Michael Aaron Rockland

Author, Lecturer

michaelrockland.com

BOOKS
The Other Jersey Shore: Life on the Delaware River (Rutgers University Press, 2024) "The Other Jersey Shore is Michael Rockland's poetic love letter to the Delaware River. As he has done in previous books on the New Jersey Turnpike and the George Washington Bridge, Rockland sheds ample light on an essential, if often overlooked, element of life in the Garden State. Exhaustively researched and endearingly written, The Other Jersey Shore will remind even New Jersey natives that the Delaware and its New Jersey shore should be held in the same high esteem as the state's beloved Atlantic coastline." —Christopher Hann — Executive Editor, River Towns magazine, "Michael Aaron Rockland has produced a book full of dramatic stories featuring a river of scenic beauty, with history and vibrant communities on its New Jersey banks. He has shown us a fascinating alternative to what we normally call 'The Jersey Shore'— endless pleasures and adventures that presently too few enjoy." —Angus Kress Gillespie — author of Port Newark and the Origins of Container Shipping
Married to Hitler (Hansen Publishing Group, 2020) "Michael Rockland achieves an improbable union of the sincere and absurd that dares us all to challenge our most deep-seated preconceptions. Funny, poignant, unpredictable—a rollicking ride of a novel." —Val Emmich, best selling author of Dear Evan Hansen, the novel and The Reminders "A wild coming of age novel about a middle age Jewish guy for whom all things German are anathema. But what does Rockland's hero, Adam Levin do on his summer vacation in the mid 1970s? He drives into the Great American West and, at the edge of the Grand Canyon falls in love with a gorgeous German lesbian. Everything about Married to Hitler is topsy- turvey and surprising. The novel is a hilarious romp and an undoing of childhood fears, male anxieties, and post sexual revolution assumptions." —Victoria Redel, Before Everything and The Border of Truth
Navy Crazy (Hansen Publishing Group, 2014) “A very different kind of war story. . . hilariously funny and a super-read.” —Angus Kress Gillespie, Maritime Historian> “Rockland's book is a combination One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Catch-22.” —Bruce Chadwick, historian and writer “. . . beautifully captures the timeless absurdity of military life--the humor, the confusion, and the sadness.” —Matthew Lane, sergeant and combat veteran---Iraqi campaign--retired “The stories of Navy and Marine mental patients are alternately frightening, sad and, at times, bizarrely humorous. This is first-rate writing about a world few of us have ever seen or experienced, told with insight and compassion.” —Richard W. Wilson, Captain (retired) U.S. Naval Reserve BUY THE BOOK from Hansen Publishing Group BUY THE BOOK from Amazon Watch Michael Rockland discuss Navy Crazy below:





An American Diplomat in Franco Spain (Hansen Publishing Group, 2012) "Brilliantly funny and magnificently unputdownable, this book is a unique performance in the way it illuminates both Spanish and American culture." --Carmen Manuel, Professor of American Literature, University of Valencia "What pleasure it gives me to encounter an American, a former diplomat, who understands so well our country, past and present, and who is equally at home in the world and language of Cervantes as that of Shakespeare." --Jorge Dezcallar, Ambassador of Spain to the United States "Michael Rockland's accounts of his unusual experiences while he and I served with the American Embassy in Spain are amusing, illuminating, insightful, and provocative. The book will be as appealing to American as to Spanish audiences." --Ambassador Alexander F. Watson, Former Assistant Secretary of State BUY THE BOOK from Hansen Publishing Group BUY THE BOOK from Amazon Listen to Professor Michael Aaron Rockland on N.P.R. radio talk about his book, An American Diplomat in Franco Spain. Watch Michael Rockland discuss An American Diplomat in Franco Spain below:		Spanish edition, 2011, Biblioteca Javier Coy, University of Valencia Press



Stones (Hansen Publishing Group, 2009) "Stones is a sneaky and beautiful little masterpiece--sneaky because its disarmingly simple premise of a single day spent visiting graves manages somehow to communicate the endless complexity of one Jewish-American family over the span of nearly a century, and beautiful because Michael Rockland tells his story with a generous, generous heart." --Tom De Haven, author of It's Superman! BUY THE BOOK from Hansen Publishing Group BUY THE BOOK from Amazon
The George Washington Bridge: Poetry in Steel (Rutgers University Press, 2008) "Like the magnificent bridge it honors, this book is graceful, intelligently composed, elegant, durable, and solid as steel." --Phillip Lopate, author of Waterfront: A Walk Around Manhattan "The George Washington Bridge:Poetry in Steel is a well-rounded tribute to a national landmark. The author weaves together history, popular culture, behind-the-scene tours, and personal insights in his living portrait of a modern marvel."--Darl Rastorfer, author of Six Bridges: The Legacy of Othmar H. Ammann BUY THE BOOK from Rutgers University Press BUY THE BOOK from Amazon Watch Michael Rockland discuss New Jersey below:	2020 edition	2008 edition


The Jews of New Jersey: A Pictorial History co-author Patricia M. Ard (Rutgers University Press, 2001) "Without this great book , we would not know of the Jews who have impacted New Jersey history. I was mesmerized staring into faces long gone and at storefronts where there are now completely different shops. A brilliant pictorial history." --Kathleen S., Amazon. com reviewer "The authors. . . create a vivid portrait of New Jersey Jewish life through the personal stories of individual citizens. . . accompanied by a wealth of fascinating historic images." --Robert Miller, Newsletter, Association of Jewish Libraries BUY THE BOOK from Rutgers University Press BUY THE BOOK from Amazon
Snowshoeing Through Sewers (Rutgers University Press, 1994) "Rockland isn't just 'observing' America objectively, he's in it, all the way, fighting the old clichés with jokes and insights about everything he sees and about himself. It's a very refreshing book." --Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance "Rockland is one of the most exuberant men on earth and a raconteur of genius, and those qualities enliven every chapter, every sentence, every step of the way. This book is both funny and wise, and a damn good travelogue to boot! One of the most unusual and entertaining books I've read in a long, long time." --Tom De Haven, author of Sunburn Lake BUY THE BOOK from Amazon
A Bliss Case (Coffee House Press, 1989) "Absolutely gorgeous stuff. This book's inherent pull virtually yanked me from page to page. Its unorthodox narrative power got me so hooked that I put aside my own work and finished it in a day." --Fletcher Knebel, author of Seven Days in May "This novel is terrific! A funny book with lots of guts and tears as well as the laughs. I'm wild about it." --Richard Marschall, author of The Cousins "Mr. Rockland . . . has a light touch and a near perfect ear for humbug. There is a good joke in almost every line, but the humor is not strained in the telling and the pace never lets up." --Candia McWilliams, review in the Sunday New York Times A Bliss Case was a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year" BUY THE BOOK from Coffee House Press BUY THE BOOKfrom Amazon
Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike co-author Angus Kress Gillespie (Rutgers University Press, 1989) "A lively, informative, thoroughly entertaining examination of this most American of highways. . . .Vivid, authentic, and often humorous, while being admirably fair-minded. . . . An original work." --Edward Allen, New York Times Sunday Book Review Appeared on television's The Eleventh Hour and Good Morning America Chosen by both the New Jersey State Library and New Jersey Monthly magazine as one of the "Ten Best Books Ever Written on New Jersey" BUY THE BOOK from Rutgers University Press BUY THE BOOK from Amazon	2020 edition	2024 edition
Homes on Wheels (Rutgers University Press, 1980) "This book is a veritable casebook in applied American Studies. Having hit the road himself, . . . Rockland echoes the 'I Have Seen America' documentary expeditions of the 1930s as well as the earlier redemptive journeys of Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and Huckleberry Finn. His analysis of the tensions between individualism and community reflects Alexis De Tocqueville's Democracy in America." --Warren Belasco, in Technology and Culture
Sarmiento's Travels in the United States in 1847 (Princeton University Press, 1970) "The spirit . . . is the wine Whitman would uncork eight years later in Leaves of Grass. Sarmiento heard America singing and fell in love with its mass and multitude. . . .The energizing miracle was freedom." --B. A. Weissberger, Washington Post Book World "Sarmiento was on to the Americans' incredible mobility and restlessness, their pragmatic openness to new inventions and new ideas, their 'uniform decency and general welfare, and to the ambiguous effect of industrialism on morality and the corresponding rise of 'avarice and fraud." --A. Alvarez, The Saturday Review Chosen by Book World as one of the "Fifty Best Books of the Year" A History Book Club Selection
Other Books America in the Fifties and Sixties: Julian Marias on the United States (Penn State University Press, 1972), editor, supervisor of translation, and author of introductory essay The American Jewish Experience in Literature (University of Haifa and the Academy of Jewish Studies Without Walls, 1975) Que Tiene America de'Americano' (What's American About America?) (Taller de Estudios Norteamericanos, University of Leon, Spain), 1992 Redescubriendo America (Rediscovering America) (Taller de Estudios Norteamericanos, UIniversity of Leon, Spain) 1994 La Cultura Popular o Por Que Estudiar Basura (Popular Culture: Or Why Study "Trash?" (Taller de Estudios Norteamericanos, University of Leon, Spain), 1996.