Philadelphia Fire

Download or read book Philadelphia Fire written by John Edgar Wideman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of John Wideman’s most ambitious and celebrated works, the lyrical masterpiece and PEN/Faulkner winner inspired by the 1985 police bombing of the West Philadelphia row house owned by black liberation group Move. In 1985, police bombed a West Philadelphia row house owned by the Afrocentric cult known as Move, killing eleven people and starting a fire that destroyed sixty other houses. At the heart of Philadelphia Fire is Cudjoe, a writer and exile who returns to his old neighborhood after spending a decade fleeing from his past, and who becomes obsessed with the search for a lone survivor of the event: a young boy seen running from the flames. Award-winning author John Edgar Wideman brings these events and their repercussions to shocking life in this seminal novel. “Reminiscent of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man” (Time) and Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song, Philadelphia Fire is a masterful, culturally significant work that takes on a major historical event and takes us on a brutally honest journey through the despair and horror of life in urban America.

Download or read book A House on Fire written by John A. Jackson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-11-15 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "If You Don't Know Me By Now," "The Love I Lost," "The Soul Train Theme," "Then Came You," "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now"--the distinctive music that became known as Philly Soul dominated the pop music charts in the 1970s. In A House on Fire, John A. Jackson takes us inside the musical empire created by Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, and Thom Bell, the three men who put Philadelphia Soul on the map. Here is the eye-opening story of three of the most influential and successful music producers of the seventies. Jackson shows how Gamble, Huff, and Bell developed a black recording empire second only to Berry Gordy's Motown, pumping out a string of chart-toppers from Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, the Spinners, the O'Jays, the Stylistics, and many others. The author underscores the endemic racism of the music business at that time, revealing how the three men were blocked from the major record companies and outlets in Philadelphia because they were black, forcing them to create their own label, sign their own artists, and create their own sound. The sound they created--a sophisticated and glossy form of rhythm and blues, characterized by crisp, melodious harmonies backed by lush, string-laden orchestration and a hard-driving rhythm section--was a glorious success, producing at least twenty-eight gold or platinum albums and thirty-one gold or platinum singles. But after their meteoric rise and years of unstoppable success, their production company finally failed, brought down by payola, competition, a tough economy, and changing popular tastes. Funky, groovy, soulful--Philly Soul was the classic seventies sound. A House on Fire tells the inside story of this remarkable musical phenomenon.

Download or read book The Fires of Philadelphia written by Zachary M. Schrag and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping and masterful account of the moment one of America's founding cities turned on itself, giving the nation a preview of the Civil War to come. America is in a state of deep unrest, grappling with xenophobia, racial, and ethnic tension a national scale that feels singular to our time. But it also echoes the earliest anti-immigrant sentiments of the country. In 1844, Philadelphia was set aflame by a group of Protestant ideologues—avowed nativists—who were seeking social and political power rallied by charisma and fear of the immigrant menace. For these men, it was Irish Catholics they claimed would upend morality and murder their neighbors, steal their jobs, and overturn democracy. The nativists burned Catholic churches, chased and beat people through the streets, and exchanged shots with a militia seeking to reinstate order. In the aftermath, the public debated both the militia’s use of force and the actions of the mob. Some of the most prominent nativists continued their rise to political power for a time, even reaching Congress, but they did not attempt to stoke mob violence again. Today, in an America beset by polarization and riven over questions of identity and law enforcement, the 1844 Philadelphia Riots and the circumstances that caused them demand new investigation. At a time many envision America in flames, The Fires of Philadelphia shows us a city—one that embodies the founding of our country—that descended into open warfare and found its way out again.

Download or read book The Philadelphia Fire Marshal Almanac and Underwriters' Advertiser, for the Year 1860 written by Alexander W. Blackburn and published by . This book was released on 1859 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Highrise Office Building Fire One Meridian Plaza- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania written by U. S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency and published by . This book was released on 2013-03-15 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report on the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, One Meridian Plaza fire documents one of the most significant highrise fires in U.S. history. This body of work provides detailed information on the nature of the fire problem for policymakers who must decide on allocations of resources between fire and other pressing problems, and within the fire service to improve codes and code enforcement, training, public fire education, building technology, and other related areas.

Download or read book A Firefighter's Journal written by Robert Marchisello and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-12-08 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A blood-curdling scream pierces the thick black smoke. Somewhere in the darkness, a man is burning to death. Then the screams suddenly stop. Did he jump out of a window? Or did he succumb to the heat and smoke? Those screams haunt Firefighter Robert Marchisello to this day. It's just one of the many revealing stories about battling blazes and numerous other dangers in America's fifth-largest city-home of the nation's first fire company-in this autobiography of his thirty-seven-year career with the Philadelphia Fire Department. During his entire career Marchisello kept a journal detailing his experiences as well as his personal and professional challenges. His work offers rare insights into the unimaginable types of emergencies to which these men and women respond-from decomposing bodies to hazardous chemicals to deadly shootouts. Between calls sit in the firehouse and enjoy the pranks, banter, humor, and camaraderie firefighters share. His vibrant writing lets you experience the adrenalin, the danger and yes, even the laughs of nearly four decades on the firegrounds, in the firehouses and everywhere in between. You'll never look at a passing fire engine the same way!

Download or read book Philadelphia Fire Code 2018 written by International Code Council and published by . This book was released on 2019-11 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a fully integrated code based on the 2018 International Fire Code