In Brooklyn: The Once and Future City, Tom Campanella unearths long-lost threads of the borough’s past. He recounts the creation of places familiar and forgotten, built and never realized, bringing life to the individuals whose dreams, visions, rackets, and schemes forged the city we know today. Campanella takes us through Brooklyn’s history as homeland of the Lenape and its transformation by Dutch colonists into “a dense slaveholding region.” We see how Frederick Law Olmsted created Prospect Park and witness Brooklyn’s emergence as a playland of racetracks and amusement parks celebrated around the world.
Thomas J. Campanella
Thomas J. Campanella is an urbanist and historian who teaches at Cornell University where he directs the Urban and Regional Studies Program. He also serves as Historian in Residence at the New York City Parks Department. Among his many publications are the books The Concrete Dragon: China’s Urban Revolution and What it Means for the World and Cities From the Sky: An Aerial Portrait of America.