|
|
Books > History > History of specific subjects > Local history
Affluent Seattle has one of the highest numbers of unhoused people
in the United States. In 2021 an estimated 40,800 people
experienced homelessness in Seattle and King County during the
year, not counting the significant number of "hidden" homeless
people doubled up with friends or living in and out of cheap
hotels. In Skid Road Josephine Ensign uncovers the stories of
overlooked and long-silenced people who have lived on the margins
of society throughout Seattle's history. How, Ensign asks, has a
large, socially progressive city like Seattle responded to the
health and social needs of people marginalized by poverty, mental
illness, addiction, racial/ethnic/sexual identities, and
homelessness? Through extensive historical research, Ensign pieces
together the lives and deaths of those not included in official
histories of the city. Drawing on interviews, she also shares a
diversity of voices within contemporary health and social care and
public policy debates. Ensign explores the tensions between
caregiving and oppression, as well as charity and solidarity, that
polarize perspectives on homelessness throughout the country.
Originally published over 100 years ago, LIFE AMONG THE APACHES is
John Cremony's absorbing eyewitness description of pre-reservation
Apache life and culture. Through his years in the military Cremony
fought in the war with Mexico and participated in many Indian
campaigns in the southwest deserts. In 1848 he served as Spanish
interpreter for the U. S. ? Mexico Boundary Commission where he
learned to speak Apache and subsequently wrote a glossary and
grammar of the language. Although he wrote this book with the
intent to encourage more effective military suppression of the
intimidating Apaches, this historical document has all of the
fast-paced action and excitement of a Wild West novel.
Highlights a little-known expedition of General George Custer to
the Black Hills of South Dakota, showing how it set the stage for
later conflict with the Sioux and the Battle of Little Bighorn.
This fascinating narrative history tells the story of General
George Armstrong Custer's 1874 expedition into the Black Hills of
South Dakota and reveals how it set the stage for the climactic
Battle of the Little Bighorn two years later. What is the
significance of this obscure foray into the Black Hills? The short
answer, as the author explains, is that Custer found gold. This
discovery in the context of the worst economic depression the
country had yet experienced spurred a gold rush that brought hordes
of white prospectors to the Sioux's sacred grounds. The result was
the trampling of an 1868 treaty that had granted the Black Hills to
the Sioux and their inevitable retaliation against the white
invasion. The author brings the era of the Grant administration to
life, with its "peace policy" of settling the Indians on
reservations, corrupt federal Indian Bureau, Gilded Age excesses,
the building of the western railroads, the white settlements that
followed the tracks, the Crash of 1873, mining ventures, and the
clash of white and Indian cultures with diametrically opposed
values. The discovery of gold in the Black Hills was the beginning
of the end of Sioux territorial independence. By the end of the
book it is clear why the Sioux leader Fast Bear called the trail
cut by Custer to the Black Hills "thieves' road."
A unique six-year compilation of British rural news, interspersed
with the author's own observations on birds, mammals, fish, and
aspects of Britain's countryside today. Most rural subjects are
covered in a comprehensive snapshot of country life at the start of
the new Millenium. From December 1999 to February 2006, scores of
different issues are compressed into hundreds of bite-sized, easily
digested articles. From angling to animal rights campaigns,
foxhunting to farming, game shooting to wildlife conservation, a
diverse collection of views, comment and advice is presented. The
batty and the bizarre also get a look-in, as do the controversial
and the downright crazy. With its packed pages, A Country Pillow
Book could become a bedside companion for the rural researcher or a
useful tool for the country-loving insomniac.
The 32 tales from the area containing the backbone of America
include The Gold Behind the Waterfall (Arizona), The Treasure of
Deadman Cave (Colorado), Lava Cave Cache (Idaho), Henry Plummer's
Lost Gold (Montana), The Curse of the Lost Sheepherder's Mine
(Nevada), Lost Train Robbery Loot in Cibola County (New Mexico),
Eighty Ingots in Spanish Gold (Utah), and Lost Ledge of Gold
(Wyoming). As Jameson points out in his introduction, the Rocky
Mountains still have many remote areas, ....
Now in paperback, the critically acclaimed "Yellow Dirt," "will
break your heart. An enormous achievement--literally, a piece of
groundbreaking investigative journalism--illustrates exactly what
reporting should do: Show us what we've become as a people, and
sharpen our vision of who we, the people, ought to become" ( "The
Christian Science Monitor" ).
From the 1930s to the 1960s, the United States knowingly used and
discarded an entire tribe of people as the Navajos worked,
unprotected, in the uranium mines that fueled the Manhattan Project
and the Cold War. Long after these mines were abandoned, Navajos in
all four corners of the Reservation (which borders Utah, New
Mexico, and Arizona) continued grazing their animals on sagebrush
flats riddled with uranium that had been blasted from the ground.
They built their houses out of chunks of uranium ore, inhaled
radioactive dust borne aloft from the waste piles the mining
companies had left behind, and their children played in the
unsealed mines themselves. Ten years after the mines closed, the
cancer rate on the reservation shot up and some babies began to be
born with crooked fingers that fused together into claws as they
grew. Government scientists filed complaints about the situation
with the government, but were told it was a mess too expensive to
clean up.
Judy Pasternak exposed this story in a prizewinning "Los Angeles
Times" series. Her work galvanized both a congressman and a famous
prosecutor to clean the sites and get reparations for the tribe.
"Yellow Dirt" is her powerful chronicle of both the scandal of
neglect and the Navajos' fight for justice.
One of the Daily Telegraph's 20 Books Perfect for Travel Scotland
has its rugged Hebrides; Ireland its cliff-girt Arans; Wales its
Island of Twenty Thousand Saints. And what has England got? The
isles of Canvey, Sheppey, Wight and Dogs, Mersea, Brownsea,
Foulness and Rat. But there are also wilder, rockier places -
Lundy, the Scillies, the Farnes. These islands and their
inhabitants not only cast varied lights on the mainland, they also
possess their own peculiar stories, from the Barbary slavers who
once occupied Lundy, to the ex-major who seized a wartime fort in
the North Sea and declared himself Prince of Sealand. Ian Crofton
embarks on a personal odyssey to a number of the islands encircling
England, exploring how some were places of refuge or holiness,
while others have been turned into personal fiefdoms by their
owners, or become locations for prisons, rubbish dumps and military
installations. He also describes the varied ways in which England's
islands have been formed, and how they are constantly changing, so
making a mockery of human claims to sovereignty.
Montana Curiosities brings to the reader with humor and
affection-and a healthy dose of attitude-the oddest, quirkiest, and
most outlandish places, personalities, events, and phenomena found
within the state's borders and in the chronicles of its history. A
fun, accessible read, Montana Curiosities is a who's who of unusual
and unsung heroes. This compendium of the state's quirks and
characters will amuse Montana's residents and visitors alike.
2013 Award of Superior Achievement from the Illinois State
Historical Society. In the antebellum Midwest, Americans looked to
the law, and specifically to the jury, to navigate the uncertain
terrain of a rapidly changing society. During this formative era of
American law, the jury served as the most visible connector between
law and society. Through an analysis of the composition of grand
and trial juries and an examination of their courtroom experiences,
Stacy Pratt McDermott demonstrates how central the law was for
people who lived in Abraham Lincoln's America. McDermott focuses on
the status of the jury as a democratic institution as well as on
the status of those who served as jurors. According to the 1860
census, the juries in Springfield and Sangamon County, Illinois,
comprised an ethnically and racially diverse population of settlers
from northern and southern states, representing both urban and
rural mid-nineteenth-century America. It was in these counties that
Lincoln developed his law practice, handling more than 5,200 cases
in a legal career that spanned nearly twenty-five years. Drawing
from a rich collection of legal records, docket books, county
histories, and surviving newspapers, McDermott reveals the enormous
power jurors wielded over the litigants and the character of their
communities.
If parks could speak, what would they say? Historic Acadia National
Park is a vibrant collection of true stories that share different
aspects of Acadia National Park's history. From its glacial
origins, to its rising peaks near the tourist-town Bar Harbor,
Acadia has a unique and fascinating history for Down Easters and
tourists alike. Many of the tales focus on some of Maine's most
famous land formations including Pulpit Rock, Sargent Mountain
Pond, Mount Desert Rock, Otter Creek, and even the Trenton Bridge.
Learn about the people who first walked these woods and how Acadia
National Park evolved into the national treasure it is today.
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.
A Walk Through Rebel Dublin 1916 is a comprehensively illustrated
guide to the Rising of Easter Week 1916, based on the significant
locations of the rebellion. Dealing separately with thirty
buildings and sites throughout the city - including the GPO,
Liberty Hall, Trinity College, the Four Courts and Dublin Castle -
the author provides a brief, fascinating history of the events and
personalities that dominated these locations during Easter Week. A
contemporary photograph of each location is juxtaposed with a
photograph of the building or streetscape as it looks today. While
some dramatic changes have taken place in the architecture of
Dublin over the course of the twentieth century, there is much that
has remained unaltered, as these images will testify. A Walk
Through Rebel Dublin 1916 can be read and enjoyed without visiting
the locations featured, but the reader is encouraged to walk the
streets of Dublin, book in hand, to get a vivid sense of some of
the most dramatic episodes in Ireland's history.
"The extraordinary story of how Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and Joe
Namath, his star quarterback at the University of Alabama, led the
Crimson Tide to victory and transformed football into a truly
national pastime."
During the bloodiest years of the civil rights movement, Bear
Bryant and Joe Namath-two of the most iconic and controversial
figures in American sports-changed the game of college football
forever. Brilliantly and urgently drawn, this is the gripping
account of how these two very different men-Bryant a legendary
coach in the South who was facing a pair of ethics scandals that
threatened his career, and Namath a cocky Northerner from a steel
mill town in Pennsylvania-led the Crimson Tide to a national
championship.
To Bryant and Namath, the game was everything. But no one could
ignore the changes sweeping the nation between 1961 and 1965-from
the Freedom Rides to the integration of colleges across the South
and the assassination of President Kennedy. Against this explosive
backdrop, Bryant and Namath changed the meaning of football. Their
final contest together, the 1965 Orange Bowl, was the first
football game broadcast nationally, in color, during prime time,
signaling a new era for the sport and the nation.
Award-winning biographer Randy Roberts and sports historian Ed
Krzemienski showcase the moment when two thoroughly American
traditions-football and Dixie-collided. A compelling story of race
and politics, honor and the will to win, RISING TIDE captures a
singular time in America. More than a history of college football,
this is the story of the struggle and triumph of a nation in
transition and the legacy of two of the greatest heroes the sport
has ever seen.
A well researched and intuitive study into the rise of a Yorkshire
mining town, the effects of subsequent events and crucially, the
responses of the community during the "Great Strike."
Lochmaben is situated in the 'debatable lands' on the main route
into Scotland north from Carlisle. The area has historic
connections to the family of Robert the Bruce. This close-knit
community has lost several of its basic amenities in recent years
but the recent community buyout of the Castle Loch has been a great
success with many volunteers coming together. 'Lochmaben Voices', a
project to collect the memories of the town's residents by
recording interviews with them, was set up in 2011. The eldest
interviewee was born in the 1920s and the youngest in 2000s and the
transcriptions reflect the various accents heard in the region. For
this book, three broad categories were identified: Lochmaben, both
as a physical place and a community; personal recollections of
living in the town; memories of the town during the Second World
War, including military connections.
A call to action in an ongoing battle against industrial
agriculture From the early twentieth century and across generations
to the present, In the Struggle brings together the stories of
eight politically engaged scholars, documenting their opposition to
industrial-scale agribusiness in California. As the narrative
unfolds, their previously censored and suppressed research,
together with personal accounts of intimidation and subterfuge, is
introduced into the public arena for the first time. In the
Struggle lays out historic, subterranean confrontations over water
rights, labor organizing, and the corruption of democratic
principles and public institutions. As California's rural economy
increasingly consolidates into the hands of land barons and
corporations, the scholars' work shifts from analyzing problems and
formulating research methods to organizing resistance and building
community power. Throughout their engagement, they face intense
political blowback as powerful economic interests work to pollute
and undermine scientific inquiry and the civic purposes of public
universities. The findings and the pressure put upon the work of
these scholars-Paul Taylor, Ernesto Galarza, and Isao Fujimoto
among them-are a damning indictment of the greed and corruption
that flourish under industrial-scale agriculture. After almost a
century of empirical evidence and published research, a definitive
finding becomes clear: land consolidation and economic monopoly are
fundamentally detrimental to democracy and the well-being of rural
societies.
|
You may like...
Karma
Annie Besant
Paperback
R374
Discovery Miles 3 740
|