Across the globe, the word "Brooklyn" has come to represent cutting-edge cuisine, a vibrant music and literary culture, and the epitome of hip. But most of the world doesn't see the price that local residents pay as their neighborhoods are swallowed by change. Masterful storyteller and award-winning journalist Neil deMause turns a spotlight on how the New Brooklyn came to be, who shaped it - and the winners and losers when "urban renaissance" comes to town.
While Manhattan was the site of many important Civil War events, Brooklyn also played an important part in the war. Henry Ward Beecher "auctioned off" slaves at the Plymouth Church, raising the money to free them. Walt Whitman reported news of the war in a Brooklyn paper and wrote some of his most famous works. At the same time, Brooklyn both grappled with and embraced unique challenges, from the arrival of new immigrants to the formation of one of the nation's first baseball teams. Local historian Bud Livingston crafts the portrait of Brooklyn in transition--shaped by the Civil War while also leaving its own mark on the course of the terrible conflict.
In Brooklyn, New York, for a few tense hours in 1776, the fate of the entire United States hung by a thread. The Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called "The Battle of Long Island") has since come to be recognized as one of history's great battles. It was the largest clash of the Revolution, in terms of both troops and casualties, and it brought the fledgling American republic to the brink of disaster. At the height of the fighting, only the valiant sacrifice of one regiment--the Marylanders--staved off catastrophe. The British army, meanwhile, executed a three-pronged surprise assault with admirable professionalism, turning the wilds of Brooklyn into a killing ground for the British and Hessian troops. One can sympathize with the plight of George Washington, who, charged with the task of defeating the finest army of the Old World, had to mold citizen-soldiers from throughout the thirteen colonies--"patriots"--into a viable military force. At Brooklyn, the young American army did not quite meet its commander's expectations. Still, it remained in the field. And the evacuation conducted after the battle was a masterpiece of efficiency, ensuring that the New World's armed forces would fight another day. Thought the Battle of Brooklyn would prove a victory for the British Empire, it demonstrated to all the American resolve and courage that would eventually result in independence for the United States. "In his shot-by-shot account of the largest and bloodiest battle of the American Revolution, Gallagher recreates the fierce encounter of 27 August 1776 in which twenty thousand British, Hessian and Loyalist troops defeated ten thousand patriot soldiers. . . . the book offers many perceptive observations and the author succinctly summarizes the lessons derived . . . this book is recommended reading for those who cherish the heritage of the gallant 'rabble in arms' that risked all for American independence."-Long Island Historical Journal "Long neglected . . . the Battle of Brooklyn is given comprehensive coverage . . . using a lively writing style Gallagher makes it easy to visualize the actual skirmishes by providing interesting details." -Flintlock and Powderhorn
The most horrific struggle of the American Revolution occurred just 100 yards off New York, where more men died aboard a rotting prison ship than were lost to combat during the entirety of the war. Moored off the coast of Brooklyn until the end of the war, the derelict ship, the HMS Jersey, was a living hell for thousands of Americans either captured by the British or accused of disloyalty. Crammed below deck -- a shocking one thousand at a time -- without light or fresh air, the prisoners were scarcely fed food and water. Disease ran rampant and human waste fouled the air as prisoners suffered mightily at the hands of brutal British and Hessian guards. Throughout the colonies, the mere mention of the ship sparked fear and loathing of British troops. It also sparked a backlash of outrage as newspapers everywhere described the horrors onboard the ghostly ship. This shocking event, much like the better-known Boston Massacre before it, ended up rallying public support for the war. Revealing for the first time hundreds of accounts culled from old newspapers, diaries, and military reports, award-winning historian Robert P. Watson follows the lives and ordeals of the ship's few survivors to tell the astonishing story of the cursed ship that killed thousands of Americans and yet helped secure victory in the fight for independence.
Most Civil War regiments came from rural areas of the country but the 14th Brooklyn was taken from the city of Brooklyn, New York. Having been a militia unit until the outbreak of the war, they were quickly mobilized and they served in most of the major battles in the East. Their bravery in battle was noted by both friends and enemies and certainly by the military leadership on both sides. The book tells of the military and the personal side of fighting; the soldiers' letters home show their homesickness as well as their willingness to endure whatever was necessary to preserve what they believed was right. It shows the relationship between the men of the regiment and the people of Brooklyn, who rather than the Federal government, provided some of their supplies. This was particularly true of their distinctive uniforms modeled after the French chasseur uniforms with bright red pants. The 14th kept these uniforms even after the Federal government standardized the Union uniform to the blue with which we are all familiar.
New York City's largest and oldest industrial facility, thehistoric Brooklyn Navy Yard occupies 250-acres on the EastRiver between the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges, andis presently one of New York City's major industrial sites. Oneof the last remnants of Brooklyn's industrial supremacy, theYard has experienced tremendous change: functioning from theage of wind to that of diesel. As a cradle of naval evolution,the Yard has had to reinvent itself constantly, and this is madeevident by the presence of buildings and structures spanningfrom the 1830s to the 1950s. The Navy Yard was shut downin 1966 and reopened again in 1971 when the City of NewYork bought it with the intention of redevelopment. Great shipsare still repaired there, and the Yard, now an industrial parkwith a variety of manufacturers and light industries, functionsas a refuge from a city that has mostly forgotten that a mixedeconomy is a key to its survival. The Brooklyn Navy Yard, the first monograph by JohnBartelstone, offers a quiet and striking look at the Yard asa time capsule of industrial New York. The Yard today is afusion of the sublime and the practical, with eerie abandonedelements existing side by side with vibrant businesses.Bartelstone's camera is partial to the former. The imagesshow a place out of time, where World War II New York is stillpalpable. Bartelstone has been photographing the buildingsand structures of the Yard since 1994. His photographs areneither a history of the Navy Yard nor a depiction of its role asa modern industrial park; the book instead offers a structuredimpression of a dreamscape.
The never-before-told story of Brooklyn’s vibrant and forgotten queer history, from the mid-1850s up to the present day. ***An ALA GLBT Round Table Over the Rainbow 2019 Top Ten Selection*** ***NAMED ONE OF THE BEST LGBTQ BOOKS OF 2019 by Harper's Bazaar*** "A romantic, exquisite history of gay culture." —Kirkus Reviews, starred “[A] boisterous, motley new history...entertaining and insightful.” —The New York Times Book Review Hugh Ryan’s When Brooklyn Was Queer is a groundbreaking exploration of the LGBT history of Brooklyn, from the early days of Walt Whitman in the 1850s up through the queer women who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II, and beyond. No other book, movie, or exhibition has ever told this sweeping story. Not only has Brooklyn always lived in the shadow of queer Manhattan neighborhoods like Greenwich Village and Harlem, but there has also been a systematic erasure of its queer history—a great forgetting. Ryan is here to unearth that history for the first time. In intimate, evocative, moving prose he discusses in new light the fundamental questions of what history is, who tells it, and how we can only make sense of ourselves through its retelling; and shows how the formation of the Brooklyn we know today is inextricably linked to the stories of the incredible people who created its diverse neighborhoods and cultures. Through them, When Brooklyn Was Queer brings Brooklyn’s queer past to life, and claims its place as a modern classic.
Florin Krasniqi immigrated to the United States from Kosovo in 1988 by sneaking across the Mexican border in the trunk of a white Cadillac. Once in America, he started his own business, fell in love, married, and bought a house. But he did not forget the country he left behind. In 1996, when one of his cousins helped start the Kosovo Liberation Army in the hope of securing Kosovo's independence, Florin chipped in to help. Over the next two years, Florin helped direct a network of Albanian émigrés across the U.S., raising millions of dollars for the rebel force. Soon he began visiting gun shows across America and running weapons and other supplies to the rebels. All the while he was also lobbying some of Washington's most powerful politicians. Eventually he helped recruit American volunteers, some of whom left schools and colleges in the New York area to fight for a homeland they hardly knew. Be Not Afraid, For You Have Sons in America tells the remarkable story of how a small group of young men in Kosovo backed by a network of émigrés in the United States started a guerrilla army that lured the world's most powerful military alliance into fighting their war and changed the course of history in the Balkans forever.
