Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (The History of New York City)

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. In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows And Mike Wallace Have Written An Epic As Vast And Varied As The City It Chronicles. Drawing On The Work Of Hundreds Of Scholars Who Have Reexamined New York's Past, The Authors Weave Together Diverse Histories - Of Sex And Sewer Systems, Finance And Architecture, Immigration And Politics, Poetry And Crime - Into A Single Narrative Tapestry That Reads Like A Fast-paced Novel. Readers Will Relive The Tumultuous Early Years Of New Amsterdam Under The Dutch, The Indian Wars And Peter Stuyvesant's Autocratic Regime, The English Conquest, The Rise Of Slave Trading And Slave Revolts, The Invasion And Garrisoning Of The City During The Revolution. They Will Watch New York Blossom Over The Nineteenth Century Into The Country's Greatest Port, Leading Manufacturing Center, Preeminent Financial Hub, Corporate Headquarters, And Incubator Of Mass Cultural Innovations From Vaudeville And Baseball To Coney Island And The Department Store. But The Real Heroes And Heroines Of Gotham Are New Yorkers Themselves, And The Authors Provide Mini-biographies Of Hundreds Of Individuals, Ranging From The World Famous To The Virtually Unknown. The Interplay Among New York's Fiercely Heterogeneous Citizens Was Often Abrasive, And Gotham Recounts The Way Clashes Between Immigrants And Old-timers, Rich And Poor, Blacks And Whites Flamed Into Fierce Street Battles Like The Civil War Draft Riots. But New Yorkers Also Forged Connections And Coalitionscreating Multi-national Picket Lines, Interracial Reform Movements, And Multi-ethnic Political Tickets. Their Fusions And Collisions Generated Tremendous Kinetic Energy, Cultural Inventiveness, And A Vision Of Unity-in-diversity That Would Become A Distinctive Contribution To World Civilization. Lenape Country And New Amsterdam To 1664 -- British New York (1664-1783) -- Mercantile Town (1783-1843) -- Industrial Center And Corporate Command Post (1880-1898) -- References -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgements -- Indexes. Edwin G. Burrows And Mike Wallace. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [1263]-1305) And Indexes. "In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have written an epic as vast and varied as the city it chronicles. Drawing on the work of hundreds of scholars who have reexamined New York's past, the authors weave together diverse histories - of sex and sewer systems, finance and architecture, immigration and politics, poetry and crime - into a single narrative tapestry that reads like a fast-paced novel. Readers will relive the tumultuous early years of New Amsterdam under the Dutch, the Indian wars and Peter Stuyvesant's autocratic regime, the English conquest, the rise of slave trading and slave revolts, the invasion and garrisoning of the city during the Revolution. They will watch New York blossom over the nineteenth century into the country's greatest port, leading manufacturing center, preeminent financial hub, corporate headquarters, and incubator of mass cultural innovations from vaudeville and baseball to Coney Island and the department store." "But the real heroes and heroines of Gotham are New Yorkers themselves, and the authors provide mini-biographies of hundreds of individuals, ranging from the world famous to the virtually unknown." "The interplay among New York's fiercely heterogeneous citizens was often abrasive, and Gotham recounts the way clashes between immigrants and old-timers, rich and poor, blacks and whites flamed into fierce street battles like the Civil War draft riots. But New Yorkers also forged connections and coalitions - creating multi-national picket lines, interracial reform movements, and multi-ethnic political tickets. Their fusions and collisions generated tremendous kinetic energy, cultural inventiveness, and a vision of unity-in-diversity that would become a distinctive contribution to world civilization."--BOOK JACKET. In this epic, Pulitzer Prize-winning work, Burrows and Wallace have produced a monumental history of New York City--ranging from the Indian tribes that settled the island of Manna-hatta to the consolidation of the five boroughs into New York in 1898. 150 halftones. 15 maps. The first volume in a monumental, swiftly moving, illustrated history of New York City--the product of twenty years' worth of research--leads readers from the region's Indian tribes to the birth of the skyscraper. 40,000 first printing. v. 1. The history of New York City to 1898.