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 | | Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 by Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace ISBN-10: 9780195116342 ISBN-10: 0-19-511634-8 ISBN-13: 9780195116342 ISBN-13: 978-0-19-511634-2 Hardcover 1998-11-19 Oxford University Press, USA Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Amazon.com Like the city it celebrates, Gotham is massive and endlessly fascinating. This narrative of well over 1,000 pages, written after more than two decades of collaborative research by history professors Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, copiously chronicles New York City from the primeval days of the Lenape Indians to the era when, with Teddy Roosevelt as police commissioner, the great American city became regarded as "Capital of the World." The sheer bulk of the book may be off- putting, but the reader can use a typically New York approach: Those who don't settle in for the entire history can easily "commute" in and out to read individual chapters, which stand alone nicely and cover the major themes of particular eras very well. While Gotham is fact-laden (with a critical apparatus that includes a bibliography and two indices--one for names, another for subjects), the prose admirably achieves both clarity and style. "What is our take, our angle, our schtick?" ask the authors, setting a distinctly New York tone in their introduction. No matter what it's called, their method of weaving together countless stories works wonderfully. The startlingly detailed research and lively writing bring innumerable characters (from Peter Minuit to Boss Tweed) to life, and even those who think they know the history of New York City will no doubt find surprises on nearly every page. Gotham is a rarity, reigning as both authoritative history and page-turning story. --Robert McNamara | ||
Product Description To European explorers, it was Eden, a paradise of waist-high grasses, towering stands of walnut, maple, chestnut, and oak, and forests that teemed with bears, wolves, raccoons, beavers, otters, and foxes. Today, it is the site of Broadway and Wall Street, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, and the home of millions of people, who have come from every corner of the nation and the globe. In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have produced a monumental work of history, one that ranges from the Indian tribes that settled in and around the island of Manna-hata, to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898. It is an epic narrative, a story as vast and as varied as the city it chronicles, and it underscores that the history of New York is the story of our nation. Readers will relive the tumultuous early years of New Amsterdam under the Dutch West India Company, Peter Stuyvesant's despotic regime, Indian wars, slave resistance and revolt, the Revolutionary War and the defeat of Washington's army on Brooklyn Heights, the destructive seven years of British occupation, New York as the nation's first capital, the duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, the Erie Canal and the coming of the railroads, the growth of the city as a port and financial center, the infamous draft riots of the Civil War, the great flood of immigrants, the rise of mass entertainment such as vaudeville and Coney Island, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the birth of the skyscraper. Here too is a cast of thousands--the rebel Jacob Leisler and the reformer Joanna Bethune; Clement Moore, who saved Greenwich Village from the city's street-grid plan; Herman Melville, who painted disillusioned portraits of city life; and Walt Whitman, who happily celebrated that same life. We meet the rebel Jacob Leisler and the reformer Joanna Bethune; Boss Tweed and his nemesis, cartoonist Thomas Nast; Emma Goldman and Nellie Bly; Jacob Riis and Horace Greeley; police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt; Colonel Waring and his "white angels" (who revolutionized the sanitation department); millionaires John Jacob Astor, Cornelius Vanderbilt, August Belmont, and William Randolph Hearst; and hundreds more who left their mark on this great city. The events and people who crowd these pages guarantee that this is no mere local history. It is in fact a portrait of the heart and soul of America, and a book that will mesmerize everyone interested in the peaks and valleys of American life as found in the greatest city on earth. Gotham is a dazzling read, a fast-paced, brilliant narrative that carries the reader along as it threads hundreds of stories into one great blockbuster of a book. | ||
Reviews | ||
GOTHAM deserves a fully earned 10 stars rating! I found this book in my building's basement about three years back. It was in good condition so I picked it up. I thought it would make a fair complementary read to The Encyclopedia of New York City by Ken T. Jackson from the New York Historical Society. The fact that I completely read GOTHAM in one sitting (OK, I actually slept a few hours on that Saturday night) is just to tell you how a well written history book can become a real page turner. Today in the The Wall Street Journal [1-year subscription], GOTHAM takes the Number One spot in their "Five Best" feature on page W10: this title is now a real classic of American history! | ||
Just stunning If you're interested in New York City, this is the book to own. It's incredibly rich and comprehensive, a gold mine of information about the fascinating history of this city. I own a number of NYC history books, but this is the one I find myself referring to over and over. | ||
SPECTACULAR! Tremendous detail and fantastic history make this book top notch. Incredibly well researched without a "revionist" slant make this book a must read. By far this is my favorite of all American History books I have read. Having grown up in Brooklyn (and bored my buddies to death leading them to historical landmarks) only enhanced the experience. Few books "bring you there" but Gotham has that magic of taking you on a time travel to the glorious and not so glorious days of a great city. | ||
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 The book, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, was not for myself. Our son wanted it for Christmas. As far as we know he is pleased with the book. He wanted the book because one of my and his ancestors came in to Manhattan about 1650 and helped build the wall that later became Wall St. Our son has an under grad degree in history. | ||
The Dutch This is a masterpiece of the history of NY. I concentrated on this early setttlement in Dutch hands. It all started with Henry Hudson, and his hope. It ended with Peter Stuyvesant and his dictatorial domain. In between there were some interesting characters who can be seen as ancestors and predecessors of the current New Yorker. | ||