The Regulars

Originally published in hardcover in 2016 by Emily Bestler Books/Atria.

A bartender-photographer trains her eye on the patrons at McGlinchey's bar It's four o'clock in the afternoon and the regulars start to file into the perpetual twilight of a downtown bar in Philadelphia. Bartender Sarah Stolfa pours out the drinks then picks up her camera. McGlinchey's is a haven for drinkers from all walks of life: You'll meet the rebellious college student with pink-streaked hair and a bottle of hangover-inducing brew; the sharply dressed businessman with a yearning look; the pensive loner carefully ignoring his newspaper and bag of chips; and the former prom king with his tie and V-neck sweater, double fisting a shot and a beer. The urban bar experience is brought to life in these pages, topped off with an introduction written by best-selling author Jonathan Franzen and Stolfa's own meditations on finding her inspiration while tending bar. For young hipsters, grizzled old-timers, and everyone in between, The Regulars is as elegant as an Old Master painting and as down-home as a bottle of Bud.

In 1898 the American Regular Army was a small frontier constabulary engaged in skirmishes with Indians and protesting workers. Forty-three years later, in 1941, it was a large modern army ready to wage global war against the Germans and the Japanese. In this definitive social history of America's standing army, military historian Edward Coffman tells how that critical transformation was accomplished. Coffman has spent years immersed in the official records, personal papers, memoirs, and biographies of regular army men, including such famous leaders as George Marshall, George Patton, and Douglas MacArthur. He weaves their stories, and those of others he has interviewed, into the story of an army which grew from a small community of posts in China and the Philippines to a highly effective mechanized ground and air force. During these years, the U.S. Army conquered and controlled a colonial empire, military staff lived in exotic locales with their families, and soldiers engaged in combat in Cuba and the Pacific. In the twentieth century, the United States entered into alliances to fight the German army in World War I, and then again to meet the challenge of the Axis Powers in World War II. Coffman explains how a managerial revolution in the early 1900s provided the organizational framework and educational foundation for change, and how the combination of inspired leadership, technological advances, and a supportive society made it successful. In a stirring account of all aspects of garrison life, including race relations, we meet the men and women who helped reconfigure America's frontier army into a modern global force.

Based on the column The Regulars on the New York magazine partner Bedford + Bowery, the celebrities and everyday people who love the local joints of the world’s coolest borough. Meet the Regulars captures a previously unseen and entertaining portrait of the people of Brooklyn and the places they love. In talking with the regulars at bars, restaurants, and shops in the world-famous borough, author Joshua Fischer delivers deep and delightful stories presented alongside stunning snapshots from accomplished photographers including Nina Westervelt (Vogue.com, New York Times), Phil Provencio (Variety, Saturday Night Live, and CBS), and Nicole Disser (Bedford + Bowery and Brooklyn Magazine online). Meet the Regulars reveals the great power in the connections we make with the people and places where we live. Originally an interview series on the New York magazine partner Bedford + Bowery, Meet the Regulars introduces us to a diverse and changing Brooklyn through its regulars: the first-generation American Latino café owner who drinks Coors out of a can and loves a good debate with the lawyer and plumber at his corner bar, the blogger who fixes her hair and heart at her cherished salon, the lady so loyal to her local bar she has its logo tattooed on her arm, the Asian hipster couple who drink and dance for "exercise" at their new-school Brooklyn hangout, and the burgeoning filmmaker who walks twenty blocks for sage advice from a legendary bartender inside a bowling alley. Familiar faces include party rocker Andrew W. K. spicing things up at the Thai joint from his early days, Saturday Night Live performer Sasheer Zamata reliving a break-up at her go-to brunch spot, Radiolab host Jad Abumrad sippin' whiskey to Black Sabbath, beloved NY1 news anchor Pat Kiernan chowing down on meatballs, actor Jessica Pimentel (Orange Is the New Black) championing her local metal bar, actor Kevin Corrigan (Goodfellas, Pineapple Express) contemplating a Guinness at his favorite Irish pub, and more. From Meet the Regulars: "These are stories about people finding a home in an ephemeral world of bars, restaurants, shops, and clubs that open, explode, and burn out like so many stars hidden in that bright and sleepless New York night sky." —Joshua D. Fischer, from his introduction Meet the regulars of Meet the Regulars: "It's a sense of continuity. You thread your history through a place. . . . That's what makes me a regular." —Jad Abumrad, host of public radio's Radiolab, regular at Splitty "Once you have the cell phone number of the bar owner, then you're a regular." —Twin comics the Lucas Brothers, regulars at Tutu's "I can tell if a person is cool if their vibe mixes with this place." —Sasheer Zamata, Saturday Night Live cast member, regular at Enid's "Brooklyn is this unattractive, could-never-go-to-the-prom borough. And now, not only does everyone want to take you to the prom, but everyone wants you on their arm." —Eric Adams, Brooklyn borough president, regular at Woodland "Read the book. Talk to everyone about it. . . . Move to Brooklyn with nothing but the contents of a suitcase. Be in the world's most annoying band. Get a bunch of hideous tattoos. Whatever." —Meredith Graves of punk band Perfect Pussy, regular at Roman's "This bar saved my life." —Ariel Pellman, costume designer, regular at the Way Station

Holly Swyers turns to the bleachers of Chicago's iconic Wrigley Field in this unique exploration of the ways people craft a feeling of community under almost any conditions. Wrigley Regulars examines various components of community through the lens of "the regulars," a group of diehard Chicago Cubs fans who loyally populate the bleachers at Wrigley Field. In a time when many communities are perceived as either short-lived or disintegrating, the Wrigley regulars have formed their own thriving set of pregame rituals, ballpark traditions, and social hierarchies. Swyers examines the conditions, practices, and behaviors that help create and sustain the experience of community. At Wrigley Field, these practices can include the simple acts of scorecard-keeping and gathering at the same location before each game or insisting on elaborate rules of ticket distribution and seating arrangements, as well as more symbolic behaviors and superstitions that link the regulars to each other. A bleacher regular herself, Swyers uses a qualitative approach to define community as the ways in which people arrive at an awareness of themselves as a group with a particular relationship to the larger world. The case of the regulars offers a challenge to the claim that community is eroding in an increasingly fragmented and technologically driven culture, suggesting instead that our notions of where we find community and how we express it are changing.

Based on the column The Regulars on the New York magazine partner Bedford + Bowery, the celebrities and everyday people who love the local joints of the world’s coolest borough. Meet the Regulars captures a previously unseen and entertaining portrait of the people of Brooklyn and the places they love. In talking with the regulars at bars, restaurants, and shops in the world-famous borough, author Joshua Fischer delivers deep and delightful stories presented alongside stunning snapshots from accomplished photographers including Nina Westervelt (Vogue.com, New York Times), Phil Provencio (Variety, Saturday Night Live, and CBS), and Nicole Disser (Bedford + Bowery and Brooklyn Magazine online). Meet the Regulars reveals the great power in the connections we make with the people and places where we live. Originally an interview series on the New York magazine partner Bedford + Bowery, Meet the Regulars introduces us to a diverse and changing Brooklyn through its regulars: the first-generation American Latino café owner who drinks Coors out of a can and loves a good debate with the lawyer and plumber at his corner bar, the blogger who fixes her hair and heart at her cherished salon, the lady so loyal to her local bar she has its logo tattooed on her arm, the Asian hipster couple who drink and dance for "exercise" at their new-school Brooklyn hangout, and the burgeoning filmmaker who walks twenty blocks for sage advice from a legendary bartender inside a bowling alley. Familiar faces include party rocker Andrew W. K. spicing things up at the Thai joint from his early days, Saturday Night Live performer Sasheer Zamata reliving a break-up at her go-to brunch spot, Radiolab host Jad Abumrad sippin' whiskey to Black Sabbath, beloved NY1 news anchor Pat Kiernan chowing down on meatballs, actor Jessica Pimentel (Orange Is the New Black) championing her local metal bar, actor Kevin Corrigan (Goodfellas, Pineapple Express) contemplating a Guinness at his favorite Irish pub, and more. From Meet the Regulars: "These are stories about people finding a home in an ephemeral world of bars, restaurants, shops, and clubs that open, explode, and burn out like so many stars hidden in that bright and sleepless New York night sky." —Joshua D. Fischer, from his introduction Meet the regulars of Meet the Regulars: "It's a sense of continuity. You thread your history through a place. . . . That's what makes me a regular." —Jad Abumrad, host of public radio's Radiolab, regular at Splitty "Once you have the cell phone number of the bar owner, then you're a regular." —Twin comics the Lucas Brothers, regulars at Tutu's "I can tell if a person is cool if their vibe mixes with this place." —Sasheer Zamata, Saturday Night Live cast member, regular at Enid's "Brooklyn is this unattractive, could-never-go-to-the-prom borough. And now, not only does everyone want to take you to the prom, but everyone wants you on their arm." —Eric Adams, Brooklyn borough president, regular at Woodland "Read the book. Talk to everyone about it. . . . Move to Brooklyn with nothing but the contents of a suitcase. Be in the world's most annoying band. Get a bunch of hideous tattoos. Whatever." —Meredith Graves of punk band Perfect Pussy, regular at Roman's "This bar saved my life." —Ariel Pellman, costume designer, regular at the Way Station

Unlike previous histories, this book argues that the politics of slavery profoundly influenced the western mission of the regular army - affecting the hearts and minds of officers and enlisted men both as the nation plummented toward civil war."--BOOK JACKET.