Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898

While it may seem like a behemoth - at over a thousand pages - this is a history that really should be read by any wishing to know where and how modern New York City arose. I was somewhat disappointed in the authors' treatment of pre-European Manhattan history but, in truth, as their aim was to present what underlies the city now, I can understand their motives. Whatever way you want to say it, NYC has effectively divorced itself from its Lenape past, although the facts of that past haunt it, particularly in the city's efforts to find a balance with nature.

This book is written as anyone who has read noteworthy historical works can find most accessible (think Gibbon's "History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire"): narrative history, unbleached of the authors' style and opinion - a personal affair, full of life and vigor.

The only way to do this book justice is to read it but some points deserve exclamation. One is the overwhelming dedication to the "Protestant Work Ethic" whereby people died in the streets out of poverty because they were not deemed worthy of public aid. This intrusive and inhumane spectacle played out throughout the history here and is pathetically alive and well in America today and, at the very least, was played out in its largest metropolis before it became a central part of our country's political platforms. The other disturbing fact was how little power African Americans had at any point. Wholly disenfranchised, no political party ever catered to them and, as a result, no one cared less about what happened. They never constituted nearly as much of the population as was needed for representation. Really, the only reason the Irish gained power was because of their numbers - politicians couldn't ignore them. But African Americans - eh.. One gets a very clear view of the kind of institutionalized racism that MLK, Jr., found so utterly repressive and hopeless here and why more violent tactics found a place here during the 60's and 70's than in the South. And yet another critical point that radiates out from Gotham: its startling irreverence for history. Land is taken. Farmers develop the plot. The land is bought to develop further. A building goes up. The land is bought again. Old building down, new building up. And so on. Whether any of this is known today or even exists today is not considered important. What matters is what is new and splashy. The result is a city - and stretching forever outward, a nation - that has very little sense of place and time. New York City's history is rich and compelling but all outward signs seem to indicate that it was all built in the last century or so. It is a sad disconnection and one fundamentally American. It feeds directly into our culture of distraction, leaving us rootless and with a longing to be recognized not by our deeds but our possessions.

The only criticism I have is how recursive the book can be. Once I read about an era, I thought I was done with it. But then the authors would discuss other facets of that era and I would be back in the thick of it again. This, though, is really the only way it could be - a vivid and compelling history of the City cannot be done chronologically. Thus, the criticism is really quite void.

This is a book for anyone, really, anyone interested at all in how one city can shape the face of an entire nation and why what evolved in New York County and its sister counties is so critically important that the anniversary of 9/11 is almost entirely concerned with the collapse of the World Trade Center - well, I've said enough.

Writing a review is normally not too difficult, but words fail me in describing the majesty and scope of Gotham. Having grown up and lived in NYC from 1984 until 2002, I consider myself a New Yorker. And growing up, I used to always see this book at the front of the bookstores in the local history section, but its length and weight scared me. 1400 pages is a daunting amount of information. But NYC history stretches back to the early 17th century. So I finally downloaded the book for my Kindle and began reading it in fits. A chapter here. Then another book. A few chapters then another book. Then last week I decided to finish it. And now I sort of wish that I hadn't finished it so that I can have the pleasure of reading it again for the first time.

The book itself is divided into five sections. Section I details New Amsterdam, the time when New York was firmly entwined in European history as a colony of the Dutch. This is probably my favorite part of the book because 17th century American and especially NYC history is a part of greater European history. And this part is the most fascinating because of the nature of the Dutch and how they shaped NYC to be a cosmopolitan port, concerned more with commerce and freedom of thought than with restrictions based on religion. This in turned helped shape American history. If this is something you're ever interested in, I cannot more highly recommend to you Russel Shorto's The Island at the Center of the World.

Section II is about British New York, roughly 1664 to 1783. I suppose I should describe this part, but it almost seems that this part is known to most Americans because of the events that led to the Revolution. Still, there are interesting cultural and social trends here, especially as concerns women. In New Amsterdam women could hold property and could enter into legal agreements and in general were more equal than they would be later. Again this part of the story reads like European history because of the connection of the colonies to Europe.

Sections III and IV detail the rise of NYC to leading economic city of the US. These sections encompass political, legal, social, economic, cultural, religious and social history. Of particular interest is the transformation of NYC from mostly English and Protestant to a city of English, German, and Irish and to a city of Protestants, Jews, and Catholics. This trend of transformation would continue in Section V, which added an influx of Russian-Jewish, Italian and Chinese to the city. Section V also details how Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the Bronx joined together into one very large city in 1898. Why then? Because New Yorkers were paranoid about Chicago supplanting them the way they once supplanted Philadelphia and Boston. In these sections there is something here for everyone. These are the heart of the book and show how NYC history is American history. How? What happens here was a microcosm for what was happening all around the burgeoning American Republic.

At 1398 pages, 1239 of which are normal non-end note, bibliography and index pages, Gotham is a long book that encompasses a very long stretch of New York City history. It shows the transformation of a far-flung, small Dutch colony to Capital of the World. It is magisterial and highly recommended. Now if only the author (Mike Wallace will be alone in writing it) would release the sequel.

After watching Ric Burn's American Experience documentary about the History of New York City (catch it on Amazon Prime), I wanted to delve further into the history of this city that has always fascinated this mid-westerner.

I found this book to be an engrossing read, ponderous at times, but well-worth the effort of working through its 1000+ pages. It's a very readable, well-researched history.

I was especially struck by the way that the history of New York City, is, in many ways, the History of the United States. By reading history through the lens of New York City, one gains an idea and appreciation of the history of our country. Not only that, but I found it interesting how the struggles of New York City 200+ years ago were the same struggles we face as a country today. The issues of immigration, economic inequality, race, the role of government in private endeavors...all these issues are wrapped into the fabric of New York's long history and gives us a different perspective on those same issues in our own era.

For anyone who adopts the attitude that our country is currently "going to hell in a hand-basket" would do well to study this history to find that our current problems as a country are nothing new, and compared to what has gone on before, in many ways, actually much smaller than in the past. In this way, this book has actually made me more optimistic about our country as a whole. No matter how hard we think things are now, it's nothing compared to many of the struggles of our past.

My only complaint out this book would be the format I chose to read it in. I am reading the Kindle version. There are many illustrations and maps in the book that do not translate well to that format, as they are too small, and just don't zoom well (if at all). But that is not the fault of this book, so I won't count that against in in my rating. I have ordered The Historical Atlas of New York City to provide that visual supplement I've been missing with this book.

I strongly recommended this epic, popular general history of NYC to anyone who might find the subject of interest. I am only half-way though as of this comment. There is a failing in the writing as far as I am concerned of this book early on, regarding the period of first settlements thru the early Federal times of NY after independence There is no consistent style in the use of archaic words and terminology. Some are quotes of from period official and personal documents, doing well in the difficult task of piecing together a narrative about life in and around New Amsterdam of the 1620 and on.

One who is not familiar with English, French, Spanish and Dutch Royalty of the 16th - 17 century, their various disputes and wars and the turf also of the various churches as they were needs some serious orientation at times. Even one archaic practice many of us have heard of but I can't understand even after this book is of the sanctioned privateering (by "us" and "them") and impressment of men into forced service in His Majesty's Royal Navy. Oh, privateers were not pirates they say, and in Baltimore (not a part of this book) they have a Privateer's Day festival!

I would really say there is or was a false notalgia generated in NYC elementary school students for the old Dutch days of New Amsterdam and Peter Stuyvesant. Who is notable and remarkable.. But not your 'friend' as I remember as kid in the NY Public Schools of the early 1960s. This is corrected in my mind with the a reading of the book. NY (Lower Manhattan) was not a viable settlement that had to be rescued at least a couple of times or else! It was rough, raunchy (stinky I am sure) , very harsh company town (with Church as powerful) to live in that depended on proper families in the Dutch settlements across the rivers in what is now NJ and LI for food and more!

I am struck by the tales of the grandest public celebration that surely ever occurred in NY history. Such as "Evacuation Day". and the grand parade held upon the the new Constitution ratification and the opening of the Erie Canal. The early NY - US political parties and the living out the Constitution at that early-post independence time are extremely hard to wrap one's head around but extremely significant even to us today - just look at why NY State cities do not have home rule and why it took decades for an official police force to be allowed. I was horrified reading of brutal sanction punishments and of the mob from NY's earliest times through the Civil War-time draft riots.

There never was a "good old days" you'd want to live in, let alone visit for more that a few special hours. My most mind-blowing day I wish I could have seen - and which makes me emotional even thinking about it- would to have seen George Washington riding down Broadway in triumph leading Patriots expelling defeated Brits from NY after the long, hard occupation, which became the NY celebration of Evacuation Day for almost a hundred years, on NOV. 25. And a few years afterward, G.W. was President and for a year(ish) NY was both the capital of NY State and of the U.S, One could stroll by founding fathers and important VIPs from around the world, on the old streets of Lower Manhattan! What could match that?

I look forward to more as I get through this book, quibbles aside. Let's see how the consolidation of Greater NY is handled near or at the end of this book!

From the first page it is impossible to put down! If you love history but have not a whim to love New York, you need to read this book! It is a love letter to America. It is an immense scholarly endeavor that pounds the reader with detailed descriptions, factual information and a portrait of New York, indeed of America, built from a multitude of ethnicities and aspirations. Inspiring.

This book is truly a tome. I'm reading it now on Kindle, but bought the hardcover as a Christmas present for a non-Kindle friend. The book is great, well-written and fascinating, but the hardcover probably weighs 10 pounds, or so it seems. My Kindle estimated the reading time at close to 100 hours.

This book describes in detail the history of the city of New York from its beginnings in 1624 as a Dutch village called New Amsterdam until becoming a modern metropolis in 1898 by the union in a single entity of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island. The period, which covered 274 years, was punctuated by events of major importance in national history, such as the displacement and disappearance of the native population, the revolutionary conflict of independence from England, the civil war, and the consolidation of the United States as a world power through trade and maritime communications with other countries, and the construction of a network of railways as a mean to control development of other regions in the nation. From the beginning, New York was destined to become the commercial and economic center of the country and later of the capitalist world. Factors of great importance in this progressive development were the immigration of European groups with specific skills such as the Dutch, English, Irish, Germans, Italians and Russian and German Jews; the emergence of a powerful and unique class of bankers, merchants, politicians, social and religious leaders, writers, artists, journalists, and inventors like Robert Fulton with his steamboat, Marconi and the telegraph, Isaac Singer and the sewing machine, and Thomas Edison and the electric bulb.

    The authors describe in a language easy to read, and sometimes in great extent, all these and many more positive events, as well as, the negative ones including the poverty of the vast majority of the population, overcrowding in squalid housing, diseases and epidemics with their catastrophic effects, unhealthiness in the streets, environmental pollution of all kind, scarcity of transport, exploitation of marginalized workers and social classes, speculation by businessmen and unscrupulous people, corruption at all levels, surfacing of organized crime by legal and illegal means, and the causes of the frequent crises of the social order. To emphasize the facts, they use an excellent photographic material, an extensive bibliography and footnotes.

    The result is a book that although the aim is to recall the development of the city of New York, at the end the reader is left with a broad vision of the history of the United States and the capitalist system. We learn about the origin of the concentration of power and capital in a few hands, a trend so prominent in the city in modern times.

I decided to read Gotham because it had been quite some time since I had a "project." By this term, I mean an oversized book history or philosophy that triggers collateral inquiries and stimulates further reading. I have read, so far, 957 pages of this splendid book, richly illustrated and superbly written by a duo of true historians. Every aspect of New York's development is analyzed and dissected (hence the size of the tome!) with particular emphasis on people, the masses that are usually barely mentioned in history books. It talks about the Native life before the arrival of the colonizers and the early development of what will become a beacon on world history and economic discourse.

I mentioned attention to detail: don't let this discourage you, for the book reads as a very interesting novel with a solid plot and many characters, from Cornelius Vanderbilt to the street prostitutes, from Morse to indigent people and drunks, those of religious believes to secular groups.

A few of the achievements of olden times are, even with today's technology, impressive: connecting by underwater cables to Europe and the Erie canal come to mind.

Give yourself time and sample this phenomenal work of art, literature and history.

A truly enthralling amazing biography of NYC. A wonderful rich informative read. Such a sense of achievement when you finish

Unerlässliches Buch zum Verständnis der Frühgeschichte der Stadt New York und der Lebensverhältnisse damals dort.

Es una manera estupenda de viajar al pasado de una ciudad maravillosa

This is an exceptional book. For years I looked at it in bookstores, but the sheer size of it was always enough to deter me from buying it. But I ordered it, and didn't have the hassle of actually carrying the massive tome. This is an astoundingly comprehensive history of New York City, going from the geological formation of the area until the turn of the century. It is so in depth, and covers so many topics, and from so many angles. As it spans the history of the time, it takes time to note how things developed (or didn't) for the black residents, the natives, the women, and other marginalized groups. It deals with politics, economics, architecture, art and public entertainment. Because it is simply so large, I decided to only read one chapter per day, and gradually work my way through it. In the end, I was glad I did it that way. Often I found each chapter held so much information that it was more than enough to ponder and consider before moving on to the next one. Now I am very eager for their second volume!

New York City's history laid bare. The detail is astounding. No wonder it took two men 20 years to research. It's also very readable, although its 1,400-plus pages make it a work to be read over time.