Books published by Heritage Books

"Thomas Edison is acclaimed as the 'Wizard of Menlo Park,' and as Time magazine's 'Man of the Century.' Edison saw himself as a benefactor of humanity. But in this startling new look at Edison, Dr. George J. Hill suggests that the price of invention was serious industrial pollution and other environmental costs. Meadows, ponds, and forest disappeared to make way for Edison's laboratories, factories, and mining operation; water and soil pollution were rife, and the health consequences for workers and residents were severe. "Dr. Hill is the first author to offer a comprehensive look at Edison's impact on the environment. Edison's Environment examines the inventor's interactions - as expressed in his life, thought and career - with the natural world, and traces the development of environmental consciousness in the views of Edison and his contemporaries. He explores the fundamental debate about how we should judge the actions and ethics of past generations. In so doing, George Hill has written one of the most novel and original works on Edison to appear in a generation." - Mark Edward Lender, Ph.D. A bibliography and a full-name, place and subject index add to the value of this work.About the Author: George J. Hill, M.D., D.Litt., is Professor of Surgery Emeritus at New Jersey Medical School - Rutgers University. He is the author of more than a dozen books and over 200 papers and articles on medicine and history. This is the third edition of his book on Edison's Environment.

In 1862, General Sickles' Excelsior Brigade conducted two devastating raids on Stafford's courthouse and clerk's office. Few records were spared and what the vandals didn't destroy or ruin, they stole as souvenirs. Lost at this time was the court's colonial seal, the Bible used at the court bench, an unknown quantity of early loose papers, and a number of bound volumes of court records. After the peace, the Stafford magistrates endeavored to retrieve missing court record books as their whereabouts became known. In 1866 and 1868, two of these were located in Maryland and brought back; one was located, and still remains, in California. On March 30, 1863, a court order book spanning the years 1749-1755 was either stolen or otherwise obtained by Captain William A. Treadwell. This book was passed down through several generations of his family, then presented to the Hudson County (New Jersey) Historical Society, and finally, the tattered book was turned over to the Library of Virginia. The library scanned each page to make it available to researchers and a copy was placed in the Stafford County Clerk's office. It was routine for old court records to be re-copied as they became faded or damaged; that was one of the duties of the Clerk of Court. The copy taken by Captain Treadwell is a transcript prepared in October 1791. During the years these minutes were being recorded, the courthouse was burned, rebuilt, and burned again; the rebuilding and second burning and the capture of the perpetrator are recorded in the minutes. This volume is a splendid source of genealogical material, which also provides fascinating insights into slavery, indentured servants, and law and criminal justice in the mid-eighteenth century. These abstracts are fully indexed, making full-names, businesses, places and subjects easy to locate within the records.