Chronicles Of Historic Brooklyn

Brooklyn has always been a place of diversity and distinction. These qualities are everywhere across the borough, from its people to its events, landmarks, and more. In Chronicles of historic Brooklyn, Borough Historian John Manbeck has collected the stories that reveal the history and spirit of this ever-growing metropolis. From stories of murderous pirates who once besieged Sheepshead Bay to tales of the still-beloved Brooklyn Dodgers who played at Ebbets Field, Manbeck traces the long and colorful history. Explore the forgotten neighborhoods, iconic parks, vanishing waterfront and other attractions that show how and why Brooklyn has endured.

From America's first suburb to its favorite borough, Brooklyn is by all accounts matchless. Taking readers away from the film sets and off the tour buses, borough historian John Manbeck reveals the communities that have defined its diverse neighborhoods, from the early Dutch settlers to today's colonizing hipsters. Through urbanism and war, depression and gentrification, Manbeck's columns, first printed in the Brooklyn Eagle and now collected here, show Brooklyn for what it isa cultural and social nonpareil that just happens to sit across the East River from Manhattan.

Brooklyn, New York, is home to the Brooklyn Public Library, the fifth-largest library system in the United States, with 60 neighborhood branches serving the 2.5 million residents of the borough. The Central Library--the main hub of this far-reaching institution--has, for 75 years, occupied a prime triangle of land at Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza. Originally proposed in 1888, the unique Art Deco building with an "open book" design was not completed until 53 years later in 1941. Since then, the library has seen millions of eager readers pass through its iconic gilded doorway. While the technologies of learning have changed dramatically in the years since the Central Library opened, the mission of the institution remains the same--to ensure the preservation and transmission of society's knowledge, history, and culture, and to provide the people of Brooklyn with free and open access to information for education, recreation, and reference.

The never-before-told story of Brooklyn’s vibrant and forgotten queer history, from the mid-1850s up to the present day. ***An ALA GLBT Round Table Over the Rainbow 2019 Top Ten Selection*** ***NAMED ONE OF THE BEST LGBTQ BOOKS OF 2019 by Harper's Bazaar*** "A romantic, exquisite history of gay culture." —Kirkus Reviews, starred “[A] boisterous, motley new history...entertaining and insightful.” —The New York Times Book Review Hugh Ryan’s When Brooklyn Was Queer is a groundbreaking exploration of the LGBT history of Brooklyn, from the early days of Walt Whitman in the 1850s up through the queer women who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II, and beyond. No other book, movie, or exhibition has ever told this sweeping story. Not only has Brooklyn always lived in the shadow of queer Manhattan neighborhoods like Greenwich Village and Harlem, but there has also been a systematic erasure of its queer history—a great forgetting. Ryan is here to unearth that history for the first time. In intimate, evocative, moving prose he discusses in new light the fundamental questions of what history is, who tells it, and how we can only make sense of ourselves through its retelling; and shows how the formation of the Brooklyn we know today is inextricably linked to the stories of the incredible people who created its diverse neighborhoods and cultures. Through them, When Brooklyn Was Queer brings Brooklyn’s queer past to life, and claims its place as a modern classic.

America's third largest city until 1890, Brooklyn, New York, had a striking theatrical culture before it became a borough of Greater New York in 1898. As the city gained size and influence, more and more theatres arose, with at least 15 venues ultimately vying for favor. Too many theatregoers, however, preferred the discomforts of a ferry and horsecar trip to New York's playhouses instead of supporting the local product. Nor did the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 do Brooklyn's theatres any favors. Manhattan's Goliath slayed Brooklyn's David. This first comprehensive study of Brooklyn's old-time theatre describes the city's early history, each of its many playhouses, its plays and actors (including nearly every foreign and domestic star), and its scandals and catastrophes, including the theatre fire that killed nearly 300. Brooklyn's ongoing struggle to establish theatres in a society dominated by anti-theatrical preachers, including Henry Ward Beecher, is detailed, as are all the ways that Brooklyn typified 19th century American theatre, from stock companies to combinations. Replete with fascinating anecdotes, this is the story of a major city from which theatre all but vanished before being reborn as a present-day artistic mecca.

"Even before they'd ever played a game, the Brooklyn Nets were outselling the New York Knicks in team apparel and merchandise. In their first season they ranked fourth in league-wide jersey sales, indicative of the trendy appeal and broad fan base. When the Nets played their first game at Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn in the fall of 2012, they succeeded in bringing professional sports back to Brooklyn for the first time since the Dodgers abandoned the borough in 1957. Now Brooklyn Bounce chronicles the historic first season, full of highs and lows--plenty of them entirely unexpected. Jake Appleman takes us inside the locker room, combining vignettes and interviews from the team's transition from the New Jersey swamp to gentrified Brooklyn, to an opening night delayed by Hurricane Sandy, to an epic seven-game playoff showdown with the Chicago Bulls. The Nets were the game's foremost paradox in 2013, a team that managed to be the most improved in the NBA, but also consistently disappointed. What made them interesting wasn't their style of play or even their unique collection of personalities; it was their constant state of re-invention and their evolving relationship with their new home: as the Barclays crowds would chant it, BrooOOOK-LYN!"--