On a summer day in 1898, a family in Dover, Delaware, shared a box of chocolates they received in the mail from an anonymous sender. Within days, two of the seven family members were dead, the other five became ill but recovered. The search for the perpetrator soon moved from Delaware to California, where a suspect was quickly identified: Cordelia Botkin, lover of the husband of one of the poisoned women. This book chronicles the shoddy invest...
The early 20th century saw the founding of the National Security League, a nationalistic nonprofit organization committed to an expanded military, conscripted service and meritocracy. This book details its history, from its formation in December 1914 through 1922, at which point it was a spent force in decline. Founded by wealthy corporate lawyers based in New York City, it had secret backers in the capitalist class, who had two goals in mind....
¿ In the last third of the 1800s, America was struck by a bicycle craze. This trend massively impacted the lives of women, allowing them greater mobility and changing perceptions of women as weak or in need of chaperons. This book traces the history and development of the American bicycle, observing its critical role in the fight for gender equality. The bicycle radically changed the face of fashion, health and even morality and propriety in A...
The electric vehicle seemed poised in 1900 to be a leader, even the dominant force, in the early American car market. They were clean, odorless, noiseless and they were mechanically simple, compared to their rivals. Yet just two decades later the electric car was dead. This book explores this early history of the electric car.
Looks at women who passed themselves off as men for a variety of reasons. This book is about a large number of women who were engaged in individual revolt against an obscenely unfair economic system that discriminated openly and egregiously against women. For virtually all the women profiled in this book the act of passing as a man was an act of rebellion against patriarcy.
This social history traces the evolution of women's smoking in the US from 1880 to 1950. From 1880 to 1908, women were not allowed to smoke in public places, with strong opposition based on moral concerns. By 1928, advertisers began to target female smokers, and over the next two decades women smokers gradually gained equality with male smokers.
Pity the "extras." Mostly overlooked and forgotten. Especially those in the major Hollywood films during the dream factory's golden era. The struggles of extras to unionize were followed by internal struggles as the extras fought for a voice within that union. It is a story about too few jobs for far too many extras, some of whom were lured to Hollywood by what seemed to be rags-to-riches tales of stardom but were likely little more than indus...
This book examines the history of sexual harassment in America's public places, such as on the streets and on public transit vehicles, in the period 1880 to 1930. Such behavior was referred to then as mashing with the harasser most commonly being called a masher. It began around 1880 as a response to the women's movement as females in America increased their efforts to gain more freedom of movement and greater independence.
Women going out an...
While sexual harassment of women in the workplace has only been discussed publicly in the mainstream media, to any extent, for less than two decades it is a pervasive problem that women have faced for centuries. This book looks at the history of that harassment from the 1600s to 1992, from long forgotten domestic servants in England of the 1600s to abused Japanese textile workers of 1900, to the media surrounded Anita Hill in 1991 America. Cov...
Payola is as old as the music industry and continues today. Contrary to popular belief, the acceptance of payola is legal. The recipients of payola and the reasons behind it are discussed decade-by-decade. The early bribes to the minstrel groups and vaudeville players are traced, as are modern-day payments to disc jockeys and radio station programme directors. Particular attention is paid to 1959 and 1960 when federal investigators attempted t...
Once the major Hollywood studios got over their loathing of television as an entertainment medium, they moved quickly to dominate both domestic and international programming. In the US, the eight major studios controlled a majority of all programming by the early 1950s. Their efforts in foreign markets were not quite so successful, but by the 1990s US distributors controlled about 75% of the international television trade. This history documen...
The authors document the numerous attempts to ban or censor rock music, and dramatically show how it has been blamed for everything from anarchy and juvenile delinquency to drugs, deafness, teen pregnancy, suicide, abortion, pornography, and even murder. Here is the complete history of that "sick, repulsive, horrible, and dangerous" music as seen by its enemies.
Examines the history of policewomen from 1880 to 2012, particularly in the US. It looks at the problems women had being accepted into the male police establishment and at the harassment and discrimination they often suffered from male officers. While women in policing have moved from matrons in 1880 to policewomen in 1910 (with limited duties) to regular officers in the 1970s, they faced harassment and discrimination that only worsened as they...
The poverty that drives people to begging has been a pressing social issue in this country since its inception. This historical book explores begging and beggars in the period 1850 to 1940, with emphasis on how the police, the courts, the media and private charity organizations dealt with the issue. Efforts to suppress mendicancy are explored, including legislation, police crackdowns, and public vouchers for meals and shelter. Of particular in...
