READERS CORNER

MUST READS...

The Death And Life of
Great American Cities
By Jane Jacobs

In this ground-breaking work written over 30 years ago, Jane Jacobs not only threw a monkey wrench into conventional thinking on the structure of cities and helped reshape urban planning, but she did so as a non-expert and as a woman-both historical taboos in the world of intellectual analysis.

NEWARK'S, Little Italy
The Vanished First Ward
By Michael Immerso

Traces the history of the First Ward from the arrival of the first Italian in the 1870s until 1953 when the district was uprooted to make way for urban renewal. Richly illustrated ... the book documents the evolution of the district from a small immigrant quarter into a complex Italian-American neighborhood that thrived during the first half of this century.

NEWARK, The Golden Age 

By historian Jean-Rae Turner, photographer Richard T. Koles,

New Year's Day 1900 heralded the beginning of Newark's Golden Ageóthe heyday of the city's diverse population, beautiful mansions, varied industries, and prosperous insurance, leather, and jewelry companies. Crystal-clear water attracted some thirty-five breweries, including P. Ballantine & Sons and Henslerís. Frederick Law Olmsted developed Branch Brook Park, the first county park in the United States. ... Newark: The Golden Age explores New Jersey's largest city through rare vintage postcard views.

Images of America NEWARK

By historian Jean-Rae Turner, photographer Richard T. Koles,

New Jersey's largest city, founded in 1666 by a small band of Puritans from Connecticut. It grew to be a major manufacturing center for leather articles, carriages, beer, thread, Celluloid, jewelry, and literally thousands of other items. With the development of the Passaic River region, Newark also became a transportation hub. The Morris Canal, major highways, and train lines cut through the city, and the Newark airport in the meadows became, for a time, the world's busiest. ... They established ethnic neighborhoods, churches, synagogues, stores, and theaters, where their native languages were spoken.

HOW NEWARK BECAME NEWARK:

The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of an American City, 
by Brad R. Tuttle

"Finally,... we have an exceedingly fresh and bold historical narrative that at once dignifies the city's complicated past and informs what must be known about its tenacity and endurance. Not since John Cunningham's Newark has any author contributed so mightily to our understanding of Newark's importance to American urban history."

Clement Alexander Price, professor of history, Rutgers University, Newark