The culinary heritage of most regions in the US is often determined by the ethnic cuisine of those who settled there, whether it be the Cajun/Creole food of Louisiana or the Italian-inspired fare of the Northeast. For Maryland, the food that defines the state is less about the ethnicity of the population than the bounty which springs forth from the Chesapeake Bay. The Native Americans, British, Germans, and Poles were all influenced by the variety of fish, oysters, clams, crabs, and terrapins that could be harvested from the largest estuary in North America. In addition to seafood, other dishes associated with the region were developed because of the unique lifestyle created by living along the water. The Smith Island cake, for example, was created as a sturdy dessert that fishermen could take aboard ship during their long days fishing the Chesapeake. Also, the wealthy landowners who first arrived in Maryland, seeking elegant dishes for their lavish dinner parties, concocted ingenious uses for the chickens, squirrels, muskrats, and produce available on the fertile lands along the Bay. The book is not just about the past, however. The recent trend of sustainability and eating local has brought about a grassroots effort to preserve the delicate nature of the Chesapeake Bay. Modern techniques such as oyster farming and fishing invasive species to protect the indigenous flora and fauna will be explored. Of course, recipes will be presented to not only illustrate classic dishes that developed over time, but also modern versions created by some of Maryland’s top chefs.

In this classic novel, James A. Michener brings his grand epic tradition to bear on the four-hundred-year saga of America’s Eastern Shore, from its Native American roots to the modern age. In the early 1600s, young Edmund Steed is desperate to escape religious persecution in England. After joining Captain John Smith on a harrowing journey across the Atlantic, Steed makes a life for himself in the New World, establishing a remarkable dynasty that parallels the emergence of America. Through the extraordinary tale of one man’s dream, Michener tells intertwining stories of family and national heritage, introducing us along the way to Quakers, pirates, planters, slaves, abolitionists, and notorious politicians, all making their way through American history in the common pursuit of freedom. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from James A. Michener's Hawaii. Praise for Chesapeake “Another of James Michener’s great mines of narrative, character and lore.”—The Wall Street Journal “[A] marvelous panorama of history seen in the lives of symbolic people of the ages . . . An emotionally and intellectually appealing book.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution “Michener’s most ambitious work of fiction in theme and scope.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer “Magnificently written . . . one of those rare novels that is enthusiastically passed from friend to friend.”—Associated Press

In The Oyster Question, Christine Keiner applies perspectives of environmental, agricultural, political, and social history to examine the decline of Maryland’s iconic Chesapeake Bay oyster industry. Oystermen have held on to traditional ways of life, and some continue to use preindustrial methods, tonging oysters by hand from small boats. Others use more intensive tools, and thus it is commonly believed that a lack of regulation enabled oystermen to exploit the bay to the point of ruin. But Keiner offers an opposing view in which state officials, scientists, and oystermen created a regulated commons that sustained tidewater communities for decades. Not until the 1980s did a confluence of natural and unnatural disasters weaken the bay’s resilience enough to endanger the oyster resource. Keiner examines conflicts that pitted scientists in favor of privatization against watermen who used their power in the statehouse to stave off the forces of rural change. Her study breaks new ground regarding the evolution of environmental politics at the state rather than the federal level. The Oyster Question concludes with the impassioned ongoing debate over introducing nonnative oysters to the Chesapeake Bay and how that proposal might affect the struggling watermen and their identity as the last hunter-gatherers of the industrialized world.

An appendix documents the many small islands that have dropped entirely from view since the seventeenth century.

A stunning array of 286 digitally restored photographs by the great Maryland photographer chronicles life in five distinct regions of Maryland--Baltimore and its environs, Chesapeake Bay, Eastern Shore, Southern Maryland and Annapolis, and Western Maryland--originally published in the Baltimore Sun between 1924 and 1970.

“An epic history of piracy . . . Goodall explores the role of these legendary rebels and describes the fine line between piracy and privateering.” —WYPR The story of Chesapeake pirates and patriots begins with a land dispute and ends with the untimely death of an oyster dredger at the hands of the Maryland Oyster Navy. From the golden age of piracy to Confederate privateers and oyster pirates, the maritime communities of the Chesapeake Bay are intimately tied to a fascinating history of intrigue, plunder and illicit commerce raiding. Author Jamie L.H. Goodall introduces infamous men like Edward “Blackbeard” Teach and “Black Sam” Bellamy, as well as lesser-known local figures like Gus Price and Berkeley Muse, whose tales of piracy are legendary from the harbor of Baltimore to the shores of Cape Charles. “Rather than an unchanging monolith, Goodall creates a narrative filled with dynamic movement and exchange between the characters, setting, conflict, and resolution of her story. Goodall positioned this narrative to be successful on different levels.” —International Social Science Review