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A Common Tragedy:
History of an Urban River
Edited by Timothy J.
Iannuzzi, David F. Ludwig, Jason C. Kinnell, Jennifer M.
Wallin, William H. Desvousges, and Richard W. Dunford
US $39.95, 2002, 200 pp.
ISBN: 1-884940-27-7
The rise and fall, and rise
again of an American river is the theme of A Common Tragedy:
History of an Urban River. This work traces historical
events along a waterway in one of our nation’s most
congested metropolitan centers. The authors investigate the
delicate dance between man and environment from prehistory
through the events of today. In many instances, the
magnitude of some of these events could not be fully
recognized until an historical survey such as this laid them
out for the modern reader.
This “Passaic River” study is
scholarly with scores of charts, lists, chronologies,
footnotes, and a rich bibliography for the specialist.
Still, the text “flows” for the average reader as well. From
the earliest geological and historical descriptions the
reader is transported through time to the beginning of
reconstitution of a “dead” or the “second worst polluted
river in America” into a recovering and rediscovered asset.
Newark and the more than three hundred communities that line
the Passaic’s shores have benefited and taken from it for
generations, and are beginning to look at the River as a
major resource in their 21st century redevelopment. Lessons
taken from the waterfront revivals of other major cities
such as Baltimore and San Antonio are being heeded. The
cycle of life emerging from water may well be reenacted on
the Passaic River today.
Topics included in this
Passaic River compendium include its geological and
historical past; the role of the Dutch, English, and
American developers; the changes in shoreline and wetlands
over three centuries; and the role of industrialization and
urbanism.
Table of Contents
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