Black Soldiers of New York State

Anthony Gero, author of the new SUNY Press book Black Soldiers of New York State: A Proud Legacy, spoke about his work and signed copies of the book on Sunday, February 22 at the Cayuga Museum in Auburn, New York. Gero, a Fellow of the Company of Military Historians, worked more than ten years on the research for the book, trying to answer the basic question of why these African-Americans would serve a country that denied them the full rights of citizenship. “It is essentially a book about dreams,” said Gero. He also includes this quote from Martin Luther King Jr. in the book, which provides further insight: “If a man hasn’t discovered something he would die for, he isn’t fit to live.”

It was fitting to hold the event at the museum, as Cayuga County, with documented African-American veterans from the Civil War on, is mentioned frequently in the book. Black Soldiers of New York State is now available at our website, and if you're in Auburn, you can pick up a copy at the Cayuga Museum.

"...hopeful journey of rebellion and reconciliation."

Millions of Americans were able to attend college through the efforts of the aristocratic New England Senator Claiborne de Borda Pell. Some of this background and family story are told in our new book, We Used to Own the Bronx, by Eve Pell. As Eve traces her absorbing journey from debutante to working mother, from the upper crust of the East Coast to the radical activists of the West, from a life of wealth and privilege to one of trying to make ends meet, she provides exceptional insight into the complex issues of social class in America.

Praise for the book:

“Eve Pell gives us a fascinating glimpse into a secret world of unfathomable wealth and privilege. Hers is an unexpected and ultimately hopeful journey of rebellion and reconciliation.” — Jane Fonda

“An intriguing look at a world of arcane, white-gloved ritual and great privilege by a writer rebellious enough to leave it behind, wise enough to know that doing so is no quick and simple matter, and aware enough to know that the alternative worlds she discovers have their own moral complexities as well.” — Adam Hochschild

Meet Eve Pell at the following readings:

March 11, 7 pm at Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA

March 20, 7 pm at Books Inc. in San Francisco

May 5, Bartow Pell Mansion Museum, Pelham Bay Park, Bronx, NY (times TBA)

The Reason for Crows

In The Reason for Crows: A Story of Kateri Tekakwitha, Diane Glancy tells the story of a seventeenth-century Mohawk woman’s interaction with her land, the Jesuits, and their religion. The book was recently reviewed by Christianity Today—listen to the podcast of the review today.

The Italian American Experience

Anthony V. Riccio, author of The Italian American Experience in New Haven: Images and Oral Histories, now available in paperback, sent us some information on "Immigrant Voices," his very own radio show on WPKN Bridgeport (89.5 on the dial). Take it away, Anthony...




"Immigrant Voices" is a radio broadcast on WPKN Bridgeport which offers the listening audience the chance to hear oral history interviews with elderly Italian Americans from Boston and New Haven.


Each show will take as its theme a chapter from The Italian American Experience in New Haven and Recollections of an Italian American Neighborhood with Italian American storytellers who describe their experiences as immigrants in the rural farmlands of Italy, their arduous journeys to the new world in steerage class, how they clung to old world traditions and superstitions, their working experiences on production lines of mammoth factories during an age of urban industrial expansion, how Italian women toiled in terrible sweatshops for the success of future generations, and how their American-born children served in wars becoming loyal Americans and gradually assimilated into the American mainstream.


Regional Italian music transported to America by Italian immigrants from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s is also part of this broadcast and folk songs—ballads, love songs, and dances from Calabria, Campania, and Sicily—will be played and their themes translated and discussed for the listening audience.


Anthony tells us that he is planning his second show for sometime in March, entitled "Voices from The Great Depression." Visit www.anthonyriccio.com for more information.

Kafkaesque

Over at Tikun Olam, Richard Silverstein has written a fascinating review of our forthcoming book, With an Iron Pen: Twenty Years of Hebrew Protest Poetry. Silverstein makes some intriguing connections between the title (which is taken from a quotation from Jeremiah) and Kafka's In the Penal Colony. He also compares the Israeli Occupation with "the harrow of Kafka’s story in that it etches both the sin and punishment directly onto the bodies of Israelis and Palestinians alike." We highly recommend you read this wonderful review.

With an Iron Pen is a groundbreaking collection of forty-two Israeli poetic voices protesting the occupation of the West Bank. For more on the book, visit our website.

Today's sign of the apocalypse

We stumbled upon this review this morning and we had to share it with you. Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher has cowritten a new book called, naturally, Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream. One leaky pipe at a time.

Now, if it's possible that you didn't get enough of Joe back in the fall when he (and the media's and both campaign's manipulations of him) hijacked the U.S. presidential election, then this is the book for you. For the rest of us, I think this PopMatters review sums it up neatly:

Back to the seemingly ordinary tale of Joe the Plumber, who, according to the book’s insert, has become “an American folk hero and the ultimate icon of the working class.” Woody Guthrie is probably rolling in his grave. Tabback and Wurzelbacher paint Joe as a Panglossian figure – always willing to lend a helping hand and open his door to his neighbors. Well, perhaps if his neighbors are also pro-Israel, pro-Christian, neo-conservatives. And such is the damning irony of this book. The authors have the audacity to go to great lengths to show how “American” Joe is and how he’s like everyone else, but he’s not: he has a very specific, very narrow point of view of American politics that can only be shared by one demographic at the intersections of race
(Caucasian), gender (male) and location (Midwest).

We also love the review's headline: “Freedom Isn’t Free! It Costs At Least $24.95.”

Thanks to Bookforum for alerting us to this.

A Proud Legacy

Today's featured title in our celebration of Black History Month is Black Soldiers of New York State. Military historian Anthony F. Gero examines the history of the valiant service of New York’s African American soldiers. Gero tells of their two centuries of struggle and triumph, beginning with the French and Indian War and continuing until 1950, when the U.S. Army and New York’s National Guard became integrated.

Learn more at our website about this important part of our state's and our nation's history, largely untold until now.