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  Great Railroad Strike of 1877...

  Editors Charles River

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  When trains were introduced as a popular means of transportation, some of the first tracks laid terminated in New York, and the expansion of railroads led to the birth of train stations across the country. In general, these were small buildings where passenger could buy tickets and wait for their trains to arrive, and according an article written by Samuel Dunn around the turn of the 20th century, “The first Manhattan terminal was opened in 1832 at Centre Street, near the present City Hall, by the New York and Harlem road, now leased to the New York Central. Trains were run by steam as far south as Fourteenth Street and pulled from there by horses.” If it is hard to conceive of large box cars or even heavier locomotives being pulled by horse, it’s important to remember that the first train cars were little more than traditional carriages designed to move on iron tracks.  
  	Initially, the nation’s railway system was a fragmented, often chaotic system, but Cornelius Vanderbilt went about creating an interregional system, integrating a network of smaller railroads that ran according to their own policies, procedures, and even timetables. It was not only more customer-friendly, but it helped lower shipping costs and created a more efficient system of transporting goods and people. This led to the creation of one of the nation’s first corporations, the New York Central and Hudson Railroad.  
  	While companies competed with each other, the employees themselves were often squeezed, not only working long hours in hazardous conditions, but making pitiful pay. Put simply, in an age before widespread labor regulations were enacted and unions organized, the employers exercised nearly absolute power over employees. 

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  The Life of Lycurgus

  Plutarch, Bernadotte Perrin

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  Plutarch begins this biography by stating, “Concerning Lycurgus the lawgiver, in general, nothing can be said which is not disputed.” What he recorded captures the essence of Lycurgus and his legacy, if not the unquestionable truth. The great lawgiver founded Sparta after consulting the Oracle of Delphi, and his laws established a totalitarian society that flourished for five hundred years. With this kind of unprecedented success, it is no wonder the man’s legacy became entangled in myths surrounding how he did it.   

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  Ossman & Steel's Classic...

  Jake Richards

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  A long-treasured but forgotten classic of folk healing, with an introduction and commentary by the author of Backwoods Witchcraft and Doctoring the Devil.Ossman & Steel’s Guide to Health or Household Instructor (its original title) is a collection of spells, remedies, and charms. The book draws from the old Pennsylvania Dutch and German powwow healing practices that in turn helped shape Appalachian folk healing, conjure, rootwork, and many folk healing traditions in America. Jake Richards, author of Backwoods Witchcraft and Doctoring the Devil, puts these remedies in context, with practical advice for modern-day “backwoods” healers interested to use them today. The first part contains spells and charms for healing wounds, styes, broken bones, maladies, and illnesses of all sorts. The second part includes other folk remedies using ingredients based on sympathetic reasoning, including sulfuric acid, gunpowder, or other substances for swelling, toothache, headache, and so on. These remedies are presented here for historic interest, to help better understand how folk medicine evolved in America. It is Jake Richard’s hope that reintroducing this work will reestablish its position as a useful household helper in the library of every witch or country healer.

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  Ted Bundy - The Yearly Journal

  Kevin Sullivan

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  The renowned Ted Bundy expert reveals never-before-published information on little known aspects of the serial killer’s crimes and victims. Due to Kevin Sullivan’s extensive writing about Ted Bundy (which has produced six books), he’s become a sort of magnet over the years, drawing out many people who were part of the Bundy story, but have otherwise kept a low profile over the decades; and these first-person contacts continue to this day.  As such, this is the first book in a new series of books, whose aim is to bring new revelations to the public about Bundy, the victims, the murders, and the almost murders that failed Bundy for one reason or another.  “With all the material we have on Ted Bundy, it’s easy to think we’ve thoroughly covered his life and crimes. But there still are holes, still things to learn . . . Newly discovered facts, some speculation, and some clarification—they’re all here. For those who can’t get enough of Bundy, the items in this illuminating volume show that we can still chip away at his secrets.” —Katherine Ramsland, author of Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer

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  Black Boy Smile - A Memoir in...

  D. Watkins

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  A New York Times bestselling and award-winning author presents a complex story about his coming-of-age journey as a Black boy, from the societal roots of trauma to finding joy. "If I had two wishes, it would be that D. Watkins spend an entire book writing through the terrifying wonder of Black boyness in America, and for every human to read and share this book. I am shaken. Black Boy Smile changed my relationship to writing and me."―Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy and winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal   At nine years old, D. Watkins has three concerns in life: picking his dad’s Lotto numbers, keeping his Nikes free of creases, and being a man. Directly in his periphery is east Baltimore, a poverty-stricken city battling the height of the crack epidemic just hours from the nation’s capital. Watkins, like many boys around him, is thrust out of childhood and into a world where manhood means surviving by slinging crack on street corners and finding oneself on the right side of pistols. For thirty years, Watkins is forced to safeguard every moment of joy he experiences or risk losing himself entirely. Now, for the first time, Watkins harnesses these moments to tell the story of how he matured into the D. Watkins we know today—beloved author, college professor, editor-at-large of Salon.com, and devoted husband and father.Black Boy Smile lays bare Watkins’s relationship with his father and his brotherhood with the boys around him. He shares candid recollections of early assaults on his body and mind and reveals how he coped using stoic silence disguised as manhood. His harrowing pursuit of redemption, written in his signature street style, pinpoints how generational hardship, left raw and unnurtured, breeds toxic masculinity. Watkins discovers a love for books, is admitted to two graduate programs, meets with his future wife, an attorney—and finds true freedom in fatherhood.   Equally moving and liberating, Black Boy Smile is D. Watkins’s love letter to Black boys in concrete cities, a daring testimony that brings to life the contradictions, fears, and hopes of boys hurdling headfirst into adulthood. Black Boy Smile is a story proving that when we acknowledge the fallacies of our past, we can uncover the path toward self-discovery. Black Boy Smile is the story of a Black boy who healed.

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  Queer City - Gay London from the...

  Peter Ackroyd

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  In Queer City, the acclaimed Peter Ackroyd looks at London in a whole new way—through the complete history and experiences of its gay and lesbian population. In Roman Londinium, the city was dotted with lupanaria (“wolf dens” or public pleasure houses), fornices (brothels), and thermiae (hot baths). Then came the Emperor Constantine, with his bishops, monks, and missionaries. And so began an endless loop of alternating permissiveness and censure. Ackroyd takes us right into the hidden history of the city; from the notorious Normans to the frenzy of executions for sodomy in the early nineteenth century. He journeys through the coffee bars of sixties Soho to Gay Liberation, disco music, and the horror of AIDS. Ackroyd reveals the hidden story of London, with its diversity, thrills, and energy, as well as its terrors, dangers, and risks, and in doing so, explains the origins of all English-speaking gay culture.

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