Research Catalog

Names of New York : discovering the city's past, present, and future through its place names

Title
Names of New York : discovering the city's past, present, and future through its place names / Joshua Jelly-Schapiro.
Author
Jelly-Schapiro, Joshua
Publication
New York : Pantheon Books, [2021]

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TextNo restrictions *R-USLHG F128.3 .J45 2021Schwarzman Building - Milstein Division Reference Room 121

Details

Description
243 pages; 20 cm
Summary
"From the coauthor of the award-winning Nonstop Metropolis--a short, fascinating journey into the past, present, and future of New York City through its place names and the stories they contain. Drawing on his background in cultural geography, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro excavates the wealth of stories that are embedded in New York City's place names and uses them to illuminate the power of naming to shape experience and our sense of place. He traces the ways that the native Lenape, the Dutch settlers, the British invaders, and successive waves of immigrants have left their marks on the island and continue to reshape it. He explores how many New York place names have accrued iconic significance far beyond the city's boundaries; for example, "Brooklyn" is the name of a notorious street gang in Haiti, of restaurants from New Zealand to Paris, and of thousands of children (it is among the top fifty girl's names in America). He interviews the last living speaker of Lenape, tours the harbor's many "out-islands" with a tugboat captain, and meets the linguists at the Endangered Language Alliance who study the estimated eight hundred languages now spoken in New York. And he makes clear that as immigrants and marginalized groups continue to find new ways to make the city's streets and boroughs their own, the names that adhere to the landscape function not only as portals to explore the past but as a means to reimagine what's possible now"--
Subject
  • Names, Geographical > New York (State) > New York
  • HISTORY > Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies)
  • HISTORY > United States > State & Local
  • HISTORY > United States > State & Local > General
  • SOCIAL SCIENCE > Sociology > Urban
  • TRAVEL
  • Historical geography
  • Names, Geographical
  • New York (N.Y.) > Historical geography
  • New York (N.Y.) > History
  • New York (State) > New York
Genre/Form
History.
Note
  • Includes index.
Contents
The power of names -- The names before -- Navigators and Duyvils and English and Kings (on Colonial names) -- The Americans -- Leaving shore: city of islands -- Brokers and powers (and neighborhoods, too) -- Honors and sounds -- Making place: names of the future.
Call Number
F128.3
ISBN
  • 9781524748920
  • 1524748927
LCCN
  • 2020037287
  • 40030528898
OCLC
1195818658
Author
Jelly-Schapiro, Joshua, author.
Title
Names of New York : discovering the city's past, present, and future through its place names / Joshua Jelly-Schapiro.
Publisher
New York : Pantheon Books, [2021]
Edition
First edition.
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Other Form:
Online version: Jelly-Schapiro, Joshua. Names of New York. New York : Pantheon Books, 2021 9781524748937 (DLC) 2020037288
Other Standard Identifier
40030528898
Research Call Number
*R-USLHG F128.3 .J45 2021
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