Bowery Mission

Bowery Mission
Author: Jason Storbakken
Publisher:
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2019
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780874862546

A colorful history of lives rescued on New York City's infamous boulevard of broken dreams. The Bowery has long been one of New York City's most notorious streets, a magnet for gangsters, hucksters, and hobos. And despite sweeping changes, it is still all too often the end of the road for troubled war veterans, drug addicts, the mentally ill, the formerly incarcerated, and others generally down on their luck. Against this backdrop, for 140 years, Christians of every stripe have been coming together at the Bowery Mission to offer hearty meals, hot showers, clean beds, warm clothes - and, for thousands of homeless over the years, the help they need to get off the streets and back on their feet. Jason Storbakken, a recent Bowery director, retraces that colorful history and profiles some of the illustrious characters that have made the Bowery an iconic New York institution. His book offers a lens through which to better understand the changing faces of homelessness, of American Christianity, and of New York City itself - all of which converge daily at the Bowery Mission's red doors.

Holy Humanitarians

Holy Humanitarians
Author: Heather D. Curtis
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2018-04-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0674985885

On May 10, 1900, an enthusiastic Brooklyn crowd bid farewell to the Quito. The ship sailed for famine-stricken Bombay, carrying both tangible relief—thousands of tons of corn and seeds—and “a tender message of love and sympathy from God’s children on this side of the globe to those on the other.” The Quito may never have gotten under way without support from the era’s most influential religious newspaper, the Christian Herald, which urged its American readers to alleviate poverty and suffering abroad and at home. In Holy Humanitarians, Heather D. Curtis argues that evangelical media campaigns transformed how Americans responded to domestic crises and foreign disasters during a pivotal period for the nation. Through graphic reporting and the emerging medium of photography, evangelical publishers fostered a tremendously popular movement of faith-based aid that rivaled the achievements of competing agencies like the American Red Cross. By maintaining that the United States was divinely ordained to help the world’s oppressed and needy, the Christian Herald linked humanitarian assistance with American nationalism at a time when the country was stepping onto the global stage. Social reform, missionary activity, disaster relief, and economic and military expansion could all be understood as integral features of Christian charity. Drawing on rigorous archival research, Curtis lays bare the theological motivations, social forces, cultural assumptions, business calculations, and political dynamics that shaped America’s ambivalent embrace of evangelical philanthropy. In the process she uncovers the seeds of today’s heated debates over the politics of poverty relief and international aid.

Her Heart Can See

Her Heart Can See
Author: Edith Waldvogel Blumhofer
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2005-05-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780802842534

Fanny J. Crosby (1820-1915) was the most prolific of all American hymn writers. Having lost her sight in infancy through a doctor's negligence, Fanny went on to compose more than 9,000 hymns, as well as various other songs, cantatas, and lyrical productions. Crosby's hymns, including such all-time favorites as "Blessed Assurance," continue to be sung around the world. She was also involved with New York City's rescue missions and with other benevolent efforts. She rubbed shoulders with the likes of Henry Clay, Grover Cleveland, Winfield Scott, Dwight L. Moody, Ira Sankey, Jenny Lind, P.T. Barnum, and many other famous figures who people these pages. Drawing on primary sources, including thousands of unpublished manuscripts, Blumhofer sorts fact from fiction in the life of this remarkable nineteenth-century northeastern Protestant woman, in the process showing why "this diminutive woman" was so beloved.--From publisher description.

The Lower East Side Remembered and Revisited

The Lower East Side Remembered and Revisited
Author: Joyce Mendelsohn
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2009-09-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780231519434

The Lower East Side has been home to some of the city's most iconic restaurants, shopping venues, and architecture. The neighborhood has also welcomed generations of immigrants, from newly arrived Italians and Jews to today's Latino and Asian newcomers. This history has become somewhat obscured, however, as the Lower East Side can appear more hip than historic, with wealth and gentrification changing the character of the neighborhood. Chronicling these developments, along with the hidden gems that still speak of a vibrant immigrant identity, Joyce Mendelsohn provides a complete guide to the Lower East Side of then and now. After an extensive history that stretches back to Manhattan's first settlers, Mendelsohn offers 5 self-guided walking tours, including a new passage through the Bowery, that take the reader to more than 150 sites and highlight the dynamics of a community of contrasts: aged tenements nestled among luxury apartment towers abut historic churches and synagogues. With updated and revised maps, historical data, and an entirely new community to explore, Mendelsohn writes a brand-new chapter in an old New York story.

The Color of a Great City

The Color of a Great City
Author: Theodore Dreiser
Publisher: DigiCat
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2022-06-13
Genre: Travel
ISBN:

"The Color of a Great City" by Theodore Dreiser is a prime example of Dreiser's naturalist writing. Set in early 20th century New York City, the book offers readers a chance to live a few hours in the shoes of someone who called one of the most famous cities in the world home during its industrial heyday. While Dreiser typically enjoyed his character-based writing, New York City is arguably the greatest character of all, and this book makes her the star.

The Bowery Boys

The Bowery Boys
Author: Greg Young
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2016-06-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1612435769

Uncover fascinating, little-known histories of the five boroughs in The Bowery Boys’ official companion to their popular, award-winning podcast. It was 2007. Sitting at a kitchen table and speaking into an old karaoke microphone, Greg Young and Tom Meyers recorded their first podcast. They weren’t history professors or voice actors. They were just two guys living in the Bowery and possessing an unquenchable thirst for the fascinating stories from New York City’s past. Nearly 200 episodes later, The Bowery Boys podcast is a phenomenon, thrilling audiences each month with one amazing story after the next. Now, in their first-ever book, the duo gives you an exclusive personal tour through New York’s old cobblestone streets and gas-lit back alleyways. In their uniquely approachable style, the authors bring to life everything from makeshift forts of the early Dutch years to the opulent mansions of The Gilded Age. They weave tales that will reshape your view of famous sites like Times Square, Grand Central Terminal, and the High Line. Then they go even further to reveal notorious dens of vice, scandalous Jazz Age crime scenes, and park statues with strange pasts. Praise for The Bowery Boys “Among the best city-centric series.” —New York Times “Meyers and Young have become unofficial ambassadors of New York history.” —NPR “Breezy and informative, crowded with the finest grifters, knickerbockers, spiritualists, and city builders to stalk these streets since back when New Amsterdam was just some farms.” —Village Voice “Young and Meyers have an all-consuming curiosity to work out what happened in their city in years past, including the Newsboys Strike of 1899, the history of the Staten Island Ferry, and the real-life sites on which Martin Scorsese’s Vinyl is based.” —The Guardian