New York's Bravest: Eight Decades of Photographs from the Daily News [Hardcover]

Patrice O'Shaughnessy (Author), Shawn O'Sullivan (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1576871584 | ISBN-13: 978-1576871584 | Publication Date: August 1, 2002 | Edition: 1

On September 11, the world was shown the face of bravery. As one woman so poignantly put it: “As we ran out, they ran in.” These heroes were doing the job they do each day, protecting more than eight million residents in the 320 square miles that is New York City. That horrible day, we were made heartbreakingly aware of the risks these people take daily, risks their loved ones knew all too well.

First-hand witnesses to the heroism of the FDNY, the photographers of the Daily News knew these risks too. They have been covering the life and death situations—the human drama that fire creates—since the founding of the the Daily News in 1919.

These seasoned photographers of the Daily News have chased fire trucks in their radio cars since the earliest days of photojournalism, photographing children and animals being rescued from burning buildings and capturing the disbelief on the faces of those gazing at the remnants of their lives going up in smoke. These photographers know intimately the faces of those left behind from covering the all too many funerals, mourning with the families a loss that felt not only across a city of millions, but also acutely within a deeply bonded fraternity across the country.

Culled from the archive of the Daily News, consisting of more than six million images, this book represents more than eighty years of the world renowned New York City Fire Department in action, fighting fires, rescuing lives, and bringing peace and order to chaos, fear, and destruction.

In the Fire Department of New York, there are more than 11,400 Fire Officers and Firefighters. In addition, the FDNY includes 2,800 EMS and Paramedics personnel. This book is a tribute to their dedication, bravery, and humanity.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The world discovered New York's firefighters in the thick of their department's greatest single loss and paradoxically one of its greatest achievements-the evacuation of thousands from the burning Trade Center towers. But the courage and skill displayed last September were, argues Golway, the culmination of three centuries of firefighting culture developed doing hazardous work in an increasingly vertical city. Golway is city editor and columnist for the New York Observer and coauthor of The Irish in America, but more to the point for this moving history, he is the son and grandson of New York City firemen and no stranger to the "culture of firefighting." In So Others Might Live, the first full history of the FDNY in 60 years, Golway shows the department's emergence from amateur bucket brigades into the beginnings of a specialized force and up to the present, never letting a memorable figure or vivid moment escape his narrative. The book is simultaneously a social history of the changing city and a dramatic record of the disasters that have assaulted and periodically reshaped it: Manhattan's great fire of 1776 made thousands homeless and leveled a quarter of the city's structures, for instance, while city firefighters played a crucial role during America's worst riot-the draft riots of 1863-before establishing New York's first professional force two years later. Golway's narrative updates a classic history by Costello, Our Firemen: A History of the New York Fire Departments Volunteer and Paid, originally published in 1887 and now abridged and republished under a new name. Costello delivers all the sooty romantic lore in high style ("Onward, still onward, swept the fiery bosom of destruction") while detailing the evolution of a firefighting force that is the recognizable progenitor of the one that rushed up into the burning towers. Another worthy companion to Golway's book is New York's Bravest: Eight Decades of Photographs from the Daily News, which records 80 years of New York firefighting through 166 pages of dramatic picture stories-children plucked breathlessly from harm, a building transformed by hosing during a winter fire into a glittering ice palace, the seven-alarm blaze caused by a jet collision over Brooklyn in December 1960-that have been the life's blood of the photo tabloid since its creation in 1919. The book concludes with the department's worst fire of all. "It has been more than two centuries since Benjamin Franklin wrote of the love firefighters had for each other," Golway observes in So Others Might Live. "In the ruins of the Twin Towers, in the memorials for the fallen, in the embraces and salutes and unchanged rituals, the world saw the power of that love."-Nathan Ward, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Patrice O'Shaughnessy was born and reared in the city, and has been a Daily News reporter for 20 years, covering its courthouses, precincts, and neighborhoods in human interest stories. She has written extensively on firefighters, chronicling their daring and compassion in the News' "Hero of the Month" feature for the last decade. A special assignment writer, she is the 1998 recipient of the Miker Berger Award. She also received the New York Press Club's Heart of New York Award in 1999 and 2000.

Shawn O'Sullivan is the picture editor for the features department of The New York Daily News.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: powerHouse Books; 1 edition (August 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576871584
• ISBN-13: 978-1576871584
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #897,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Title Speaks for its Self, September 25, 2002

By 

Arthur Sulander (Douglasville, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New York's Bravest: Eight Decades of Photographs from the Daily News (Hardcover)

By far,some of the most historic photographs of the FDNY. Just enough commentary to allow the photos to speak for themselves. A must for all Firefighters!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rich history in pictures, January 22, 2003

By 

jmk444 (Staten Island, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New York's Bravest: Eight Decades of Photographs from the Daily News (Hardcover)

Patrice O'Shaughnessy and Shawn O'Sullivan are both New York Daily News Photographers and as such have compiled a tremendous aray of great pictures of New York's firefighters at work and at play.

These pictures span eight decades from the early 1920's to the present. They traverse a wide array of emotions from a group of firemen posing with a woman whose baby they helped deliver to a son visiting his dying father in the Burn Unit. There are also a tremendous amount of photos that show the FDNY at work and these are incredible in that they show such a consistent theme of self-sacrifice and personal discipline, tempered with the fun-loving, zest for life that these men have exhibited throughout the years.

This is a GREAT piece of photojournalism. 9-11 may have made this book more poignant, but it's the rich historical pictorial that makes it a treasure.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Book, January 14, 2007

By 

Nancy Steinke "Book Lover" (Anna, Oh United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: New York's Bravest: Eight Decades of Photographs from the Daily News (Hardcover)

I bought this book for my firefighter son for Christmas. He was very impressed with the photographs and how they were arranged. The photos chosen represent the dangers of the profession and the heroism of the men who choose this career. They also portray the brotherhood and camaraderie that develops among the firefighters, not only in New York, but everywhere. This was money well spent!!