How Newark Became Newark: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of an American City

by Brad Tuttle

Overview

For the first time in forty years, the story of one of America's most maligned cities is told in all its grit and glory. With its open-armed embrace of manufacturing, Newark, New Jersey, rode the Industrial Revolution to great prominence and wealth that lasted well into the twentieth century. In the postwar years, however, Newark experienced a perfect storm of urban troublesùpolitical corruption, industrial abandonment, white flight, racial conflict, crime, poverty. Cities across the United States found themselves in similar predicaments, yet Newark stands out as an exceptional case. Its saga reflects the rollercoaster ride of Everycity U.S.A., only with a steeper rise, sharper turns, and a much more dramatic plunge.

How Newark Became Newark is a fresh, unflinching popular history that spans the city's epic transformation from a tiny Puritan village into a manufacturing powerhouse, on to its desperate struggles in the twentieth century and beyond. After World War II, unrest mounted as the minority community was increasingly marginalized, leading to the wrenching civic disturbances of the 1960s. Though much of the city was crippled for years, How Newark Became Newark is also a story of survival and hope. Today, a real estate revival and growing population are signs that Newark is once again in ascendance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813546568
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	03/16/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	700 KB

About the Author

Brad R. Tuttle, a journalist, is the author of The Ellis Island Collection: Artifacts from the Immigrant Experience.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Prologue. Pride in Newark
Part I
Corporation
Politics to the Dogs
Greater Newark
Part II
Dead Weight
The Slums of Ten Years from Now
Bound to Explode
The Worst American City
Part III
Sharpe Change
A Renaissance for the Rest of Us
Stand Up
Note on Sources
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Founded in 1666, Newark was a thriving town long before much of New Jersey was even populated. That early lead widened as this growing metropolis became a manufacturing center in the early 19th century. Brad R. Tuttle's How Newark Became Newark charts the uneven progress of the city as it struggled with market competition, economic downturns, and changing population patterns. This lively narrative history of New Jersey's largest city adds new depth of a place that most of us think of "New York's little sister."