Jim Kaplan writes:
I am pleased to report that I will be continuing and accelerating my walking tour schedule and historical writing in 2011 with a number of new and exciting projects.
1. Hell’s Kitchen: This spring, I will be giving a new tour on Saturday, March 12, the weekend before St. Patrick’s Day, entitled Hell’s Kitchen: A political history of the New York Irish. This tour is a revival of a tour I used to give in the 1990’s with the legendary Jimmy McManus, the fourth generations of the McMani of Tammany Hall, who have controlled the area politically for more than a hundred years. It will contain new insights into the political history of the mid west side including how the people of Hell’s Kitchen saved the theater district from collapse in the late 1970’s, and how an allliance between the McManus Democratic club and a political faction known as the “West Side Kids” has elected both the assemblyman and Congressman from the area for the past 40 years. Click here to read my article.
2. Culture Now: I am now working closely with Culture Now, the Museum Without Walls, and an audio of all of my 2010 tours can be accessed on the Culture Now website. So for those few of you who missed them, you merely need visit www.culturenow.org/podcasts and you can listen to the four tours given in 2010—All-Night July 4, Harlem, Arrival Day (the history of the Jews in America) and the Great Crashes of Wall Street—in their entirety.
3. Financial History Magazine: To read a pdf of my article “Bruce and Wendy Wasserstein and the Revival of New York City in the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries,” click here. This article appeared in the Winter 2011 issue of Financial History magazine, published by the Museum of American Finance.