Empire City: New York Through the Centuries

Book Overview

As perhaps never before in its extraordinary history, New York has captured the American imagination. This major anthology brings together not only the best literary writing about New York--from O. Henry, Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Paul Auster, and James Baldwin, among many others--but also the most revealing essays by politicians, philosophers, city planners, social critics, visitors, immigrants, journalists, and historians.

The anthology begins with an account of Henry Hudson's voyage in 1609 and ends with an essay written especially for this book by John P. Avlon, former Mayor Rudolph Guiliani's speechwriter, called "The Resilient City," on the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center as observed from City Hall. The editors have chosen some familiar favorites, such as Washington Irving's A History of New York and Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," as well as lesser-known literary and historical gems, such as Frederick Law Olmsted's plan for Central Park and Cynthia Ozick's "The Synthetic Sublime"--an updated answer to E. B. White's classic essay Here Is New York, which is also included. The variety and originality of the selections in Empire City offer a captivating account of New York's growth, and reveal often forgotten aspects of its political, literary, and social history.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231109091
• ISBN13: 9780231109093
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 1008 Pages
• Weight: 3.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 6.1" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Essential, Thorough NYC Reading

A true behemoth of New York City lore, Empire City isn't so much a textbook (although I used it as one) as the product of a couple of historians lovingly digging up primary documents and arranging them to tell four centuries of NYC history. Compiled by Kenneth T. Jackson (frequently seen on history channel documentaries about the city) and David S. Dunbar, it has first-person Joe Schmoe accounts, political documents, critical essays, travel journals, fictional selections, and plenty of ephemera, and divides them into 5 majors epochs: the Colonial Period, Rise to National Dominance, Industrial Metropolis, World City, and World Capital. The first part, the Colonial Period (1624-1783), covers the largest span of time in the fewest pages. Due to the language of the period though, the primary documents here are perhaps the hardest to trudge through. But there's some great stuff here, from an account of Henry Hudson's maiden voyage up the Hudson, to a few initial colonial social contracts between the city's first citizens, though accounts leading into the Revolutionary War. Jackson ends the epoch with his own heart-wrenching, ironic account of the slave ships of the British Army, where American prisoners were served rotten food as a deal between British General Howe and a New York City mercantilist when said mercantilist found out Howe was having an affair with his wife. Things get moving at a much quicker pace in the second part, Rise to National Dominance (1783-1860), with documents of the laying out of the street grid in Manhattan, DeWitt Clinton's then-revolutionary idea of using the public schools to educate the poor as well as the well-off, and plenty on the notorious Five Points district. There are also lots of accounts of European travelers having a look around at the Great Experiment (including a certain Victorian novelist who almost ruined his career with his account), but more important to this section are some of the first writers of the American literary tradition, including Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and Herman Melville. Industrial Metropolis (1860-1898), the third part, starts off with a selection of writings by a couple of relatively obscure black citizens of New York who might be credited as the start of the long, proud line of African American literature to spring from the tight racial relations of New York City. An account of the Draft Riots of 1863 follows, and the bulk of the literary work of this section is decidedly political, with most sides drawn between representation and/or endorsement of the capitalist model that, let's be honest, NYC was built on (George Fitzhugh, Horatio Alger, Edith Wharton), and a worker-based outcry against the dehumanizing effects of that model (Thomas McGuire, Henry George, Jacob Riis). On a lighter note, there are accounts of the building of Central Park and the Brooklyn Bridge, as well as a poem in praise of the Statue of Liberty and an early view of Coney Island before

A Wonderful Collection

Here's a wonderful collection of diverse writings about New York City ranging from an account of Henry Hudson's 1609 voyage down the river that took his name to a very poignant piece about 9/11 by a member of Mayor Rudy Giuliani's staff. Articles by such well-known writers as O'Henry, Theodore Dreiser, Herman Melville, Stephen Crane, Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck (all who have lived in the Empire City) are included. Each selection has a brief introduction packed with interesting facts about the City and the writer of the piece. A great read and reference.

An Extraordinary Collection

Superlatives seldom meet the mark, except EMPIRE CITY. This is a book of superlative moods, the city of true night and day, and of gifted writers meeting on Gotham's every old and new corner. Each in their own time, they're overwhelmed by the city's human vastness, its diversity, even attracted to its loneliness - the city's unique ability to confer absolute privacy in neighborhoods and buildings that rise into the sky. To paraphrase, one writer said, "No matter the hour, there's always something exciting happening in New York." Like rubbing minds with Jack Kerouac, or going uptown with Federico Garcia Lorca, and James Baldwin - or rooting for the Yankees with Bruce Catton. Last night I sat ringside at the Polo Grounds for the Firpo/Dempsey fight; the day before I broke my back as a laborer on the Brooklyn Bridge; tonight I'm taking the ferry to see Whitman's leaves of grass. And after that, supper at Delmonico's. If I have energy enough come morning, it's off on the Half Moon to discover Manhattan - and you're welcome to come along. I haven't even scratched the surface, because there's always something wonderful to do in Jackson & Dunbar's superlative collection, EMPIRE CITY.

New York's Biography

Editors Kenneth Jackson and David Dunbar have amassed an enormous collection of essays, letters, diary entries, and poems about New York written by New Yorkers and visitors to the city from the dawn of the modern age (ca. 1600) to just after the ravages of 9/11. While an overwhelming majority of the pieces are pro-Gotham, I was glad that Messrs. Jackson and Dunbar had the wisdom and integrity to present some works that express anxiety and doubt about New York's status. The result is an extensive, celebratory, sometimes warts-and-all biography of the world's greatest city. As Mr. Jackson remarked in the 1999 Ric Burns New York Documentary, New York is not a stagnant, static thing: "New York is always becoming". He and Mr. Dunbar are to be congratulated for reminding us that New York's biography is long, and with a lot more greatness to come. Rocco Dormarunno, author of "The Five Points, A Novel"

Before you do anything else, READ THIS BOOK

I bought this book as soon as it was in stores because David Dunbar, my former teacher, wrote it and he is a GENIUS. Reading the essays and stories between the covers was an even greater experience than owning the work of a friend. It now sits on my coffeetable, waiting for my next trip to Dobbs Ferry, where I will ask David to inscribe the title page with his autograph. Each essay is packed with all the feeling and emotion to be found in the city, in all of its people and buildings and history. To read this book is not simply to follow words on a page...It is to experience the greatest city on Earth. From Joplin to New York and back again, this book, and CITYterm, have together been one of the most enlightening opportunities I have ever had.