The Jersey City Independent "

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The academic journal New Jersey History has, well, a long history. It was founded as the Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society back in 1845, and was published under the society’s direction until 2005.

Since then, the journal has sat dormant, but this fall, historians at the society teamed up with colleagues at the New Jersey Historical Commission and Kean University to relaunch the journal, which will now be published online twice a year by the Rutgers University Libraries.

In the first issue in four years of the peer-reviewed journal are many interesting articles for Garden State history buffs, and one treat in particular for anyone interested in the political history of Jersey City.

In a fascinating 27-page article, University of Redlands (California) history professor Matthew Taylor Raffety trains his eye on legendary Jersey City mayor Frank Hague. To our delight, Raffety eschews Hague’s tenure as mayor, which has provided fodder for a number of historical articles and books, but rather turns to his pre-mayoral career.

Raffety says Hague’s early political career “provides an instructive example of how urban politicians used public spectacle, the media, ethic identity and middle class mores to redefine American urban politics.” The article goes on to tell the story of Hague’s rise to power via the persona he crafted as one part machine politician and one part Progressive reformer. He crafted this persona, of course, largely in the pages of the local press, and one thing Raffety’s article makes clear is how adept Hague was at public relations.

You can read the full article here.

For more on New Jersey History, visit the journal’s website.