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Title: Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (The History of NYC Series) by Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace ISBN: 0-19-514049-4 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (42 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: I Love New York
Comment: It is much easier in life to find fault and to be critical: one can point to specifics, and be relentless. It is harder to praise. So I find myself praising this work in cliche superlatives: it is a great book, wonderfully absorbing, fascinating, "well put together" (as New Yorkers say about smartly dressed women), and entertaining. And it is accessible without being dumbed down - so have your dictionary handy. I do have two minor criticisms, however. First, the absence of sufficient maps and provision in the table of contents for maps, which caused me to constantly flip around to what few maps there are, often leaving me lost and confused in unfamiliar parts of the city. Second, the book is unwieldy. Hopefully the next segment - 1898 to the present - for which I can't wait - will be easier to cart around.
Rating: 3
Summary: I thought the Pulitzer was for good writing....
Comment: Detailed? Yes. Accurate? Probably. Well written? Um, not really. This book has a lot to recommend it in the way of byzantine detail. The flow is, however, sorely impaired by the fact that at least one of the authors refuses to adopt a perspective. I say "one of the authors" because this book is very unevenly written: one section will be great while the section immediately following will be mediocre at best or repetitious and confusing at worst. This book has two authors and that is unfortunately apparent in the text.
These two guys should have done themselves a favor and either hired a ghost-writer to author a single, unified book or made their editor do his job. But simply taking the pages of two different works and randomly coalating them into a single book is not the best way to write a history.
Now, the only question remaining is: who was on the pulitzer committee?
Rating: 5
Summary: Unbelievable, Remarkable, fascinating
Comment: This is the definitive book on New York City history and is a remarkable accomplishment for it's authors. You'll find in Gotham not only a history of New York City (and an exhaustive one at that) but by default, a companion to the study of the foundations of this nation. Gotham is remarkably colorful in it's portrayal of the many characters that make up the history of this great city but doesn't skimp on poignant, and sometimes sobering, detail. An ambitious read, but worth every word. This is the kind of book that spawns the reading of ten more!
A sure cure for the unfortunate predisposition of the popular media to portray the history of New York as beginning with the first immigrant who set foot on Ellis Island (the book terminates prior to 1900). Read Gotham and become immersed in the richness of the mostly untold New York story.
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Title: The Historical Atlas of New York City : A Visual Celebration of Nearly 400 Years of New York City's History by Alice Hudson, Eric Homberger ISBN: 0805060049 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 15 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Five Points: The 19th Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum by Tyler Anbinder ISBN: 0452283612 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Encyclopedia of New York City by Kenneth T. Jackson, New-York Historical Society ISBN: 0300055366 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: October, 1995 List Price(USD): $65.00 |
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Title: The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld by Herbert Asbury, Jorge Luis Borges ISBN: 1560252758 Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press Pub. Date: 10 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Old New York in Early Photographs by Mary Black ISBN: 0486229076 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1973 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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