A01=Jeffrey A. Kroessler
agricultural hinterland
architecture
Author_Jeffrey A. Kroessler
Category=AMVD
Category=JBSD
Category=NHK
Category=WQH
community transformation
cultural borough
cultural diversity
demographic changes
development
diversity
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnicity
five boroughs
historical moments
historical narrative
history of Queens
immigration
Jeffrey A. Kroessler
New Amsterdam
New York City
New York culture
New York historiography
politics
population growth
private enterprise
public infrastructure
Queens
Queens history
race
rural to urban transformation
socio-economic factors
technological innovation
transportation
urban development
urban landscape
urban neighborhoods
urban planning
Product details
- ISBN 9781978837812
- Weight: 499g
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 10 Jun 2025
- Publisher: Rutgers University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Once wetlands, Queens today is a crowded cityscape of dense urban neighborhoods and suburban sprawl. The largest of New York City’s five boroughs by area, it has a larger population than every American city except Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City itself. It possesses the most culturally, ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse population in the United States and possibly the world. This is the story of Queens, “the world’s borough,” and how it transformed, in less than one hundred years, from an agricultural hinterland to a vital urban corridor.
Rural County, Urban Borough is a history of place, charting the rapid transformation of the Queens landscape. It identifies what drove the borough’s development, from public infrastructure, architecture, and transportation to technological innovation and urban planning. New York historian Jeffrey A. Kroessler takes us inside the backrooms and boardrooms where local powerbrokers shaped the borough’s future, chronicling how its relationship with the city has evolved. He also shows the steps Queens residents from all backgrounds took to care for their neighborhoods and build their communities. Richly illustrated, this book underscores why Queens is integral to New York City and the wider world and reveals how, in its evolution, we see the whole arc of American urban history.
Rural County, Urban Borough is a history of place, charting the rapid transformation of the Queens landscape. It identifies what drove the borough’s development, from public infrastructure, architecture, and transportation to technological innovation and urban planning. New York historian Jeffrey A. Kroessler takes us inside the backrooms and boardrooms where local powerbrokers shaped the borough’s future, chronicling how its relationship with the city has evolved. He also shows the steps Queens residents from all backgrounds took to care for their neighborhoods and build their communities. Richly illustrated, this book underscores why Queens is integral to New York City and the wider world and reveals how, in its evolution, we see the whole arc of American urban history.
JEFFREY A. KROESSLER (1952–2023) was a professor at the Lloyd Sealy Library of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. His many books include Sunnyside Gardens: Planning and Preservation in a Historic Garden Suburb, New York Year by Year: A Chronology of the Great Metropolis, and Historic Preservation in Queens.
