In 19th-century Leipzig, Toronto, New York, and Boston, a newly emergent group of industrialists and entrepreneurs entered into competition with older established elite groups for social recognition as well as cultural and political leadership. The competition was played out on the field of philanthropy, with the North American community gathering ideas from Europe about the establishment of cultural and public institutions. For example, to secure financing for their new museum, the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art organized its membership and fundraising on the model of German art museums. The process of cultural borrowing and intercultural transfer shaped urban landscapes with the building of new libraries, museums, and social housing projects. An important contribution to the relatively new field of transnational history, this book establishes philanthropy as a prime example of the conversion of economic resources into social and cultural capital.

Becoming Americans explains how diverse peoples, holding different and sometimes conflicting personal ambitions, evolved into a society that values both liberty and equality. "Taking Possession," "Enslaving Virginia," "Buying Respectability," "Redefining Family," "Choosing Revolution," and "Freeing Religion" explore the history behind the challenges that divide American society and the forces that unite it.

The Recovery of the West is the first full-scale study of Western civilization employing the methods of symbolic history. These methods permit (1) an account of the human endowment taking up thought, feeling, and behavior from fruitful new perspectives, (2) a correspondingly new account of the course of Western history seen from the point of view of the degrees of retention, surrender, and deformation of fundamental elements of the human endowment over time, and (3) a therapeutic program based on the present condition of that endowment.

Water spirits, moon maidens, haunted pianos, headless revenants, and an invincible terrapin that lives under the mountains. None of these distract James Holtzclaw from his employer¿s mission: to turn the fading gold-rush town of Auraria, GA, into a first-class resort and drown its fortunes below a man-made lake. But when Auraria¿s peculiar people and problematic ghosts collide with his own rival ambitions, Holtzclaw must decide what he will save and what will be washed away. Taking its inspiration from a real Georgia ghost town, Auraria is steeped in the folklore of the Southern Appalachians, where the tensions of natural, supernatural and artificial are still alive.

From a beloved master of crime fiction, The Lonely Silver Rain is one of many classic novels featuring Travis McGee, the hard-boiled detective who lives on a houseboat. Travis McGee has luck to thank for his reputation as a first-rate salvager of stolen boats. Now Billy Ingraham, a self-made tycoon, is betting that McGee can locate his $700,000 custom cruiser. McGee isn’t so sure. He knows all too well the dangerous link between Florida boatjackings and the drug trade, and he’s vowed never to swim with the sharks—but if he wants to keep his head (AKA finances) above water, swim he will. “As a young writer, all I ever wanted was to touch readers as powerfully as John D. MacDonald touched me.”—Dean Koontz Even though McGee doesn’t feel like sticking out his neck for this case, Billy’s wife, Millis, convinces him to step up to the challenge. Sort of. After a pilot friend leads him to the stolen vessel, McGee immediately regrets not going with his gut. The yacht is no longer an ordinary boat. It’s a slaughterhouse. After witnessing the sordid scene, McGee realizes he’s knee-deep in the white-hot center of an international cocaine ring. In the midst of this terrifying ordeal and an affair with a very dangerous woman, McGee is shocked by the return of a secret from his past. Over the years, McGee has recovered many wrecks—now he’ll need to salvage his own life. Features a new Introduction by Lee Child

Banking historiography often does not sufficiently take into account bankers’ deliberations of their decision making, but rather limits investigation to considerations of profit maximisation. This book shows that the decision-making processes of nineteenth-century bankers contemplating high-risk financial markets like Greece are just as complex as present-day investment decisions. The book, now published in English after a first German edition, offers in-depth studies of decision making in concrete historical situations, considering political and economic circumstances and also the individual background of the actors concerned, including a reflection on the influence of cultural movements such as Philhellenism. Employing methodological inspirations from the field of behavioural finance, the book analyses a broad range of published and unpublished English, French, Greek, German and Swiss sources on European investment in Greece between 1821 and the Balkan wars. Additionally, rich insights into Greek economic history, the economic integration of the country into Europe and long-lasting European stereotypes of Southern Europe and Greece are provided; this furthers understanding of the historical background of the Greek financial crisis after 2009. In combining the perspectives of financial, economic, political and cultural history, this book is primarily significant for students of various fields of historiography. Due to its strong awareness of methodological questions, it is also of great interest to academic historians. In addition, the strong public interest in the Greek financial crisis after 2009 and its consequences for Europe will, thirdly, attract the interest of a broader public.

In 1936, long before the discovery of the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, the Royal Ontario Museum made a sensational acquisition: the contents of a Viking grave that prospector Eddy Dodd said he had found on his mining claim east of Lake Nipigon. The relics remained on display for two decades, challenging understandings of when and where Europeans first reached the Americas. In 1956 the discovery was exposed as an unquestionable hoax, tarnishing the reputation of the museum director, Charles Trick Currelly, who had acquired the relics and insisted on their authenticity. Drawing on an array of archival sources, Douglas Hunter reconstructs the notorious hoax and its many players. Beardmore unfolds like a detective story as the author sifts through the voluminous evidence and follows the efforts of two unlikely debunkers, high-school teacher Teddy Elliott and government geologist T.L. Tanton, who find themselves up against Currelly and his scholarly allies. Along the way, the controversy draws in a who’s who of international figures in archaeology, Scandinavian studies, and the museum world, including anthropologist Edmund Carpenter, whose mid-1950s crusade against the find’s authenticity finally convinced scholars and curators that the grave was a fraud. Shedding light on museum practices and the state of the historical and archaeological professions in the mid-twentieth century, Beardmore offers an unparalleled view inside a major museum scandal to show how power can be exercised across professional networks and hamper efforts to arrive at the truth.

This book revises the picture of the glittering Chicago of impressive mansions and museums; it exposes the city's corrupt underbelly and the realities of life in an age which is often assumed to have been simpler and more moral than ours. Includes chapters on the Haymarket riot, the gamblers' wars, the notorious levee red-light district and institutionalized graft.

Set in steamy Blue Bayou, Louisiana, The Callahan Brothers features three sexy siblings and the fascinating women who fall in love with them. ?? Blue Bayou: Danielle Dupree and Jack Callahan both grew up in Blue Bayou, Louisiana; Danielle was the closest thing the community ever had to a princess, and Jack was the sexy bad-boy son of her wealthy father's housekeeper. Dani and Jack had a steamy love affair as teenagers, until Dani’s father, Judge Dupree, sends Jack away. Thirteen years later Dani returns to Blue Bayou as a widow with a young son. Jack too, has returned, having purchased the former Dupree home, the grand and stately Beau Soleil with hopes of restoring it to its former glory. A former DEA agent, Jack is now a bestselling writer. But even as their passion reignites, Dani and Jack know that secrets hang in the air…and that the past may ruin their second chance at a once-in-a-lifetime love. River Road: Free-spirited actress Julia Summers has wanted to be a Bond Girl all her life, so landing the role of Carma Sutra in the newest James Bond movie is a dream come true. But before she can head off to Katmandu to start her new role, she has to wrap up the season of the nighttime soap opera on which she plays a vixen. The cast is on location in Blue Bayou, LA when Julia begins to receive potentially threatening fan letters. Not wanting to put his star (and the show) at risk, the director hires no-nonsense FBI Agent Finn Callahan to act as a bodyguard. Julia and Finn soon discover that despite their differences, there's an undeniable attraction between them. Magnolia Moon: Detective Regan Hart’s life turns upside down when her dying mother confesses that Regan was adopted. Determined to learn the truth about her past, she travels to Blue Bayou to piece together her birth mother’s mysterious death and figure out the identity of her real father. The mayor of Blue Bayou, Nate Callahan, has always loved Southern belles. And they’ve always loved him right back. But when Regan comes to town, he finds himself drawn to the no-nonsense cop. And although she initially dismisses him as a rogue, Regan can’t help noticing a deeper side to Nate. With Nate’s help, Regan delves deep into her mysterious past—and ends up learning more about her family, her heart, and herself than she had ever expected.