The Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn
An American Story
Published on 15. April 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
296 pages
978-1-5017-8136-0 (ISBN)
Description
Winner of the Herbert H. Lehman Prize from the New York Academy of History.
In The Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn, Stuart M. Blumin and Glenn C. Altschuler detail how nineteenth-century Brooklyn was dominated by Puritan New England Protestants and how their control unraveled with the arrival of diverse groups in the twentieth century.
Before becoming a hub of urban diversity, Brooklyn was a charming "town across the river" from Manhattan, known for its churches and suburban life. This changed with the city's growth, new secular institutions, and Coney Island's attractions, which clashed with post-Puritan values.
Despite these changes, Yankee-Protestant dominance continued until the influx of Southern and Eastern European immigrants. The Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn explores how these new residents built a vibrant ethnic mosaic, laying the foundation for cultural pluralism and embedding it in the American Creed.
In The Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn, Stuart M. Blumin and Glenn C. Altschuler detail how nineteenth-century Brooklyn was dominated by Puritan New England Protestants and how their control unraveled with the arrival of diverse groups in the twentieth century.
Before becoming a hub of urban diversity, Brooklyn was a charming "town across the river" from Manhattan, known for its churches and suburban life. This changed with the city's growth, new secular institutions, and Coney Island's attractions, which clashed with post-Puritan values.
Despite these changes, Yankee-Protestant dominance continued until the influx of Southern and Eastern European immigrants. The Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn explores how these new residents built a vibrant ethnic mosaic, laying the foundation for cultural pluralism and embedding it in the American Creed.
Reviews / Votes
Blumin and Altschuler's Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn deftly traces Brooklyn's transformation from a post-Puritan enclave separated conveniently from sinful Manhattan by the East River to a modern swirl of urban ethnicities, races, religions, and classes, perhaps not Queens with parks and trees but not far away. Smoothly written, smartly analyzed, and deeply researched, The Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn becomes An American Story, as its subtitle promises - a wonderfully satisfying book whose final sentences convey just how powerfully our past can illuminate our troubled present if we let it.(Gotham, A Blog for New York City Scholars) Writing of Brooklyn's history with a notable tone of delight and exuberance, Blumin and Altschuler trace the transformation of early 'Breucklelen,' as the Dutch called it, into a suburban 'City of Churches' dominated by New-England style Puritanism and yet again into the ethnically diverse borough of New York City we recognize today.
(Journal of Urban History)
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Cornell University Press
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
53 b&w halftones, 4 maps - 4 Maps - 53 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
440 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5017-8136-0 (9781501781360)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
09/2022
Three Hills
€13.49
Available for download
Persons
Stuart M. Blumin is Emeritus Professor of American history at Cornell University. He is the author or coauthor of several books including The Emergence of the Middle Class, Rude Republic, and The G.I. Bill.
Glenn C. Altschuler is Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He is the author or coauthor of twelve books, including Rude Republic, The G.I. Bill, and Cornell: A History, 1940-2015.
Glenn C. Altschuler is Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He is the author or coauthor of twelve books, including Rude Republic, The G.I. Bill, and Cornell: A History, 1940-2015.
Content
Prologue: America's Brooklyn
1. Brooklyn Village
2. The City of Brooklyn"
3. On the Waterfront
4. Toward a New Brooklyn
5. Newcomers
6. Transformation
7. Acceptance, Resistance, Flight
Epilogue: Brooklyn's America
1. Brooklyn Village
2. The City of Brooklyn"
3. On the Waterfront
4. Toward a New Brooklyn
5. Newcomers
6. Transformation
7. Acceptance, Resistance, Flight
Epilogue: Brooklyn's America