The History of The Hudson River Valley: From the Civil War to Modern Times

by Vernon Benjamin

Called “thoroughly informative and approachable” by The New York Times, Vernon Benjamin’s The History of the Hudson River From Wilderness to the Civil War presented nearly 250 years of the Hudson River Valley’s dynamic past with unmatched richness and detail. And now with The History of the Hudson River from the Civil War to Modern Times, Benjamin completes his historical account of the region by taking readers from the post-Civil War period into the present day.   Here we see the formation of the great estates of the Valley, including the Rockefellers, Sunnyside, and Olana, and the book shows us how the turn to the twentieth century brought a new era of population growth and prosperity to the region. A young Franklin Delano Roosevelt takes his first political steps in the New York senate during this time, and Thomas Dewey’s work as the New York State governor morphed him into a viable candidate on the national political stage as well. In short, the twentieth-century Hudson River Valley was a hotbed of wealth, influence, and culture, a vibrant scene of American development as significant as any our country has seen.   By taking his narrative all the way into the post-September 11th present moment, Vernon Benjamin finishes his engaging, readable, and comprehensive history of one of America’s most significant and culturally important regions. Richly illustrated and meticulously researched, The History of the Hudson River Valley will be the definitive text on the subject for years to come.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

640 pages, Hardcover

First published June 7, 2016

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun presentation of history, easy to dip into, to put aside and come back to. Not strictly chronological chapter to chapter. Moves from subject to subject across chapters. Packed with facts so full it's like a suitcase you have to sit on to close. Some are really important, some trivial. The former predominate. Pleasantly written, easy and informative reading.
The bibliography is a good resource.
I think the book is too breezy to be a college textbook, much less a grad school one. It's one that all Hudson Valley dwellers should be familiar with.