Damnation Island shows how far we've come in caring for the least fortunate among us-and reminds us how much work still remains. And we follow the extraordinary Reverend William Glenney French as he ministers to Blackwell's residents, battles the bureaucratic mazes of the Department of Correction and a corrupt City Hall, testifies at salacious trials, and in his diary wonders about man's inhumanity to his fellow man. We also hear from the era's officials, reformers, and journalists, including the celebrated undercover reporter Nellie Bly. Digging through city records and archival reports, Stacy Horn tells this chilling narrative through the voices of the islands inhabitants, as well as the. The Washington Book Review Stacy Horn's history of Blackwell’s Island is a shocking tale, and an invaluable account that will reward anyone with an interest in the history of New York. "Enthralling it is well worth the trip." - New York Journal of BooksĬonceived as the most modern, humane incarceration facility the world had ever seen, New York's Blackwell's Island, site of a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse, and a number of hospitals, quickly became, in the words of a visiting Charles Dickens, "a lounging, listless madhouse." Digging through city records, newspaper articles, and archival reports, Stacy Horn tells a gripping narrative through the voices of the island's inhabitants. Damnation Island is a book of history written like a novel.
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