Baltimore’s tangled history, firmly in the shadow of Annapolis, has given it an inferiority complex. So says Johns Hopkins professor emeritus of political science Matthew Crenson, whose new book is: Baltimore: A Political History. We ask him why early town fathers didn’t have the power to keep pigs from wandering the streets, how investing in the first interstate railroad left the city too debt-burdened to pay for police and schools, and why he thinks Baltimore has tried to deal with race issues by not talking about them.
A book launch will be held tonight, August 8th, at 4 pm, at the Baltimore City Archives, 2615 Matthews St.