Maryland Books

Although the focus of this book is on the evolution of blast furnace technology over a century, the author also portays the history of the company town built by Bethlehem Steel for the employees of the Sparrows Point plant. Book should be of partucular interest to current and past employees of the steel industry

a feast for the lover of chinese art. The Scheinman collection was put together via the refined eye of a man passionate for not only the quality of the art itself, but the ins and outs of the business of collecting. A remarkable book with superb photography.

The civil rights history of the United States has a number of people, such as Martin Luther King, that stand out as giants among men. While certainly important in the struggle for civil rights, the whole movement was as much dependent on an awful lot of lessor known, even unknown people: Charleen Hunter, the little girl going to school in Little Rock; Rosa Parks, the lady riding the bus in Montgomery.

This book brings another to the fore, Wesley Brown, the first African American to graduate from the United States Naval Academy. His is a story of undue harassment by southern students, and a strength that I don't think I would have had. It's a story worth telling and well told in this new book.

What the book doesn't mention is that after graduating Mr. Brown remained in the Navy until he retired in 1969 as Lt. Commander. To further honor Mr. Brown, the Navy is now intended to build the Wesley Brown Field House at the academy.

I have been a brewer for more than two decades and being from Maryland I have looked for this book since 1995. I have only borrowed a copy to read. It is very specific to the Maryland brewing scene up to the 60's when the then Carling brewing plant was the modern brewery out on the beltway ( now demolished)Unfortunately on a brewer's salary I have found it but can not afford it.

Although other books provide more informative historical text, this is a fascinating book because of the pre-restoration photos of these wonderful houses and public buildings. See my review of the paperbound Dover reprint from 1970. Highly recommended for all interested in historic American architecture.

This is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by Architectural Book Publishing Co., in 1919. The title is a bit of a misnomer because some wood houses, such as George Washington's Mount Vernon, are shown and there is an emphasis on the finish millwork detailing. Aside from the Introduction and two chapters with notes which give a short historical blurb and sometimes a floor plan, there is no text. The black & white photos are often grainy or muddy, but they give a fascinating view of the properties in their pre-restored, preserved condition. In addition, there are some measured drawings showing a selection of some elevations and details such as chimneypieces and doorways, both exterior and interior. Architects have used this valuable resource for almost 90 years and this inexpensive paperbound Dover reprint makes it available to a wider audience -- professionals, students or simply those who enjoy historic American buildings.

I picked up this book originally because I have several families in early Maryland -- but none of them were indexed. Then I read the "Introduction" and found that the author had chosen the 500 or so families he includes because "there was some reason to believe their home parish (or at least their home county) had been identified," at least tentatively, because these families had descendants in the New World, and because most had arrived before 1800. Fair enough. Although this means that the reader won't find any new breakthrough information here, it's nevertheless useful to have previously published data all in one place. In fact -- in addition to Weis's _Ancestral Roots_ and other commonly available titles, the seventeen-page bibliography includes many sources most researchers probably will never have the opportunity to see, such as _Alumni Cantabrigensis_ [graduates of Cambridge University], _The Cockersand Chartulary,_ Berry?s _Pedigrees of the Families in the County of Kent_ (published in 1830), the publications of the various British Parish Register Societies, the entire series of Victoria Histories of the Counties of England, and a large number of 19th century family histories. Entries are alphabetical by family name and each lays out a number of generations, summarizing all the key data known about each. Textual citations to the bibliography are very detailed, allowing the reader to go to the author's sources and make personal judgments of their trustworthiness. Blazons of heraldic arms are included where available, and a glossary explains the terminology. There's also a seven-page "Bibliography of Royal Descents," revised since its original publication in the _Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin._

They sure knew how to write books back then. None of the filth and dirty words these authors use today. Just good old-fashioned common sense and wholesome storytelling.

A+++++

I pass Brunswick on the highway every day, but never knew its history. I enjoy reading what once was in small towns. I've read all of Ms. Rubin's books and learned something with each book.

"This, after all, is MY story, and so I do not apologize for its pervasive subjectivity."

So said Mencken in the preface, and good for him. While his usual verbal pyrotechnics give way to straight reporting here, you always know exactly where he stood.

The book's focus is Mencken's association with the Baltimore Sunpapers. His Free Lance column established his iconoclastic reputation locally. He helped draft the White Paper ("the doctrine that public officials, under democracy, were predominantly frauds, and hence did not deserve to be taken seriously") that became the basis for the company's success during the Roaring Twenties. He represented the paper in its dispute with Baltimore's Catholic archbishop over a reporter's questionable judgment. Despite outside commitments (he wrote and co-wrote more than 20 books, edited two magazines, and wrote hundreds of articles for other newspapers and magazines during this period), he remained a columnist for decades, and eventually joined the board of directors.

Mencken occasionally had a problem with years; he later placed the 1925 Scopes trial and Bryan's death in 1926, and refers back to the 1928 conventions as having happened in 1924. He finished this account before writing Heathen Days; parts of each book overlap, but, save for several Scopes trial passages and a few other adventures, aren't repeated. Even to his Scopes notes, he added many previously unpublished details.

Interesting details abound. In addition to his job, Mencken remembers peers in his field, oppressive censorship and anti-German discrimination during World War I, acquiring liquor during Prohibition, the establishment of Time magazine ("I was surprised by its immense success, for it was marked at the start, as it still is today, by a pretentious and puerile style of writing and a pervasive ignorance and inaccuracy"), several of his trips abroad, and the transient self-aggrandizing government timeservers who became "as completely forgotten as the politicians of the Polk administration". Then there are the humorous moments, such as his lodging arrangements at the 1920 Republican convention:

"I roomed with Kent, and had two disconcerting surprises the first night. The first came when he got down on his knees beside his bed and began to pray audibly and volubly, clad in an old-fashioned nightshirt. The second followed soon afterward, as he fell asleep. Never in my life have I heard more appalling snoring. All the ordinary sounds were there, but in addition there were others - for example, a series of crescendo gurgles ending in what seemed to be strangulation, with both the performer and me leaping up in our beds. The next night I managed to have Kent bunked with Adams, and so got some sleep."

The book is also a window into a transitional era. Cars and airplanes increased in popularity, but passenger trains remained the main mode of transportation for long distances: some of Mencken's fonder memories occurred on and near trains. Wireless telegraphy evolved into commercial radio. The telephone helped facilitate the reporter's job as it became more common.

Above all, this is Mencken as only Mencken could write; clear, opinionated, and quotable. This thoroughly enjoyable reading experience makes me glad he lived when he did: if his like were to come along again, he'd be barred from today's dumbed-down mainstream media.