Damnation Island

Damnation Island
Author :
Publisher : Algonquin Books
Total Pages : 305
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781616205768
ISBN-13 : 1616205768
Rating : 4/5 (768 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Damnation Island by : Stacy Horn

Download or read book Damnation Island written by Stacy Horn and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A riveting character-driven dive into 19th-century New York and the extraordinary history of Blackwell’s Island.” —Laurie Gwen Shapiro, author of The Stowaway: A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica On a two-mile stretch of land in New York’s East River, a 19th-century horror story was unfolding . . . Today we call it Roosevelt Island. Then, it was Blackwell’s, site of a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse, and a number of hospitals. Conceived as the most modern, humane incarceration facility the world ever seen, Blackwell’s Island quickly became, in the words of a visiting Charles Dickens, “a lounging, listless madhouse.” In the first contemporary investigative account of Blackwell’s, Stacy Horn tells this chilling narrative through the gripping voices of the island’s inhabitants, as well as the period’s officials, reformers, and journalists, including the celebrated Nellie Bly. Digging through city records, newspaper articles, and archival reports, Horn brings this forgotten history alive: there was terrible overcrowding; prisoners were enlisted to care for the insane; punishment was harsh and unfair; and treatment was nonexistent. Throughout the book, we return to the extraordinary Reverend William Glenney French as he ministers to Blackwell’s residents, battles the bureaucratic mazes of the Department of Correction and a corrupt City Hall, testifies at salacious trials, and in his diary wonders about man’s inhumanity to man. In Damnation Island, Stacy Horn shows us how far we’ve come in caring for the least fortunate among us—and reminds us how much work still remains.


Damnation Island Related Books

Damnation Island
Language: en
Pages: 305
Authors: Stacy Horn
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-05-15 - Publisher: Algonquin Books

GET EBOOK

“A riveting character-driven dive into 19th-century New York and the extraordinary history of Blackwell’s Island.” —Laurie Gwen Shapiro, author of The S
Roosevelt Island
Language: en
Pages: 132
Authors: Judith Berdy
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2003 - Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

GET EBOOK

Roosevelt Island captures the fascinating and sometimes curious history of an island located halfway between Manhattan and Queens in the East River. In 1824, th
Damnation Road
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Max McCoy
Categories: Apache Indians
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011 - Publisher:

GET EBOOK

From a two-time Spur Award-winning author comes a gritty, exciting, and highly entertaining new Western adventure. Original.
Damnation Spring
Language: en
Pages: 464
Authors: Ash Davidson
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-08-03 - Publisher: Simon and Schuster

GET EBOOK

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Named a Best Book of 2021 by Newsweek, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times “A glorious book—an a
Damnation Island
Language: en
Pages: 304
Authors: Stacy Horn
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-05-15 - Publisher: Algonquin Books

GET EBOOK

“A riveting character-driven dive into 19th-century New York and the extraordinary history of Blackwell’s Island.” —Laurie Gwen Shapiro, author of The S