Download or read book Factory Man written by Beth Macy and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The instant New York Times bestseller about one man's battle to save hundreds of jobs by demonstrating the greatness of American business. The Bassett Furniture Company was once the world's biggest wood furniture manufacturer. Run by the same powerful Virginia family for generations, it was also the center of life in Bassett, Virginia. But beginning in the 1980s, the first waves of Asian competition hit, and ultimately Bassett was forced to send its production overseas. One man fought back: John Bassett III, a shrewd and determined third-generation factory man, now chairman of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co, which employs more than 700 Virginians and has sales of more than $90 million. In Factory Man, Beth Macy brings to life Bassett's deeply personal furniture and family story, along with a host of characters from an industry that was as cutthroat as it was colorful. As she shows how he uses legal maneuvers, factory efficiencies, and sheer grit and cunning to save hundreds of jobs, she also reveals the truth about modern industry in America.

Download or read book Virginians and Their Histories written by Brent Tarter and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2020-05-26 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Histories of Virginia have traditionally traced the same significant but narrow lines, overlooking whole swathes of human experience crucial to an understanding of the commonwealth. With Virginians and Their Histories, Brent Tarter presents a fresh, new interpretive narrative that incorporates the experiences of all residents of Virginia from the earliest times to the first decades of the twenty-first century, affording readers the most comprehensive and wide-ranging account of Virginia’s story. Tarter draws on primary resources for every decade of the Old Dominion's English-language history, as well as a wealth of recent scholarship that illuminates in new ways how demographic changes, economic growth, social and cultural changes, and religious sensibilities and gender relationships have affected the manner in which Virginians have lived. Virginians and Their Histories interweaves the experiences of Virginians of different racial and ethnic backgrounds and classes, representing a variety of eras and regions, to understand what they separately and jointly created, and how they responded to economic, political, and social changes on a national and even global level. That large context is essential for properly understanding the influences of Virginians on, and the responses of Virginians to, the constantly changing world in which they have lived. This groundbreaking work of scholarship—generously illustrated and engagingly written—will become the definitive account for general readers and all students of Virginia’s diverse and vibrant history.

Download or read book The Roanoke Valley in the 1940s written by Nelson Harris and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-18 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of the Roanoke Valley during the 1940s has largely been unexplored until now. This significant decade bore witness to the birth of the local civil rights movement, the impact of World War II and the postwar boom in public projects and private development. The J-Class locomotives, Carver School, Woodrum Field, Victory Stadium, Carvins Cove, the Roanoke Star, the end of streetcars, and the advent of drive-in theaters all marked the decade. Crowds thronged to see the biggest names in radio, film and music at the American Legion Auditorium, the Academy of Music and the Roanoke Theatre, while Major League baseball and professional football brought exhibition games to Maher Field and Victory Stadium. Local historian Nelson Harris provides a detailed account of this dynamic decade along with 300 archival photographs.

Download or read book Roanoke Virginia 1882 1912 written by Rand Dotson and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tells the story of a city that for a brief period was widely hailed as a regional model for industrialization as well as the ultimate success symbol for the rehabilitation of the former Confederacy. In a region where modernization seemed to move at a glacial pace, those looking for signs of what they were triumphantly calling the "New South" pointed to Roanoke. No southern city grew faster than Roanoke did during the 1880s. A hardscrabble Appalachian tobacco depot originally known by the uninspiring name of Big Lick, it became a veritable boomtown by the end of the decade as a steady stream of investment and skilled manpower flowed in from north of the Mason-Dixon line. The first scholarly treatment of Roanoke's early history, the book explains how native businessmen convinced a northern investment company to make their small town a major railroad hub. It then describes how that venture initially paid off, as the influx of thousands of people from the North and the surrounding Virginia countryside helped make Roanoke - presumptuously christened the "Magic City" by New South proponents - the state's third-largest city by the turn of the century. Rand Dotson recounts what life was like for Roanoke's wealthy elites, working poor, and African American inhabitants. He also explores the social conflicts that ultimately erupted as a result of well-intended 3reforms4 initiated by city leaders. Dotson illustrates how residents mediated the catastrophic Depression of 1893 and that year's infamous Roanoke Riot, which exposed the faȧde masking the city's racial tensions, inadequate physical infrastructure, and provincial mentality of the local populace. Dotson then details the subsequent attempts of business boosters and progressive reformers to attract the additional investments needed to put their city back on track. Ultimately, Dotson explains, Roanoke's early struggles stemmed from its business leaders' unwavering belief that economic development would serve as the panacea for all of the town's problems.

Download or read book Time Full of Trial written by Patricia Catherine Click and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the development of Roanoke Island freedmen's colony, from its 1863 settlement as a thriving community for slaves seeking freedom, to its 1867 demise due to conflicts over land ownership.

Download or read book Mister Owita s Guide to Gardening written by Carol Wall and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this profoundly moving memoir, Owita teaches Wall how to find grace amid heartbreak and to accept that beauty exists because it is fleeting—as in her garden, as in life." —People, 4 stars "A perfect spring awakening." —Good Housekeeping A true story of a unique friendship between two people who had nothing—and ultimately everything—in common. Carol Wall, a white woman living in a lily-white neighborhood in Middle America, was at a crossroads in her life. Her children were grown; she had successfully overcome illness; her beloved parents were getting older. One day she notices a dark-skinned African man tending her neighbor’s yard. His name is Giles Owita. He bags groceries at the supermarket. He comes from Kenya. And he’s very good at gardening. Before long Giles is transforming not only Carol’s yard, but her life. Though they are seemingly quite different, a caring bond grows between them. But they both hold long-buried secrets that, when revealed, will cement their friendship forever.

Download or read book Africa A Continent Self Destructs written by P. Schwab and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2003-05-01 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can Africa survive? Many of the nations of sub-Saharan African have all but ceased to exist as organized states: tyranny, diseases such as AIDS, civil war, ethnic conflict and border invasions threaten the complete disintegration of a region. Peter Schwab offers a clear, authoritative portrait of a continent on the brink. Globalization and an accompanying level of economic health have passed over Africa. Added to these factors is a patronizing attitude from the West that change in Africa must take place within Western parameters, a UN that lacks any real power, and a US foreign policy in Africa that is unclear. Looking to South Africa as an example of successful Western support of an African nation, Schwab suggests that the US should use its leverage to help democrats into positions of power and then work with them under a framework dictated by the leaders themselves. It is only with a distinctly African approach to African problems that the survival of the continent can be assured.

Download or read book Don t You Ever written by Mary Carter Bishop and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-07-30 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “In this profound memoir, Mary Carter Bishop takes an openhearted and unflinching look at a family history that is equal parts love story and requiem for a brother she barely knew. Bishop turns her formidable investigative journalism skills inward to unearth long-simmering class and culture divides in bucolic rural Virginia."--Beth Macy From a prizewinning journalist, Mary Carter Bishop, a moving and beautifully rendered memoir about the half-brother she didn’t know existed that hauntingly explores family, class, secrets, and fate. Applying for a passport as an adult, Mary Carter Bishop made a shocking discovery. She had a secret half-brother. Her mother, a farm manager’s wife on a country estate, told Mary Carter the abandoned boy was a youthful "mistake" from an encounter with a married man. There’d been a home for unwed mothers; foster parents; an orphanage. Nine years later, Mary Carter tracked Ronnie down at the barbershop where he worked, and found a near-broken man—someone kind, and happy to meet her, but someone also deeply and irreversibly damaged by a life of neglect and abuse at the hands of an uncaring system. He was also disfigured because of a rare medical condition that would eventually kill him, three years after their reunion. During that window, Mary Carter grew close to Ronnie, and as she learned more about him she became consumed by his story. How had Ronnie’s life gone so wrong when hers had gone so well? How could she reconcile the doting, generous mother she knew with a woman who could not bring herself to acknowledge her own son? Digging deep into her family’s lives for understanding, Mary Carter unfolds a sweeping story of religious intolerance, poverty, fear, ambition, class, and social expectations. Don’t You Ever is a modern Dickensian tale about a child seemingly cursed from birth; a woman shattered by guilt; a husband plagued by self-doubt; a prodigal daughter whose innocence was cruelly snatched away—all living in genteel central Virginia, a world defined by extremes of rural poverty and fabulous wealth. A riveting memoir about a family haunted by a shameful secret, Don’t You Ever is a powerful story of a woman’s search for her long-hidden sibling, and the factors that profoundly impact our individual destinies.

Download or read book Does It Fart written by Nick Caruso and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the scientist duo behind True or Poo?, their original New York Times bestselling sensation--a scientifically precise, fully illustrated, utterly hilarious guide to animal flatulence. Dogs do it. Millipedes do it. Dinosaurs did it. You do it. I do it. Octopuses don't (and nor do octopi). Spiders might do it: more research is needed. Birds don't do it, but they could if they wanted to. Herrings do it to communicate with each other. In 2017 zoologist Dani Rabaiotti's teenage brother asked her a most teenaged question: Do snakes fart? Stumped, Rabaiotti turned to Twitter. The internet did not disappoint. Her innocent question spawned the hashtag #doesitfart and it spread like a noxious gas. Dozens of noted experts began weighing in on which animals do and don't fart, and if they do, how much, how often, what it's made of, what it smells like, and why. Clearly, the public demands more information on animal farts. Does it Fart? fills that void: a fully authoritative, fully illustrated guide to animal flatulence, covering the habits of 80 animals in more detail than you ever knew you needed. What do hyena farts smell especially bad? What is a fossa, and does it fart? Why do clams vomit but not fart? And what is a fart, really? Pairing hilarious illustrations with surprisingly detailed scientific explanations, Does it Fart? will allow you to shift the blame onto all kinds of unlikely animals for years to come.

Download or read book The Innovation Delusion written by Lee Vinsel and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Innovation” is the hottest buzzword in business. But what if our obsession with finding the next big thing has distracted us from the work that matters most? “The most important book I’ve read in a long time . . . It explains so much about what is wrong with our technology, our economy, and the world, and gives a simple recipe for how to fix it: Focus on understanding what it takes for your products and services to last.”—Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media It’s hard to avoid innovation these days. Nearly every product gets marketed as being disruptive, whether it’s genuinely a new invention or just a new toothbrush. But in this manifesto on thestate of American work, historians of technology Lee Vinsel and Andrew L. Russell argue that our way of thinking about and pursuing innovation has made us poorer, less safe, and—ironically—less innovative. Drawing on years of original research and reporting, The Innovation Delusion shows how the ideology of change for its own sake has proved a disaster. Corporations have spent millions hiring chief innovation officers while their core businesses tank. Computer science programs have drilled their students on programming and design, even though theoverwhelming majority of jobs are in IT and maintenance. In countless cities, suburban sprawl has left local governments with loads of deferred repairs that they can’t afford to fix. And sometimes innovation even kills—like in 2018 when a Miami bridge hailed for its innovative design collapsed onto a highway and killed six people. In this provocative, deeply researched book, Vinsel and Russell tell the story of how we devalued the work that underpins modern life—and, in doing so, wrecked our economy and public infrastructure while lining the pockets of consultants who combine the ego of Silicon Valley with the worst of Wall Street’s greed. The authors offer a compelling plan for how we can shift our focus away from the pursuit of growth at all costs, and back toward neglected activities like maintenance, care, and upkeep. For anyone concerned by the crumbling state of our roads and bridges or the direction our economy is headed, The Innovation Delusion is a deeply necessary reevaluation of a trend we can still disrupt.

Download or read book What I Found in a Thousand Towns written by Dar Williams and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A beloved folk singer presents an impassioned account of the fall and rise of the small American towns she cherishes. Dubbed by the New Yorker as "one of America's very best singer-songwriters," Dar Williams has made her career not in stadiums, but touring America's small towns. She has played their venues, composed in their coffee shops, and drunk in their bars. She has seen these communities struggle, but also seen them thrive in the face of postindustrial identity crises. Here, in an account that "reads as if Pete Seeger and Jane Jacobs teamed up" (New York Times), Williams muses on why some towns flourish while others fail, examining elements from the significance of history and nature to the uniting power of public spaces and food. Drawing on her own travels and the work of urban theorists, Williams offers real solutions to rebuild declining communities. What I Found in a Thousand Towns is more than a love letter to America's small towns, it's a deeply personal and hopeful message about the potential of America's lively and resilient communities.

Download or read book Murder in Roanoke County Race and Justice in the 1891 Susan Watkins Case written by John D. Long and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2019 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did her rival for a man's love get away with murder? It was a story of violence, bigamy, race and a quest for justice. The strange but true story of James and Susan Watkins. A drama played out in the mountains of southwestern Virginia in 1891 that attracted nationwide attention and held the citizens of the Roanoke Valley spellbound. The tale of the trial of Charles Watkins for the murder of his wife was marked by threats of lynching, a fugitive manhunt, a disappearing witness, mistaken identities, claims of insanity and finally a secret letter to break the case wide open. In its day, the story was as closely followed as a modern televised murder trial. Despite the rapt attention of the public then, it has entirely faded from the history books - until now. Historian John Long resurrects the truth of who killed Susan Watkins.

Download or read book The Famous the Familiar and the Forgotten written by Guy Sterling and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2014-11-15 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book that brings America's gateway city to life. Newark, New Jersey, is not only one of the oldest cities in the country but also a place that notable Americans from all walks of life have called home. Among the famous are Thomas Edison, Aaron Burr, Sarah Vaughan, Whitney Houston, Jerome Kern, Shaquille O'Neal, Queen Latifah, Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, Jackie Gleason, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger, Frankie Valli, Joe Pesci, and Wyclef Jean. Familiar names include the likes of Ed Koch, Dutch Schultz, Washington Irving, Fanny Brice, and Marvin Hagler. And then there are those who enjoyed their moment in the spotlight but have mostly faded from memory, like silent film star Harold Lockwood, Wimbledon champ Ted Schroeder, TV cop David Toma, and opera diva Maria Jeritza. For the first time, The Famous, the Familiar and the Forgotten brings together in a single volume these celebrated personalities and many more just like them in a salute to the city that gave them their start or helped them along the way to renown. Included with entries are address listings. So come take a journey beginning with its founding in 1666 to a city with a roster of remarkable residents as impressive as any place in the countryNewark, New Jersey, home to history.

Download or read book Truevine written by Beth Macy and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of two African-American brothers who were kidnapped and displayed as circus freaks, and whose mother endured a 28-year struggle to get them back. The year was 1899 and the place a sweltering tobacco farm in the Jim Crow South town of Truevine, Virginia. George and Willie Muse were two little boys born to a sharecropper family. One day a white man offered them a piece of candy, setting off events that would take them around the world and change their lives forever. Captured into the circus, the Muse brothers performed for royalty at Buckingham Palace and headlined over a dozen sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden. They were global superstars in a pre-broadcast era. But the very root of their success was in the color of their skin and in the outrageous caricatures they were forced to assume: supposed cannibals, sheep-headed freaks, even "Ambassadors from Mars." Back home, their mother never accepted that they were "gone" and spent 28 years trying to get them back. Through hundreds of interviews and decades of research, Beth Macy expertly explores a central and difficult question: Where were the brothers better off? On the world stage as stars or in poverty at home? Truevine is a compelling narrative rich in historical detail and rife with implications to race relations today.

Download or read book Dopesick written by Beth Macy and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-08-09 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now a major TV series on Disney+ 'A shocking investigation... Dopesick is essential' The Times 'Unfolds with all the pace of a thriller' Observer 'A deep – and deeply needed – look into the troubled soul of America' Tom Hanks 'Essential reading' New York Times Beth Macy reveals the disturbing truth behind America's opioid crisis and explains how a nation has become enslaved to prescription drugs. This powerful and moving story explains how a large corporation, Purdue, encouraged small town doctors to prescribe OxyContin to a country already awash in painkillers. The drug's dangerously addictive nature was hidden, whilst many used it as an escape, to numb the pain of of joblessness and the need to pay the bills. Macy tries to answer a grieving mother's question – why her only son died – and comes away with a harrowing tale of greed and need.

Download or read book Haunted Roanoke written by L.B. Taylor and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2013-05-28 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of The Big Book of Virginia Ghost Stories focuses on the “Scare City”: “If you believe in ghosts, this is the book for you” (The Roanoke Times). Roanoke, in the heart of southwestern Virginia, is one of the most haunted cities in the commonwealth. The Star City is brimming with eerie and unexplainable stories, such as the legendary “Woman in Black,” who appeared several times in 1902, but only to married men on their way home at night. There are also macabre stories in many of Roanoke’s famous landmarks, such as the majestic Grandin Theatre, where a homeless family is said to have lived—and the cries of their deceased children can still be heard. Travel beyond the realm of reality with author L.B. Taylor Jr. as he traces the history of Roanoke’s most unique and chilling tales. Includes photos! “I like the ghost story books of L.B. Taylor, Jr., a Virginia author, because he blends history and true ghost stories so wonderfully. He doesn’t make judgments about each ghost story, but presents the facts and lets you decide for yourself. . . . So if you’re in a ghostly mood this October—or if you’re just a history lover—Taylor’s books are well worth your time.” —Eagle-Eyed Editor

Download or read book Salem and Roanoke County in Vintage Postcards written by Nelson Harris and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2005 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1800, James Simpson, a Botetourt County landowner, purchased 31 acres of land for $100 and dedicated half of the purchase to plotting a new town. The Town of Salem was officially established when Simpson recorded his ownership at Fincastle Courthouse in October 1802, and it later became the government seat when Roanoke County was carved from Botetourt County in 1838. Today, Salem is an independent city, boasting a rich tradition of educational, commercial, and residential success. Roanoke County, like Salem, has emerged from its agrarian past to become a suburban county that embraces the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains, as well as the strength and success of corporate centers and residential communities.