New York

Fire Island, or Great South Beach as it is also known, is a 32-mile long sliver of a barrier beach located just off the South Shore of Long Island. Always a wild, lonely and untamed wilderness, its shores, waterways and the lands surrounding it have given us innumerable stories -- some inspirational, some frightening, but all of them intriguing. The stories in this book portray people and events from the island's earliest days, when it served Native Americans as a rich hunting, fishing and whaling site until the present day and its use as a U.S. National Seashore and National Wilderness Area.

From a strategic location in the American Revolution to a resort town for New York City elite, this collection highlights the successes and daily life of Mahopac's bygone eras.

Mahopac's first known colonial settlement was founded near the large lake bearing the Algonquian name ""Macookpack"" around 1740. During the American Revolution, the area served as an important logistical center and supply depot for the American cause, despite not seeing any battles. Following the war, the hamlet developed into an early kind of farmer's market, supplying goods and produce¬--especially dairy items--region-wide. By the mid-19th century, Mahopac became a resort destination with many large hotels and boardinghouses, largely thanks to its beautiful lakes. Arrival of the railroad to Mahopac in 1872 further supported tourism in the lakeside resorts as travelers from New York City could now reach Lake Mahopac within a few hours. Drawing from the archives of the Carmel Historical Society, Putnam County Historian's Office, and the collections of the authors and others, Mahopacisn't just a history of a small town in New York State, but a history of the value that the United States is able to produce.

Long Island has one of the most vibrant and largest Jewish communities in the nation.

After World War II, hundreds of thousands of Jewish soldiers returned from war looking for a life in the suburbs and synagogues to join, but the demand exceeded the supply. In 1946, Rabbi Elias Solomon called a meeting of Conservative rabbis from Manhattan to map out a plan to build a synagogue at ever South Shore Long Island Railroad stop, from Valley Stream to Patchogue. Central Synagogue of Nassau County and Beth El in Great Neck both grew to more than 1000 families as Reform Judaism took hold, and the growth of the Chabad movement in recent decades as spurred an increase of Orthodox Judaism. Author Ira Poliakoff catalogues the history of synagogues and congregations that have shaped Long Island's past and present.

The campus of the State University of New York, College at Oneonta covers two hundred-fifty acres and overlooks the Susquehanna River Valley in the western foothills of the Catskill Mountains. Founded in 1889 as the Oneonta Normal School with the mission of training teachers, the college became a charter member of the state university system in 1948. Its mission diversified through the years as it served the changing needs of the people of New York State. The college offered its first bachelor's degree program in 1938, its first graduate program in 1948, and its first full range of programs in the arts and sciences in 1964. Today, as a liberal arts college with a preprofessional focus, Oneonta enrolls more than five thousand six hundred students in over sixty undergraduate majors and nine graduate programs. This intriguing visual history documents the development of an exceptional institution of higher learning. State University of New York, College at Oneonta begins with the people who helped establish the college and examines the impact that establishment had on the community. The book profiles the faculty and shows the rooms and buildings in which they taught over the years. It looks at students in all phases of campus life-in the dormitories, at study, in sports, and on stage. The book offers a complete picture of a college noted for its outstanding and accessible faculty, students committed to both academic achievement and community service, distinguished alumni, and beautiful campus.