The Saratoga Battlefield is part of the National Park Service and a beloved destination for millions. The story of the battles is more than a military study of a critical turning point in the Revolutionary War. It is a significant component in defining the northeastern United States and the way Americans see each other and work with one another. It is also a story of the land and the people. Today, the National Park Service and other partners promulgate the story and the lessons learned. The story is dramatic; the impacts were pivotal and profound. Author Timothy Hughes brings the lessons drawn in today's contexts and taken up by today's generations together.
Has 85 full-page plates of hand-lettered text and meticulously detailed drawings that bring to life the day-to-day pleasures and privations of the Revolutionary soldier.
In Hiking through History New York, you can hike through the forest planted on orders from President Franklin Roosevelt and follow the swath cut by the 20th century’s strongest and most influential First Lady. Or you can traverse the Minisink Battleground, a shady natural area once erupted in battle between British, Iroquois, and American troops. Or explore Fort Niagara and walk along lookout points that French soldiers occupied as far back as the 1600s. Hiking through History New York profiles forty hikes, going beyond stating miles and directions for each hike to include rich descriptions of the history underfoot. Whether you’re a curious tourist or a local history buff, this is a comprehensive guidebook to the area’s natural and human history.
"In one accessible, engaging, and easy-to-use volume readers will find historical context, directions, factual information, and analytical architectural analysis for more than two hundred places of interest across the United States. The traveler (armchair, behind the wheel, or on foot), the researcher (seeking a comprehensive view of some of America's greatest ideas and accomplishments), and the architect and landscape architect (seeking sources of inspiration) will find a rewarding journey inside this book."--BOOK JACKET.
In the autumn of 1777, near Saratoga, New York, an inexperienced and improvised American army led by General Horatio Gates faced off against the highly trained British and German forces led by General John Burgoyne. The British strategy in confronting the Americans in upstate New York was to separate rebellious New England from the other colonies. Despite inferior organization and training, the Americans exploited access to fresh reinforcements of men and materiel, and ultimately handed the British a stunning defeat. The American victory, for the first time in the war, confirmed that independence from Great Britain was all but inevitable. Assimilating the archaeological remains from the battlefield along with the many letters, journals, and memoirs of the men and women in both camps, Dean Snow's 1777 provides a richly detailed narrative of the two battles fought at Saratoga over the course of thirty-three tense and bloody days. While the contrasting personalities of Gates and Burgoyne are well known, they are but two of the many actors who make up the larger drama of Saratoga. Snow highlights famous and obscure participants alike, from the brave but now notorious turncoat Benedict Arnold to Frederika von Riedesel, the wife of a British major general who later wrote an important eyewitness account of the battles. Snow, an archaeologist who excavated on the Saratoga battlefield, combines a vivid sense of time and place with details on weather, terrain, and technology and a keen understanding of the adversaries' motivations, challenges, and heroism into a suspenseful, novel-like account. A must-read for anyone with an interest in American history, 1777 is an intimate retelling of the campaign that tipped the balance in the American War of Independence.
A Wild Idea shares the complete story of the difficult birth of the Adirondack Park Agency (APA). The Adirondack region of New York's rural North Country forms the nation's largest State Park, with a territory as large as Vermont. Planning experts view the APA as a triumph of sustainability that balances human activity with the preservation of wild ecosystems. The truth isn't as pretty. The story of the APA, told here for the first time, is a complex, troubled tale of political dueling and communities pushed to the brink of violence. The North Country's environmental movement started among a small group of hunters and hikers, rose on a huge wave of public concern about pollution that crested in the early 1970s, and overcame multiple obstacles to "save" the Adirondacks. Edmondson shows how the movement's leaders persuaded a powerful Governor to recruit planners, naturalists, and advisors and assign a task that had never been attempted before. The team and the politicians who supported them worked around the clock to draft two visionary land-use plans and turn them into law. But they also made mistakes, and their strict regulations were met with determined opposition from local landowners who insisted that private property is private. A Wild Idea is based on in-depth interviews with five dozen insiders who are central to the story. Their observations contain many surprising and shocking revelations. This is a rich, exciting narrative about state power and how it was imposed on rural residents. It shows how the Adirondacks were "saved," and also why that campaign sparked a passionate rebellion.
