The town of Webster, New York, is framed with a rugged, natural beauty that sets it apart from other local communities, and there is a spirit of independent thinking here that is valued. In 1840, the newly incorporated town was named after Daniel Webster, the outspoken statesman, who had never actually set foot in the town. Favorable soil conditions and climate tempered by Lake Ontario contributed to Webster�s growth as a prosperous agricultural center for growing fruit. The production of ...

Famed New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell, as a young newspaper reporter in 1930s New York, interviewed fan dancers, street evangelists, voodoo conjurers, not to mention a lady boxer who also happened to be a countess. Mitchell haunted parts of the city now vanished: the fish market, burlesque houses, tenement neighborhoods, and storefront churches. Whether he wrote about a singing first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers or a nudist who does a reverse striptease, Mitchell brilliantly...

The former deputy mayor of New York City tells the story of the city's comeback after 9/11, offering lessons in resiliency under the most trying of circumstances, and a model for the rejuvenation of any city.Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff led New York's dramatic and unexpected economic resurgence after the September 11 terrorist attacks. With Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he developed a remarkably ambitious five-borough economic development plan to not only recover fr...

Historians have long considered the Battle of Monmouth one of the most complicated engagements of the American Revolution. Fought on Sunday, June 28, 1778, Monmouth was critical to the success of the Revolution. It also marked a decisive turning point in the military career of George Washington. Without the victory at Monmouth Courthouse, Washington's critics might well have marshaled the political strength to replace him as the American commander-in-chief. Authors Mark Edward Lender and G...

During the 1930s in the United States, the Works Progress Administration developed the Federal Writers’ Project to support writers and artists while making a national effort to document the country’s shared history and culture. The American Guide series consists of individual guides to each of the states. Little-known authors-many of whom would later become celebrated literary figures-were commissioned to write these important books. John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ral...

From Paris to Rio, everyone’s curious about hot, new Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Experience, Ellen Freudenheim’s fourth comprehensive Brooklyn guidebook, offers a true insider’s guide, complete with photographs, itineraries, and insights into one of the most creative, dynamic cities in the modern world.Walk over the Brooklyn Bridge at dawn or sunset, discover thirty-eight unique Brooklyn neighborhoods, and experience the borough like a native. Find out where to go to the beach ...

From the early 1900s through the 1950s, the postcard was an extraordinarily popular means of communication, and many of the postcards produced during this 'golden age' can today be considered works of art. Postcard photographers traveled the length and breadth of the nation snapping photographs of busy street scenes, documenting local landmarks, and assembling crowds of local children only too happy to pose for a picture. These images, printed as postcards and sold in general stores across...

The New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail, established by an act of Congress in 1988, runs from Perth Amboy Harbor in the northeast of the state to Fort Mott State Park in the southwesta 275-mile stretch of Jersey coast linking more than 50 natural and historic destinations. Whether you plan to visit one or all 54 sites, this well-organized, fully illustrated guide makes it fun and easy. For each site along the trail, author Patricia Robinson provides a description, driving directions, hours o...

The Finger Lakes region is known for its beauty, but look carefully and you will discover some of New York's other abundant--and unusual--treasures. The cliffs of Excelsior Glen are scattered with ancient Indian pictographs, and Bluff Point conceals the ruins of an unknown civilization. The wine industry has its own strange stories; discover why one wine producer was banned from using his own name. Among the oddities of the Finger Lakes region are the world's largest pancake, a slice of Su...

America's remarkable explosion of industrial output and national wealth at the end of the nineteenth century was matched by a troubling rise in poverty and worker unrest. As politicians and intellectuals fought over the causes of this crisis, Henry George (1839–1897) published a radical critique of laissez-faire capitalism and its threat to the nation's republican traditions. Progress and Poverty (1879), which became a surprise best-seller, offered a provocative solution for prese...

During the American Revolution, Great Britain hired thirty thousand German troops to fight rebellious colonists. Five thousand of those troops marched across New Jersey from Princeton and Trenton all the way to the northern tip of Sussex County. Though popular legend would cast them as cold and vicious mercenaries, many were prisoners of war with little choice. Stories of their exploits still circulate in New Jersey, from the headless Hessian of the Morristown Swamp to the mysterious Ramap...

The author aptly characterizes this work as a "series of itineraries" by which the reader is made familiar with much of the history of Manhattan Island by being led to the very spots associated with important historical events. But this book is much more. It is surprising and refreshing to read a defense of the Five Points from the pen of so intelligent a witness. We who are deeply interested in New York history thank the author for the facts which he has collected. There is a unique arran...