Nearer Home

Nearer Home: Short Histories, 1987-2019 is a collection of Daniel Weeks's historical writing-both popular and scholarly-culled from newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, newsletters and blogs. Most of the pieces deal with aspects of the history of Monmouth and Ocean counties, including the Battle of Monmouth, colonial wedding customs, antebellum horse racing, and the 1970 riots in Asbury Park. There is also a section on Thomas Edison, which covers, among other topics, the controversy surrounding the execution of the circus animal Topsy, the beginnings of recorded music, and the electrification of Pennsylvania towns in the 1880s.