Bøger af Bob Swacker

Step off the beaten path of Fifth Avenue and into the rich cultural history of New York City's five boroughs. Beyond the crowds and tourist traps of dazzling Midtown Manhattan are layers of history waiting to be discovered. Even for locals, who each day pass the shadows of New York's immigrant beginnings, the city holds a secret history to be revealed--if only you know what to look for. Out From Midtown transforms the city from a bustling metropolis to a virtual archaeological dig. Simple walking directions and transit tips guide the traveler through the most distinct and diverse points in the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. Learn to see New York three-dimensionally through the eyes of history, where architecture, grave sites, and street corners hold the clues to a fascinating past and the wonders of an adventurous present.

New York City History is essential reading not only for fans of regional history, but for readers who wish to understand the American experience through the heartbeat of one of our greatest cities.With a focus on the stories that built the city, historian Bob Swacker explores the growth and development of the metropolis from its Dutch and English colonial past, beginning in 1625, to today's modern Gotham.In 125 chapters the author weaves a narrative that presents the unique historical developments of New York City including: architecture, infrastructure, industry, consumer businesses, public spaces, pestilence, cemeteries, housing, religion, education, literature, immigration, and harbor and river activitiesThe book features six chapters focused on the Civil War covering a wide range of topics such as slave revolts, abolitionists and reformers, raising battalions, and the Draft Riot of 1863.Immigration has been fundamental to the development of New York City and is a key topic, with discussions of the first European settlers on Governors Island, the Irish Potato Famine, orphanages and orphan trains, Kleindeutschland, Abraham Cahan and the Jewish Daily Forward, kosher and halal ritual slaughtering, Chinatown, and refugee settlement after the Second World War.Biographical chapters explore the lives of such memorable historical characters as: Peter Stuyvesant, Washington Irving, John Jacob Astor, Peter Cooper, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, P.T. Barnum, Archbishop John Hughes, Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Blackwell, Samuel Gompers, Dorothy Day, Paul Robeson, Robert Moses, Jane Jacobs, and Jackie Robinson.New York City History brings to life the boroughs, people, and events that founded and continue to influence this great American city.