Legendary Locals of Ocean City

by Fred Miller, Susan Miller

2012 · Arcadia Publishing

Ocean City has been called America's Greatest Family Resort since the slogan was adopted by the chamber of commerce in 1920. But it has always been a gathering place for families, beginning in 1879 when the Lake family came here to build a Christian Seaside Resort. Since those early years, Ocean City has evolved into a community of diverse people, with the value of family still holding strong. While famous people, such as actress Grace Kelly and author Gay Talese, called Ocean City home, most of the people in this book are ordinary citizens. Many of these families are third and fourth generation. Some trace their roots back to the Lakes, others have grandparents or great-grandparents who came here as immigrants. Still others have moved here more recently; all contribute to making Ocean City a wonderful place to live and work.

The Singular Mark Twain

by Fred Kaplan

2010 · Anchor

In this magisterial full-scale biography of America’s greatest storyteller and satirist, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Fred Kaplan refashions our image of Mark Twain and etches a vibrant portrait of a singular personality who created some of the most memorable literary characters of our culture. He coined the phrase “the Gilded Age,” spoke out vigorously against racism and imperialism, and in his multifaceted singularity as writer, businessman, polemicist, investor, inventor, and self-promoter became the most widely extolled and most dominant icon of American literature. As Kaplan writes, “There has been no one like him since.”

Ocean City’s Historic Hotels

by Fred and Susan Miller

2014 · Arcadia Publishing

Ocean City, New Jersey, was founded as a "Christian seaside resort" in 1879. Soon thereafter, it became a vibrant year-round community and a highly desirable summer retreat. Hotels were integral to the city's success. The most famous of these was the Flanders Hotel, which opened to much fanfare in 1923. It was built in the Spanish Mission Revival style and named after Belgium's Flanders Field; today, it is in the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to other stately hotels, such as the Brighton, the Biscayne, and the Bellevue, many smaller hotels and guesthouses, like Jernee Manor, the Castle Inn, Locksley Hall, and the Scarborough Inn, were also established. Ocean City's Historic Hotels features the rich architectural and recreational history of this New Jersey coastal town and its many hotels.

The Insurgents

by Fred Kaplan

2013 · Simon and Schuster

THE INSURGENTS unfolds against the backdrop of two wars waged against insurgencies-- wars which the Pentagon's top generals didn't know how to fight. But a small group of soldiers and scholars did have a plan for fighting these kinds of wars, people like General David Petraeus and Colonels John Nagl, David Kilcullen, and H.R. McMaster. In order to push the idea of "counterinsurgency" warfare, they behaved like insurgents within their own army-and very self-consciously so. Fred Kaplan explains where this idea came from, and how the men and women who latched onto this idea created a community (some would refer to themselves as a "cabal") that maneuvered the idea through the highest echelons of power. But this is also a cautionary tale about how even creative ideas can harden into dogma, how smart strategists-the "best and the brightest" of our times-can sometimes sway politicians but don't always win wars. The Insurgents made their military more adaptive to the conflicts of the post-Cold War era, but their self-confidence led us deeper into wars that we shouldn't have been fighting and perhaps couldn't have been won.

The Province of Ontario--a History, 1615-1927

by Jesse Edgar Middleton, Fred Landon

1927

V. 3-5 biographical.