Books by Kerry Segrave

The early 20th century saw the founding of the National Security League, a nationalistic nonprofit organization committed to an expanded military, conscripted service, and meritocracy. This book details its history, from its formation in December 1914 to 1922, at which point it was a spent force in decline.

Traces the history and development of the American bicycle, observing its critical role in the fight for gender equality. The bicycle radically changed the face of fashion, health, and even morality and propriety in America. This thorough history traces the sweeping social advances made by women in relation to the development of the bicycle.

The electric vehicle seemed poised in 1900 to be a leader, even the dominant force, in the early American car market. They were clean, odorless, noiseless and they were mechanically simple, compared to their rivals. Yet just two decades later the electric car was dead. This book explores this early history of the electric car.

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 subscribers, so females replaced them. Women were calmer, had reassuring voices and rarely talked back. Within a few years, telephone operators were all female and would remain so.

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. Based on newspaper accounts from 1869 to 1920, this history provides a chronological listing of interactions between police and unarmed citizens in which the citizens - some of them minors - were assaulted or killed.

Examines the chewing gum industry in America from 1850 to 1920, the rise and spread of gum chewing and the reactions - almost uniformly negative - to the habit from editorial writers, reformers, religious figures, employers and the courts. The age-old problem of what to do with chewed gum is also covered.

Pity the ""extras."" Mostly overlooked and forgotten. Especially those in the major Hollywood films during 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. It is a story about too few jobs for far too many extras, some of whom were lured to Hollywood by what seemed to be rags-to-riches tales of stardom but were likely little more than industry publicity plants.

With its decentralised urban areas, pollution, and mostly inadequate public transit systems, today's America pays a heavy price for its car dependency. This explores one of the more pressing aspects of the automobile problem - storage - from 1910 to the end of the World War II, contrasting the reality and perception of car parking as found in the pages of the popular newspapers and magazines of that period.

Details the ways in which scalping has changed over the years from a one-man business to an agency-controlled enterprise, from performances by Jenny Lind to Billy Joel. This book examines the general situation, public opinion and legal perception of scalping for four distinct periods: 1850-1899; 1900-1917; 1918-1949 and 1950-2005.

It is at 31.4 years that the average woman multiple murderer kills the first of her 17 victims, whom she usually knows or is related to. The preferred method is poison, usually arsenic. She is more likely to prey on the vulnerable--the very young or the very old--than her mail counterpart. Her killing spree lasts five years; when caught, she shows little remorse.

While sexual harassment of women in the workplace has been discussed for decades it is still a pervasive problem. This book looks at the history of that harassment from the 1600s (!) to the early 1990s, from long forgotten domestic servants in England of the 1600s to abused Japanese textile workers of 1900, to Anita Hill in 1991 America. Coverage is worldwide with emphasis on the United States and the period 1800 to the present. Harassment affects women from all walks of life; from unskilled to professional, those in traditionally female jobs, those in traditionally male jobs, and all the rest. Harassment occurs in factories, coal mines, construction sites, law offices, dental offices, government offices, Capitol Hill, and at every other work site. So bad was it in some factories that women took to carrying knives for self-protection. Women have put their economic existence on the line by striking over sexual harassment.

Payola is as old as the music industry and continues today. Contrary to popular belief, the acceptance of payola is legal. The recipients of payola and the reasons behind it are discussed decade-by-decade. The early bribes to the minstrel groups and vaudeville players are traced, as are modern-day payments to disc jockeys and radio station programme directors. Particular attention is paid to 1959 and 1960 when federal investigators attempted to eradicate the practice.

This work traces the history of the jukebox from its origins in the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Alva Edison in the 1880s up to its relative obscurity in the year 2000. Other socially important elements of the jukebox's development are also covered.

Between 1850 and 1950, at least 115 women were lynched by mobs in the US. The majority of these women were black. This examines the phenomenon of the lynching of women, which was a much more rare experience than the lynching of men. Of particular importance in this examination is the role of race in lynching, particularly the increase in the number of black lynchings as the century progressed.

The authors document the numerous attempts to ban or censor rock music, and dramatically show how it has been blamed for everything from anarchy and juvenile delinquency to drugs, deafness, teen pregnancy, suicide, abortion, pornography, and even murder. Here is the complete history of that "sick, repulsive, horrible, and dangerous" music as seen by its enemies.