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The Maryland History and Culture Bibliography

Margolin, Samuel G. Lawlessness on the Maritime Frontier of the Greater Chesapeake, 1650-1750. Ph.D. diss., College of William and Mary, 1992.

Sweig, Donald. "A Capital on the Potomac: A 1789 Broadside and Alexandria's Attempts to Capture the Cherished Prize." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 87 (January 1979): 74-104.

Garitee, Jerome R. The Republic's Private Navy: The American Privateering Business as Practiced Baltimore during the War of 1812. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, Published for Mystic Seaport, Inc., 1977.
Notes: The British attack on Baltimore during the War of 1812 was motivated by a desire to punish the city for being a nest of republicans and privateers. This book traces in admirable detail the history of privateering - from the ships, outfitting, captains and crews, investors, their successes and failures, through the distribution of the prize money. While the pirates on the Spanish main may have been the dregs of the sea, Baltimore's privateers were underwritten by some of its leading mercantile and political leaders. The book includes useful appendices identifying the privateers, investors and proceeds.

Abribat, Beverly. "The Jefferson Island Club." Weather Gauge 24 (Fall 1988): 10-21; 25 (Fall 1989): 8-14.

Coers, D. V. "New Light on the Composition of Ebenezer Cook's Sot-Weed Factor." American Literature 49 (January 1978): 604-06.
Notes: Coers offers evidence to support the contention that Ebenezer Cook's satire <em>The Sot-Weed Factor</em> was likely written no earlier than 1702, later than the 1695 date previously ascribed. He draws upon internal references in Cook's writing to Queen Anne, not crowned monarch until 1702, and a Dorchester County Court land record to support his case. The later date would suggest that the work was based on his visit to Maryland in the 1690s, but not written until afterwards.

Ellis, Carolyn. Fisher Folk: Two Communities on the Chesapeake Bay. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1986.
Notes: A sociological case study of two traditional water-economy Chesapeake Bay communities, one in tidewater Virginia and the other on the islands of Maryland, both assigned pseudonyms in social science convention. Ellis contends that these isolated settlements retain distinctive elements of traditional culture, even as they increasingly are drawn into contact with and impacted by outside forces. Based on extensive field research conducted in the 1970s and early 1980s, this study examines family and kin, work, social organization, the role of religion, and mechanisms of social control. Ellis concludes with consideration of the prospects for the future in terms of preservation or change for traditional Chesapeake area communities.

Horton, Tom. An Island Out of Time: A Memoir of Smith Island in the Chesapeake. New York, W. W. Norton and Company, 1996.
Notes: Horton's title suggests his principal themes in examining Smith Island life: that the islands represent a distinctive way of life rooted in another time whose preservation into the future may literally be running out of time. An environmental columnist for the Baltimore <em>Sun</em> who lived on Smith Island in the late 1980s as an environmental educator with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Horton examines the water-related economy, traditionally based on oystering and crabbing, and the unique way of life that evolved in the relative isolation of the island communities. His book profiles the personalities of Smith Island, the work of men and women, the pervasive role of religion in island life, and social, economic, and environmental changes threatening the island's future.

Lesher, Pete. "Eastern Shore Summers: Waterfront Guest Houses and Hotels in the Age of Steam." Weather Gauge 35 (Fall 1999): 18-23.

Mills, Eric. Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties. Centreville, MD: Tidewater Publishers, 2000.

Sparks, Barry. "From Maryland's Past: The Dorchester County Baseball War." Maryland 20 (Summer 1988): 41.

Valliant, Joseph N., Jr. "Memories of Terrapin'in." Weather Gauge 35 (Spring 1999): 12-15, 25.

Warner, William W. Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs, and the Chesapeake Bay. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1976.
Notes: Naturalist writer Warner examines the Chesapeake Bay's blue crab-the "beautiful swimmer"--and the watermen whose distinctive economy and life-style have been based upon it. Warner uses the cycle of the seasons to trace the complex relationship between natural environment and human community, with attention both to the social patterns and economics of water-related societies. Traditional watermen communities of the Chesapeake Bay region receiving considerable attention are Deal Island, Smith Island, Kent Island, and Crisfield in Maryland, and Tangier Island in Virginia.

Wennersten, John R. "Dorchester County's Celebrity Hunt." Maryland 20 (Autumn 1987): 16- 19.

Brewington, M. V. Chesapeake Bay Log Canoes and Bugeyes. Cambridge, MD: Cornell Maritime Press, 1963.

Brown, Alexander Crosby. The Old Bay Line, 1840-1940. New York: Bonanza, 1940.

Burgess, Robert H. Chesapeake Circle. Cambridge, MD: Cornell, 1965.

Burgess, Robert H. Chesapeake Sailing Craft. Cambridge, MD: Tidewater, 1975.

Burgess, Robert H. This Was Chesapeake Bay. Centreville, MD: Tidewater, 1963.

Burgess, Robert H., and H. Graham Wood. Steamboats Out of Baltimore. Cambridge, MD: Cornell Maritime Press, 1965.

Carmer, Carl. The Susquehanna. New York: Rinehart, 1955.
Notes: One of the prestigious "Rivers of America" series, and for Marylanders a book-end volume to Frederick Gutheim's <em>The Potomac</em>. This is popular history at its best: powerfully-written, anecdotal--and what anecdotes! The story of Thomas Cresap is alone worth checking the book out of the library. Covers the downriver ark traffic and the attempts of steamboats to conquer the rocky and unruly Susquehanna.

Catton, William H. "How Rails Saved a Seaport." American Heritage 8 (1957): 26-31, 93-95.

Catton, William H. John W. Garrett of the Baltimore and Ohio: A Study in Seaport and Railroad Competition, 1820-1874. Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1959.

Chapelle, Howard I. The Baltimore Clipper. Hatboro, PA: Tradition Press, 1965.
Notes: First published in 1930, this is a classic treatment, with drawings and illustrations, of a famous ship developed on the Chesapeake Bay. The author, one of America's most distinguished naval historians, lived for many years on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Cudahy, Brian J. Twilight on the Bay: The Excursion Boat Empire of B. B. Wills. Centreville, MD: Tidewater, 1998.

Dohan, Mary Helen. Mr. Roosevelt's Steamboat; the First Steamboat to Travel the Mississippi. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1981.

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