Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore

by Michael Olesker

Overview

In Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore, veteran journalist Michael Olesker writes of Baltimore's melting pot in all its rollicking, sentimental, good-natured, and chaotic essence. The stories come from neighborhood street corners and front stoops, playgrounds and school rooms, churches and synagogues, and families gathered around late-night kitchen tables.

The D'Alesandro political dynasty comes to life here, and so do Lenny Moore and Artie Donovan of the legendary Baltimore Colts. The old East Baltimore ethnic enclaves nurture youngsters named Barbara Mikulski and Ted Venetoulis, and out of West Baltimore comes the future Afro-American newspaper publisher Jake Oliver.

Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore is a delightful reminder of the nation's ethnic and racial mosaic, home to a future governor named Martin O'Malley and a future U.S. Representative named Dutch Ruppersberger. Boys from Baltimore's Little Italy, like John Pica, go off to fight a war in Italy when they know their allegiance is being tested. And a city struggles through racial convulsions, remembered by those such as John Steadman and Father Constantine Sitaris.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421418452
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2015
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael Olesker wrote a column for the Baltimore Sun for twenty-five years. He is the author of five previous books, including Michael Olesker's Baltimore: If You Live Here, You're Home, Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore, and The Colts' Baltimore: A City and Its Love Affair in the 1950s.

Table of Contents

Introduction
"Don't Give In to the Bastards"
The Americanization of Zlotte
Dancing on the Roof
Times Square
The Home Movie
"America Was What You Saw at the Movies"
Sinatra and DiMag
The Man in the Closet
Michele and Jake
"You Do Not Have to Melt to be American"
Crossing Park Circle
Lenny and Artie
Twenty-Three Nations
Ray Charles in the Cafeteria
City College
The Forbidden Fruit
The Riots
"You Gotta Marry in the Faith"
God in Protective Custody
O'Malley's March

Editorial Reviews

Olesker draws on Baltimore's diverse and often isolated and mutually hostile neighborhood, political and clerical tribes. He compiles a group portrait that is both sad and celebratory.
—Baltimore Sun

A powerful tribute to our vast melting pot . . . Amid the rich metaphors and unique vernacular that are quintessentially Olesker, Baltimore's mosaic of religions and nationalities become one.
—Baltimore Jewish Times

From the Publisher

A powerful tribute to our vast melting pot . . . Amid the rich metaphors and unique vernacular that are quintessentially Olesker, Baltimore's mosaic of religions and nationalities become one.

Baltimore Jewish Times

Olesker draws on Baltimore's diverse and often isolated and mutually hostile neighborhood, political and clerical tribes. He compiles a group portrait that is both sad and celebratory.

Baltimore Sun

A powerful tribute to our vast melting pot... Amid the rich metaphors and unique vernacular that are quintessentially Olesker, Baltimore's mosaic of religions and nationalities become one.

Baltimore Jewish Times - Melissa Goldman

Olesker draws on Baltimore's diverse and often isolated and mutually hostile neighborhood, political and clerical tribes. He compiles a group portrait that is both sad and celebratory.

Baltimore Sun - Michael Pakenham