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Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History

 
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Glenn Dyer, The Era Was Lost: The Rise and Fall of New York City’s Rank and File Rebels

The Era Was Lost: The Rise and Fall of New York City’s Rank and File Rebels

Review By Benjamin Serby

Dyer laments that “a politically self-aware working class” no longer exists anywhere in the United States, including New York City. It would seem that until something profoundly shifts in our political culture, workers will simply defend what they already have rather than push for more. With longstanding institutional, legal, and economic arrangements in nothing short of crisis, perhaps this is the moment when the wheel of history — stalled fifty years ago — finally begins to turn once more.

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Sheila Gerami, The Hall of Fame for Great Americans: A Biography of Stanford White’s Forgotten Memorial

The Hall of Fame for Great Americans: A Biography of Stanford White’s Forgotten Memorial

Review By Paul Ranogajec

The Hall of Fame for Great Americans, a group memorial and patriotic monument on the campus of the Bronx Community College, is a rich site for interrogating a range of cultural and political questions about American society from the 1890s to the present. Sheila Gerami’s book brings the now obscure monument to the attention of art historians and others who might want to approach New York’s memorial landscape from new angles.

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Cultural Diversity, Ethnic Tensions, and Economic Marginality in an Early Bronx Settlement — Part 2

Cultural Diversity, Ethnic Tensions, and Economic Marginality in an Early Bronx Settlement — Part 2

By Marian Swerdlow

Only one church building from the time of the ancient Village still stands, the former Potts Memorial Church on Washington Avenue.  As for the “successor” buildings these congregations moved into after the dissolution of the Village, three of them — the former St. John’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church on Fulton Avenue, the First Congregational Church of Morrisania on Forest Avenue, and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Washington Avenue — still stand, although just outside the borders of the ancient Village. The latter two retain their  original congregations. Each of the three is a beautiful building in a very different style, and each well worth a visit.  The demolitions of the magnificent third St. Augustine’s church (1895 - 2013), and of the historic former Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church (2019), are part of the story of an area that has been one of the poorest in New York City for over half a century. 

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Cultural Diversity, Ethnic Tensions, and Economic Marginality in an Early Bronx Settlement — Part 1

Cultural Diversity, Ethnic Tensions, and Economic Marginality in an Early Bronx Settlement — Part 1

By Marian Swerdlow

The Village of Morrisania, founded in 1848, was the first area west of the Bronx River to be densely settled in what today is the Bronx. Despite this historic significance, almost nothing has been published about it in the past century, possibly because of the scarcity of resources in the community that is today in the ancient Village’s footprint. 

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Davida Siwisa James: Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill

Davida Siwisa James: Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill

Interviewed by Rob Snyder

Davida Siwisa James explores two parts of Harlem in her book Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill: Alexander Hamilton’s Old Harlem Neighborhood Through the Centuries, published by the Empire State Editions imprint of Fordham University Press. Exploring four centuries of life in a part of upper Manhattan that stretches from 135th Street to 165th Street and from Edgecombe Avenue to the Hudson River, James looks at the encounters between the Lenape and Dutch settlers, the rural village that was Harlem, and the Harlem Renaissance luminaries who lived in Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill.

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Which Way to the Promised Land? Mabel Lee at the Intersection of Gender and Race

Which Way to the Promised Land? Mabel Lee at the Intersection of Gender and Race

By Mimi Yang

Oppressed people across cultures embrace the Exodus narrative, in which Moses delivers the Israelites from slavery, as a source of hope and strength. “The Promised Land” has become more than a physical locale for modern-day seekers; it represents a cultural and spiritual sphere that offers freedom, equality, and fulfillment. Mabel Ping Hua Lee (李彬华1896 – 1966), a Chinese feminist whose work and commitment was on par with her contemporary suffragists, also sought the Promised Land — a place for a better life and dreams for happiness and fulfillment. New York City entered Lee’s life as the gate, the world, and the destiny of her Promised Land. Intriguingly, her feminism and dedication to securing the universal right to vote originated from a seemingly distant cultural background.

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Quarantine Scenes in Staten Island History

Quarantine Scenes in Staten Island History

By Carlos Santiago

New York City’s borough of Staten Island has a long history of quarantines and public reactions to them. Just over five miles from Manhattan, Staten Island has faced numerous disease outbreaks, with quarantine measures playing a central role in containment efforts. In the nineteenth century, mass immigration and the spread of infectious diseases overwhelmed the city, leading to stricter quarantine enforcement.

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Dawn Day Biehler: Animating Central Park

Animating Central Park: A Multispecies History

By Dawn Day Biehler

I chose to investigate Central Park mostly because its architecture and architects heavily influenced other parks across the US. My choice of Central Park was also motivated by my experience growing up in upstate New York. I was concerned about the relationship between New York City and its suburban and rural hinterlands – both the cultural meanings of city and countryside, and how the city exploited more land, water, plant and animal life, and human labor as it grew.

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African Americans and Real Estate in Queens in the 1920s

African Americans and Real Estate in Queens in the 1920s

By Lawrence Samuel

In 1922, a milestone was reached when the reportedly last remaining large tract of farmland was divided into 1,500 lots that were then placed on the market as Forest Hills West. “Farm after farm, large as well as small, has been taken in the revolutionary movement that has changed Queens from New York’s vegetable garden to a great expanse of small homes, flats, factories, and building sites,” the New York Herald Tribune noted. Anticipating the arrival (and departure) of commuters, the LIRR was starting train service to Forest Hills West. Not far away, plans were in the works to widen Queens Boulevard to two hundred feet, as merchants and tradesmen believed it was the avenue best suited for retail business in the borough.

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Fluoride in the Water and the Paranoid Style in New York City Politics

Fluoride in the Water and the Paranoid Style in New York City Politics

By Matthew Vaz

Fluoride has once again emerged as a matter of public controversy since a federal judge, in October of 2024, ordered the EPA to conduct a risk assessment on the effects of fluoride in the water. The issue has been further enlivened by indications that the incoming presidential administration may support ending fluoridation of water. Little remembered is the heated and drawn-out controversy that brought fluoride to the water supply of New York City. Richard Hofstadter, who lived and worked in New York all through the contentious debate, undoubtedly must have had some of his fellow New Yorkers in mind.

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