Product Description

This generously illustrated book takes us on a tour of the ninety neighborhoods of Brooklyn, with their diverse ethnic makeups, abundance of architectural styles, and many churches and festivals.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45585 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

Review
"A detailed geographic and brief historical-sociological look at... Brooklyn neighborhoods... An invaluable tool and an immensely enjoyable, entertaining read." -- Neil Sloane, Go Brooklyn

Review

From the Publisher
A joint publication of Citizens for NYC and Yale University Press; The Neighborhoods of New York Series

Customer Reviews

Want to know about Brooklyn? Read this!
We Brooklynites (yes, I STILL live here) do love to carp about our neighborhood boundaries and histories, don't we? I enjoy reading books about Brooklyn, and The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn is about the best I've come across in the last 30 years. The maps and the sidebar-style neighborhood profiles are great, and I like the eclectic mix of history, old and new photos, and contemporary comments. I don't usually keep books on my coffee table, but I find I've been leaving this one there because I come back to it again and again and look through it a little at a time. The Committee and editors did a beautiful job.

Disappointing
Perhaps my expectation were too high. I lived in Brooklyn (Williamsburg) during the 30's-60's I was hoping for more! The author seemed unable to make up his mind on what he wanted to write about several of the neighborhoods I am familar with. He does supply information, some excellent pictures and history, but the "whole" lacks a cohesiveness that makes the neighborhoods come alive. It seems to me he spans the 30's to the 80's with lightweight strokes when the actual history was so much richer.

Attractive and fun to read, but flawed
The first thing I did (natch') was to zero in on my home turf, Flatbush. I found enough doubtful information in a few pages to poison the entire book for me.

First, I lived for 15 years (1950-65) smack in the middle of a two block square area it styles "Caton Park." During that time I knew just about everyone in that area (at least everyone that had kids, which was a lot, there being PS249 in the middle of it), and I _never_ even heard the term "Caton Park." So the name is either an old real estate term that never caught on, or a recent affectation.

Second, they show the borders of Prospect Park South as way bigger than it is. PPS is a distinct turn-of-the-century development with beautiful mansions and a motto "Rur in Urb" (forgive if I misspelled the Latin): "Country in the City." Its residents included the Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. and the heir to the Ex-Lax fortune. Its borders are Church Ave on the north, the backyards of the houses on Buckingham Road, then the Brighton Line on the east, Beverley Road on the south, and a point between Stratford Road and Coney Island Avenue on the west.

They have PPS as going as far east as E.19 St. about three blocks too far) and all the way to Coney Island Ave. If you look at the housing stock in the "extended" areas you'll see why this is more than a harmless error.

Third, they identify "Albemarle Terrace" as a neighborhood area, then provide a picture of it which is actually of Prospect Park South, some blocks distant.

I haven't even started to review the book systematically, these are only my casual observations. It's possible I found the only three errors in the book in my first few minutes, but somehow I don't think so. Part of their research technique is to ask residents where they think they live, but this methodology is somewhat like the recently popular "oral history," which produces colorful reminisences, but very unreliable history.

I like the book even so, but read it as you would a horoscope, with a few grains of salt. Please don't use it to try to win arguments.