Maryland Books

It's great to see that much of Mencken's work is still available to the common people. It shouldn't be isolated in Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library, and/or Johns Hopkins' University.

The H.L.Mencken room at the Pratt, has been called "the cradle of 20th Century literature." Alistair Cooke, said it exists..."for the comfort of sinners and the astonishment of the virtuous."

As you can see, the author of "Newspaper Days: 1899-1906", was regarded as an iconoclast during his lifetime, and is still celebrated for fresh, refreshing views and commentary. H.L. Mencken was, above all else, a critic.

Mencken wrote his autobiography in three separate volumes cumulatively known, in the world of journalism and literature, as the "Days Books". In addition to the work under consideration here: "Newspaper Days", the other two are "Happy Days: 1880-1892", and "Heathen Days: 1890-1936." As the title suggest, this book looks at H.L. Mencken's life from 1899, when at 19 he began his half-century career in journalism - at the now defunct Baltimore Morning Herald - through his move to the local newspaper of record: The Baltimore Evening Sun. This relationship with the Sun Papers (there was also a Morning Sun) lasted until 1950, when H.L.M. retired from the board of parent A.S. Abell Company.

It was apparent, even this early in the career of "the irreverent Mr. Mencken", that his niche was writing opinion and criticism; some of it shocking to the establishment; all of it entertaining.

Don't let the early period under discussion in this book (1899-1906) lead anyone to believe that the material is dated or old fashioned. Au contraire, Mencken is indeed talking of events which occured a long time ago, but evey word is perfect for the job it is called upon to do. His diction and syntax are all-important.

After all, the reason for remembering and reading a critic of an earlier time, like Mencken, is not the issues he wrote about, but the manner in which he said what he said. It is the WAY he said it -- he was a stylist.

A great man. A great book. Enjoy!

Mr. Preston died shortly before this book was published. It is a shame he is not around to extend a hand of congratulations on an excellent book. The book covers the history of newspapers on the Eastern Shore before the first newspaper was published in Easton in 1790. In the back of the book, he has a section devoted to each county, showing every publication, name changes, a little blurb, and dates the newspapers existed. Mr. Preston compiled a list of surviving issues of each newspaper shortly before the book was published, but I would recommend going to the Maryland State Archives website and checking with other repositories since more issues have been discovered after Mr. Preston's exhaustive search in the 1980s.

I have personal information about this book. I know for instance that every site that is written about in the book was visisted by the author and the illustrater. In this manner they came up with very interesting impressions, and it shows in the information presented.

I feel that to make you understand what the place was like it is necessary to be there. To sit in the center of the place and of obsorb the feeling. I am sure that a true History enthusiat knows that feeling.

I am sorry that my English doesn't allow me to express me as I would like but the book, for the one that is interested in the history of the nursing, also being of a school of well precise nursing, it is rich of information and it has a magnificent photographic part and its author, Mame Warren, it is a very kind person. Good book on the non general history of nursing

The season was straight out of a storybook and it is wonderful to relive the moments through the book. Lots of neat insight and "fly-on-the-wall" moments with the team. The writer (Chris King) does a nice job of weaving in sidebars, history and other interesting tidbits with the game accounts. The reader learns a lot about how this team was put together and the coach's philosophies. Sports fans and those who appreciate a good story will find this an easy, quick read.

This book is an excellent source of information regarding the Pennsylvania-Germans living in Maryland during the 1700-1800s. I am researching my family history and this book helped answer several questions about when and where the German population settled in Maryland. It gives historical backgrouond for any person loving history.

This collection of papers from a 1989 conference has lasting value. The papers cover the late Qing, the Republican Period, New Culture and May 4th years, the Mao era, and the first 10 years of Deng Xiaoping's reforms. The book is a must for any East Asian Studies or Modern Chinese History student.

The contents are:

"Emperors and the Chinese Political System" by Alexander Woodside

"The Structure of the Chinese Economy During the Qing Period: Some Thoughts on the 150th Anniversary of the Opium War" by Madeleine Zelin

"Models of Historical Change : the Chinese State and Society, 1839-1989" by Frederic Wakeman, Jr.

"The Enlightenment Mentality and the Chinese Intellectual Dilemma" by Tu Wei-ming

"The May Fourth Movement as a Historical Turning Point : Ecological Exhaustion, Militarization, and Other Causes of China's Modern Crisis" by Lloyd E. Eastman

"The Social Agenda of May Fourth" by Evelyn S. Rawski

"Modernity and its Discontents: The Cultural Agenda of the May Fourth Movement" by Leo Ou-fan Lee

"The May Fourth era: China's Place in the World" by Michael H. Hunt

"Powers of State, Paradoxes of Dominion: China 1949-1979" by Vivienne Shue

"The Pattern and Legacy of Economic Growth in the Mao Era" by Barry Naughton

"State and Society in the Mao Era" by Martin King Whyte

"Chinese Communism in the Era of Mao Zedong, 1949-1976" by Thomas P. Bernstein

"The Deng Era's Uncertain Political Legacy" by Michel Oksenberg

"The Lasting Effect of China's Economic Reforms, 1979-1989" by Dwight H. Perkins

"The Renegotiation of Chinese Cultural Identity in the post-Mao Era: An Anthropological Perspective" by James L. Watson

"Reflections on the Opening of China" by James R. Townsend

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Woodside examines the basic norms and political culture of the imperial era, and how it influenced modern China's path, contrasting China and Europe along the way; while Wakeman describes the adaptation of political ideology to new situations over time.

All the May 4th papers are excellent, but especially Lloyd Eastman's on the economic and environmental causes of the modernity crisis, which led to May 4th. His paper pairs nicely with Zelin's earlier examination of the Qing economy.

Martin King Whyte's paper is especially good as well, comparing the imperial and Maoist states, and their relationship to society. The Maoist state is presented as realizing the imperial dream of total penetration of society, which was previously impossible due to technology and the weakness of the imperial state.

Economists Naughton and Perkins give balanced accounts of Mao and Deng era economies.

Vivienne Shue summarizes the controversial argument in her book _The Reach of the State_, which is, that the Maoist state was not able to penetrate the village and ensure obedience to its directives as thoroughly as it aspired to, that local leaders protected villagers to an extent, and the Dengist reforms accomplished this penetration more thoroughly.

Thomas Bernstein has long been among the most respected China scholars, and his contribution on the Mao era is balanced and insightful. He notes the PRC won mass support and popular legitimacy in the 1950s through its idealism in theory and practice, but that by the end of the Mao period, this faith had was eroded due to "ideological burnout" and the predictable impacts of Mao's view that "left" errors were well intentioned zeal gone too far, while "right" errors were subversive. Given the lack of political freedom after the collapse of the 100 Flowers, left-wing extremism was thus unavoidable. Bernstein gives credit to Mao for his warnings of the party-state becoming a bureaucratic vested interest group (as in the USSR) but correctly notes that he had no solution to this problem other than launching chaotic Cultural Revolutions every 8 years, a "doleful prospect" as Bernstein notes.

The papers on the Deng era are interesting to review in hindsight considering the situation was in radical flux at the time.

In this landmark case study, historian Rhonda Y. Williams redefines postwar urban history by placing black women's struggles at the center of an engaging and richly detailed narrative. Specifically, Williams focuses on the housing activism of poor black women in Baltimore to craft a story that expands the contours of the black freedom movement. By detailing the activism of low income women around everyday issues of "housing, food, clothing, and daily life in community spaces"--what the author describes as "activism at the point of consumption--The Politics of Public Housing unveils a hidden history of political struggle. Ultimately, this book chronicles the lives and heroic activism of tenants, community organizers, and single mothers who demanded dignity instead of demonization and held onto their self-respect in the face of horrible living conditions, insensitive bureacrats, and stigmas against pubic housing residents that relegated them to the political margins. Rhonda Y. Williams has successfully rescued these women's stories from history's dustbin and in the process produced a groundbreaking work of history. Readers interested in African-American, women's, urban, and working class history will enjoy this book.

This remarkable book about the start and progress of the first Roman Catholic Diocese in the USA is worth buying and reading. It provides wonderful insights into the way the Catholic Church digs in where it was rejected before, and builds a powerful foundation for future growth.

Prior to the 1776 Revolutionary War, the Catholic Church was literally outlawed in the then 13 British colonies of North America. After the war was won by the revolutionaries, the Roman Church immediately took steps to set up a branch of its organization in the newly established USA. Baltimore, Maryland was chosen as the headquarters site, and a former Jesuit priest from a prominent Maryland family was consecrated the first Catholic bishop in the USA. The Catholic Church divides the world up into geographical areas called "dioceses," or "sees," for short. Thus, the new (in 1787) Catholic diocese in the USA (in Baltimore) was (and is) the "Premier See" of the Roman Catholic Church in America.

This book, written by a Catholic Religious Brother named Thomas Spalding (a history professor from Spalding University in Kentucky), details the establishment and growth of the Premier See, the Catholic diocese (later archdiocese) headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.

The book is well written, and very interesting. Brother Spalding does not shrink from offering controversial material, even reports of criticism of various bishops and archbishops who led the Premier See in Baltimore over its 200 plus year history.

Any student of the Catholic Church, friend or foe, would do well to read this book. It tells the tale of a complicated and powerful religious organization in a very readable, informative way.

This book is a wonderful guide to bike trails. It makes planning trips easy and fun, and it's very descriptive about the specifics of each trail (gravel, grass, paved, etc.)

I thought I could just find this info on the internet, but to no avail, so I bought the book. I was nicely surprised that the book is exactly what I needed, good descriptions of each trail and a good map, AND how to get to the beginnings of each trail.