Neither southern nor northern, Baltimore has charted its own course through the American experience. The spires of the nation's first cathedral rose into its sky, and the first blood of the Civil War fell on its streets. Here, enslaved Frederick Douglass toiled before fleeing to freedom and Billie Holiday learned to sing. Baltimore's clippers plied the seven seas, while its pioneering railroads opened the prairie West. The city that birthed The Star-Spangled...