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Speaker To Discuss the History of the Upstate/Downstate Divide
Geneva, NY (May 1, 2008) – Those of us living in upstate New York are often heard to
complain of the overwhelming influence of New York City and other
downstate communities in policy making and the distribution of state
economic resources. Peter Eisenstadt will bring an historical
perspective to this divisive view of the state in his lecture "The Unity
of New York State: The Upstate/Downstate Divide in Historical
Perspective." The program will be presented at the Geneva Historical
Society at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 13 and will include time for
questions. This event is made possible through Speakers in the
Humanities, a program of the New York Council for the Humanities.
New York State is commonly viewed as a group of loosely connected
regions, having little internal cohesion or connection, and as
characterized by a sharp division between two ill-defined halves:
"upstate" and "downstate." There is some truth to this perception, but
much that is misleading as well, and it discounts the ways in which New
York State, which has existed in some form for almost four centuries,
has often functioned as a coherent social, economic, and political
entity.
It has been through the efforts to overcome the state's inherent
heterogeneity, from the building of the Erie Canal, to the reform
efforts of mid-twentieth century Governors Al Smith and Franklin
Roosevelt, that New York State has been at its best, and has often led
the way in showing the nation how to combine its diversity with a sense
of unity and purpose.
Peter Eisenstadt is a scholar who has worked extensively on the History
of New York City and New York State. He was the managing editor of the
Encyclopedia of New York City (1995), and editor-in-chief of the
Encyclopedia of New York State (2005).
Parking for the program is on the street or in the Trinity Episcopal
Church lot across the street. For more information about this lecture,
call the Society office at 315-789-5151.
The Geneva Historical Society Museum is located in the Prouty-Chew House
at 543 South Main Street and is open Tuesday through Friday, 9:30 a.m.
to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Admission is free.
The Geneva Historical Society receives major funding from the New York
State Council on the Arts, the Institute for Museum and Library
Services, the New York Council for the Humanities and the Town and City
of Geneva.
Since its launch in 1983, the New York Council for the Humanities
Speakers in the Humanities program has linked distinguished scholars
with diverse audiences through the presentation of lectures on a broad
range of topics. Each year hundreds of cultural institutions and
community groups take advantage of this program, which offers the very
best in humanities scholarship to thousands of citizens in every corner
of New York State.
The New York Council for the Humanities is a private, not-for-profit
organization working to ensure the presence of the humanities in the
cultural life of New York State. The Council's programs train teachers;
encourage excellence in student scholarship; support public programs and
New York State's cultural organizations; and forge relationships between
young people, their families and New York's extraordinary range of
humanities institutions.
Geneva Historical Society
543 South Main St
Geneva, NY 14456
315-789-5151
info@genevahistoricalsociety.com
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