This selection of books received by New York History features New York City, with an emphasis on the history of immigration and immigrant groups, Progressive Era reforms and reformer groups, and labor relations.
The Basques of New York: A Cosmopolitan Experience.
By Gloria Totoricaguena. (2003; second edition Reno: University of Nevada, 2005. Pp. 383. $38.95.)
This book, part of the Basque Diaspora and Migrations Studies series, covers the Basques who settled in New York City in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It describes how the settlers both integrated into the life of the city and managed to maintain their cultural identity.
Biography of a Tenement House in New York City: an Architectural History of 97 Orchard Street.
By Andrew S. Dolkart. (Santa Fe, N.M.: The Center for American Places, 2006. Pp. ix, 142. $27.50.)
The building featured in this book is the current home of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. By studying the documents connected with the architecture and history of the building, the author presents a "genealogical" biography of a landmark building, a neighborhood, and the social and cultural institution of immigration.
Civic Engagement: Social Science and Progressive-Era Reform in New York City.
By John Louis Recchiuti. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. Pp. x, 311. $59.95.)
By focusing on the lives of prominent early twentieth-century social scientists and the work of a number of Progressive organizations, the author explains how graduates of the new academic discipline of "social sciences" helped to influence governmental policies dealing with social problems like poverty. A core group of Manhattan thinkers turned New York City into an urban test site for philanthropic and political ideas, which then spread nationwide.
A Coat of Many Colors: Immigration, Globalism, and Reform in New York City's Garment Industry.
Edited by Daniel Soyer. (New York: Fordham University Press, 2005. Pp. xii, 284. $26.00 paperback.)
This collection of essays by scholars interested in the history of New York City's garment industry provides a detailed analysis of three major facets: geography, owners, and workers, and social responsibility. It is the product of a collaborative effort by the Sweatshop Project, which was sponsored by the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, and UNITE (formerly the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees).
Covenant House: Journey of a Faith-Based Charity.
By Peter J. Wosh. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. Pp. 296. $39.95.)
From its beginning as a shelter and ministry for the poor in New York City to its place as a national model for charitable organization, then from its scandal-ridden years of tumult to its reemergence as a viable and respected charity, Covenant House's history is also the story of societal and cultural changes in the city as a whole.
Crimes Against Children: Sexual Violence and Legal Culture in New York City, 1880–1960.
By Stephen Robertson. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Pp. xii, 337. $22.50 paperback.)
The author examined many rape case files in the New York County District Attorney's Office. Noticing a preponderance of young (below eighteen years of age) claimants, he focused his research on the history of legal and legislative decisions in such cases and the slow evolution of our society's understanding about sex crimes against children.
For All White-Collar Workers: The Possibilities of Radicalism in New York City's Department Store Unions, 1934–1953.
By Daniel J. Opler. (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2007. Pp. ix, 270. $49.94.)
By examining the role of some Communists in union leadership and the clever use of Anti-Communist sentiments to weaken the retail store unions, the author provides a look at the historical roots of this cohort of workers within the American Labor Movement.
Habits of Compassion: Catholic Nuns and the Origins of New York's Welfare System, 1830–1920.
By Maureen Fitzgerald. (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006. Pp. x, 298. $25.00 paperback.)
During the time covered by this study, New York City's poor were cared for mainly by Irish Catholic nuns who struggled to influence public policies in order to provide charitable services and programs. The author presents the history of that struggle, as well as an analysis of the methods of resistance used by members of these all-female, activist religious communities. This book was a finalist in the New York State Historical Association's 2005 Dixon Ryan Fox Manuscript Prize competition.
Holding Up More Than Half the Sky: Chinese Women Garment Workers in New York City, 1948–92.
By Xiaolan Bao. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001. Pp. xvi, 330. $22.00 paperback.)
The author recounts the history of the vital role that Chinese women played in New York City's (especially Chinatown's) garment industry by focusing on the years leading up to and those following the strike of 1982. Her understanding of the issues was enhanced by her experiences working and living with some of the participants.
The Horse in the City: Living Machines in the Nineteenth Century.
By Clay McShane and Joel A. Tarr. (Baltimore, Md.: The John Hopkins University Press, 2007. Pp. xi, 242. $50.00.)
In their introduction, the authors write, "the nineteenth century city represented the climax of human exploitation of horse power." This tale presents a wealth of fascinating details about the symbiotic relationship between urban dwellers—in New York and some other northeastern cities—and the four-legged beasts of burden who worked for them, as well as the efforts undertaken to improve the horses' working conditions.
The Housing Divide: How Generations of Immigrants Fare in New York's Housing Market.
By Emily Rosenbaum and Samantha Freidman. (New York: New York University Press, 2007. Pp. vii, 309. $45.00.)
This book examines the many factors that have influenced where immigrant groups have lived in New York City, and paints a sociological portrait of the neighborhoods. The authors look at race, socio-economic status, and discriminatory practices from the mid-nineteenth century to 1970 and from the 1970s to the present.
In a New Land: A Comparative View of Immigration.
By Nancy Foner. (New York and London: New York University Press, 2005. Pp. viii, 325. $22.00 paperback.)
New York City is the logical place to base a comparative study of immigration. The author focuses her analysis on patterns of migration across cities and regions, across nation-states and across time, by centering on three factors: race/ethnicity, gender, and transnational connections. She provides insight into a range of historical and contemporary immigration issues.
Irish New York.
By Bob Swacker and Leslie Jenkins. (New York: Universe Publishing, 2006. Pp. 104. $22.50.)
Filled with photos, illustrations, quotes, and interesting details, this small-in-size-only book covers the history of the Irish immigrants who settled in New York City and left their mark on the city's social, political, economic, and religious life.
Next to Godliness: Confronting Dirt and Despair in Progressive Era New York City.
By Daniel Eli Burnstein. (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006. Pp. x, 200. $38.00.)
This history of New York City's early struggles to manage its own crowded, dirty streets is also the story of the evolution of the social reform movement and the tale of how final responsibility for health and human welfare issues was determined.
Nightclub City: Politics and Amusement in Manhattan.
By Burton W. Peretti. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. Pp. xviii, 284. $39.95.)
The Roaring Twenties spawned an expansion of the nightclub industry, as well as the movement to reform it This is the story of the cultural phenomenon of the club scene and the attempts by political and moralistic groups to curb it.
The Shamrock and the Lily: The New York Irish and the Creation of a Transatlantic Identity, 1845–1921.
By Mary C. Kelly. (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2005. Pp. xvi, 262. $29.95 paperback.)
In her introduction, author Mary Kelly writes that she intends to look at "traditional Irish-American history" with the added perspective of "the force of ancestral heritage." Hers is the story of the power that the "old country" had over its Americanized "countrymen."
The Triangle Fire, the Protocols of Peace and Industrial Democracy in Progressive Era New York.
By Richard A. Greenwald. (Philadelphia, Pa.: Temple University Press, 2005. Pp. xii, 332. $24.95.)
Two important early twentieth-century New York City experiments in industrial democracy are the subjects of this book: the Protocol of Peace and the Factory Investigating Commission (instituted after the Triangle Fire). They are used to study the "process of industrial relations—the intersection of labor, industry and the state" and the increasing interdependency among the three.
Wives Without Husbands: Marriage, Desertion, and Welfare in New York, 1900–1935.
By Anna R. Igra. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. Pp. viii, 175. $19.95 paperback.)
The author focuses her research on public policies regarding marriage and on attempts to use marriage as a way to eradicate poverty. She uses the case files from the National Desertion Bureau, which was a Jewish husband-locating agency, to illustrate the ways in which such groups influenced ideas and "reform" policies.
World of Our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made, 30th Anniversary Edition.
By Irving Howe. Foreword by Morris Dickstein. (1976; 30th anniversary edition, New York: New York University Press, 2004. Pp. xxvi, 714. $22.00 paperback.)
A new paperback edition of a work originally published in 1976. The book illustrates the ways in which life in New York City affected Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe and how they, in turn, influenced the cultural fabric of their adopted land.
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