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Nassau County:
From Rural Hinterland to Suburban Metropolis
Edited
by Joann P. Krieg and Natalie A. Naylor
| Information
| Publications |
Nassau County was formed on January 1, 1899, by the three eastern towns of
Queens County (Hempstead, North Hempstead, and Oyster Bay), after the western
towns had become part of greater New York City in 1898. Hofstra University
commemorated the centennial of Nassau County by holding a conference on March
18-20, 1999, under the auspices of the Long Island Studies Institute, the
Hofstra Cultural Center, and the Nassau County Centennial Committee. Selected
presentations from the conference on various aspects of the history of Nassau
County are included in this volume, making it a significant contribution to
the history of Nassau County.
Jon C. Teaford, Professor of History at Purdue University, discusses Nassau
County in the broader perspective of the development of America's urban and
suburban metropolitan areas. Nassau has been a prototypical suburb which "owes
its very existence to a desire to remain apart" from New York City. As a mature
suburb, it has "pioneered an alternative future."
Various aspects of Nassau County government and politics are the subject of
several of the essays. Authors discuss the creation of Nassau County, the
border between Queens and Nassau, four county executives, political leaders,
suburban politics, and the creation of the new county legislature, as well
as poor relief and the system of museums and parks. Other articles examine
the Hempstead Plains for military training camps, Brooklyn's use of Nassau's
water in the nineteenth century, the history of the name Nassau, the influence
of the natural environment, the growth of public education in the Bellmores,
the establishment of Jewish communities, and how Nassau County's postwar growth
was spurred by the American welfare state.
Health care receives attention, including hospitals, trauma care, heart and
other surgery, orthopedics, and pediatrics. Nassau's aerospace heritage is
represented by an examination of the origins of airplane manufacturing in
Farmingdale and by Thomas Kelly's account of Grumman's role in building the
Lunar Module which landed on the Moon. The final section on "People and Places"
includes Theodore Roosevelt, comedians Alan King and Billy Crystal, clergywomen,
local authors, and the communities of Long Beach and Farmingdale. With notes,
bibliographies, and a comprehensive index, this book is an indispensable resource
with new information and perspectives on the history of Nassau County.
This collection of essays on Nassau County's history is drawn from presentations
at the Centennial Conference at Hofstra University sponsored by the Long Island
Studies Institute, Hofstra Cultural Center, and the Nassau County Centennial
Committee. The thirty articles deal with various aspects of Nassau County
history and government.
The Editors:
Joann P. Krieg is Professor of English
at Hofstra University, where she teaches American literature and American Studies.
She is the author of Long
Island and Literature (1989), Epidemics in the Modern World
(1992), and A Whitman Chronology (1998). Dr. Krieg also has edited
several Long Island Studies Institute conference volumes.
Natalie A. Naylor is Director of the Long Island Studies Institute and Professor
in Hofstra's New College, where she has taught courses in American social
history, including Long Island history. She has edited or co-edited several
of the Institute's conference volumes and has published many articles on educational
history and Long Island history. She is now retired and is Professor Emerita.
Publication and Ordering
Information:
This book was published in 2000
by Empire State Books under the auspices of Hofstra University and the Long
Island Studies Institute. With thirty papers presented at the Nassau County
Centennial Conference held in March 1999, it is 336 pages with a comprehensive
index and more than sixty illustrations. The paperback is priced at $19.99
and the hardcover edition is $35. LC 99-69565; ISBN: 1-55787-155-8 (hardcover),
1-55787-156-6 (paperback).
Schools, libraries, and bookstores can order from the Long Island Studies Institute.
The Weathervane Shop of the Suffolk County Historical Society will fill mail
orders (631) 727-2881; fax (631) 727-3467; email histsoc@suffolk.lib.ny.us;
300 W. Main Street, Riverhead, NY 11901. Heart of the Lakes Publishing distributes
this and other Institute books: P.O. Box 299, Interlaken, NY 14847; (607) 532-4204,
fax (607) 532-4684, email HLPBooks@aol.com.
For additional information, contact the Long Island Studies Institute, 619 Fulton
Avenue, Hempstead, NY 11549; LISI@Hofstra.edu,
(516) 463-6411, fax (516) 463-6441.
Contents:
Foreword by James M. Shuart
Introduction by Natalie A. Naylor
National
Perspectives:
Nassau County: A Pioneer
of the Crabgrass Frontier, by Jon C. Teaford
Myths and Realities of Suburban Politics, by Marjorie Freeman Harrison
The
Creation of Nassau County:
"Boss"
Platt's Role in Creating Nassau County; Introduction, by Edward J. Smits
The Location of the Queens-Nassau Border, by Patricia T. Caro
Speech at the Laying of the Courthouse Cornerstone, by Theodore
Roosevelt
Governance
and Political Leadership:
Institutional
Poor Relief in Nassau County, 1899-1999, by Ruth Shackelford
Italian-American Inwood and the Making of the Modern Nassau Republican
Party, by Marjorie Freeman Harrison
Executive Power: A Comparison of Styles, by James Shelland
Reflections on Nassau County's Suburban Politics, by Herbert D. Rosenbaum
Preserving Nassau County's Heritage in Museums and Parks, by Mildred
Murphy DeRiggi
The Creation of the Nassau County Legislature, by John B. Kiernan
The
Nineteenth Century and Earlier:
The
Hempstead Plains: A Capital Field for Military Exercises, 1700-1898, by James
M. McKenna
When Nassau Supplied Brooklyn's Water, by Richard A. Winsche
The Naming of Nassau County, by Dorothy Horton McGee
Changes
and Transformations:
An Ecodeterminist
View of Nassau's Growth, by Edward J. Smits
Public Education in the Bellmores, 1850-1950, by Kenneth M. Foreman
From Orchard Street to Sunrise Highway: The Establishment of Jewish Communities
in Nassau County, 1897-1999, by Martha Kreisel
The American Welfare State and the Growth of Suburbia: Nassau County, A Case
Study, by Hugh A. Wilson.
Health
Care:
History
of Hospitals in Nassau County, by Thomas Joseph Palmieri
Trauma Care in Nassau County--The Past 100 Years, by L. D. George Angus
and Dina Fahmy
Surgery in Nassau County in the Twentieth Century, by Stanley D. Berliner
The History of Orthopedics in Nassau County, by Adrian R. Coren
Pediatric Care in Nassau County, by Jack David Gorvoy
A History of Heart Surgery on Long Island, by B. George Wisoff
Aerospace
Heritage:
The
Origins of Airplane Manufacturing in Farmingdale, New York: 1917-1928, by Roy
Douglas
From Long Island to the Moon: The Project Apollo Lunar Module, by Thomas
J. Kelly
People
and Places:
Theodore Roosevelt in the Local Arena, by Natalie A. Naylor
Sandbar to City: William H. Reynolds and the Planned Community of Long Beach,
1906-1922, by Roberta Fiore and Elizabeth Coffin Allerhand
Farmingdale's History: A Reflection of Nassau County's First Century, by
William J. Johnston
From Soup to Nuts: Laughter in the Suburbs--Alan King and Billy Crystal, by
Joseph Dorinson
Women in the Clergy in Nassau County: Breaking Through the Stained Glass
Ceiling, by Linda F. Burghardt
A Century of Authors and Literature, by Janet S. Wagner
Reviews:
"The assembled essays are usually insightful and well-researched, with some of the best work to be found on the subject of politics. Jon C. Teaford gave the conference keynote address which serves as the book's opening chapter. Teaford makes the plausible argument that Nassau County's political structure has often served as a blueprint for the rest of the nation's suburban enclaves. . . .
"The book is an important and welcome addition to Long Island history--both in the valuable insights and information it provides as well as in the great range of possibilities it suggests for future work." -- Joshua Ruff, The Long Island Museum of American Art, History & Carriages, Long Island Historical Journal 13 (Fall 2000): 122, 124.
"Nassau County, From Rural Hinterland to Suburban Metropolis is a multidisciplinary anthology examining the history of the county's growth, governance, and political leadership.
"This collection of diverse and authoritative articles should interest Nassau residents as well as students of post-1945 American society, as Nassau County is the quintessential example of, and the prototype for, suburbia. . . . [It] is a welcome addition to the growing revisionism of the suburban experience, especially on Long Island.
"One of this book's most important contributions is in its institutional history. . . . [Little has been] written about the history of our museums, parks, hospitals, almshouses, and medical facilities. Hopefully, this is the first step toward rectifying that situation." -- Paul Manton, Long Island Forum, 63 (Fall 2000): 37, 38.
"Hundreds of counties nationwide predate Nassau's founding in 1899, but few if any have had a more profound impact on twentieth-century America. In this collection of papers prepared for the Long Island Studies Institute's Centennial Conference, we learn of the myriad areas in which Nassau has pointed the way, and the rest of the country has followed. . . .
"In her introduction, Naylor acknowledges that this volume cannot, as a compendium of papers on individual aspects of life in Nassau County, aspire to offer a 'comprehensive treatment' of the county (p. 13), but it is nevertheless fascinating reading " -- Thomas A. Kuhhas, Director, Oyster Bay Historical Society, Nassau County Historical Society Journal, vol. 55, 2000.
Of Related Interest:
Nassau
County at 100: The Past and Present in Photographs and The
History of Nassau County Place Names.
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