This week, we were off to turn-of-the-century New York with Christian Bale and friends, in a story inspired by the real-life Newboys’ Strike of 1899. A few notes and links for you:
*The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (which now sponsors programs to help schoolkids learn history via Hamilton) provides some historical background on the strike and its key players.
*Learn more about “yellow journalism” – and about Pulitzer and Hearst, Nellie Bly, and other major figures in journalism from the era – here and here.
*Find out why Spot Conlon and friends were so defensive of their Brooklyn roots.
*The Jacobs family may not have been able to afford a rooftop garden, but they were definitely in vogue. See more of what their lives might have been like via the excellent Tenement Museum of New York.
*The classic book of the era depicting the difficulties faced by the urban poor is Jacob Riis’ “How the Other Half Lives.” Interested in fiction that provides a broader sweep of New York City’s development? Edward Rutherfurd is the master of the place-as-character subgenre.
Costume Drama Rewind 