"Even natives to the Big Apple are unlikely to know many of the facts that Feirstein has uncovered in this little gem."
--"Publisher's Weekly"

New York is the oldest continually occupied city in America, yet its rich history is largely obscured by development. New Yorkers are surrounded by hundreds of place names, from those that survive from Manhattan's earliest days as a Dutch trading post to those that reflect the city's rich colonial, African and immigrant heritage. They provide a veritable encyclopedia of the city's history. Buildings may come and go, but place names are surprisingly durable.

Naming New York is a comprehensive compilation and explanation of the names of Manhattan's streets, alleys, avenues, plazas, parks and corners. It surveys names currently in use and includes the oldest and the newest honorific "add-on" names, from Astor Place to Yitzak Rabin Way.

Whether you're a history or trivia buff, tourist, or just fascinated by place names, learning about the origins of these mostly unexamined sources enriches one's experience of the city, and transforms a simple neighborhood errand into a trip through time.

For example:

"Bowery: "In the 17th century, Dutch farms known as "bowerij" were laid out in this section of Manhattan along the path of an old Indian trail. Known since that time as the Bowery, the thoroughfare became the first section of the Post Road from New York City to Boston.

"Houston Street: "For William Houstoun, 1757-1812, of a prominent Georgia family, who married a daughter of Manhattan landowner Nicholas Bayard III. The Georgia provenance of the name accounts for its pronunciation and spelling both of which distinguish it from theTexas city.

"Wall Street: "Follows the line of the city wall that the Dutch erected in 1653 across the northern perimeter of New Amsterdam to protect against attack from the British in New England.

While canvassing for the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 Neil Findlay made a discovery. Visiting the home that used to be his grandparents', he was shown a plywood panel where John 'Jock' Findlay, his grandfather, had written his life's tale. This is Jock's story. Jock grew up and grew old in the West Lothian village of Pumpherston - a village dominated by one industry, shale oil mining. In his own words he describes the good times, and the hard times, of living and working in Pumpherston. This is a story about a Scottish industry, a village and, most of all, a community.

This book examines the many ways in which the New Deal revived Texas's economic structure after the 1929 collapse. Ronald Goodwin analyzes how Franklin Roosevelt's initiative, and in particular, the Work Progress Administration, remedied rampant unemployment and homelessness in twentieth-century Texas.

The classic guide to exploring English local history, brought up to date and expanded. This is a book for anyone wanting to explore local history in England. It summarises, in an accessible and authoritative way, current knowledge and approaches, bringing together and illustrating the key sources and evidence, the skills and tools, the contexts and interpretations for successive periods. Case studies show these ingredients in use, combined to create histories of people and place over time. A standard text since its first edition in 1992, this new edition features extensive fresh material, updated to reflect additional availability of evidence, changing interpretations, new tools and skills (not least the use of IT), and developments in the time periods and topics tackled by local historians. The interdisciplinary character of twenty-first-century local, family and community history is a prominent feature. Complemented by 163 illustrations, this book offers an unrivalled introduction to understanding and researching local history.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be given your own remote islands? Thirty years ago it happened to Adam Nicolson. Aged 21, Nicolson inherited the Shiants, three lonely Hebridean islands set in a dangerous sea off the Isle of Lewis. With only a stone bothy for accommodation and half a million puffins for company, he found himself in charge of one of the most beautiful places on earth. The story of the Shiants is a story of birds and boats, hermits and fishermen, witchcraft and catastrophe, and Nicolson expertly weaves these elements into his own tale of seclusion on the Shiants to create a stirring celebration of island life.

The multicultural Midlands is a unique, interdisciplinary study of the literature, music and food that shape the region's irrepressible, though often overlooked, cultural identity. It is the first of its kind to give serious critical attention to a part of the world which is frequently ignored by readers, critics and the culture industries. This book makes a claim for the importance of the Midlands and evidences this with nuanced close reading of a multitude of diverse texts spanning so-called 'high' to 'low' culture; from the Black Country's 'Desi Pubs', to Leicester's 'McIndians' Peri Peri ('you've tried the cowboys, now try the Indians!'); Handsworth's reggae roots to Adrian Mole's diaries. -- .

The Peak District's pub heritage is as rich and tasty as the beer that foams from the pumps, and via its inns, taverns and hotels we can trace centuries of social history in one of the most beautiful parts of Britain. This is the story of the packhorse men and lead miners, shepherds and navvies, and the evolution of the traditional Peak District pub from humble alehouse to the present day. We learn about haunted pubs, themed pubs, estate pubs and temperance pubs, as well as one or two pubs which are not what they seem at all. There's an explanation of pub names and signs, revealing loyalties to crown, church and squire; an introduction to a few pub heroes and villains, rituals and merry-making; plus a slightly baffled look at some odd pub pastimes involving toes, chickens and a hole in a wall. Along the way we raise a glass to some of the many local pubs that have been consigned to the great brewery wagon in the sky, and see how others are adapting to the challenges of today - from changing social patterns and lifestyles through to a global pandemic - with small-scale brewing and pub shops, micropubs and community ownership.

An affectionate, light-hearted and nostalgic look back at the Isles of Scilly of the 20th Century through the photographs of Ena Reseigh.

Develops an understanding of Warwickshire's past for outsiders and those already engaged with the subject, and to explore questions which apply in other regions, including those outside the United Kingdom. Published to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the Dugdale Society, which publishes Warwickshire's records, this book brings together a range of scholars - early career researchers, tenured academics, independent scholars and an archivist - all with records of excellence in research and writing, who cover a range of political, social, economic, cultural, architectural and religious subjects from the eleventh to the twentieth centuries. Besides providing original and well-researched interpretations of Warwickshire's past, the book goes further to discuss and analyse the ways in which writing of local history has changed over the last hundred years, paying particular attention to meanings and explanations that have emerged in recent times, from which future developments can be expected. As such the book will appeal not just to those interested in the local history of Warwickshire, but also to everyone concerned with local history in general, and how it should be studied and written.

London Secrets unlocks the city's most fascinating secrets. Janelle McCulloch strips away bricks, mortar and tarmac to uncover parts of the capital that even born and bred Londoners may never have seen. In the shadow of the Gherkin, Cheesegrater and Walkie-Talkie skyscrapers are medieval churches, crypts and the curios of Postman's Park - proof that altruism can exist in the Square Mile. In St James's, a stone's throw from the glitz and glamour of Soho are hidden squares and shops dating from a gentler age - purveyors of fine wine, gentleman's apparel and bowler hats. The cobbled mews of Marylebone and Hampstead Village reveal unexpected treasures, rarely seen interiors and a rural idyll amid the urban hum. While the esoteric collections at the Horniman, Sir John Soane's Museum and exotica of Leighton House make you feel you are in an entirely different country altogether. The author reveals the traditions and quirks that have survived to this day, from the freedom of the City of London allowing you to herd sheep through the town, to the "market ouvert" of Bermondsey Market, original home of the London wheeler-dealer. Lavishly photographed and researched, London Secrets will shed a whole new light on this most vibrant - and surprising - of cities.

The West Virginia University Mountaineer is not just a mascot: it is a symbol of West Virginia history and identity embraced throughout the state. In this deeply informed but accessible study, folklorist Rosemary Hathaway explores the figure's early history as a backwoods trickster, its deployment in emerging mass media, and finally its long and sometimes conflicted career - beginning officially in 1937 - as the symbol of West Virginia University. Alternately a rabble-rouser and a romantic embodiment of the state's history, the Mountaineer has been subject to ongoing reinterpretation while consistently conveying the value of independence. Hathaway's account draws on multiple sources, including archival research, personal history, and interviews with former students who have portrayed the mascot, to explore the complex forces and tensions animating the Mountaineer figure. Often serving as a focus for white, masculinist, and Appalachian identities in particular, the Mountaineer that emerges from this study is something distinct from the hillbilly. Frontiersman and rebel both, the Mountaineer figure traditionally and energetically resists attempts (even those by the University) to tame or contain it.

In 1830, the little Hebridean island of Lismore was one of the granaries of the West Highlands, with every possible scrap of land producing bere barley or oats. The population had reached its peak of 1500, but by 1910, numbers had dwindled to 400 and were still falling. The agricultural economy had been almost completely transformed to support sheep and cattle, with ploughland replaced by the now familiar green grassy landscape. With reference to documentary sources, including Poor Law reports, the report of the Napier Commission into the condition crofters in the Highlands and Islands, as well as local documents and letters, this book documents a century of emigration, migration and clearance and paints an intimate portrait of the island community during a period of profound change. At the same time, it also celebrates the achievements of the many tenants who grasped the opportunities involved in agricultural improvement.

"The purpose of this church shall be as revealed in the New Testament, to win people to faith in Jesus Christ and commit them actively to the church, to help them to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ that increasingly they may know and do His will, and to work for the unity of all Christians and with them engage in the common task of building the kingdom of God."

"A Pioneer Church in the Oconee Territory" will take you on a journey from the early settlement of Mannakin Town, Virginia, to the Scull Shoals Community on the east bank of the Oconee River in northern Georgia. This journey was actually made by the early ancestors of the Antioch Christian Church during the Oconee Indian Wars and at the beginning of the American Restoration Movement.

Today Antioch Christian Church is still the location of Scull Shoals voting precinct. Anyone who loves American history, genealogy, and has an interest in the early association between church and state will find "A Pioneer Church in the Oconee Territory" an invaluable reference. It contains facts of 'the way it was" as far back as 1793 and the way life in America transpired within rural Georgia.

"A thorough and engaging history of Maine's rocky coast and its tough-minded people."-Boston Herald "[A] well-researched and well-written cultural and ecological history of stubborn perseverance."-USA Today For more than four hundred years the people of coastal Maine have clung to their rocky, wind-swept lands, resisting outsiders' attempts to control them while harvesting the astonishing bounty of the Gulf of Maine. Today's independent, self-sufficient lobstermen belong to the communities imbued with a European sense of ties between land and people, but threatened by the forces of homogenization spreading up the eastern seaboard.In the tradition of William Warner's Beautiful Swimmers, veteran journalist Colin Woodard (author of American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good) traces the history of the rugged fishing communities that dot the coast of Maine and the prized crustacean that has long provided their livelihood. Through forgotten wars and rebellions, and with a deep tradition of resistance to interference by people "from away," Maine's lobstermen have defended an earlier vision of America while defying the "tragedy of the commons"-the notion that people always overexploit their shared property. Instead, these icons of American individualism represent a rare example of true communal values and collaboration through grit, courage, and hard-won wisdom.

The Green London Way is an alternative approach to the exploration of London. The book describes a hundred mile walk circling the capital, but, uniquely, also offers insightful histories of London's people and a commentary on its abundant local wildlife. The walk, divided into manageable sections, each with maps by Graham Scrivener (the 'urban Wainwright'), traverses London's tow paths, woodlands and commons, examining links between local human history and the landscape on which it is founded. This updated version of the text also incorporates discussion of the rapid developments in London in the past twenty years, analysing the features which have recently changed the face of the city. Bob Gilbert provides a wealth of information about the plant and animal life of London, including some surprising instances of rare species. In terms of wildlife, landscape and history, The Green London Way is full of discoveries for any walker or reader, and provides a new awareness of Greater London.

For much of its history, Orkney had its own language, culture and institutions. The prehistoric inhabitants created monuments which are unmatched anywhere in Europe, and the medieval period saw the magnificent earldom that expressed itself through the Orkneyinga Saga and the building of St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall. Like Shetland, Orkney was heavily influenced by Viking traders and raiders from Scandinavia, and for a long period it formed an outlying part of the kingdom of Norway. Over 500 years ago, however, the islands lost their Scandinavian links and since then have had a sometimes difficult association with mainland Scotland. More recent times have seen the use of Orkney as a strategic stronghold during two world wars, and the far-reaching impact of oil and gas exploitation in the North Sea. This classic book covers the whole fascinating story and will be of interest to readers far beyond the rocky shores of Orkney itself.

"If you're looking for ideas, or planning a bucket-list adventure, you'll find page after page of sepia-tinted inspiration in the revised edition of teNeues' Nostalgic Journeys." - Irish Independent The seaside or the mountains? Today's most important vacation planning question never came up in days long past. Both seemed unappealing and nearly inaccessible. It wasn't until the invention of the railroad that previously sparsely visited and overlooked areas opened up, and Thomas Cook, the tour operator and founder of modern tourism, was born. Fishing villages became sophisticated seaside resorts, remote mountain areas became destinations for hiking and skiing enthusiasts, and inns became grand hotels. Nostalgic Journeys takes you on a journey back in time, through the last two centuries: Ride the Orient Express to the East, cross the Atlantic on huge ocean liners, travel Route 66 through the United States, and break the sound barrier aboard the Concorde. As you browse through the pages of this book, you will get the idea that travelling was, and can be, more than just being stuck in a traffic jam or passing through numerous security checks. It can be a stylish and sometimes adventurous way to explore the world and return home feeling transformed by your many and varied experiences. Bon Voyage! Text in English and German.

It Happened in Northern California takes readers on a rollicking, behind the scene look at some of the characters and episodes from the state's storied past. Including famous tales, famous names as well as little known heroes, heroines, and happenings. Northern California is well known for its towering redwoods, Spanish missions, and gold mines, but few know about the two-year-long Native American occupation of Alcatraz, efforts by some northern Californians to establish the US's fifty-first state, or that John Sutter never capitalized on the gold rush that began on his land. It Happened in Northern California goes behind the scenes to tell these stories and many more, in short episodes that reveal the intriguing people and events that have shaped the Golden State.

The cultural diversity of America is often summed up by way of a different metaphors: Melting Pot, Patchwork, Quilt, Mosaic--none of which capture the symbiotics of the city. Few neighborhoods personify the diversity these terms connote more than New York City's Lower East Side. This storied urban landscape, today a vibrant mix of avant garde artists and street culture, was home, in the 1910s, to the Wobblies and served, forty years later, as an inspiration for Allen Ginsberg's epic Howl. More recently, it has launched the career of such bands as the B-52s and been the site of one of New York's worst urban riots.

In this diverse neighborhood, immigrant groups from all over the world touched down on American soild for the first time and established roots that remain to this day: Chinese immigrants, Italians, and East European Jews at the turn of the century and Puerto Ricans in the 1950s. Over the last hundred years, older communities were transformed and new ones emerged. Chinatown and Little Italy, once solely immigrant centers, began to attract tourists. In the 1960s, radical young whites fled an expensive, bourgeois lifestyle for the urban wilderness of the Lower East Side. Throughout its long and complex history, the Lower East Side has thus come to represent both the compulsion to assimilate American culture, and the drive to rebel against it.

Mario Maffi here presents us with a captivating picture of the Lower East Side from the unique perspective of an outsider. The product of a decade of research, "Gateway to the Promised Land" will appeal to cultural historians, urban, and American historians, and anyone concerned with the challenges America, as an increasingly multicultural society, faces.

Throughout his life, Musmanno provided a voice for the people amid the interplay of politics and the arrogance of power. A crowd pleaser, he had no trepidation in saying what he thought. The author of sixteen books, two of which became movies, numerous unpublished scripts, and gifted with a strong sense of patriotism as well as pride in his Italian heritage, he left a legacy of rhetorical flourishes that still echo through the chambers of the Pennsylvania Legislature, the transcripts of the Einsatzgruppen trial over which he presided in Nuremberg, his testimony at the Eichmann trial and subsequent feud with German-born political theorist Hannah Arendt, and his impassioned dissents (over 500) as a justice on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

In 1897 the promising young sociologist William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) was given a temporary post as Assistant in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania in order to conduct a systematic investigation of social conditions in the seventh ward of Philadelphia. The product of those studies was the first great empirical book on the Negro in American society. More than one hundred years after its original publication by the University of Pennsylvania Press, The Philadelphia Negro remains a classic work. It is the first, and perhaps still the finest, example of engaged sociological scholarship-the kind of work that, in contemplating social reality, helps to change it. In his introduction, Elijah Anderson examines how the neighborhood studied by Du Bois has changed over the years and compares the status of blacks today with their status when the book was initially published.