The Reader's Advisor

WONDERFUL TOWN:
New York City in Books

History

Mary Black
Old New York in Early Photographs. Dover, 1976, 1973.
An assembling of some of the most significant photographs from the collection of the NY Historical Society from 1853 on.

Bernie Bookbinder
City of the World: New York and Its People. Abrams, 19??.
Focuses on the vital role of immigrants in shaping New York's institutions and culture.

Ric Burns & James Sanders
New York: An Illustrated History. Knopf, 1999.
Companion book to the critically praised PBS documentary that captured all of the beauty, complexity & power of NYC.

Edwin C. Burrows & Mike Wallace
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. Oxford, 1999, 1998.
This massive--one might say colossal--volume copiously chronicles NYC from its earliest beginnings to its emergence as the "Capital of the World."

Anne-Marie Cantwell & Diana diZerega Wall
Unearthing Gotham: The Archeology of New York City. Yale, 2001.
Two anthropologists weave Native American, colonial, and post-colonial history into an absorbing, panoramic narrative.

Allen Churchill
The Upper Crust: An Informal History of New York's Highest Society. PH, 1970.
Gossipy, informative, often hilarious chronicle of the families, fads, & fortunes of the personalities that made Manhattan's blood run blue.

Gloria Deak
Picturing New York: The City from its Beginnings to the Present. Columbia Univ., 2000.
14 thematically arranged "mini-histories" covering topics such as Seafaring Splendor, Broadway, Sports for All Seasons and All Fans, and Triumphs of Architecture & Urban Engineering.

Edward Robb Ellis
The Epic of New York City: A Narrative History. Old Town, 1990, 1966
Sweeping one-volume history of New York City from its beginnings as a small trading outpost to its status as the greatest city in the world.

Joyce D. Goodfriend
Before the Melting Pot: Society & Culture in Colonial New York City. Princeton, 1992.
Paints a vivid portrait of the city's unusually diverse ethnic make-up and explores the meaning of ethnicity in early America.

William Loren Katz
Black Legacy: A History of New York's African Americans. Atheneum, 1997.
Traces NYC's black history from the days of Dutch governor Peter Minuit to the administration of Mayor David Dinkins.

Gerard T. Koeppel
Water for Gotham: A History. Princeton Univ., 2000.
Tells the spirited story of New York's evolution as a great city by examining its struggle for that vital and basic element--clean water.

George J. Lankevich
American Metropolis: A History of New York City. NYUP, 1988.
Follows the remarkable degree of continuous and rapid change from its origin as a small Dutch town to the dominant urban complex of modern times.

Jeff Kisseloff
You Must Remember This: An Oral History of Manhattan from the 1890s to World War II. HBK, 1989.
Recounts daily life in The Big Apple through the voices of those who were there to see it in ten distinct neighborhoods from Greenwich Village to Harlem to Hell's Kitchen.

Jeannette Edwards Rattray
The Perils of the Port of New York: Maritime Disasters from Sandy Hook to Execution Rocks. Dodd, Mead, 1973.
Complete story of New York's maritime catastrophes, from the burning of Adriaen Block's Tiger in the Hudson off lower Manhattan in 1614 to the present.

Russell Shorto
The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America. Doubleday, 2004.
Uncovers the multi-ethnic and cosmopolitan before it was wrested from the Dutch by the British in 1664.

Nathan Silver
Lost New York. Weathervane, 19??.
A record on the city's lost buildings like Stanford White's original Madison Square Garden, Luna Park, the old Waldorf-Astoria and the 1939 & 1964 World's Fairs-and of those threatened by "progress." Includes many rare photographs.

Peter Simmons & the Museum of the City of New York
Gotham Comes of Age: New York Through the Lens of the Byron Company, 1892-1942. Pomegranate, 1999.
An impressive collection of the photographs of Percy C. Byron which stand as visual testimonials to the rich fabric of urban life as NYC emerged from the 19^th Century into the 20^th Century.

Edward K. Spann
The New Metropolis: New York City, 1840-1857. Columbia, 1981.
A study of NYC and its suburbs during the formative period of modern American urban society.

Dave Von Drehle
Triangle: The Fire that Changed America. Atlantic Monthly, 2003.
Chronicles the worst disaster to hit New York City until 11 September, 2001.

Francois Weil
History of New York. Columbia, 2004.
Explores both how New York developed into a global city and the perpetual and uneasy tension between capitalism and multiculturalism.

Neighborhoods

Tyler Anbinder
Five Points: The 19th Century New York City Neighborhood that Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, & Became the World's Most Notorious Slum. Plume, 2002, 2001.
A meticulous history of one of America's most famous (as well as infamous) areas, beginning with the Irish potato famine influx in 1840 and ending with the rise of Chinatown in the early 20th century.

Herb Boyd (ed.)
Harlem Reader: A Celebration of New York's Most Famous Neighborhood from the Renaissance Years to the 21st Century. Crown, 2003.
A collection of impressions, stories, and narratives capturing the dramatic moments and personalities of Harlem from its humble beginnings as a farming district to its many incarnations as country retreat for the rich, international mecca of black art and culture, crime-ridden slum and symbol of urban decay, to its present day rebirth.

Emily Kies Folpe
It Happened on Washington Square. Johns Hopkins, 2002.
Once a potter's field and dueling ground, Washington Square evolved into an upscale community dominated by elegant townhouses and haven for writers, painters, sculptors, and architects.

Myrna Katz Frommer & Harvey Frommer
It Happened in Brooklyn: An Oral History of Growing Up in the Borough in the 1940s, '50s, and 60s. HB, 1993.
An album, a celebration, and a chronicle of a special place and a special time.

Stephen Garmey
Grammercy Park: An Illustrated History of a New York Neighborhood. Balsam, 1984.
The history of one of New York's great neighborhoods and the many luminaries associated with it: Peter Stuyvesant, Samuel Ruggles, Peter Cooper, Louis Comfort Tiffany, George Templeton Strong, Samuel Tilden, Richard Morris Hunt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Winslow Homer, Stanford White, Edwin Booth, James Cagney, and authors Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, O. Henry, Hart Crane, Herman Melville, Henry James, Nathaniel West.

Evelyn Gonzales
The Bronx. Columbia Univ., 2004.
Traces the history, decline & fall, and rise of the South Bronx.

Pete Hamill
Downtown: My Manhattan. LB, 2004.
A historical and nostalgic portrait of Manhattan from the bohemian streets of Greenwich Village to the seedy alleyways of the meatpacking district and to the cobblestones of the South Street Seaport.

Steve Kahn
Soho New York. Rizzoli, 1999.
Photographic portrait of New York's most unique and vibrant communities.

Gwen Kinkead
Chinatown: A Portrait of a Closed Society. HarperCollins, 1992.
A rich and intimate peek into a chaotic, insular and little-understood community as well as a provocative reflection on assimilation and racism in the United States.

Terry Miller
Greenwich Village and How It Got that Way. Crown, 1990.
Building-by-building, story-by-story celebration of America's bohemia, a tight-knit country village within a city that embraces nonconformists and free-spirits.

Wendell E. Pritchett
Brownsville, Brooklyn: Blacks, Jews & the Changing Face of the Ghetto. Univ. of Chicago, 2002.
How decades of failed policies and institutional neglect, turned a white, predominantly Jewish, working-class neighborhood into a symbol of urban decay.

Alexander J. Reichl
Reconstructing Times Square. Univ. Press of KS, 1999.
How cultural politics and economic greed transformed the city's physical and social environment with an ongoing multibillion-dollar redevelopment program, changing the district from a symbol of urban decline to one of urban renaissance. .

Alan Schoener (ed.)
Harlem on My Mind: Cultural Capitol of Black America, 1900-1968. RH, 1968.
Surveys the changing character of Harlem during each decade of the 20^th century.

Stephen M. Samtur & Martin A. Jackson
The Bronx: Lost, Found, and Remembered (1935--1975). Back in THE BRONX, 1999.
Four decades of history evoking the golden years of NYC's northernmost borough.

Ross Wetzsteon
Republic of Dreams--Greenwich Village: The American Bohemia, 1910--1960. S&S, 2002.
History of the most significant square mile in American cultural history.

Landmarks

John Belle & Maxine R. Leighton
Grand Central: Gateway to a Million Lives. Norton, 2000.
Tells the story of the birth, survival & restoration of a remarkable and beautiful building.

Christian Blanchet & Bertand Dard
Statue of Liberty: The First Hundred Years. American Heritage, 1985.
Comprehensive history of America's most compelling symbol.

Christopher Gray
New York Streetscapes: Tales of Manhattan's Significant Buildings and Landmarks. Abrams, 2003.
The noted architectural historian for the The New York Times gathers 190 of his columns about famous sites and buildings and the intriguing lives of the people connected to them.

Jill Jonnes
Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic--The Construction of Penn Station & Its Tunnels. Viking, 2007.
The struggle waged to build Penn Station and the monumental system of tunnels that would connect water-bound Manhattan to the rest of the continent by rail.

David McCullough
The Great Bridge. S&S, 1972.
Fascinating history of the world's most famous bridge.

Sara Cedar Miller
Central Park, An American Masterpiece. Abrams, 2003.
A celebration of the aesthetic, cultural and historic significance of America's first public park on its 150th anniversary.

Ward Morehouse
Inside the Plaza: An Intimate Portrait of the Ultimate Hotel. Applause, 2001.
All the glitz, glamour and skullduggery of NYC's premiere luxury hotel.

Roy Rosenzweig & Elizabeth Blackmar
The Park and the People: A History of Central Park. Cornell, 1992.
Study of the conception, design, creation and administration of Central Park and of the people who use it.

Sharon Seitz & Stuart Miller
The Other Islands of New York City: A Historical Companion. Countryman, 1966.
Everyone has heard of Ellis Island, Rikers Island & Governor's Island. But what about Hoffman Island? Or Swinburne Island? Or perhaps Hart Island? Seitz & Miller give a glimpse of a New York City most tourists and even locals never see-the other islands within the city's boundaries.

Kate Simon
Fifth Avenue: A Very Social History. HBJ, 1978.
A biography of the great boulevard that became the locus of New York society.

David Stravitz
The Chrysler Building: Creating a New York Icon, Day by Day. Princeton Arch. Pr., 2002.
Beautifully illustrates the history of one of the most important and recognizable buildings in New York as it emerged from street level to spire.

John Tauranac
The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark. Scribner, 1995.
The story of the planning & building of THE defining skyscraper of the 20^th century.

William R. Taylor (ed.)
Inventing Times Square: Commerce & Culture at the Crossroads of the World. Russell Sage Foundation, 1991.
Puts Times Square, New York's entertainment center and arguably the "center of the universe," into historical and geographical perspective.

James Trager
Park Avenue: Street of Dreams. Atheneum, 1990.
Probes behind the cool facades of opulent homes, luxury hotels, exclusive clubs, fancy shops, and corporate headquarters of the greatest concentration of public and private wealth in the world.

Thoroughfares, Waterways, & Underground

Anthony Biano
Ghosts of 42nd Street: A History of America's Most Infamous Block. Morrow, 2004.
The story of NYC's legendary byway, from the bosses of the world's top media companies to premier property developers to the city's powerful political interests to the small-business proprietors, drug dealers, pimps, pornographers, and slumlords who have all called it home.

Ann L. Buttenwieser
Manhattan Water-Bound: Manhattan's Waterfront from the Seventeenth Century to the Present. Abrams, 1988.
Three centuries of evolution, the clash between commerce and culture, and the social forces that shaped the Manhattan waterfront.

Carin Dreschler-Marx & Richard F. Shepard
Broadway: From the Battery to the Bronx. Abrams, 1988.
A block-by-block tour of the 21 miles of the world's most famous thoroughfare, from No. 1 (formerly the home of the United States Lines) to No. 6695 (a friendly neighborhood restaurant on the northern edge of the Bronx).

David Dunlap
On Broadway: A Journey Uptown Over Time. Rizzoli, 1990.
Chronicles the physical evolution of the main street that has been at the center of Manhattan's civic, commercial, and cultural life from the era of early Dutch settlement to the present. Includes a block-by-block inventory of every building of architectural or historical interest.

Marc Eliot
Down 42nd Street: Sex, Money, Culture, and Politics at the Crossroads of the World. Warner, 2001.
The fascinating story of the the glory, deterioration, and "Disneyfication" of New York's most famous thoroughfare, from the Revolutionary War to the present.

Randy Kennedy
Subwayland: Adventures in the World Beneath New York. Griffin, 2004.
A fascinating look at the history, inhabitants, and secrets of the world-within-a world beneath the city.

William Kornblum
At Sea in the City: New York from the Water's Edge. Algonquin Bks. of Chapel Hill, 2002.
The author takes the reader along as he sails the waterways of his hometown, retelling the history of the city's waterfronts.

Phillip Lopate
Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan. Crown, 2004.
From the Battery and up the Hudson and East Rivers, an exuberant, affectionate, and eye-opening excursion around Manhattan’s varied shoreline.

Edward T. O'Donnell
Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum. Broadway, 2003.
On June 15, 1904, the passenger steamer General Slocum, carrying mostly women and children on their way to a church picnic, caught fire in the waters off New York City. O'Donnell explores why the death toll was so high (1,021 lost their lives) and how the city responded. .

Sharon Seitz and Stuart Miller
The Other Islands of New York City: A History and Guide. Countryman, 2001 (2nd ed).
Within the city's boundaries are dozens of islands, like Ellis, Rikers, and Governor's islands. This is a guide to Manhattan's "other" islands, each with its own personality, which offer the day-tripper everything from nature trails to military garrisons to sailing excursions.

Literary New York

William Corbett
New York Literary Lights. Graywolf, 1998.
An A-to-Z collection of thumbnail biographies of writers, bars, buildings, bookstores, and neighborhoods associated with the famous writers who live and lived here.

Alzina Stone Dale
Mystery Reader's Walking Guide: New York. Passport, 1993.
Takes mystery lovers on 11 walks to see New York through the eyes of sleuths such as Nick & Nora Charles, Nero Wolfe and Ellery Queen.

Susan Edmiston
Literary New York: A History & Guide. HM, 1976.
A journey from the small town community of Washington Irving's day to the vast and varied contemporary metropolis.

Eric Homberger
New York City: A Cultural & Literary Companion. Interlink, 2003.
Highlights the rich contribution NYC has made to American history and culture.

Shaun O'Connell
Remarkable, Unspeakable New York: A Literary History. Beacon, 1995.
A sweeping new view of New York's place in the American literary imagination, from Old New York to the Harlem Renaissance, the Algonquin Round Table to the New York Intellectuals, the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth.

Miscellaneous

Anne Matthews
Wild Nights: Nature Returns to the City. North Point, 2004.
A fresh look at the city via its animal population.

Colson Whitehead
The Colossus of New York. Doubleday, 2004.
Colossus may mean "big," but novelist Colson's 13 delightful essays focus on daily and mundane aspects of living in his hometown.

Did You Know That...

Broadway began as an Indian war path?
Staten Island was re-named Richmond by the British after an illegitimate son of Charles II?
Karl Marx wrote for the NY Tribune?
The Empire State Building took less than a year to build?
In 1762 the first lampposts on Broadway went up. Until then every seventh house was required to hang out a candle and lantern pole on moonless nights?
The first electric sign to illuminate Broadway in 1891 urged passerby's to "Buy Homes on Long Island Swept by Ocean Breezes?"
The only public figure interred under a NY thoroughfare is Gen. William J. Worth, a hero of the Seminole & Mexican wars?
The Bronx got its name from Dutch settler Jonas Bronck.
The Pirates of Penzance was completed in Grammercy Park?
The first talking movies were introduced in Greenwich Village?
Toilet paper was invented in NYC in 1857 by Joseph C. Gayetty?
In 1772 there was 1 tavern for every 55 residents in the city's pop. of 22,000?
NYC also had a "tea party" when 18 boxes were dumped into the waters off NY bay on 22 April, 1774?
New York City was the nation's first capital?
The only stage of Edwin Booth with both of his brothers (Junius & John Wilkes) took place in NYC at the Winter Garden? The play: Julius Caesar?
From 1820 through 1870 70% of the more than 7 million immigrants to the United States entered through New York City?
In 1861 Mayor Fernando Wood proposed that New York City withdraw from the Union and declare itself a "free city" in order to protect its commercial predominance and trading relationship with the South?
The present site of the United Nations was once a tobacco plantation.
NYC experienced its first recorded earthquake in 1663?
The name Brooklyn evolved from the Dutch Breuckelen (Broken Land) to Brockland to Brocklin to Brookline?
On 12 September, 1654, the first Rosh Hashanah service in America was held in NYC?
The first postal service was begun by Col. Francis Lovelace between NY and Boston in 1673.

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