Tag Archives: author talk; New Jersey State Library

November 14-author talk on The Great War and the Origins of the Cold War

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Please join us on Wednesday, November 14 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Level 2 Reading room for a free author talk with James Hockenberry entitled The Great War and the Origins of the Cold War. Hockenberry will delve into the changing strategies of the major players in World War I and the key events that fostered distrust, antagonism, and growing tension between Russia and the democratic allies, culminating in the Cold War.

Although the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union, conflicts between Russia and the United States continue today. Award-winning author James Hockenberry will trace the origins of this tension back to World War I and the creation of Bolshevist Russia.

Author talk-The Great War and the origins of the Cold War

A career financial executive with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lafayette College and a master’s degree from Columbia University, James Hockenberry has redirected his life to thriller writing with his “World War I Intrigue” trilogy. The change has allowed him to interweave three of his long-time passions: history, literature and his German-American roots. His trilogy brings alive the tensions and controversies of the times and dramatizes key events in America’s involvement in The Great War.

He frequently says that someone cannot understand today’s world without knowing what happened at the end of World War I. In the 1919 Paris Peace Accords, the victorious allies carved up the empires of the losing Central Powers in a manner that haunts us still. His award-winning second novel, So Beware, is set during these talks as the world faced the new threat of international Communism.

All are welcome to this free program. An RSVP is appreciated. Contact: Cindy Warrick at cwarrick@njstatelib.org or 609-278-2640 ext. 172.

October 24 – Great Storms of the Jersey Shore

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Join us on Wednesday, October 24th to hear authors Margaret Thomas Buchholz and Scott Mazella talk about Great Storms of the Jersey Shore.  The talk will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in the Level 2 Reading Room.

Through a PowerPoint presentation Margaret Buchholz will tell us more about the history of different Great Storms of New Jersey and Scott Mazella will key in more on Superstorm Sandy.  Both have books on New Jersey storms published by Down-the-Shore Publishing.

Margaret Buchholz was born in Manhattan and brought by her parents to Long Beach Island, New Jersey, just in time to be evacuated by the Coast Guard during a northeaster. She started her education in a one-room school in Barnegat Light. After graduating Cedar Crest College, she and her husband purchased The Beachcomber, a Jersey Shore weekly newspaper. He died two years later and she published it seasonally for 35 years. She is a world traveler and currently divides her time between Key West, Maine and Harvey Cedars, on Barnegat Bay, where her family has been coming since the middle of the 19th Century.

Scott Mazella holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from Rutgers University and is a middle school history teacher in Old Bridge. A former print and television reporter, and passionate weather buff, he also has a long family history on Long Beach Island. His family’s home in Holgate was damaged in the 1962 northeaster, and again in Sandy.

 

All are welcome to this free talk.  RSVP is appreciated. Please respond to Cindy Warrick at cwarrick@njstatelib.org or 609-278-2640 ext. 172.

Sept. 12 – NJ Folk Revival Music – History and Tradition

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Please join us from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, September 12 in the Level 2 Reading Room for an author talk with Michael C. Gabriele about the History and Tradition of NJ Folk Revival Music.

New Jersey shaped folk revival music into an art form. The saga began with the bawdy tunes sung in colonial-era taverns and continued with the folk songs that echoed through the Pine Barrens. “Guitar Mania” became a phenomenon in the 1800s, and twentieth-century studio recordings in Camden were monumental. Performances by legendary artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan spotlighted the state’s folk revival movement and led to a flourishing community of folk organizations, festivals and open-mic nights at village coffeehouses. Author Michael Gabriele traces the evolution and living history of folk revival music in the Garden State and how it has changed the lives of people on stage and in the audience.

This is Michael C. Gabriele’s third book on New Jersey history published by The History Press/Arcadia Publishing. A lifelong Garden State resident, Gabriele is a 1975 graduate of Montclair State University and has worked as a journalist and freelance writer for more than forty years. He is a member of the executive board of the Nutley Historical Society and serves on the advisory board of the Clifton Arts Center.

All are welcome to this free event. An RSVP is appreciated. Contact Cindy Warrick at cwarrick@njstatelib.org or 609-278-2640 ext. 172.

August 15 -The History of Jersey Shore Food with Karen Schnitzspahn

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Please join us for a talk on The History of Jersey Shore Food – from Victorian Feasts to Boardwalk Treats.  Author Karen Schnitzspahn will be speaking on August 15 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Level 2 Reading Room of the State Library.

There is great diversity in Jersey Shore food. This book covers the mid-nineteenth to mid twentieth century, and explores iconic foods and famous eateries of that time – some that have endured and others now forgotten. You’ll hear of the white-tabled restaurants of Victorian times as well as the boardwalk food stands more prevalent today.

Historian and author Karen Schnitzspahn has spent most of her time living in New Jersey and is most recently from Colorado. She enjoys researching and writing about little known aspects of New Jersey Shore history. Karen has won awards for her writing and efforts to preserve the history of Monmouth County, New Jersey. She is the author or co-author of more than 10 books. Her latest books are Jersey Shore Food History: Victorian Feasts to Boardwalk Treats and Remarkable Women of the New Jersey Shore.

All are welcome to this free event!  RSVP is appreciated to Patt Ferrari at pferrari@njstatelib.org or 609-278-2640 ext. 134.

June 12 – Author Talk on Tucker’s Island and its history

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Please join us on June 12 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Level 2 Reading Room of the State Library. Two Maritime historians, Gretchen F. Coyle and Deborah Whitcraft, will guide you through a pictorial history of Tucker’s Island.

At one time, Tucker’s Island was located along the New Jersey coast between Great Bay and Little Egg Harbor. Its eight miles were once covered with sand dunes and native foliage and for generations the Rider family kept the lighthouse light shining providing aid to ships in distress. But Tucker’s Island eventually disappeared into the Atlantic Ocean and in 1932 the island was removed from tax records.

Both Gretchen F. Coyle and Deborah Whitcraft have a large part in the New Jersey Maritime Museum. They have previously worked together to write Inferno at Sea, Stories of Death and Survival aboard the Morro Castle. Now they have written together Tucker’s Island, part of the Images of America series by Arcadia Publishing.

All are welcome to this free event. RSVP is appreciated! RSVP to Cindy Warrick at cwarrick@njstatelib.org or 609-278-2640 ext. 172.

May 9-author talk about New Jerseyans and the Gold Rush, 1849

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Please join us on May 9th from noon to 1 p.m. in the Level 2 Reading room for an author talk with Margaret Casteline Bowen, co-author of Jersey Gold: The Newark Overland Company’s Trek to California, 1849.

Margaret Casterline Bowen began this research that eventually became this book as she looked into the genealogy on the Casterline side of her family. Because of the research and what was found you will hear  about the New Jersey pioneers who traveled overland to California in search of gold. This fascinating story will tell of this group’s search for fortune from the Oregon- California Trail to Independence, Missouri, which at times turned into heartbreak.  These Jersey men were driven by money, touched by personal scandal and tragedy, and associated with progressive women.  Follow the lives of the significant participants as they become wrapped in the spectrum of events that shaped the nineteenth century from the chaos of the Civil War to the throes of the Industrial Revolution.

All are welcome to this free program.  An RSVP is appreciated. Please respond to Cindy Warrick at 609-278-2640 ext. 172 or cwarrick@njstatelib.org.

 

 

Feb. 20- Talk during African-American History Month on the Manual Training and Industrial School

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Please join us at the State Library on February 20th for a talk in recognition of African-American History Month on The Unique Legacy of the Manual Training and Industrial School.

Writer and historian, Dr. Connie Goddard will talk about the School and its role in developing African-American youth.

Borrowing freely from ideas about education articulated by Booker T. Washington, John Dewey, and W.E.B. DuBois, the Manual Training and Industrial School, Bordentown, N.J., may well have been the only state-supported boarding school for African-American students in the nation. Founded in 1886 by a group of black ministers and taken over by the state a decade later, it thrived until Brown v. Board of Education made its continued existence unconstitutional and some of its practices dated. During the first half of the 20th century though, it offered a unique educational experience that combined academics, preparation for work, and for contributions to the community.

Dr. Goddard, writer and historian of education, has a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago; she has taught history and composition at Mercer County Community College, The College of New Jersey, and two state prisons, as well as in Chicago and Romania. Her scholarly interests focus on schooling in colonial America and during the Progressive Era. Currently she is writing about the Chicago’s eminent educator and Dewey colleague Ella Flagg Young, including the latter’s intellectual and pragmatic sympathies with both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois.

All are welcome!  RSVP is appreciated. Please respond to Cindy Warrick at 609-278-2640 ext. 172 or  cwarrick@njstatelib.org.

Feb 6 talk on Crossroads of the Revolution

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Please join us on February 6th from noon to 1 p.m. to hear Larry Kidder talk about the Crossroads of the Revolution from his book of the same name.

Historian and author, William “Larry” Kidder will talk about Trenton during the time period from 1774-1783. Trenton and its people played many roles during the American Revolution in addition to just the two battles at Trenton. This talk focuses on those other roles that made Trenton, in the words of its people, “so necessary a post, so much a thoroughfare.” George Washington spent much of the war in New Jersey, along with his Continental Army, and Trenton became a focal point for the activities necessary to keep that army in the field and local people supported it through their actions, including serving in the local militia.

Mr. Kidder received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, served four years of active duty in the US Navy and is a retired high school history teacher who taught for forty years in both public and private schools. For close to 30 years, he has volunteered at the Howell Living History Farm, in Hopewell, New Jersey and have served as an historian, interpreter, and draft horse teamster.

His interest in history led him to the writing of his first book, The Pleasant Valley School Story: A Story of Education and Community in Rural New Jersey, which won the 2013 Scholarship and Artistry Award presented by the Country School Association of America.

His second book, A People Harassed and Exhausted: The Story of a New Jersey Militia Regiment in the American Revolution, published November 2013 tells the story of the First Hunterdon Militia Regiment for the first time.

Other books he has written, contributed to, or edited include Farming Pleasant Valley: 250 Years of Life in Rural Hopewell Township, New Jersey, The American Revolution in New Jersey: Where the Battlefront Meets the Home Front and Meet Your Revolutionary Neighbors. His newest book is the subject of this talk and was released in September 2017.

Kidder has given a number of talks to a variety of civic groups and organizations. He is active in historical societies in Ewing, Hopewell, and Lawrence townships, and is an avid member of the Association for Living History, Farm, and Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM), the Washington’s Crossing Roundtable of the American Revolution, the New Jersey Living History Advisory Council and the Advisory Council for Crossroads of the American Revolution. He works with Crossroads as volunteer coordinator and editor of its Meet Your Revolutionary Neighbors project.

All are welcome! RSVP is appreciated.  Please respond to Cindy Warrick at 609-278-2640 ext. 172 or cwarrick@njstatelib.org.

November 15-Free talk-New Jersey’s Role in World War I: Sabotage Target and Key State in the War Effort

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Please join us on November 15th from noon to 1 p.m. in the Level 2 Reading Room as we have our fourth and final talk to celebrate the 100th anniversary of World War I.

James Hockenberry, author of the thriller Over Here, will give a talk focusing on New Jersey’s key role in America’s efforts during the Great War. A large percentage of our troops sent overseas were trained in New Jersey and shipped out of Hoboken. New Jersey’s economic strength, both as a manufacturing force and shipping hub, was vital to Allies’ success in the war. As such, New Jersey was a target of German sabotage,

Black Tom explosion

most notably the attack on Black Tom Island (now part of Liberty Park) in New York Harbor. The New York Times has described this incident as “the most destructive terrorist attack in America before 9/11.”  Hockenberry’s talk will describe the events around this attack as well as the whys behind it and other key incidents such as the Henry Ford Peace mission and the destruction of the Kingsland plant.

A career financial executive with a BA from Lafayette College and an MBA from Columbia University, Hockenberry has redirected his life to thriller writing with his planned “World War One Intrigue” series. The change has allowed him to interweave three of his long-time passions: history, literature, and his German-American roots. His award winning first novel, Over Here, is set in 1915-16 and dramatizes the little known but extensive undeclared war Germany fought on American soil. The sequel, So Beware, is set in 1919 druing the Paris Peace talks and the third book, Send the Word will focus on the domestic front during the war and the U.S. military experience in 1918.

All are welcome to this free talk. RSVP is appreciated. Please RSVP to Cindy Warrick at mailto:cwarrick@njstatelib.orgor 609-278-2640 ext. 172.

October 17 – Women of Peace and Preparedness-part of WWI series

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courtesy of Wikimedia

Please join us on October 17 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Level 2 Reading Room of the State Library for our third in a series of talks to celebrate the 100th anniversary of World War I.  Lisa Mastrangelo, Professor of English, Centenary University will talk about Women of Peace and Preparedness: The Use of Motherhood and Maternalism in World War I.   As a professor of English she has researched the use of both peace movements and preparedness movements of the women around the time of the Great War. She will look at how the idea of maternalism was used to have women be less involved actively in World War I.  Media and sometimes government often used it to control what the women did so they weren’t too actively involved in the War.  For example, they were taught to roll bandages, plant and more.  Things they may have already known how to do.

The talk comes from her paper entitled: The Rhetoric of Maternalism: The Use of Motherhood as a Trope in World War I.  A trope is a figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression.

This talk will look at the women’s side of things.  How they fought for being active in the war as well as how others tried to keep them at home through using the idea of “they should be good mothers.”

Dr. Mastrangelo has her BA in English from Mount Holyoke College and her MA and PhD also in English from the University at Albany, State University of New York.

She teaches Composition and Rhetoric and Professional Writing courses at Centenary University.  Before coming to Centenary, she taught at the College of St. Elizabeth.  With a background in composition and rhetoric and nineteenth century American women writers, she teaches courses in general Composition and Rhetoric and Professional and Business Writing.  Dr. Mastrangelo currently serves as the Vice President for the Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Composition and Rhetoric.

Dr. Mastrangelo’s research interests include the teaching of writing at 19th century women’s colleges, women’s rhetorical practices relating to war and peace, and the early standardization of writing courses in the United States.  Dr. Mastrangelo’s latest research project tracks the rhetorical assumptions in community cookbooks.

All are welcome to this free program.  RSVP is appreciated to: Cindy Warrick at mailto: cwarrick@njstatelib.org or 609-278-2640 ext. 172.

Sept. 27-New Jersey World War I Monuments

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Please join us on September 27, 2017 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Level 2 Reading Room for a talk on New Jersey’s World War I Monuments.  Historian Erik L. Burro will tell us about many of the World War I monuments located throughout the Garden State. This is the second in a series of four talks celebrating the 100th anniversary of World War I.

Various World War I Monuments in N.J.

A historian living in Burlington County, most of Burro’s business career was spent in corporate communications while he simultaneously pursued a host of projects involving research, exhibitions, presentations and dramatizations of state, regional and American history.

Over the past 40 years, Erik has made a variety of appearances as a guest speaker, master of ceremonies for historic site dedications, host for cultural events and a creator and participant in exhibitions on history-related topics. He has several programs he offers and both here and abroad has portrayed various well-known historic characters. He has also made appearances on NPR and the BBC.

In support of the American Centennial Commemoration of World War I he independently researched and photographed the major monuments of the Great War here in New Jersey and surrounding states. He continues to share his findings with the NJ Department of Preservation and his photography is on display at the Rutgers University WWI exhibit in New Brunswick.  He continues to provide support for the Armed Services Heritage Museum, Rutgers Radio’s Veteran’s Hour, the All Veterans Memorial, Mt. Olive, NJ and refurbishment efforts for several doughboy monuments.

Burro is founder of Pennjerdel House, Burlington, NJ, a regional advocacy for increasing public awareness and appreciation of local history and preservation throughout the tri-state area.

All are welcome to this free program. RSVP is appreciated to Cindy Warrick at mailto:cwarrick@njstatelib.org or 609-278-2640 ext. 172.

Upcoming talk on Farm to table concept – May 17

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Join us to learn about the concept of Farm-to-table, the different ways restaurants provide this experience, and how it can be effective when used through farmers markets and community-supported agriculture.

Chef Darren DeBlasi will share his love for food and the farm to table concept. He graduated from Villanova University with a degree in Finance and French and took a position as Associate Director of a Management Consulting firm. Taking a departure from the corporate world, he worked a grape harvest at a Napa Valley winery. He has a passion for food and is a self-taught home chef who specializes in Restaurant public relations, menu development, social media strategy, food writing and private dining and event planning. He is also a chef at Cecil Creek Farm in Mickleton, NJ, which specializes in the farm to table experience. There he creates 5 or 8 course Farm to Table tasting menus that reflect the growing season and showcase New Jersey’s bountiful Garden State agriculture.

Darren is always busy on the food scene and documents and photographs the Philly Dining Scene and his kitchen creations on twitter at www.twitter.com/PhillyFoodDude and on instagram at www.instagram.com/PhillyFoodDude. He advice on learning and cooking, “Be daring and experimental. . . The key is learning at every step. . . the components of a dish are simple. As you focus on sensibility, seasonality, texture, quality, imagination, flavor, execution, and the enjoyment of the process, you can bring a dish to life.”

All are welcome to this event. RSVP is appreciated. Please RSVP to Cindy Warrick at cwarrick@njstatelib.org or 609-278-2640 ext. 172.