Books in Maryland Paperback Bookshelf series

This richly illustrated and engagingly written book tells the story of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal from its origins in George Washington's decision to link the nation's new capital with the western frontier; through the beginning of construction in 1828 (fatefully, on the same day that the cornerstone of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was set); to the "completion" of the project. Planned to go as far as Ohio and to take twelve years in construction, the Canal company's ambitions were scaled back after 22 years of toil, $14 million in expense, and the bankruptcy of several contractors took them only as far as Cumberland, at the eastern shed of the Alleghenies. Describing in detail how the C&O operated in its heyday, Elizabeth Kytle takes the story through the shut-down of operations in 1924, after the Canal was purchased by its competitor, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the efforts that resulted in its preservation as a National Historical Park in 1971. Enriching this narrative, the book also provides oral history accounts of eleven men and women who worked on or grew up along the banks of the Canal.

The heart-pounding tale of the events leading up to and including the Battle of Baltimore and the defense of Fort McHenry.In the summer of 1814, enemy naval and ground forces made a coordinated assault on Washington, DC, capital of the new republic, and then set their sights on Baltimore, home port to some of the most rapacious American privateers on the high seas. In The Dawn's Early Light, Walter Lord captures these events during the War of 1812.A native Baltimorean, Lord wrote with great force and feeling of the subsequent defense of Fort McHenry, the circumstances of Francis Scott Key’s writing of "The Star-Spangled Banner," and the rebirth of a young country. Students consider this book to be one of the best short narratives of the Chesapeake campaign.This reissue of The Dawn's Early Light celebrates the bicentennial of the Battle of Baltimore. Scott S. Sheads, a National Park Service ranger and specialist on the event, introduces the book, which will remain a popular favorite for years to come.

Walter Lord―author of such best-sellers as A Night to Remember and A Day of Infamy―brings to life the remarkable events of what we now call The War of 1812―including the burning of Washington and the attack on Baltimore's Fort McHenry that inspired the Francis Scott Key to write what would become our national anthem. Lord gives readers a dramatic account of how a new sense of national identity emerged from the smoky haze of what Francis Scott Key so lyrically called "the dawn's early light."