Bethlehem's bucolic countryside and bustling suburbs reflect the town's rich history. Uncover the stories that shaped the town from its Dutch settlement to today. Nathaniel Adams, along with his wife, Rhogenia, opened a stagecoach inn and became the first postmaster in what is now Delmar. The opening of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad broadened travel and freight transportation. The LaGrange family farmed the same land for over two centuries and exemplified the region's deep agricultural roots. Suburbs flourished in the region following World War II. Drawing from her articles that first appeared in Our Towne Bethlehem, town historian Susan E. Leath celebrates the enduring community spirit of Bethlehem with this fascinating collection of essays.

Bethlehem's bucolic countryside and bustling suburbs reflect the town's rich history. Uncover the stories that shaped the town from its Dutch settlement to today. Nathaniel Adams, along with his wife, Rhogenia, opened a stagecoach inn and became the first postmaster in what is now Delmar. The opening of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad broadened travel and freight transportation. The LaGrange family farmed the same land for over two centuries and exemplified the region's deep agricultural roots. Suburbs flourished in the region following World War II. Drawing from her articles that first appeared in Our Towne Bethlehem, town historian Susan E. Leath celebrates the enduring community spirit of Bethlehem with this fascinating collection of essays.

A RICH DISPLAY OF SOME OF THE BEST PROSE WRITTEN TODAY IN THE USA.

A people's history and the horror of war: Howard Zinn meets Apocalypse Now. Political autobiography. March 1972, about to graduate from NYU. A journey: two days and nights in the New York subway. Love it or leave it. A decision: become a Great Academic Marxist; blow up the Williamsburg Bridge; go into exile. Vietnam Veterans with placards, for and against the war. Seven placard-men at the seven gates of Thebes, brandishing their shields. A decision. Political or personal? Or pure Zen? Mind or no-mind? Kill for peace! Dylan, Hendrix, or the Fugs. The two Suzukis, or Dogen. Monk and Coltrane! The relation between Hegel's logic of thinking as such and his logic of practice, which does not exist. The screech of the subway stops. A fork where three roads cross, the realm of shadows, what is to be done? A Chinese menu? Stab it! Stab it with your fork! But what I, myself, decide is not the point. The point is the question of 'what a decision is and what making a decision means.' The answer is 'never stop asking.' Ask yourself. Ask FDR, JFK, LBJ, McNamara and his band, John Kerry, or a Vietnam War veteran of your choice. Ask Nixon, Kissinger-Trump! Ask Trump! Ye great decision-makers, have you ever asked yourselves what a decision is and what making a decision means! That is the question. The Empty Shield asks it. Repeatedly, repetitiously, abysally, and, possibly, once and for all.

Thinking and dreaming over the reality of the first Christmas and how Jesus of Nazareth came to be born in Bethlehem, I was given this story. It does not claim to be a historical record. It is a picture drawn by imagination looking for the truth. But there is nothing here that is out of harmony with the Gospels, nothing that does not belong to the holy land and time when these things came to pass. I know the long trail between Galilee and Judea by foot and heart. Thus the story seems to me to be true. It is also a new story because it answers three natural questions that have never before been answered. It tries to tell the human side of a divine event. So I offer it to you, reader, in all sincerity; and to Him who is the Son of God and the Son of Man, in all adoration. Henry van Dyke (1852-1933) was an American clergyman, educator, and author. He graduated from Princeton in 1873, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1874. He was pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church, New York City (1883-99), professor of English literature at Princeton (1899-1923), and U.S. minister to the Netherlands (1913-16). Among his popular inspirational writings is the Christmas story The Other Wise Man (1896). As President Wilson's ambassador to the Netherlands from 1913, Van Dyke was a first-hand witness to the outbreak of World War I and its progress, and was a key player in the President's diplomatic efforts to keep the U.S. out of the conflict.

Residents of Beacon, New York, are justifiably proud of a community that is rich in history and promise. In this exquisite collection of images, local historians Robert J. Murphy and Denise Doring VanBuren uncover the fascinating past of Beacon and the people who have called it home. The community's earliest permanent European settler was Madam Catheryna Rombout Brett, whose c. 1709 home is preserved within the city as the the oldest building in Dutchess County. Within the vicinity of the Madam Brett Homestead, two distinct villages grew: Matteawan, a manufacturing community at the foot of the mountain, and Fishkill Landing, a Hudson River port. Both villages prospered and eventually merged in 1913. Through the decades, the community was hailed as a model of a successful manufacturing center and became the location for several significant Hudson River estates. It played host to one of the longestrunning ferries in American history and introduced one of the first electric streetcar systems in the Hudson River Valley. Perhaps its most well-known feature was the Mount Beacon Incline Railway, a feat of engineering documented as the world's steepest incline railroad.