A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County, Volume I.

Ostrander, Stephen M.Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
386K words
Chapters
39

Tags

English Originals World History Historical ReappraisalLocal HistoryUrban ChangeCommunity MemoryRise and FallHistorical SourcesArchival SourcesDocumentary NarrativeArea StudiesNew York Chronicles

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971, and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County, Volume I, by Ostrander. Author: Ostrander, Stephen M. Language: English. Class: F106: United States local history: Atlantic coast. Middle Atlantic States. Release Date: Feb 3, 2013

Editor's review

This book is the first volume of a local history of Brooklyn and Kings County, a document within the local history of the Middle Atlantic coast of the United States, released by Project Gutenberg as a free eBook. Its value lies not in a general narrative but in preserving details of place names, administrative divisions, and the changing fortunes of families and communities in the city's early formation, making it a useful reference for regional and urban history research. Two points deserve attention: first, the original is in English and was compiled long ago, so its prose and arrangement bear the marks of its era; second, this first volume covers only part of the period and themes, so it should not be used alone as a complete urban history. It is best suited to reference reading alongside maps, chronologies, or other works on Brooklyn history, or as a source of primary-material leads when writing related papers or compiling local cultural notes. For general readers it is less readable than narrative histories and is better suited to targeted searching with specific questions than to reading straight through.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Start with the table of contents and index, identify the period, place names, or families of interest, then consult those sections directly.
  2. Keep a map of Brooklyn or Kings County and a chronology at hand and compare locations as you read.
  3. Read alongside other works on Brooklyn urban history, using this book to supplement details rather than as the sole basis.
  4. Note old-style spellings and personal and place names as you go, to aid later searching and verification.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39

FAQ

Can this book be read as a complete urban history of Brooklyn? Not really. It is the first volume of a multi-volume local history, covering only part of the period and themes, with emphasis on early evolution and specific records. To understand Brooklyn's overall development, pair it with other general works and use this book as a supplement of details and source leads.
What level of English is needed to read this book? Enough to read English historical documents. The original was compiled long ago, and its sentence patterns and spellings bear the marks of its time, with dense personal and place names. Basic English reading ability is enough to begin, but for old-style expressions and local proper names it is best to use dictionaries and maps for support.
How is the electronic edition best read? It is better suited to targeted searching than to reading straight through. Use the search function on an electronic device to locate place names, personal names, and keywords, and use bookmarks and notes to record leads. For research, keep maps and chronologies open and consult as you note things down for greater efficiency.
Can the content be quoted directly in a paper? It can be cited as a lead to local history sources, but the edition and page numbers should be verified, and the limitations of a work compiled so long ago should be kept in mind. For specific historical facts, it is best to compare with similar studies or original archives rather than treating a single early document as the sole basis.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Ostrander, Stephen M. Author

Stephen M. Ostrander is an author about whom little is publicly known; his nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background are all undocumented. His confirmed works are the two volumes of A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County, Volume I and Volume II, the only two titles by him held in this collection. The book traces the history of Brooklyn and Kings County in chronological order, covering their institutional development, local administration, and notable figures. It follows the typical model of nineteenth-century American local history, with detailed narrative and dense documentation drawn from archival and historical sources. Because of its systematic coverage, the two-volume work remains a frequently cited reference for the early history of Brooklyn, New York, and it is chiefly through this local history that the author is remembered.