Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum by Edward T. O'Donnell

In 1904, the General Slocum was taking a group of 1,300 second- and third-generation German-Americans from the Lower East Side to a church-sponsored picnic in Long Island Sound when the boat caught fire. Due to a panicking crew, a failure to meet fire safety ( Read more... )

The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America by Russell ShortoY’all know how much I love New York history, and this is an era that isn’t usually covered in depth in broader surveys. It was fascinating, if a bit defensive - there were a lot of asides that basically went “other ( Read more... )