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To what extent was Rosario “Russell” Bufalino involved in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa in 1975? In the CIA’s recruitment of gangsters to assassinate Fidel Castro? In organizing the historic meeting of crime chieftains in 1957? Even in the production of The Godfather movie?   A uniquely American saga that spans six decades, The Quiet Don follows Russell Bufalino’s remarkably quiet ascent from Sicilian immigrant to mob soldier to a man described by a United States Senate subcommittee in 1964...

First published in 1971 and long out of print, this classic account of Colonial-era New York chronicles how the state was buffeted by political and sectional rivalries and by conflict arising from a wide diversity of ethnic and religious identities. New York's highly volatile and contentious political life, Patricia U. Bonomi shows, gave rise to several interest groups for whose support political leaders had to compete, resulting in new levels of democratic participation.

An American tourist in Europe stopped at a restaurant in Gdansk, Poland, and struck up a conversation with a local. 'Where do you come from?' he asked. 'New Jersey', she said. He smiled and replied, 'Ah, ""Sopranos""'. Even fans of that popular show, one that held viewers captive, may be a bit disheartened to discover that the first thing that pops into minds around the world about New Jersey is a dysfunctional crime family, just an exit or two off the infamous N.J. Turnpike. But there's no need...

In the same absorbing style that characterized his bestseller Lost Hollywood--here complemented by more than twenty archival photos--David Wallace presents a richly detailed, reader-friendly chronicle of the Prohibition-era personalities and events that made New York City the cultural and financial capital of the world. Sex, sin, song, work, sports, play--all these aspects of New York and more are told through a rich array of anecdotes and "inside" profiles of the individuals that personified th...

What if racialized mass incarceration is not a perversion of our criminal justice system's liberal ideals, but rather a natural conclusion? Adam Malka raises this disturbing possibility through a gripping look at the origins of modern policing in the influential hub of Baltimore during and after slavery's final decades. He argues that America's new professional police forces and prisons were developed to expand, not curb, the reach of white vigilantes, and are best understood as a uniformed wing...

In early 1947 residents of the west side of Carbondale, Pennsylvania began noticing a peculiar steam escaping from the ground. An investigation into this phenomenon revealed that Carbondale was slowly but steadily being destroyed by an inferno deep below its surface - a fire raging through the deserted anthracite mine shafts that twisted and turned beneath that part of the city. After several years of attempting to contain the fire by flushing, municipal leaders decided that the only sure way of...

This newly revised and expanded edition of Baltimore Harbor provides a lively, heavily illustrated history of a vital American port that connects the Chesapeake Bay with the rest of the world. Using photographs, historic illustrations, and stories, Robert Keith traces the harbor's fascinating history. An ideal hub for the bay's network of paddlewheel steamers, the working port grew quickly alongside the shipbuilding industry at Fells Point and Federal Hill. This growth continued as the nation's...

2022 PROSE Awards Category Winner - Biography & Autobiography The fascinating biography of Eunice Hunton Carter, a social justice and civil rights trailblazer and the only woman prosecutor on the Luciano trial Eunice Hunton Carter rose to public prominence in 1936 as both the only woman and the only person of color on Thomas Dewey's famous gangbuster team that prosecuted mobster Lucky Luciano. But her life before and after the trial remains relatively unknown. In this definitive biography on t...

From city streets to City Hall and to Midtown corporate offices, Saving Stuyvesant Town is the incredible true story of how one middle class community defeated the largest residential real estate deal in American history. Lifetime Stuy Town resident and former City Councilman Dan Garodnick recounts how his neighbors stood up to mammoth real estate interests and successfully fought to save their homes, delivering New York City's biggest-ever affordable housing preservation win.  In 2006, Garodni...

New York has always been a bellwether for the nation, representing both its brightest ambitions and its darkest fears. The Restless City is a short, readable history of New York City, from colonial times to the present, showing how the successes and struggles of the city reinforced each other to create a distinctly dynamic, shocking, and therefore influential city. Organized around conventional time periods, each chapter provides an introduction to the era, followed by four or five mini-essays o...

As the University of Maryland prepares to christen the state of the art Comcast Center, what better time to look back at the Terrapins path from college basketball obscurity to NCAA champions? Maryland Basketball: Tales from Cole Field House is a story 47 years in the making. Native Marylander and former Terp beat writer Paul McMullen recounts the history of the University of Maryland's men's basketball program during the Cole years, from 1955-2002. It is a story of tragedy and triumph, and tou...