New England History

The SS Portland was a solid and luxurious ship, and its loss in 1898 in a violent storm with some 200 people aboard was later remembered as “New England’s Titanic.” The Portland was one of New England's largest and most luxurious paddle steamers, and after nine years' solid performance, she had earned a reputation as a safe and dependable vessel. In November 1898, a perfect storm formed off the New England coast. Conditions would produce a blizzard with 100 miles per hour winds and 60-foot waves that pummeled the coast.

In Detestable and Wicked Arts, Paul B. Moyer places early New England's battle against black magic in a transatlantic perspective. Moyer provides an accessible and comprehensive examination of witch prosecutions in the Puritan colonies that discusses how their English inhabitants understood the crime of witchcraft, why some people ran a greater risk of being accused of occult misdeeds, and how gender intersected with witch-hunting.

In stories that are more personal than any that she's written before, Alice Munro transforms her family's history into gloriously imagined fiction.

For Alissa, life was once sweet, wrapped in the loving kindness of her mother, Alice, and innocent play with cousins. But a deadly epidemic and her mother’s false witchcraft conviction ended her childhood abruptly. She survived by leaning on her Aunt Rhody and forgetting the dark details that changed everything. However, as ugly rumors of another “witch” emerged in Windsor, Alissa could no longer hide from the past or herself. Through friendship and the support of her husband and later, her children, she confronts disturbing dreams and tragic events which unlock memories, reveal ...

A hundred-thousand zombies, four horny ladies, and a partridge in a f--king pear tree. What you might call an impossible situation Nick Dekko calls a busy Tuesday. Book two's here, and Nick’s back with Slade and his harem, fighting some, loving a whole lot, and doing his damnedest to find a way to the promised land. If your idea of a good time involves hot guns and hotter chicks, then you’ve come to the right place, my friend.

The Sabbath in Puritan New England by Alice Morse Earle published by Charles Scribner’s Sons 1891.

Between World War II and 1980, tens of thousands of Black people moved to Boston from the South as part of the Great Migration, one of the most consequential mass movements of people in American history. Black migration from the South transformed the city, as it did urban areas across the country. North to Boston is the first book to examine that important subject. Blake Gumprecht traces the history of this migration and explores its impacts in greater depth through the lives of ten individuals, each the subject of one chapter.

In the relatively short history of colonial Australia, one event stands apart, both for its revolutionary spirit and its impact: The Eureka Rebellion of December 3, 1854. This was the only time in Australian history when a government was resisted by free subjects of the Crown in a violent conflict. It only took place in one colony, Victoria, but it was an important event in the evolution of the democratic government in Australia as a whole. The Eureka Rebellion analyzes the chain of events that led to the fighting and its lasting impact.

A land of almost 3 million square miles has lain since time immemorial on the southern flank of the planet, so isolated that it remained entirely outside of European knowledge until 1770. However, the first human footprints on this vast territory were felt 70,000 years earlier. The history of the indigenous inhabitants of Australia is a complex. For generations after the arrival of whites in Australia, the Aboriginal people were disregarded and marginalized, largely because they offered little in the way of a labor resource, and they occupied land required for European settlement.

The Newgate Prison was a prison in London, at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey, just inside the city of London. It was originally located at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. The gate/prison was rebuilt in the 12th century and demolished in 1904. The prison was extended and rebuilt many times, and remained in use for over 700 years, from 1188 to 1902.

Spring - 1917. War is raging in Europe and America has just cast its lot against the German war machine. Back home, the nation is reeling with social strife: workers marching for their rights, immigrants demanding fair treatment, suffragettes clamoring for the vote. In Holyoke, Massachusetts, seventeen-year-old Jack Bernard has a new job at one of the city’s largest textile mills, hoping to save money for college. Meanwhile, his friend, Tom Wellington, appears to have taken control of his demons and set himself on a new course. Soon the lives of both young men, their families and friends,...

September, 1917. The nation has entered the Great War, the War to End All Wars. While young Americans by the hundreds of thousands march into battle in Europe, back home the nation's social fabric is torn asunder by patriotic fervor and xenophobia. When two German-American classmates are taunted in the schoolyard, 14-year-old Claire Bernard rushes to their defense. Her noble intentions soon plunge her into a dark world of international conspiracy where prejudice and suspicion blur distinctions between friend and foe, good and evil, where she could well become the next victim. Noah's Raven, ...

"...a special gem of historical fiction." Winston Lavallee, author of "Dancing in the Dark" "A joyful, engaging read from beginning to end...." Mark Ashton, Southbridge Evening News Trolley Days is the story of the unlikely bond between two boys growing up in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in the nineteen-teens. Jack Bernard was the son of a mill worker who had emigrated from Canada, Tom Wellington the son of the mill owner. They had barely spoken in nearly six months, yet in Jack’s mind Tom was still his best friend, and no snowstorm would prevent him from going to his friend’s aid. Soon Jack...

The British Colonization of New Zealand: The History of New Zealand from Settlement to Dominion analyzes the expeditions that discovered New Zealand and the early settlements and conflicts waged there from 1650 to 1850. You will learn about the European settlement of New Zealand like never before.

What was the bloodiest war in American history? Most people with at least a little knowledge of history would quickly say that it was the Civil War (1861-65), and they would certainly be correct overall. However, when historians go farther back in time and include colonial wars and look at casualties per capita, the correct answer would be the much-lesser known conflict known as "King Philip's War" (1675-76).

By the mid-17th century, the existence of a land in the south referred to as Terra Australis was generally known and understood by the Europeans, and incrementally, its shores were observed and mapped. Van Diemen’s Land, an island off the south coast of Australia now called Tasmania, was identified in 1642 by Dutch mariner Abel Tasman, and a few months later, the intrepid Dutchman would add New Zealand to the map of the known world.

The hilarious tale of the UK Independence Party's journey from rags to riches and back again from a front-line activist. Paul Oakley had five minutes of fame at a Young Conservative conference when he ripped up a copy of the Maastricht Treaty at the end of his speech attacking John Major's European policy. He stood for the Tories in the 2005 general election but failed to lie convincingly enough to be added to the A-list of candidates when David Cameron became party leader. So in 2011 he renounced his Tory membership in a fit of pique and joined UKIP.

In the early 21st century, “Englishness” suddenly became a hot topic. A rash of art exhibitions, pop albums, and coffee table books arrived on the scene, all desperate to recover England’s lost national soul. But when we sweep away the patriotic stereotypes, we begin to see that England is a country that does not - and perhaps should not - exist in any essential sense. In this provocative text combining polemic and memoir, Alex Niven argues that the map of the British Isles should be torn apart completely as we look towards a time of radical political reform.

Not all love stories have a happily ever after.... All Lydia de Lisle Edwards wants from her new marriage is to love and be loved by the handsome man who rescued her from the embarrassing, and potentially life shattering, ramifications of conceiving a child out of wedlock. However, as Lydia gets to know Isaac Edwards, along with the strange woman who serves as a mother-figure to her new husband, and the terrifying doctor specializing in women's health--particularly hysteria--Lydia begins to realize this marriage might just be her undoing. An exploration into the struggles of being a woman ...

1549. Katharine Parr, the last of Henry VIII's queens, has been dead for some eight months. Her cousin, Mary Odell, comes to mourn her by the beautiful marble tomb Thomas Seymour has erected at their home, Sudeley Castle. Alone in the peaceful chapel, Mary will never be able to predict the fate of Katharine's resting place in the centuries to come. 1782. Sudeley is a ruin and Katharine's body has lain hidden for decades. But a determined young woman has resolved to find her grave - and pay homage to her legacy.