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Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges and More Got Their Names

Amazon.com Price:  $15.99 (as of 20/04/2019 05:13 PST- Details)

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Description

Visit the blog for the book at www.brooklynbyname.com

From Bedford-Stuyvesant to Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s historic names are emblems of American culture and history. Uncovering the remarkable stories in the back of the landmarks, Brooklyn By Name takes readers on a stroll throughout the streets and places of this thriving metropolis to reveal the borough’s textured past.

Listing more than 500 of Brooklyn’s most prominent place names, organized alphabetically by region, and richly illustrated with photographs and current maps the book captures the diverse threads of American history. We learn in regards to the Canarsie Indians, the region’s first settlers, whose language survives in day-to-day traffic reports in regards to the Gowanus Expressway. The arrival of the Dutch West India Company in 1620 brought the first wave of European names, from Boswijck (“town within the woods,” later Bushwick) to Bedford-Stuyvesant, after the controversial administrator of the Dutch colony, to a large number of places named after prominent Dutch families like the Bergens.

The English takeover of the area in 1664 led to the Anglicization of Dutch names, (vlackebos, meaning “wooded plain,” became Flatbush) and the introduction of distinctively English names (Kensington, Brighton Beach). A century later the American Revolution swept away most Tory monikers, replacing them with signers of the Declaration of Independence and international figures who supported the revolution such as Lafayette (France), De Kalb (Germany), and Kosciuszko (Poland). We learn too of the dark corners of Brooklyn“s past, encountering over 70 streets named for prominent slaveholders like Lefferts and Lott but none for its most famous abolitionist, Walt Whitman.

From the earliest settlements to latest commemorations such as Malcolm X Boulevard, Brooklyn By Name tells the tales of the poets, philosophers, baseball heroes, diplomats, warriors, and saints who have left their imprint in this polyethnic borough that used to be once almost disastrously renamed “New York East.”

Ideal for all Brooklynites, newcomers, and visitors, this book includes:

*Over 500 entries explaining the colorful history of Brooklyn’s most prominent place names

*Over 100 vivid photographs of Brooklyn past and present

*9 easy to follow and up-to-date maps of the neighborhoods

*Informative sidebars covering topics like Ebbets Field, Lindsay Triangle, and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

*Covers all neighborhoods, easily find the street you are on

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