Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn

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.

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)

• Prologue: America's Brooklyn1. Brooklyn Village2. The City of Brooklyn"3. On the Waterfront4. Toward a New Brooklyn5. Newcomers6. Transformation7. Acceptance, Resistance, FlightEpilogue: Brooklyn's America