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.

New Book On The Hill: A Tipi In A NYC Shantytown

January 23, 2022 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

The book The Hill (Autonomedia, 2021) by Gabriele Schafer traces the steps of how a shantytown went from the anonymity of waist-high huts hidden in the weeds, to a tour-bus, school-group and celebrity stop; from addicts and recluses just getting by, to a drug supermarket; from a close-knit encampment, to a crime scene that entangles everyone from drug dealers, to users, to cops, to Schafer and Nick Fracaro… when one day tragedy strikes.

In the middle of the night on Thanksgiving 1990, the same weekend that the film Dances with Wolves opened, life partners Schafer and Fracaro erected a 25-foot-tall replica of a Lakota tipi in New York City’s then longest-existing shantytown, known as “The Hill,” located at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge at Canal and Chrystie Streets. [Read more…] about New Book On The Hill: A Tipi In A NYC Shantytown

The Irish Diaspora: Tales of Emigration, Exile and Imperialism

January 17, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Irish American Heritage Museum will host Historian Turtle Bunbury, author of new book The Irish Diaspora: Tales of Emigration, Exile and Imperialism (Thames & Hudson, 2021) on Wednesday, January 19, 2022 who will share stories of Irish emigrants and their descendants.

Through the compelling stories of the great Irish pioneers who left their homeland and in the process profoundly influenced their adoptive countries, Bunbury takes some overlooked events and characters and weaves them into a history of the Irish abroad. [Read more…] about The Irish Diaspora: Tales of Emigration, Exile and Imperialism

New Book Considers New York’s Defunct Liberal Party

January 17, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

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

Beginning in 1944 and lasting until 2002, the Liberal Party offered voters an ideological seal of approval and played the role of strategic kingmaker in the electoral politics of New York State. The party helped elect presidents, governors, senators, and mayors, and its platform reflected its founders’ social democratic principles.

In practical politics, the Liberal Party’s power resided in its capacity to steer votes to preferred Democrats or Republicans with a reasonable chance of victory. This uneasy balance between principle and pragmatism ultimately proved impossible to maintain. [Read more…] about New Book Considers New York’s Defunct Liberal Party

Cuba: An Early American History

January 12, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

One of the places that Christopher Columbus stopped at during his 1492 voyage was an alligator-shaped island at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, between the Yucatán and Florida peninsulas – the is the island of Cuba.

What do we know about early Cuba, the island the Spanish described as the “Key to the Indies?” What kind of relationship and exchange did early Cuba have with British North America and the early United States? [Read more…] about Cuba: An Early American History

Rochester Architecture Book Wins Modernism Award

January 5, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Architecture of James H. Johnson (Primedia eLaunch, 2020), a historic resource survey and book about the life and work of Rochester architect James H. Johnson (1932-2016), was recognized with a Docomomo US 2021 Modernism in America Award last month in New York City.

Spurred by the loss of one of his key buildings, Our Lady of Mercy Rectory (Greece) in 2013, The Architecture of James H. Johnson is the first in-depth study and documentation of Johnson, whose well-known projects include Rochester’s Liberty Pole, the Mushroom House (Perinton), St. John the Evangelist Church (Greece), and Temple Sinai (Brighton). [Read more…] about Rochester Architecture Book Wins Modernism Award

400 Years of New York History: A Pictorial Guide

January 1, 2022 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

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

The first volume of the new book series 400 Years of New York History: A Pictorial Guide (Pictorial History Press, 2020) by Sasha Vosk is a one-of-a-kind illustrated guide that offers readers an opportunity to view New York City’s history in a manner that has not been possible until now with the benefit of 21st century art technology. This volume covers the period of New Amsterdam, when the Dutch controlled the city as part of their colony of New Netherland. [Read more…] about 400 Years of New York History: A Pictorial Guide

The History of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s ‘The Secret Garden’

December 31, 2021 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

This week on The Historians Podcast, garden historian Marta McDowell, author of Unearthing the Secret Garden: The Plants and Places That Inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett (Timber Press, 2021), a deep look at the classic children’s book The Secret Garden (1911). [Read more…] about The History of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s ‘The Secret Garden’

Finding Missing Judge Joseph Crater (Historians Podcast)

December 17, 2021 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

This week on The Historians Podcast, Stephen Riegel discusses his book Finding Judge Crater: A Life and Phenomenal Disappearance in Jazz Age NY (USRYC, 2021).

Judge Joseph Crater was a New York State Supreme Court Justice who disappeared in New York City in 1930. [Read more…] about Finding Missing Judge Joseph Crater (Historians Podcast)

New Book Reveals Inaccurately Told & Long-Forgotten Cazenovia Tales

December 11, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

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

The new book The Bear Tree and Other Stories from Cazenovia’s History (USYRC, 2021) by Erica Barnes and Jason Emerson looks at the historic lakeside village of Cazenovia, Madison County, in the scenic Finger Lakes region, one of the jewels of Central New York. [Read more…] about New Book Reveals Inaccurately Told & Long-Forgotten Cazenovia Tales

Alice Green’s New Book Covers Social Justice Activism

December 9, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The new book We Who Believe in Freedom: Activism and the Struggle for Social Justice (King Jesus Press LLC, 2021) by Alice Green, with foreward by Paul Grondahl, is an inspirational book that exposes readers to weighty topics such as police abuse and accountability, criminal justice and prison reform, and political abuse of power in Albany, NY.

The book, part memoir and part history, Green deals with these topics through her life experiences as a life-long advocate, highlighting the impact they have had on Albany’s black communities since the early days of enslavement, up to the present. [Read more…] about Alice Green’s New Book Covers Social Justice Activism