New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Recent Books About New York State

Authors and publishers of new books related to New York State can have their books noticed on the New York Almanack by following the submission guidelines HERE.

Bean Pickers: Upstate Italian-American Immigrants

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Bean Pickers CoverThe book Bean Pickers, American Immigrant Portraits by Karen Foresti Hempson (Jacobs Press, Inc., 2019) focuses on eight true-life portrayals of Italian immigrants and their families, all beginning their American lives as summer bean pickers in Upstate New York.

The book features over one hundred authentic photos and documents, illustrating personal stories from the early twentieth century immigration wave, Prohibition, the Great Depression, and the Second World War. Each character finds his/her way out of poverty through such avenues as bootlegging, playing baseball, joining the military. [Read more…] about Bean Pickers: Upstate Italian-American Immigrants

A Lively New History of Barnard College Published

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a college of her ownBook purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.

The new book A College of Her Own: The History of Barnard (Columbia University Press, 2020) by Robert McCaughey offers a comprehensive and lively narrative of Barnard College from its beginnings to the present day. [Read more…] about A Lively New History of Barnard College Published

Scandal on Plum Island: A Commander Accused

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long island history project logoIn 1914, Major Benjamin Koehler faced a court martial on Plum Island, off the eastern end of the North Fork coast of Long Island.  A number of men under his command at the island’s Fort Terry had accused this career officer of immoral conduct. The resulting trial and verdict, after an initial flurry of notice in the press, is largely forgotten now.

Marian Lindberg, a lawyer with the Nature Conservancy and a former journalist, has gone to great lengths to retrieve Major Koehler’s ordeal from obscurity. Her book, Scandal on Plum Island: A Commander Becomes the Accused (East End Press), uncovers the possible motives for the court martial as well as the social and political climate surrounding it. [Read more…] about Scandal on Plum Island: A Commander Accused

A New Book About Schoharie’s Old Stone Fort

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The new book Old Stone Fort – Guardian of Schoharie County History Since 1772 by Jeff O’Connor features over 79 maps, illustrations, and photographs that help narrate the history of one of upstate New York’s oldest and most beloved museums. [Read more…] about A New Book About Schoharie’s Old Stone Fort

New Novel: The Power Line by Christopher Shaw

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Power Line by Chris Shaw What really happened at Donnelly’s Corners in the spring of 1929?

The question haunts the exciting and thought-provoking novel, The Power Line (Outskirts Press, 2020) by Christopher Shaw.

According to Shaw, the project began in the seventies when the guide and regional historian Abel St. Martin began recording the memories of older people around Saranac Lake and Lake Aurora in the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about New Novel: The Power Line by Christopher Shaw

New Book: The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks

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the revolutionary war in the adirondacks During the Revolutionary Era much of New York State was a heavily forested frontier, sparsely populated but bitterly divided.

Although the only major campaign in the Adirondacks would end at the Battle of Saratoga, factional raiding parties traversed the mountains and valleys of the Adirondacks throughout the war.

Author Marie Danielle Annette Williams details many of those frontier raids in her new book The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks: Raids in the Wilderness (Arcadia Publishing, 2020). [Read more…] about New Book: The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks

Provocative Mothers and Their Precocious Daughters

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Provocative Mothers and Their Precocious DaughtersBook Purchases made through this link help New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.

The new book Provocative Mothers and Their Precocious Daughters: 19th Century Women’s Rights Leaders (Atlantic Publishing, 2020) by Suzanne Gehring Schnittman looks at the relationship between mothers and daughters, and pioneer women’s rights leaders Martha Wright, Abby Kelley Foster, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucy Stone. [Read more…] about Provocative Mothers and Their Precocious Daughters

New Book On Audubon Park: The Neighborhood Manhattan Forgot

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Audubon Park CoverBook purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.

Matthew Spady’s new book The Neighborhood Manhattan Forgot: Audubon Park and the Families Who Shaped It (Fordham University Press, 2020) is the story of Audubon Park’s origins, maturation, and disappearance. The book is the study of a rural society evolving into an urban community, an examination of the relationship between people and the land they inhabit. [Read more…] about New Book On Audubon Park: The Neighborhood Manhattan Forgot

Harold Holzer On Presidents vs Press

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the presidents versus the pressThe New York State Archives Partnership Trust and the New York State Writers Institute have announced an interview with acclaimed author and Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer set for Tuesday, September 22nd at 12:30 pm.

NYS Writers Institute Director Paul Grondahl and author Harold Holzer will discuss insights from Harold’s new book, The Presidents Vs. The Press, examining the dual rise of the American presidency and the media that shaped it. [Read more…] about Harold Holzer On Presidents vs Press

Tacky’s Revolt: Slave Insurgency in Jamaica

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Book purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.

Between 1760 and 1761, Great Britain witnessed one of the largest slave insurrections in the history of its empire. Although the revolt took place on the island of Jamaica, the reverberations of this revolt stretched across the Atlantic Ocean and into the British North American colonies.

In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, Vincent Brown, author of Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War (Belknap Press, 2020), joins us to investigate Tacky’s Revolt and how that revolt served as an eddy within the larger current of Atlantic warfare.

[Read more…] about Tacky’s Revolt: Slave Insurgency in Jamaica