Between 1887 and 1920, the humble hatpin went from an unremarkable item in every woman's wardrobe, to a fashion necessity, to a dangerous weapon that caused men to tremble in fear (it was said). Big hair and big hats of the era meant big hatpins, and their weaponized use sparked controversy. There were ""good"" uses of hatpins, such as fending off an attacker in the street. There were also ""bad"" uses, such as when a woman being arrested tried to stab a police officer. But seriously: All those protruding pins seemed to threaten men everywhere in the public sphere. Suddenly women were armed and dangerous on the streets. It did not sit well with the patriarchy, who responded with hysterical crusades and often ludicrous legislation aimed at curbing the hatpin and disarming American women.

On a summer day in 1898, a family in Dover, Delaware, shared a box of chocolates they received in the mail from an anonymous sender. Within days, two of the seven family members were dead; the other five became ill but recovered. The search for the perpetrator soon moved from Delaware to California, where a suspect was quickly identified: Cordelia Botkin, lover of the husband of one of the poisoned women. This book chronicles the shoddy investigation that led to Botkin's indictment and the two sensational trials, adjudicated in the press, that found her guilty. National attention was drawn by the cross-country nature of the crime and the fact that the supposed perpetrator had never been in Delaware in her life. It was also a trial over what was viewed as the moral and sexual depravity of the two main participants, Botkin and Dunning (the husband), with most of that criticism directed at Botkin.

The early 20th century saw the founding of the National Security League, a nationalistic nonprofit organization committed to an expanded military, conscripted service, and meritocracy. This book details its history, from its formation in December 1914 through 1922, at which point it was a spent force in decline. Founded by wealthy corporate lawyers based in New York City, it had secret backers in the capitalist class, who had two goals in mind. One was to profit immensely from the newly begun World War I. The other was to control the working classes in times of both war and peace. This agenda was presented to the public under the guise of preparedness, patriotism, and Americanization. Although eventually convicted by Congress of having violated election spending limits no sanctions of any kind were ever applied. This history details the secret machinations of an organization dedicated to solidifying the grip of the capitalist class over workers, all undercover of American pride.

This book is about women who passed themselves off as men for a variety of reasons. Some did so successfully for years and even for decades. Some were caught and arrested by the police only hours after donning their disguise. For some women the act of cross dressing was a minor event, undertaken on a bet, or for a lark. For other women it was a political, feminist statement and a long-lasting way of life. Women cross dressed for various reason-to enter the military, to be able to travel freely, to commit a criminal act, to marry another women, but most of all these women undertook the disguise for economic reasons. Standard female dress of the time precluded women from doing many jobs. Most jobs, in any event, were barred to women. The few jobs filled by either sex always paid women less than the wages men received. This book is about a large number of women who were engaged in individual revolt against an obscenely unfair economic system that discriminated openly and egregiously against women. For virtually all the women profiled in this book the act of passing as a man was an act of rebellion against patriarcy.

When the need for telephone operators arose in the 1870s, the assumption was that they should all be male. Wages for adult men were too high, so boys were hired. They proved quick to argue with subscribers, so females replaced them. Women were calmer, had reassuring voices and rarely talked back. Within a few years, telephone operators were all female and would remain so. The pay was low and working conditions harsh. The job often impaired their health, as they suffered abuse from subscribers in silence under pain of dismissal. Discipline was stern-dress codes were mandated, although they were never seen by the public. Most were young, domestic and anything but militant. Yet many joined unions and walked picket lines in response to the severely capitalistic, sexist system they worked under.

Police violence is not a new phenomenon. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, police officers in America assaulted or killed many ordinary citizens, often during improper detainments or arrests where no threat existed or no crime had been committed. Based on newspaper accounts from 1869 through 1920, this history provides a chronological listing of interactions between police and unarmed citizens in which the citizens-some of them minors-were assaulted or killed. Police who committed such acts often lied to protect themselves, assisted by fellow officers and encouraging the media to demonize the victims. The author provides information on the prosecution and punishment of officers where available.

Film piracy began almost immediately after the birth of the film industry. Initially it was a within-the-industry phenomenon as studios stole from each other. As the industry grew and more money was involved, outsiders became more interested in piracy. Stolen material made its way offshore since detection was less likely. Hollywood's major film studios vigorously pursued pirates and had the situation fairly well under control by the middle 1970s - not eliminated but reduced to a low level - until videocassettes arrived. This work begins with a discussion of some of the earliest cases of piracy in vaudeville, and then considers how the problem continued to grow caused by the lack of legal resource available to performers, and the ways film exhibitors cheated the film distributors and companies and the measures that the distributors and companies took to prevent piracy over the years. Also examined are the practices of American theater owners who tried to cheat Hollywood, especially through the practice known as bicycling - extra, unpaid for screenings of a legitimately held film - and altering paperwork to reduce the money owed to distributors on films screened on percentage contracts. Also examined, to a lesser degree, are Hollywood's own efforts to cheat, including the disregard of copyrights held by others.

Americans began chewing gum long before 1850, scraping resin from spruce trees, removing any bits of bark or insects and chewing the finished product. Commercially-made gum was of limited availability and came in three types--tree resin, pretroleum-based paraffin and chicle-based--the latter, a natural latex, ultimately eclipsing its rivals by 1920. Once considered a women-only bad habit, chewing gum grew in popularity and was indulged in by all segments of society. The gum industry tried vigorously to export the habit, but it proved uniquely American and would not stick abroad. This book examines the chewing gum industry in America from 1850 to 1920, the rise and spread of gum chewing and the reactions--almost uniformly negative--to the habit from editorial writers, reformers, religious figures, employers and the courts. The age-old problem of what to do with chewed gum--some saved it in lockets around their neck; some shared it with friends--is also covered.

Because of the 2013 revelations of Edward Snowden we have all come to understand that, with regard to all ectronic communications, we are mostly all surveilled most of the time. It all started about 150 years ago on the battlefields of America during the Civil War when each side tapped the telegraph lines to spy on the other side. It continued in 1895 when the New York Police Department began to tap telephone lines. It was 20 years before that fact became public knowledge and by then the NYPD was so busy tapping that they had a separate room set aside for that purpose. The practice of tapping really took off in 1910 when the dictograph arrived and made it easier still for people to engage in tappinng. It was the first ready-to-use bug that anyone could employ - that is, buy it off the shelf and use it with no prior training required. Politicians dictographed other politicians; corporations dictographed labor unions; stockbrokers bugged other stockbrokers; and the police dictographed everybody. And we were well on the way to the world that George Orwell envisioned and the world Edward Snowden described. Big Brother had arrived.

This book examines the history of policewomen from 1880 to 2012, particularly in the United States. It looks at the problems women had being accepted into the male police establishment and at the harassment and discrimination they often suffered from male officers. For women in policing there were three distinct phases. First was acceptance into forces as police matrons, starting in about 1880 in a serious way. Second came their acceptance as policewomen (when that title was officially bestowed on them by employing forces), starting around 1910-1916. Third was the acceptance of female police as general duty officers, used interchangeably with male officers, beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Not coincidentally, a very strong and active women's movement was the driving force behind all three phases. While women in policing have moved from matrons in 1880 to policewomen in 1910 (with extremely limited duties) to regular officers in the 1970s, they faced harassment and discrimination that only worsened as they drew closer to equality--conditions that persist today.

Once the major Hollywood studios got over their loathing of television as an entertainment medium, they moved quickly to dominate both domestic and international programming. In the United States, the eight major studios controlled an overwhelming majority of all programming by the early 1950s. Their efforts in foreign markets were not quite so successful, but by the 1990s US distributors controlled about 75 percent of the international television trade. Hollywood's efforts in television were often thwarted by governments that recognised the airwaves as a public resource and intervened in varying degrees to keep the studios' programming off the air in their countries. Still the US industry found various ways to provide American fare to foreign viewers. Even into the 1980s, for example, some Hollywood shows could be bought by foreign broadcasters for fees as low as $25 per segment. Despite these efforts the American studios have never been able to completely dominate foreign airwaves: Viewers usually prefer their own, domestic fare to that offered by Hollywood. This history fully documents the US television industry's efforts in foreign markets and how it continues to look for new markets.

Pity the ""extras."" Mostly overlooked and forgotten. Especially those in the major Hollywood films 1913 to 1945--right through the dream factory's golden era. The struggles of extras to unionise were followed by internal struggles as the extras fought for a voice within that union. It is a story about too few jobs for far too many extras, some of whom were lured to Hollywood by what seemed to be rags-to-riches tales of stardom but were likely little more than industry publicity plants. Once lured to the film capital the reality was much different: low pay, little or no work, rip offs from private employment agencies, and sexual harassment of the women, likely very much underreported. In the words of the comic Rodney Dangerfield, extras just didn't get any respect.

The poverty that drives people to begging has been a pressing social issue in this country since its inception. This historical book explores begging and beggars in the period 1850 to 1940, with emphasis on how the police, the courts, the media and private charity organizations dealt with the issue. Efforts to suppress mendicancy are explored, including legislation, police crackdowns, and public vouchers for meals and shelter. Of particular interest is the way in which media portrayals have guided public perception of mendicants. Despite the massive social upheavals the last two centuries have brought, all efforts to suppress begging have failed. Many of the complaints and arguments made against beggars and begging in 1850 and 1900 and 1940 were also made into the 21st century because, in the end, the public continued to give alms.

This text examines the eyewear industry in America from 1900 to 2008, a period which mirrors an increased demand for eyewear. Eyeglasses, sunglasses and contacts are discussed. Topics covered include the marketing and selling of eyewear with particular attention paid to advertising strategies and the internal structures of the industry and its regulations, which have sometimes helped and sometimes hurt consumers. This critical examination reveals how a relatively simple and functional item such as corrective eyewear could be transformed through marketing into a fashion accessory and a personal statement.

The case of Lizzy Borden stands out in the history of sensational criminal cases, but she was not the only person to be accused of killing her parents. Historically, about two percent of all murders are parricides.

This book examines 103 selected cases of individuals charged with parricide--the murder of a father or mother--in the United States in the last half of the 19th century, categorized here by their links to abuse, alcohol, or money, sometimes involving multiple murderers or the deaths of both parents.

Though the history of tipping can be traced to the Middle Ages, the practice did not become widespread until the late 19th century. Initially, Americans reviled the custom, branding it un - American and undemocratic. The opposition gradually faded away and tipping became an American institution. The government was fairly quick to recognize tips as taxable income, but were far slower to use them in the calculation of unemployment insurance payments and social security benefits. Individuals came to grudgingly accept the practice, but many remain uncomfortable in tipping situations. From its beginnings in Europe to its development as a quintessentially American trait, this work provides a social history of tipping customs and how the United States became a nation of tippers.

The transition from stage to screen was not only a shift in popular entertainment, but a challenge for those working in the industry as well. This book looks at all the attempts to organize film actors into a union, starting from the earliest attempt in 1912 when the Actors' Equity Association seemed the best platform for such an effort, to the establishment of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 1933 as the best vehicle to represent film actors. As described here, another four years passed before SAG was formally recognized by film producers and the first contract was signed.

The number of overweight and obese Americans has been rising exponentially in recent years, and as a result the United States now has one of the highest rates of obesity in the developed world. Now a leading public health problem for Americans, obesity is a regular topic for nightly news programs, scientific or medical study, and intense public debate. But this study takes a look at obesity in America, concentrating not on the condition as it exists now, but rather on how the condition was viewed, studied, and treated from 1850 to 1939. It concentrates on the images and stereotypes that were associated with fatness during these years, the various remedies that were proposed for the condition, and the often bizarre theories that were proposed to explain obesity, including the idea that ordinary tap water was fattening.The book's coverage is divided into three periods. From 1850 to 1879 there was little obesity in America, and what little existed was found almost exclusively among the upper class. Besides quackery, the condition received very little medical attention, and only negligible media reports focused on obesity as a true health issue. From 1880 to 1919, a transition of sorts began to occur as doctors, scientists, and other health professionals finally began to present a coherent theory of obesity which was based more on scientific evidence than on wild conjecture. From 1920 to 1939, obesity became accepted as a simple question of 'calories in' and 'calories out'. By this time, the condition was recognized as a big enough health issue that various groups, ranging from private employers to public health officials, began developing some of the nation's first organized weight reduction programs. One appendix looks at the average weights of American men and women as recorded in 1931.

Perhaps the single medium in which women have been consistently treated as equal to men is the American judicial system. Although the system has met with enormous public condemnation, equality under the law has justified the legal execution of nearly six hundred American women since 1632. This book profiles the lives and cases of selected women sentenced to capital punishment in America between 1840 and 1899, most of whom were executed by hanging. The book is divided into chapters by decades, chronologically following a summary of the long and heated debate regarding women and capital punishment. Also evident is the influence of the 1870s women's rights movement on the issue. Each chapter concludes with a comprehensive list of all women executed in the United States during the respective decade, specifying age, ethnicity and criminal conviction.

Ticket scalping is as much an American staple as apple pie. Beginning as early as the mid - 1800s, scalpers, known as ""sidewalk men,"" were charging all the traffic would bear for event tickets. Although these speculators were generally viewed as pariah and public opinion was against the practice, legal attempts to limit their activities were far from successful. Boston enacted laws as early as 1873, while Pennsylvania followed suit in 1884. Still, such measures did little good since some laws were declared unconstitutional and, for the ones that were upheld, the fines were negligible with jail time rarely served. Over the years, as moral objections to scalping dimmed, the public became more tolerant as the practice became increasingly prevalent. By the 1950s, the capitalist mantras of free market and economic principles of supply and demand were even being used to justify the practice. This volume details the ways in which scalping has changed over the years from a one-man business to an agency-controlled enterprise, from performances by Jenny Lind to Billy Joel. The book examines the general situation, public opinion and legal perception of scalping for four distinct periods: 1850-1899; 1900-1917; 1918-1949 and 1950-2005. Emphasis is placed on the ways in which public and legal perception of the practice has evolved over this period. Scalping, slowly gaining a more positive status, has become more accepted as part of the economic practice of free market.

Hippocrates, one of history's earliest known physicians, once asserted, ""Walking is man's best medicine."" Over the last three centuries, people have endorsed walking for a variety of reasons--health among them. Before the 1700s, people walked as an essential part of their lifestyle. With the coming of the transportation revolution--and the advent of such conveyances as horse-drawn coaches, railways and automobiles--walking became something that was done increasingly out of choice rather than necessity. England's fashionable society engaged in afternoon promenades as a stylish fad. While America's vast distances and sparse settlements made this activity impractical, Americans nevertheless took to walking in other ways, including engaging in long distance walking competitions complete with spectators and prize money. Thus, for most of the twentieth century, the activity of walking was much more than a means of transportation. Beginning with the history of walking as a social activity, the book discusses the various issues which have affected walkers, including increased automobile traffic, the attention of the marketing industry and pedestrian regulations. The work examines the contemplative, psychological and observational qualities of walking as well as famous personalities--including Leonardo da Vinci, William Shakespeare, John Keats and John James Audubon--who endorsed these intellectual qualifications. During the 1970s fitness boom, walking was reinvented yet again, becoming an activity of numbers and equations as participants fought to maximize health benefits. The book concludes with a legal analysis of pedestrianism as it relates to sharing space with the automobile.

The suntan experienced a profound change in the last century. Considered a mark of the lower class for hundreds of years, tanning became a fad in the early 1920s and remains popular today. The tan, though, was much more than a matter of fashion, enjoying at first a boost from the medical establishment. Opinions ranging from hard science to quackery lauded the suntan as something of a panacea. Near the end of World War II, however, researchers increasingly warned against the hazards of overexposure to the sun, and a large new industry developed - sunscreen. Americans' current paradoxical obsession with the tan developed almost entirely from the conflicting rays of twentieth century thought. This history examines the twentieth century suntan as a social and scientific phenomenon. Beginning with the years 1900-1920, it debunks the myth that changing attitudes toward the tan sprang largely from the world of fashion. Initial pro-tanning medical hype, emerging negative opinions of sunbathing near the middle of the century, the development of sunscreens, the debate over sunscreen efficacy, and the sunless tan are all covered here. Numerous pictures demonstrate changing perceptions of the suntan, displaying advertisements for products that promoted, prevented or healed tans.

The use of endorsements and testimonials to sell anything imaginable is a modern development, though the technique is centuries old. Before World War I, endorsement ads were tied to patent medicine, and were left with a bad reputation when that industry was exposed as quackery. The reputation was well earned: claims of a product's curative powers sometimes ran opposite the endorsee's obituary, and Lillian Russell once testified that a certain compound had made her ""feel like a new man."" Prohibition and drug regulation doomed patent medicines. Distrusted by the public, banished from mainstream publications, endorsements languished until the 1930s, but returned with a vengeance with the growth of consumerism and modern media. Despite its questionable effectiveness, endorsement advertising is now ubiquitous, costing advertisers (and consequently consumers) hundreds of millions of dollars annually. This exploration of modern endorsement advertising - paid or unsolicited testimonials endorsing a product - follows its evolution from a marginalized, mistrusted technique to a multibillion-dollar industry. Chapters recount endorsement advertising's changing form and fortunes, from Lux Soap's uncompensated co-opting of early Hollywood to today's lucrative industry dependent largely on athletes. The social history of endorsement advertising is examined in terms of changing ethical and governmental views, shifting business trends, and its relationship to the growth of modern media, while the money involved and the question of effectiveness are scrutinized. The heavily illustrated text includes five appendices that focus on companies, celebrities, athletes and celebrity endorsements.

During the last 20 years of the 19th century, cigarette smoking was transformed from a lower-class habit to a favored form of tobacco use for men and practically the only form available to women. The trend continued to grow through the 1950s, when smoking was a significant part of America's social fabric for both men and women. This social history traces the evolution of women's smoking in the United States from 1880 to 1950. From 1880 to 1908, women were not allowed to smoke in public places, with strong opposition based on moral concerns. Most smoking was done by upper class women in the home, at private parties, or at socials. By 1908, women smokers went public in greater numbers and challenged the prejudices against smoking that applied to them alone. By 1919, most restaurants allowed women to smoke, though most other public places did not permit it. More and more women smokers went public in the period between 1919 and 1927, with college students leading the way. By 1928, advertisers began to target female smokers, and over the next two decades women smokers gradually gained equality with male smokers.

The polygraph, most commonly known as the lie detector, was created and refined by academics in university settings with support from a few early police agencies. This work is a history of the polygraph, from the experimental work of the late 1800s that led directly to its creation, until the present. It covers early lie detectors and their inventors from the 1860s to the early 1920s, their use by the police and other law enforcement agencies in the 1930s and their use in Cold War America in the 1940s and 1950s. It then discusses the government's use of the polygraph in the 1960s, the PSE, a new take on the old polygraph, and private business' reliance on the polygraph in the 1970s and the government's increasing reluctance to use the polygraph in the 1980s. It ends with a chapter on new ideas and uses for the polygraph that have surfaced over the last decade.