction to this edition suggests that the book "to an unusual degree mirrors the man--with all his learning, passion for patient investigation, interest in people, exuberance, dramatic sense, humor, and affection for his adopted city." Minnesota residents, visitors, and students of history will enjoy this insider's view of small-town St. Paul in the 19th century.

A fabulous collection of ghost hauntings in Suffolk, from the infamous Black Dog of Bungay to the headless Anne Boleyn stalking visitors at Blickling Hall. The serene, low-lying countryside of Suffolk, with its scattered farms, water-meadows and extensive coastline, seems an unlikely area to be associated with ghosts and demons. Yet, a motley array are said to haunt the region. The most famous is the Black Dog, a spectral hound, which in the year 1577 terrorised and killed parishioners in the churches of Bungay and Blythburgh, and continues to exert a strong presence today. Other strange phenomena include phantom coaches, rattling through the countryside at night, drawn by spectral horses and driven by a headless coachman, and the freshwater mermaids who lure young children to their deaths in pools and rivers. Tobias Gill the black drummer haunts the crossroads near Blythburgh where he was hanged for the murder of a servant girl, and Mrs. Short, the 'Queen of Hell', can still raise the hairs on your neck if you wander in the region of Boulge Hall near Woodbridge. Famous characters such as Anne Boleyn, Earl Hugh Bigod, and St. Edmund add an additional lustre to folk tales of the area, and strange happenings occur in many of the churchyards, Suffolk having more churches per acre than almost any other county. This fascinating account of local 'sightings' deals with all the traditional historical legends as well as modern day sightings, and investigates their relevance and significance for the modern age.

This is a terrifying collection of true-life tales of ghosts, poltergeists and spirits of all kinds in the streets, buildings and graveyards of York. Drawing on historical and contemporary sources, Haunted York contains a chilling range of ghostly phenomena. From the medieval stonemason who haunts York Minster to a re-incarnation mystery at St Mary's Church, the spectres of King's Manor, Micklegate Bar and Exhibition Square and the many spirits to be found in the city's public houses, this phenomenal gathering of ghostly goings-on is bound to captivate anyone interested in the supernatural history of York.

Lincolnshire has many well-known stories of the supernatural, among the best known of which is that of the Lincoln Imp. In this book author Daniel J. Codd explores the supernatural lore of Lincolnshire. It includes all manner of phenomena, from forgotten poltergeist incidents and village miracles to recent allegations of werewolf and yeti-type creatures seen in the wilds of Lincolnshire. There are many hitherto unpublished accounts such as reports of the ghost of a small man who appeared to builders renovating a house in Lincoln; a ghostly lady who approached a house in Skellingthorpe (whereupon previously unnoticed footprints were found in concrete outside the door); and a phantom Second World War soldier who crossed a road leading to his old house in Lincoln. There are also stories of UFOs, two tall humanoid figures seen crossing wasteland, monkeys and panthers running wild, and a smoky cross that allegedly appears outside Scunthorpe's hospital when someone is about to die. Paranormal Lincolnshire takes the reader into the world of ghosts, spirits and poltergeists in the county, following their footsteps into the unknown. It captures the spectrum of ghosts, haunted places, UFOs, strange creatures and weird phenomena reported across the county, old and new. These tales will delight ghost hunters and fascinate and intrigue everybody who knows Lincolnshire.

Between 1816 and 1823 Stephen Harriman Long headed five expeditions that traveled 26,000 miles from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountains and from the headwaters of the Canadian River in New Mexico to Lake Winnipeg in Canada. This book deals with two of his northern journeys--the only two for which the explorer's personal journals are known to have survived. The 1817 journal describes Long's trip up the Mississippi River to the Falls of St. Anthony at present-day Minneapolis and back down the river to Fort Belle Fontaine on the Missouri. The 1823 journal covers Long's last major exploration, from Philadelphia west across present-day Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and back along fur trade routes in Manitoba and Ontario, through the Great Lakes and newly opened parts of the Erie Canal. The journals reveal the writer's classical education and scientific knowledge. They also reflect the man himself--efficient, logical, concise, meticulous, persevering--a man cheerful in the face of physical discomfort but intolerant of incompetence or irresponsibility on the part of his men.

Between 1862 and 1867, eight wagon trains carrying at least 1,400 people set out from Minnesota for the gold fields of Montana. These carefully edited letters and diaries trace their progress, revealing their day-to-day experiences, their success--or lack of it--in finding gold, and their lives in bustling mining settlements. "Private dreams of quick fortunes in El Dorado and public dreams of commercial empire and national greatness" moved the emigrants, writes Helen McCann White in her introduction, which places the three-month expeditions in their broader historical context and interprets their significance for the development of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and Montana. An appendix identifies more than 850 members of the trains.

Well written and entertaining, A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor, describes the extensive travels of George William Featherstonhaugh in Wisconsin, Minnesota and various southern states in 1835 and 1837. Featherstonhaugh, an Englishman by birth, was a geologist by profession and well qualified to comment on the American scene. By the time of his travels in the 1830s, he had lived in the United States for nearly thirty years. He was also a linguist with an attentive ear for speech. In performing his duties as a geologist for the United States, he visited remote sections of the frontier that few other trained observers had yet an opportunity to see. In these two volumes Featherstonhaugh chronicles two separate expeditions--a geological expedition in 1835 of the area from Lake Michigan west to the Coteau des Prairies at the headwaters of the Minnesota River, and a tour in 1837 of the mineral lands of Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia, and the western Carolinas.

Considered to be the saltiest shore in England, the Blackwater provides the background for John Leather's story of Essex seafaring. It is an accurate study of men and craft that have sailed form the small communities beside this broad estuary and river. It is a varied story where fishermen, bargemen, boatbuilders, sailmakers, wildfowlers and often smugglers join the sailing smacks and bages, brigs, bumkins and gunpunts in this workaday watery world. The great yachts are there too, and the local seamen who became captains and crews when summer cruising and racing, even to crossing the Atlantic in quest of the elusive America's Cup. Sailors of the sail, these men were of humble origin but proud of their skills and craft. Their traditions, independent outlook and everyday enjoyments have lingered to the present in the Blackwater's unique flavour of sail and oar.

Once home to over 60 flourishing villages, Middlesex County, in the heart of southwestern Ontario, has a rich history just waiting to be discovered. Anthropologist and local history enthusiast Jennifer Grainger has, through extensive research and much personal exploration, produced a valuable document chronicling the "rise and fall" of these pioneering settlements, truly the foundation of all that exist in the area today.

Nostalgia buffs, armchair adventurers, genealogists and curious daytrippers alike will welcome the arrival of this timely publication with its many fascinating stories and countless visual reminders of the past.

How We Got to Coney Island is the definitive history of mass transportation in Brooklyn. Covering 150 years of extraordinary growth, Cudahy tells the complete story of the trolleys, street cars, steamboats, and railways that helped create New York's largest borough---and the remarkable system that grew to connect the world's most famous seaside resort with Brooklyn, New York City across the river, and, ultimately, the rest of the world. Includes tables, charts, photographs, and maps.

How We Got to Coney Island is the definitive history of mass transportation in Brooklyn. Covering 150 years of extraordinary growth, Cudahy tells the complete story of the trolleys, street cars, steamboats, and railways that helped create New York's largest borough---and the remarkable system that grew to connect the world's most famous seaside resort with Brooklyn, New York City across the river, and, ultimately, the rest of the world. Includes tables, charts, photographs, and maps.

Everybody knows about Virginia and Vanessa, but did you realise that Sussex is (and always has been) the birthplace, home or workplace for many more inspiring, intriguing and formidable women - from royal mistresses to pioneering women doctors, and from educators and philanthropists to Brighton 'dippers' and cross-dressing music-hall stars? There's an impressively large pool of Sussex sisters who have been doing it for themselves over the centuries; Ann Kramer has selected 30 of the best and brings them to vibrant life in a browsable collection of concise, informative and entertaining essays designed to make you want to find out more. This work offers 30 brief but entertainingly informative biographies of inspiring Sussex women. It offers tips and pointers on where you can find out more about the women and their work. It is written by a Sussex woman and published author of feminist history.

The Little Book of The East End 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. Here we find out about the most unusual crimes and punishments, eccentric inhabitants, famous sons and daughters and literally hundreds of wacky facts (plus some authentically bizarre bits of historic trivia). A reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped in to time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage, the secrets and the enduring fascination of the original home of the Cockney which is now far more diverse. A wonderful package and essential reading for visitors and locals alike.

Ronald Blythe's 1969 book Akenfield - a moving portrait of English country life told in the voices of the farmers and villagers themselves - is a modern classic. In 2004, writer and reporter Craig Taylor returned to the village in Suffolk on which Akenfield was based. Over the course of several months, he sought out locals who had appeared in the original book to see how their lives had changed, he met newcomers to discuss their own views, and he interviewed Ronald Blythe himself, now in his eighties. Young farmers, retired orchardmen and Eastern European migrant workers talk about the nature of farming in an age of computerization and encroaching supermarkets; commuters, weekenders and retirees discuss the realities behind the rural idyll; and the local priest, teacher and more describe the daily pleasures and tribulations of village life. Together, they offer a panoramic and revealing portrait of rural English society at a time of great change.

This is the extraordinary story of how salt fish from Shetland became one of the staple foods of Europe, powered an economic boom and inspired artists, writers and musicians. It ranges from the wild waters of the North Atlantic, the ice-filled fjords of Greenland and the remote islands of Faroe to the dining tables of London's middle classes, the bacalao restaurants of Spain and the Jewish shtetls of Eastern Europe. As well as following the historical thread and exploring how very different cultures were drawn together by the salt fish trade, John Goodlad meets those whose lives revolve around the industry in the twenty-first century and addresses today's pressing themes of sustainability, climate change and food choices.

Leicester is built upon the work of the innovators, entrepreneurs and pioneers of past centuries. Henry Walker looked for a meat substitute during rationing after the Second World War and created the world-famous potato crisp brand. Another local man, Henry Curry, used metalworking skills acquired maintaining steam engines to construct bicycles, and his business would later become Curry's PC World. In this book, author Stephen Butt celebrates the heritage, culture and identity of the city. Leicester is the home of the UK's first mainland local radio station. It's where Gary Lineker first kicked a ball, and Thomas Cook envisaged worldwide holidays. It's where composer Sir Michael Tippett decided upon a musical career and Sir David Attenborough found his calling as a naturalist. The city's universities are at the forefront of research. Dr Alec Jeffries pioneered DNA fingerprinting in the 1980s, and many technologies combined to verify the remains of Richard III, discovered under one of the city's car parks. The National Space Centre is at the heart of the brand-new Leicester Space Park, which will be home to the Leicester Institute for Space and Earth Observation. From Roman engineering to space travel, there is much to celebrate in Leicester's two-thousand-year history. Illustrated throughout, this engaging and informative book will be of interest to residents, visitors and all those with links to the city.