History

The trial of Lizzie Borden : a true story

Cara Robertson

"The remarkable new account of an essential piece of American mythology--the trial of Lizzie Borden--based on twenty years of research and recently unearthed evidence. The Trial of Lizzie Borden tells the true story of one of the most sensational murder trials in American history. When Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally hacked to death in Fall River, Massachusetts, in August 1892, the arrest of the couple's younger daughter Lizzie turned the case into international news and her trial into a spectacle unparalleled in American history. Reporters flocked to the scene. Well-known columnists took up conspicuous seats in the courtroom. The defendant was relentlessly scrutinized for signs of guilt or innocence. Everyone--rich and poor, suffragists and social conservatives, legal scholars and laypeople--had an opinion about Lizzie Borden's guilt or innocence. Was she a cold-blooded murderess or an unjustly persecuted lady? Did she or didn't she? The popular fascination with the Borden murders and its central enigmatic character has endured for more than one hundred years. Immortalized in rhyme, told and retold in every conceivable genre, the murders have secured a place in the American pantheon of mythic horror, but one typically wrenched from its historical moment. In contrast, Cara Robertson explores the stories Lizzie Borden's culture wanted and expected to hear and how those stories influenced the debate inside and outside of the courtroom. Based on transcripts of the Borden legal proceedings, contemporary newspaper accounts, unpublished local accounts, and recently unearthed letters from Lizzie herself, The Trial of Lizzie Borden offers a window onto America in the Gilded Age, showcasing its most deeply held convictions and its most troubling social anxieties"--

Lizzie Borden was always condemned in my mind for the murder of her father and stepmother because there was a playground rhyme about it. And I've always wondered if there is a rhyme that seems so true, why was Lizzie Borden acquitted? Cara Robertson dives right into this very question by looking at what happened during her trial. What were the arguments from the prosecution and how did the defense answer to those charges? It is actually pretty fascinating and I came away with more questions than answers. **Please be advised that there are pictures of the crime scene. And it was done by an axe.** -Anne M

War of two : Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the duel that stunned the nation

John Sedgwick

973.4 /Sedgwick
Nonfiction, History

Examines the rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, whose infamous duel left the Founding Father dead and turned a sitting vice-president into a fugitive.

In exploring his family's history, author John Sedgwick was shown the last letter Alexander Hamilton ever wrote--to Theodore Sedgwick--his great, great, great (plus more) grandfather, former Speaker of the House and Massachusetts senator. It was written on the eve of the famous duel. The author wanted to explore his ancestor's relationships with both Burr and with Hamilton and why Hamilton would write Sedgwick at that particular time. What the book ended up being is an exploration of two people--Burr and Hamilton--their ambitions, the way those ambitions manifested themselves, and how the feud between the two started. It is a good, accessible read. If you want to know more about these two figures without picking up the Chernow tome, this is your book. -Anne M

Seduction : sex, lies, and stardom in Howard Hughes's Hollywood

Karina Longworth

791.43 /Longworth
Nonfiction, Biographies, History

An exploration of "Hollywood's glamorous golden age via the cinematic life of Howard Hughes and the women who encountered him--sometimes at the expense of their minds and souls"--Dust jacket flap.

If you are a fan of Karina Longworth's "You Must Remember This" podcast, this is the book for you. Longworth sorta, kinda started this book through her podcast--some of her earlier episodes make up the chapters describing Hughes' time in the 1930's. But this is a much deeper dive. So much so, that I think I now know too much about Howard Hughes' love life. -Anne M

Rome : a history in seven sackings

Matthew Kneale

945.632 /Kneale
History, Nonfiction

"[This book] tells the story of the Eternal City--from the early Roman Republic through the Renaissance and the Reformation to Mussolini and the German occupation in World War Two--through pivotal moments that defined its history"--Amazon.com.

Some may feel that there is an overabundance of books on the history of Rome--what more could there be to say?? I think it's a given; in a city where the physical layers of over two millennia still exist, not to mention the cultural heritage and legacy, it's tempting to try and interpret that history in various ways. It's endlessly fascinating. In this case, Kneale looks at seven pivotal attacks on the city, and how they transformed it. So, not necessarily the story of the always-conquering, expanding, empire-creating Rome, but instead. those who tried (and succeeded, at times) to subdue it. -Candice

Destiny of the Republic : a tale of madness, medicine and the murder of a president

Candice Millard

973.84 /Millard
Nonfiction, History

A narrative account of the twentieth president's political career offers insight into his background as a scholar and Civil War hero, his battles against the corrupt establishment, and Alexander Graham Bell's failed attempt to save him from an assassin's bullet.

Highly readable history covering the political life, assassination attempt, and subsequent slow death of President James A. Garfield. Multiple story lines follow the mental health of the assassin, the various medical blunders that hasten Garfield's decline, and Alexander Graham Bell's attempt to create a device to detect the bullet buried in Garfield's body. -Jason

Lifting as they climbed : mapping a history of black women on Chicago's south side : a self-guided tour

Mariame Kaba

977.311 /Kaba
History

This publication features a number of Black women who contributed to the development of Chicago from the mid-19th century to today. It tells a story of Black women activists and artists who lived and worked on Chicago's South Side by taking readers on a tour of relevant landmarks and locations. The vast majority of women featured on this tour were active members of multiple organizations who pursued a broad range of issues. Others were artists (writers, painters, musicians, dancers) who both documented the conditions of Black people and shaped the culture of Chicago & the entire country. Chicago's Black women activists organized to make the city work better for themselves, their loved ones and communities. There are 33 main locations, mostly centered on the South Side of Chicago, featured in this guidebook. We've also included 10 additional sites of interest. --

A self-guided walking tour of historical sites focused around the contributions made by Black women to the city of Chicago. Some great local history research went into this book! -Jason

Bellevue : three centuries of medicine and mayhem at America's most storied hospital

David M. Oshinsky

362.11 /Oshinsky
Nonfiction, History

A history of the iconic public hospital on New York City's East Side describes the changes in American medicine from 1730 to modern times as it traces the building's origins as an almshouse and pesthouse to its current status as a revered place of first-class care.

This is an engrossing book not just about a fascinating, storied hospital, but also the history of medical practices throughout centuries in a burgeoning city. -Candice

Hippie food : how back-to-the-landers, longhairs, and revolutionaries changed the way we eat

Jonathan Kauffman

394.12 /Kauffman
History

An enlightening narrative history--an entertaining fusion of Tom Wolfe and Michael Pollan--that traces the colorful origins of once unconventional foods and the diverse fringe movements, charismatic gurus, and counterculture elements that brought them to the mainstream and created a distinctly American cuisine. Food writer Jonathan Kauffman journeys back more than half a century--to the 1960s and 1970s--to tell the story of how a coterie of unusual men and women embraced an alternative lifestyle that would ultimately change how modern Americans eat. Impeccably researched, Hippie Food chronicles how the longhairs, revolutionaries, and back-to-the-landers rejected the square establishment of President Richard Nixon's America and turned to a more idealistic and wholesome communal way of life and food. From the mystical rock-and-roll cult known as the Source Family and its legendary vegetarian restaurant in Hollywood to the Diggers' brown bread in the Summer of Love to the rise of the co-op and the origins of the organic food craze, Kauffman reveals how today's quotidian whole-foods staples--including sprouts, tofu, yogurt, brown rice, and whole-grain bread--were introduced and eventually became part of our diets. From coast to coast, through Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Vermont, Kauffman tracks hippie food's journey from niche oddity to a cuisine that hit every corner of this country. A slick mix of gonzo playfulness, evocative detail, skillful pacing, and elegant writing, Hippie Food is a lively, engaging, and informative read that deepens our understanding of our culture and our lives today.

Added by Anne W

Droppers : America's first hippie commune, Drop City

Mark Matthews

307.774 /Matthews
History

Added by Anne W

We are as gods : back to the land in the 1970s on the quest for a new America

Kate Daloz

973.924 /Daloz
History

"Between 1970 and 1974 ten million Americans abandoned the city, the commercialism, and all the inauthentic bourgeois comforts of the Eisenhower-era America of their parents. Instead, they went back to the land. It was the only time in modern history that urbanization has gone into reverse. Kate Daloz follows the dreams and ideals of a small group of back-to-the-landers to tell the story of a nationwide movement and moment. She shows how the faltering, hopeful, but impractical impulses of that first generation sowed the seeds for the organic farming movement and the transformation of American agriculture and food tastes. In the Myrtle Hill commune and neighboring Entropy Acres, high-minded ideas of communal living and shared decision-making crash headlong into the realities of brutal Northern weather and the colossal inconvenience of having no plumbing or electricity. Nature, it turns out, is not always a generous or provident host--frosts are hard, snowfalls smother roads, and small wood fires do not heat imperfectly insulated geodesic domes. Group living turns out to be harder than expected, too. Being free to do what you want and set your own rules leads to some unexpected limitations: once the group starts growing a little marijuana they can no longer call on the protection of the law, especially against a rogue member of a nearby community. For some of the group, the lifestyle is truly a saving grace; they credit it with their survival. For others, it is a prison sentence"--

Added by Anne W

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