San Diego Yesterday


Book Description

San Diego today is a vibrant and bustling coastal city, but it wasn't always so. The city's transformation from a rough-hewn border town and frontier port to a vital military center was marked by growing pains and political clashes. Civic highs and criminal lows have defined San Diego's rise through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries into a preeminent Sun Belt city. Historian Richard W. Crawford recalls the significant events and one-of-a-kind characters like benefactor Frank "Booze" Beyer, baseball hero Albert Spalding and novelist Scott O'Dell. Join Crawford for a collection that recounts how San Diego yesterday laid the foundation for the city's bright future.




San Diego Then and Now®


Book Description

Known to its residents as "America’s Finest City," San Diego has a mild, inviting climate and stunning coastal scenery. San Diego Then and Now looks at how the city developed from a small village settled by early Franciscan missionaries and the Spanish military. It came under U.S. rule in 1846, but it was not until 1867 when San Francisco speculator and businessman Alonzo E. Horton acquired 960 acres of waterfront land and promoted it as "New Town" that San Diego really began to take off.San Diego Then and Now pairs archival photographs with modern views of the same scene to illustrate the city’s growth since these humble beginnings. It shows how the city’s architecture still reflects and preserves its Spanish heritage but also incorporates modern glass skyscrapers and Victorian mansions.Sites include: Horton Plaza, U.S. Grant Hotel, Stingaree District, Speckels Theatre, Fifth Avenue, Seaport Village, Embarcadero, Star of India, Coronado, Hotel del Coronado, Santa Fe Depot, Carnegie Library, El Cortez Hotel, Long-Waterman Mansion, Villa Montezuma, The Prado, San Diego Zoo, Old Globe Theatre, San Diego High School, Hillcrest, City Heights, Kensington, La Casa de Estudillo, Casa de Bandini, Whaley House, Junipero Serra Museum, Ballast Point, Point Loma, Ocean Beach and Pacific Beach.




The Way We Were in San Diego


Book Description

San Diego, known for its perfect weather, naval ties and landmarks like the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park, has a history as incredible as its stunning shoreline. In this collection of articles from his San Diego Union-Tribune column "The Way We Were," Richard W. Crawford recounts stories from the city's early history that once splashed across the headlines. Read about Ruth Alexander's aviation feats, the water pipeline carved from Humboldt County redwoods, the jailbreak of a man facing ten years in San Quentin for cow theft, a visit from escape artist Harry Houdini and the Purity League's closure of the Stingaree red-light district. These stories highlight San Diego's progress from a humble frontier port to the stylish city it is today.




The Plan de San Diego


Book Description

The Plan of San Diego, a rebellion proposed in 1915 to overthrow the U.S. government in the Southwest and establish a Hispanic republic in its stead, remains one of the most tantalizing documents of the Mexican Revolution. The plan called for an insurrection of Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and African Americans in support of the Mexican Revolution and the waging of a genocidal war against Anglos. The resulting violence approached a race war and has usually been portrayed as a Hispanic struggle for liberation brutally crushed by the Texas Rangers, among others. The Plan de San Diego: Tejano Rebellion, Mexican Intrigue, based on newly available archival documents, is a revisionist interpretation focusing on both south Texas and Mexico. Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler argue convincingly that the insurrection in Texas was made possible by support from Mexico when it suited the regime of President Venustiano Carranza, who co-opted and manipulated the plan and its supporters for his own political and diplomatic purposes in support of the Mexican Revolution. The study examines the papers of Augustine Garza, a leading promoter of the plan, as well as recently released and hitherto unexamined archival material from the Federal Bureau of Investigation documenting the day-to-day events of the conflict.




San Diego's Naval Training Center


Book Description

San Diegoas Naval Training Center (NTC) was commissioned on June 1, 1923, and for 70 years served as a young recruitas introduction to a naval career, beginning with nine weeks of basic orientation and organization training (BOOT) camp. Originally consisting of 135 acres adjacent to San Diego Bay, NTC eventually expanded to almost 550 acres with 300 buildings, landscaped promenades, parade grounds, and a concrete training anon-ship, a the USS Recruit (a.k.a. USS Neversail), where recruits learned their first duties of seamanship. Advanced training schools were later added for military personnel learning specialized duties. After training hundreds of thousands of recruits, NTC was officially closed on April 30, 1997, and has since been transformed into San Diegoas new and vibrant cultural center, Liberty Station.




The Yesterday Project


Book Description

Literary Nonfiction. THE YESTERDAY PROJECT finds Ben Doller and Sandra Doller undertaking a seemingly simple, stripped-down, though thoroughly brave and highly personal blind collaboration. Each separately wrote a document recording the previous day, every day, for 32 days, without sharing their work over the summer of 2014 in the shadow of a diagnosis of life-threatening illness: Melanoma cancer, Stage 3. The resulting work is a declaration of dependence a relentlessly honest chronicle of shared identity and the risks inherent in deep connection. "Like a complex game, the secrets of a relationship translate across an invisible barrier, combining into a beautiful third voice, the voice of a couple in crisis and reawakening, the book of that voice." Thalia Field "Even while we read the poetic reminiscences of meals and outings and activities, we also see what is ached for, what is missing. We get two sides to the same glorious coin and witness, through an elegant and sacred literary communion, how two lives are one." Jenny Boully"




Skylines


Book Description

With the completion of the world's first skyscraper in Chicago in 1885, the modern city skyline was born. A result of American technology and ingenuity, the 180-foot steel-framed Home Insurance Building rose above the city, and Americans have been reaching higher ever since. From Boston, steeped in history, to Las Vegas, a modern mirage in the desert, to Honolulu, America's paradise, each city has its own story. 'Skylines' takes us cross country and back in time to witness the steady growth of our great nation-city by city. For even the most well-seasoned air traveller, a city emerging from beneath the clouds is a compelling sight. Though the perspective is different for those arriving in cars, trains, on bicycles, or on foot, the first view of a city is always memorable. Throughout history, cartographers and explorers, photographer and artists have produced meticulous panoramas of urban areas-from the decks of ships, aloft in hot-air balloons, or perched on the side of a high hill. This sumptuous volume showcases the skylines of 48 great American cities with the spectacular panoramic photographs of Blakeway World-wide Panoramas.James Blakeway and Chris Gjevre have travelled the world photographing cities and other major attractions, waiting for the perfect time to take to the skies and capture each subject at its best. Complementing these images are historical photographs and bird's-eye-view maps reflecting each city's distinct character. The book completes its spectacular tour with a well-travelled historian guiding the reader through each city, offering atmospheric written portraits to accompany the antique photos and stunning Blakeway panoramas.




West from Yesterday


Book Description

Clairborne embraced his mother, then his sister. He took off his broad-brimmed grey hat, swept it downward in his best cavalier salute, turned and rode off, not once looking back. There's no turning back in Randolph Carter Harrison's riveting debut novel, West from Yesterday, where one man's flight from the past may cost him everything. Tucker Clairborne's world is shattered by the Civil War and its horrific aftermath when his father and brother are killed. Expected to take over the family's Virginia plantation, he abandons expectations and rides west toward the unknown. This decision plunges Clairborne down a path defined by discovery and sudden death. Dismayed by his talent for killing, he reluctantly joins forces with an ex-slave who served in the 10th US Cavalry regiment. Together, these unlikely allies enter the country's hostile heartland, confronting Comanche, prejudice and the infinite hazard of the landscape they must cross. But the countryside may prove the least of their worries as danger closes in, forcing Clairborne to face down his demons once and for all. An adrenaline-pumping ride through an unforgiving land, West from Yesterday brings the Wild West to life like never before.




Twisted Tour Guide to San Diego: Shocking Deaths, Scandals and Vice


Book Description

Avoid The Tourist Herds. What could be more uninspiring than seeing the identical attractions that everyone else has for decades? This Twisted Tour Guide escorts you to the places locals don’t want to talk about anymore…the same places people once couldn’t stop talking about. Long after the screaming headlines and sensationalism has subsided, these bizarre, infamous and obscure historical sites remain hidden awaiting rediscovery. Each visitation site in this guide is accompanied by a story. Many of the narratives defy believability, yet they are true. The profiled cast of characters feature saints and sinners (with emphasis towards the latter). Notorious crimes, murders, accidental deaths, suicides, kidnappings, vice and scandal are captivating human interest tales. The photography from each profile showcases the precise location where each event occurred. The scenes can seem ordinary, weird and/or sometimes very revealing towards clarifying the background behind events. If you’re seeking an alternative to conventional tourism, this Twisted Tourist Guide is ideal. Each directory accommodates the restless traveler and even resident looking for something unique and different. Historical Scandals: Dead Man’s Point, Old Town’s Flawed Jail, Hanging A Horse Thief, A Rouge Litany of Flawed Mayors, The Rainmaker, Abraham Lincoln’s Love Letters, Kumeyaay Forced Relocation, Children’s Hospital Tainted Blood, Strippergate, Big Boom Bust and Del Mar Racehorse Fatalities. Flawed Personalities: Count Agoston Haraszthy, Davis’ Waterfront Folly, The Future Duchess of Windsor, Beach Boy Brian Wilson’s Vagrancy Arrest, Actor Desi Arnez’s Parking Shooting, Bird Rock Bandits Fatal Beating, Distancing From Aviator Charles Lindbergh, Junior Seau, Kellen Winslow II, Online Influencer Ali Abulaban and Unconventional Dr. Seuss. Architecture With A Distinctive Past: Stingaree District, The Golden Poppy Brothel, U.S. Grant Hotel, Cabrillo Monument, Escondido Bomb Factory, 101 Ash Street Skyscraper and Horton Plaza Hospitality and Hauntings Casa de Estudillo, Cosmopolitan Hotel, Whaley House, Villa Montezuma, El Cortez Hotel and Del Coronado Resort Hotel, Financial Sleights of Hand California National Bank Bust, Anti-Gambling Crusade, C. Arnholt Smith’s Crumbled Empire, J. David Investments and the Foreign Currency Scam, Congressman Randy Cunningham, Drug Money Laundering Sting of a Political Fixer, Congressman Duncan Duane Hunter and Gina Champion-Cain Legacies and Notorious Events Southern California To Phoenix Road Race, Balboa Park’s Nudist Colony, Japanese-American Internment, Elvis Presley’s 1956 Concert, El Cajon Boulevard Drag Racing Riots, Del Coronado Bridge Suicides, Baseball’s Roberto Clemente Abduction, Midair Collision of PSA Flight #182 and Cessna aircraft and Menacing Runaway Tank. Infamous Murders Ruth Sackett Muir, Morse and Goedecke Family Murders, Tara Rand, Donald Tubach, Mobster Frank Bompensiero, Robert Alton Harris, Torrey Pines Beach, Brenda Spencer, San Ysidro McDonald’s Massacre, Broderick versus Broderick, John Morency, San Diego State Graduate Student Kills His Professors, Comic Publisher Todd Loren, Charles Keever and Jonathan Sellers, Father Louis Gutierrez, Heaven’s Gate Mass Suicide, Santana High School Shooting, Serial Killer John Albert Gardner III, Ryan Jenkins, Trading Places With Your Murder Victim, Vanishing McStay Family, Death at Speckles Mansion, Suburban Bondage Killing, Murder and Abduction By A Trusted Family Friend, Homeless Serial Killer, Poolside Party Shooter and Poway Synagogue Shooting Law Enforcement Related Killings Fatal City Jail Fire, Hub Loan Shoot Out, Grape Street Park, Officers Christopher Wilson, Jeremy Henwood and Jonathan DeGuzman, Demetrius DuBose and Daniel Chong’s Isolation Hell.




Yesterday's Man


Book Description

A deep dive into Joe Biden’s history and the origins of his political values Yesterday’s Man exposes the forgotten history of Joe Biden, one of the United States’s longest-serving politicians, and one of its least scrutinized. Over nearly fifty years in politics, the man called “Middle-Class Joe” served as a key architect of the Democratic Party’s rightward turn, ushering in the end of the liberal New Deal order and enabling the political takeover of the radical right. Far from being a liberal stalwart, Biden often outdid even Reagan, Gingrich, and Bush, assisting the right-wing war against the working class, and ultimately paving the way for Trump. The most comprehensive political biography of someone who has tried for decades to be president, Yesterday’s Man is an essential read for anyone interested in knowing the real Joe Biden and what he might do in office.