New York at War: Four Centuries of Combat, Fear, and Intrigue in Gotham by Steven H. Jaffe

Abstract

130 ■ NEW YORK HISTORY New York at War: Four Centuries of Combat, Fear, and Intrigue in Gotham. By Steven H. Jaffe. New York: Basic Books, 2012, 404 pages, $29.99 Cloth. Reviewed by Michael G. Gunther, Georgia Gwinnett College What did David De Vries, Fernando Wood, and A. Philip Randolph share in common? Or, conversely, what can one learn from the careers of Peter Stuyvesant, George Washington, and Fiorello La Guardia? As inane as these questions may seem at first glance, the answers become startlingly clear and relevant upon reading New York at War, an exciting book seeking to “restore a military dimension to New York’s history—a dimension that has been largely erased from the city’s historical narrative and public memory” (xvi-xvii). Historian Steven Jaffe’s experiences working for the South Street Seaport and the New-York Historical Society prepared him well for the daunting task of researching and writing this comprehensive, yet exhilarating analysis of New York City’s military history. On the one hand, Jaffe draws on and engages relatively recent, highly-regarded scholarly works by historians such as Donna Merwick, Jill Lepore, and Craig S. Wilder. Yet his personal connections to the city, and working knowledge of how to present complex ideas to a general audience, shine through in New York at War. Adroitly avoiding the encyclopedic urge, Jaffe has done well in identifying and contextualizing important themes in New York City’s military history. One theme is certainly the virtual omnipresence of military sites, relics, and ruins around the five boroughs and tri-state area. The reader learns about Battery Park, Jamaica Pass, Sandy Hook, Governors Island, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and, better yet, derives a sense of why the locations mattered at different times in New York’s past. A related theme is the vulnerability of New York City to enemy attacks and the importance of military defense in the origin and subsequent development of municipal and state political institutions. One expects to read the oft-told story of the British invasion of 1776, and of the Cold War emphasis on missile defense, but, in between, Confederate and German plots serve as grimly useful lessons (sometimes, with a dose of “comic opera”) for our time (195). Book Reviews 131 Another significant set of themes involves the openness of New York City to immigrants and the shifting waves of social divisions that, in times of war, spawned repression and sometimes violent conflict. One poignant example of Jaffe’s thematic complexity involves Fraunces Tavern, where, in 1783, General George Washington bade farewell to his officers. In 1975, the reconstructed historic landmark and restaurant was the site of a bombing —causing four fatalities—by radical Puerto Rican revolutionaries in the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN). The Tavern bombing prompts Jaffe to meditate on the contested meaning of historic sites and, more importantly for his argument, on the complicated nature of divisions between and within ethnic and religious communities. He concludes this section by restating “an old paradox . . . newcomers to the city found in New York a home, but also a political and economic order some blamed for their homeland’s troubles” (327). At first glance, the audience for New York at War may seem limited to northeastern scholars and aficionados who share an abiding interest in the history of the “Empire City.” However, it has also drawn attention from American military historians, and may serve as an instructive local case study in upper-level courses on military, urban, and New York history. In dealing with such weighty issues as the “slave conspiracy” of 1741, the draft riot of 1863, and the antiwar movement of 1917-1918, Jaffe marries scholarly engagement with moving personal anecdotes from well-chosen primary sources. For example, in his chapter on the Civil War, Jaffe makes use of the diary of Maria Lydig Daly to spotlight criticisms of President Lincoln and of abolitionists—especially within the Irish community—as context for the draft riot, but also to touch on wartime opportunities for women, such as those embraced by Daly’s friend, Harriet Whetten, a nurse. Deeper within chapters, he holds attention with brief, touching scenes such as...