Coney Island: the name still resonates with a sense of racy Brooklyn excitement, the echo of beach-front popular entertainment before World War I. Amusing the Million examines the historical context in which Coney Island made its reputation as an amusement park and shows how America's changing social and economic conditions formed the basis of a new mass culture. Exploring it afresh in this way, John Kasson shows Coney Island no longer as the object of nostalgia but as a harbinger of modernity--and the many photographs, lithographs, engravings, and other reproductions with which he amplifies his text support this lively thesis.

Denson gives us an insider's look at one of New York's best-known neighborhoods, weaving together memories of his childhood adventures with colorful stories of the area's past and interviews with local personalities, all brought to life by hundreds of photographs, detailed maps, and authentic memorabilia.

A 150-year history of the planning, construction, and development of all forms of mass transportation in Brooklyn, New York. How We Got to Coney Island is the definitive history of mass transportation in Brooklyn. Covering 150 years of extraordinary growth, Cudahy tells the complete story of the trolleys, street cars, steamboats, and railways that helped create New York’s largest borough—and the remarkable system that grew to connect the world’s most famous seaside resort with Brooklyn, New York City across the river, and, ultimately, the rest of the world. Includes tables, charts, photographs, and maps. Praise for How We Got to Coney Island “This is an example of a familiar and decidedly old-fashioned genre of transport history. It is primarily an examination of the business politics of railway development and amalgamation in Brooklyn and adjoining districts since the mid-nineteenth century.” —The Journal of Transport History

Photographs bring to life the small strip of land on New York's Atlantic Coast, Coney Island, that for more than one hundred years has provided thrills, amusements, and escape to millions of people

Twenty-nine poems from the 1950's.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, with only the force of his charm, intellect and golden tongue, Aaron Gershon escapes the tenements of New York City's Lower East Side. Courting the women who love him with promises and dreams, Aaron leaves a tide of longing in his wake. Emerging from his shadow, each of them works to shape a new life through resilience, courage and love--Page 4 of cover.

A portrait of the pioneering entrepreneur who designed and built Luna Park - which in 1903 transformed Coney Island into a respectable venue for middle-class recreation - and created the Hippodrome, the world's largest theater when it opened in 1905, filling it with lavish spectacles at affordable ticket prices. The author also explores the development of the idea of adult amusements in America during Thompson's day, and ours.