Charles River

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the frontier towns written by people who lived there *Profiles famous Westerners like Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill, and more *Includes online resources and bibliographies for further reading *Includes a table of contents The Wild West has made legends out of many men, but it has forged a lasting legacy for the city of Tombstone, Arizona, a frontier boomtown that has come to symbolize everything about the Old West. In many ways, Tombstone fit all the stereotypes associated with that era in American history. A dusty place on the outskirts of civilization, Tombstone brought together miners, cowboys, lawmen, saloons, gambling, brothels, and everything in between, creating an environment that was always colorful and occasionally fatal. Those characteristics might not have distinguished Tombstone from other frontier outposts like Deadwood in the Dakotas, but some of the most famous legends of the West called Tombstone home for many years, most notably the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday. And ultimately, the relationships and rivalries forged by those men in Tombstone culminated in the legendary Gunfight at the O. K. Corral on October 26, 1881. The West's most famous fight all but ensured that Tombstone would be the epicenter of Western lore, and as the city's population dwindled at the end of the 19th century, the allure of Tombstone as a tourist center took hold. Nearly half a million tourists flock to Tombstone each year, where they find a city that has cashed in on its legacy through careful preservation. Many of the historic buildings in Tombstone haven't changed much in the last 130 years, and visitors who come to the O. K. Corral or Boothill Cemetery can get an idea of what Tombstone was like in 1881. In 1874, General George Armstrong Custer led a troop over of 1,000 men to investigate reports of the discovery of gold on Lakota-Sioux land in the Black Hills. Sioux ownership of the land stemmed from the Treaty of Laramie in 1868, but the discovery of gold changed things for the United States. The mining town of Deadwood quickly sprung up as prospectors descended on the area, even though the federal government had ordered military troops to set up posts there to keep prospectors out. Men like Al Swearengen and Charlie Utter came to make fortunes one way or another, Calamity Jane amused and irritated the townspeople in equal measure, and the legendary Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed in one of Deadwood's saloons while holding the "Dead Man's Hand" by "the coward McCall." Wild Bill's death helped ensure Deadwood would be remembered as an important part of Western lore, but in many ways the Deadwood craze was over almost before it began. During the 19th century, Deadwood's population reached its peak in the 1880s with a population of just less than 4,000, and fires, mining, and the closing of the frontier all made sure the population never grew. Today, barely 1,000 call Deadwood home, and it remains more an object of curiosity and tourism than anything else. Aside from Tombstone and Deadwood, no frontier town is better known than Dodge City, Kansas. In the immediate wake of the Civil War, a settlement originally developed around Fort Dodge, which had been built to protect against Indian attacks, and it became a favorite spot for the buffalo hunters on the Plains who were engaged in exterminating the bison to harm the Native American tribes. By 1876, however, Dodge City had become a popular destination spot for cattle drives starting from as far south as Texas, earning itself the nickname "The Cowboy Capital of the World". With that, the town also came to symbolize everything about the Old West. Dodge City brought together cowboys, lawmen, saloons, gambling, brothels, and everything in between.

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the operations written by Nazi scientists and Allied forces *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents After the last shots of World War II were fired and the process of rebuilding Germany and Europe began, the Western Allies and the Soviet Union each tried to obtain the services of the Third Reich's leading scientists, especially those involved in rocketry, missile technology, and aerospace research. Naturally, this was a delicate affair due to the fact many of the German scientists were not only active Nazis but had helped the Nazi war machine terrorize the world. At the same time, by the late war period, the Anglo-American Allies formed a clear picture of the Soviet state. Though forced to ally with the USSR's dictator, Josef Stalin, the West came to understand Communist Russia represented yet another hungry totalitarian power, and thus a very real threat to an independent Europe. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill realized the menacing character of the Soviets from the Katyn Forest Massacre of Polish army officers, if not before, while the Americans only gradually shed a na ve assumption of continued Russian friendliness after the war. For their part, the Soviets retained ruthless imperial ambitions which manifested in various ways. They allied with Hitler for a time in 1939 to 1941, planning to divide Eastern Europe between their two expansionist states. They devastated the Ukrainian population with the Holomodor, an engineered, genocidal famine which claimed perhaps 3 million victims. The Soviet refusal to evacuate Eastern Europe following the war, instead retaining many formerly democratic countries as vassal states, spoke volumes about their intentions. Both the Western Allies and the Soviets knew of Adolf Hitler's V-2 rocket program, the forerunner of ballistic missiles and the space race. Each recognized the immense strategic value of these technologies and wished to secure their benefits for themselves. As the Soviets contemplated additional expansion following the "Great Patriotic War" and the U. S. military came to understand the putative allies of today would emerge as the enemies of tomorrow, the men possessing knowledge of the V-2 rockets and other Third Reich military technology programs became seen as crucial pieces in the incipient NATO versus Warsaw Pact standoff. The result was the American-led "Operation Paperclip" on the Western side, which resulted in German scientists putting their expertise at the disposal of the U. S. and other NATO members. Operation Paperclip aimed not only to obtain the benefits of German scientific advances for the United States but also to deny them to the potentially hostile Soviets, as General Leslie Groves enunciated: "Heisenberg was one of the world's leading physicists, and, at the time of the German break-up, he was worth more to us than ten divisions of Germans. Had he fallen into the Russian hands, he would have proven invaluable to them (Naimark, 1995, 207). To say Operation Paperclip had a profound impact on the Cold War and American history would be an understatement. The most well known example of the operation's "success" is Wernher von Braun, who was once a member of a branch of the SS involved in the Holocaust, would become known as the "father of rocket science" and fascinate the world with visions of winged rockets and space stations as a "new" Manhattan Project, one that NASA would eventually adopt. And in addition to the weaponization of ballistic missiles that progressed throughout the Cold War, von Braun's expertise was used for America's most historic space missions. NASA also had to develop rockets capable of first launching a spacecraft into Earth's orbit, and then launching it toward the Moon. The Soviets struggled throughout the 1960s to design rockets up to the task, but thanks to von Braun, NASA got it right with the Saturn V rocket.

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of Jumbo's life written by his trainer, P. T. Barnum, and contemporary newspapers *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "I had often looked wistfully on Jumbo, but with no hope of ever getting possession of him, as I knew him to be a great favorite of Queen Victoria, whose children and grandchildren are among the tens of thousands of British juveniles whom Jumbo had carried on his back. I did not suppose he would ever be sold." - P. T. Barnum Modern views of animals range from hunters who pay big money to go on safaris in Africa to vegans who refuse to use even the wool or milk from a fellow creature, and as is the case with most controversies, most people fall in the middle, not wanting to kick a dog but still enjoying a good steak. However, in the early 20th century, the standards were much different, with animals seen as strictly property to be gathered and used with little to no consideration about their health or feelings. It was into this world that a little elephant later called Jumbo was born. He quickly learned the harsh realities of life when his mother was killed by hunters before his first birthday. Then he himself was taken from his sunny home and transported thousands of miles to soggy London, where he was expected to spend his days on display or earning his very limited keep by carrying small children for rides on his back. While he was fed hay, dry grass that was at least some substitute for the fresh greenery of the African plains, he was also fed both beer and hard liquor, oysters, cakes and candy, a diet that would have severely shortened his life had not a terrible accident ended it first. During this time his one faithful friend, a man named Matthew Scott, tried to do the best he could to care for the animal and even meet his emotional needs. However, even Scott was hampered by the times in which he lived, especially when the command came to walk an 11 foot tall Jumbo into a crate barely big enough to hold him and to travel with him in these cramped quarters for a two week trip across another ocean to yet another unfamiliar land. Ironically, it was that same trip that made Jumbo an international celebrity. Americans had loved traveling circuses for generations, and none represent the country's love for entertainment quite like the most famous of them all: the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Circus promoters have long been viewed as somewhat shady hucksters, but none could top P. T. Barnum, who used a blend of traditional circus entertainment, freak show exhibits, and outright hoaxes to create "The Greatest Show on Earth". In fact, Barnum had specialized in circus entertainment decades before traveling circuses were truly a national sensation, particularly thanks to the popularity of the Barnum American Museum in New York City. Barnum's museum offered something for everyone across its different halls, from poetic readings to animal exhibits, and all the while, Barnum was defiant when confronted by criticism, reminding people, "I am a showman by profession...and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me." Jumbo was not a pet to P. T. Barnum but an investment, an attraction that soon paid off in a big way. But Jumbo was also beginning to suffer the effects of his poor lifestyle even as fate led him toward his death on a crowded railroad track. It's a story that saddens many today, but in the 1880s, it was more or less the way things were. Nonetheless, the influence Jumbo had was fitting given his size, leading not only to similar acts across various traveling circuses but also to adaptations of his story, perhaps most notably Disney's Dumbo in the 1940s. Jumbo the Elephant: The Life and Legacy of History's Most Famous Circus Animal looks at Jumbo's history, and the giant impact the elephant had on entertainment.