Explores settlements and towns that have been deserted, transformed into tourist attractions, or have less than 200 residents and are mere shadows of their former selves.

An objective yet fun look at stories of the unexplained in New Jersey, including ghosts from shipwrecks, seaside hauntings, demons and monsters such as the Jersey Devil, witches, and encounters with UFOs.

Hauntings lurk and spirits linger in the Garden State Reader, beware! Turn these pages and enter the world of the paranormal, where ghosts and ghouls alike creep just out of sight. Authors Patricia A. Martinelli and Charles A. Stansfield Jr. shine a light in the dark corners of New Jersey and scare those spirits out of hiding in this thrilling collection. From what may lurk in the Ramapo Mountains, to a ghostly little boy who waits on Clinton Road, and the fabled Jersey Devil itself, these stories of strange occurrences will keep you glued to the edge of your seat. Around the campfire or tucked away on a dark and stormy night, this big book of ghost stories is a hauntingly good read.

A New Jersey classic comes to life once more, and it's better than ever . . . "This excellent collection of essays covers the sweep of New Jersey history from the colonial, proprietary era to the recent politics of Mount Laurel. It brings together some of the finest writing on the state, and raises questions relevant to major themes in American history more generally. Maxine N. Lurie has provided an excellent introductory essay to contextualize each piece in the collection, and each essay also comes with suggestions for further reading on the topic." -Paul G. E. Clemens, history department, Rutgers University Praise for the prior edition . . . "An absolutely superb collection in every aspect, this covers all of the chronological and topical bases with remarkable comprehensiveness. Contributions are not only appropriate to the purpose of the book; they have the additional merit of being very significant pieces of scholarship on their own, not only in the history of New Jersey but in American history in general. . . . Lurie's illuminating headnotes for each article, which include not only shrewd interpretive insights but also bibliographical references, set this book significantly apart." -Douglas Greenberg, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University MAXINE N. LURIE is a professor of history at Seton Hall University. She is the author of a number of articles and book chapters on early American and New Jersey history, the editor of the first edition of this anthology, and the coeditor of the Encyclopedia of New Jersey and Mapping New Jersey (all Rutgers University Press).

Among the rolling hills, picturesque farms and lush highlands of Northwestern New Jersey lurk haunting mysteries and unexplained apparitions. A historic recluse who practiced witchcraft generations ago is said to be still spinning misdeeds as the Sussex Sorcerer on Sunrise Mountain. The ghost of Reverend O'Malley walks the woods around Mount Allamuchy as the Purple Bishop, seeking vengeance against those who betrayed him. The sinisterly named Shades of Death Road along the sod farms and meadows of the Pequest River Valley has a bloody reputation of bandit killings, Lenape massacres and supernatural encounters. Author Robert Oakes leads readers on a spirited journey through the historic ghost lore of Northwestern New Jersey.

A narrative of the forgotten privateering war on the Jersey coast during the American Revolution Addresses the maritime conflict period 1775-1783 from both Patriot and Loyalist perspectives Reveals the hitherto untold account of the British “Death Ships” on which 11,000 died

No planning required! Need a day away to relax, refresh, renew? Just get in your car and go! This first edition of Day Trips from New Jersey is your guide to hundreds of exciting things to do, see, and discover within New Jersey or a short drive across state lines. With full trip-planning information and tips on where to eat, shop, and stop along the way, you can make the most of your time off and rediscover the simple pleasures of a day trip. Explore places you never knew existed, many free of charge, and most within a 2- to 3-hour drive from points in the Garden State. Choose your passion among the scenic outdoors, stores, museums, food, wine tours, and betting against the dealer. Enjoy fascinating historic and cultural treasures. Explore New Jersey’s maritime marvels from Sandy Hook to Cape May, and from Atlantic City across to “Pennsy". You won’t go far without tripping over something interesting, entertaining, important, or magnificent. Day Trips New Jersey largely takes you up and down and across New Jersey, but some trips invite you across a state line into what is considered part of the neighborhood.

During the 1910s, motion pictures came to dominate every aspect of life in the suburban New Jersey community of Fort Lee. During the nickelodeon era, D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, and Mack Sennett would ferry entire acting companies across the Hudson to pose against the Palisades. Theda Bara, "Fatty" Arbuckle, and Douglas Fairbanks worked in the rows of great greenhouse studios that sprang up in Fort Lee and the neighboring communities. Tax revenues from studios and laboratories swelled municipal coffers. Then, suddenly, everything changed. Fort Lee, the film town once hailed as the birthplace of the American motion picture industry, was now the industry's official ghost town. Stages once filled to capacity by Paramount and Universal were leased by independent producers or used as paint shops by scenic artists from Broadway. Most of Fort Lee's film history eventually burned away, one studio at a time. Richard Koszarski re-creates the rise and fall of Fort Lee filmmaking in a remarkable collage of period news accounts, memoirs, municipal records, previously unpublished memos and correspondence, and dozens of rare posters and photographs—not just film history, but a unique account of what happened to one New Jersey town hopelessly enthralled by the movies. Distributed for John Libbey Publishing

Stacks of stone preside over many bucolic and wooded landscapes in the mid-Atlantic states. Initially constructed more than two hundred years ago, they housed blast furnaces that converted rock and wood into the iron that enabled the United States to secure its national independence. By the eve of the Revolutionary War, furnaces and forges in the American colonies turned out one-seventh of the world's iron.Forging America illuminates the fate of labor in an era when industry, manhood, and independence began to take on new and highly charged meanings. John Bezís-Selfa argues that the iron industry, with its early concentrations of capital and labor, reveals the close links between industrial and political revolution. Through means ranging from religious exhortation to force, ironmasters encouraged or compelled workers—free, indentured, and enslaved—to adopt new work styles and standards of personal industry. Eighteenth-century revolutionary rhetoric hastened the demise of indentured servitude, however, and national independence reinforced the legal status of slavery and increasingly defined manual labor as "dependent" and racially coded. Bezís-Selfa highlights the importance of slave labor to early American industrial development. Research in documents from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries led Bezís-Selfa to accounts of the labor of African-Americans, indentured servants, new immigrants, and others. Their stories inform his highly readable narrative of more than two hundred years of American history.

Alan J. Karcher takes a critical look at how and why the boundary lines of New Jersey's 566 municipalities were drawn, pointing to the irrationality of these excessive divisions.