New Jersey Books

Absolutely beautiful book wonderfully written and put together! Do not hesitate a moment to buy this! I've spent the past 3+ years constantly looking at this book (Plus its companion book) and I do not grow tired of it! It is pure bliss sometimes to look through it!

In late 1775, sensing that the time for emancipation and liberty was at hand, a slave named Titus quietly slipped away from his master in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Richard Corliss, the slaveholder, offered three pounds reward for the capture and return of Titus. Titus did return, but as Colonel Tye, and he fought gallantly in the Battle of Monmouth, near Freehold. A year later, Colonel Tye did something even more extraordinary. Once again he returned to Monmouth County as leader of an integrated guerilla unit. Tye's intimate knowledge of Monmouth County swamps, rivers and woods served him well, as he and his group plundered the farms and estates of wealthy slaveholders, escaping to a hide out on Sandy Hook. These depredations continued for a year until Tye received a bullet wound and died of lockjaw. Tye would be an honored figure in American history but for one problem: This was the Revolutionary War, not the Civil War, and Tye was fighting on the British side. As far as he was concerned, Tye was fighting for the right side. On November 7, 1778, the Earl of Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, promised freedom to all slaves "willing to serve His Majesty's forces to end the present rebellion." If you had been a slave, which side would you have chosen? An embryonic nation apparently committed to slavery and largely governed by slaveholders, or a powerful maritime empire that promised you your freedom? This wonderful story about a courageous man, which I had never heard before, comes from an eye-opening book by Graham Russell Hodges, "Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North: African Americans in Monmouth County, 1665-1865," from Madison House Publishers in cooperation with the Friends of the Monmouth County Park System. Hodges lets the facts speak for themselves. From census figures, newspaper accounts, county and church records, business ledgers, wills, and reward postings for the capture of escaped slaves, we are reminded that New Jersey was a rural state that had much in common with the upper South - Lincoln never carried New Jersey. We did not have large plantations, but slaveholding was common and acceptable enough to make us closer to tidewater Maryland and Virginia than to New England in many of our attitudes. Slavery received an early start in New Jersey and rooted strongly enough to end slowly, grudgingly and later than any other Northeastern states. Vestiges of servitude lingered on into the Twentieth Century, with many African Americans economically bound to the same white families that had once owned them as property. Hodges gives particular attention to the role played by organized religion in the justification and maintenance of slavery, as well as in its gradual demise. The second part of Hodges' book deals with New Jersey's emancipation period, which saw a declining slave population and the growing strength of Monmouth County's free black community up to the Civil War. Local tax rolls reveal an increasing number of mostly poor, yet free, African Americans, a few of whom managed to acquire considerable farm acreage. Tables throughout the book show the distribution of free and slave populations by town and by year. Poet William Carlos Williams advises that we will find what is universal by examining what is found locally. By taking a magnifying glass to the 200 year history of slavery in a single New Jersey county, Graham Russell Hodges brings to light the degradation, violence, hypocrisy, and moral ambiguities of a terrible institution as it was experienced in this state, by people we would have known or even could have been. Its pages are filled with surnames still listed in our telephone books. It is a powerful book. Bob Rixon, WFMU-FM, Jersey City, NJ

The Smithsonian Natural Guides are my new bible for travel. Who really cares about all those motel & restaurant guides w/cheesy attractions anyhow? These guides bring to life what kind of America lies behind (and often even above) the tourist traps.

In the guide to New York, New Jersey & Pennsylvania's natural places, Eugene Walter takes the reader to the Adirondacks, the Finger Lakes, the Valley & Ridge Province, the Pine Barrens and other lesser known reserves in an often poetical manner, making it for once a travel guide that's a page-turner! His descriptions of certain places follow streams down their courses, allowing full visualization as well as a desire to get in the car and go there!

No reviews for this book? Hard to believe given the number of used copies available. Surely many have read "Society of Captives"?

Sykes uses the sociological framework of Talcott Parsons to analyze the "life of prison" in terms of its effects on the inmates. Sykes was obviously a key reference point for Goffman's work in "Asylums". Sykes works around the idea of describing a maximum security prison as a "total institution", but fails to really nail the concept down.

He makes some interesting observations about the conflicting motives of guards on the front line of the prison. I found troubling his conclusion that the level of control sought to be imposed upon the prisoners was ever elusive. This seemed, to me, to be a justification for the behavior that goes on behind prison walls.

His interesting discussion of prison riot and rebellion prefigures some of Foucault's analysis in "Discipline and Punish". In fact, I picked up my copy of Discipline and Punish immediately after (and during) reading this book and found the effect to be akin to a light bulb going on in my head.

While Sykes lacks the conclusions of Foucault, his simplified analysis of the structure of prison makes reading Foucault's "Discipline and Punish" about 100% easier.

Here is not the place for a more detailed comparison between the two books. None the less, any committed reader of Discipline and Punish should feel compelled to digest this book: After all, it only costs a buck and can be read in a single afternoon!

As NJ was the epicenter of the Rev. War, Somerset Co. was the epicenter of all the action in NJ. Truly the crossroads of the War.

Some of these Arcadia local history books are better than others, and William Schleicher's are all among the very best. A gifted historian and writer (see his journal articles on Samuel Sutphin for example), he has spent 30 years absorbed in Somerset County history. As long-time head of the local historical society, and Rev. War collector and reenactor, he was uniquely qualified for this task. And it shows. A must have for anyone living near Somerset County, anyone involved in one of the many ancient churches, anyone with genealogical interests in the region, or any Rev War buff. Especially fun to introduce your children to the local history.

If you live in Somerset Co., buy an extra copy for your church or public library.

This Maps is the best - most current. I work in the Real Estate industry and it really is very valauble.

I truly loved reading this book! Having grown up in South Orange, the streets of my home town came to life. I savored every page as I read about the history of this wonderful old town. The places I drive by every day, now have more meaning and history to them. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who wants to go back in time, without leaving home!

a very pleasant and informative pictorial of spring lake. a bit short on history, but worthwhile nonetheless. Interesting usage of post cards as reference.

Glad I did not listen to the Publishers Weekly review before I decided to read the book. As a former Librarian and someone interested in local environmental issues, though not a scientist, I found I was able to absorb more of the book than I initially thought. The book gave me insights into governmental politics as well as learning more about local marine biology. The beaurocratic in-fighting discussed in the book brought to mind the Katrina fiasco.

Tales of Wo-Chi-Ca showed me, intimately from the inside, an amazingly exciting and influential radical-left children's camp of the 1930's and '40's. The book gave me a crystal-clear image of the beautiful and loving side of the old radical left that the ugliness of McCarthyism undermined.

Just as a good read, the book kept moving me and causing me to tell my wife about what I had just read.