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226 books match the query 'New Jersey' and 4 start with j

cover of Jersey Blue: Civil War Politics in New Jersey, 1854–1865

Jersey Blue

Civil War Politics in New Jersey, 1854–1865

Gillette, William

Rutgers University Press, 1994

This political history of New Jersey during the Civil War and the years immediately before and after invites us to rethink New Jersey's role and in particular its relationship to the border states. William Gillette argues that there is little evidence supporting the idea that New Jersey's residents were pro-southern before the war, or even antiwar during it, although attitudes toward the abolition of slavery were more ambivalent. The perspectives Gillette offers in Jersey Blue, from the recruiting ground, the battlefield, and the home front, cast new light on New Jersey's wartime activities, state identity, and our understanding of the interrelationships between New Jersey's national, regional, and state developments.

Gillette takes a broader view of the politics of the Civil War as he touches on the economy, geography, demography, immigration, nativism, conscription, and law. The result is a pioneering history of New Jersey that deepens our understanding of the Civil War.
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cover of Jersey Diners

Jersey Diners

Peter Genovese

Rutgers University Press, 2006

New Jersey Monthly named Peter Genovese one of the twenty-five "New Jerseyans We Love."

There is nothing more "Jersey" than a diner. Adorning the highways and byways of fully half of the state's 566 municipalities, no one in New Jersey lives far from one. There are more diners here than in any other state, and on top of that, one of the two remaining diner manufacturers is located in the Garden State.

In a year of roadside research, Peter Genovese talked to owners, employees, and customers, and ate more bacon and egg sandwiches than he cares to remember. The result is a funny, revealing book about a beloved American institution. Whether you want to know where and how diners started, who invented eggs served in a skillet, why these twenty-four-hours-a-day eateries are so popular, or, most important, which one has the best French toast, Jersey Diners has the answers.

Packed with facts, trivia, and stories about the owners, employees, and clientele, the book is also complemented with over three hundred evocative, beautiful photos of the buildings, their distinctive dTcor, the food, and the people who love it from Sussex to Salem counties.

This newly revised edition includes a fully updated directory that details where you can find every diner throughout the state!
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cover of Jersey Justice: The Story of the Trenton Six

Jersey Justice

The Story of the Trenton Six

Cathy D. Knepper

Rutgers University Press, 2011

The case of the Trenton Six attracted international attention in its time (1948–1952) and was once known as the “northern Scottsboro Boys case.” Yet, there is no memory of it. The shame of racism evident in the case has been nearly erased from the public record. Now, historian Cathy D. Knepper takes us back to the courtroom to make us aware of this shocking chapter in American history.

Jersey Justice: The Story of the Trenton Six begins in 1948 when William Horner, an elderly junk dealer, was murdered in his downtown Trenton shop. Over a two-week period, six local African American men were arrested and charged with collectively killing Horner. Violating every rule in the book, the Trenton police held the six men in incommunicado detention, without warrants, and threatened them until they confessed. At the end of the trial the all-white jury sentenced the six men to die in the electric chair.

That might have been the end of the story were it not for the tireless efforts of Bessie Mitchell, the sister of one of the accused men. Undaunted by the refusal of the NAACP and the ACLU to help appeal the conviction of the Trenton Six, Mitchell enlisted the aid of the Civil Rights Congress, ultimately taking the case as far as the New Jersey Supreme Court. Along the way, the Trenton Six garnered the attention and involvement of many prominent activists, politicians, and artists, including Paul Robeson, Thurgood Marshall, Eleanor Roosevelt, Pete Seeger, Arthur Miller, and Albert Einstein. Jersey Justice brings to light a shameful moment in our nation’s history, but it also tells the story of a personal battle for social justice that changed America.

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cover of Jerseyana: The Underside of New Jersey History

Jerseyana

The Underside of New Jersey History

Mappen, Marc

Rutgers University Press, 1992

Readers of the New Jersey section of the Sunday New York Times eagerly look forward to Marc Mappen's astonishing tales of New Jersey history. Jerseyana is his first collection of these popular monthly columns. Here you will meet villains like Dutch Schultz, the mobster gunned down in a Newark gangland rubout, and heroes like Minerva Miller, a black woman who fought segregation at the turn of the century. There are famous events, like the explosion of Hindenburg, and obscure ones, like the assassination of the king of Italy by an anarchist from Paterson. There are amusing stories, like a buried treasure hoax in Morristown after the Revolutionary War, bizarre stories like the fact that the discoverer of New Jersey was allegedly devoured by cannibals, and dramatic stories, like the Jersey woman who survived Indian captivity. 

Arranged chronologically, these columns constitute a lively New Jersey perspective on American history. Individual essays deal with major themes in American history and how they affected New Jersey:  the colonial era, the Revolution, Civil War and Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, World War I, the '20s and '30s, World War II, McCarthyism, women's history, and black history.

Each of the fifty-four columns in this book stands as a colorful exploration in history. Together they constitute a sweeping survey of our state's rich heritage.

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