Once known as the "Paris of the West," Motown became synonymous with urban abandonment and arson as job and population decline took hold in the late 20th century. No other fire department has experienced the hardships of the job on such a consistent basis as the Detroit Fire Department (DFD). Detroit firefighters have ridden the waves of unprecedented prosperity and tragic decline. Determined faces mask many layoffs, station closings, and a reduction in workforce. Despite these perils, ded...

There comes a time in every man's life when he has to decide whether to conform or break out. Ninety-nine percent of us choose to accept the constraints imposed by society. The rest become outlaws. For this one percent-those who set their own standards, follow their own values, pursue their own esthetic-the outlaw motorcyclist community offers sanctuary. Motorcyclists have always been outlaws, just by choosing such a dangerous and flamboyant sport. But the one percenters live the outlaw li...

Get an inside look at the real beginning of outlaw biker culture with this "raucous and heartfelt recounting of the early days of biker clubs" (Roadbike). The story starts one weekend in 1947, at a motorcycle race in Hollister, California. A few members of one club, the no-holds-barred "Boozefighters," got a little juiced up and took their racing to the street. Word of the fracas spread, and soon enough Life magazine was on hand to tell the world, with sensational (albeit posed) pictures o...

An unforgettable journey through the daily lives of the brave men and women who have made saving lives their profession.Dennis Smith, author of Report from Engine Co. 82, traveled across the country talking to dozens of America’s firefighters to put together this powerful collection of their own descriptions of their most dramatic and intense experiences on the job. Their stories, compiled here, are timeless testimonies to the human capacity for heroism and nobility....

The Kid. The Splendid Splinter. Teddy Ballgame. One of the greatest figures of his generation, and arguably the greatest baseball hitter of all time. But what made Ted Williams a legend – and a lightning rod for controversy in life and in death?Still a gangly teenager when he stepped into a Boston Red Sox uniform in 1939, Williams’s boisterous personality and penchant for towering home runs earned him adoring admirers and venomous critics. In 1941, the entire country followed Willi...

From New York Times bestselling author Leigh Montville, this riveting and definitive new biography pulls back the red, white, and blue cape on a cultural icon—and reveals the unknown, complex, and controversial man known to millions around the world as Evel Knievel.Evel Knievel was a high-flying daredevil, the father of extreme sports, the personification of excitement and danger and showmanship . . . and in the 1970s Knievel represented a unique slice of ...

This first book of its kind tells the behind-the-scenes story of the incredibly illegal Cannonball rally. This best seller is now available in paperback!In the early 1970s, Brock Yates, senior editor of Car and Driver Magazine, created the now infamous Cannonball Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash; a flat out, no-holds-barred race from New York City to Redondo Beach, California. Setting out to prove that well trained drivers could safely navigate the American highways at speeds in exc...

A high school seniors attention is drawn out a classroom window to a fire engine racing down the street. He becomes a member of a volunteer fire company and comes to respect and fight fire. Along the way he also learns to deal with disgruntled bingo patrons and drunks in a beer tent. He trains hard and comes face to face with his own mortality at the funeral of a fallen firefighter. As an EMT he helps his fellow citizens in their time of greatest need. Most of all, he learns about who he is a...

When Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudy were assassinated in their driveway in the pre-dawn hours of March 16, 1988, the salacious details of the crime and the years of legal wrangling that followed made for hundreds of splashy headlines and sexy television soundbytes. After all, the story had it all . . . unknown hooded gunmen riding into a gated Southern California community on bicycles, ambushing their victims and brutally ending their lives while neighbors ate breakfast and read the mo...

PRAISE FOR LEWIS GRIZZARD“So this is what’s happened to the South since William Faulkner left! Lewis Grizzard, a great American, gives us the best collection of stories about a mother’s love, old folks, railroad trains, going home, and the No-Name Bar in Willacoochee, Georgia.”- The Chicago Sun-Times“If you’ve ever owned a truck, a good dog, or had to kiss a good woman good-bye, you need to be reading Lewis Grizzard.”- United Press International“Funny ...

The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist's early columns "peopled by some of the funniest, looniest and saddest characters anywhere outside of a zoo" ( The New York Times).In the 1960s, as the once-proud New York Herald Tribune spiraled into bankruptcy, the brightest light in its pages was an ebullient young columnist named Jimmy Breslin. While ordinary columnists wrote about politics, culture, or the economy, Breslin's chief topics...

The quest for the land speed record in the 1960s and the epic rivalry between two dynamic American drivers, Art Arfons and Craig Breedlove."Interesting and complex. . . .The best job I've seen done on the subject so far."-- Craig BreedloveUntil the 1950s, the land speed record (LSR) was held by a series of European gentlemen racers such as British driver John Cobb, who hit 394 miles per hour in 1947. That record held for more than a ...