Author Marc Mappen says New Jersey’s founding had no “grand theme.”
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September 7, 2009
It used to be that if you told someone you were from New Jersey, the response would be, “Oh yeah? What exit?” Nowadays, says Dr. Marc Mappen, author of a new book about the history of the Garden State, what one most often gets is a Sopranos reference.
Crime, corrupt politicians and civic leaders, and other “missteps” in the state don’t make it easy, but Mappen, who served as a dean at Rutgers University from 1988 to 2000, wants readers to know There’s More to New Jersey Than the Sporanos (Rutgers University Press).
To paraphrase the comedian Rodney Dangerfield, New Jersey got no respect — even before it became the third state in 1787.
“One of early royal governors sent over by England…tried to say something nice, but came up with ‘This is the best sort of country for those who earn their living by the sweat of their brow,’” Mappen said in a telephone interview with NJ Jewish News. With the larger and more famous cities of New York to the north and Philadelphia to the south, one founding father referred to New Jersey as “the barrel cap at both ends.”
While other colonies were established as “holy utopias, societies for the new American aristocracy, and bastions of virtue and all things good,” said Mappen, “New Jersey never had a grand theme like that. It was basically founded as a real estate investment.”
There were, he said, “no pretensions of being on a mission from God or being special.”
To this day, Jersey remains the butt of jokes (see sidebar).
Mappen, 64, a resident of Highland Park, was born in Massachusetts, where “all kinds of stuff about state history was taught in the schools,” he said. But when he moved here at the age of 12, “it was not the same. We didn’t actually study very much about New Jersey, and I thought that was a shame.”
One of the positive aspects of life in the Garden State is its diversity, Mappen said.
“We have always been one of the most diverse places in the nation: religions, ethnicities, climate, soil types, vegetation…. It’s really quite remarkable for such a small state.”
In the book, he notes New Jersey’s contributions in improving or inventing products ranging from transistors and drive-in movies to Teflon and saltwater taffy.
Mappen, who is executive director of the NJ Historical Commission, has several other books to his credit, including Jerseyana: The Underside of New Jersey History; he also served as coeditor of the Encyclopedia of New Jersey. His new title is a combination of new essays and monthly columns he wrote for The New York Times from 1988 to ’95.
Mappen watched that controversial final episode of The Sopranos. “I know a lot of people couldn’t stand it, but I thought it was fine,” he said. “I, being an optimist, thought that the family is back together and they would start to live a normal life now, as ridiculous as that sounds.”
‘The world’s funniest joke’
Dr. Marc Mappen described “the official world’s funniest joke” (selected in an Internet poll), which plays upon the perceived stupidity of New Jerseyans:
Two New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them clutches his heart and falls to the ground; he doesn’t seem to be breathing. The other guy gets out his cell phone, calls 911, and says “You gotta help me. My friend is lying on the ground. I think he’s dead.”
The operator, “Sir, I can help you. Just be calm. The first thing I want you to do is go over and make sure that he’s dead.”
There’s a silence on the line, then she hears “BAM!” — the crack of a gunshot.
The guy gets back on the line and says, “Okay, now what?”
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