During the nineteenth century, the roughest but most important ocean passage in the world lay between Britain and the United States. Bridging the Atlantic Ocean by steamship was a defining, remarkable feat of the era. Over time, Atlantic steamships became the largest, most complex machines yet devised. They created a new transatlantic world of commerce and travel, reconciling former Anglo-American enemies and bringing millions of emigrants who transformed the United States.

In Transatlantic, the experience of crossing the Atlantic is re-created in stunning detail from the varied perspectives of first class, steerage, officers, and crew. The dynamic evolution of the Atlantic steamer is traced from Brunel's Great Western of 1838 to Cunard's Mauretania of 1907, the greatest steamship ever built.

The electrifying story of Raphael Semmes and the CSS Alabama, the Confederate raider that destroyed Union ocean shipping and took more prizes than any other raider in naval history.

In July, 1862, Semmes received orders to take command of a secret new British-built steam warship, the Alabama. At its helm, he would become the most hated and feared man in ports up and down the Union coast--and a Confederate legend. Now, with unparalleled authority and depth, and with a vivid sense of the excitement and danger of the time, Stephen Fox tells the story of Captain Semmes's remarkable wartime exploits. From vicious naval battles off the coast of France, to plundering the cargo of Union ships in the Caribbean, this is a thrilling tale of an often overlooked chapter of the Civil War.

Homeland Insecurity is a well-written, carefully documented book by award-winning author Stephen Fox. The book explores the effects of the fear-driven and intolerant policies put in place by the Franklin Roosevelt administration, policies based on earlier historical lessons, to control the behavior of German and Italian nationals (immigrants). To execute these policies, the government trampled, suspended, or ignored the most cherished human rights of American society. It was a time of profiling, secret arrests, suspension of due process and habeas corpus, deportation, extraordinary rendition, second class citizenship and other forms of harassment-all in the name of homeland security.Homeland Insecurity begins with a quote by the San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll: It is said that those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it. I suspect that those who do remember history are doomed to repeat it, too. Human nature is human nature and an even deeper driving force than memory. Homeland Insecurity explores the government's embrace of limited remembrances (lessons). Policymakers, the media, and the public chose to act only on the messages (lessons) that supported their assumptions. When this narrow outlook coincided with the prejudices and insecurities of J. Edgar Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, the result was tragic. Fox bases his thematic analysis of the government's actions on in-depth examination of previously unused FBI and Immigration and Naturalization Service files. In addition, the first-person interviews provided by the immigrants enrich this compelling and enjoyable read. Homeland Insecurity suggests that the activities of the Bush administration to protect the United States after 9/11 borrowed much (lessons) from the assault on constitutional and civil liberties during World War II. This book is a must read for all Americans concerned about the future of the Bill of Rights.Stephen Fox is the award-winning author of monographs and articles on Italian and German Americans. His previous oral and documentary histories include Under Siege and 'Against All Enemies.'

Birdsall P. Briscoe (1876-1971) practiced architecture from 1912 to 1956, the span of years during which Houston was transformed from an ambitious town on Buffalo Bayou into an international city, its economy powered by cotton, trade, and oil. The country houses Briscoe designed for three generations of affluent clients, sited in such Houston neighborhoods as Courtlandt Place, Shadyside, Broadacres, and River Oaks, display his exceptional skill in formulating stylistic and social identities for his wealthy clients and their families.

In The Architecture of Birdsall P. Briscoe, architectural historian Stephen Fox examines the country houses designed by Briscoe, offering a glimpse into the architect's methods as well as analyzing how Briscoe constructed a social architecture to frame his clientele during periods of economic expansion and contraction. Fox demonstrates how Briscoe cultivated and managed elements of taste, style, and fashion to embody assertions of class identity and solidarity in the context of Houston's capitalist economy. Additionally, Fox shows how Briscoe and his peers interpreted and reflected early twentieth-century Progressive Era design ideals in giving shape to the vision of local civic leaders.

Illustrated throughout with masterful color photography by Paul Hester, this original study of one of Texas' most distinguished residential architects will enthrall readers with both its detail and its contextual clarity. As he did in his book on the architecture of John F. Staub, Fox delivers a treasure trove of insight into a vital period of Houston's social history and the architect who helped design it.

Throughout World War II the United States operated a nationwide gulag for 'dangerous enemy aliens.' The story of this prison archipelago would have remained hidden were it not for the memories of its human commerce and the Freedom of Information Act.
Encouraged by President Franklin Roosevelt, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI rounded up nearly 11,000 people of German ancestry, including Jewish refugees from occupied Europe and over 4,000 residents of Latin America and sentenced them to this nationwide gulag.
Weaving together first-person interviews and government records in this unique study, Fox tells the story of internment and exclusion.
'A fascinating and chilling account.... The oral histories breathe Kafkaesque life into the written record. More than putting flesh on bare bones, the oral histories make credible what is otherwise an almost unbelievable tale.' -The Oral History Review
'Thoroughly documented, excellent sources, fine index, must reading for all concerned about a repetition and ... erosion of American civil liberties.' -Society for German-American Studies Newsletter
'What sets 'Against All Enemies' apart from other studies of ethnic German wartime internment and exclusion is the degree to which those directly impacted relate the story. Through their own simple, occasionally passionate words, they offer a compelling tale of the human cost of internment and exclusion.' -Yearbook of German-American Studies
'Must reading for all concerned about a repetition and erosion of civil liberties.' -Society for German-American Studies Newsletter

The Classicist is an annual journal dedicated to the classical tradition in architecture and the allied arts. Focused on the state of Texas, the Classicist No. 19 explores the state's rich architectural history as well as contemporary examples of classical design through professional and student portfolios as well as academic articles authored by leaders within the field. Contributors include architectural historian Stephen Fox; Anna Nau of Ford, Powell & Carson Architects; Tara Dudley of the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture; Kenneth Hafertepe of Baylor University; and architectural author James Wright Steely; alongside submissions to the professional and academic portfolio.

The Classicist is an annual journal dedicated to the classical tradition in architecture and the allied arts. Focused on the state of Texas, the Classicist No. 19 explores the state's rich architectural history as well as contemporary examples of classical design through professional and student portfolios as well as academic articles authored by leaders within the field. Contributors include architectural historian Stephen Fox; Anna Nau of Ford, Powell & Carson Architects; Tara Dudley of the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture; Kenneth Hafertepe of Baylor University; and architectural author James Wright Steely; alongside submissions to the professional and academic portfolio.

Stephen Fox explores the consistently cyclical nature of advertising from its beginning. A substantial new introduction updates this lively, anecdotal history of advertising into the mid-1990s.

For several years a diverse group of retired friends-academics, artists, physicians-have gathered to share Christmas dinner at Betty's.

Table talk in previous years centered around toy party favors, family, and travel.

This year the trite conversation of past Christmases turned without prompting into spontaneous discussions and sometimes explosive arguments about yesterdays: religion, art, history, mathematics, philosophy, politics, the environment, disease, war, unconventional ideas, revelations of secret lives, and beneath it all unspoken fear of what lay ahead.

An associate justice of the Supreme Court died on the eve of a challenge to the standing interpretation of the Second Amendment. President Gloria Addison sought a replacement who shared her view of the amendment.

She believed she had found the right man in Randolph Cavendish of Rhode Island, although many considered him an independent-minded jurist.

Supporters of the amendment's 'individual right' clause concluded the president wanted Cavendish on the Court to restrict gun ownership, and they conspired to stop her.

Addison proved to be wrong about Justice Cavendish. His political philosophy proved more important to him than being the White House's man on the court.

Cavendish's seeming betrayal of the president left her with options she couldn't have imagined when her political career began in a small Indiana town. How far would she go to get what she wanted? And how far her enemies?

In the ongoing struggle over gun rights no one was safe, not the president, not Justice Cavendish, and not Congress.

Decades after World War II, a grievously wounded veteran-turned-recluse struggles with readjustment. He has managed to alleviate the psychological pain of disfigurement through a diversion: collecting luxury watches.

Then, an improbable friendship with two neighbor children begins to lighten his darkness.

When The Collector develops an infatuation with the children's mother, she helps him to confront the truth of how he came by his watches.

Meanwhile, two ne'er-do-well but still dangerous mobsters plot to steal The Collector's valuables, an action that will threaten the lives of The Collector, the children, and fellow veterans who have volunteered to help prepare a defense ...

In the early 1920s, architect John F. Staub, a native of Knoxville, Tennessee, who had studied at MIT and worked in New York, came to the burgeoning city of Houston as an assistant to nationally prominent architect Harrie T. Lindeberg. Staub was charged with administering construction of three houses designed by Lindeberg for members of the city's rapidly emerging elite. He would go on to establish one of the most influential architectural practices in Houston, where he would remain until his death in 1981.

Over four decades, Staub designed grand houses in such communities as Shadyside, Broadacres, and, perhaps most notably, River Oaks. His clients included the Hoggs, for whom he created Bayou Bend; the Mastersons, his clients for Rienzi; and members of the Wiess, Cullen, Farish, Welder, Fay, and Elkins families. Although Staub also completed commissions for clients elsewhere in Texas and the United States, it was primarily in Houston that his work and influence took root.

This ambitious study of Staub's work by architectural historian Stephen Fox goes beyond a description of Staub's houses. Fox analyzes the roles of space, structure, and decoration in creating, defining, and maintaining social class structures and expectations and shows how Staub was able to incorporate these elements and understandings into the elegant buildings he designed for his clients. In the process, he contributes greatly to a fuller understanding of Houston's emergence as a premier American city.

Stunning color images by architectural photographer Richard Cheek, combined with Fox's well-grounded and expansive thesis, create a volume that will enchant, inform, and entertain. Students and aficionados of American domestic architecture of the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and '50s will appreciate the wealth of material, and the volume's contribution to architectural history and the sociology of architecture will commend itself to readers across the nation.

Stijn De Bruyne', a talented but obscure Dutch landscape painter, escaped from Europe and the scrutiny of his unpleasant associates after World War II. He hoped to find a new life in the United States and moved west in search of the 'perfect landscapes' he was sure existed. There, he fell in love with an attractive café owner in Wyoming who offered to sell his paintings at her place of business. But De Bruyne soon learned he couldn't dodge his past.

His former Dutch colleagues, Nazi collaborators and Jew hunters, tracked him to his love nest and forced him to accompany them back to New York City. They demanded the artist help them steal valuable art from a famous museum there and threatened to expose him to the government if he refused.

Meanwhile, the FBI had followed the collaborators since their arrival in the United States and kept abreast of their criminal exploits (small-time art thefts) as they made their way across the country. The Bureau held off in making arrests, believing the bunch planned to execute a major operation-how else to explain their extended travel-perhaps one with a payoff that would set them up for the rest of their lives. The G-men confronted De Bruyne and demanded his cooperation in bringing the gang to heel-or else.

Stijn De Bruyne, trapped between the demands of the FBI and ruthless thieves, knew if he did not play ball with either, his fate, doubtless harsh, would rest with the International Criminal Court at The Hague.