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Take the ferry to this New York City borough and discover its colorful secrets, in a quirky history packed with facts and photos. Staten Island has a rich and fascinating cultural legacy that few people outside New York City's greenest borough know about. Chewing gum was invented on the island with the help of Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna. Country music legend Roy Clark got his start as a virtuoso guitar player on the Staten Island Ferry. Anna Leonowens, who worked with the king's children in the Court of Siam and was the basis for The King and I, came back to Staten Island to write about her experiences and run a school for children. Join native Staten Islanders Theresa Anarumo and Maureen Seaberg as they document the hidden history of the borough with these stories, and many more

The shores of Staten Island were one of the first places Giovanni da Verrazzano and Henry Hudson landed in North America, and they became a safe harbor for thousands of refugees fleeing religious conflicts in Europe. As Dutch Staaten Eylandt and then English Richmond County, the island played a vital role in colonial development of the continent and the American Revolution. Rebel raids along the kills and inlets kept British forces and local Tories constantly battling for position, while Hessian and British troops occupied the island longer than any other county during the war. Staten Island's strategic location was used to launch counterstrikes against Washington's forces in New Jersey, while Major General John Sullivan led Continental army troops in defeat at the Battle of Staten Island. Author Joe Borelli reveals the colonial history of Richmond County and its role in the fight for American independence.

Fresh Kills—a monumental 2,200-acre site on Staten Island—was once the world’s largest landfill. From 1948 to 2001, it was the main receptacle for New York City’s refuse. After the 9/11 attacks, it reopened briefly to receive human remains and rubble from the destroyed Twin Towers, turning a notorious disposal site into a cemetery. Today, a mammoth reclamation project is transforming the landfill site, constructing an expansive park three times the size of Central Park. Martin V. Melosi provides a comprehensive chronicle of Fresh Kills that offers new insights into the growth and development of New York City and the relationship among consumption, waste, and disposal. He traces the metamorphoses of the landscape, following it from salt marsh to landfill to cemetery and looks ahead to the future park. By centering the problem of solid-waste disposal, Melosi highlights the unwanted consequences of mass consumption. He presents the Fresh Kills space as an embodiment of massive waste, linking consumption to the continuing presence of its discards. Melosi also uses the landfill as a lens for understanding Staten Island’s history and its relationship with greater New York City. The first book on the history of the iconic landfill, Fresh Kills unites environmental, political, and cultural history to offer a reflection on material culture, consumer practices, and perceptions of value and worthlessness.

In the early part of the 20th century, Staten Island experienced an influx of Greek immigrants drawn to America by the promise of abundant opportunities. They settled in the farms of New Springville and Bulls Head and in the busy life of Port Richmond. Staten Island's Greek Community highlights traditional aspects of Greek culture and exults in the Americanization, accomplishments, and contributions of this group. The historic images in this book capture familiar scenes such as Greek farms and roadside stands overflowing with succulent vegetables, truck farmers venturing into Manhattan to bring their produce to the Washington Market, and the Candy Kitchen in Port Richmond.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a small group of Jewish immigrants carved out their own vibrant community in Staten Island. Jewish settlers clustered around the Arietta Street, St. George, Bergen Point, and Perth Amboy ferries and built seven synagogues and a Jewish community center. Jewish dry goods, candy, hardware, and men's furnishings stores sprung up along the major shopping areas of Jersey Street and Richmond Avenue. As the Jewish population grew, it expanded into new developments in Willowbrook, Eltingville, and Arden Heights and was able to support a Jewish elementary school.

“Nersesian’s extravagantly imagined dystopia relies—as did those in Philip Roth’s Plot Against America and Michael Chabon’s Yiddish Policemen’s Union—on an alternate, counterfactual history.”—The New York Times Book Review “Combining sci-fi space/time-warping, Unabomber-style political ranting and an overall air of goose-bump paranoia, this is one turbo-charged trip. . . . A sharp, strange read: Imagine William Burroughs and Philip K. Dick sharing a needle.”—Kirkus Reviews “Brilliant.”—Time Out New York Arthur Nersesian’s six previous novels (including The Fuck-Up, MTV/Pocket Books, which has sold over 100,000 copies) have focused on the tragicomedy of fin de siècle New York City. Here, in his boldest novel to date, Nersesian has broken through into a new landscape that at once fuses the real with the surreal, the psychological with the psychedelic. He lives in New York City.