Used & Antiquarian History Books - pg. 6 including Citizen-Soldier, The; Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer (Collector's Library of the Civil War)by: Beatty, John

Hardcover. NY, Time Life, reprint, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 401 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Dark blue leather bound with gilt titles to front cover and spine. Embossed decoration on front cover. Gilt text block edges, red ribbon marker. Clean, tight copy. This is one of the more impressive (and unfortunately little known) records of the American Civil War. John Beatty was a lawyer from Ohio who joined the Union Army when the South seceded. He started his service in western Virginia under General George B. McClellan. Although McClellan would later become one of the most well-known generals of the war, it was here that he first achieved the prominence that would lead to Lincoln promoting him to head Union forces on two separate occasions. Beatty, however, was clearly not enamored of McClellan. His journal opens with a description of arriving in one of the local railroad communities and subsequent entries describe the minutiae of camp life. Beatty is relatively unique among memoirists in that his book is largely a transcription of his original diary. As a result, his recollections are of recent events and have a degree of candor not present in many post-bellum narratives.

Hardcover. NY, Time Life, reprint, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 354 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Dark blue leather bound with gilt lettering on front cover and spine. Embossed decoration to front cover. Gilt text block edges, red ribbon marker. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Time Life, reprint, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 252 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Dark blue leather bound with gilt titles to front cover and spine. Embossed decoration on front cover. Gilt text block edges, red ribbon marker. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Time Life, reprint, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 274 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Dark blue leather bound with gilt titles to front cover and spine. Embossed decoration on front cover. Gilt text block edges, red ribbon marker. Clean, tight copy. This memoir by Confederate General Richard Taylor is usually considered one of the best and least biased by a general officer. The work is full of considered analysis on both the strategy of the war and the personalities of his fellow officers. Taylor is always fair in his criticism and seems to have no real scores to settle. While he makes little mention of his own talents, his tactical brilliance and strategic insight does shine through. Many contemporaries said Richard Taylor was one of the best soldiers of the war, but he is comparatively little known due to his posting to peripheral theaters. While he was a man of his time, the work (with the exception of some of his Reconstruction writings) is much less tainted by Lost Cause polemics than most Confederate memoirs.

Hardcover. NY, Time Life, reprint, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 476 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Dark blue leather bound with gilt titles to front cover and spine. Embossed decoration on front cover. Gilt text block edges, red ribbon marker. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Overlake Publishing, 1ST, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 215 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. Light edgewear to dust jacket, else a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, McClure Phillips and Co., 1st, 1901, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, decorated blue cloth, 389 pages. A collection of essays about maritime life. "Shakings are odds and ends of rope and canvas,accumulated during a voyage. They were formerly the perquisites of the Chief Mate". Spine decoration faded, front end papers foxed, otherwise clean, very good.

Softcover. NY, New American Library Signet,, 5th pr., 1969, Book: Very Good, Softcover, mass market paperback, 224 pages, b&w photos. Light shelfwear, clean.

Hardcover. Washington D.C., Government Printing Office, 1st, 1895, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 263 pages. Hardcover. B/w illustrations with tissue guards. Some age wear throughout. Foxing, page and edge yellowing, binding a bit loose in some places. Still in great shape for its age.

Hardcover. Washington DC, Island Press, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 489 pages. Hardcover. gilt title on spine. B/w illustrations throughout. Dust jacket unclipped. Dust jacket has a touch of age-wear (chipping at corners/creases), but very good. Very clean and bright inside. Boards bound in yellow cloth, excellent. Binding tight. In beautiful shape.

Hardcover. NY, Macmillan, 1st, 1934, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 329 pages, frontispiece, 31 b&w plates. Blue cloth covers w/ gilt lettering and design. Light edge wear to corners. Front hinge weak. Light bump to top corner of cover. Else a clean, tight copy.

Softcover. Montgomery AL, Equal Justice Initiative, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 58 pages. Slavery in America: The Montgomery Slave Trade documents American slavery and Montgomery's prominent role in the domestic slave trade. The report is part of a project focused on developing a more informed understanding of America's racial history and how it relates to contemporary challenges.

Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1st thus, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 87 pages. Foreword, black and white photographs, and colophon. A description of the Allied bombing campaign from the perspective of the German survivors.

Hardcover. NY, Holt Rinehart Winston, 1st, 1968, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket. Profusely illustrated in b&w.

Hardcover. University Press of Colorado, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 198 pages, b&w illustrations. Women of the New Mexico Frontier, 1846-1912 is a collection of essays that include biographical sketches and writings from women of all walks of life who helped bring about the Americanization of the New Mexico Territory, from the Mexican War until statehood in 1912. These women were wives of missionaries, soldiers and military officers, and government officials who came from the eastern part of the United States. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR on title page. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY/LA, Indochina Information Project, 1st, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, stapled wraps, 44 pages including cover. Presumed first edition/first printing. Photos by Philip Jones Griffith and Marc Rimboud. This was written and researched by the Indochina Information Project whose members included: Jill Rodewald, Vicki Camilli, Terry Poxon, Kim Shanley, Drew Bonthius, Mike Picker, Mark Thompson, and Tom Hayden. Paper age-toned. A valuable document of the Peace Movement. Page 13 with short tear to margin, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st , 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, colorful dust jacket with a retro-style illustration by the author. In 1919, the National Prohibition Act was passed, making it illegal across America to produce, distribute, or sell liquor. With this act, the U.S. Congress also created organized crime as we know it. Italian, Jewish, and Irish mobs sprang up to supply the suddenly illegal commodity to the millions of people still eager to drink it. Men like Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky, Dutch Schultz and Bugsy Siegel, Al Capone in Chicago and Nucky Johnson in Atlantic City, waged a brutal war for power in the streets and on the waterfronts. But if you think you already know this story...think again, since you've never seen it through the eyes of one the mobsters who lived it. Called "one of the most significant organized crime figures in the United States" by the U.S. District Attorney, Vincent "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo was just 15 years old when Prohibition became law. Over the next decade, Alo would work side by side with Lansky and Luciano as they navigated the brutal underworld of bootlegging, thievery and murder. Alo's later career included prison time and the ultimate Mob tribute: being immortalized as "Johnny Ola" in The Godfather, Part II. Introduced to the 91-year-old Alo living in retirement in Florida, Dylan Struzan based this book on more than 50 hours of recorded testimony--stories Alo had never shared, and that he forbid her to publish until "after I'm gone." Alo died, peacefully, two months short of his 97th birthday. And now his stories--bracing and violent, full of intrigue and betrayal, hunger and hubris--can finally be told. With cover art and 24 interior illustrations by Drew Struzan, one of the most acclaimed movie poster painters of all time. Small remainder dot bottom edge, otherwise like new.

Hardcover. University of Notre Dame Press, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, maroon cloth stamped in gilt and silver, 271 pages. This volume is the result of an international conference held at the University of Notre Dame in 1991 in which leading scholars, classicists, medievalists, theologians, philologists, rhetoricians, literary critics, and philosophers-gathered to focus on one of the most remarkable and influential books of late antiquity, Augustine's De doctrina christiana.Contributors to this volume place the historical setting of De doctrina christiana within the context of contemporary scholarship and explore in detail its theological meaning and impact on western culture and Christian education. The essays cover the entire field of current Augustinian studies starting with the historic setting of late antiquity in which De doctrina christiana was written. They then examine the work itself, its literary structure and interpretive and theological significance, how it was received by later patristic writers, and how it has been used as an authoritative source in contemporary times. An extensive bibliography facilitates further study.

Hardcover. Boston, The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1st, 1918, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, Green boards,gilt title box and title on front cover and spine. 151 pages plus ads, rough cut foredges. The effects and treatment of traumatic shock after World War I written by s physician who was there. Bright, clean copy.

Hardcover. Hartford CT, F.A. Brown, 1st, 1856, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, gray cloth, covers embossed with floral designs in blind-stamp. Gilt medallion front cover, gilt lettering and Hale Monument on spine, 230 pages, errata page at conclusion. Gutter crack at page 60, but not bad, binding solid. Eight b&w plates with tissue guards. Previous owner's signature (dated 1856) on blank pelim page. A biography of the soldier in the Continental Army and member of Knowlton's Rangers, the first organized intelligence service organization of the United States of America. Hale spied on the British, and was captured and executed during a mission in New York City. His service earned him the title of state hero of Connecticut.

Softcover. Freetown MA, Freetown Historical Society, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, light gray wrappers, 327 pages. John Milton Deane (January 8, 1840 - September 2, 1914), was an American Civil War Medal of Honor recipient and a major in the United States Army. Deane was born in Assonet, Massachusetts to John and Lydia (Andros) Deane. The diary he kept is here type-written out in chronological order. B&w photo of Deane as a Lieutenant in 1863. Clean, like new.

Softcover. Ohio University Press, 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 375 pages, b&w illustrations. Clean copy. Light corner crease to cover corner.

Hardcover. NY, Orion/Crown, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 272 pages. Recaptures the World War II bombing raid over Tokyo under the command of Lt. Col. "Jimmy" Doolittle and the incredible seek-and-destroy mission that he and other American pilots endured after the bombing.

Hardcover. NY, Norton, 1st, 1958, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in an edgeworn, chipped dust jacket, 271 pages.

Hardcover. Belfast, Appletree Press, 1st, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 136 pages. Hardcover. Dark green cloth boards & gilt titles to spine. Dust jacket with only marginal wear. Clean, unmarked copy.

Hardcover. Casemate, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dustjacket, 264 pages. Following the Allied breakout from the Normandy beachhead in July 1944, the vaunted German Army seemed on the verge of collapse. As British and US forces fanned out across northwestern France, enemy resistance unexpectedly dissolved into a headlong retreat to the German and Belgian borders. In early September an elated Allied High Command had every expectation of continuing their momentum to cripple the enemy's warmaking capability, by capturing the Ruhr industrial complex and plunging into the heart of Germany. After a brief pause to allow for resupply, Courtney Hodge's First Army prepared to punch through the ominous but largely outdated Westwall (Siegfried Line) surrounding Aachen. Drawing on primary Wehrmacht and US sources, including battle analysis and daily situation and after-action reports, The Roer River Battles provides insight into the desperate German efforts to keep a conquering enemy at the borders of their homeland. Tactical maps down to battalion level help clarify the very fluid nature of the combat. Combined, they serve to explain not just how, but why decisions were made and events unfolded, and how reality often differed from doctrine in one of the longest US campaigns of World War II.

Hardcover. Watkins, reprint, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 272 pages. Marco Polo (c.1254-1324) was a Christian merchant from the Venetian Republic who learned about trading while his father and uncle were absent on an extended journey through Asia, which culminated in a visit with the great khan Kublai. In 1269 the brothers returned to Venice and met Marco for the first time. The three of them then embarked on a new journey to Asia and the court of the khan, returning after more than two decades to find Venice at war. Marco was imprisoned in Genoa, whereupon he dictated his romantic-sounding stories to a cellmate. The popularity of his account is a rare example of a success in publishing before the age of printing. Introduction by John Masefield.

Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1st, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket. "The Great Epidemic" by A. A. Hoehling is a dramatic documentary about the worst plague in history, the flu epidemic of 1918. Between March and December five hundred thousand Americans perished, and nearly twenty million sickened.

Hardcover. NY, The Overlook Press, 2nd pr., 1978, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 203 pages. A pictorial survey with over 300 rare b&w photos. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket with minor edgewear, 294 pages. Depicts the German occupation of Paris during World War II from the perspectives of both the defeated Parisians and the victorius Germans, accompanied by 116 contemporary photographs in b&w, some color. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, W W Norton & Co, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 608 pages. A startling anecdotal history of gay life in twentieth-century New York explores the confluence of historical and social factors that made Manhattan a mecca for homosexuals in the second half of this century.

Hardcover. London, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1st, 1911, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth with gilt titles, top edge gilt, 456 pages. Preface, editorial notes accompanying each speech from Cromwell, delivered September 17, 1665 to Gladstone, May 7, 1877. Some light foxing to first 12 pages, otherwise clean, no markings.

Hardcover. London, Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1st, 1912, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth with gilt titles, 351 pages. Preliminary pages with foxing, stamp on title page otherwise good plus. Complete with 27 pages of publisher's ads in rear.

Hardcover. NY, Norton, 1st US, 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 192 pages. The photos are breathtaking not necessarily for their quality - many are washed out and most of the subject matter is routine day to day military stuff - but for their rarity. While the Germans seem to have been at least as far advanced in the use of color photography as the Americans, there is still a paucity of color photography in the public record. That is being addressed by the various nations who took large amounts of color film in an official capacity, including the US, UK, Germany and Canada.The book's captions are adequate to the task, and there are good historical sections, as well as an introduction by Max Hastings as well as commentary by an actual German war correspondent. The strength of the book is in its ability to bring the participants of the subject campaign - the German invasion of Russia up to and including Stalingrad - to life. The use of a large format allows one to note small details of the photos, and relate to the subject matter on a personal level. Despite the lack of "action" shots, there is much to see in facial expressions, uniform details, and especially geography as the Russian steppe is shown in summer and winter, as well as the famous Russian mud (Rasputitsa) about which so much has been written.

Hardcover. Munchen GR%, C. Bertelsmann, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 255 pages, profusely illustrated with b&w photographs, text illustrations., maps, bibliog., Foreword by Lew Kopelew. GERMAN TEXT. Highly pictorial account of the disastrous German campaign 1942-43. Cllean copy.

Hardcover. Munchen GR%, C. Bertelsmann, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 255 pages, profusely illustrated with b&w photographs. GERMAN TEXT.

Hardcover. NY, E. P. Dutton, reprint, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. David Irving's The Trail of the Fox is the best work on Rommel ever written. The circumstances around Rommel's involvement with the attempt on Hitler's life, which is the most speculated aspect of Rommel's life, and how the Gestapo came to believe Rommel was involved, have not been made clear in most of the historiography on Rommel. Irving pieces together what really happened most effectively. There are so many strengths of this book, of which the greatest is probably the fact Irving had access to Rommel's dairy and many of his letters, which he got permission from the family to view. Other items he found in collections in the United States, England, and Germany. Since he worked on this in the 1970's he also was able to interview a number of German officers who were still alive that knew and served with Rommel. The whole work is the way historical research should be done; totally reliant on primary source material, and ignores secondary sources that often use conjecture or just repeat incorrect narratives from earlier books. Every source is from people who fought the war; Germans, Italians, British, French and American officers who were in these campaigns and had either first hand observation of Rommel or were major participants like Eisenhower, Churchill, Goebbels, etc. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Washington DC, GPO, 1st, 1968, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth, title in gilt on spine and insignia in gilt on front. B&w illustrations, 377 pages. First printing of first edition. Related article pasted to front endpapers, Book covers and interior bright and clean. Foreword by Rear Admiral Ernest McNeill Eller. Homer Norman Wallin (December 6, 1893 - March 6, 1984) was a vice admiral in the United States Navy, best known for his salvage of ships sunk in the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1941, Captain Wallin became material officer for commander, Battle Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, and was serving in that position when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. He was placed in charge of the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard's Salvage Division. Through most of 1942, he directed the Pearl Harbor ship salvage effort, a huge task that enabled the navy to recover the use of three sunken battleships.

Hardcover. NY, Arno Press, reprint, 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with gilt decoration and lettering. A reprint of the 1927 edition published by J.M. Dent in London. Bright, clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's Press, 1st, 1962, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket. A look at Britain in the period before the Battle of Britain - a world of gas masks, blackouts, rationing, evacuations and warnings about what to do if a German parachutist lands on your doorstep - a time when it was an offence to leave a car parked without disabling it and when signpost were torn down to confuse the enemy.

Hardcover. NY, Vendome Press, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 208 pages. Best-selling French author Perrault provides moving personal reminiscences of his childhood in occupied Paris. The brief but eloquent narrative is accompanied by hundreds of previously unpublished photos from French and German archives, collected and cataloged by Parisian art historian Azema. Together, text and photos present a graphic portrait of everyday life, recording daily human struggles to find food and fuel, the psychological warfare waged by the occupiers, and the methods of German economic exploitation. As artists, the authors place special emphasis on the arts under the occupation and document the heroism of the writers' resistance. In sum, they show how Paris "kept alive a sense of the enemy."

Hardcover. NY, Random House, 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 373 pages. Color and b&w photographs. Water stain on back cover. Dust jacket has some small tears. A pictorial record, with accompanying text, of German society, culture, and politics, from the Weimar Republic to Hitler's last public appearence, detailing the rise of Nazism and Hitler's public and private lives.

Softcover. London/NY, Routledge, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 236 pages. "Colonial Desire is a controversial study that breaks new ground in analysing how concepts of culture get formed, and how racialized assumptions continue to pervade them." In this study, the author argues that today's theories on post-colonialism and ethnicity are disturbingly close to the colonial discourse of the 19th century. Clean copy.

Softcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 234 pages. Behind all of the statistics on downsizing, the shrinking of our industrial base, and the folly of short-sighted management is the human drama of working women and men and their unions, struggling for dignity, fairness, and security. In Farewell to the Factory, Ruth Milkman tells us the stories of workers in a New Jersey auto plant. Milkman's scholarship makes a valuable contribution to the national conversation on restoring the American Dream for working families. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Cambridge University Press, reprint, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 434 pages. Of all the terms with which Americans define themselves as members of society, few are as elusive as "middle class." This book traces the emergence of a recognizable and self-aware "middle class" between the era of the American Revolution and the end of the nineteenth century. The author focuses on the development of the middle class in larger American cities, particularly Philadelphia and New York. He examines the middle class in all its complexity, and in its day-to-day existence--at work, in the home, and in the shops, markets, theaters, and other institutions of the big city. The book places the new language of class---in particular the new term "middle class"--in the context of the concrete, interwoven experiences of specific anonymous Americans who were neither manual workers nor members of urban upper classes. Clean copy.

Softcover. Saranac Lake NY, Snowy Owl Press, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 360 pages, b&w illustrations. Ice has determined the course of Adirondack history in many surprising ways: from landscape to wildlife, harvesting to logging, barrel jumping to ice climbing and hail damage to ice storms. These accounts trace the history of that influence. The 360 page, soft cover book of personal stories, observations and over 200 photos, is the author's tribute to a fast disappearing era. Cover wrappers with mild wear, corner creases. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page.

Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 485 pages, b&w illust. How do we come to trust our knowledge of the world? What are the means by which we distinguish true from false accounts? Why do we credit one observational statement over another?In A Social History of Truth, Shapin engages these universal questions through an elegant recreation of a crucial period in the history of early modern science: the social world of gentlemen-philosophers in seventeenth-century England. Steven Shapin paints a vivid picture of the relations between gentlemanly culture and scientific practice. He argues that problems of credibility in science were practically solved through the codes and conventions of genteel conduct: trust, civility, honor, and integrity. These codes formed, and arguably still form, an important basis for securing reliable knowledge about the natural world.

Softcover. Bright Mountain Books , 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 358 pages, b&w illustrations throughout, Sometimes called the Paris of the South, Asheville, North Carolina, is known for its grand mountain views, rich and diverse culture, deep-rooted artistic heritage, historic architecture, and the legendary Biltmore Estate. Asheville: Mountain Majesty is an excellent source for discovering, or rediscovering, these and other facets of the city and its history.A lifelong resident of Asheville and regional historian, author Lou Harshaw offers a firsthand look at the history and development of this magnificent city by drawing upon a host of historical sources as well as an extensive oral tradition. She follows the development of Asheville from village to town to city, always reflecting the feeling of the times. The result is a journey through time, documenting the evolution of one of the most intriguing cities in the United States.Asheville: Mountain Majesty is enhanced by a wealth of period images, complemented by the author's contemporary photography.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 281 pages, b&w illustrations. "For, Lo! We live in an Iron Age--In the age of Steam and Fire!" wrote a poet mesmerized by the engines that were transforming American transportation, agriculture, and industry during his lifetime. Indeed, by the nineteenth century fire had become America's leitmotif--for good and for ill. "Keeping the flame" was deadly serious: even the slightest lapse of attention could convert a fire from friendly ally to ravaging destroyer. To examine the cultural context of fire in "combustible America," Margaret Hazen and Robert Hazen gather more than a hundred illustrations, most never before published, together with anecdotes and information from hundreds of original sources, including newspapers, diaries, company records, popular fiction, art, and music. What results is an immensely entertaining and encyclopedic history that ranges from stories of the tragic "great fires" of the century to fire imagery in folktales and popular literature. Dealing more with technology than with fire in nature, the book provides a vast amount of information on fire manipulation and prevention in urban life. Hazen and Hazen discuss the people who worked with fire--or against it. Founders, gaffers, blacksmiths, boilers at saltworks, and housewives knew how to "read" a fire and employ it for their purposes. A few dedicated investigators inquired about the scientific nature of heat and flame. And firefighters gradually progressed from "bucket brigades" to "using fire to fight fire" with the newly invented steam engine. The colorful stories of these Americans--the risks they took and the rewards they received--will fascinate not only social historians but also a broad audience of general readers. Clean copy.