Jessica Warner

Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason

John the Painter

James Aitken, alias James Boswell, alias James Hill, alias James Hinde was born in Edinburgh in 1752, one of twelve children. His father died when he was young. He trained as a house painter but couldn't find work and tramped the country looking for jobs, housebreaking and pick-pocketing. Along the ...

By Jessica Warner Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked

John the Painter: Terrorist of the American Revolution

His real name was James Aitken, though he was better known as "John the Painter." During the early months of the American Revolution, he wreaked havoc in England by performing acts of terror on behalf of America. In this first full-length chronicle of the man who attempted to burn down royal navy ya...

Surviving Katrina: The Experiences of Low-income African American Women

Jessica Pardee documents and examines the experiences of low-income African American women during Hurricane Katrina to uncover the ways that race, class, and gender shape the experiences of disasters. Drawing on intimate interviews to explore the complex challenges that these women faced in the cour...

The Incendiary: The Misadventures of John the Painter, First Modern Terrorist

His real name was James Aitken, though he was better known as "John the Painter," and during the early months of the American Revolution, he wreaked havoc in England by performing acts of terror on behalf of America. In this first full-length chronicle of the man who attempted to burn down royal nav...

All or Nothing: A Short History of Abstinence in America

A completely original exploration of the abstinence movement in America — from alcohol to sex to meat. America's long love affair with abstinence goes back to the early nineteenth century, when thousands of men and women suddenly stopped drinking hard liquor. Consistency then demanded that they give...

Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason

Rotgut gin—cheap, widely available, and remarkably potent—was the overwhelming drug of choice among London’s working poor in the early 1700s. Sold for pennies in taverns and squalid gin shops, on street corners and even in jails, gin was the original opiate of the masses, plunging England’s capital ...

Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked

10" x 11" HardcoverThis fascinating storybook illustrates how more than 25,000 children took part in the legendary exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Salt Lake Valley. Beautiful full-color artwork depicts a variety of scenes in the 1,300-mile journey, from the dangers of crossing rivers to the cha...