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Annotations / Notes: An extremely useful general collection speeches, articles and letters written by Federalists and Anti-Federalists between September 1787 and August 1788. Organized chronologically, so one can see how the debate took shape and how ideas and themes developed, it also includes data from the state ratification conventions. For Maryland, it includes material from Luther Martin, Samuel Chase, the ratification report from the Annapolis convention, as well as references from other sources on the state. Missing is the Minority Report from the ratifying convention and observations from other partisans, such as Daniel Carroll or Alexander Contee Hanson writing as "Aristides." A comprehensive volume on the Maryland ratification is scheduled for future publication in The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution series currently edited by John P. Kaminski.

Annotations / Notes: One of the more curious political movements in the nineteenth century was the American Party, also known as the Know-Nothing movement, which dominated Maryland politics in the 1850s and became the core of the Unionist party during the Civil War. This is a tight study focusing on the historical setting of the period, the ideology, leaders, followers, organization, and legislative behavior of the party. Rather than dismissing them as an expression of violent nativism, Baker argues that the party provided a medium through which former Whigs and Democrats could realign in the new political system that emerged from the devastation of the old.

Annotations / Notes: This is a study of political parties during the Civil War era. Beginning with the unexpected implosion of the Whig Party, and the remarkable vitality of the Know Nothing or American Party in the 1850s, Maryland drifted into the Civil War. The Democratic party stressed three themes in 1859 - fear and hatred of the Negro, the need to end the election interference of the Know Nothings, and the necessity of protecting "Constitution and Union." In the maelstrom of secession, they lost control of the state and were displaced by a new coalition, the Union Party, as the war ensued. The Unionists may have replaced the Democrats in power but not in the minds of the people. With the war's end, and notwithstanding the provisions in the Constitution of 1864 disenfranchising southern supporters, most of whom were Democrats, the party reassumed its dominance and their issues once again defined state politics.

Annotations / Notes: Baltimore celebrates ratification of the Constitution.

Annotations / Notes: The authors seek to evaluate the effectiveness of a 1963 Baltimore County law requiring developers to set aside space in new residential sections for small local parks. The study examines parks created in three sample rowhouse developments, based upon interviews conducted with users of the three spaces. The article concludes that the program has been successful in terms of usage, though more by children than teens and young adults, and that proximity to residence determines frequency of use.