A collection of thirteen original and illuminating essays representing the latest scholarship drawn from the Baltimore History Conference of 1996 and 1999 and ranging across a wide spectrum of subjects. Touching upon such varied facets of Baltimore life as an early murder trial, alley houses, volunteer fire companies, slums, secession, post-Civil War racial accomodation, World War II aircraft workers, a populist uprising in the 1960s, public housing, and the school system, the authors amply demonstrate yet again that small subjects give rise to larger ideas.