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yi_shun_lai's review
3.0
i've only picked through this. the fact that it was given to me by an ex-boyfriend structural engineer just before we broke up means nothing. no, really, it's a good read and has a ton of tidbits in it about everyone's favorite city.
loonyboi's review
4.0
Okay, so let's get this out of the way up front: this book is very, very large and intimidating. It took me over twelve years to muster the courage to read it. I picked it up in 2003, wanting to read a really good history of New York City, and for all that time it sat on my shelf, taunting me.
So I finally read it. And it is indeed great.
Here's the thing about Gotham - while there are almost certainly more comprehensive histories of the founding of New Amsterdam, the Revolutionary War, the New York Civil War draft riots, the creation of the Brooklyn bridge, the rise of Boss Tweed and Tammany hall, the Railroad barons and financiers like J.P. Morgan, and the 1898 unification of the boroughs that ultimately created what we call New York City, it is safe to say that there is no single book that covers all of these events (and much, much more) with as much detail as this one. It's really quite remarkable, and well deserving of the Pulitzer Prize it won.
Having said all that, I knocked a star off because good lord is this book dense. I never take a break from a book, but I had to stop halfway through to read something else. It was just too much for me. This book is so impossibly comprehensive it just boggles the mind. Every labor dispute, every street, every major building, the founding of every church, they're all in here. Plus every newspaper, all the big name citizens...if it happened in NYC from its earliest days all the way up to 1898, it's in here.
The fact that this is called Volume 1 is a bit ominous, but I'm up for the challenge of a second volume that covers the 20th century. I'm even looking forward to it. Although given that this book took over two decades to write, I'm not expecting it anytime soon.
Bottom line is this: if you're up to the challenge, read Gotham. It's terrific. Just get comfortable, because you're not going anywhere for a while.
So I finally read it. And it is indeed great.
Here's the thing about Gotham - while there are almost certainly more comprehensive histories of the founding of New Amsterdam, the Revolutionary War, the New York Civil War draft riots, the creation of the Brooklyn bridge, the rise of Boss Tweed and Tammany hall, the Railroad barons and financiers like J.P. Morgan, and the 1898 unification of the boroughs that ultimately created what we call New York City, it is safe to say that there is no single book that covers all of these events (and much, much more) with as much detail as this one. It's really quite remarkable, and well deserving of the Pulitzer Prize it won.
Having said all that, I knocked a star off because good lord is this book dense. I never take a break from a book, but I had to stop halfway through to read something else. It was just too much for me. This book is so impossibly comprehensive it just boggles the mind. Every labor dispute, every street, every major building, the founding of every church, they're all in here. Plus every newspaper, all the big name citizens...if it happened in NYC from its earliest days all the way up to 1898, it's in here.
The fact that this is called Volume 1 is a bit ominous, but I'm up for the challenge of a second volume that covers the 20th century. I'm even looking forward to it. Although given that this book took over two decades to write, I'm not expecting it anytime soon.
Bottom line is this: if you're up to the challenge, read Gotham. It's terrific. Just get comfortable, because you're not going anywhere for a while.
abeanbg's review
5.0
Enormous, yet enormously readable
Enormous, yet enormously readable as well. Books over 1000 pages typically take me a year to read, because I have to break it up into segments. With the aid of the audio book, I took down Gotham in three months. That's a definitive compliment to Burrows and Wallace. Their history of New York is a history of American urban history written across the travails of our Empire City. I'm a Chicagoan, but cannot help but admire their work and the metropolis that Washington Irving dubbed Gotham.
Enormous, yet enormously readable as well. Books over 1000 pages typically take me a year to read, because I have to break it up into segments. With the aid of the audio book, I took down Gotham in three months. That's a definitive compliment to Burrows and Wallace. Their history of New York is a history of American urban history written across the travails of our Empire City. I'm a Chicagoan, but cannot help but admire their work and the metropolis that Washington Irving dubbed Gotham.
evamadera1's review
5.0
This book is absolutely massive. I love the fact that the book is so large and yet does not include over a hundred years of the city's history. If the authors read these reviews, I would absolutely love to read a book covering the years since 1898. Wallace and Burrows cover an immense amount of history without getting lost in the detail. At the same time they leave the reader wanting even more. The authors definitely deserve the Pulitzer Prize for their deft, comprehensive history. I found this book to be absolutely fabulous.
I highly recommend this book.
I highly recommend this book.
moreteamorecats's review
3.0
A sprawling subject needs an angle. Wallace & Burrows', I was surprised to find, is ideological: Their history of New York City is the history of its class struggle. Almost every chapter takes on the POV of a class formation (capital, labor, or the middling classes), then follows it through a change in some facet of political, social, or economic life. I'm on board with this method, but franker cover copy would be a favor to the reader.
The result is a very full-fiber, whole-grain sort of history. I learned a tremendous amount. What I'll retain is probably through prior familiarity with the city's institutions and landscape. The pleasures are familiar, low-key but constantly repeated-- especially that of marking origins (e.g.: "That's who Hoyt and Schermerhorn were!" "That's how we got Northern Boulevard!"). That's appropriate for a book that wants to center morally on the value of everyday life and everyday people.
The result is a very full-fiber, whole-grain sort of history. I learned a tremendous amount. What I'll retain is probably through prior familiarity with the city's institutions and landscape. The pleasures are familiar, low-key but constantly repeated-- especially that of marking origins (e.g.: "That's who Hoyt and Schermerhorn were!" "That's how we got Northern Boulevard!"). That's appropriate for a book that wants to center morally on the value of everyday life and everyday people.
eleneariel's review
4.0
I couldn't have planned it better if I'd tried: I ended my reading year with this Pulitzer Prize-winning tome, finishing the last of the 1,400-odd pages just a week before I hop a plane to NYC herself. Although there were times I despaired of finishing on time (or finishing at all - it took me two months to read this, which is unheard of in my world), I am SO GLAD I read it. It's deepened my appreciation for the history of NYC so incredibly much, and I learned so many random things - about the man the Pulitzer is named after, 1700th c. fire-fighting techniques, that Edgar Allen Poe lived in NYC for a time, that there was once a literal wall at Wall Street and a literal canal at Canal street, and that when the Dakota was built people laughed at it because it was so far out in the sticks (?!) that they thought no one would want to live there.
Although I was more interested in the random trivia and everyday minutia than the big political picture, the politics taught me one thing: there really is nothing new under the sun. The same issues that have us all (quite rightly) worked up today were by and large the same ones people were freaking out out over in the 1800s. That doesn't mean we don't face real challenges today or that things couldn't get seriously bad, but at least there's historical evidence that people lived through horrible times before?
Although I was more interested in the random trivia and everyday minutia than the big political picture, the politics taught me one thing: there really is nothing new under the sun. The same issues that have us all (quite rightly) worked up today were by and large the same ones people were freaking out out over in the 1800s. That doesn't mean we don't face real challenges today or that things couldn't get seriously bad, but at least there's historical evidence that people lived through horrible times before?
va87's review against another edition
2.0
Like a Midtown skyscraper, this is an astounding achievement. Also like a Midtown skyscraper, I'm going to basically avoid being around it, admiringly look at it from a distance, and tell people I've been to it if they care enough to ask.
No, I don't read history very often. I was glad to hear, however, for the 70th time that New York City's economy was improving/declining after [event], which helps to contextualize some quirky occurrence that probably includes a bawdy woman or sailor. Approachably written, brimming with modern sensibility, and inevitably the same six or seven damned things one after the other, which is plain if you read more than one chapter in one sitting. After a whole year and a move to the city, I had to surrender circa 1840.
No, I don't read history very often. I was glad to hear, however, for the 70th time that New York City's economy was improving/declining after [event], which helps to contextualize some quirky occurrence that probably includes a bawdy woman or sailor. Approachably written, brimming with modern sensibility, and inevitably the same six or seven damned things one after the other, which is plain if you read more than one chapter in one sitting. After a whole year and a move to the city, I had to surrender circa 1840.
kjc's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Read this a chapter a day and found it a rewarding and enriching companion for those 2 months and more. The authors blend their voices perfectly and have an obvious deep love of the city and especially all the people who make it up. They’re fond of sly puns, too.
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