Please join us all here at New York History as we welcome our newest contributor Tom Shanahan. Tom has more than 25 years experience in politics, political communications, lobbying, election campaigns, and public relations. Since 1990, he has operated his own government relations and communications firm. An accomplished writer and researcher, Tom has authored articles on public policy and political history, which have been published in venues across New York. He will be writing about the War of 1812 here at New York History during the 200th anniversary commemorations.


With special interest in the early federal era, he presented at the Researching New York 2007 history conference, presenting a paper entitled &#8220Lobbying: The Exercise of Power and Politics in New York,&#8221 and as part of the New York State Library’s public lecture series. He is currently a lecturer in the New York Council for the Humanities’ speaker’s series, speaking on the topic – 1812 – Uncle Sam’s First War and is developing a web documentary on the same subject.

“Who was the Vice President under John Quincy Adams? &#8212- Daniel D. Tompkins. And I’ll bet your Mr. Sawyer doesn’t know that!”

It’s a line from that classic Christmas movie, “Miracle On Thirty Fourth Street.” In that scene the protagonist, Kris Kringle, tries to demonstrate that not only isn’t he delusional, but is so in touch with reality he can recall trivial facts most people couldn’t possibly remember. Read more →