"Farner has a strong sense of the ironic, which makes his work more fun than most history texts.... Who needs fiction, when history is this exciting?"

235 pages
index and bibliography
6" x 9" hardcover
$26.00
ISBN 0-945582-38-2

New Jersey’s underrated history — surprising, tumultuous, and of invaluable importance to the United States — finally gets its due respect! This newly released book explores the state’s past — from pre-Revolutionary days, when it comprised two colonies, to its role in 20th Century fears over threatened invasions by Nazis, Russians, or even Martians ready to start a “War of the Worlds.”

Author Thomas Farner writes in his preface, “Trapped between New York and Philadelphia, the state’s place in history has always been underrated ... As James Madison once lamented, ‘Poor New Jersey, she is like a keg tapped at both ends.’”

“The stories cover a broad range, from the bizarre... to heroic.”

— Asbury Park Press

  “Along comes author Thomas P. Farner to remind us that the state’s past is as colorful and controversial as its present.”

— Summit Herald / Independent Press,
New Providence

A lifelong New Jersey resident, Tom Farner was born in Mount Holly, moving to Long Beach Island in 1958. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from then-Mansfield State College in Pennsylvania and served in the U.S. Naval Reserves. Mr. Farner began teaching at Pemberton Township High School in 1970, and he has been recognized twice in Who’s Who Among American Teachers.
200 Plus, his newspaper column, was first published in 1974 as part of the celebration of the bicentennial of the American Revolution. The articles focused on major historical events with a unique perspective on New Jersey’s participants — and also with an emphasis on southern New Jersey and the Jersey Shore. This focus has continued through the years in his current writing. The column continues to be published today by The SandPaper.
Mr. Farner’s work on constitutional issues has won recognition for him as a national judge in competitions sponsored by the Congress on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He has been an invited speaker at a Smithsonian Institution forum on the implications of a Supreme Court decision involving the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.