Medina bookstore will host author of new book about Erie Canal

Press Release, Author’s Note

Provided photo: Mark Ferrara will be at Author’s Note at 4 p.m. on Saturday to discuss his new book, The Raging Erie: Life and Labor Along the Erie Canal.

MEDINA –  On Saturday, July 12th at 4 p.m., Mark Ferrara, professor of English at the State University of New York, will visit Author’s Note in Medina to discuss and sign his book, The Raging Erie: Life and Labor Along the Erie Canal.

In this groundbreaking book, Ferrara tells the stories of the ordinary people who lived, worked, and died along the banks of the canal, emphasizing the forgotten role of the poor and working class in its construction. He chronicles the fates of the Native Americans whose land was appropriated for the canal, the European immigrants who bored its route through the wilderness, and the orphan children who drove draft animals that pulled boats around the clock.

Ferrara shows how the canal served as a conduit for the movement of new ideas and religions, a corridor for enslaved people seeking freedom via the Underground Railroad, and a spur for social reform movements that emerged in response to the poverty and suffering along its path.

Brimming with vivid characters drawn from the underbelly of antebellum life, The Raging Erie explores the social dislocation and untold hardships at the heart of a major engineering feat, shedding light on the lives of the canallers who toiled on behalf of American expansion.

Currently a professor at SUNY Oneonta, Mark Ferrara is the author of two previous books, American Community: Radical Experiments in Intentional Living (2020) and Living the Food Allergic Life (2023).

Ferrara will sign copies of his book and answer questions during his visit to the bookstore on July 12. Copies of The Raging Erie are available at Author’s Note, 519 Main Street, Medina or online at authorsnote.com/Events.

For those unable to attend, signed books can be ordered for pickup or free shipping at the store’s website. Contact Author’s Note for more information at (585) 798-3642.