“Who Knows Brooklyn?”

Who Knows Brooklyn? by Ben McGrath is about two untrained male historians, from Brooklyn, who obviously have a problem with each other. Brian Merlis is a social studies high school teacher who collects photographs and lives on the south shore of Brooklyn. He published eighteen of his own books through Israelowitz publishing and calls himself an old-school localist. John Manbeck on the other hand is an author who has published seven books through Turner, a vanity press, served as an official historian of Brooklyn from 1193 to 2001, and lives in Brooklyn Heights. Merlis received Manbeck’s book “Historic Photographs of Brooklyn” for his forty-fifth birthday from a friend and doesn’t really seem to consider this a good gift. In the past there was had a falling out between the two where Manbeck accused Merlis not asking for permission when using the Kingsborough Historical Society’s material without proper given credit. Merlis stated that Manbeck was on sabbatical. He also felt that Manbeck was jealous of him because he was accumulating a big photo collection over a long period of time and Manbeck wasn’t doing as much. In the end, they use a current historian named Ron Schweiger in their feud. Manbeck says that he’s known Ron for a long time and taught him all he knows but Merlis replies back by saying Ron takes the high road but when he gets questions, he calls him for help. This feud will continue until the two come to an understanding.