The Bronx River In History Folklore

Download or read book The Bronx River in History & Folklore written by Stephen Paul DeVillo and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2015-05-11 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Jonas Bronck to today, discover stories and legends of New York’s Bronx River. The Bronx River flows for twenty-three miles through Westchester County and the heart of the Bronx. It is New York City’s only freshwater river, and it is exceptionally rich in history, folklore and environmental wonder. From Revolutionary War battlefields to native forests and lost villages, its lore and remarkable history are peopled with an array of legendary characters like Aaron Burr and the redoubtable Aunt Sarah Titus. Today, the once-polluted river is revitalized by decades of citizen activism, and it once again plays a unique role in the diverse communities along its length. Stephen DeVillo traces the river’s long and colorful story from the glaciers to the present day, combining human history, local legends and natural history into a detailed portrait of a special part of New York.

Download or read book South Bronx Rising written by Jill Jonnes and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2022-10-04 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirty-five years after this landmark of urban history first captured the rise, fall, and rebirth of a once-thriving New York City borough—ravaged in the 1970s and ’80s by disinvestment and fires, then heroically revived and rebuilt in the 1990s by community activists—Jill Jonnes returns to chronicle the ongoing revival of the South Bronx. Though now globally renowned as the birthplace of hip-hop, the South Bronx remains America’s poorest urban congressional district. In this new edition, we meet the present generation of activists who are transforming their communities with the arts and greening, notably the restoration of the Bronx River. For better or worse, real estate investors have noticed, setting off new gentrification struggles.

Download or read book Battle of White Plains, The: Washington and Howe in Westchester written by Stephen Paul DeVillo and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2022-06 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Washington's Harrowing Escape from the Hudson Valley In October 1776 central Westchester witnessed a critical episode in the early campaign of George Washington's ragtag Continental Army and its quest for American independence. Often overlooked as just an interval between the disastrous Battle of Brooklyn and victory at Trenton, the Battle of White Plains showcased Washington's sly strategy of perseverance. Poor decision making and ignorance of the area's hilly terrain among British leadership gave the patriot army a chance to secure a path to safety despite being on the run and outmanned. Though British General Howe claimed victory, the battle's lessons informed Washington's cat and mouse strategy that ultimately brought success later in the war. Author Stephen Paul DeVillo presents just how close the American cause for independence came to being extinguished at the Battle of White Plains.

Download or read book The Bronx River: An Environmental & Social History written by Maarten de Kadt and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2011-06-28 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bronx River flows twenty-three miles from its source in Valhalla to its mouth, the East River in the Bronx. This waterway was used for centuries by Native American tribes for drinking, food and transportation, and they called it "Aquehung" a fast stream flowing along a high bluff. After the arrival of Europeans, though, the Bronx River suffered as industry prospered; it powered mills and, unfortunately, became a dumping ground for all kinds of waste. Its appearance and ecosystem were forever changed. Today, community members are again attempting to alter the river, but this time for the better, by helping it recover. Discover the fascinating history of this small waterway and the ways it influenced and was affected by the people around it.

Download or read book The Witching Herbs written by Harold Roth and published by Weiser Books. This book was released on 2017-03-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harold Roth is a leading authority on plant/herbal magic. His new book, The Witching Herbs, is an in-depth exploration of 13 essential plants and herbs most closely associated with witchcraft—13 because it’s the witching number and reflects the 13 months of the lunar calendar. The plants are poppy, clary sage, yarrow, rue, hyssop, vervain, mugwort, wormwood, datura, wild tobacco, henbane, belladonna, and mandrake. Roth writes simply and clearly on a vast amount of esoteric information that is not easily found elsewhere and will be greeted enthusiastically by those who already have extensive experience and libraries. It is unique in that it combines mysticism with practical instructions for growing each plant, based on Roth’s 30 years of gardening expertise. Each chapter focuses on one plant and includes information on its unique plant spirit familiar, clear how-to instructions for magical projects, and pragmatic information on growing and cultivating. Roth writes, “This book is a great choice for intermediate-to-advanced witches who would like to work more closely with the traditional witching herbs, especially the baneful plants with their rather difficult spirits. Working directly with spirits is one of the fundamentals of the Craft.” The Witching Herbs is the essential plant-worker’s guide. Roth is not only a successful gardener, but also a magician and scholar of the occult. No other book blends clear, practical gardening techniques with equally lucid and sophisticated plant magic so successfully.

Download or read book Sustainable Cities in American Democracy written by Carmen Sirianni and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2020-09-25 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We face two global threats: the climate crisis and a crisis of democracy. Located at the crux of these crises, sustainable cities build on the foundations and resources of democracy to make our increasingly urban world more resilient and just. Sustainable Cities in American Democracy focuses on this effort as it emerged and developed over the past decades in the institutional field of sustainable cities—a vital response to environmental degradation and climate change that is shaped by civic and democratic action. Carmen Sirianni shows how various kinds of civic associations and grassroots mobilizing figure in this story, especially as they began to explicitly link conservation to the future of our democracy and then develop sustainable cities as a democratic project. These organizations are national, local, or multitiered, from the League of Women Voters to the Natural Resources Defense Council to bicycle and watershed associations. Some challenge city government agencies contentiously, while others seek collaboration; many do both at some point. Sirianni uses a range of analytic approaches—from scholarly disciplines, policy design, urban governance, social movements, democratic theory, public administration, and planning—to understand how such diverse civic and professional associations have come to be both an ecology of organizations and a systemic and coherent project. The institutional field of sustainable cities has emerged with some core democratic norms and civic practices but also with many tensions and trade-offs that must be crafted and revised strategically in the face of new opportunities and persistent shortfalls. Sirianni’s account draws ambitious yet pragmatic and hopeful lessons for a “Civic Green New Deal”—a policy design for building sustainable and resilient cities on much more robust foundations in the decades ahead while also addressing democratic deficits in our polarized political culture.

Download or read book The Bowery written by Stephen Paul DeVillo and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From peglegged Peter Stuyvesant to CBGB’s, the story of the Bowery reflects the history of the city that grew up around it. It was the street your mother warned you about—even if you lived in San Francisco. Long associated with skid row, saloons, freak shows, violence, and vice, the Bowery often showed the worst New York City had to offer. Yet there were times when it showed its best as well. The Bowery is New York’s oldest street and Manhattan’s broadest boulevard. Like the city itself, it has continually reinvented itself over the centuries. Named for the Dutch farms, or bouweries, of the area, the path’s lurid character was established early when it became the site of New Amsterdam’s first murder. A natural spring near the Five Points neighborhood led to breweries and taverns that became home to the gangs of New York—the “Bowery B’hoys,” “Plug Uglies,” and “Dead Rabbits.” In the Gaslight Era, teenaged streetwalkers swallowed poison in McGurk’s Suicide Hall. A brighter side to the street was reflected in places of amusement and culture over the years. A young P.T. Barnum got his start there, and Harry Houdini learned showmanship playing the music halls and dime museums. Poets, singers, hobos, gangsters, soldiers, travelers, preachers, storytellers, con-men, and reformers all gathered there. Its colorful cast of characters includes Peter Stuyvesant, Steve Brodie, Carry Nation, Stephen Foster, Stephen Crane, and even Abraham Lincoln. The Bowery: The Strange History of New York’s Oldest Street traces the full story of this once notorious thoroughfare from its pre-colonial origins to the present day.