Jeffrey A. Kroessler: Rural County, Urban Borough

Interviewed by Robert W. Snyder

Rural County, Urban Borough: A History of Queens
by Jeffrey A. Kroessler
Rutgers University Press, Excelsior Editions
June 2025, 424 pp.

The borough of Queens is the largest of New York City’s five boroughs. It holds more people than Chicago or Los Angeles. And thanks to immigration, it is today home to a population of extraordinary ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity. Queens is also the subject of a new book by Jeffrey Kroessler, Rural County, Urban Borough: A History of Queens, published by Rutgers University Press.

Kroessler, an expert on the history and preservation of Queens, was working on the final edits for Rural County, Urban Borough when he died in 2023. His wife, the architect Laura Heim, took up the work of moving the book through the publication process. She selected and placed the images in the book and wrote its Preface and Acknowledgements.

Rural County, Urban Borough is a history with a strong sense of place. Covering the the history of Queens from European settlement to the present, Kroessler charts centuries of change in the landscape. He shows how politics, industry, transportation, government and real estate interests all shaped the borough. Linking Queens to New York City and the wider world, Kroessler illuminates important elements of American metropolitan history.

Jeffrey A. Kressler was an expert on the history and preservation of Queens, and was working on the final edits for Rural County, Urban Borough when he died in 2023. His wife, the architect Laura Heim, shepherded the book into publication with Rutgers University Press.

Host Robert W. Snyder is Manhattan Borough Historian and professor emeritus of journalism and American Studies at Rutgers University. He is the author of When the City Stopped: Stories from New York’s Essential Workers (Cornell UP, 2025). Email: rwsnyder@rutgers.edu.