Your Maryland: Little-Known Histories from the Shores of the Chesapeake to the Foothills of the Allegheny Mountains

by Ric Cottom

Overview

Four centuries of Maryland’s history in one colorful and dramatic volume.

“Good evening, I’m Ric Cottom. Welcome to Your Maryland.” Since 2002, when he first delivered his now-classic radio segment on Maryland history, Ric Cottom has narrated hundreds of little-known human interest stories. Collected here are 72 of his favorite on-air pieces, enhanced with beautiful papercut illustrations by Baltimore artist Annie Howe. From accused witches and the murderous career of gunsmith John Dandy through tales of Johnny U and the greatest game ever played, Your Maryland covers nearly four centuries of the Free State’s heroes and scoundrels.

Entertaining listeners of all ages while sparking their interest in the past, Cottom’s beloved Your Maryland is a unique blend of carefully researched regional history and narrative nonfiction. He deftly emphasizes the human dimension of Maryland’s colorful past: its athletes (two- and four-legged), beautiful spies, brilliant writers, misunderstood pirates, and ghosts. All of that color, suspense, and humor—as well as the author’s unusual talent for discovering interesting historical facts and personages—is part of your Maryland.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421424064
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	10/16/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ric Cottom is the host of WYPR’s Your Maryland. As Robert I. Cottom, Jr., he is the coauthor of Maryland in the Civil War: A House Divided and the coeditor of After Chancellorsville, Letters from the Heart: The Civil War Letters of Private Walter G. Dunn & Emma Randolph.

Table of Contents

Preface
1. Voyage of Discovery
2. Avalon
3. The Murderous Career of John Dandy
4. Witchcraft in Maryland
5. The Monster
6. The Blood-Red Flag
7. The Summer of '76
8. The Revolutionary
9. Privateers
10. The Mermaid
11. Mr. Smith's Ball
12. The Most Hated Man in Maryland
13. The Scourge of the Chesapeake
14. A Frolic with the Yankees
15. The Cool Hand and the Hothead
16. Defenders
17. The Chasseur
18. The Battle of the Ice Mound
19. Jacob Gruber
20. The Bear
21. The Slave Breaker
22. Moses
23. Gidu
24. The Vineyard Tournament
25. The Rose of Westminster
26. Christiana
27. John Brown
28. April 19, 1861
29. Clara's Boys
30. Lost Sons
31. Barbara Frietschie
32. The Despot’s Heel
33. The Glorious Fourth . . . 1863
34. The Orator
35. Color Guard
36. The Music of Point Lookout
37. Hetty Cary
38. The Great Patapsco Flood of 1868
39. Ghosts of Western Maryland
40. Early Racing at Pimlico
41. Preakness
42. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, Part I
43. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, Part II
44. Gus Rice
45. The Maestro
46. The Heiress and the Medical School
47. The Pennant
48. The Evil Empire
49. Mouse
50. Goliath
51. The Jungle
52. The Explorer
53. The Aviator
54. Diamond Jim
55. The Babe
56. Titantic
57. The Great Bathtub Hoax
58. The Last Man
59. Maryland, the Free State
60. Leander
61. The Schneider Cup Race of 1925
62. Cab and Thurgood
63. Wallis
64. Hatrack
65. The Crack-up
66. King Kong
67. Omaha Beach
68. Canajoharie at the Gut
69. Tunnel Joe
70. Johnny U
71. The Greatest Football Game Ever Played
72. Silent Spring
Acknowledgments
Essay on Sources

What People are Saying About This

Megan Anderson

Ric Cottom's writing is often poetic, sometimes wry, and always evocative. Listening to these stories is like curling up next to a warm fire to be carried off into a distant and fascinating time and place.

Matthew Crenson

These vignettes display Ric Cottom's skill as a storyteller and his unusual talent as a story-discoverer. Introducing us to outrageous characters with powerful personalities, this book, like Cottom himself, will have many fans.

Elaine G. Breslaw

Absolutely delightful. These wonderful stories, which cover a great assortment of subjects from legendary ghost stories to wars, theatrical and musical performances, and sports, will appeal to a broad audience.

From the Publisher

These vignettes display Ric Cottom's skill as a storyteller and his unusual talent as a story-discoverer. Introducing us to outrageous characters with powerful personalities, this book, like Cottom himself, will have many fans.
—Matthew Crenson, author of Baltimore: A Political History

Absolutely delightful. These wonderful stories, which cover a great assortment of subjects from legendary ghost stories to wars, theatrical and musical performances, and sports, will appeal to a broad audience.
—Elaine G. Breslaw, editor of Records of the Tuesday Club of Annapolis, 1745–56

A string of polished pearls. Charming, cogent, suggestive, Cottom’s deft essays offer vignettes that not only bring history to life—they pretty much mesmerize readers, just as they captivated listeners on the radio. A high achievement of the historian-storyteller’s art.
—Robert J. Brugger, author of Maryland, A Middle Temperament, 1634–1980

Ric Cottom's writing is often poetic, sometimes wry, and always evocative. Listening to these stories is like curling up next to a warm fire to be carried off into a distant and fascinating time and place.
—Megan Anderson, Everyman Theatre

Robert J. Brugger

A string of polished pearls. Charming, cogent, suggestive, Cottom’s deft essays offer vignettes that not only bring history to life—they pretty much mesmerize readers, just as they captivated listeners on the radio. A high achievement of the historian-storyteller’s art.