If you live in New Jersey and like local history, you MUST reasd this book. It tells various tales of events in New Jersey history; some never make the history books due to their weirdness or gruesome details. The author covers such stories as "The Man Who Discovered New Jersey" (allegedly eaten by cannibals!), the Klan in New Jersey, a NJ woman who survived Indian captivity, the story of Dutch Schultz, and lots more!

Without this great book, we would have no fantastic collection of the faces of jews that have impacted New Jersey's history. I was mesmorized-staring into faces long gone-storefronts of jewish businesses which are now completley different shops. I especially liked reading about the young Jews at the New Jersey Shore. This fantastic book makes people living in New Jersey realize that the jews they see walking around have deep histories; many rooted in the holocaust, all certiantly impacted by it. A brilliant and beautiful pictorial history of the Jews living in New Jersey and their geneality.

This book caters towards kids and people who do not like to read, but everyone will appreciate it. It is a must own to anyone from New Jersey, as it documents many of the ghost stories, folk tales and legends endemic to the area. Being the author's son, I offer the "Killer Shark on the Loose" and/or "The Red Scarf" stories for my friends to read. Then they refuse to give me the book back until they've read the whole thing! If you're living in Jersey, an ex-Jersey local, or just in the mood for a good book, pick this one up.

For anyone who grew up in Kearny, or who lives nearby, this is a wonderful 'picture' book filled with history. I never knew the history of my hometown until I was given this book. Its a great gift for any Kearny resident. The pictures are priceless!

I consider this book a definitive work on the history of the Lackawanna Railroad in Warren and Sussex Counties of New Jersey. The section on the Sussex Branch alone makes it worth the price of the book.

Gertrude Dubrovsky is the leading scholar of what is a very neglected field, the history of Jewish Farming. "The Land Was Theirs" is a comprehensive history of what was the Cradle of the Jewish farming movement, New Jersey.

Between 1880 and the Second World War, tens of thousands of Jews set up farms in southern and central New Jersey. The adventurous Jews, most of whom were recent immigrants, set up private farms but also established cooperatives and unions to help one another. They lived in tight-knit communities based on ethnic identity and often ideology. "The Land Was Theirs" focuses on Farmingdale , NJ, where Dubrovsky grew up but is also a rigourously researched history of farming in the entire state. The introduction includes what is one of the best essays on Jewish farming in the entire country. A must for anyone interested in this overlooked part of American Jewish history.

I have almost every one of the author's other books; he's not the best writer in the world, but he's one of the few people out there writing about the ghost and shipwreck legends of the Jersey shore, so I'm thankful! In this book, he writes about pirates, various ghosts and shipwrecks, haunted old houses and inns and even war stories...all taking place in and around Long Beach, New Jersey. If you like this kind of thing and if you get a kick out of reading about New Jersey's history, you'll like this book and the author's other books. All the books have a bit of a home-made look about them, but they're still fun.

Leon Abbett's New Jersey: The Emergence Of The Modern Governor is an involving and informative biography of Leon Abbett, a Democrat who dutifully served the state of New Jersey as its governor during the late nineteenth century. Coping with the rifts spawned from the Civil War, strikes, heated political debates, and so much more, Governor Abbett left a mixed legacy for his state with repercussions lasting down to the modern times. Black-and-white photographs enrich this superbly researched, ably written, and very highly recommended study of a crucial phase in New Jersey state history.

I've been waiting for this very book for quite some time now. Carroll's photography has never been collected in a full form like many other photographers. Previous books have been light on material and all too heavy on the photographs of young child-friends. This book gives a more even account of Carroll's photography---even going so far as presenting the photographs as he did so in his own albums. Rather than classify his photographs, his albums show a wondrous variety of images---a skeleton of a fish, a landscape, a child-friend, a famous painter, a sculpture, etc.... Though it concentrates on Carroll's one hobby, Roger Taylor's essay is as good as any biography, being a hundred or so pages long. Edward Wakeling contributes insightful captions to each photograph in the Princeton Collection---for all are included! What more could one ask for? Wakeling, one of the leading experts on Carroll with a database of information, even offers his list of all photographs taken by Carroll, a list that will be continually updated. He even gives his email address for those who may have lost photographs.
An indispensable book for the researcher and a delight for the casual photography fan.

In _The Library of John Montgomerie, Colonial Governor of New York and New Jersey_, Kevin J. Hayes reconstructs the contents of the governor's library based on a manuscript inventory that survives at the New York Public Library. The inventory includes a list of the titles in Montgomerie's library, a collection of over 1300 volumes. While Montgomerie's gubernatorial predecessors, Robert Hunter and William Burnet, had better reputations as men of letters and while both of their libraries probably excelled Montgomerie's, little information survives to detail their contents. The inventory of Montgomerie's library, on the other hand, provides enough detail to make it the largest known library in colonial New York before the 1770s when the library of William Smith, Sr., was catalogued. Enhancing the importance of the inventory of Montgomerie's library is the fact that most of the books are listed by purchaser. The list reads like a Who's Who of colonial New York and New Jersey. The group includes several men who would influence the two colonies for the next several decades: James Alexander, John Chambers, James DeLancey, Archibald Kennedy, Frederick Morris, Joseph Murray, Paul Richards, and William Smith, Sr. Though Montgomerie spent only a short time in New York and personally had little impact on either New York or New Jersey history, his books exerted a lasting impact on the thought of colonial New York's political and intellectual elite. While the manuscript inventory of Montgomerie's library has the potential to contribute to the intellectual history of New York and New Jersey, it lists only spine titles. None of the book titles mention dates or places of publication. Many do not list authors. Based on the surviving manuscript inventory, Hayes, the award-winning author of _The Library of William Byrd of Westover_, brilliantly reconstructs the library's contents. In a detailed introduction, Hayes situates the Montgomerie library within its intellectual and cultural milieu. A thorough index allows the titles to be accessed by author, title, subject, and owners. _The Library of John Montgomerie_ not only reconstructs the intellectual life of one colonial governor, it makes an important contribution to the intellectual history of New York and New Jersey. Combined with his earlier works, _The Library of William Byrd_ and _A Colonial Woman's Bookshelf_, _The Library of John Montgomerie_ solidifies Hayes's status as the leading historian of the book culture of colonial America.