The Social Studies (2012) 103, 233240

Copyright
C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 0037-7996 print / 2152-405X online

DOI: 10.1080/00377996.2011.630697

Doing Local History: A Case Study of New Brunswick,

New Jersey

MICHAEL P. MARINO1 and MARGARET SMITH CROCCO2

1
Department of History, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey, USA
2
College of Education, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA

This article provides a methodology that teachers can use to incorporate themes and ideas related to local history in their classrooms.
Using the city of New Brunswick, New Jersey as a case study, the article offers different approaches that allow local history to be
connected to wider themes in American history. The focus here on a small, relatively anonymous city shows that history can be found
in many places, and that one does not have to live in a famous or noteworthy place to find compelling historical resources. The article
concludes with specific suggestions that teachers can use in their own classrooms.

[Supplementary material is available for this article. Go to the publishers online edition of The Social Studies for the following
supplemental resource: Photographs 118, plus descriptive captions.]
Keywords: Local history, historical thinking, primary sources, New Jersey, urban history

Introduction also has the advantage of broadening the curriculum by al-

The concept of local history occupies an important place in
the social studies curriculum. At the elementary level, social
studies instruction focuses heavily on the idea of commu-
nity and family and how these institutions interact with one
another. State history is also a required component of most
state social studies standards across the country, typically
found in fourth grade. Danker (2003), among others, pro-
motes the idea that local history can help enhance the teach-
ing of traditional historical topics by providing students
with a sense of place and context for future consideration
of the study of faraway places and times. Distant historical
events seem more real when they are connected to places
where students live and work. As she notes, local history can
show students how the town or city in which their school
is situated was touched or affected by the course of the na-
tions defining moments (Danker 2003, 112) Local history
The authors wish to thank Mr. Frank Taniyo for the use of pho-
tograph #8 and Mr. Anthony Masso of Rutgers University for
the use of photograph #17. The authors are also grateful to Pro-
fessor Briavel Holcomb of Rutgers University for access to her
website, The Changing Landscape of New Brunswick found at
http://oldnewbrunswick.rutgers.edu/.
Address correspondence to Michael P. Marino, Department
of History, The College of New Jersey, 2000 Pennington
Road, P.O. Box 7718, Ewing, NJ 08628-0718, USA. E-mail:
marino@tcnj.edu
lowing for more diverse perspectives to be included within
it by moving historical instruction away from political his-
tory toward social and cultural topics and issues.
Furthermore, as Selwyn (2010, 133) argues, much of his-
tory is hidden, and many aspects of historical knowledge
are suppressed, ignored, or deemed insignificant. Local his-
tory acts as a means through which this hidden history can
be accessed and made available to students. Besides na-
tional politicians and leaders, students can learn about the
history of everyday life, a communitys local leaders, civic
organizations, womens history, or immigrant settlement
patterns. Stevens (2001, xiii) also suggests that local history
promotes a Deweyan approach to the study of history by
personalizing the curriculum and showing connections be-
tween abstract historical events and students own lives and
experiences. Finally, local history also allows students to be-
come actively engaged in their learning and promotes skills
and aptitudes associated with historical thinking and the
doing of history. As Percoco (1998) and Levstik and Bar-
ton (2010) have demonstrated, doing history is a powerful
way to give students a sense of how challenging it is to un-
cover the past. In this article we argue that doing local his-
tory is an even more powerful way to get at the complexities
of that past because it brings history home in tangible and
relevant ways that studying other peoples history does not.
The purpose of this article is to provide teachers and ed-
ucators with a case study for doing local history that can
serve as a model for other historical inquiry projects. Our
234
exemplar for doing local history is New Brunswick, New
Jersey. New Brunswick was chosen because it is a small,
relatively anonymous city in central New Jersey. Moreover,
New Jersey, a compact state that Benjamin Franklin once
dubbed a barrel tapped at both ends (by the big cities of
New York and Philadelphia), has made an effort in the last
several decades to chronicle its own history more compre-
hensively (e.g., Womens Project of New Jersey 1990; Green
1995; Lurie and Mappen 2004). Nevertheless, the history
of many cities in the state remains relatively less familiar
than that of its more prominent neighbors to the north and
south.
Despite its size and relative anonymity, New Brunswick
has a rich heritage, and its history can illustrate themes
and concepts central to understanding American history
and culture more generally. That New Brunswick provides
a window into these wider themes shows that any com-
munity, however small it might be, offers ample ground
for historical study, analysis, and research. One does not
have to live in Philadelphia, New York, or Boston to find
important historical events; rather, history can be found
in seemingly anonymous neighborhoods, towns, and small
cities. It is only a case of knowing what to look for, and
teachers can help their students in this process.
New Brunswick is officially classified as a city, mean-
ing that it is governed by a mayor/city council model in
which the mayor has veto power over city council votes.
There are fifty-two officially designated cities in the state
of New Jersey, and New Brunswick, with a population of
approximately 50,000, is ranked thirteenth in total popula-
tion of these cities. By way of comparison, New Jerseys two
largest cities, Newark and Jersey City, each have approxi-
mately 250,000 residents. New Brunswick is also physically
small, measuring only 5.8 square miles in total area. Despite
its small size, New Brunswick possesses several things that
give it some name recognition and distinctiveness. For one,
its history dates back to the colonial era, because it was
founded in 1681 (although not called New Brunswick
until 1724). It also houses the corporate headquarters of
Johnson & Johnson as well as the manufacturing facilities
of Bristol-Myers Squibb.
The presence of these pharmaceutical conglomerates,
coupled with that of several major hospitals, medical
schools, and research centers, has earned New Brunswick
the nickname of the Healthcare City. Most prominently,
New Brunswick is home to the main campus of Rutgers
University, a major research institution with over 35,000
students. These characteristics speak to the citys unique
stature and give it name recognition, at least across the
state. These features do little, however, to connect New
Brunswick to wider themes and understandings associated
with American history. In the following sections, we outline
a four-step model for analyzing a community as a historical
resource and using an increasingly sophisticated set of ap-
proaches (a taxonomy of sorts) to incorporate local history
into a social studies curriculum.
Marino and Crocco
Step One: Look for Events
When used as a component of social studies teaching, local
history often takes on an it happened here approach in
which wider historical events are given a local or regional
context. In New Jersey, teaching the American Revolu-
tion becomes a slightly easier task because many important
events from that conflict (such as Washingtons retreat and
the Battle of Trenton) occurred in places with which stu-
dents would be readily familiar. These distant events seem
more real when presented through a local association. This
it happened here approach is an important and useful
way to engage students and provide connections that facil-
itate understanding of history. As such, a first step toward
incorporating local history into a curriculum is for a teacher
to find something important that happened in the commu-
nity in which he or she is teaching. A battle may have been
fought nearby, a famous court case or protest may have
occurred there, someone significant may have lived in the
area, or an area may have given birth to an important cul-
tural or political movement. A little research will yield rich
possibilities that can connect a community to prominent
historical events.
New Brunswick, for example, is steeped in Revolutionary
War history. Situated on a road then known as the Kings
Highway, the town was an important stop on the trip
between New York and Philadelphia. This strategic loca-
tion meant that New Brunswick played a prominent role in
the American Revolution. In 1774 New Brunswick hosted
the New Jersey colonys First Provincial Congress, which
elected the representatives to the colonial First Continental
Congress (Cunningham 1976). George Washington stayed
in New Brunswick on his way to assume command of the
colonial army in 1775 and marched through the town again
in December 1776 during the darkest days of his retreat
through New Jersey. After their defeats at Trenton and
Princeton, the British Army retreated to New Brunswick
and wintered there in 1777, and the prominent British gen-
erals William Howe and George Cornwallis headquartered
in the city. New Brunswick was also one of the earliest
towns to receive a public reading of the Declaration of In-
dependence, which occurred on July 9, 1776. Later, in 1778,
the city was the site of the court martial of General Charles
Lee for insubordination against George Washington dur-
ing the Battle of Monmouth (a sensational event at the
time). These facts are attested to by various signs and land-
marks found throughout the city and photographs 1 and 2
show markers that point out some of the facts noted above.
The marker on the hill in photograph 3 states that an ar-
tillery battery at this spot commanded by Captain Alexan-
der Hamilton (then aged nineteen) covered the retreat of the
colonial army across the Raritan River, and photograph 4
shows the Bucculeuch Mansion, built in 1731, and a place
where important political and military personages (e.g.,
George Washington, John Hancock, Thaddeus Kosciusko,
and Lafayette) stayed while in New Brunswick.
Doing Local History
Given these occurrences, New Brunswicks history can
play a useful role in teaching the American Revolution. On
the most simplistic level, connecting the citys history to
the events of the Revolution provide context and develop
deeper understanding of these events. Such an approach is
relatively basic, however, and does not call on students to
use higher-order thinking or practice the skills associated
with historical inquiry. While it happened here is a good
way to introduce local history themes into a curriculum,
more sophisticated approaches not only provide students
with better understanding of historical events but also de-
velop more advanced skills associated with the study of
history.
Step Two: Look for Themes
For a brief moment, New Brunswicks location made it an
important factor in the history of the American Revolution,
and several important events associated with that conflict
occurred there. That no other particularly famous events
occurred in the city reveals the limitations of the it hap-
pened here approach to local history, because key events
are fleeting and focused on limited periods of time. The fact
that no other specific event of great import occurred in New
Brunswick would seem to consign the subsequent 300 years
of its existence to the proverbial dustbin of history. This is
why it is important not only to consider significant events
but also to place a location within wider themes associ-
ated within American life. This helps situate a community
within the arc of American history and show how commu-
nities evolve and change over the course of time. By using
themes rather events, teachers can help their students re-
flect on the process of historical change and consider why
and how such changes occur (Lee 2005). Such an approach
helps develop historical thinking skills and the understand-
ing that history is a sophisticated and complex discipline
(Barton and Levstik 2004; Wineburg 1996). It also makes
abstract historical themes (e.g., urbanization) more under-
standable by providing a local context and specific, readily
identifiable, examples.
New Brunswick again acts as interesting case study to
illustrate this fact. If one considers its economic growth
and development, the city followed a pattern similar to
many American communities. Originally, New Brunswick
was largely farmland and open space, and its economic
prosperity was based primarily on the fact that its location
on the Raritan River made it an important transporta-
tion hub (even today New Brunswick is often colloquially
referred to as the Hub). Industrialization and the en-
trepreneurial spirit that accompanied it brought significant
changes to New Brunswick, however; as one history of the
city notes, it was one of the great number of northeast-
ern cities swept up in the industrial boom (Smith 1965,
6). As the nineteenth century progressed, New Brunswick
gradually began to industrialize, becoming home to facto-
235
ries that made a diverse array of products, including cigars,
buttons, guitar strings, and wallpaper (The City of New
Brunswick: Its History, Its Homes, Its Industries 1908).
The citys fortunes changed dramatically in 1886 when a
businessman named James Wood Johnson, attracted by
New Brunswicks central location between New York and
Philadelphia, set up a series of factories in the town to
manufacture medical supplies and sanitary items. When
Johnson & Johnson subsequently acquired the patent for
dental floss in 1898 and began the first mass distribution of
this item, the company was well on its way to growing into
the multinational corporation that it is today. As a result,
New Brunswick evolved into an important manufacturing
city with a thriving local economy, as photographs 5 and
6 indicate (see appendix).
The citys history thus speaks to themes that have char-
acterized and shaped American history: urbanization, en-
trepreneurship, innovation, and industrialization. Later,
as Johnson & Johnson relocated much of its manufac-
turing overseas, New Brunswick experienced the decline
that afflicted many American cities in the twentieth cen-
tury, as its infrastructure deteriorated and the source of
its prosperity disappeared. This evolution demonstrates
how New Brunswicks own history serves as a metaphor
for the issues that have shaped and defined America as a
whole.
The presence of a major educational institution such as
Rutgers University has also helped define New Brunswicks
history. Rutgers presence in New Brunswick has influ-
enced the citys destiny and character in many ways, and
the evolution of the university also illustrates themes that
promote wider understandings of American history. For
example, Rutgers is one of the first public universities to
found a college dedicated to helping prepare women for
useful and economically rewarding occupations (Schmidt
1968, 25) This college, the New Jersey College for Women
(now Douglass College, named after its first dean, Mabel
Smith Douglass), was founded in 1918; it was the product
of the same advocacy and activism that helped produce
womens suffrage, womens clubs, and Progressive Era re-
forms associated with the notion of municipal housekeep-
ing (Womens Project of NJ 1990, 12628). The story of
Mabel Smith Douglass and Douglass College aligns well
with prominent themes in early twentieth-century history:
urban reform, the womens rights movement, and the rising
importance of higher education in the nation.
This thematic approach offers several pedagogical ad-
vantages absent from the it happened here method dis-
cussed previously. For one, historical themes and con-
cepts help students understand the broad factors that have
shaped and defined life in America. More importantly, a
thematic approach to local history leads to advanced ques-
tions and higher-order thinking. A first step is to identify
the particular themes that are appropriate to understanding
a communitys history. Many American cities have followed
a general pattern of growth, rise, decline, and demographic
236
change. Topics such as urbanization and industrialization
(and the changes they bring) can help students think about
how and why historical change occurs and how the places
in which they live have been shaped by historical events.
New Brunswicks history lends itself to questions that lead
naturally to advanced thinking about the citys rise and
eventual decline. Relating local history to wider themes
helps students focus on the big picture and think deeply
about how historical events have impacted the lives they
live. With this in mind, we turn now to the people who
inhabit a community and how the residents of particu-
lar town or city can also serve as resources for historical
study.
Step Three: Look at the People
There was a time in America when its population was rel-
atively sedentary and people lived out their lives generally
not far from where they were born. Factors such as ur-
banization, immigration, and transportation technology
changed all this, however. As such, a defining character-
istic of life in modern America is that it is a society in flux,
as most Americans now move from place to place many
times over the course of their lives. Neighborhoods and
communities continuously evolve as residents move in and
out. These migratory patterns are an important aspect of
life in modern America, and studying them is integral to
understanding American history and society. Communi-
ties and the people that live in them can serve as texts to
be read and analyzed, and the lives of everyday people can
serve as a means to deeper historical understanding. For
example, when one considers the growth of urban areas
over the course of the nineteenth century, a general pattern
is evident. As immigration swelled urban populations in
the latter part of the nineteenth century, cities became de-
marcated and defined by working-class ethnic enclaves and
subdivisions within them. These enclaves remained largely
intact until the Second World War, when suburbanization
produced a widespread demographic shift; original immi-
grants moved out of cities to be replaced by newer ethnic
and religious groups. Most communities will offer several
layers of immigration and ethnic history to be studied. Such
analysis will in turn lend itself to deeper understanding of
the historical forces that have influenced the movement in
and out of various communities. Everyday people thus be-
come historical resources, providing insight into how and
why American society has evolved the way it has. A first
step toward beginning this type of analysis is to identify
the initial layers of people who have settled within a
particular community. Although many of these residents
will have migrated elsewhere, they typically leave evidence
behind of their time in a given neighborhood. This evi-
dence provides useful source material for historical anal-
ysis and the connection of local events to wider historical
themes.
Marino and Crocco
New Brunswick once again offers an excellent exam-
ple of this process. The ethnic and racial groups that have
moved into the city at various points in time illustrate var-
ious trends associated with the history of American immi-
gration. In the mid-nineteenth century a large number of
Germans settled in the town and played a key role in found-
ing the citys first industrial concerns (Gramm 1938). Dur-
ing the period of U.S. history known as the Great Migra-
tion after the First World War, the citys African American
population increased by over 300 percent as African Amer-
icans fled the South in search of employment opportunities
in the North (Hill 1942). This fact is reflective of a histori-
cal development that dramatically altered the demographic
and racial composition of the state of New Jersey and many
other areas in the Northeast and Midwest. After the Sec-
ond World War, the first Puerto Ricans moved into the city
(an occurrence common to many American cities at this
time), and their numbers increased throughout the 1950s
and 1960s (Colon 1980).
New Brunswick also has the distinction of having once
been home to the largest Hungarian immigrant commu-
nity in the United States (Reoch 1953; Smith 1965). In the
early part of the twentieth century New Brunswick was
known as the most Hungarian city in America. At this
time, two-thirds of the pharmaceutical company Johnson
& Johnsons employees were Hungarian immigrants (Mol-
nar 1977, 258). Although the Hungarian population has
diminished significantly in recent decades, proof of this
immigrant groups presence in New Brunswick is appar-
ent throughout the city, especially so in its Fifth Ward.
Photograph 7 provides examples of this fact, showing var-
ious aspects of the social, commercial, communal, and
religious life of New Brunswicks Hungarian population
(see appendix).
These examples help promote deeper understanding of
American history by illustrating many themes associated
with the history of immigration. Among these are the im-
portance of religion and community and the insular na-
ture of ethnic enclaves, as evidenced by the founding banks
and churches dedicated to the needs of a specific immi-
grant population. Studying the past residents of a com-
munity also allows for investigation of deeper historical
issues: what brought a group to a particular place and what
made them leave? In New Brunswicks Hungarian popula-
tion, many of the push-pull factors associated with the
history of immigration is evident. Hungarians were drawn
to New Brunswick by the availability of work in the citys
factories, while they also sought to escape onerous military
service and life as tenant farmers in their homeland (Re-
och 1953, 58). Later, the appeal of a suburban lifestyle
(especially among the more Americanized second gener-
ation) led to movement away from the city and toward
the communities that surround it. This reality is one that
occurred in many American cities, illustrating how local
communities can inform understanding of wider historical
realities.
Doing Local History
When people move out of a certain area, others move in,
and it is important not only to study the people who have
left a given community but also to analyze the people who
currently reside there. In New Brunswick, the 2010 cen-
sus lists the demographics of the city as 27 percent White,
14 percent Black, 50 percent Latino, and 8 percent Asian.
New Brunswick is currently in the midst of another wave
of immigration, as the Hispanic population of the city in-
creased by 133 percent in a ten-year period between 1990
and 2000, and Hispanics now constitute the primary ethnic
group within the citys borders. Not counted in these data
are the large numbers of Rutgers students who live in the
city during the school year, nor do they explain some of
the deeper experiences of people that live in the city. These
experiences in turn help expose realities about American
life and the historical dynamics that have shaped it. Given
this fact, the circumstances and characteristics of a com-
munitys residents can also inform wider understandings of
American history and culture.
Take, for example, the many thousands of young people
who travel to New Brunswick every year to attend Rutgers
University. While the stereotype of college students be-
havior at a large university is of hedonism and reckless-
ness, young people have historically had significant agency
in shaping American cultural expressions and in defining
American tastes (e.g., Altschuler 2004). Evidence of this can
be found in the role that Rutgers students played in creating
an important cultural movement in the 1990s, when they
helped give rise to the proto-punk movement that was
derived from the musical style of 1970s punk bands such
as the Ramones. Although started underground, this trend
eventually reached the mainstream and spawned popular
bands such as Green Day and Blink-182. In this case, an al-
ternative music scene that began with concerts given in the
basements of student rental housing (hence the term base-
ment show) and in the then much renowned Melody Bar
(photograph 8), helped generate a national musical phe-
nomenon that occupies an important moment in the history
of American popular culture (Kauffman 2007). Comparing
the situation of Rutgers students to the age cohort of 18- to
22-year olds in other periods of American history as doc-
umented by historians such as Steven Mintz (2006) could
also provide an interesting perspective on rituals of social-
ization and changes in the life cycle of American youth in
American history.
A closer look at New Brunswicks demographics also in-
dicates that many of its residents are much poorer than
other communities in prosperous New Jersey, a state that
contains nine of the one hundred richest counties in Amer-
ica. New Jerseys overall per capita income is approximately
$27,000, while New Brunswicks is $14,000 (ranking it
683rd of 702 total municipalities in the state). Its rate of
homeownership is 26 percent, compared to the rest of New
Jerseys 65 percent, and 27 percent of New Brunswicks
residents live below the poverty line, compared to 8.5 per-
cent across the state. Homeownership also is concentrated
237
among the citys white population, many of whom work in
New York City and own expensive townhouses and condo-
miniums in the downtown area. New Brunswicks current
population data reveal a poor city, surrounded by more
prosperous suburbs and divided by race and class. These
data provide insight into how American society has evolved
in the postwar period, revealing truths about the racial
and economic segregation that characterizes many towns
and cities. In addition, the growing Hispanic population
in New Brunswick proves that immigration is not only a
historical phenomenon but rather an ongoing process that
continually alters the demographic structure of American
towns and cities. New Brunswicks residents, both past and
present, offer ample opportunities for analysis and inter-
pretation. Their stories help promote the understanding
of the historical trends that have shaped American soci-
ety and help bring the lives of everyday people into the
historical mainstream. With this in mind, we turn now to
a last source of analysis a community has to offer, which
is the buildings and structures in which people live and
work.
Step Four: Look at the Buildings
Just as the people who inhabit communities are in a re-
curring state of flux and change, so too are the physical
structures of a community constantly evolving. The fixed
limits of cities and towns mean that these spaces must be
continuously adjusted and altered to account for chang-
ing needs and imperatives. The structures of community
can act as sites of memory, offering insight into different
historical eras and a perspective into the lives of people
who have lived in the past. As a recent study of archi-
tecture in Manhattan argues, analysis of a communitys
buildings and structures, offers its own greatest history
lesson and that the histories of individual buildings can
be followed, like a trail of breadcrumbs, into an alterna-
tive view of our past (Freeland 2009, 22). Similarly, in his
book about teaching local history, Stevens (2001, 48) notes
simply that we are what we build. The buildings in a
given community will offer evidence of the historical eras
that produced them through the analysis of how different
streets, blocks, and neighborhoods have changed over time.
These changes will in turn lead to deeper understanding of
American history and the factors that produce historical
change. Buildingstheir purposes, their origins, their life
and deathcan act as primary documents that offer deep
insight into history.
The buildings of New Brunswick, for example, have
many stories to tell. New Brunswick is an old city, and
its structures offer insight into what life in the city was like
at different points in time. Looking down George Street
in New Brunswick (photograph 9) even today one gets
a sense of the small town downtown architecture that
characterized life in many American communities. New
238
Brunswick also contains a large amount of pre-World War
Two housing (photograph 10), built largely in the 1920s
and reflective of residential life during that period. Sim-
ilarly, old factory buildings (photograph 11) offer a per-
ception of what life was like for immigrant laborers who
came to live in the city in the latter part of the nine-
teenth century. Buildings can be read, as a historical
document, interpreted, and used to gain understanding of
social life across different eras of history. With some prac-
tice, students can be trained to indentify different buildings,
when they were constructed, and the purposes that they
served.
This analysis can also be taken a step further by us-
ing streetscapes to consider how communities have evolved
over time. It is possible to compare street views at different
periods and use these as a means to consider how and why
these streets have evolved. Photographs 12 and 13 provide
evidence of this. Here the same section of George Street is
shown (looking west) at two points in time: one in the 1920s
and one in 2011. The contrast in the two images shows the
extent to which a street can change and evolve; some of
the differences in the photos include the street having been
widened and the complete absence of any of the original
architecture. By considering the factors that produce such
transformations, students can generate thoughtful histori-
cal interpretations and a deeper understanding of the pro-
cess of change.
With a practiced eye, one can also acquire the ability
to instinctively carbon date buildings through a simple
sight analysis. Different periods of history have distinct ar-
chitectural profiles, and it can become a relatively easy task
to situate a structure within the time period in which it
was built. Looking closely at New Brunswick today, even
someone who is not an architectural expert would notice
that many of the citys structures have a decidedly mod-
ern feel to them. In particular, the citys downtown area Protest DevCo Redevelopment 2001). Buildings and phys-
presents a conundrum, for looking at it leads one to ques-
tion what happened to the its historical architecture. Pho-
tographs 14, 15 and 16 provide evidence of this. Here we
see three views of Albany Street from the New Brunswick
train station: one in the 1920s, one in the 1950s (note the
design of the automobiles), and one in 2011. As the photos
show, it is clear that not much changed in terms of New
Brunswicks architecture between 1920 and 1960 and that
most of the structures are the same in both photos. In the
most current photo, however, dramatic changes are appar-
ent. Only one building (the train station at the left) in the
first two pictures is standing in the third one, and the entire
downtown area has been completely rebuilt. Why has the
city changed in such a significant way?
The answer to this question shows how the structures
of a given community offer knowledge of the important
events and themes that define American history. In New
Brunswicks case, its physical transformation offers evi-
dence of the urban renewal and redevelopment policies
that first became popular in the period after 1945. As hap-
Marino and Crocco
pened to many cities at this time, during the late 1960s
and 1970s New Brunswick declined precipitously, and a
planning commission study noted that the city had ac-
quired a pervasive negative image among all sectors of
population both within the city and in the region gener-
ally (Trends, Issues and Priorities in the Revitalization of
New Brunswick, New Jersey 1975, ii). As a result of the de-
cline in its infrastructure and perception, New Brunswick
sought to transform itself through aggressive redevelop-
ment. This meant that much of the city was razed and
then rebuilt (Regan 2003). The structures on the left side
of photographs 14 and 15 gave way to Johnson & John-
sons world headquarters; those at the right were turned
into a strip mall, an office building, and a parking garage.
Other sections of downtown New Brunswick suffered a
similar fate. The Hiram Market area, populated almost
exclusively by Dominican immigrants, was demolished to
provide space for a Hyatt Hotel and expensive townhouses
designed to create, in the words of planning study from
the period, a high density upper income residential neigh-
borhood (Turner 1977, 7). This fact is illustrated in pho-
tographs 17 and 18, which show the transformation of the
area.
These buildings offer evidence into the changes (and the
reasons behind them) that have fundamentally transformed
life in most American cities. They also provide opportu-
nities to discuss the merits of these actions (and the use
of policies such as eminent domain), which can promote
historical inquiry and analysis. Did these rebuilding ef-
forts succeed in reviving the city? New Brunswicks official
website proudly proclaims that it is a thriving city often
referred to as a model for urban revitalization, whereas
protesting Rutgers students have called these (ongoing)
redevelopment efforts Black and Latino ethnic cleans-
ing and blatantly racist and undemocratic (Students
ical structures are more than just architectural curiosities;
they act as vehicles for understanding important aspects of
American history, serve as a means to understand social
history and the history of everyday life, and they provide
evidence of issues that have impacted peoples lives across
time.
Conclusions
Like many New Jersey communities, New Brunswick exists
mostly as a name on a sign while driving past it on a high-
way. Likewise, many people associate New Jersey with its
turnpike, reflecting the notion of the state as a thoroughfare
to somewhere else The analysis here, however, has shown
that New Brunswick has a deep and varied history. The
city played an important role in the American Revolution;
it gave birth to an iconic American corporation; it housed
the largest Hungarian immigrant community in the United
States; it spawned an important musical and cultural
Doing Local History
movement; and it acts as a case study for the impact (both
positive and negative) of urban renewal. The citys history
also illustrates themes related to diversity, social justice, and
immigration. Doing an investigation about the local history
of New Brunswick also illustrates the effect that abstract
concepts such as immigration, industrialization, segrega-
tion, and suburbanization have had on local communities.
That little New Brunswick could promote such varied and
wide-ranging points of historical interest shows that all
communities, no matter how small or seemingly anony-
mous, offer ample opportunity for research and analysis by
students as young as middle school.
In sum, local communities can serve as resources for use
in many classroom activities. They allow abstract historical
events to seem more real to students and make social and
cultural history more prominent in the curriculum. They
also show students that their lives are part of history and
that they are the product of historical forces and historical
change.
Teachers would serve their students well by considering
the ways the places in which they live and teach can inform
their lessons and their students understanding of American
history. We conclude with some instructional ideas to help
facilitate this process.
1. Expand the it happened here approach. When using
specific historical events as an aspect of local history, it
is possible to expand the pedagogical possibilities that
this approach entails. A specific event can lead to so-
phisticated lessons and activities. In the case of New
Brunswick, a discussion about its role in the American
Revolution could generate activities involving geogra-
phy, military strategy, and the ways technology influ-
ences our lives. For example, the distance between New
Brunswick and Trenton is different to us in the present,
when it is possible to drive there in thirty minutes, than
it was to people in the late eighteenth century, who had
to walk there over the course of several days.
2. Construct a timeline of a particular citys history. Not
only is such an activity useful in helping students un-
derstand historical chronology but it helps connect the
evolution of a community to abstract historical con-
cepts. Once a chronology is created, students can con-
nect specific historical occurrences in their community
to wider historical themes such as industrialization and
immigration.
3. Conduct a neighborhood quest. According to Resor
(2010), a neighborhood quest calls on students to closely
analyze the places in which they live. This analysis
should focus on the businesses, people, and buildings
in a particular neighborhood, and it allows students to
connect these resources to issues that impact American
culture and society. What is the socioeconomic status of
people in a given area? Where to they live and work?
Answering questions such as these helps students place
their communities in wider context.
239
4. Conduct a then and now analysis of a city street.
Historical photographs (or old postcards drawn from
them) are relatively easy to find at libraries and online.
These can be used to generate the comparisons that
were presented earlier. Students can be asked to find a
historical image and then take a photograph at the same
location and compare the changes that have (or have
not occurred) in the two photos. Once the changes have
been identified, analyzing why they occurred, can lead
to profound historical interpretations.
5. Conduct a census analysis. Websites such as ances-
try.com allow easy access to census data from past
decades (currently from 1790 to 1930; 1940 will be avail-
able soon). These census records provide an abundance
of raw historical data related to the lives of everyday
people across history, from their occupations, to the size
of their families, to their education levels. Accessing the
census records for a given community allows students
to research the lives of people from the past and to
place their communities into historical perspective. It
also allows for comparison of people who lived in a
community in the past with the people who currently
reside there. Sometimes it is even possible to compare
the residents of the same building (if it is still stand-
ing) at two different points in time. This comparative
analysis will also promote sophisticated thinking and
analysis.
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