Thursday, December 8, 2022 – STEP BACK IN HISTORY WITH GREAT NEWLY PUBLISHED BOOKS
FROM THE ARCHIVES
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2022
OUR 855th ISSUE
NEW AND INTERESTING
BOOKS
FOR YOUR HOLIDAY
READING
NEW YORK ALMANACK
Contagion of Liberty: Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution
Inoculation, a shocking procedure introduced to America by an enslaved African, became the most sought-after medical procedure of the eighteenth century. The difficulty lay in providing it to all Americans and not just the fortunate few. Across the colonies, poor Americans rioted for equal access to medicine, while cities and towns shut down for quarantines. In Marblehead, Massachusetts, sailors burned down an expensive private hospital just weeks after the Boston Tea Party.
The Revolutionary War broke out during a smallpox epidemic, and in response, General George Washington ordered the inoculation of the Continental Army. But Washington did not have to convince fearful colonists to protect themselves against smallpox ― they were the ones demanding it.
In The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2022) Andrew M. Wehrman describes a revolution within a revolution, where the violent insistence for freedom from disease ultimately helped American colonists achieve independence from Great Britain.
The Contagion of Liberty is a timely and fascinating account of the raucous public demand for smallpox inoculation during the American Revolution and the origin of vaccination in the United States.
This thought-provoking history offers a new dimension to our understanding of both the American Revolution and the origins of public health in the United States. The miraculous discovery of vaccination in the early 1800s posed new challenges that upended the revolutionaries’ dream of disease eradication, and Wehrman reveals that the quintessentially American rejection of universal health care systems has deeper roots than previously known.
During a time when some of the loudest voices in the United States are those clamoring against efforts to vaccinate, this richly documented book will appeal to anyone interested in the history of medicine and politics, or who has questioned government action (or lack thereof) during a pandemic.
Andrew Wehrman is a historian, writer, and associate professor of history at Central Michigan University. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University, and M.A.T. and B.A. from the University of Arkansas. He previously taught at Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio. His research and teaching focuses on Colonial and Revolutionary America and the history of medicine, disease, and public health. In addition to the book, The Contagion of Liberty, Wehrman has written articles for The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and NBC News among others.
Olmsted’s Elmwood: Buffalo’s
Parkway Neighborhood
The new book Olmsted’s Elmwood: The Rise, Decline and Renewal of Buffalo’s Parkway Neighborhood, A Model for America’s Cities (City of Light Publishing, 2022) by Clinton E. Brown and Ramona Pando Whitaker takes a look at the fascinating story of Buffalo‘s the historic Elmwood District, named one of America’s top ten neighborhoods.
From Joseph Ellicott’s arrival in Buffalo and his radical radial street grid, through the role played by Frederick Law Olmsted and his unique parks and parkways, this book reveals the stories of those who created a neighborhood using Olmsted’s blueprint for gracious living. It also follows the devastating 50-year decline that boarded up mansions and emptied the rust belt city, reducing it to a shadow of its Gilded Age size and prominence.
Olmsted’s Elmwood looks at how the Elmwood District, now on the National Register of Historic Places, survived intact until the desire for walkable neighborhoods and its passionate residents sparked the renewal that is underway today. The authors suggest that Elmwood be considered a model for America’s cities, and look into the neighborhood’s future as it grapples with growth.
Buffalo native and historic preservation architect Clinton Brown, FAIA, founded Clinton Brown Company Architecture, Buffalo, which successfully nominated the Elmwood Historic District for the National Register of Historic Places.
Ramona Pando Whitaker is an ardent preservationist in her adopted hometown of Buffalo, New York, and a professional editor.
Book Purchases made through this Amazon link support the New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State. Books noticed on the New York Almanack have been provided by their publishers.
Washington’s Revenge: The 1777
New Jersey
In late August 1776, a badly defeated Continental Army retreated from Long Island to Manhattan. By early November, George Washington’s inexperienced army withdrew further into New Jersey and, by the end of the year, into Pennsylvania. During this dark night of the American Revolution — “the times that try men’s souls” — Washington began developing the strategy that would win the war.
During his retreat across New Jersey, Washington reconceived the war: keep the army mobile, target isolated detachments of the British Army, rely on surprise and deception, form partisan units, and avoid large-scale battles. This new strategy first bore fruit in the crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night 1776 and the attack on the British at Trenton and Princeton.
From there, Washington took up winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey, and moved into the mountains, an ideal position from which to check British movements toward Philadelphia or north up the Hudson. The British tried and failed several times to coax Washington into a decisive battle.
Stymied, the British were forced to attack Philadelphia by sea, and they would not be able to seize Philadelphia in time to support the British invasion of upstate New York which ended in defeat at Saratoga.
The new book George Washington’s Revenge: How General Washington Turned Defeat into the Strategy That Won the Revolution (Stackpole Books, 2022) by Arthur S. Lefkowitz looks at how George Washington and the Continental Army turned from the brink of defeat to victory.
Arthur Lefkowitz is an independent historian whose previous books are The Long Retreat, the Calamitous Defense of New Jersey; The American Turtle Submarine, The Best Kept Secret of the American Revolution; George Washington’s Indispensable Men, The 32 Aides-de-Camp Who Helped Win American Independence; Benedict Arnold’s Army, The 1775 American Invasion of Canada During the Revolutionary War; Eyewitness Images from the American Revolution; Benedict Arnold in the Company of Heroes, The Lives of the Extraordinary Patriots Who Followed Arnold to Canada; and Colonel Hamilton and Colonel Burr, The Revolutionary War Lives of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. He lives in New Jersey.
The Revolutionary: Samuel
Adams
Thomas Jefferson asserted that if there was any leader of the American Revolution, “Samuel Adams was the man.” With high-minded ideals and bare-knuckle tactics, Adams led what could be called the greatest campaign of civil resistance in American history. Adams amplified the Boston Massacre and helped to mastermind the Boston Tea Party.
He employed every tool available to rally a town, a colony, and eventually a band of colonies behind him, creating the cause that created a country. For his efforts he became the most wanted man in America: When Paul Revere rode to Lexington in 1775, it was to warn Samuel Adams that he was about to be arrested for treason. Despite his celebrated status among America’s founding fathers as a revolutionary leader however, Samuel Adams’ life and achievements have been largely overshadowed in history books.
In The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams (Little, Brown and Co., 2022), Stacy Schiff examines Adams’ life, including his transformation from the listless, failing son of a wealthy family into the tireless, silver-tongued revolutionary who rallied the likes of John Hancock and John Adams behind him. Schiff returns Adams to his seat of glory, introducing us to the shrewd and eloquent man who supplied the moral backbone of the American Revolution.
Poor Richard’s Women: An
Intimate Portrait of Benjamin
Franklin
Everyone knows Benjamin Franklin — the thrifty inventor-statesman of the Revolutionary era — but not about his love life. The most prominent among them was Deborah Read Franklin, his common-law wife and partner for 44 years.
Long dismissed by historians, she was an independent, politically savvy woman and devoted wife who raised their children, managed his finances, and fought off angry mobs at gunpoint while he traipsed about England.
The new book Poor Richard’s Women: An Intimate Portrait of Benjamin Franklin (Beacon Press, 2022) by Nancy Rubin Stuart looks at the long-neglected voices of the women Ben Franklin loved and lost during his lifelong struggle between passion and prudence.
Weaving detailed historical research with emotional intensity and personal testimony, Nancy Rubin Stuart traces Deborah’s life and those of Ben Franklin’s other romantic attachments through their personal correspondence.
The reader is introduced to Margaret Stevenson, the widowed landlady who managed Ben’s life in London; Catherine Ray, the 23-year-old New Englander with whom he traveled overnight and later exchanged passionate letters; Madame Brillon, the beautiful French musician who flirted shamelessly with him, and the witty Madame Helvetius, who befriended the philosophes of pre-Revolutionary France and brought Ben to his knees.
Set two centuries before the rise of feminism, Poor Richard’s Women depicts the feisty, often-forgotten women dear to Ben’s heart who, despite obstacles, achieved an independence rarely enjoyed by their peers in that era.
Nathaniel and Victoria Koplik are thrilled at the wonderful holiday windows designed by Melanie Colter (right)
The windows are on view in Rivercross thru December 31st.
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
SEND YOUR RESPONSE TO:
ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM
WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
MEDICAL RESIDENTS IN FRONT OF CITY HOSPITAL
BLACKWELL’S ISLAND, EARLY 1900’S
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Sources
NEW YORK ALMANACK
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Copyright © 2022 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com
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