Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898

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Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
Gotham1898.jpg
First edition cover
Author
Audio read by Victor Bevine
LanguageEnglish
Subject History of New York City, New Amsterdam
GenreNon-fiction, history
Publisher Oxford University Press
Publication date
1998 (print) 2018 (audiobook)
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardcover), audiobook
Pages1416 pp.
ISBN 978-0-19-511634-2
OCLC 37903500

Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 is a non-fiction book by historians Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace. Based on over twenty years of research, it was published in 1998 by Oxford University Press and won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for History, and detailed the history of the city before the consolidation of the five boroughs in 1898. A follow-up volume, Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919, written by Wallace, was published in 2017 and covered New York City history for the following 20 years. [1] Initial plans were to have the second volume's timeline go through World War II, but due to the amount of material, an upcoming third volume should cover the period from 1920 until 1945. [2]

Contents

Reception

In his review for The Atlantic , Timothy J. Gilfoyle called the book "the most comprehensive examination to date of the city's history prior to 1900," saying that "Gotham may rank in importance with the multi-volume works on Thomas Jefferson by Dumas Malone and on the Civil War by Allan Nevins," [3] while Clyde Haberman in The New York Times wrote that "Burrows and Wallace offer a large-canvas portrait of a city they clearly love.... [I]t marches relentlessly across the nearly three centuries from the Dutch landing to the emergence of the unified boroughs. The countless topics include, to list but a few, New York's wars with the Indians and its pro-Crown leanings, its financial support for the slave trade and its bloody draft riots during the Civil War, the commercial imperatives and the waves of immigration that constantly redefined it." [4] Publishers Weekly called the work "definitive." [5]

Journal reviews

Naming

"Gotham" as a term for New York City was coined by Washington Irving in an 1807 November issue of his literary magazine, Salmagundi , based on the legends of the English village of Gotham, whose inhabitants are known for their folly. [6]

Related Research Articles

Gotham may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Wallace (historian)</span> American historian (born 1942)

Mike Wallace is an American historian. He specializes in the history of New York City, and in the history and practice of "public history". In 1998 he co-authored Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, which in 1999 won the Pulitzer Prize in History. In 2017, he published a successor volume, Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919. Wallace is a Distinguished Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Edwin G. "Ted" Burrows was a Distinguished Professor of History at Brooklyn College. He is the co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (1998), and author of Forgotten Patriots: The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War, (2008), which won the 2009 Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award.

The history of New York City (1855–1897) started with the inauguration in 1855 of Fernando Wood as the first mayor from Tammany Hall, an institution that dominated the city throughout this period. Reforms led to the New York City Police Riot of June 1857. There was chaos during the American Civil War, with major rioting in the New York Draft Riots. The Gilded Age brought about prosperity for the city's upper classes amid the further growth of a poor immigrant working class, as well as an increasing consolidation, both economic and municipal, of what would become the five boroughs in 1898.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patroon</span> Landholder in 17th-century colony of New Netherland in North America

In the United States, a patroon was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th-century Dutch colony of New Netherland on the east coast of North America. Through the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629, the Dutch West India Company first started to grant this title and land to some of its invested members. These inducements to foster colonization and settlement are the basis for the patroon system. By the end of the 18th century, virtually all of the American states had abolished primogeniture and entail; thus patroons and manors evolved into simply large estates subject to division and leases.

Beginning on July 7, 1834, New York City was torn by a huge antiabolitionist riot that lasted for nearly a week until it was put down by military force. "At times the rioters controlled whole sections of the city while they attacked the homes, businesses, and churches of abolitionist leaders and ransacked black neighborhoods."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Academy of Music (New York City)</span> Former opera house

The Academy of Music was a New York City opera house, located on the northeast corner of East 14th Street and Irving Place in Manhattan. The 4,000-seat hall opened on October 2, 1854. The review in The New York Times declared it to be an acoustical "triumph", but "In every other aspect ... a decided failure," complaining about the architecture, interior design and the closeness of the seating; although a follow-up several days later relented a bit, saying that the theater "looked more cheerful, and in every way more effective" than it had on opening night.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astor House</span> Former hotel in Manhattan, New York

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Charities Building</span> United States historic place

The United Charities Building, also known as United Charities Building Complex, is at 105 East 22nd Street or 287 Park Avenue South, in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, near the border of the Flatiron District. It was built in 1893 by John Stewart Kennedy, a wealthy banker, for the Charity Organization Society. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991 for the role the Charity Organization Society played in promoting progressive social welfare policies, including the development of academic disciplines in that area.

<i>Salmagundi</i> (periodical) 19th-century American satirical periodical

Salmagundi; or The Whim-whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq. & Others, commonly referred to as Salmagundi, was a 19th-century satirical periodical created and written by American writer Washington Irving, his oldest brother William, and James Kirke Paulding. The collaborators produced twenty issues at irregular intervals between January 24, 1807 and January 15, 1808.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Van Pelt Manor</span> Former house and neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York

Van Pelt Manor was the name given to an area of Brooklyn, New York, that today is part of the section of Bensonhurst. In the early part of the 20th century, it gave its name to a railroad station, a post office, and Public School 128 was known as Van Pelt Manor grammar school. The house purchased or raised by Aert Teunisse Van Pelt about 1670-1690 stood on modern-day 18th Avenue between 81st and 82nd Streets, east of the old village square and north of the pre-revolutionary Dutch Church of New Utrecht.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University Place (Manhattan)</span> Street in Manhattan, New York

University Place is a short north-south thoroughfare in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, which runs from Washington Square Park in the south as a continuation of Washington Square East, taking the position of Madison Avenue uptown, and terminates at East 14th Street just southwest of Union Square. Although the roadway continues north of 14th Street as Union Square West, traffic on the two streets run in opposite directions, both feeding into 14th Street. Until the late 1990s, University Place was a two-way street. The street contains numerous cafes, shops, and restaurants, many of which cater to students at NYU and The New School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerome Mansion</span> Demolished mansion in Manhattan, New York

The Jerome Mansion was a mansion on the corner of East 26th Street and Madison Avenue, across from Madison Square Park, in the modern NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was the home of financier Leonard Jerome, one of the city's richest and most influential men in the middle- to late-19th century. It was built from 1859 to 1865 and demolished in 1967.

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References

  1. "Reading "Greater Gotham" and Reviewing New York's Historic Monuments". The New Yorker . October 15, 2017.
  2. "Mike Wallace - Charlie Rose".
  3. Gilfoyle, Timothy J. (February 1999). "America's Heart". The Atlantic Monthly. Vol. 283, no. 2. pp. 95–98. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  4. Haberman, Clyde (December 13, 1998). "Goats' Town". The New York Times . Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  5. "Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898". Publishers Weekly . November 2, 1998. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  6. Burrows, Edwin G. and Wallace, Mike (1999). Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 . New York: Oxford University Press. p. xii. ISBN   0-195-11634-8.
Preceded by Pulitzer Prize for History
1999
Succeeded by