Kerry Segrave: 12 books
The Women Who Got America Talking
Early Telephone Operators, 1878-1922
Language: English
Release Date: August 11, 2017
When the need for telephone operators arose in the 1870s, the assumption was that they should all be male. Wages for adult men were too high, so boys were hired. They proved quick to argue with the subscribers, so females replaced them. Women were calmer, had reassuring voices and rarely talked back....
by Kerry Segrave
Language: English
Release Date: September 6, 2014
Language: English
Release Date: September 6, 2014
Following the 2013 revelations of Edward Snowden, Americans have come to realize that many of us may be under surveillance at any time. It all started 150 years ago on the battlefields of the Civil War, where each side tapped the other’s telegraph lines. It continued in 1895, when the New York Police...
The Hatpin Menace
American Women Armed and Fashionable, 1887-1920
Language: English
Release Date: February 25, 2016
Between 1887 and 1920, the humble hatpin went from an unremarkable item in every woman’s wardrobe, to a fashion necessity, to a dangerous weapon (it was said). Big hair and big hats of the era meant big hatpins, and their weaponized use sparked controversy. There were “good” uses of hatpins,...
Drive-in Theaters
A History from Their Inception in 1933
Language: English
Release Date: January 25, 2012
A primarily American institution (though it appeared in other countries such as Japan and Italy), the drive-in theater now sits on the verge of extinction. During its heyday, drive-ins could be found in communities both large and small. Some of the larger theaters held up to 3,000 cars and were often...
Police Violence in America, 1869-1920
256 Incidents Involving Death or Injury
Language: English
Release Date: August 4, 2016
Police violence is not a new phenomenon. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, police officers in America assaulted or killed many ordinary citizens, often during improper detainments or arrests where no threat existed or no crime had been committed. Based on hundreds of newspaper accounts from...
"Masquerading in Male Attire"
Women Passing as Men in America, 1844-1920
Language: English
Release Date: April 26, 2018
Historically, American women have dressed as men for a number of reasons: to enter the military, to travel freely, to commit a criminal act, to marry other women—most often however to secure employment. During the 1800s and early 1900s, most jobs were barred to women, and those that were available...
Shoplifting
A Social History
Language: English
Release Date: December 15, 2009
Shoplifting is a practice that has been engaged in for centuries, but it was only after the Civil War that the prevalence of shoplifting and societal awareness of it, became significant. In the 1860s the typical shoplifter was from the lower classes; by 1900 it was an upper-class woman who shoplifted...
Policewomen
A History, 2d ed.
Language: English
Release Date: February 7, 2014
Women in policing have seen three phases of acceptance. Beginning in about 1880, they were admitted as police matrons with extremely limited duties. Next they were accepted as policewomen around 1910–1916, when that title was officially bestowed on them. Finally came assignment of females as general...
Beware the Masher
Sexual Harassment in American Public Places, 1880-1930
Language: English
Release Date: February 7, 2014
This book examines the history of sexual harassment in America’s public places, such as on the streets and on public transit vehicles, in the period 1880 to 1930. Such behavior was referred to then as mashing with the harasser most commonly being called a masher. It began around 1880 as a response...
Chewing Gum in America, 1850-1920
The Rise of an Industry
Language: English
Release Date: January 28, 2015
Americans began chewing gum long before 1850, scraping resin from spruce trees, removing any bits of bark or insects and chewing the finished product. Commercially-made gum was of limited availability and came in three types—tree resin, pretroleum-based paraffin and chicle-based—the latter, a...
Extras of Early Hollywood
A History of the Crowd, 1913-1945
Language: English
Release Date: April 26, 2013
Pity the “extras.” Mostly overlooked and forgotten. Especially those in the major Hollywood films 1913 to 1945—right through the dream factory’s golden era. The struggles of extras to unionize were followed by internal struggles as the extras fought for a voice within that union. There were...
Vending Machines
An American Social History
Language: English
Release Date: October 5, 2015
Although the 1880s are considered the beginning of the vending machine era, these devices have existed for a couple of thousand years. The earliest reference to a vending machine was made by Hero—a Greek mathematician, physicist and engineer who probably lived in Alexandria during the first century...