New Jersey is "the city in the garden." It is a bundle of paradoxes - a highly industrialized state famous for its seashore and mountain resorts; a fairly conservative state politically that nonetheless pioneered state land use, zoning, and environmental protection legislation. The only state to be characterized by the U.S. Census as entirely metropolitan, New Jersey has the highest population density in the nation. It is a highly suburbanized state that remains important agriculturally, one in which both very large and very small farms continue to multiply. 

Newark’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart is one of the United States’ greatest cathedrals and most exceptional Gothic Revival buildings. Rising from Newark’s highest ground and visible for miles, it spectacularly evokes its historic models. Gothic Pride sets Sacred Heart in the context of American cathedral building and, blending diverse fields, accounts for the complex circumstances that produced it.

 Calling upon a wealth of primary sources, Brian Regan describes in a compelling narrative the cathedral’s almost century-long history. He traces the project to its origins in the late 1850s and the great expectations held by the project’s prime movers—all passionate about Gothic architecture and immensely proud of Newark—that never wavered despite numerous setbacks and challenges. Construction did not begin until 1898 and, when completed in 1954, the cathedral became New Jersey’s largest church—and the most expensive Catholic church ever built in America. During Pope John Paul II’s visit to the United States in 1995, he celebrated evening prayer at the Cathedral. On that occasion, the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart was elevated to a basilica to become the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

 Meticulously researched, Gothic Pride brings to life the people who built, contributed to, and worshipped in Sacred Heart, recalling such remarkable personalities as George Hobart Doane, Jeremiah O’Rourke, Gonippo Raggi, and Archbishop Thomas Walsh. In many ways, the cathedral’s story is a lens that lets us look at the history of Newark itself—its rise as an industrial city and its urban culture in the nineteenth century; its transformation in the twentieth century; its immigrants and the profound effects of their cultures, especially their religion, on American life; and the power of architecture to serve as a symbol of community values and pride..

Long before Bill Clinton spoke of "triangulation," a term that referred to a centrist governing style, prior to Tony Blair repositioning the British Labor Party midway between Thatcher conservatism and militant trade unionism, and far ahead of George W. Bush referring to his agenda as "compassionate conservatism," there was Tom Kean. From the moment of his election to the New Jersey state assembly in 1967, through his guidance of the 9/11 Commission nearly three decades later, Kean consistently displayed a knack for bipartisan leadership.

In this first political biography of one of the nation's most popular and successful governors, Alvin S. Felzenberg tells the story of a remarkable career that culminated in an unexpected and crucial contribution to the country-chairmanship of the 9/11 Commission. Felzenberg describes how, early in his political career, Kean worked to transform New Jersey's legislature in the aftermath of court rulings that mandated redistricting in accordance with the "one man, one vote" principle. He discusses Kean's efforts to relieve the urban crisis that followed in the wake of the 1967 Newark riots. He relates how Kean was able to use the New Jersey governorship-purportedly the strongest in the country-to transform a so-called "rust belt" state into a leader in education, environmental responsibility, and economic growth.

Kean's successes in these and other areas caused leaders outside New Jersey to follow in his path. Together with his fellow governors, Kean forged a national consensus on domestic policy between Democratic congresses and Republican presidents, in the process winning for himself a leadership role in his own party. Kean's story serves as an uncommon case of how a Republican loyal to the historic roots and principles of his party can not only win election in a "blue state" but effectively govern it.

Starting from the example the governor set on the state level, Felzenberg's account traces Kean's career to positions of trusted authority on the national stage. After several years of advising presidents, Kean was appointed chairman of the 9/11 Commission. In this role, he made the bipartisan, Congressionally mandated commission one of the most successful in American history.

Drawing on interviews with Kean as well as with state and national leaders, including former presidents Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton and former New York City mayor Ed Koch, Felzenberg not only provides a marvelous biography, but also offers a unique look at American politics during the last four decades of the twentieth century.

Rogues, aristocrats, and a future U.S. president. These and other governors are portrayed in this revised and updated edition of the classic reference work on the chief executives of New Jersey. Editors Michael J. Birkner, Donald Linky, and Peter Mickulas present new essays on the governors of the last three decades—Brendan T. Byrne, Thomas Kean, James Florio, Christine Todd Whitman, Donald DiFrancesco, James McGreevey, Richard Codey, and Jon Corzine. The essays included in the original edition are amended, edited, and corrected as necessary in light of new and relevant scholarship.

The authors of each governor’s life story represent a roster of such notable scholars as Larry Gerlach, Stanley Katz, Arthur Link, and Clement Price, as well as many other experts on New Jersey history and politics. As a result, this revised edition is a thorough and current reference work on the New Jersey governorship—one of the strongest in the nation.

Also of Interest:
New Jersey Politics and Government
The Suburbs Come of Age
Fourth Edition
Barbara G. Salmore with Stephen A. Salmore
978-0-8135-6139-4   paper   $34.95
A volume in the Rivergate Regionals Collection

Me, Governor?
My Life in the Rough-and-Tumble World of New Jersey Politics
Richard J. Codey
978-0-8135-5045-9   cloth   $24.95

The Life and Times of Richard J. Hughes
The Politics of Civility
John B. Wefing
978-0-8135-4641-4   cloth   $32.50

Governor Tom Kean
From the New Jersey Statehouse to the 911 Commission
Alvin S. Felzenberg
978-0-8135-3799-3   cloth   $29.95

New Jersey is called the Garden State with good reason- some of the nation's most strikingly beautiful homes and gardens can be found within its borders. Caroline Seebohm and Peter C. Cook have captured them gloriously in Great Houses and Gardens of New Jersey.

No other book has so beautifully presented the architectural story of the state, stunningly documented in more than 200 color photographs- from a centuries-old farm to modern glass houses, from woodlands planted with native plants to formal French and English-style gardens. Each house and garden is privately owned, and many have never before been photographed. Readers are given an exclusive peek at some of New Jersey's greatest treasures.

Seebohm and Cook take us on a private tour of a pre-revolutionary Dutch farmhouse that could have sprung from the coast of Devon in England; a brick-patterned house that vividly expresses the originality and exuberance of the region's early builders and craftsmen; a collection of native stone buildings reminiscent of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; and an Arts and Crafts house with contributions by New Jersey's innovative Gustav Stickley. The twentieth century is equally well represented with works by masters such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Venturi, Michael Graves, and Richard Meier.

The book showcases gardens of dazzling splendor and variety- woodlands ablaze with native azaleas and dogwoods; a charming sunken garden by well-known English garden designer Penelope Hobhouse; a stunning water garden on the Navesink River; a tiny formal garden surrounded by a picket fence in Somerset County; a garden in Alpine carpeted with bluebells in the spring, scented with roses in the summer, and with orchids on display all year round.

William J. Boyle has updated his classic guide to birding in New Jersey, featuring all new maps and ten new illustrations. The book is an invaluable companion for every birder - novice or experienced, New Jerseyan or visitor.

A Guide to Bird Finding in New Jersey features:

More than 130 top birding spots described in detail

Clear maps, travel directions, species lists, and notes on birding

An annotated list of the frequency and abundance of the state's birds, including waterbirds, pelagic birds, raptors, migrating birds, and northern and southern birds at the edge of their usual ranges

A comprehensive bibliography and index

The guide also includes helpful information on:

Birding in New Jersey by season

Telephone and internet rare bird alerts

Pelagic birding

Hawk watching

Bird and nature clubs in the state

Winner of the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance Book Award for Non-fiction popular book

New Jersey is a state of surprises. Did you know there was a castle in Passaic County? Or that Essex County’s Branch Brook Park, rather than Washington, D.C., has the largest concentration of flowering cherry trees outside of Japan? Did you know you could walk through a bamboo forest on the Rutgers University campus, dig for fossils in Middletown’s Poricy Brook, visit an owl haven on the site of the Battle of Monmouth, or see wild river otters in Salem County?

Despite its proximity to major urban areas and its high population density, the state has dozens of absolutely marvelous natural areas and preserved spaces. It boasts something for everyone, from Atlantic seashore to rugged mountains, rolling farmland to winding canals, historic trails to formal gardens, bird-filled marshes to hardwood forests, pine barrens to fragrant vineyards and orchards. There are outings for hikers, bikers, beachcombers, gardeners, power-walkers, and strollers of all kinds, and A Guide to Green NewJersey is your key to finding it all.

The book is conveniently organized into forty geographic areas, spotlighting more than 200 nature walks. Each entry includes a description, visitor hours, fees, driving accessibility, and other pertinent information for walkers. At the end of the book, the authors provide an index with the names of each site, and their guide to choosing an outing according to individual tastes and interests. They identify sites that are wheelchair accessible, especially fun for kids, best for bicyclists, and those that are particularly physically challenging.

Newcomers to the state will find the book indispensable, and long-time New Jerseyans will find it a pleasantly eye-opening guide to wonderful walks right in their own backyards.