{"product_id":"damnation-island-book-stacy-horn-9781616205768","title":"Damnation Island","description":"\u003cb\u003eA riveting character-driven dive into 19th-century New York and the extraordinary history of Blackwell's Island.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e --\u003cb\u003eLaurie Gwen Shapiro, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Stowaway: A Young Man's Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e On a two-mile stretch of land in New York's East River, a 19th-century horror story was unfolding . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Today we call it Roosevelt Island. Then, it was Blackwell's, site of a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse, and a number of hospitals. Conceived as the most modern, humane incarceration facility the world ever seen, Blackwell's Island quickly became, in the words of a visiting Charles Dickens, a lounging, listless madhouse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the first contemporary investigative account of Blackwell's, Stacy Horn tells this chilling narrative through the gripping voices of the island's inhabitants, as well as the period's officials, reformers, and journalists, including the celebrated Nellie Bly. Digging through city records, newspaper articles, and archival reports, Horn brings this forgotten history alive: there was terrible overcrowding; prisoners were enlisted to care for the insane; punishment was harsh and unfair; and treatment was nonexistent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Throughout the book, we return to the extraordinary Reverend William Glenney French as he ministers to Blackwell's residents, battles the bureaucratic mazes of the Department of Correction and a corrupt City Hall, testifies at salacious trials, and in his diary wonders about man's inhumanity to man. In \u003ci\u003eDamnation Island\u003c\/i\u003e, Stacy Horn shows us how far we've come in caring for the least fortunate among us--and reminds us how much work still remains.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49548677349649,"sku":"GOR009697335","price":3.9,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49780998373649,"sku":"CIN1616205768G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49989058920721,"sku":"CIN1616205768VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51292582904081,"sku":"CIN1616205768A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1616205768.jpg?v=1751342983","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/products\/damnation-island-book-stacy-horn-9781616205768","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}