By Ishmael Beah

The first chapter: There were all kinds of stories told about the war that made it sound as fi it was happening in a faraway and different land. It wasn't until refugees started passing through our town that we began to see that it was actually taking place in our country. Families who had walked hundreds of miles told how relatives had been killed and their houses burned. Some people felt sorry for them and offered them places to stay, but most of the refugees refused, because they said the war would eventually reach our town. The children of these families wouldn't look at us, and they jumped at the sound of chopping wood or as stones landed on the tin roofs flung by children hunting birds with slingshots. The adults among these children from the war zones would be lost in their thoughts during conversations with the elders of my town. Apart from their fatigue and malnourishment, it was evident they had seen something that plagued their minds, something that we would refuse to accept if they told us al of it.

NY. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2007. 256p.. USED BOOK. CONTAINS MARK-UP

Edited by Tim Causer

Among the vast body of manuscripts composed and collected by the philosopher and reformer Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832), held by UCL Library's Special Collections, is the earliest Australian convict narrative, Memorandoms by James Martin. This document also happens to be the only extant first-hand account of the most well-known, and most mythologized, escape from Australia by transported convicts. On the night of 28 March 1791, James Martin, William and Mary Bryant and their two infant children, and six other male convicts, stole the colony's fishing boat and sailed out of Sydney Harbour. Within ten weeks they had reached Kupang in West Timor, having, in an amazing feat of endurance, travelled over 3,000 miles (c. 5,000) kilometres) in an open boat. There they passed themselves off as the survivors of a shipwreck, a ruse which-initially, at least-fooled their Dutch hosts. This new edition of the Memorandoms includes full colour reproductions of the original manuscripts, making available for the first time this hugely important document, alongside a transcript with commentary describing the events and key characters. The book also features a scholarly introduction which examines their escape and early convict absconding in New South Wales more generally, and, drawing on primary records, presents new research which sheds light on the fate of the escapees after they reached Kupang. The introduction also assesses the voluminous literature on this most famous escape, and critically examines the myths and fictions created around it and the escapees, myths which have gone unchallenged for far too long. Finally, the introduction briefly discusses Jeremy Bentham's views on convict transportation and their enduring impact. [Show full item record]

London: UCL Press, 2017. 204p.

By Anthony Comstock.

Or, how the people are deceived and robbed, and youth corrupted. My object is to expose the multitudinous schemes and devices of the sharper to deceive and rob the unwary and credulous through the mails; to warn honest and simple-minded persons ; to shield our youth from debauching and corrupting influences ; to arouse a public sentiment against the vampires who are casting deadly poison into the fountain of moral purity in the children ; and at the same time expose to public indignation the infidels and liberals who defend these moral cancer-planters.

New York: J.H. Brown, 1880. 576p.

By Samuel Hopkins Adams.

Articles on the nostrum evil and quacks, in two series, reprinted from Collier's weekly. This is the introductory article to a series which will contain a full explanation and exposure of patent-medicine methods, and the harm done to the public by this industry, founded mainly on fraud and poison. Results of the publicity given to these methods can already be seen in the steps recently taken by the National Government, some State Govermnents and a few of the more reputable newspapers. The object of the series is to make the situation so familiar- and thoroughly understood that there will be a speedy end to the worst aspects of the evil.

New York: P. F. Collier & Son 1906. 146p.

By Samuel Paynter Wilson.

The volume now offered to the reader aims to be a faithful and graphic pen picture of Chicago and its countless sights, its romance, its mysteries, its nobler and better efforts in the cause of humanity, its dark crimes, and terrible tragedies. In short, the work endeavors to hold up to the reader a faithful mirror in which shall pass all the varied scenes that transpire in Chicago by sunlight and by gaslight. To those who have seen the great city, the work is offered as a means of recalling some of the pleasantest experiences of their lives; while to the still larger class who have never enjoyed this pleasure, it is hoped that it will be the medium of acquiring an intimate acquaintance with Chicago in the quiet of their homes. This volume is not a work of fiction, but a narrative of well authenticated, though often startling facts. The darker sides of Chicago life are shown in their true colors, and without any effort to tone them down. Foul blots are to be found upon the life of the great city. Sin, vice, crime and shame are terrible realities there, and they have been presented here as they actually exist.

Chicago: s.n., 1910. 148p.

By Samuel Paynter Wilson.

Prevalence of prostitution in Chicago : startling revelations. Madame Leroque is a familiar figure in the alsatia of more than one city. She is famous in the Chicago courts as having been defendant in many cases of wrongdoing. Her career is known by the police from coast to coast, and she has plied her calling in many of the large cities of the country. It was after a "raid" that I made Lena Mur phy's acquaintance. I was making my rounds, and slung by the cold winds that swept the streets bare of dust and refuse, I entered a neighboring saloon. Seating myself at a nearby table I was soon approached by the person whom I call Lena IMurphy. Lena was flushed, and somewhat forward ; both her eyes were discolored, the result of a fight with a French inmate of the "house'' adjoining the saloon.

Chicago. Author, 1910. 48p.

By Julie Draskoczy.

From the Introduction: “In his autobiography the Belomor prisoner Andrei Kupriianov wrote, ‘No, I am not an alien element. I am united with the working class in soul, body, and blood. My father, mother, and I were all killed for the cause of the working class.’ While his parents’ deaths were literal, Kupriianov’s own death was metaphorical—his former, criminal self had been killed to allow for the creation of a devoted Soviet citizen. Kupriianov immediately introduces physicality and violence into the understanding of his identity…

Academic Studies Press (2014). 253 pages.

By Douglas M. Charles

. In this very timely manuscript, Douglas M. Charles reveals how FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover catered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s political interests. Between 1939 and 1945, the Federal Bureau of Investigation monitored the political activities of President Roosevelt’s anti-interventionist foreign policy critics. Hoover, whose position as FBI director was tenuous within the left-of-center Roosevelt administration, catered to the president’s political and policy interests in order to preserve his position and to expand FBI authority. In his pragmatic effort to service administration political goals, Hoover employed illegal wiretaps and informers, collected derogatory information, conducted investigations that had the potential to discredit the anti-interventionists, forwarded political intelligence to administration officials, and coordinated some activity with British intelligence. This all occurred within a crisis atmosphere created with the onset of the Second World War, and it was this political dynamic that permitted Hoover to successfully cultivate his relationship with President Roosevelt. In the process, the administration’s otherwise legitimate foreign policy opposition—regarded by some as subversive—had their civil liberties violated through intensive FBI scrutiny of their political dissent. Moreover, the FBI’s surveillance marks the origins of the FBI’s role in the later national security state. Among the targets examined in this book are Charles Lindbergh, the America First Committee, notable anti-interventionist senators and congressmen, the anti-interventionist press, and other prominent individuals who advocated American isolation from foreign war.

Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2007. 197p,