This book examines the history of sexual harassment in America's public places, such as on the streets and on public transit vehicles, in the period 1880 to 1930. Such behavior was referred to then as mashing with the harasser most commonly being called a masher. It began around 1880 as a response to the women's movement as females in America increased their efforts to gain more freedom of movement and greater independence.

Women going out and about on their own, or only with other women, threatened male dominance and control of society. One response by men was to turn to the sexual...

Because of the 2013 revelations of Edward Snowden we have all come to understand that, with regard to all ectronic communications, we are mostly all surveilled most of the time. It all started about 150 years ago on the battlefields of America during the Civil War when each side tapped the telegraph lines to spy on the other side. It continued in 1895 when the New York Police Department began to tap telephone lines. It was 20 years before that fact became public knowledge and by then the NYPD was so busy tapping that they had a separate room set aside for that purpose. The practice of tapping...

Between 1887 and 1920, the humble hatpin went from an unremarkable item in every woman's wardrobe, to a fashion necessity, to a dangerous weapon (it was said). Big hair and big hats of the era meant big hatpins, and their weaponized use sparked controversy. There were "good" uses of hatpins, such as fending off an attacker in the street. There were also "bad" uses, such as when a woman being arrested tried to stab a police officer. But seriously: All those protruding pins seemed to threaten people everywhere in the public sphere. It did not sit well with the patriarchy, who responded...

Police violence is not a new phenomenon. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, police officers in America assaulted or killed many ordinary citizens. Based on newspaper accounts from 1869 to 1920, this history provides a chronological listing of interactions between police and unarmed citizens in which the citizens - some of them minors - were assaulted or killed.