Hoopla on the Hudson: An Intimate View of New York's Great 1909 Hudson-Fulton Celebration

In the September 1909 a young freelance reporter for Europe's leading financial daily filed his first of a series of cabled articles spanning the two-week long Hudson-Fulton Celebration, a Dutch-American extravaganza commemorating Hudson's voyage 300 years before and Fulton's steamboat 100 years before. The reports made front-page news. It was a remarkably optimistic moment in New York City's history, well into the new century, and the reporter and his readers were witnesses to all of it. Now almost a century after the event, the reporter's son has translated his father's articles with an illuminating and engaging commentary on the city in 1909. Included are biographical sketches of Henry Hudson and Robert Fulton and an epilogue on the fate of the replicas of the two vessels at the center of the celebration.

Lincoln Diamant is an award-winning Hudson Valley historian and author. His previous books include "Chaining the Hudson: The Fight for the River in the American Revolution."