Lying at the entrance to one of the world's greatest natural harbors, Staten Island has been a most alluring destination ever since Giovanni da Verrazano set eyes upon it in 1524. Even before Colonial times the borough played a significant role in our nation's development economically, culturally, and historically. From Revolutionary battles to Civil War draft riots, while hosting iconic businesses or creating inspiration for the likes of Olmsted and Thoreau, the island has cultivated a prolific and distinguished past that reflects the passion of the American spirit.

Staten Island is New York City’s smallest yet fastest growing borough: a conservative, suburban community of nearly a half a million on the fringe of the nation’s most liberal, global city. Staten Island: Conservative Bastion in a Liberal City chronicles how this “forgotten borough” has grappled with its uneasy relationship with the rest of the City of New York since the 1920s. Daniel C. Kramer and Richard M. Flanagan analyze the politics behind events that have shaped the borough, such as the opening of the Verrazano Bridge and the closure of the Fresh Kills Landfill. Lost opportunities are discussed, including the failure to construct a rail link to the other boroughs of New York, to adequately plan for the explosive housing boom in recent decades and, some say, to create an independent City of Staten Island. Unlike much of New York City, Staten Island is a place with robust party competition and lively democratic politics with hard-fought campaigns, bitter feuds, and career-ending scandals. Staten Island’s two most successful politicians of the twentieth century—Republicans John Marchi and Guy Molinari—defended the borough’s interests while defining an urban conservativism that would influence politics elsewhere. In fact, Staten Island has played a pivotal role in the winning electoral coalitions of Republican mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg and continues to spark the imaginations of New Yorkers on a scale that is disproportionate to the borough’s relatively small size. Staten Island: Conservative Bastion in a Liberal City will allow readers to gain access to the borough-based roots of New York City’s politics. This book will be of special interest to anyone who wishes to understand the dynamics of middle-class life and democratic representation in a global city.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a small group of Jewish immigrants carved out their own vibrant community in Staten Island. Jewish settlers clustered around the Arietta Street, St. George, Bergen Point, and Perth Amboy ferries and built seven synagogues and a Jewish community center. Jewish dry goods, candy, hardware, and men's furnishings stores sprung up along the major shopping areas of Jersey Street and Richmond Avenue. As the Jewish population grew, it expanded into new developments in Willowbrook, Eltingville, and Arden Heights and was able to support a Jewish elementary school.

Staten Island has a rich and fascinating cultural legacy that few people outside New York City's greenest borough know about. Chewing gum was invented on the island with the help of Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna. Country music legend Roy Clark got his start as a virtuoso guitar player on the Staten Island Ferry. Anna Leonowens, who worked with the king's children in the Court of Siam and was the basis for The King and I, came back to Staten Island to write about her experiences and run a school for children. Join native authors Theresa Anarumo and Maureen Seaberg as they document the hidden history of Staten Island.

Located at the entrance to New York Harbor, Staten Island has had a front-row seat to many of the comings and goings of the New World. From the early European explorers, such as Verrazano and Hudson, to the waves of immigrants coming in steerage, the island would be part of a gateway to a great continent. Some visitors stayed briefly, while others would go no further and would make the island their forever home. Those who called Staten Island home would include inventors, business leaders, writers, athletes, politicians, and artists. Some famous islanders include industry titan Cornelius Vanderbilt; inventor Antonio Meucci; Central Park visionary Frederick Law Olmsted; poet Edwin Markham; silent film star Mabel Normand; and singers Christina Aguilera, Joan Baez, and members of Wu-Tang Clan. All these would play a role in the development of Staten Island, a borough of New York City and sister to one of the world's great metropolises.

Emerging from the Revolutionary War and the formation of a new nation, Staten Island was poised to enter the nineteenth century ripe for growth and prosperity. Fueled by waves of immigration, Richmond County became a boomtown of industry and transportation. Piloting his first ferry with just two small masts and eighteen-cent fares, Cornelius Vanderbilt built a transit empire from his native shores of Staten Island. When the Civil War erupted, Richmond played a key role in housing and training Union troops as 125 naval guns protected New York Harbor at the Narrows. At the close of the century, Staten Island was swept up in the politics of consolidation, with 84 percent of locals voting to join Greater New York, yet the promised benefits of a new mega-city never materialized. Author Joe Borelli charts the trials and triumphs of Staten Island in the nineteenth century.

Presents a collection of short stories featuring noir and crime fiction about Staten Island, New York, by such authors as Todd Craig, Linda Nieves-Powell, S. J. Rozan, and Patricia Smith.