This week on The Historians Podcast, Bob Gumson discusses his memoir, In Blind Sight: From Canarsie, Brooklyn with Love, Music and Mischief (Troy Book Makers, 2020). [Read more…] about In Blind Sight: From Canarsie, Brooklyn
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.
Roger Lamb’s American Revolution: A British Soldier’s Story Updated
Of all the British soldiers who served in North America during the American Revolution, none wrote more about his experiences than Roger Lamb. His service in two of the most important campaigns — the 1777 Saratoga campaign and the 1781 campaign through the Carolinas to Virginia — put him in the thick of some of the war’s most famous battles. [Read more…] about Roger Lamb’s American Revolution: A British Soldier’s Story Updated
Washington’s Revenge: The 1777 New Jersey Campaign
In late August 1776, a badly defeated Continental Army retreated from Long Island to Manhattan. By early November, George Washington’s inexperienced army withdrew further into New Jersey and, by the end of the year, into Pennsylvania. During this dark night of the American Revolution — “the times that try men’s souls” — Washington began developing the strategy that would win the war. [Read more…] about Washington’s Revenge: The 1777 New Jersey Campaign
Misinformation Nation: Truth in Revolutionary America
The new book Misinformation Nation: Foreign News and the Politics of Truth in Revolutionary America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022) by Jordan E. Taylor reveals how foreign news defined the boundaries of American politics and ultimately drove colonists to revolt against Britain and create a new nation.
“Fake news” is not new. Just like millions of Americans today, the revolutionaries of the eighteenth century worried that they were entering a “post-truth” era. Their fears, however, were not fixated on social media or click-bait, but rather on peoples’ increasing reliance on reading news gathered from foreign newspapers. [Read more…] about Misinformation Nation: Truth in Revolutionary America
A New Archaeological History of New York City
The new book Buried Beneath the City: An Archaeological History of New York (Columbia University Press, 2022) by Nan A. Rothschild, Amanda Sutphin, H. Arthur Bankoff, and Jessica Striebel MacLean uses urban archaeology to retell the history of New York, from the deeper layers of the past to the topsoil of recent events. [Read more…] about A New Archaeological History of New York City
New Empire State Trail Cycling Guide Released
Parks & Trails New York (PTNY) has announced the publication of a new trail travel guidebook, Cycling the Hudson and Champlain Valleys. The 400-mile north-south route of the Empire State Trail, the longest statewide trail in the nation, is the focus of the new book. [Read more…] about New Empire State Trail Cycling Guide Released
Death By Fire And Ice: The Steamboat Lexington Calamity
In January 1840 the steamboat Lexington left Manhattan bound for Stonington, Connecticut, at four o’clock in the afternoon on a bitterly cold day carrying an estimated one hundred forty-seven passengers and crew and a cargo of, among other things, baled cotton.
After making her way up an ice-encrusted East River and into Long Island Sound, she caught fire off Eaton’s Neck on Long Island’s north shore at approximately seven o’clock. The fire quickly ignited the cotton stowed on board. [Read more…] about Death By Fire And Ice: The Steamboat Lexington Calamity
Landmarks of the American Revolution
The book In the Founders’ Footsteps: Landmarks of the American Revolution (David R. Godine, 2022) by Adam Van Doren takes a look at the original thirteen colonies in search of historical sites and their stories in America’s founding. [Read more…] about Landmarks of the American Revolution
The Fulton Fish Market: A History
The Fulton Fish Market stands out as an iconic New York institution. At first a neighborhood retail market for many different kinds of food, it became the nation’s largest fish and seafood wholesaling center by the late nineteenth century.
Waves of immigrants worked at the Fulton Fish Market and then introduced the rest of the city to their seafood traditions. In popular culture, the market — celebrated by Joseph Mitchell in The New Yorker — conjures up images of the bustling East River waterfront, late-night fishmongering, organized crime, and a vanished working-class New York. [Read more…] about The Fulton Fish Market: A History
Mansions, Monuments, and Marvels of Riverside Park
The new book Heaven on the Hudson: Mansions, Monuments, and Marvels of Riverside Park (Empire State Editions, 2022) by Stephanie Azzarone with photographs by Robert F. Rodriguez is a colorful tale of a singular New York City neighborhood and the personalities who make it special.
To outsiders or East Siders, Riverside Park and Riverside Drive may not have the star status of Fifth Avenue or Central Park West. But at the city’s westernmost edge, there is a quiet and beauty like few other places in all of New York. There are miles of mansions and monuments, acres of flora, and a breadth of wildlife ranging from Peregrine falcons to goats. [Read more…] about Mansions, Monuments, and Marvels of Riverside Park