Kirjahaku

A rich panorama of fascinating Civil War history, this is the story of gunboats and smugglers, privateers and street-brawlers. The chronicle of mighty armies and ironclads, shoreline artillery and tidewater guerillas, blockade-running oystermen, and the unsung sailors of the Potomac Flotilla. This is the story of the Chesapeake Bay in the Civil War.

When Prohibition was the law, Chesapeake Bay was a smuggler’s paradise. Rogues of all types transported boatloads of forbidden liquor in the days when America experimented with forced, and unforeseeable, temperance. In a style reminiscent of the era it describes, Eric Mills brings to life the world of mobster and preacher, rumrunner and revenue man, moonshine and “real McCoy.” It was a whiskey-soaked age that was supposed to be dry. Prohibition may have been the law of the land, but the Chesapeake Bay country was awash in illegal alcohol. The marshes were teeming with hidden stills, and bootleg liquor was smuggled throughout the waterways and adjoining countryside by daring men in fast boats and faster cars. Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties is a saga of people—watermen and steamer captains, mob racketeers and “legitimate” businessmen—all of them wanting part of the action. In the maze of bay waters, boats played a key role in that action, many disguised as workboats but built for speed and the ability to outmaneuver the law. On the other side, Billy Sunday and an army of temperance crusaders campaigned tirelessly to encourage Prohibition, while federal agents and Coast Guardsmen shared the impossible task of enforcing it. Using a mix of news reports, government records, and local lore, the author has written a fascinating account of a memorable chapter in Chesapeake history.

John Gunn has found himself the perfect job, close to his home in South Devon. Having trained as a marine biologist, it's a change of career, but it will allow him to set up home with Kate, his long-term girlfriend. But within weeks, it all starts going wrong. Together with his boss Bill Hexter, he becomes embroiled in a macabre discovery on a local farm. It looks like a scoop. But with no explanation, Bill tells him to drop the story. Ever impetuous, John persists and is summarily fired. The following day, Bill is killed in suspicious circumstances. Realising he must be the prime suspect, John tries to discover the truth behind Bill's death, whilst staying out of reach of the law.

Oceans have had a mysterious allure for centuries, inspiring fears, myths, and poetic imaginations. By the early twentieth century, however, scientists began to see oceans as physical phenomena that could be understood through mathematical geophysics. The Fluid Envelope of Our Planet explores the scientific developments from the early middle ages to the twentieth century that illuminated the once murky depths of oceanography. Tracing the transition from descriptive to mathematical analyses of the oceans, Eric Mills examines sailors' and explorers' observations of the oceans, the influence of Scandinavian techniques on German-speaking geographers, and the eventual development of shared quantitative practices and ideas. A detailed and beautifully written account of the history of oceanography, The Fluid Envelope of Our Planet is also an engaging account of the emergence of a scientific discipline.

First published in 1989, Eric L. Mills’s comprehensive history of biological oceanography has been praised as ‘superb’ (BioScience) and ‘proof that history need not be dull’ (The Northern Mariner). This first history of the field, which chronicles the scientific work and creativity of its chief contributors, tells a riveting story that is far from narrowly scientific and thoroughly accessible to general readers. Mills shows how the work and ideas of the main actors are inseparable from some seemingly unrelated factors, including Prussian imperialism, agricultural chemistry, microbiology, and the problems of German universities. Mills also illustrates the significant roles played in the field’s development by the failures of commercial fisheries, the development of analytical chemistry, the establishment of international scientific organizations, and sheer scientific curiosity. This new edition of Biological Oceanography includes a fresh introduction by the author, as well as an original foreword by noted oceanographer John Cullen. It makes an excellent companion to Mills’s recent history of mathematical and physical oceanography, the multi-award-winning and widely acclaimed The Fluid Envelope of Our Planet.