"Gotham meets The Island at the Center of the World in this dazzling history of a single square block in Manhattan from the Age of Exploration to the present. This is the story of New York City, told through the prism of one block, bordered by Twenty-Third Street to the south, Twenty-Fourth Street to the north, Fifth Avenue to the east, and Sixth Avenue to the west. It's a story of forest and cement, bird cries and taxi horns, gambling dens and gourmet foods. It's also the story of high life and low life, immigrants and tourists, laborers and aristocrats-from Solomon Pieters, a former slave who was the first owner of the block, to John Randel Jr., the surveyor who laid out Manhattan's famous grid plan, to Anthony "Clubber" Comstock, the notorious police officer of the 1870s who accepted bribes and wielded his club with equal impunity, to Marietta Stevens, whose Sunday night socials and scheming became the stuff of legend. Greed and generosity, guilt and innocence, extravagance and degradation-all have flourished in this one Manhattan block, emblematic of the city as a whole. Welcome to New York, past and present, and hear all the sordid and edifying stories this small patch of land has to tell. Venturing from the opulent halls of the Fifth Avenue Hotel to grimy Sixth Avenue brothels, from the era of the Lenape to that of the Dutch, from the Gilded Age to the early twentieth century, when the block and the city were transformed into something closely resembling the Manhattan we know today-within the confines of this single block resides the panoramic story of the city as a whole"--

Gotham meets The Island at the Center of the World in this dazzling history of a single block in Manhattan from the Age of Exploration to the present. This is the story of New York City, told through the prism of one block, bordered by Twenty-third Street to the south, Twenty-fourth Street to the north, Fifth Avenue and Broadway to the east, and Sixth Avenue to the west. It's a story of forest and cement, bird cries and taxi horns, theaters and factories, gambling dens and gourmet foods. It's also the story of high life and low life, immigrants and tourists, farmers and aristocrats, crooked cops and moral reformers, toy stores and social climbers--from Solomon Pieters, a former slave who was the first owner of the block, to Alexander “Clubber” Williams, the notorious police officer of the 1870s who accepted bribes and wielded his club with equal impunity, to Marietta Stevens, whose Sunday-night socials and scheming became the stuff of legend. Greed and generosity, guilt and innocence, extravagance and degradation--all have flourished on this one Manhattan block, emblematic of the city as a whole. Venturing from the opulent halls of the Fifth Avenue Hotel to grimy Sixth Avenue brothels, from the era of the Lenape to that of the Dutch, from the Gilded Age to the twentieth century, when the block and the city were transformed into something closely resembling the Manhattan we know today, A Block in Time takes us on a dynamic, exhilarating tour of history. Welcome to New York, past and present, and hear all the sordid and edifying stories this small patch of land has to tell.

Most research on organized crime reveals only a limited sense of its history. Our understanding suffers as a result. Space, Time, and Organized Crime shows how arguments about the sources, consequences, and extent of crime are distorted as a consequence of crude empiricism. Originally published in Europe in 1991 as Perspectives on Organizing Crime, this book is a timely blend of history, criticism, and research. Fully one-fourth of this new edition contains hitherto unpublished materials especially relevant to the American experience. Space, Time, and Organized Crime describes the background of Progressive Era New York. It then broadens its scope by exploring the changes in drug production and distribution in Europe from about 1925 to the mid-1930s. Block addresses such little explored issues as the ethnicity of traders, the structure of drug syndicates, and the impact of legislation that attempted to criminalize increasing aspects of the world's narcotic industry prior to the Second World War. He then goes on to present organized crime's involvement with transnational political movements, intelligence services, and political murders. Space, Time, and Organized Crime concentrates on ambiguities evident in organized crime control, such as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service's protection of criminal off-shore financial interests, and the contradictions found in America's war on drugs. Space, Time, and Organized Crime demonstrates that the essential nature of crime in the twentieth century (regardless of where it takes place) cannot be understood without sound historical studies and a more sophisticated criminological approach. Block's unique blend of stratification in a historical context will be of special interest to historians, sociologists, criminologists, and penologist.

Fiction. Elizabeth Block's debut novel, A GESTURE THROUGH TIME (written under fiscal sponsorshipof Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, selected as a 1997 Heekin Foundation firstnovel fellowship finalist, short-listed with an honorable mention for the 2004 Starcheronefiction prize, and the recipient of a Djerassi Resident Artists Program Tread of Angelsfellowship) is one of the most inventive narratives in contemporary literature. "Elizabeth Block's A GESTURE THROUGH TIME is a novel for the new millennium. Deft and funny and wise, it examines authorship, narration, technology, love, and memory, and asks most playfully what it means to tell a story. Always inventing and bravely trying out new strategies, she puts most writers and their sorry pretenses of invention to shame. In the spirit of Stern's Tristram Shandy, A GESTURE THROUGH TIME captures the relation of muse and amuse, taking the reader on a spirited, pleasure-filled journey"--Maxine Chernoff.

This book is full of practical, instructional strategies to help foster high levels of student achievement in the block schedule. It contains strategies for differentiation, powerful brain-based teaching techniques, creative approaches to productively organizing extended periods of time, and proactive classroom management tips. It adds to the repertoire every teacher needs to assure no child is left behind in the teaching-learning process.

After a devastating earthquake destroys the West Coast, causing seventeen-year-old Penelope to lose her home, her parents, and her ten-year-old brother, she navigates a dark world, holding hope and love in her hands and refusing to be defeated.