Twentieth Century Baltimore:
A Native Son's Casual History of the City on the Patapsco
by Jack Burkert
This is the story of a city: Baltimore, Maryland, my hometown. It is a direct result of my work in developing and presenting a series of popular Baltimore history lectures beginning in 2011. Over time, more and more social history – how people worked and lived, what issues concerned them – began to emerge. Jobs, industry, and work were always the core material, but increasingly the life of the city and the stories of its people became the focus of my programs.
Audience members asked, "When are you going to write all of this down?" Well, here you have it: a story of a city and its people, a history from the perspective of a fellow Baltimorean, one native son who is also an amateur historian. It is a story of Baltimore in the 20th century, no more and no less, the history of a place and its people from many walks of life. In telling the stories, there were constant efforts to be aware of cultural differences, of differing perspectives, and of how events impacted the diverse people that make Baltimore, well, Baltimore.
