"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.

An ambitious history of a California city that epitomizes the history of race relations in modern America. Although much has been written about the urban-rural divide in America, the city of Salinas, California, like so many other places in the state and nation whose economies are based on agriculture, is at once rural and urban. For generations, Salinas has been associated with migrant farmworkers from different racial and ethnic groups. This broad-ranging history of "the Salad Bowl of the World" tells a complex story of community-building in a multiracial, multiethnic city where diversity has been both a cornerstone of civic identity and, from the perspective of primarily white landowners and pragmatic agricultural industrialists, essential for maintaining the local workforce. Carol Lynn McKibben draws on extensive original research, including oral histories and never-before-seen archives of local business groups, tracing Salinas's ever-changing demographics and the challenges and triumphs of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and Mexican immigrants, as well as Depression-era Dust Bowl migrants and white ethnic Europeans. McKibben takes us from Salinas's nineteenth-century beginnings as the economic engine of California's Central Coast up through the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on communities of color today, especially farmworkers who already live on the margins. Throughout the century-plus of Salinas history that McKibben explores, she shows how the political and economic stability of Salinas rested on the ability of nonwhite minorities to achieve a measure of middle-class success and inclusion in the cultural life of the city, without overturning a system based in white supremacy. This timely book deepens our understanding of race relations, economic development, and the impact of changing demographics on regional politics in urban California and in the United States as a whole.

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.

Discover Beatrix Potter's lovely farmhouse and cottage garden and see how her surroundings inspired many scenes in her books, and how, in later life, she reinvented herself as a farmer, landowner, conservationist and National Trust supporter. It is thanks to her that the Lake District remains one of the most spectacular corners of England. Hill Top is a shrine to Beatrix Potter, each room imbued with her spirit. The house she bought with the royalties from her first and most famous book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, became her cabinet of curiosities, a giant dolls house where she would arrange and re-arrange her things as she liked. Every painting, piece of furniture and antique had symbolic or emotional meaning to her. Featuring new photography, illustrations from the little books and photographs of Beatrix and her family, this new guidebook traces the fascinating story of this extraordinary woman. Peppered with quotes from Beatrix, it reveals her lonely London childhood, how she became a successful author and illustrator, and how she fell in love with the Lakes and acquired Hill Top. Readers will discover her lovely farmhouse and cottage garden and see how her surroundings inspired many scenes in her little books, and how, in later life, she reinvented herself as a farmer, landowner, conservationist and National Trust supporter. Today, it is thanks to her that the Lake District remains one of the most spectacular corners of England.

The railways of East Anglia have a long and complex history, and this book provides a broad overview of the subject. Beginning with the earliest horse tramroads of Essex and continuing up to the privatized railway of the present day, it includes the tribulations of the early pioneer companies and the ongoing narrative of consolidation and rationalization to which the railways were subjected. Some of the more curious byways of the region's railway history are also covered. With over 140 illustrations, including archive photographs and original drawings by the author, this book includes: the Norfolk and Suffolk Rail-Road Company's fraudulent promotion of 1824; how the East Anglian railway network developed amongst bitter rivalries and uneasy truces, including the florid figure of George Hudson and the surprising history of two separate monorails in Essex. Potted narratives of some of the smaller branch lines and independent concerns are given along with information on the East Anglian railway companies and their roles in both World Wars. Finally, the sometimes-painful processes of nationalization is covered and their effect on the network as we know it today.

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.

Bicycles are so much a part of everyday life nowadays, it can be surprising to realize that for the late Victorians these "velocipedes" were a novelty disparaged as being unhealthy and unsafe - and that indeed tricycles were for a time seen as the format more likely to succeed. Some people however adopted the newfangled devices with alacrity, embarking on adventurous tours throughout the countryside. One of them documented his 'rambles' around East Kent in such detail that it is still possible to follow his routes on modern cycles, and compare the fauna and flora (and pubs ) with those he vividly described. In addition to providing today's cyclists with new historical routes to explore, and both naturalists and social historians with plenty of material for research, this fascinating book contains a special chapter on Lady Cyclists in the era before female emancipation, and an unintentionally humorous section instructing young gentlemen how to make their cycle and then ride it. It features over 200 illustrations, and is complemented by a fully updated website.

From the famed Oregon Trail to the boardwalks of Dodge City to the great trading posts on the Missouri River to the battlefields of the nineteenth-century Indian Wars, there are places all over the American West where visitors can relive the great Western migration that helped shape our history and culture. This guide to the Mountain West states of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana--one of the five-volume Finding the Wild West series--highlights the best preserved historic sites as well as ghost towns, reconstructions, museums, historical markers, statues, works of public art that tell the story of the Old West. Use this book in planning your next trip and for a storytelling overview of America's Wild West history.

The First Migrants recounts the largely unknown story of Black people who migrated from the South to the Great Plains between 1877 and 1920 in search of land and freedom. They exercised their rights under the Homestead Act to gain title to 650,000 acres, settling in all of the Great Plains states. Some created Black homesteader communities such as Nicodemus, Kansas, and DeWitty, Nebraska, while others, including George Washington Carver and Oscar Micheaux, homesteaded alone. All sought a place where they could rise by their own talents and toil, unencumbered by Black codes, repression, and violence. In the words of one Nicodemus descendant, they found “a place they could experience real freedom,� though in a racist society that freedom could never be complete. Their quest foreshadowed the epic movement of Black people out of the South known as the Great Migration. In this first account of the full scope of Black homesteading in the Great Plains, Richard Edwards and Jacob K. Friefeld weave together two distinct strands: the narrative histories of the six most important Black homesteader communities and the several themes that characterize homesteaders’ shared experiences. Using homestead records, diaries and letters, interviews with homesteaders’ descendants, and other sources, Edwards and Friefeld illuminate the homesteaders’ fierce determination to find freedom—and their greatest achievements and struggles for full equality.  

In Yorkshire: There and Back, Andrew Martin celebrates Britain's most charismatic county, looking back at the Yorkshire of his 1970s childhood and as it is today. Journeying to every historic corner, Martin writes affectionally about its past, present and peculiarities. York is an evolving city of chocolate, trains, pubs and tourists. Scarborough should be viewed as the posh place it once was, with surprising secrets pertaining to Adolf Hitler and the sea. Leeds is seen as the 'hard' town with its party goers and late-night provocateurs, but its indoor market never fails to offer a sense of quintessential Yorkshireness on a rainy Saturday afternoon, with milky tea served in beakers and the Leeds United result coming through by osmosis. And the Moors and Dales continue to boast beauty and danger alike. Effortlessly entertaining and wonderfully detailed, Yorkshire: There and Back is a memoir, guide, and all-round appreciation of 'God's own county'. Praise for Andrew Martin 'There is no one else who is writing like Andrew Martin today...unique and important' Guardian 'Iconoclastic, entertaining and often devastatingly witty' Barry Forshaw, Independent 'He can stop you in your tracks with a well-turned phrase' Sunday Times 'A genuinely funny writer...also a daring one' The Times

From meatball po'boys to Creole red gravy, the influence of Sicilian foodways permeates New Orleans, one of America's greatest food cities. Nana's Creole Italian Table tells the story of those immigrants and their communities through the lens of food, exploring the ways traditional Sicilian dishes such as pasta and olive salad became a part of-and were in turn changed by-the existing food culture in New Orleans. Sicilian immigrants-Elizabeth M. Williams's family among them-came to New Orleans in droves in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fleeing the instability of their own country and hoping to make a new home in America. This cookbook shares Williams's traditional family recipes, with variations that reveal the evolution and blending of Sicilian and Creole cuisines. Baked into every recipe is the history of Sicilian American culture as it has changed over the centuries, allowing each new generation to incorporate its own foodways and ever-evolving tastes.

Reading's Abbey, founded in 1121 by King Henry I of England, was huge, wealthy and important until Henry VIII's dissolution in 1539, after which it declined over the years into the picturesque ruins that grace the north bank of the Kennet today. This history of the Abbey and the Abbey Quarter relates the motive behind its foundation, the relics that made it a famous destination for pilgrims from all over Europe, the part it played in royal and parliamentary life, the story of its downfall and its continuing influence on the geography and buildings of our town. With detailed descriptions of the Abbey buildings and their layout alongside features on monastic life and the Abbots, the book brings to life the role of the Abbey in the town both before and after its dissolution. A walking tour (with map) of the Abbey Quarter provides readers with an opportunity to discover the clues history has left behind; it indicates where some of the Abbey stone has ended up, and allows readers to connect directly with the past and understand the legacy we are left with today.

Norfolk's Deep History Coast is a place of unique archaeological discoveries of international significance. Spectacular finds have transformed our understanding of the first human occupation of northern Europe. Fossilised human footprints show people were here nearly one million years ago. This is the only part of Britain to have evidence for four species of humans. It has also been home to giant prehistoric creatures, including four species of mammoth. This book will take you on a journey through time, looking at the geology, natural landscape and the creatures that have inhabited the area. Here you can explore the fascinating and beautiful sites around the 150km of Deep History Coast and see how you can share in this exciting adventure of discovery.

This story is about a brave and kind Anglo-Saxon princess called Frideswide who lived in Oxford a long time ago and just happened to be brilliant at climbing very tall trees. Her talent came in useful one day when a wicked king tried to kidnap her. How did she and her friends escape, and what happened to the king and his soldiers? With stunning illustrations by award-winning artist Alan Marks, Saint Frideswide's legend is retold for young children as a tale of adventure, courage in the face of danger, friendship, and kindness, with a few surprises along the way. The church Frideswide founded in Oxford was on the site of what is now Christ Church, and her medieval shrine can still be seen inside the Cathedral. This beautiful picture book is sure to be treasured by any child who loves tales of adventure. It will appeal to children learning about the Anglo-Saxons, to readers who like feisty heroines and to visitors to Oxford, as a meaningful souvenir of their visit.

An insightful exploration of the impact of urban change on Black culture, identity, and language Across the United States, cities are changing. Gentrification is transforming urban landscapes, often pushing local Black populations to the margins. As a result, communities with rich histories and strong identities grapple with essential questions. What does it mean to be from a place in flux? What does it mean to be a specific kind of person from that place? What does gentrification mean for the fabric of a community? In The Black Side of the River, sociolinguist Jessi Grieser draws on ten years of interviews with dozens of residents of Anacostia, a historically Black neighborhood in Washington, DC, to explore these ideas through the lens of language use. Grieser finds that residents use certain speech features to create connections among racial, place, and class identities; reject negative characterizations of place from those outside the community; and negotiate ideas of belonging. In a neighborhood undergoing substantial class gentrification while remaining decisively Black, Grieser finds that Anacostians use language to assert a positive, hopeful place identity that is inextricably intertwined with their racial one. Grieser's work is a call to center Black lived experiences in urban research, confront the racial effects of urban change, and preserve the rich culture and community in historic Black neighborhoods, in Washington, DC, and beyond.